novelCivil War
| ← Ch.1121 | Ch.1123 → |
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
It was not easy to make a firm resolution to wage a war with the Heavens to protect their positions as gods.
However, if they did not try to put up a fight, then there would not be such a thing as becoming a god. Even if they were to go down to the Lower Realm and start over, there would be no more opportunity for them to rise to the position of a god.
In fact, the position of a god could be likened to being a small shareholder of a company, which meant that even if they just lay there and did nothing, they could still receive their bonuses and dividends every year.
The position of a saint and the like would then be equivalent to being the type of a major shareholder that even the Heavenly Axiom could do nothing about.
Otherwise, they would be just an ordinary group of staff whom the Heavenly Axiom could dismiss at any time. In other words, they would be killed off...
Fang Ning and Sir System could not understand why the Upper Realm's Heavenly Axiom would not just intervene personally, but the reason for that was simply because of the position that these gods and deities had. This would require the Heavenly Axiom to find some information it could use against them and revoke their positions as gods first before it could kill them off.
Nonetheless, this entire process would obviously take too long given that the intelligence of the gods and deities was not inferior to that of the Heavenly Axiom itself. Thus, it would be too difficult to concoct a plausible charge against any of them.
The Heavenly Axiom could not afford such a long period of time to slowly clear out these countless gods.
On the contrary, an outsider from the Lower Realm would not have such worries since both parties were natural enemies to each other.
The situation had been clearly laid out before the gods.
If they chose to start a war with the Heavens, there would be a high probability of them dying, but they would also have the chance to be resurrected and to regain their positions as gods in the future. If they would not wage this war and chose to compromise for the sake of survival instead, they would have a higher probability of surviving, but would also be destined to never gain the position of a god ever again. In the future, the most they could achieve was to be an ordinary powerhouse.
"We have to choose between the two..."
"This is putting the gods in a very difficult position."
The gods began to discuss in low voices, whispering amongst themselves, turning the hall into a marketplace.
"Let's stop being so torn over this. I choose to give up and walk a stable path honestly. At least the condition of the Lower Realm isn't that bad." A few second-class and third-class gods with weaker powers finally arrived at a decision.
They had the least savings to begin with, and could not afford to delay the matter any longer.
Unlike decades ago, the passage connecting the two realms had been almost completely opened up now. However, for their real bodies to descend to the Lower Realm, they still needed the permission of the Upper Realm's Heavenly Axiom to do so.
Judging by the current situation, they would have to give up their Divine Powers and most of their savings from before in order to descend.
As for how exactly they were to give these up, it was very simple. They would need to do no more than offer these things as sacrifices to the Heavens and Earth, and then receive permission to descend to the Lower Realm in return.
Even mortals had such methods of offering sacrifices.
The god clad in black clothing swept his gaze over those people in an impassive manner and threw a glance at the Pantheon King who was at the center of the palace hall.
The white-clothed god opposite him was struck by a cold sense of understanding and immediately came to realize the truth.
Instantly, he said, "I'm in favor of going to war. Rather than waiting to die in the future, it'll be better for us to do all we can right now. At least we'll be left with some hope."
His choice influenced quite a few of the other gods yet again.
Nevertheless, the gods were too smart and it was always difficult for smart people to make up their minds. It was easier for foolish people to make decisions since the number of variables they could consider was way fewer, which would then allow the decision-making process to be shortened significantly.
Meanwhile, these gods and deities were frantically calculating various probabilities as well as the resulting gains and losses to make the best choice based on their current situation. Truthfully, it was hard enough to describe the thoughts of even one god, much less these tens of thousands of gods and deities in the main hall.
Then, the Pantheon King in the center of the hall finally spoke.
"Okay, those in favor of going to war with the Heavens will stand at my left-hand side while those in favor of not starting a war and had chosen to start over in the Lower Realm will stand at my right."
His emotionless voice made the noisy gods quiet down.
Eventually, they began to line up according to their decisions.
Within the span of a hundred breaths' time, these tens of thousands of gods made their choices.
The left-to-right ratio was 2 to 8.
The result was very precisely in line with the 80/20 rule (TN: This rule is also known as the Pareto Principle, which believes that, in many events, roughly eighty percent of the results come from twenty percent of the causes). Within a group, those with the highest level of initiative could never make up more than twenty percent of the people.
"Very well. You may begin to fight then." As soon as the Pantheon King had finished speaking, he swung his sleeves and left the main hall which had been sealed off.
Most of the gods looked at each other in dismay, yet the ones on the left seemed to have prepared themselves for this and took the lead in launching an attack!
It was evident that the entire main hall was assisting them too, as waves of formless ripples swept through the place. This was the enchanted boundary of the Pantheon King.
Inside this enchanted boundary, those were not recognized by the Pantheon King would have their powers weakened by more than ninety percent!
The gods on the right were shocked by this turn of events. They had never expected that they would have to first fight to the death amongst themselves!
In reality, they should have anticipated this. Since the rise of the Destined One had been arranged by the Upper Realm's Heavenly Axiom and given that the person would grow stronger by fighting, the Pantheon King would never give the other party more opportunity to farm his enemies and advance further.
The intention behind Fang Ning's move of sealing off the Heavenly Pillars had been to find an excuse to farm his enemies. Mortals might not be able to see through this, but did the Pantheon King and the other Heavenly Kings not realize this either?
The gods were able to figure it out as well, but they did not expect that the Pantheon could actually resolve to pierce the Heavens!
Before going to war, this act of eliminating all those with different views could not only unite their minds but could also lead to an immense increase in their own powers. After all, countless divine skills for devouring the powers of the defeated ones were at their disposal.
...
System Space.
Fang Ning was very puzzled. Aside from the resistance he had faced when sealing off the eastern Heavenly Pillar, he did not encounter any more Heavenly Generals when he went to the other four Heavenly Pillars to have them sealed off.
"Damn it, I thought there would have been a few more experience packs for me to collect. Why have they all gone missing?" Sir System became extremely vexed.
"Be quiet. In my opinion, there must be something strange going on here, " Fang Ning said thoughtfully.
"What kind of strange things? Do you actually know what you're doing?" Sir System grumbled."We've only managed to farm one creature. You're completely useless."
Of course, Fang Ning was not aware of the turn of events that had been taking place in the Celestial Court of the Upper Realm. He could only sense intuitively that something had gone wrong.
In fact, how could he have easily understood the gods' way of thinking? After all, this was not a world that revolved around his thoughts. The gods would also have their own plans.
He had intended to instigate the gods to start a war by sealing off the Heavenly Pillars, and then make use of his advantage of being able to fight a duel with the help of the Heavenly Axiom to farm the gods one by one. This way of thinking was a result of having played too many games...
However, the other party was not cooperating with his plans and had instead started to farm their own people first...
Nonetheless, Fang Ning was still not aware of it, but this did not stop him from making some form of response.
"Let's give it some time. Anyway, with the Heavenly Pillars sealed off, it won't be long before the Immortal God World becomes uninhabitable to the gods. Sooner or later, they'll have to do something about it." Fang Ning demonstrated his great stall ability.
"I have a feeling that nothing good will come out of this. I should call my incarnation back first. I can't afford any more losses, " Sir System muttered.
Following that, Vigilante A returned to the System Space. Sir System would not stall the matter in any way.
Three days later, the Bodhisattva Spirit King and the River God of the Sky River came to see him, side by side.
"Bad news, Great Venerable Dragon God. The Heavens of the Upper Realm have been broken!" said the panic-stricken River God.
"What, the Heavens have been broken? I've just sealed off the Heavenly Pillars though. I didn't pierce the Heavens, " Fang Ning said in shock.
"Ah, it's the gods and deities who did it. More than eighty percent of them have died. Now, the boundary separating the Heavens and Earth of the two realms have been thoroughly destroyed. Even the two Heavenly Axioms won't be able to seal off the Space Passage. All the Maxims governing the vitality of both realms have been mixed. Ah, great chaos awaits us, " said the River God, who was filled with dismay.
He could totally foresee what kind of madness this would bring!
"..." Fang Ning was dumbstruck.
It took him quite a while to recover himself and say to Sir System, "F*ck, the gods really went ahead and destroyed everything. Did they have to go so far?"
"You're already holding a knife to their neck. Are they not even allowed to fight back?" Sir System mocked.
"But they have a way out. They can give up their burdens and come to the Lower Realm to live. There's no need for them to take such an extreme path." Fang Ning could not understand the reason behind it at all.
"There must be something you've overlooked that had caused them to make such a decision, " Sir System said.
"How could I have missed anything?" Fang Ning's mind was spinning rapidly. Then, a thought suddenly occurred to him."I figured it out. Previously, I've said that the consciousness of the Heavenly Axiom of our Time and Space is unbelievably shrewd, and it'll never give out any more saint positions. In that case, it'll no longer give anyone the position of a god as well. Sir System, you've become a God-level system already, but do you have any form of authority at all?"
"What authority do I have? I still need to earn my own living. The Heavens and Earth won't give me any vitality for free either, and you don't even obey me at all, " Sir System said sulkily.
"This is it then. This must be the main reason they're choosing to go all-in."
| ← Ch. 1121 | Ch. 1123 → |