Chapter 1017 - Viral Maggots

The invasion had turned into a one-sided slaughter of the enemy. This was obviously not a situation that warranted Han Wu revealing his full power. Instead, he quietly contacted the Origin of Mutation and prepared something nastier: the Viral Maggots.

He had been cultivating them for a while now, and in the chaos of battle, these parasites were easily planted into enemy units without detection. The infected showed no symptoms in the early stages.

When the thirty invaders realized the strength of Han Wu’s divine realm, they started to retreat with their surviving forces. Han Wu wasn’t about to let them off so easily. While he couldn’t stop all of them, it was easy enough to launch a counter-invasion against a dozen invaders at once.

He activated Avatar Creation and split into ten copies, each leading a group of elite units through the still-open gates to invade the enemy’s divine realms.

The smartest response was to sever the invaded section of their divine realm and cut Han Wu off. A few enemies did exactly that, forcing his avatars to return empty-handed and frustrated.

Others, however, saw Han Wu’s small invading force and thought they could handle him on their home turf, so they rallied every unit in their divine realm for a counterattack.

They had badly underestimated Han Wu’s units. Earthsunder, Heavenrender, and even Microcosm rank fighters poured out at his command. These overconfident Major Gods couldn’t sever their realms fast enough.

By the time they tried, Han Wu’s forces had spread across more than half their territory. Severing away the invaded parts at that point would mean losing most of their realm. They were left with no choice but to throw everything they had at pushing Han Wu out.

It didn’t work.

Han Wu destroyed six Major Gods’ divine realm Cores and killed those who couldn’t escape in time. The Life Faction lost six powerful commanders in a single day.

That was only the beginning. Once news of this spread through the Life Faction, no one dared invade his divine realm again. The risk was simply too high. One wrong move and they could lose everything, including their lives.

Bored, Han Wu exited his divine realm, grumbling that the Life Faction didn’t have a single worthy opponent below God King rank. God Kings were forbidden from invading the divine realm of anyone below their rank thanks to the protection of the Divine Civilization. If they could, chaos would’ve long erupted across the civilization.

This back-and-forth continued for three days, with both sides suffering losses. On the third day, the Origin of Mutation sent a report. Three days was the Viral Maggot’s incubation period. At this point, the parasites would be entering their next phase, hijacking their hosts and driving them into a frenzy. The affected would attack and even kill their own allies.

The already chaotic battlefield descended into complete madness. As the infection spread, nearly all the Life Faction’s units started turning on each other. Casualties from internal fighting dwarfed those from the actual invasion.

The Life God King had no choice but to join forces with the other God Kings in his faction and use the power of their combined Jurisdictions to temporarily suppress the Viral Maggots’ influence.

However, another nasty surprise awaited them. When suppressed in this way, the Viral Maggots stopped inciting violence and instead absorbed their hosts’ nutrients to reproduce at a furious rate. These new parasites could spread through the air, fluid exchange, and physical contact.

It only took ten more days for the Viral Maggots to debilitate over seventy percent of the Life Faction’s units. The remaining thirty percent were strictly quarantined, safe from the infection, but their morale was in shambles. They refused to fight, fearing they would catch it.

When the Death God King learned the full extent of Han Wu’s handiwork, his scalp went numb. He found himself wishing he had recruited Han Wu two years earlier. The Life Faction would’ve been finished long ago. Still, better late than never.

The combined pressure from divine realm invasions and infections caused the Life Faction’s forces to collapse across every front. The Death Faction seized massive territory. Soon, the Life Faction held a measly ten percent of the battlefield, with the Death Faction holding the other ninety.

Sun Qingnian broadcast the news across the Divine Civilization. All the observers concluded that the Life Faction was done for. Allied factions cut ties overnight, and the Life Faction’s resource supply chains crumbled. If things continued, they would lose even the battle of attrition.

Faced with this crisis, the Life God King convened a meeting with the War God King and other leadership. They eventually came to a decision that went against every faction member’s interest. Since they couldn’t tell which units carried Viral Maggots, the Life God King ordered every Major God to treat all existing units as carriers and execute them.

Every Life Faction Major God lost their entire army, becoming generals without soldiers. How were they supposed to fight a divine war with no units?

The Life God King and War God King had an answer. The Nine-Eyed Evil God’s new Huang Shengjun legion descended onto the battlefield. This time, they numbered 15.3 billion, fifteen times the previous force.

This was the Life Faction’s trump card.