Chapter 663: Collecting Divine Thrones (3) (Filling Pits)

"Bang! Crack! Pfft! Bang! Bang! Bang!!!"

The woman's tall body shot away like a cannonball, effortlessly crushing everything in her path.

All the seats in the entire Train carriage were reduced to dust. The lingering shockwaves from the displaced air whipped everyone's clothes around like kites.

Her body crashed through door after door, only coming to a halt when she reached the very end of the carriages.

Her body resembled a puddle of soft mud, wedged perfectly against the windshield of the driver's cabin.

If Yan Jing had used even a fraction more strength, she would have flown straight out of the Train.

But he hadn't. He had controlled his force perfectly.

"Hey, hey, hey."

Yan Jing appeared right in front of her and reached out to pat her shoulder.

"Don't tell me you're already done for?"

A low, agonized growl escaped the woman's lips.

Yan Jing hadn't held back on that pat; the inside of her shoulder directly exploded.

It was incredibly soft, like jelly.

The insides had likely turned to mush.

"Buzz—"

In the next second, her figure vanished from the spot.

She reappeared at the other end of the Train, splaying her palm open. A white void manifested, aimed at the driver's cabin that was now so far away it couldn't even be seen.

But...

"What are you doing?"

Hearing that sudden, raspy, duck-like voice, she stared down at Yan Jing by her feet in shock. Before she could react, she was sent flying once again.

This time, Yan Jing didn't give her a chance to catch her breath.

Their figures constantly crossed paths in midair. Yan Jing's spatial shifting was not the slightest bit slower than hers. Even though she was a Demigod Realm expert of this path, Mao Si's route was just as formidable. Its foundation was the origin Bloodline of a certain ancient beast, and its advancement was an ultimate elevation that followed his main body's tier after walking one's own path.

Mao Si's path was Space.

Right now, bolstered by the newly upgraded Fear Stance First State, Yan Jing stood firmly at the Demigod Realm, perfectly making up for his lack of a Divine Throne.

And once speed was no longer an issue, all that remained was a clash of offensive methods.

On this point.

The woman clearly had plenty to say.

It didn't take long before she crashed heavily onto the floor, beaten completely beyond recognition.

"Still breathing?"

She raised her head, trying to speak, but when she opened her mouth, no words came out.

Blood clogged her throat and windpipe. She was only alive thanks to her physical vitality and the intact heart Yan Jing had deliberately spared.

Yan Jing remained expressionless. He reached out, and a ray of light fell upon her throat. An instant later, she felt the crushing weight on her chest suddenly vanish.

"Haa—"

She desperately took a deep breath, then slowly let it out.

That breath carried a heavy stench of blood. The moment it hit the air, it turned into streaks of dark red light that instantly dissipated.

It was as if she were purging poison.

"Just... who exactly are you?"

She looked at Yan Jing, choosing her words with extreme caution.

That brief exchange had thoroughly crushed any desire she had to fight him.

Given the power and mastery over Space he had just displayed, he was absolutely not someone she could match.

"Heavenly Kingdom, Peace Heavenly Kingdom, Mao Si. Have you heard of me?"

The corners of Yan Jing's lips curled up. He puffed out his chest and spoke loudly, as if he were announcing a world-shaking title.

But... in truth, even during that Dungeon instance in Old Sin City, the name Mao Si had never really spread.

Naturally, the woman had never heard of him either.

She even wracked her brain, trying to figure out if the person in front of her was some old monster from a distant era, or an eccentric Demigod Realm expert from some obscure corner of the world.

But... she couldn't find a single clue.

She had absolutely no idea where this cat had sprung from; he was entirely beyond her understanding.

"Hah. It's perfectly normal not to know your Fourth Master's name. Just remember it for next time."

Yan Jing let out a cold chuckle:

"Let me ask you, where is the Deity on this Train hiding?"

"Do you mean a Demigod?"

the woman asked tentatively.

"That would be me."

As she said this, the tips of her ears flushed red.

She was indeed in the Demigod Realm, yet she had never expected to be beaten into such a miserable state by Yan Jing.

"I said Deity!"

Yan Jing spoke again, snapping her back to reality.

"Are you... trying to..."

"Become your colleague."

Yan Jing didn't hide his intentions at all.

"..."

This was the first time she had ever heard someone describe stealing a Divine Throne in such a fresh and refined way.

She looked at Yan Jing.

"Our Deity... isn't on the Train."

"Then why is the Deity next door on the Train?!"

Yan Jing grabbed her by the collar, spitting out a fact that shocked her to the core.

Her eyes widened. She had no idea where he had learned such a massive secret, or if he was simply trying to bluff her.

She wanted to think it through, but Yan Jing didn't give her the chance.

He raised his fist. The woman felt the stench of death looming over her, like secondhand smoke blown directly into her face, drilling relentlessly into her lungs.

She squeezed her eyes shut and screamed in panic:

"The phone! The phone next to the co-pilot's seat! Just dial 100—300—500!!!"

As soon as the words left her mouth, the encroaching aura of death finally halted.

She let out a long sigh of relief, only to see Yan Jing's punchable expression.

"I don't believe you."

"Bang!!!"

Several minutes later, as Yan Jing dialed the correct number, a voice sounded from the other end.

And a few minutes after that, a pillar of light erupted from the Train, piercing straight into the sky.

...

...

At this moment, on another Train.

Yan Jing's main body slowly materialized.

Upon reaching such a tier, the barrier between the Inner World and the Surface World was something he could easily cross. Although there was a risk of getting lost in a Space Rift, with Xiao Xin around, there wasn't much to worry about.

With his Mao Si persona having cleared the way, the process went much more smoothly this time.

The public Demigod of this time Train was already dead.

The man had been slain by Yan Jing back in Old Sin City.

Now, the one calling the shots was that youngest deputy Train Conductor, Tang Chi.

He was also the same person who had been jointly defeated by the Old Man and Tiger in Old Sin City.

Yan Jing found Tang Chi with familiar ease and got the phone number.

Then, he slowly dialed it.

Soon, a familiar voice echoed from the other side.

"You've come."

"I'm here. You promised me that if I came to find you on the Train, you would give me the Divine Throne."

Yan Jing wore a faint smile.

...

...

Minhu.

Three figures walked together, soon arriving at a town.

At first glance, there was nothing unusual about the town. But upon closer inspection, one would notice that it seemed to be slowly spinning.

Paima Town.

The name meant:

Cannot Catch Up Even By Whipping the Horse.

"We're back."

The group walked through the front gate. The Old Man wiped imaginary sweat from his forehead.

"Young Master, I'll go tidy up the house."

"Mm."

Yan Jing nodded.

"Xiao Yu, your young master wants to have some Jade and White Marble Soup tonight."

"Sure."

Fei Yu nodded.

"Just that? We finally made it back, don't you want to eat something else?"

Yan Jing leaned back in his recliner and shook his head, a smile in his eyes and a relaxed expression on his face.

"What does a little girl like you know? Jade and White Marble Soup is the greatest delicacy in the world."

"I see..."

Fei Yu nodded in understanding.

"Forget it then. I was originally planning to make braised pork knuckles and spare ribs tonight, but since you feel that way, never mind."

Yan Jing opened his eyes, the corner of his mouth twitching.

Seeing Fei Yu heading toward the door, he opened his mouth and finally relented:

"Buy the pork knuckles and spare ribs too! Our family is rich now!"

"Alright, got it."

Fei Yu let out a soft chuckle as her figure vanished through the doorway.

That night, the three of them sat around a table, eating and chatting.

"If you ask me, we should attack West Lake Prefecture first!"

The Old Man spoke up, pointing a slightly greasy finger at the map of the Twelve Lake Prefectures spread across the table.

"First, we need to create a clever pretext. If we attack West Lake Prefecture, the people in East Lake Prefecture will be thrilled. That way, when we finally go after East Lake Prefecture later, we won't get drowned in everyone's spit."

"You still care about that at a time like this?"

Fei Yu disagreed, pressing her pale, slender finger onto a location in East Lake Prefecture.

"We should hit East Lake Prefecture. They have a lot of power and vast territory. Even though West Lake Prefecture only has two main cities, both are core strongholds. East Lake Prefecture losing one city definitely won't cause too massive a ripple, and then we can take the opportunity to gut West Lake Prefecture."

"That's definitely the better way."

As she spoke, she slurped down a huge mouthful of noodles, her cheeks bulging.

"Hey now, Xiao Yu, I gotta say, you're great at cooking, but you don't know a thing about fighting a war. We need the hearts of the people! Do you understand what the hearts of the people means?"

The Old Man retorted.

"What hearts of the people? This is Minhu! Nobody cares who's sitting over their heads. You're hilarious..."

"That's exactly why I said you don't understand, Xiao Yu..."

Listening to the two of them bicker, Yan Jing slowly ate his pork knuckles and ribs, a smile lingering in his eyes.

If the three of them wanted to, he wouldn't even need to lift a finger. The Old Man alone could slaughter his way straight into East Lake Prefecture.

If that rarely-seen prefectural governor of East Lake Prefecture hadn't advanced to the Tenth Tier, the Old Man could probably punch his head clean off with a single blow.

And even if the governor had reached the Tenth Tier, it would just mean fighting a little bit longer.

But they didn't do that.

All three of them tacitly avoided bringing it up.

It was as if they were still underdogs, as if taking over Minhu was a monumental task that required careful, step-by-step planning, and as if a single misstep would ruin everything.

There were some things in life that, once missed, would never come around again.

If the three of them simply marched up and conquered West Lake Prefecture and East Lake Prefecture, they would never again be able to argue like this, or feel the hot-blooded thrill they were currently imagining.

Both the Old Man and Fei Yu were using their own special ways to preserve these memories that technically shouldn't even exist.

Two days later.

The trio "conquered every obstacle," "cut through thorns and thistles," broke through "layer upon layer of difficulties," and finally stood before the grand gates of East Lake Prefecture.

The Old Man crossed his arms, Yan Jing waved a feather fan he'd picked up from god knows where, and Fei Yu stood with her hands on her hips.

The three of them roared with laughter at the gates, utterly carefree and delighted.

Perhaps in some other timeline, this was genuinely how they arrived here.

Yan Jing chuckled at the thought. Looking at the two people beside him, he firmly believed that no matter the timeline, as long as the three of them made it here, it would always be in exactly this manner.

"Open the gates!!!"

He folded his fan and shouted with a laugh.

With a single shout, he blew open the Heavenly Gate of this realm.

With a single punch, he shattered the long river of this era.

That once incomparably arrogant deputy governor couldn't even take a single punch from the Old Man before he was hammered into half-paralysis.

A few minutes later, a pillar of light erupted into the sky.

Within that pillar of light, it looked as though the lights of ten thousand homes were shining, and as if a myriad of arts were flashing within.

...

...

"Yiya, yiya~~~"

Xiao Xin's voice floated down from above.

"Zhu Leng, why are you looking at your watch again?"

She flew lower, hovering close to Yan Jing.

"Are we running out of time?"

Yan Jing glanced at the watch on his wrist. He had forgotten which poor bastard he'd looted it from, but it was incredibly practical and could tell the time in many extreme conditions.

Calculating the time, there was less than a day left before Advent Day began.

"We are."

Yan Jing nodded.

"We need to hurry."

"Okay!!!"

Hearing this, a hint of nervousness appeared on Xiao Xin's face. She nodded repeatedly and sped up.

"It's in this direction, Zhu Leng. Xiao Xin wouldn't sense it wrong."

After Yan Jing's tier reached the Demigod Realm, Xiao Xin's abilities had also broken through to a new height. Now, not only was her traversal ability strengthened, but her locating, searching, and teleportation skills had all taken a qualitative leap.

"It's fine. Don't rush."

Yan Jing looked around. The two of them were currently flanked by pitch-black rock walls. The path they were on was so narrow that it was slightly difficult for even Yan Jing to walk through alone.

This was a rift.

It stretched across the northeastern part of the Heavenly Kingdom. It was exceptionally long—at least several li.

However, its widest point was exactly where Yan Jing and Xiao Xin currently stood.

They were situated in the upper half of the entire rift, which was only about a chi wide, sloping downward into bottomless depths.

As he walked, Yan Jing felt a sense of wrongness.

The surrounding space felt significantly more compressed. He didn't mean the physical space of the rift, but rather the stability of Space itself.

He flicked his fingertips, tearing open a Space Rift in the air. The rift lingered for about five seconds before mending itself, confirming his suspicions.

Under normal circumstances, a rift he casually opened would exist for at least a dozen seconds.

The space here wasn't right. He quickly made his judgment and immediately called Xiao Xin back to his side.

"Stay by my side. Don't run off."

Yan Jing instructed softly.

Xiao Xin nodded and obediently plopped down on Yan Jing's head, pointing the way for him.

Yan Jing walked a little further before coming to another halt.

He couldn't go any further.

Even a Deity had been trapped down there; he didn't think he was stronger than a Deity just yet.

He raised his hand, Weird Energy surging in his palm. A split second later, a figure identical to him materialized.

Painting; Spirit, stacked with the Fear Stance First State, stacked with Peerless, stacked with the Myriad Arts Divine Throne, stacked with the Folly Divine Throne.

Soon, the brand-new Yan Jing continued descending into the rift.

As he ventured deeper, a wave of scorching heat washed over him. Although heat like this posed virtually no threat to him...

The mere fact that he could feel the heat at all was enough to prove there was a problem.

The temperature was likely in the thousands of degrees.

Yan Jing's "clone," completely unaware that it was a clone, made what it felt was the safest choice.

It conjured a Fear Seed in its palm and dropped it onto the ground.

Then, the seed began to take root and sprout on its own, surging downward.

But... this was only the beginning.

Right now, Yan Jing's Fear Seeds were limitless.

Therefore.

One, two, ten, a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand...

Countless Fear Seeds grew wildly within the narrow tunnel.

When the quantity reached an absolute extreme, it triggered a qualitative change.

If someone were to look down at this rift from above right now, they would be shocked to discover that the rift was actually slowly widening.