Everyone came to an open space outside the camp. Immortal Jiuhua casually tossed a piece of wood that had been only a few inches long. It swelled in the wind, and in an instant, a wooden pillar nearly a hundred zhang tall stood where it had landed.
"Fellow Daoists, feel free to take a swing!" Immortal Jiuhua said with a smile.
Everyone looked at one another. Just as someone was about to step forward, eager to try, a burst of wild laughter suddenly rang out from behind the crowd.
"Ha ha ha! Since no one's willing to step up, I, God Mountain, will go first!" As his laughter rang out, the burly man with a towering mountain tattooed across his body shoved his way through the crowd and strode forward.
"God Mountain wants to go first?"
"Fellow Daoist God Mountain is going first?"
"This..."
At the sight of the burly man, some of the Loose Immortals who had been eager to try a moment earlier immediately retreated.
As it happened, those Loose Immortals who backed away had all been assigned to the same army as the burly man known as God Mountain when Immortal Jiuhua divided everyone into three forces.
"Fellow Daoist Jiuhua, let me see just how hard this wooden pillar of yours is!" the burly man laughed. Then a massive axe, considerably taller than he was, suddenly appeared in his hand.
"Hah!"
God Mountain gave a low shout. The towering mountain patterns across his body lit up, and in an instant, his form swelled to nearly a thousand zhang tall.
"Split!"
God Mountain gripped the axe in both hands, bellowed, and brought it down with a mighty swing.
Boom!
In an instant, the axe crashed into the wooden pillar.
Strands of golden light held the pillar up from below. When the axe fell, the pillar didn't budge; only a mark seven or eight inches deep appeared right at its top.
Against a wooden pillar a hundred zhang tall, a mark seven or eight inches deep was nothing—or, one could say, it was practically negligible. Still, no one doubted the might of God Mountain's strike. The shock waves from the axe colliding with the pillar alone had made some of the nearby Loose Immortals watching turn pale.
After taking a long, hard look at the wooden pillar, God Mountain put away his axe and blurred, returning to his normal size.
"Fellow Daoist Jiuhua, this wooden pillar of yours is indeed sturdy. God Mountain is impressed!" The burly man clasped his hands.
"Fellow Daoist God Mountain, your strength is astonishing. I'm afraid you'll have to lead your force!" Immortal Jiuhua said with a smile.
"Fellow Daoist Jiuhua, you flatter me! It's far too early to say that!"
God Mountain spoke modestly, but from his expression and bearing, he seemed to agree with Immortal Jiuhua.
Ju Hua watched from a distance, a hint of astonishment appearing on his face.
The commanders of the various clans present were, for the most part, Loose Immortals. But God Mountain clearly followed the God-Fiend Path, and he had already reached the level of a Void-Return Fiendgod!
Of course, despite the name, God Mountain was still far weaker than the Void-Return Fiendgods in Autumn Mountain Great Marsh. When humans followed the God-Fiend Path, all but those who cultivated the very best body-refining techniques were inferior to the primordial Fiends and Gods born of Heaven and Earth at the same level.
The reason was simple: the Fiendgod bodies produced by ordinary body-refining techniques weren't perfect, and always had this flaw or that. With flaws came weaker strength.
The very best body-refining techniques, however, were incredibly powerful—and incredibly difficult to master. Take the Crimsonbright Diagram of the Nine Heavens that Ju Hua was currently cultivating, for example. According to the Desolate Era, Ju Hua lived for several million years, yet his God-Fiend Path cultivation never advanced beyond the level of a Primordial Spirit Fiendgod! That alone showed just how difficult these supreme body-refining techniques were.
Of course, God Mountain might not match the Fiends and Gods born of Heaven and Earth, but he was still a Void-Return Fiendgod. In the Three Realms, the God-Fiend Path had outclassed the Qi Refinement Path from the very beginning, and the higher the level, the more pronounced the gap. At the level of Void-Return Fiendgods, ordinary Loose Immortals and Earth Immortals simply couldn't stand a chance against them.
If their body-refining technique was even a little more advanced, then even top Loose Immortals would be utterly crushed!
The technique God Mountain cultivated might not be one of the supreme body-refining techniques, but it was certainly quite advanced.
Judging by the might of the axe strike God Mountain had just unleashed, his strength had likely far surpassed that of the top Loose Immortals present.
Although God Mountain was a Void-Return Fiendgod, there was nothing strange about his being here.
For a war like this, the great clans naturally wouldn't send Earth Immortals of the Void Return. Even if their chances were slim, an Earth Immortal still had a chance of surviving the tribulation. The great clans wouldn't send any Earth Immortal to their death; Loose Immortals were enough for the war!
As for God Mountain, although he hadn't yet undergone the Celestial Tribulation, an ordinary Void-Return Fiendgod making it through the Celestial God Tribulation was practically a dream.
True Gods were on a completely different level, fully comparable to True Immortals. If the Celestial Immortal Tribulation was nine deaths and one life, then the Celestial God Tribulation was practically ten deaths and no life. Since the Great Xia World first came into being, no one in the Human Race had ever been known to successfully overcome the Celestial God Tribulation.
So, in reality, Void-Return Fiendgods were more or less on par with Loose Immortals. To the great clans, both Loose Immortals and Void-Return Fiendgods were the kind they could send to the battlefield without caring if they died!
The Loose Immortals assigned to God Mountain's force who already knew his strength had given up on competing from the start. Those who hadn't changed their minds earlier lost the desire to step forward after seeing the terrifying power of his strike. After all, anyone who wasn't blind could see that God Mountain's strength had far exceeded the limits of even top Loose Immortals. If they stepped forward now, they would only be playing the part of his foil!
In the earlier division, God Mountain had been assigned to the same force as the Heishen Clan, the Shaoyan Clan, and the other great clans. Thus, after God Mountain, nearly all the Loose Immortals who took their turn came from the other force, and the Zhuanshui Clan was among them.
The top Loose Immortals were all roughly equal in strength. The weaker ones left marks three inches deep in the wooden pillar, while the stronger ones managed scars nearly four inches deep.
As more and more people took their turn, the situation gradually became clear.
"It looks like Fellow Daoist Bai Yun will have to lead our force!" someone said with a sigh.
"Indeed. Fellow Daoist Bai Yun left a mark just over four inches deep in the wooden pillar. Even among us top Loose Immortals, that puts him among the strongest. He's still a little behind Fellow Daoist God Mountain, but he's a cut above the rest of us!"
"Mm. Fellow Daoist Bai Yun is powerful, and he comes from the top great clan, the Baiji Clan. We'll gladly accept him as our leader!"
Quite a few Loose Immortals exchanged messages, and gradually, they reached a consensus.
However, just then, Immortal Jiuhua, who had been smiling without saying a word, suddenly turned around and called out with a hearty laugh, "Fellow Daoist Ju Hua, why not come down and give it a try?"