Chapter 896: The Divine War Approaches

Inside the Main God’s Hall, over three thousand high-ranking gods gathered together. Su Che and Osen were among the last to arrive.
Su Che, as a new face, caught some people’s attention, but no one asked questions. After all, it was normal for a newly promoted high-ranking god to join Master Mo Lin’s team—there was nothing strange about it.
After waiting for a while, Master Mo Lin appeared. A faint aura of pressure filled the entire hall, reminding all the high-ranking gods that their master was about to make an appearance. Nearly four thousand gods stood solemnly before the master’s throne at the head of the hall, holding their breath.
“Quite a grand display,” Lao He muttered with a smirk in the Immortal Prison. Of course, in his eyes, the so-called master god, whose strength was equivalent to that of a Great Luo Golden Immortal, was nothing but a lowly figure.
Huh…
A dazzling golden light illuminated the hall, eventually coalescing into a figure standing before the master’s throne.
“Lord Mo Lin!”
All the high-ranking gods bowed and greeted him in unison.
Master Mo Lin responded with a low voice and slowly sat down. He was a burly, imposing middle-aged man with majestic presence. His long golden hair emitted a soft golden glow, exuding sacredness. To ordinary people, he would indeed appear as an unfathomably great deity.
Looking down at the gods, Mo Lin was likely checking which of his subordinates had not arrived, and thus noticed Su Che among the crowd. He didn’t ask anything right away but turned his gaze to the others.
After a few moments, Mo Lin’s deep voice rang out in the hall: “I have gathered you all here this time because there is a very important matter I need to announce…”
He paused briefly before adding with emphasis, “I have reached an agreement with Master Kechi and Master Mueller. We will unite our forces to jointly attack the Vahk Star Region!”
At these words, the expressions of the four thousand high-ranking gods showed three distinct reactions.
A small number of a few hundred remained calm, seemingly expecting this outcome. Perhaps these gods were Mo Lin’s direct subordinates and had already received news about it earlier.
Another group showed excitement and joy, clearly being warlike individuals eager to seize benefits from this invasion.
At least half of the remaining gods had solemn, subdued expressions, likely unwilling to participate in such a war.

Osen immediately sent a message to Su Che to explain, “In situations like this, a group of people will become pawns, and we new high-ranking gods who have just joined the Mo Lin faction are the perfect candidates to be pawns.” He spoke in a very relaxed manner, thanks to having a great god like Su Che to back him up. Conversely, if he hadn’t met Su Che, he would surely have been one of those gloomy-faced high-ranking gods.

Su Che then asked, “Will we really die?”

He asked this seriously. After all, as gods, even if they became pawns, it shouldn’t be that easy for them to perish.

“The true body won’t die, but it’s very likely that one of the divine avatars will be lost.”

As expected, Osen replied, “Take me as an example. Besides my fire-based true body, I have three divine avatars: one gold-based high-ranking god avatar, one earth-based mid-ranking god avatar, and one wood-based mid-ranking god avatar. In a war of this scale, I’ll have to sacrifice my gold-based high-ranking god avatar.”

“I understand.”

Without further explanation, Su Che could guess that as a subordinate god of the Mo Lin Supreme God, in the face of such a large-scale invasion war, Osen would at least have to sacrifice one of his high-ranking god avatars to join the expeditionary force.

If he lost that avatar in the war, even if he eventually won and received some rewards from the Supreme God, it would still be a loss—definitely a disadvantage.

There was no choice. To protect the god kingdom, which was most important to him, he had to rely on a supreme god like Mo Lin. In such situations, he had to pay a certain price.

These were the terms agreed upon when he first joined. If he backed down at the last moment or refused to obey orders, he would face the wrath and punishment of the Supreme God, and his reputation in the divine realm would be ruined. No other supreme god would ever take him in or protect him again.

As a result, at least half of the high-ranking gods in the grand hall looked gloomy, but none dared to openly oppose it.

Next, over the course of a little over a quarter of an hour, Mo Lin explained the basics of this war and ordered everyone to prepare quickly, with the entire army set to set out in three days.

After finishing the serious matters, his gaze fell again on Su Che, and he asked in a deep voice, “Osen, who is this high-ranking god beside you?”

Osen replied, “Lord Mo Lin, this is my fellow clansman, Che Su, a new high-ranking god who hasn’t established his own god kingdom yet. Like me, he also seeks Lord Mo Lin’s protection.”

Hearing Orson’s explanation, many people looked at Su Che with sympathy, clearly thinking: Joining Mo Lin’s camp at such a time—are you just unlucky or foolish? Fortunately, Mo Lin was a supreme god and not the kind of unreasonable and domineering figure. He nodded and said, “Since there’s no divine kingdom yet and you’re new to my Mo Lin galaxy, you don’t need to participate in this punitive war. Stay here and focus on building your own divine kingdom.”

The others thought Su Che would bow and express his gratitude, but to their surprise, his reply was, “Lord Mo Lin, I’m actually very interested in this punitive war. I plan to participate as a lower-tier god’s avatar. However, I only hope to be in the same team as my brother Orson. Please grant me your permission, Lord Mo Lin.”

“Oh?”

Not only was Mo Lin slightly surprised, but the other higher-tier gods also stared at Su Che oddly, each thinking to themselves: Well, clearly, this is a typical war fanatic.

On the eve of the great war, Mo Lin naturally hoped there would be as many such war fanatics as possible. He nodded in approval and said, “Very good. Since you’re so eager, I certainly won’t refuse. Moreover, I promise that if you make any contributions in this war, I’ll award you double rewards in my personal capacity.”

“Thank you, Lord Mo Lin,” Su Che replied with a smile.

The reason Su Che wanted to join this war wasn’t because he had nothing to do and wanted to bully or slaughter people. Instead, it was to gain a deeper understanding of the Holy Radiance Universe from various aspects. A large-scale war among gods was indeed a great way to do that.

To fully understand the power structure of a world, the best approach was to infiltrate it layer by layer from the bottom up. Therefore, it would be wise for Su Che to spend several decades in the divine realm before moving on to the celestial realm.

After discussing everything that needed to be said, the four thousand higher-tier gods left their avatars in the Supreme God’s Hall to participate in the war, while their original bodies returned to their respective divine kingdoms immediately to prevent their realms from being left unguarded and exploited by other gods.

Orson did the same—he left his gold-element higher-tier avatar here with Su Che, while his fire-element original body returned to his divine kingdom with two other avatars.

Taking this opportunity, Su Che gained a deeper understanding of the divine avatars in the Holy Radiance Universe. Different from the avatar techniques in the Immortal Spirit Universe, the avatars of the Holy Radiance deities possessed the extraordinary ability to survive independently. If the original body perished, the strongest among the avatars would automatically take its place. In this regard, it was indeed far more advanced than the avatar techniques of the Immortal Spirit Universe—meaning that every deity in the Holy Radiance Universe had several lives, ranging from a few to dozens. As long as one could hide one of their avatars in a place completely unreachable by others, no one could truly destroy them, much like an incurable virus—years later, they would be strong again. Su Che vaguely wondered if this trait might be related to the Holy Radiance’s immortality, which allowed it to become the oldest universe in chaos. “It could very well be for this reason,” he thought. Lao He agreed, saying, “After all, these deities’ abilities are granted by the laws of the Holy Radiance Universe, which means this universe also possesses similar, or even more advanced, abilities.” Su Che nodded silently and resolved that before heading to the Heavenly Realm, he must not only master this avatar technique but also reach a high level of proficiency. By using this war as a cover, he planned to capture some ‘Vah God deities’ openly, extract numerous avatar skills from them through the skill extraction function of the Five Layers of the Immortal Prison, and then combine them to reach a higher level… This was Su Che’s plan. Time came, and the god armies of the Mo Lin Star Region were ready for battle, numbering over 50,000. This army consisted entirely of divine avatars, with the supreme commander undoubtedly being the avatar of the Mo Lin Supreme God, possessing the same strength as the original god. Below that were 4,000 avatars of higher-ranking gods, divided into 40 squads of 100 each. Each higher-ranking god also governed 10 middle-ranking gods, whose avatars were nothing but mere pawns. As for the lower-ranking gods, fortunately, their strength was too low for them to even qualify as pawns, so they had nothing to do with wars of this scale.

In the divine realm, lower and middle-ranking gods do not have the ability to create their own divine kingdoms. If they do not wish to wander alone in the endless cosmos, they must join the ranks of a higher-ranking god as a subordinate, taking on various responsibilities within that god’s kingdom to assist in governing its inhabitants. From the higher-ranking god, they receive a minuscule amount of faith energy to use in advancing their own cultivation level.

It is evident that the hierarchical system among the gods in the Holy Radiance Universe is extremely strict, and the difficulty of advancing in cultivation is beyond imagination—far greater than that of the true immortals in the Immortal Realm of the Immortal Universe.

For someone like Osen, a higher-ranking god who has risen from a lower-ranking god to where he is now, it has been incredibly difficult, requiring countless hardships and efforts.

Of course, there are both disadvantages and advantages. The advantage is that as gods, they are almost immortal and extremely hard to kill—far superior to the true immortals of the Immortal Universe.

The true immortals of the Immortal Universe lead a more carefree life, doing as they please and going wherever they want. However, the problem is that if they are accidentally tricked by other true immortals and their essence is destroyed, it results in true and complete death. All their past glory and achievements vanish, and they may even lose the chance to be reborn.

So, as to which universe has a better way of life, it is a matter of perspective—different people have different opinions…