I Pick up a Lost Godhood

Over the past few years, Vast Sea and Liao Qingqiu had proven themselves to be master strategists.

With the activation of the Sealing Demon Array, the Taiyin Sect had to offer up a top-tier expert. Zhang Bai volunteered for this duty, and it was the same for all the other major sects. For the Holy Hall, Zhao Xingchen stepped forward. If he hadn’t, Wang Meng would have had to go, and while the Holy Hall could survive without Zhao Xingchen, it could not lose Wang Meng.

The Dragon Race wasn’t actually that belligerent. Linglong was indifferent to the postponement of the final battle, and she had no interest in who became the Master of Star Alliance. The same could not be said for the other three, however.

But with the Demon Race invading, infighting was clearly inopportune. Besides, a battle wouldn’t be satisfying if they couldn’t give it their full focus.

"You two, try not to die at the hands of the Demon Race," Lin Jinghao said with a smile. The No Illusion Demon Sect, after all, had deep foundations and comprised half of all Human Cultivator forces.

Mingren offered a gentle smile. Strangely, he didn’t seem particularly disappointed. No one could ever read Mingren; just when you thought he was anxious or deeply concerned, he would always manage to surprise you. Perhaps he had other plans.

"Once we’ve eliminated the Demon Race, we’ll have all the time in the world to settle the score," Wang Meng said.

Standing to the side, Jii Wanli was left with a bitter taste in his mouth. The three of them had clearly excluded him. The Jii Wanli of the past might have found this intolerable, but after experiencing defeat, he was a changed man.

If he wanted to rise again now, he would have to work much harder. Yellow Springs had bought him another chance with their life.

It certainly wasn’t for some bullshit noble cause—it was for his own dreams of conquest.

Who stood to gain the most from the Demon Race’s arrival? He did!

Only through the chaos of war could a new order be established, and under these circumstances, he had far more room to maneuver.

The forces of the Extreme Dao Alliance, led by Jii Wanli, along with a few other groups who were unwilling to side with the No Illusion Demon Sect and were at odds with Wang Meng, accounted for thirty percent of all Human Cultivators. The remaining twenty percent were under Wang Meng’s command.

For the recently risen Holy Hall, this would have been unimaginable in the past. But the Wang Meng of today could truly command respect, and the full support of the Taiyin Sect played a significant role in this.

The forces led by Mingren were formidable. Mengg Lord and the Lord of Punishment were his able lieutenants, with large numbers of demons and Exotic Beasts providing additional support.

The smallest force in terms of numbers was the Dragon Race, commanded by Linglong. She had the Celestial Dragon and Purple Dragon as her aides, along with several Dragon Race Elders. Of course, the main fighting force was still the Giant Dragons. Despite being the smallest group, their power was by no means the weakest.

Wang Meng was defending Snow Moon City, which was already locked in battle. Hordes of Demons were furiously assaulting the city—a swarming black tide pouring endlessly from beneath the ground. The Cultivators had been fighting bitterly for days, yet the number of Demons showed no signs of diminishing.

With the Pure Land sealed, the entire Star Alliance mobilized for war.

The various Small Thousand Realms also intensified their recruitment of disciples. The most outstanding among them would be sent to the Cultivation Academy, and once they reached a certain level of Cultivation, they were dispatched to the Slaughter Space to join the fight against the Abyss Demon Race.

Without the Star Alliance’s system, the chaos would have been unimaginable, and the people would have been wantonly slaughtered by the Demon Race. However, the Demon Race likely never expected to encounter such staunch resistance.

Although the massive Sealing Demon Array was damaged, as long as the five defending fortresses held, the main demon army could not break through. The scattered Demons that managed to reach the Cultivation Realm were not enough to cause any major trouble.

Nevertheless, the Cultivation Realm was now far more dangerous than before. Some scattered Demons, especially low-level ones, slipped through spatial rifts torn open by Demonic Qi and roamed freely. Demons existed only to kill and devour, and they sowed considerable chaos across the Cultivation Realm.

However, under the unified command of the Star Alliance, this chaos was gradually brought under control. The casualties, though... that was perhaps the unavoidable price of survival.

Time flew by. Three years had passed since the Battle of the Other Shore was halted and the Abyss Demon Race appeared. For the Cultivators of the Cultivation Realm, these three years had brought earth-shattering changes.

The Demons pouring out from the Abyss filled the entire world with peril. In the past, within the Small Thousand Worlds, Exotic Beasts and humans had been hostile, but they had generally kept to their own territories and coexisted peacefully. The Demons were different. Their very reason for being was slaughter. They actively attacked human cities, and they certainly didn’t spare the various Exotic Beasts either.

The Demon Race was exceptionally powerful and ferocious, but their plan to conquer the surface world was not going smoothly. First, their greatest weapon—Demonic Qi—was being suppressed by the Demon Suppression Formation. The small amount that seeped through wasn’t enough to provide them with a decisive advantage. Furthermore, the Human Cultivators in the Slaughter Space were thoroughly prepared in terms of both manpower and resources. The Demon Race may have been lying in wait, but the Cultivation Realm had come ready for a fight.

The first year was the most brutal. To keep the seal broken and prevent it from being repaired, the Demon Race’s Demon Lord Level experts paid a heavy price. The two sides engaged in a cataclysmic battle in the Slaughter Space, a slaughter so immense that the very sky was said to have been stained blood-red.

Many great generals on the Demon Race’s side fell, and the Cultivation Realm fared no better. Numerous Sect Leaders at the Great Perfection stage perished in the fierce fighting. The Five Great Castles, which anchored the formation, changed hands several times. A continuous stream of Cultivators poured in from the various Small Thousand Realms. In this war, the Cultivation Realm had no retreat; everyone had to fight for their very lives.

That year, both sides paid a heavy price. Although Vast Sea and the others gave it their all, they ultimately failed to restore the Demon Suppression Formation. Once a breach is opened, mending it requires a far greater effort—especially when the Demon Race was fighting desperately to prevent it.

Although the Demon Race managed to keep the breach in the Slaughter Space open, they couldn’t break through the Cultivation Realm’s defenses there. This was the main front in the war against the Demons. As long as the Demon Race was prevented from breaking into the Small Thousand Realms, the Cultivation Realm would remain in an invincible position.

The city battles that had taken place in the Slaughter Space over the years had trained them well in both offense and defense, especially in guarding against sneak attacks. This experience proved to be invaluable; otherwise, the Cultivation Realm would have paid a far more terrible price—it might have even been annihilated.

In the second and third years, the aggressive Demon Race came to realize this. They had assumed that with a vanguard of countless Demons and their own formidable power, they could annihilate all life on the surface in a single stroke. They never expected to face such a situation. Not only were the fortress cities difficult to assault and easy to defend, but the Yao Race and the Dragon Race had also joined the war. Though the Demon Race was powerful, they were unable to achieve a swift victory. The war descended into a bitter stalemate, a test of patience where the first to break would be the first to fall.

While Vast Sea and his allies had left a sliver of a flaw in the Demon Suppression Formation back then, forcing the seal open had still cost the Demon Race a tremendous price. Attempting such a feat again would likely take at least a thousand years, a cost the Demon Race could not afford to bear again.

During these two years of back-and-forth battles, the Demon Race discovered another method that became a huge headache for the Cultivation Realm: the emergence of Half-Demons.

Some Exotic Beasts would transform into Demons when exposed to Demonic Qi. Unexpectedly, some Human Cultivators captured by the Demon Race also began to turn into Demons under its influence. Unable to fully transform, they became Half-Demons and, tragically, turned into accomplices for the Demon Race.

If it weren’t for their strategic advantages of time and terrain, it’s questionable whether the Slaughter Space could have been held at all.

Over these three years of fighting, both sides had come to understand each other to a certain degree.

War is undoubtedly a catalyst for rapid growth. In the first year of the war, the Sect Leaders, headed by figures like Demon Ba and Yuu Kunlun, were the main fighting force. But during that grueling first year, the Sect Leaders suffered innumerable casualties. Demon Ba and Yuu Kunlun were both severely wounded and forced into seclusion. For the next two years, the defensive war was waged almost entirely around the core of the younger generation: Wang Meng, Mingren, and Lin Jinghao.

The ability of the Five Great Castles to ultimately hold their ground was inextricably linked to the performance of these five individuals.

Mingren defended Celestial Eye City, one of the Five Great Castles. In the middle of the second year, as the nature of the war was shifting, a Demon Race army one hundred thousand strong marched on Celestial Eye City. In a stunning move, Mingren and his Pure Land Knight Order abandoned the city’s defenses to ambush the demon army en route. This "empty city gambit" caught the Demon Race completely off guard, as they had expected a desperate siege. Mingren then single-handedly killed the demon general, causing the entire army to rout. He became famous overnight.

In the battles that followed, Mingren continued to repel the Demon Race’s invasions with his unpredictable tactics, gradually forming a defensive cluster of fortresses centered on Celestial Eye City. This new defensive zone became known as the Saint Demon Castle.

Lin Jinghao was stationed at Moxiao City, commanding the largest contingent of human forces. For three years, he staunchly defended the fortress through brutal fighting. Lin Jinghao himself was completely unafraid of Demonic Qi; in fact, his Nine Luminaries Demon Dragon Body seemed to revel in its presence even more than the demons did. The fortress he guarded became known as the Demon Dragon Castle.

Linglong’s bastion, Storm City, was defended by Dragon Race experts leading the Giant Dragons. The Demon Race threw a massive army at it during the first year, but the result was predictable: they were soundly defeated and forced to retreat. Furthermore, the Half-Demon tactic proved completely useless against the Dragon Race, as Demonic Qi could not affect the Giant Dragons. Eventually, the front at Storm City settled into a stalemate, with neither side willing to make a rash move.

This area became known as the Dragon Emperor Castle. Because the Dragon Race had the smallest numbers, their strategy was primarily defensive. The threat of extinction looming over the dragons was especially pronounced during the war, and as the Dragon Princess, Linglong was naturally cautious.

Jii Wanli was stationed at Holy Light City. One had to admit, his understanding of warfare was truly remarkable; he treated it like an art form. Although his forces were not the strongest, he fought with great flair and success, his advances and retreats perfectly timed. What was expected to be a weak point on the front line instead became exceptionally solid. Of course, Jii Wanli’s Light Body played a crucial role. The Demon Race had no answer for his Extreme Dao speed, and on several occasions, their plans were leaked, leading to major defeats.

This area became known as the Extreme Dao Castle.

The final bastion was Snow Moon City, defended by Wang Meng. It was the weakest link among the five core fortresses, and consequently, the fighting there was the most intense. The defensive line formed by Snow Moon City and its surrounding towns was breached several times, but it was always retaken. Over the three years, they just barely managed to hold on, preventing the Demon Race from breaking out of the Slaughter Space. And though they were the weakest of the five forces, they made the Demon Race pay a heavy price. As it was constantly engulfed in Demon Flames for three years, this area came to be known as the Burning Castle.

By now, the Demon Race clearly had a good understanding of the Cultivation Realm’s situation. After three years, both sides knew exactly who the real power players were. Each was searching for the other’s weakness, looking for an opening. The Cultivation Realm wanted to drive the Abyss Demon Race back into the Abyss in one fell swoop, while the Demon Race dreamed of conquering the surface world in a single, decisive blow.

The forms of individual Demons were bizarre and varied, but the members of the Demon Race itself were not so different from humans. They had either dark or pale skin and a small, transparent horn on their heads, which was a symbol of their status and rank. (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to come to Qidian.com to vote for recommendations and monthly passes. Your support is my greatest motivation.)

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