### Chapter 9: The Hand of Darkness Unveiled (3)
Broad-eyed Heavenly King swiftly learned about his subordinate’s failure and immediately led his troops to the sky above the scene.
No wonder even the relentless tsunami couldn’t wipe out these pesky ants completely! Turns out, they had built a fortress on the ground, protected by an ice cover—sneaky little critters!
But your luck is about to run out!
You won’t get another chance to flee, you wretched ants!
As for those strange abilities my subordinates keep babbling about, claiming they could unleash massive explosive spells at close range—oh please, Broad-eyed wasn’t worried in the slightest.
Even if those little tricks were real, they wouldn’t make a dent in his godly prowess.
He was a deity, after all, one of the leaders among the twenty heavens of the Divine Realm.
If the Asking Dao Continent really had beings that could surpass gods, the divine managers and controllers would have known ages ago. There was no way they’d allow such threats to exist!
So, you sc*m,
the fact that a god had to personally come to wipe you out? That’s already your honor!
Broad-eyed gripped his treasured umbrella, which could magically appear anywhere his heart desired, and once it spun, its edges were sharper than a chef’s kn*fe at a veggie-chopping contest.
He also had control over plagues, and the viruses carried by the rain had every living creature going bananas—thanks to his unique powers.
Faced with the thick and sturdy ice cover, the Broad-eyed Heavenly King decided to give his enemies no chance whatsoever.
Before setting off, his brothers had promised that the remaining 30% of life energy would be all his.
This news made Broad-eyed downright giddy! After all, as the youngest of four brothers, he was usually dependent on them for support. Even when he received offerings, his share was the size of a happy meal.
Now, if all that 30% life energy were his, he’d definitely level up!
He could finally secure a mid-tier position in the twenty heavens and stop being a liability to his brothers.
“Zzzzzzz…”
Once the golden-glowing treasure umbrella opened and spun, it immediately expanded by dozens of times.
It loomed over the ice cover like a foreboding storm cloud.
Those inside the fortress immediately noticed the bizarre phenomenon. They were struck with the realization that the Divine Realm’s general had finally arrived.
If the warriors from the Three Realms were waiting to pounce when facing the enemy scouts, when the divine general wielding near-miraculous artifacts appeared before them, a primal fear kicked in—like a mouse meeting a cat. No matter how big that mouse was, it would be wobbling like jelly in no time!
The crowd fell silent, and a heavy tension began to seep through the fortress.
Since their first victory against the Divine Realm, the people thought the gods were a joke.
But when that giant umbrella hovered above, even before touching the ice, it spun and carved a hole about ten meters wide through the thick, hard ice!
Terror flickered in the eyes of the crowd, and the oppressive atmosphere pointed to two outcomes: total despair or a desperate fight to the d*ath!
A dozen demon warriors, descendants of armored soldiers, could no longer withstand the pressure. They screamed and lunged out of the exposed ice cover, ready to take on the Divine Clan.
But horrifyingly, as soon as they jumped, barely halfway through the hole, those poor demon warriors didn’t even touch the enemy before being smashed into fleshy paste and evenly spread over the still-frozen ice.
A few landed back inside the fortress, turning faces pale as ghosts.
And hold your horses—this was far from over!
As the giant umbrella continued its descent, the ice cover shattered further, revealing the steel spire of the fortress.
Broad-eyed paused, surprised, looking at the enormous fortress that resembled a steel beast.
It seemed the reason his brothers’ plans hadn’t worked was that the ants had indeed prepared meticulously. But all that was irrelevant now; with the umbrella descending, these sc*m would soon become mush—his delightful fertilizer!
After all, when a giant glanced at an intricately built anthill, aside from a brief moment of awe, it didn’t seem interested in figuring out how these ants had built beyond their capabilities.
No matter how fancy the construction, the giant could smash it to smithereens with barely a puff!
The umbrella began to spin again.
At that moment, those residing in the upper layers of the fortress felt the entire steel fort tremble in sync with the umbrella’s rotation.
What… is going on?
Are we going to turn into meat paste like those reckless demon warriors?!
No… No… please, no!
Panic escalated, and people couldn’t help but want to bolt for the lower tunnels beneath the Sky Tower.
Just as fear gripped their hearts and minds, suddenly, the first emperor of the Great Dao Empire appeared, instantly calming the crowd as if they had just awakened from a chaotic dream, and everything returned to normal.
Lin Nan floated above the fortress, less than fifty meters from the spinning umbrella.
The fierce winds whipped her black skirt and long hair into a frenzy, as though she was ready to take flight any second!
Indeed, even before Broad-eyed and his army got close, she had sensed the impending threat.
But instead of sitting idly by, she had hidden among the clouds above, silent as a cat awaiting its prey.
Ever since the first bl**d of All Spirits Formation was unleashed from Flowerless Palace, she had been pondering how these divine beings collected people’s life energy.
Logically, when someone dies, it’s like a light being extinguished—once a living entity loses its ability to move, its energy would dissipate into nothingness almost instantly.
This process happens rather quickly.
Which meant the gods must have some way to gather the energy that vanished upon d*ath and absorb it!
She hadn’t had the opportunity to uncover the truth until now.
And with the gods personally arriving, she felt that witnessing how they collected energy could help her utterly defeat the enemy. Thus, she begrudgingly decided to sacrifice a few citizens for the sake of the bigger picture.
She wasn’t a saint; she couldn’t save everyone.
If sacrificing a minority could lead to ultimate victory, then it was a worthy gamble.
The lives lost would receive the honor they rightfully deserved.
Otherwise, the last survivors of the Asking Dao Continent, the so-called entire Great Dao Empire, could all perish in this Divine Punishment war.
So when a group of demon warriors could no longer withstand the pressure of the giant umbrella and took the initiative to fight and turned to paste in the process,
Lin Nan, hidden in the clouds, witnessed a scene that was both horrifying and astonishing.
