War Erupts! The Origins of the Three Sects!

At the sight of the Elf Race army blanketing the distance, the dwarves sprang into action.

Donning specially made gloves, they dipped the shells in Resentment Potion, then loaded them into the Cannons and awaited orders.

The Resentment Trebuchets worked on the same principle, except they used ceramic timed bombs filled with Resentment Potion, which automatically exploded ten seconds after launch.

"Positions! Ready! Fire!"

Boom, boom, boom!

Boom, boom, boom!

Ten thousand guns fired in unison. Over ten thousand dwarf Cannons spat tongues of flame, sending shell after shell into the Elf Race army, where they instantly exploded.

The blasts sent elves and mounts tumbling. Acting on instinct, the black panthers beneath them tried to dodge, only to crash into nearby warriors and cause even greater chaos.

There were too many of them, with fellow warriors packed on every side. At a time like this, their only choice was to charge forward without turning back. Anything else was courting death.

Instead of being killed by the enemy, they would be trampled to death by their own people.

Countless shells burst amid the Elf Race army, splashing green liquid onto the warriors of the elf legions.

After a while, something eerie happened. Once their skin absorbed the green liquid, the elf warriors' eyes gradually grew unfocused, then began turning red.

An elf warrior drew the Precious Sword at his waist and suddenly plunged it into a fellow elf beside him.

The victim slowly collapsed to the ground, disbelief in his eyes.

Some black panthers were also splashed with the green liquid and attacked the elves around them.

This eerie phenomenon brought the elf army to the brink of collapse, and they eyed one another nervously.

The battlefield changed in the blink of an eye. For such an eerie atmosphere to arise at this moment was fatal.

The Resentment Trebuchets hurled vast quantities of potion onto the battlefield. Countless elves who touched it developed bloodshot eyes and attacked one another in a mindless frenzy.

The elf army's advance was completely disrupted. The soldiers following behind were almost afraid to move forward, yet the troops crowding behind them forced them onward.

Seeing this, the Elf King immediately ordered the Hippogriff Air Cavalry Regiment to attack, destroy those things, and stop them from firing.

Over ten thousand hippogriffs carried elves toward the Dwarf Race's Cannons.

While still far away, they began gathering magic and drawing their bows, unleashing their full firepower on the Dwarf Race.

Enchanted with wind magic, their arrows could fly great distances. A sky-blotting rain of arrows descended on the Dwarf Race's positions.

"Hold formation! Raise your shields!" the dwarf commander shouted. The dwarves at the front raised thick shields, but countless elven arrows still fell among their positions, cutting down swaths of dwarves.

The hippogriff knights were still too few, and the distance was too great. Their attacks inflicted very limited casualties, though they did cause some confusion.

Only after emptying both quivers on their backs did the elves raise their longswords and charge toward the Cannon positions.

"Raise your guns!" A dwarf took a swig of the strong liquor at his waist and gave a drunken belch, his face flushed red.

Watching the enemy draw closer, the dwarves deftly disengaged their safeties and aimed at the sky.

The anti-aircraft regiment was ready as well. Watching the approaching monsters, they aimed at their targets and awaited orders.

Obeying every command without hesitation was the Human Race's most basic training requirement for them. Every action had to follow orders.

"Fire!"

At their officer's command, they pulled their triggers furiously, sending countless bullets into the sky like raindrops.

"Open fire!"

Dense streams of bullets sealed off the sky. No matter how the hippogriffs dodged, they were still struck.

Their hides were tough, however, and ordinary bullets posed little threat to them. Anti-aircraft shells were another matter entirely.

One shell left a hippogriff blackened all over, with some of its feathers aflame, sending it spiraling down from the sky.

Before long, every hippogriff knight had fallen to the ground. Not a single one escaped.

Members of the Immortal Race were also observing the battle from afar and immediately reported the situation to the elders of the Heaven Sect, Earth Sect, and Immortal Sect.

"A pack of useless fools. It seems our Immortal Race will have to act after all."

"As things stand, the key to this battle is destroying those dwarf weapons, along with that strange potion."

"Go pass down my orders. Have ten Immortal Race squads blend into the elf legions. Once they approach the dwarf positions, they are to strike by surprise and immediately destroy the enemy's weapons."

"Order the elf legions to engage the Dwarf Race in close combat at any cost and create an opening for our Immortal Race. Otherwise, there will be no reason for the Elf Race to remain alive. Remind them of the homes behind them."

"If they achieve nothing in this battle, the Immortal Race will wipe out the entire Wind Elf people. Tell their Elf King directly."

"Send someone to the Heaven and Earth Sects, too. How much longer do they intend to sit back and watch the show?"

"This time, I will grant their wish. We will divide the spirit vein according to contributions. Whoever captures the Star Gate first gets fifty percent, and the other two sects will split the remainder equally. Let us see what objections they have now."

"As you command." The disciples under him immediately flew into the distance with his orders.

Chao Zhu stood with his hands behind his back, gazing into the distance with his head raised, as though he could see the battlefield.

"Human Race?" he murmured.

The Immortal Race lived far longer than other races, and they were born knowing the length of their own lifespans. As their abilities grew, their lifespans increased as well. Chao Zhu, for instance, was already over four thousand years old, but he had reached a bottleneck in his cultivation and had yet to break through.

The reason was simple: the spiritual energy from a miniature spirit vein was insufficient for him to advance to the next grade.

The Immortal Race's cultivation ranks were divided as follows:

The pinnacle of strength in a first-level civilization was foundation establishment first grade.

The upper Immortal Cultivation limit in a second-level civilization was Golden Core Realm first grade.

(Each realm was divided into nine minor grades. For example, someone at foundation establishment first grade could only advance to the Golden Core Realm after reaching ninth grade.)

(The cultivation ranks were: nine grades of Qi Refining, nine grades of Foundation Establishment, and nine grades of Golden Core.)

On Cross Planet, he had been the first to reach Foundation Establishment. Through his careful instruction, he had then raised two more Foundation Establishment cultivators. Only then had the planet's combat power exceeded 10,000 points, meeting the advancement requirements.

He had been stuck at foundation establishment second grade for a thousand years, making no progress in all that time while his lifespan slowly drained away. It was an unpleasant feeling, and he believed the other two fellows felt the same.

He had only advanced to foundation establishment second grade because the birth of a small spirit vein had increased the overall spiritual energy on Cross Planet, allowing him to rise a single minor grade.

To advance from his current grade, he had to cultivate diligently near the small spirit vein. Elsewhere, the spiritual energy was simply insufficient to support advancement. It could barely keep his cultivation from regressing.

The three sides had held one another in check for a thousand years, and none had approached the small spirit vein. If this continued, they would soon be unable to endure it.

Even without this war, their dwindling lifespans would have forced them to negotiate. Whoever spoke first would place himself at a disadvantage and inevitably lose part of his share.

Previously, he had always leaned on his seniority to demand the lion's share. Naturally, the other two sects had refused, leaving them locked in a stalemate.

His reason for wanting the lion's share was simple: the Heaven and Earth Sects had split off from the Immortal Sect, and he had been the first to reach Foundation Establishment.

He had carefully instructed them all along, spending several hundred years raising those two juniors to foundation establishment first grade.

Who could have expected that, after reaching Foundation Establishment, the two juniors would demand equal standing with him?

In the end, left with no other choice, they had begged Father God to separate the three miniature spirit veins. From then on, the three sects stood apart, refusing all contact for the rest of their lives.

Asking the Heaven and Earth Sects to act this time was also a concession. His remaining lifespan truly was shorter than those of the two juniors. If they kept holding out, he would inevitably die first.

Rather than wait until the end, he might as well preserve some dignity. Whoever captured the Star Gate first would take the lion's share. Presumably, no one would object.

Upon receiving the message, the Heaven and Earth Sects smiled knowingly, then ordered their subordinate races to advance toward the Dwarf Race.

"Old bastard. If you had done this sooner, why would we have needed a thousand-year stalemate? I thought you could hold out longer," the Earth Sect's leader snorted.

The Immortal Race had no concept of family bonds or lineages. Chao Zhu had merely been born a few hundred years earlier.

By virtue of those few hundred extra years, he had absorbed more resources from the spirit veins and reached Foundation Establishment first.

Yet he had put on the overbearing airs of an immortal king and started ordering them around. Naturally, the Earth Sect's leader had refused to accept it and talked back. He was the most gifted being of the Immortal Race's new generation!

Who could have known that the old fellow would hold a grudge and deliberately suppress him, forbidding him from sitting closest to the spirit vein? His place had been pushed farther and farther back, and his cultivation progress had grown increasingly slow.

Eventually, the Heaven Sect's leader had broken through. Dissatisfied with Chao Zhu's overbearing attitude, he had demanded equal standing. The two had come to blows, but he had gotten the worse of it.

After all, he had cultivated for three hundred fewer years than Chao Zhu and was weaker. Still, Chao Zhu could not kill him, leaving them able to hold each other in check.

Unwilling to accept this, the Heaven Sect's leader had set his sights on him and begun instructing him carefully. In the end, he had successfully reached Foundation Establishment.

With the two of them joining forces, Chao Zhu, the Immortal Sect's leader, was naturally no match for them.

But the Heaven Sect's leader had behaved the same way, treating him like a lackey and ordering him around, filling him with resentment.

What are you so smug about? If that old bastard Chao Zhu hadn't deliberately suppressed me, I would have been the second to break through. Now you're lording it over me, too?

And so the Immortal Sect had split into three. They had asked Father God to descend and distribute the spirit veins among three far-flung ends of Cross Planet, refusing all contact for the rest of their lives.

That had lasted until the Star War for civilization advancement, when the three sides invaded the opposing planet and ultimately won.

After they advanced to a second-level civilization, a small spirit vein appeared. Each believed that he had contributed the most during the Star War and wanted the lion's share, resulting in a thousand-year stalemate.

Such was the melodramatic saga of the three factions. Though the Immortal Race was born of heaven and earth and had no concept of family affection, they still had emotions of their own.

In the end, they could not escape the temptation of power, which sparked conflict and bred desire.

At the Human Race camp.

The scheme their opponents considered seamless as a heavenly robe naturally could not escape satellite surveillance.

The Immortal Race squads stood out glaringly among the elf legions, looking utterly out of place.

Bai Qi was rather baffled. What brain-dead fool came up with this plan? You don't even look remotely alike!

They looked so awkward on the surveillance feed...

Meanwhile, the other two elf legions in the distance were also advancing toward the Star Gate, with several thousand members of the Immortal Race concealed among them.

Bai Qi knew that the great battle was upon them.