The dragon’s roar was heard throughout the land, and no one, not even the Sil’piceus, could ignore its majesty. Nor could anyone misunderstand its murderous intent, or who it was directed at.

  There was an inherent sacredness to its status, and none but the most powerful beasts could resist the call of a divine being. In mere seconds, the entire world was coerced to bow down to their new god. Its will was their command, and they immediately started marching towards the twin blood lakes.

  The terrifying howl made the earth tremble, startling the Sil’piceus, but instead of fear, it only invoked an endless hunger. They had an unwavering confidence in their power, and when they realized that someone was preparing to challenge their rule, they only laughed and expanded their blood lakes.

  Instead of preparing for war or mounting defenses, they crazily searched for the last few remaining runes they had yet to obtain, all the while spreading cultivation techniques everywhere. Losing was not something that they ever considered, and they could hardly contain their excitement when thinking of the upcoming feast.

  Many strategic meetings were held, but instead of considering how to win, they were more preoccupied on how to ensure that the attacking forces survived this chaotic war, so that they might try to invade again.

  The slaughter of millions of cultivators was a fortunate event, but it would not be worth the cost if it robbed them of a renewable source of blood. They also decided to act as if the power difference was not so great, so that their enemies would not discourage themselves, and dare attack them again after a brief period of recovery.

  As for the Sil’piceus scattered all around the world, they rushed back home, as no one wanted to miss the promised bloodbath. The few that were too far away or too weak to return quickly cursed their luck, promising themselves to be present in the next war.

  The divine dragon leisurely wandered the planet, using its powers to gather troops and bring them with him. None could escape its control, and it even managed to defeat a few of the Sil’piceus it met on its journey.

  A few weeks later, holding almost all of the cultivators in the world on its back, the newborn god finally made its way toward the twin blood lake, to fight against fate, and to win its freedom.

  The Sil’piceus watched all this happening with bated breath, preparing themselves for a feast like no other.

  Upon reaching the shore of the large blood lake, the divine dragon froze for a moment, before uttering a second, savage roar, and dissipating into trillions of motes of golden light.

  These drops of light burst as soon as they reached the ground, revealing themselves to be the troops it had gathered. Trillions of animals of all sizes and shapes, forming a beast horde so large that even Avery, observing from afar, had a hard time comprehending its scale.

  No time was wasted on useless pleasantries, as the instant they touched ground, the beasts launched themselves towards their tormentors, propelled forward by centuries of resentment and a terrible yearning of freeing themselves of their cruel masters.

  Most were driven insane the instant they beheld the incoherent form of their enemies but that did nothing but enhance their brutal savagery. Nothing could stop them from enacting the murderous judgement of their god upon these monsters.

  And yet, even when facing the combined might of the entire world, the Sil’piceus did not flinch. Far from being frightened, they held nothing but contempt tainted by greed towards these pathetic invaders.

  In actuality, the Sil’piceus, a species who were only a few tens of thousands strong, vastly outnumbered the rest of the world.

  Each Sil’piceus would divide themselves into thousands, millions, sometimes even billions of individuals, sending their parasitic sub-bodies in the fray, desperate to bring glory to their name and give their contribution to the Great Rune.

  Not only were they not outnumbered, they were not outgunned either. In fact, the power gap was so comically large that they held back from using their powerful limbs or most destructive sorceries. Instead, they limited themselves to weaker spells invented for the express purpose of disabling and bloodletting, yet healing afterwards, safeguarding the victims life so that it could be further exploited.

  When the defeated animals would soon reenter the battle after being healed by their god, they were only volunteering to donate their blood again, often getting crippled before they could even damage their enemies.

  This did not mean the Sil’piceus were undefeatable. Not all of them were equally powerful, and from time to time, one of them would make a mistake and end up swamped, leading to their swift destruction.

  The problem was that the death of one body did not matter to these demigods. They all had countless lifesaving means, and as long as the Great Tower stood, no Sil’piceus would truly die. They would only suffer small losses that were of no consequence, and that could be instantly offset by consuming a little blood.

  From afar, this looked like a relatively balanced battle, as neither camp were making any progress, but that could not be further from the truth.

  The Sil’piceus had ultimate control of the situation. The battle would end the instant they decided to start using their more destructive spells, or if any of their third stage martial artists deigned to take part in this ridiculous war.

  The reason that they let this war of attrition continue was that it was to their advantage. Their enemies were exhausting themselve, exhausting the power of their god, and exhausting their fighting spirit.

  Meanwhile, the Sil’piceus were growing in power with each passing seconds, feeding their Idol with an endless amount of blood, and reaping the rewards. It was true that using the power of the Great Rune did cost a lot of mental energy, but if they used their multiple minds efficiently enough, they would be able to continue fighting at this rate forever.

  This was not a balanced fight or a battle for survival, it was the one sided slaughter of prey throwing their lives away for a hopeless cause.