Chapter 2001

"You say we've always taken things away from others...? You're so arrogant for a mortal."

From among the tumultuous cultivators, an old man with a white beard reaching to his ankles flew in and slapped Lauel. He used such little force in the strike that it couldn't even kill a bug, but the impact was still powerful.

Lauel's face was ruined. His skin peeled off, his nose broke, and his cheekbones caved in. The old man snorted. Lauel fell to the ground, covered in blood. The cultivator stepped on him hard enough to break his spine.

"You enjoyed reigning over everything because the world you lived in is so small and insignificant. It must have been easy earning other people's respect in a world where petty mortals fought each other. But don't you have to face reality now? We are cultivators, and we are your enemies. We will kill you all soon. Your proud empire will become nothing but ruins. We can afford to lose the Full Moon Fortresses. As long as the cultivating world is united, we can take over this land with its inconsequential history. Just like this."

The old man mocked Lauel, who was wriggling like a worm beneath his foot. The cultivator moved his fingers and generated a series of yellow, green, and blue lights. The Tomb of the Gods, which had turned into ashes and only the dark deck remained, was now covered with soil where rivers flowed and vegetation grew. A large lake formed between mysterious pine trees, and a rainbow appeared.

It looked like the Peach Blossom Spring where the daoist immortals lived.

The ruined Tomb of the Gods took on a new form thanks to the old man's earth, water, and wood mystical arts. He grinned.

"Now, let me ask you this instead. How does it feel to be robbed of everything?"

The cultivators had been caught off guard, and now all the Full Moon Fortresses were in danger. However, the old man had lived for tens of thousands of years. He knew the difference in power between cultivators and mortals. Right now, that monster, Grid, was gone.

Even if the mortals assembled an army of millions, it would be impossible for them to capture all the Full Moon Fortresses. This was the logical conclusion, not just wishful thinking. Even if another very powerful individual showed up and destroyed all the Full Moon Fortresses, the cultivators could afford to take their time and restore them.

By controlling the Overgeared Empire and enslaving the mortals to collect the required materials, they could build new Full Moon Fortresses in a few hundreds of years.

Other cultivators, who had been appalled by Lauel's confident attitude, were slowly regaining their composure.

"This is reality. You mortals can't change anything with your capabilities. Even if you sacrifice yourselves, your deaths will be meaningless."

The old man stared into Lauel's eyes. He expected his opponent to be afraid at the thought of dying and react viciously seeing the Tomb of the Gods turn into the Peach Blossom Spring.

In fact, Lauel's eyes were twitching. The old man liked seeing him suffer. However, he didn't feel relieved. He had the feeling that something was off.

'...Is he not afraid?'

For a cultivator to improve their cultivation, they needed to gain a lot of knowledge. There was a limit to simply reading the technique books and training by themselves. Thus, the old man had killed a lot of people. Because he'd fought and won against so many others, he had a lot of combat knowledge. Whenever he killed someone, he saw resentment, emptiness, and despair in their eyes.

But there were no emotions in Lauel's eyes. He trembled from pain, but he showed no signs that he feared his imminent death.

There was something Lauel believed in...

The old man noticed this and hurriedly shouted at the other cultivators.

"Hurry up."

Most of the battlefield had been cleared up. More than half the cultivators, especially those with a high realm, left using wind or thunder mystical arts and headed for the Full Moon Fortresses, which were currently under attack.

"It isn't like we didn't leave cultivators on stand-by at the fortresses... Many of them will succeed in defending their respective Full Moon Fortresses," the old man said as he stared into Lauel's eyes.

However, Lauel's eyes were still emotionless. The old man tilted his head, recalling something.

"...Speaking of which, I heard that you will come back to life even if you die. But you will suffer a huge setback if you die, isn't that right?"

Cultivators weren't that surprised that some of their enemies had the ability to come back to life. They were familiar with the concept. As long as their nascent soul escaped safely, a cultivator could be revived even if their body was torn to pieces. They could cheat death using the skills they had learned. They would be reborn as a jiangshi if they lost their nascent soul, which was the worst case scenario.

This meant that they weren't jealous of the players' resurrection system, because they knew that the players got penalized greatly if they died. This was why the old man didn't understand Lauel's behavior, who was calm even though the end was near.

"You are becoming more talkative... How... anxious are you...?" Lauel asked in a cracked voice. Every time he opened his mouth, blood and viscera spilled out. Still, he didn't care.

Lauel was a pretty toxic guy. The old man had never seen someone so calm despite having his spine broken.

Tsk. The old man clicked his tongue and turned away from Lauel. He didn't bother killing him. He wanted Lauel to suffer for as long as possible.

The old man examined the two hundred or so cultivators who were still there and realized he was the only great ascension cultivator left. He ordered them, "Find a way to move this dark land."

"Yes, sir."

The cultivators really wanted the Tomb of the Gods. Who didn't want a flying ship so huge that a city or fortress could be built on it?

The cultivators moved to try and see how to get the ship moving. Just then—

Rumble...

The Tomb of the Gods shook as if an earthquake was occurring. There were ripples in the rivers and lake created by the old man. The bushes collapsed like dominoes.

"...What?"

The old man and the cultivators were shocked. Buildings soared from the rivers and the lake, quickly taking the form of the city that the cultivators had reduced to ashes earlier.

A city that had been utterly destroyed managed to restore itself? How ridiculous. This couldn't happen even in the immortal world, let alone the cultivation world.

In the midst of the turmoil—

[You have died.]

Lauel's vision darkened. He had not drunk a potion, even though he was seriously injured.

[Do you want to be resurrected?]

[Your current resurrection point is...]

'Yes.'

Lauel replied promptly without waiting for the notification window to be updated. He was on a time limit.

An ash pillar rose when Lauel died.

Flash!

Then it reappeared just fifty meters away from where he had died.

"......?"

The cultivators were watching Lauel in bewilderment because he had come back to life.

"I am the commander. I can't leave the base," Lauel told them.

"Interesting. Let's see how many times you can resurrect, shall we?"

The old man with the white beard forced himself to laugh. He couldn't make sense of what was happening, so he tried to pretend to be calm.

Before Lauel could react, the old man's hand was about to grab his face.

Flash!

Flash flash!

Hundreds of flashes occurred all around Lauel... No, there were at least tens of thousands of beams of light. The old man threw himself backward and activated his protective shield, but it was too late.

Kraugel's sword sliced the blue shield in half. Braham, Euphemina, and Sariel, wrapped in Zik's runes, attacked the old man. Mir, Ken, the Apostles, the Tower members, and the Overgeared members were also there.

"...Aghhh!"

Even Absolutes felt pain. Even a player like Grid would swallow his pained screams in every battle. The old man screamed as he kept taking damage. The other cultivators rushed to protect him, but thousands of enemies now surrounded them.

What was this trick? How could the troops that had been raiding the Full Moon Fortresses come back all at once? The fact that the city, which had been reduced to ashes, had now almost recovered, was still an unsolved mystery. Was this a terrible nightmare?

Jessica was impressed. Seeing the city rebuild itself, she muttered, "I heard rumors that Grid had studied and improved the Tomb of the Gods, but I didn't know he went all out with the improvements... He must've reached the realm of omniscience."

The Apostles, the Tower members, the Overgeared members, and the soldiers of the empire had similar reactions. They were more astonished than the cultivators. They knew that there was only one god who could cause this great miracle.

"What...?"

The cultivators were also shocked when they learned the truth. They didn't have time to digest the news because Braham cast Meteor.

The battle had started.

Hundreds of thousands of troops from the empire rushed like a tidal wave toward the two hundred cultivators.

In the past, the cultivators would have had the upper hand despite the numbers disadvantage, They were all at least Transcendents. However, the Overgeared members had also become a lot stronger. The Overgeared Empire also possessed Absolutes such as Braham, Hayate, Biban, and Kraugel, as well as a multitude of Transcendents. They were strong enough to make use of their numerical superiority.

"You..! What trick did you use?"

The old man, who was on the defensive while fighting fiercely, glared at Lauel as if he wanted to kill him. Lauel just laughed.

His plan took advantage of everyone designating their resurrection and return point at the Tomb of the Gods. They managed to disperse the cultivators by launching attacks on the Full Moon Fortresses...

Lauel chose to remain silent and not offer any explanations. He was aware that some of the enemies might be lucky enough to escape, and he had no intention of exposing the players' advantages to the cultivation world.

"You guys...! You are just mortals!"

The old man realized he had been tricked and went on a rampage. As Hayate managed to break through the encirclement of the Absolutes, the old man slaughtered only the weak.

He was formidable since he had been fighting for tens of thousands of years. He knew how to inflict damage on his enemies. But there were too many skilled fighters in the Overgeared Guild. Yura and Jishuka were sniping at him, the army of magicians kept altering the terrain, Huroi was cursing his parents... No, Huroi's ability to disperse aggro made it so the old man couldn't inflict as much damage as he wanted. Zibal also did his best to rescue his allies.

Finally, Eat Spicy Jokbal succeeded in creating a small dungeon and imprisoned the old man in there.

"T-This..."

All the cultivators who were left were on the same level as Transcendents. Cranbel, a top dragon, was floating in the sky, cutting off their retreat.

Lauel ordered, "Let's finish them off quickly and destroy the remaining Full Moon Fortresses one by one."

Just in time, Grid's epic updated. Everyone found out about the annihilation of the God of the beginning, Hanul.

Lauel realized something. The cultivators didn't play that important of a role in this update. They were nothing but a way for the players to become stronger and for the story to wrap up.