Even so, it did nothing to diminish Lei Mo's status as a Level Nine. The Divine Wind Bear was the fastest among Level Nine Magical Beasts, and even when facing Level Nine flying beasts, it had nothing to fear.
It could even flee for its life from a Saint Realm expert who wasn't skilled in speed!
In the martial arts world, speed was the ultimate defense. They didn't have that saying here, but everyone understood the principle!
Not only that, but great speed also meant a much better chance of staying alive.
Most people got along with Lei Mo on the principle of not offending him if they could help it.
After the Lombardy Alliance's decapitation plan failed, they seemed to have abandoned the strategy that Lei Mo had thought so clever. They were preparing to fight him head-on.
Marshal Mengba was on his guard now, and the so-called decapitation plan would be hard to pull off. He stopped having fixed places to work and rest.
Instead, he sought out messengers himself to deliver his orders. That had plenty of drawbacks, but there was no other way. The Magic Mage Corps was too hard to deal with, and no one knew if there would be another assassination attempt.
As the fighting on the front lines progressed, the clashes gradually grew in scale. Both sides had more or less finished probing each other.
Lei Mo followed the central army's guard unit, protecting the marshal's banner as they slowly advanced to the very front of the standoff.
The Seti Alliance's banners blotted out the sky, its dense ranks stretching for dozens of miles. A blood-red standard spread high above them atop a giant wooden flagpole, visible from a hundred miles away!
The army's formation was dominated by blood-red banners, which suited Lei Mo's tastes.
The Lombardy Alliance deployed an army of well over a million. There were countless blue-green banners, dyeing the boundless ranks the color of the sea.
This sea formed by the army's ranks surged like waves, crashing again and again. It looked as if it could sweep away reefs and drown islands at any moment!
The Seti Alliance's vanguard stood like giant pillars of stone in a great river. No matter how fiercely the waves crashed against them, they remained unmoved!
That was how it was supposed to be, but the vanguard's casualties were heavy. Lei Mo was ready to rush out and support them at any moment.
Before long, Lei Mo finally received the order for the central army to advance.
Riding the Divine Wind Bear, he charged to the very front of the central army like a flood bursting through a breached dam.
The two Totem Pillars, each over three meters long, were a laughingstock among the Bloodhoof Tribe. But to humans, they were already long-handled weapons.
With Lei Mo's own two-meter height, one swing to the left shattered three or five heads. One smash to the right killed both a cavalryman and his mount.
Ever since learning about Franklin's ability, Lei Mo had grown even more eager for slaughter. Now, amid the battlefield, he was like a wolf let loose, darting in every direction!
With the Divine Wind Bear's wind-swift speed and relatively small build, they charged left and right across the battlefield, slipping through every opening.
Lei Mo singled out low-ranking officers. Once he caught up to one, he brought a Totem Pillar down, breaking bones and snapping tendons.
Those "giant" Totem Pillars killed whatever they struck and slew whatever they grazed.
The more he killed, the fewer Seti soldiers remained around him. Lei Mo had become numb to it all, and without realizing it, he had fought his way into the Lombardy Alliance's central command.
Lei Mo had no idea what was happening. Anyone whose uniform wasn't from his own side got a Totem Pillar to the head. Gradually, the Lombardy Alliance's troops surrounded him in the middle of the battlefield.
At first, Marshal Mengba didn't pay him any mind. With the Divine Wind Bear, Lei Mo could flee if he couldn't win. Other than a Saint Realm expert, no one could keep him there!
And Saint Realm experts generally didn't join large-scale wars. Their attacks were simply too destructive. If both sides sent out Saint Realm experts, ordinary soldiers wouldn't dare set foot on the battlefield.
Even as he stood surrounded on all sides, Lei Mo still hadn't noticed. The Lombardy Alliance's troops weren't in a hurry. They slowly thickened the encirclement.
By the time Marshal Mengba realized what was happening, Lei Mo was surrounded on all sides by hundreds of thousands of soldiers.
Ordinary reinforcements were useless now. It all came down to Lei Mo and the Divine Wind Bear's speed.
The Divine Wind Bear knew Lei Mo's strength, as well as that talking Totem Pillar's. Its power was terrifying. Even the magic barrier that most Saint Realm experts could barely break through quickly shattered in three hits!
So the Divine Wind Bear wasn't in a hurry to break out. It let the Lombardy Alliance's troops close in layer by layer, creating the situation they were in now.
The Lombardy Alliance's troops thought this Level Nine expert was finished, and even Marshal Mengba of the Seti Alliance thought Lei Mo's chances of survival were slim. Meanwhile, Lei Mo remained lost in the pleasure of slaughter.
Yes, pleasure. Franklin's ability to collect souls was certainly one reason, but Lei Mo was a Tauren with no ancestral instinct to be close to nature.
It was as if some violent gene, lying dormant within him for who knew how long, had awakened. Inside the encirclement, he slaughtered wildly.
At first, the Lombardy Alliance's troops didn't pay much attention. But gradually, even the few Level Eight experts sent to stop Lei Mo from breaking through couldn't withstand a single blow from him. They were starting to get confused!
Judging by the speed and force of his staff technique, this guy had only been Level Eight. They had only called it a siege against a Level Nine expert because of the Divine Wind Bear.
But now, had he broken through to Level Nine? Even a Level Nine couldn't kill a Level Eight with a single blow, could they?
Saint Realm? Impossible!
No matter how deeply the people of the Lombardy Alliance were traumatized, Lei Mo knew nothing about it. He was immersed in the pleasure of slaughter. He had no idea why an Earthling like him had such an enormous thirst for blood.
Slaughter—slaughter! Lei Mo swung the Totem Pillar in his hands like a giant windmill. Anyone touched by the storm of its swings was torn to pieces. Now the Lombardy Alliance's troops were in a bind.
Even the Level Nine experts dared not approach. The Totem Pillar's power had grown so great that ordinary Level Nines could no longer withstand it. Ordinary soldiers were no threat, but they couldn't hinder him at all.
Letting Lei Mo return would deal a heavy blow to morale. Lei Mo had already closed his eyes, and anyone could tell that this was a sign he was about to break through!
If they let Lei Mo break through successfully, they would be strengthening the enemy. The Lombardy Alliance couldn't accept that!
Several high-ranking members of the Lombardy Alliance exchanged glances. In the end, they sent out three Level Nine experts at the peak of their rank: two warriors and one Earth Element Archmage.
Earth Element attacks and defenses were both powerful, and the ability to summon earth elementals would also ensure a safe retreat.
That was the plan, but the power of Lei Mo's whirling Totem Pillars kept growing stronger. Warriors of Levels Five and Six turned into mists of blood as soon as they approached. Not even the sound of colliding bodies could be heard.
With his eyes closed, Lei Mo sensed that the warmth between heaven and earth was growing ever stronger, while the pleasure of slaughter surged within him.
Then Lei Mo felt black motes of energy between heaven and earth rapidly gathering around him. Franklin's emotions in his hands grew more and more joyous, too.
"Crack!" The sound was like an egg breaking. Franklin seemed to have shattered some kind of shackle.
A vast, boundless, ancient, soul-shaking power—or perhaps it should be called the power of Edicts—descended. In the face of this power, Lei Mo felt just how insignificant he was.
"Th-this is... Franklin is about to become a god?"
Lei Mo snapped out of his epiphany. He ignored the army surrounding him, and the Heaven and Earth Rules did not expel him.
"Choose a Godhead and achieve External Godhood! Every Divine Clone is another life!"
Lei Mo hurriedly spoke, afraid Franklin might not know. It seemed he had never actually told him.
"I can't choose, Master!" Franklin sounded aggrieved!
A strange fluctuation sank into Franklin's body, seeing through his soul.
A towering purple pillar, covered in Runes, seemed to have existed since time immemorial.
It had no end. It stood there in Franklin's Soul Ocean.
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