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Chapter 703: Terrifying Forms of Warfare!

This revelation was earth-shattering.

Xia Naiming stood rooted to the spot, as if in a trance. He felt his world spin, his mind growing taut. He clenched his fists abruptly.

"Indeed it is so."

A faint glimmer of light in the endless darkness before his eyes gradually expanded, eventually transforming into a bright, dazzling hall.

"That's exactly it! This hypothesis almost perfectly explains why the Three Pillar Gods would research a human magic core cultivation path seemingly unrelated to themselves. It's because it wasn't deliberate research at all! It was the reversal of their own cultivation method! A byproduct of the Three Pillar Gods' research into their own techniques!"

A reversed cultivation formula! He looked at the arcane book in Emperor Messiah's hand, which contained an incredibly long computational formula. If reversed, it represented the Pillar Gods' path to godhood.

He gazed at the calm, leisurely young man—the legendary Emperor Messiah, said to preside over gardens and wine—who was sitting in a chair atop the pavilion. He felt as if the vast and terrifying secret of the Pillar Gods was only now slowly unfolding, revealed through the passage of time!

"So, then now..." Xia Naiming took a deep breath, standing in the silent, headless city that had turned entirely into stone statues. "Is there any other way?" A faint hope flickered within him.

*Whoosh!* A gust of hot, molten wind suddenly swept through the pavilion.

The entire city seemed immersed in a desolate, profound atmosphere, evoking a sense of the vastness of heaven and earth.

"I told you, I have no way... I am merely a Heavenly Emperor, not even a deity," Xu Zhi said in a calm tone.

"But?" Xia Naiming exclaimed.

"Do you think you understand now?" Xu Zhi didn't lift his head, politely remaining seated and reading the arcane book, like an arcane scholar. He hadn't forgotten his original intention and continued to diligently study the knowledge within; it was undoubtedly complex and profound. The knowledge before him was genuinely a byproduct of the Three Pillar Gods' research, which was why they gave it to him so easily. It cost them nothing and inflicted no loss on him.

"I don't understand?" Xia Naiming asked.

"Yes, the horror you perceive isn't the true horror... You still haven't grasped just how terrifying this lava land truly is." Xu Zhi's expression remained placid. He closed the book in the pavilion, still seated in his chair, and gently pointed forward. "In that case, I shall send you to witness the greatest horror of this world!"

*Boom!!!* Xia Naiming's head began to vibrate and hum, the world spun, and his consciousness and everything before his eyes rapidly blurred.

"This is the last thing I can do for you. The entire lava region is vast. Among the 107 domains... the current abode of living beings is the original Stone Wall Domain." Xu Zhi sat on the wooden chair, put down his book, and flipped open a brass pocket watch, checking the time. "Everything of the past began there, and everything of today will also begin there."

*Whoosh!* When Xia Naiming opened his eyes again, it was as if he had undergone some spatial teleportation; he had arrived in the Stone Wall Domain.

This was where everything began—the origin of the Ishdar people and the birthplace of the virus.

"Did he find me annoying and just dump me here?" He looked around. A wooden barrel in the corner, a wooden chair and table, and metal chopsticks and dishes on the table indicated he was in a simple dwelling.

*Creak.* Wearing a bulky white protective suit, he pushed open the door.

The sky was perpetually dark, making it impossible to distinguish day from night. What met his eyes was a decaying, dark red world.

Dense viruses, like black, thick fog forming giant hands with a granular, ant-like texture, slowly dragged round heads, stacking them into pyramid shapes. It was as if neat, ordered robotic arms from a mechanical construction factory were working on a construction site, or like countless high-tech, super nano-robots operating continuously.

The stacked pyramids of heads seemed to be conversing as if nothing were amiss—some laughing heartily, some looking sorrowful, others surprised or filled with hatred. A thousand faces, a thousand expressions, all gathered here.

"Passing by, anyone interested in Milsa's Beast-Type Summoning Arcane Research Society?"

"Delicious grilled fish, want a skewer?"

"Hey, how about we go for a drink at the tavern tonight?"

"I heard a good songstress came from Nasan Town."

"Ugh, you still have minds for such things? Aren't Cybotron of the Hundred Flowers Dynasty and Lady Elusha's resistance army fighting the most brutal battle on the front lines?"

"That's for the Arcane Masters, their victory or defeat isn't something we can decide!"

"Right, let's go have a couple of drinks."

"They're talking?" Xia Naiming looked around. "This place is clearly somewhere you can't remain calm, yet they're still talking?"

All around him, countless viruses floated. Like a dense black particulate fog, they were sticky and oily, viscous and with a foul odor. Endless viruses, fungi, and bacteria converged into masses, forming countless disgusting tentacles that stretched from the ground, reaching towards the sky, arranging the talking heads.

"What... is this?" Xia Naiming, in his white protective suit, walked with difficulty through the Stone Wall Domain, like an astronaut traversing the desolate, empty moon. He walked for half a day, finding an almost endless expanse of the same bizarre scene: grotesque pyramids, like ancient blood sacrifice structures. They resembled impact craters on the moon, appearing as natural phenomena.

After three days of walking, Xia Naiming finally arrived at a unique pile of skulls, where heads were also talking. One side of soldiers roared, "For the Nation of Gender Equality!" "Equality is glory!" Soldiers on the other side also shouted, "Kill!" "Eliminate fear!" "We are destined by heaven!"

"This is the war in Skyrim Province, where I passed through before." Xia Naiming walked through the Stone Wall Domain, and finally, he saw familiar faces. There was Cybotron's head, weeping in agony: "Ah! Why? Why is this happening! I was clearly the protagonist of destiny!" And there was Elusha, filled with excitement and resolve: "Mother, we're going to win!"

Xia Naiming's heart pounded with terror. He stared blankly at everything, endless information flooding his brain as if to burst it, his head throbbing with a splitting pain and a profound sense of disjointed loss. "That's right! So much time has passed, I almost forgot—they are the Corpse Race! They are zombies infected by the virus, who developed their own intelligence... And zombies, even when they've lost their arms, legs, and are reduced to just heads, can still live..." He was filled with horror, fully realizing the true terror. "It's as if these heads here, and the body movements over there, all integrate together to form a perfect ensemble!"

This was too bizarre! Absolutely too bizarre!! They still thought they were normal. You thought they were dead. But they are zombies! You thought they were dead and had magic cores, but they're actually still alive!

"This is the Three Pillar Gods' war form against the outside world! The terrifying second form of war!!"

"After the war, the Three Pillar Gods will release this form, and even then, no one will realize what happened during this period. The timeline will simply continue to advance..."

"Those plotting against the Pillar Gods will continue to plot against them, waging war on Cybotron, believing they are benefiting from the era, while Cybotron continues his desperate last stand..." The more he thought about it, the more terrifying it became. At that time, no one would know that the Three Pillar Gods had already resolved the external war. They would simply believe there was no discontinuity in time. "No, no!" His expression changed drastically. "This is... a brain! In! A! Vat!" He almost lost his voice!

He thoroughly recalled the famous "Brain in a Vat" thought experiment proposed in 1981: It posits that you are a brain, surgically removed from your body by an evil scientist and placed in a vat of nutrient-rich fluid that keeps you alive. The nerve endings of your brain are connected to a computer that sends information to it, maintaining normal sensations below the neck, making you believe you still have a body. It simulates various environments and daily interactions through neural signals, even making you 'feel' as if you are here, reading this interesting and absurd text.

"This is practically an alternate Infinite Tsukuyomi..." He sat dumbfounded on the ground, crying and laughing. "I finally understand what Emperor Messiah meant... that I hadn't grasped the true horror I thought I understood. This is the whole truth." The ultimate terror!! This is the true unification!

He looked up at the terrifying demon god that was consolidating before him, every cell on its body hairy and covered in black fur. It was now draped in a thin layer of black down, resembling an ancient ape-like dark demon god with three heads, all with closed eyes. "As early as the most ancient times, the Humanoid Pillar God once said... that if it devoured the remaining two Pillar Gods, it would become a true Tier 9 being... And now, although they haven't devoured each other, their temporary alliance and fusion of hundreds of millions of cells from their respective races are enough to piece together... a weak Tier 9 being."

In the Underworld.

At the Elysium Paradise, all the deities gathered, seated among the vibrant, fairytale-like beauty of the multicolored Underworld Mandara Flowers. In the sky, a colossal candle lighthouse—a white wax pillar—was eerily melting like a candle, with a flickering mass of fire elements atop it. That was the Underworld's new sun. Seated on chairs amidst the flowers, all the deities' gazes were fixed on the images transmitted by Mother Earth Qing Teng. It was a terrifying scene of the entire lava land, as if the whole era had plunged into an ancient Stone Age, losing its heads and transforming into eternal, primordial fossils.

"Magic core fusion... formula..." Caroline stared at the image, Emperor Messiah within it feeling like a crushing mountain on her heart. No one in the garden spoke, the atmosphere heavy.

"This is bad!" Mengmei's expression was grim. "Things are much more serious than we imagined. The Three Pillar Gods, lurking in the shadows, have truly terrifying hidden cards." Mengmei was utterly stunned. She had thought her own Incense system was the ultimate horror show! The bizarre was what chilled people most, the fear in human hearts, the endless terrifying monsters, but compared to the current Three Pillar Gods, it was just a drop in the ocean! The Three Pillar Gods' actions had completely shattered her worldview!

"Based on the available information and intelligence," Almin looked around, her voice growing darker, "we must prepare for total war. This is a world war for survival!"

"Yes," the Alchemy Emperor sighed. "If the Three Pillar Gods combine and reach some unimaginable realm, no amount of isolation will be effective. They could deduce the location of our world."

"Is a war our only option?"

"A war is our only option."

Everyone fell silent, the air heavy with dread. Gazing at the Three Pillar Gods—the Yuan Pillar Gods—undergoing cell proliferation and nuclear fusion, no one knew what heights the Three Pillar Gods had reached. They could only prepare... to make the most extreme preparations before the Three Pillar Gods fully merged and completely located this world. Perhaps their initial choice had been wrong. Without external factors, the Three Pillar Gods would have continued to squabble amongst themselves, but if external resources appeared, they would unite, becoming an impenetrable force, invading the outside world. Perhaps this was the complete opening of Pandora's Box, a disaster that no one could resist.

Online.

News always arrived with a slight delay, but when it did, accompanied by screenshots, people's emotions instantly exploded.

First, a barrage of exclamation marks. Witnessing the Three Pillar Gods' true grand scheme, everyone was too shocked to form coherent sentences.

Creatures with a complete cell on their neck were already more bizarre than bizarre; now, all the cells on their necks had vanished? Everyone had become headless beings, petrified in place.

"Holy f***!"

"Holy f***!"

Then came a string of unhinged expletives, followed by more coherent remarks.

"Goddamn nuclear fusion, nuclear fission.... (confused)"

"Is this the Tier 9 path for the Magic Core lineage?"

"Wuwuwu, the humans in that world are so miserable!"

"Those stinky brats who used to envy the extraordinary and disliked ordinary life, come out quickly! I'll send you to the lava land to enjoy the pleasure of becoming powerful! (Manic laughter)"

"Hahahaha! As expected of physics! So nuclear technology directly leads to Tier 9! It seems our civilization has hope for a breakthrough!"

"Nuclear reactors, nuclear fusion, nuclear fission, here we come!!"

"The one above, you've completely lost your mind! You're so scared your brain's frozen! They're not the same concept (running tears.jpg)"

"Bullshit! Who said it's not physical Buddhism? Look at the Three Pillar Gods, that pile of heads perfectly embodies Buddhist theory... joy, anger, sorrow, happiness, a thousand faces and forms. This is the true gathering of all sentient beings."

"The Three Pillar Gods have grasped the true essence!"

Everyone: ???

That actually makes some sense.

"And look again, isn't this great dream before our eyes exactly 'A Thousand Years in a Great Dream'?"

"And again, talking about 'destiny'?"

Everyone fell completely silent. It seemed to make more and more sense. They never expected that the Three Pillar Gods were the true inheritors of physical Buddhism!?

But no matter what, it completely blew up the internet. Many people who were previously envious were now scared stiff!

The Three Pillar Gods, high above.

Thinking about it, a harmonious, law-abiding society for ordinary people was the most wonderful after all.

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