Terrifying energy shockwaves erupted from the gap between the two worlds; even Jiu Po was affected by the collision of light and darkness. Yu Lian, who bore the brunt of the attack, was completely destroyed almost instantly.
If Baal was here, he would definitely feel like "I've seen this episode before"—because Boswell also suffered a similar fate just now.
Boswell lost a divine body when Gu Nan—along with the explosion of death energy—neared him, while nothing remained of Yu Lian's body after the collision of light and darkness.
The collapse of a large amount of laws also gave Yu Lian heavy injuries. She wasn't much better off than Boswell.
Jiu Po was also affected, and his figure instantly escaped into the void. By the time he returned, Austin and Daisy had already vanished.
Jiu Po frowned slightly and quickly scanned the surroundings with his soul, looking for traces of the two greater gods. He then discovered an astonishing fact.
Austin and Daisy actually brought Baal with them, and the three of them simultaneously rushed into Emperor Zhao's God Emperor Heaven!
Did they abandon their nest?
Jiu Po stared blankly for a moment but quickly understood the enemy's plan. They were in a race of speed against Gu Nan, exchanging the lives of greater gods for Unified Dao cultivators!
It seemed that those who could become top-tier greater gods wouldn't lose to anyone in terms of how ruthless they could be to their own people.
...
God Emperor Heaven.
Emperor Zhao was perhaps the most frustrated person right now.
It was very normal to strategically sacrifice certain individuals for the sake of the big picture, but it was harder to accept when that sacrifice became himself.
What's more, he couldn't even actively choose; it was entirely his enemies who chose him.
Austin, Daisy, and Baal's besiegement was hard for even Jiu Po to withstand, let alone Emperor Zhao, who'd just been injured.
In fact, if he wasn't inside his own astral world right now, he might not be able to survive even one exchange and would've been utterly annihilated by now.
Jiu Po quickly returned to the Myriad Heavens and headed directly to God Emperor Heaven to help Emperor Zhao stabilize the situation. If all the inhabitants of God Emperor Heaven were killed by the three greater gods, not even Jiu Po would be able to save him.
However, it was still very difficult for Emperor Zhao to hold on. A large number of living beings in God Emperor Heaven died, and even Jiu Po could not completely save them. On the contrary, Austin and the other two were overwhelming and unstoppable.
"Where's Yu Lian?!" Emperor Zhao loudly questioned Jiu Po upon seeing the other party.
Jiu Po looked grave as he answered heavily, "Yu Lian was wounded by Austin and Daisy's joint attack. I'm afraid her injuries are even heavier than yours right now."
Emperor Zhao opened his mouth a few times, but no words came out. He knew all too well that if even Yu Lian suffered such injuries, it would be hard for her to help him now.
After all, she didn't have any home field advantage here. On the contrary, if she came to God Emperor Heaven to help, the three greater gods would probably immediately turn around and kill Yu Lian first.
It had to be said that Austin's choice was very smart.
The tactic he used seemed to be the same as Gu Nan's, but Gu Nan relied on the fact that he was hard to kill and even harder to catch to chip away at the greater gods bit by bit.
But with Austin and the other two joining forces, no one could compete with them in terms of absolute strength. In terms of destructive power, they were far stronger than Gu Nan.
And at such a critical juncture where both sides were racing against time, destructive power meant efficiency, and efficiency determined victory or defeat!
Furthermore, the overwhelming power of Austin's group meant they could head directly to God Emperor Heaven, while it was impossible for Gu Nan to go to the Ashen Cyan Divine Kingdom.
If Gu Nan wanted to destroy the Ashen Cyan Divine Kingdom with his mere Tier 13 laws, Boswell wouldn't even need to show himself. He could just passively resist Gu Nan with laws alone.
Even if the Ruler of Ashen Cyan was injured, it would still be enough to stall Gu Nan for a long time. After all, that was his home court.
The World of Gods seemed to be at a disadvantage at the start of the Great War because two of its greater gods were killed first, but their high-end combat power was stronger than the Myriad Heavens'.
Now that the time had come for each side to make sacrifices in pursuit of victory, this advantage could be used to the extreme. If the two sides exchanged the lives of its top combatants, the final winner would undoubtedly be the World of Gods.
Austin's gaze was ice-cold, and he controlled laws with the utmost precision. His whole person was like a war machine, purifying all the world's evil.
Emperor Zhao could only grit his teeth. He knew that all other Unified Dao cultivators were currently preoccupied. Of the two who were qualified to intervene in this fight—Yu Lian and Gu Nan—one could no longer even protect herself, while the other didn't care about him at all.
However, an unexpected savior appeared at this moment.
The sky above God Emperor Heaven was suddenly covered by two enormous shadows. If one looked carefully, they would be able to make out two giant dragons crisscrossing through the sky.
Austin frowned and raised his head, but he felt as if he was inside a strange space. His control over his divine authorities and laws had been weakened to an extreme degree.
In this space, distance was stretched, time was compressed, and everything became extremely slow.
Laws escaped the three greater gods' control and were quickly eroded by Jiu Po's power of the earth. God Emperor Heaven's situation instantly stabilized.
"Lu Wen!" Emperor Zhao looked up in shock, only to see Lu Wen's figure standing calmly in the sky, still wearing his seven-star Daoist robe, overlooking the battlefield below.
...
World of Gods.
Gu Nan was indeed not as efficient as Austin's group. At the same time, due to the strength of his own laws, he also could not head to the top-tier greater gods' Divine Kingdom.
But he seemed extremely skilled at dealing with greater gods who were not top-tier. The Beast God's Divine Kingdom was already in shambles, and Bridges was barely managing to hold on through gritted teeth.
The situation he faced was even sadder than that of Emperor Zhao—because no one could help him, and the pressure that the elusive and unstoppable Gu Nan brought him was no weaker than the pressure from Austin's group of three strongest greater gods.
A moment later, the Beast God's Divine Kingdom had been completely engulfed by shadows. All the creatures inside either fled or were killed by Gu Nan, leaving only Bridges as the lone commander.
Bridges glared at Gu Nan coldly. He resisted until the very last moment, and then… ran away.
That's right. He waited until his Divine Kingdom was completely destroyed by Gu Nan. After he stalled for enough time, he then turned and ran without another word.
As early as when Austin formulated the tactic to exchange lives in a war of attrition, he'd already issued an order to all greater gods. If the Evil God started targeting someone, they should stall for as long as possible, then run away.
A destroyed Divine Kingdom could be rebuilt. As long as the Beast God was alive and the gods won this battle, everything would have a chance to be repaired.
This was a battle where both worlds put everything on the line; no one could stay out of it.
Gu Nan stared at Bridges' disappearing figure and revealed an odd smile. It would be too naive to believe that he could escape like this.
Gu Nan disappeared from his spot, then quickly broke into the Holy Light Divine Kingdom and found a familiar god, appearing in front of her.
This person's name was Sylvia.