Chapter 642: Forcing a Retreat

"You really did it, Amo!"

After the battle ended, Anthony immediately returned to the top floor of the magic tower in Destiny Township. His expression was one of utter disbelief, his tone incredulous.

"I really wonder if I'm dreaming. You actually forced back three Truth God-Kings!"

"They underestimated me too much."

Li Mochen himself felt a bit dazed, but much less so than Anthony. He knew that what he now possessed and experienced was the result of years of painstaking effort.

"If those three had made up their minds and used all the power at their disposal, truly going all out, then I wouldn't have had much room to struggle. Abandoning the divine kingdom would have been the only option."

But the situation was different now. At the moment he forced back Odin and the others, Li Mochen would gain the power to truly contend with them.

Whether in personal combat strength or overall military force, Li Mochen was now fully on par with these three.

He no longer had to feel uneasy about possessing the 'Wishing Tower.' Of course, Li Mochen wouldn't deliberately expose this matter. But even if those god-kings learned of it, he would no longer be powerless to resist.

From the perspective of mere survival, he had already achieved partial victory. Thus, Li Mochen's mood was exceptionally light.

"No matter what, a win is a win!"

Anthony looked sideways at Li Mochen: "Can we finally have some peace for a while?"

He had also been terrified by Li Mochen's frequent major actions lately; this ally of his was simply too restless.

"Peace? I'd like that too. If I could settle down for another eight or ten years, I should be able to truly confront Zeus, Odin, and the others head-on in the outer realms. But if they don't intend to give me peace, that's fine too. It'll just be a protracted divine war. At least at the top level of combat power, you don't need to worry too much, right? They won't be able to finish us off in a year or two."

Li Mochen shrugged: "As a qualified arms dealer, you should be excited about this, Anthony!"

At that moment, he suddenly paused and looked into the distant sky.

He saw Odin's 'Gungnir Spear' and Ahura's 'Holy Spear of Light,' but their targets were not the Destiny Divine Kingdom; they were aimed in two other directions.

"They're targeting Gaia and the Lord of Light!"

Fenrir flew back to his side and transformed back into the image of a middle-aged man: "Since they can't eliminate you in a short time, they won't allow those two to continue exerting force in the depths of the Source. That would only diminish their own power."

Then the wolf demon looked Li Mochen up and down with a strange gaze, as if seeing him for the first time: "I have to say, you're stronger than I imagined. That caught me a bit off guard. It's good; I can stay under your banner a while longer."

Li Mochen chuckled: "If one day you want to leave this pantheon, you can challenge me anytime."

Then he withdrew his gaze from Gaia and the Lord of Light: "In any case, let's just sit back and watch. This war among the gods over the Source won't end anytime soon, everyone."

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Less than three hours after the battle ended, the gains from Li Mochen's risky venture began to roll in. Over the next three days, the number of subordinate gods under his command explosively grew to over 170. Although the vast majority were gods of mountains, rivers, and lakes from various regions, there were also those like Green, the god of fairy tales and legends, who possessed both high status and formidable combat power.

Crucially, the number of divine armies under his command saw explosive growth. Previously, the First and Second 'Divine Will Warrior Legions' had struggled to reach full strength. Now, Bismarck was already organizing the Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Legions, as well as reserve legions, an Ocean Legion, and an Underworld Legion. He also appropriately increased the establishment of the First and Second Legions to 1.5 times their previous size. Their combat effectiveness was benchmarked against the Lord of Light's angelic legions, not just in numbers.

There was no longer any concern about manpower. Not only were the newly joined gods willingly offering up their warriors, but the old-timers also contributed more troops, regarding it as an honor.

The only thing Bismarck had to do was to organize these armies as quickly as possible and then procure their equipment and war materials.

Li Mochen no longer had to compromise with various parties over the selection of legion commanders. He directly appointed the 'Eternal Angel' Atlas, the 'Guardian Angel' Achilles, the 'Angel of Strength' Fenrir, and the 'Earth Angel' Moon Rabbit as the leaders of the four 'Divine Will Warrior Legions,' each assisted by one or two deities with the divine duty of modern warfare.

As Li Mochen's influence and control over the pantheon and its gods increased, the combat effectiveness of the six 'Divine Will Warrior Legions' also grew significantly.

At least in terms of military orders, no one would deliberately disobey, and their ability to sustain casualties greatly improved.

According to Guderian, he now felt from the troops under his command a sense of 'commanding with ease and strict obedience,' which was what a real army should be.

Now, at least on the surface, the Destiny Pantheon possessed power comparable to other pantheons.

But Li Mochen was clear-headed, knowing this was only a paper comparison of strength. His foundation still lagged behind these pantheons. Once the six 'Divine Will Warrior Legions' suffered large-scale casualties and attrition, it would be difficult for Li Mochen to quickly restore their combat effectiveness.

However, time was on his side. Although Li Mochen's own number of believers was currently less than 2.7 billion, if all the gods under his command were included, the total number of believers of the entire Destiny Pantheon worldwide exceeded 8.2 billion, second only to the faith of the Lord of Light.

It was estimated that in just a few more years, these six 'Divine Will Warrior Legions' would have sufficient reserves and considerable war potential.

So after this, Li Mochen decisively had Bismarck step forward to formally sign the 'Joint Defense Treaty' with the Eastern Ancient Kingdom. If the outer realm gods took any unfavorable action against this world, the six 'Heavenly Court Legions' belonging to the Eastern Ancient Kingdom would also fight under his command. Of course, they would retain independent command.

Li Mochen was very grateful to them. When he was besieged by Odin, Nyx, and the others, only that Eastern Ancient Kingdom and its Heavenly Court Pantheon moved their 'Heavenly Court Legions,' which had not yet fully recovered their strength, closer to Li Mochen's Destiny Divine Kingdom. This effectively checked the Asa Divine Clan's army, causing Odin to abandon the idea of a full-scale invasion of Li Mochen's Destiny Divine Kingdom.

Moreover, the containment from the Eastern power was one of the main factors in Li Mochen's successful retreat of the three Truth God-Kings.

As for the Source, Gaia ultimately secured about 42% of the share in the Source, making her still the closest being to a God Above Gods in this world. According to their agreement, Li Mochen could share 30% of that, which was 12.6%.

This already surpassed Odin and Ahura. The former had invested an entire world, and the latter had contributed the cores of two medium-sized worlds. Yet their authority in the depths of the Source was only about 9% and 8%, respectively.

Then Nyx had 6%, Zeus had 7%, and the Lord of Light and Mother Isis jointly controlled the remaining 28%.

Additionally, the World Essences held by each god-king could also slightly influence the Source.

In the month following that war, Li Mochen had been studying how to use the power of the World Core to enhance his divine authority and spell power.

Previously, his application was very clumsy. Although Gaia had taught him how to do it, even speaking exhaustively about how to use the Source, Li Mochen couldn't wield the power of the World Core with ease in a short time. Unfortunately, Gaia's remaining time was limited, and the battle with the god-kings was imminent.

Fortunately, Li Mochen had pulled through, and the following month was enough for him to truly master this power and gain more knowledge from the World Core.

Beyond that, Li Mochen was also rapidly converting the gains of these days into real strength.

The 'Wish Stones' obtained from the British Pantheon and the Itzamna Divine Kingdom were immediately distributed. This would significantly boost the overall strength of many of his subordinates, such as Conshilir, Paracelsus, Jennifer, and Robespierre, at least to the level of high gods.

Then, a total of eleven drops of 'Source Blood' were used in the refinement of the 'Star Sword Array.'

Originally, Li Mochen had used the discarded blanks of thirty-six Thunderfire Spears as the main swords, and then separately forged four more as spares.

But now, Li Mochen planned to select materials and recast five swords, strengthening them with 'Source Blood' to serve as the foundation of the entire sword array.

These five true main swords would make the future Star Sword Array more complete, rather than a compromise forced by the Thunderfire Spears.

Additionally, based on the many mythological materials obtained from the Itzamna Divine Kingdom, Li Mochen formulated a comprehensive artifact-forging plan.

In the next few years, he would have to reforge the 'Skull of Itzamna' to make it more suitable for Robert; forge two mythological artifacts for Hayer and Longmai that were not inferior to the 'Shield of Typhon'; and also refine at least ten mythological items.

Unfortunately, there was only one Anthony, and he was already stretched thin. He and his subordinate gods had their forging schedules booked decades in advance.

Fortunately, thanks to the development of modern technology, alchemy had undergone tremendous changes.

For instance, the forging furnace alone was vastly different from ancient times. Li Mochen's 'Secret Star Core Divine Furnace' could reach a core temperature of over 120 million degrees at its limit. It could also greatly enhance the alchemist's ability to observe at the microscopic level, even allowing matter inside the furnace to be reconstituted at the particle level. Unlike ancient times, when various natural conditions had to be used to forge artifacts, and the creation of any mythological artifact took an extremely long time.

It was estimated that within ten years at most, Li Mochen would use these newly forged mythological artifacts to elevate the overall strength and foundation of the Destiny Pantheon by a significant margin.

And while Li Mochen buried himself in the magic tower of Destiny Township, wholeheartedly focused on improving his personal power and the overall strength of the Destiny Pantheon, the entire Bright World underwent tremendous changes as he had predicted.

After the Source War, in less than seven days, the army of the 'Beast World,' carrying a large number of exotic beasts, invaded the Bright World through the connection points between the two worlds.

Then, within the next half month, the two Mist Continents of Antolia and Bolivia in the southern end of the world were swept by the Beast World's army, covering nearly half of each continent.

A total of 149 colonies on these two continents, along with their resources, fell into Odin's control.

This had little impact on Li Mochen. Among the gods under his command, apart from the God of Adventure and Mercenaries, who had some believers in the southern ends of the two continents, there was little interest in the south.

Moreover, before and after the great earthquake, the hunting groups and residents of the two continents had mostly withdrawn to the northern ends of the continents or left directly. The buildings there had mostly collapsed, and millions of square kilometers were desolate and uninhabited.

Nevertheless, Li Mochen still paid close attention, constantly observing the movements of these visitors from the Beast World. And at this time, he had a reliable source of information to rely on.

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"The intelligent beings of the Beast World can also be called humans. They are not much different from the people of our world. In fact, we can be said to share the same ancestors. According to the mages and experts, our genes, like those of dragons, originate from a certain kind of star beast. At the time of the world's creation, the power of these star beasts was reflected in the core of the Bright World, leaving behind their genetic information."

"I can attest to that."

Robespierre interjected here: "The CIA, FBI, Homeland Security, and other agencies of the Federation have compared the genomes of humans from the two worlds and found that the similarity exceeds 99%, and there is no reproductive isolation. In fact, dragons, phoenixes, magic serpents, and other powerful mythological beings all originated from this. They were initially mixed together, and only after several reproductions did they split, like Fenrir and Jormungandr, or Typhon and the hundred monsters he sired. The situation in the Beast World is similar, so humans and various beasts even share the same ancestors—"

"That is irrelevant to today's topic, Mr. Robespierre."

The God of Intelligence, Reinhard Heydrich, coughed lightly, interrupting Robespierre: "Your Majesty, the humans there call themselves the 'Great Ape Clan.' They rose to prominence less than 1,700 years ago and still consider themselves part of the hundred beasts. Their social structure is similar to that of the earliest Viking tribes 2,800 years ago. They are primarily tribal, united under the 'Ten Thousand Beasts Empire,' with a population of about 200 million. However, this empire is more like a loose alliance bound by religion. It cannot be compared to the 'Black Demon Empire' of the American dark world. Their priests hold great authority within the tribes, and these priests all obey Odin and the gods under him."

"They generally form contracts with three to five wild beasts, regarding them as family, and practice martial arts and strengthen their bodies according to the methods bestowed by Odin and the gods. The methods are similar to those of magic professionals in this world, but more aggressive and ferocious. It's also similar to the Vikings. You should know that in those Viking tribes, most people didn't live past forty. Correspondingly, if they manage to cross the threshold of Legend, which they call 'Evolution,' these individuals become exceptionally powerful. They call this threshold 'Evolution'; once crossed, they become 'Holy Domain Great Warriors' or 'Holy Domain Great Priests,' with lifespans increased tenfold or more. I estimate their number likely exceeds 60,000."

"Sixty thousand?"

The gods gathered here to hear the intelligence were all in an uproar, everyone looking at each other in shock.

It should be noted that a 'Divine Will Warrior Legion' or 'Angel Legion' currently had only 6,000 to 8,000 Legend-level beings. The number in the 'Ten Thousand Beasts Empire' was more than ten times that of a single 'Divine Will Warrior Legion'!

Relative to the Beast World's population of about 200 million, this was even more astonishing.