Chapter 40: Where Does He Get the Audacity?

Nangong Zhiwen and Xie Baorong's work continued, and the situation in the Eastern Theater gradually stabilized.

Meanwhile, the Void Divine Battle agreed upon by the Dragon Kingdom and the Sakura Kingdom arrived right on schedule.

Early this morning, the Void Arena rose high into the firmament, allowing everyone across the entire Blue Planet to clearly witness that majestic arena!

In the Eastern Theater, the soldiers who finally found a moment of rare leisure were no exception; all of them looked up and saw the lofty Void Arena, radiating an unmatched majesty.

A group of soldiers raised their heads toward the sky, discussing animatedly among themselves.

"Which country is fighting a divine battle against whom?"

"Who knows..."

General Lin woke up early in the morning and also noticed the Void Arena suspended in the sky, his eyes narrowing slightly with a hint of suspicion.

After breakfast, the soldiers assembled.

Looking at the pair of curious eyes that filled every soldier's face, General Lin offered a faint smile and commanded, "Attention, everyone!"

The soldiers immediately snapped into formation.

General Lin smiled slightly once more and said, "You little monkeys, you want to watch the Void Divine Battle, don't you?"

The soldiers looked at one another, but none of them dared to step forward and voice an affirmative.

Yet their eager gazes had already betrayed them entirely.

"If you want to watch, just say so!" General Xu burst into a loud laugh from the side and said, "Alright, I approve! Besides, with the Exterminators around right now, they can completely take our place in expanding the safe zones to hunt for BOSSes!"

"Here is the plan! Everyone will take turns on duty to monitor the thirty Exterminators, changing shifts every hour!"

"As for the rest of you, sit down and watch the Void Divine Battle!"

Hearing General Xu's words, the group of soldiers instantly cheered with joy.

Before long, the flags of two nations appeared floating above the Void Arena.

Rising slowly on the left was none other than the national flag of the Dragon Kingdom!

"It's our Dragon Kingdom!!!" one soldier shouted, pointing at the flag rising at the edge of the Void Arena.

"Who are we fighting against?"

"Good heavens, it's actually our Dragon Kingdom! Is this our country's very first Void Divine Battle?"

"That's right. Void Divine Battles only allow contestants to deploy deities from their own nation. For many years, our Dragon Kingdom had very few deities, and their ranks were low, so we never fought in any Void Divine Battles at all!"

"Then what is happening this time?"

"Could someone have reached a high level of resonance with Yinglong?"

"Yes! That's the only possible explanation!"

A trace of astonishment flashed in Ji Ling's eyes.

The Dragon Kingdom was actually going to fight a Void Divine Battle against another country?

The essence of a Void Divine Battle was the plundering of the opposing nation's national fortune. The Dragon Kingdom had always championed conquering others through virtue and would never stoop to bullying others by taking advantage of its power, which was why it had never participated in any country's Void Divine Battles for many years.

This morning, when the Void Arena first ascended into the sky, neither Ji Ling nor anyone else had imagined that the Dragon Kingdom would be one of the opposing parties in this divine battle.

Immediately afterward, the flag of the opposing nation rose as well.

It turned out to be the Sun-Disc flag!

"Damn it! It's those bastards from the Sakura Kingdom!"

"Then I must watch this match!"

"Damn it, I despise those bastards the most! No matter who from our side steps onto the stage, beat them to a pulp!"

"What's the use of shouting so loudly here? The contestants in the Void Divine Battle can't even hear you."

"Even if they can't hear me, I'll still shout! Besides, even if I don't, won't our people beat those scumbags to the ground?"

"That's true, hahahaha! If you don't fight with all your might against those bastards, are you even a citizen of the Dragon Kingdom?"

"If he loses to them, he won't have the face to show himself in the Dragon Kingdom anymore!"

"Ah, I just wonder, who on earth from our Dragon Kingdom is fighting this divine battle?"

"There are only a handful of divine contractors in our Dragon Kingdom qualified to fight a Void Divine Battle; you can count them on one hand!"

"It's definitely one of those few people!"

"Well, isn't that stating the obvious!"

...

Meanwhile.

The bullet comments inside the military broadcast room were scrolling in a frenzy.

[Go General-Major Ji Yun! Beat those Sakura bastards into the dirt!]

[Such a tiny Sakura Kingdom actually dares to challenge us! We've really given them too much face lately!]

[Don't underestimate the enemy! The Sakura Kingdom has a complete divine system and extremely high national devotion; the combat power of their deities cannot be underestimated!]

[Are you some kind of walking traitor? Why are you bolstering the enemy's morale and diminishing our own prestige?]

[I'm just speaking the truth! Our Dragon Kingdom's history has been fractured for many years, so the strength of our deities really isn't that high!]

[But we have our exclusive buff—we're fighting the Sakura Kingdom here! National animosity and historical hatred are legal stimulants!]

[I'm genuinely worried for General-Major Ji Yun. A few days ago, he even expended his vital essence for that Ji Ling miles away just so he could show off in the combat zone! General-Major Ji Yun's strength must definitely be affected now!]

In the backstage of the broadcast room.

The staff urged Ji Tianxing to head to the studio to record the live broadcast.

Ji Tianxing nodded. After standing up, however, he did not rush off immediately. Instead, he unlocked his phone and checked the betting app.

At this moment, the betting pool he had placed his stakes on was already piled high with silver wealth.

Based on the current prize pool, if Ji Yun lost the match, the money he would earn might well exceed 1.2 billion!

Fifteen billion was likely not even out of the question!

Uncontrollable excitement spread across Ji Tianxing's face.

Ji Yun's careless operation might cost them an Exterminator drone earned through combat merits.

But now, these 1.5 billion were already ducks in the pot.

He definitely wouldn't lose!

With Ji Yun's plan, Ji Ling was bound to die in the Eastern Theater and never return.

No one would ever expose their hypocritical masks again.

And all the blame would be taken away by the soon-to-be-deceased Ji Ling.

The sliver of paternal affection that Ji Tianxing had felt toward Ji Ling the other day had long since vanished without a trace.

Now, he truly rejoiced that he had fathered Ji Ling all those years ago.

Now, this child was about to become the stepping stone for the Ji family to kill three birds with one stone!

At this moment, Ji Tianxing was clearly overly excited.

...

Eastern Theater.

When the soldiers saw the contestants from the Dragon Kingdom and the Sakura Kingdom stepping onto the Void Divine Battle arena, they erupted in exclamations of surprise.

"It's actually General-Major Ji Yun!"

"Then our Dragon Kingdom is safe!"

"General-Major Ji Yun rendered brilliant military achievements in the Southwestern Theater! He possesses a Heaven-rank deity domain and has contracted several Dragon Kingdom deities! He even has King-rank deities!"

"By now, General-Major Ji Yun must surely be able to summon Yinglong as well!"

"Right! The higher-ups would never make a reckless decision! General-Major Ji Yun must definitely be able to summon Yinglong!"

The soldiers discussed among themselves, casting their gazes toward Jiang Ling.

After all, Yinglong had been summoned by Ji Ling. Now that Ji Ling was trapped in the Eastern Theater and unable to leave, having General-Major Ji Yun command Yinglong to battle the Sakura Kingdom would also make for a wonderful tale!

Ji Ling stood expressionless, gazing up at the firmament, revealing no emotional fluctuations.

Yet inside his heart, Ji Ling was actually filled with doubts.

The divine contractors on the Sakura Kingdom's side were all formidable. Furthermore, the Sakura Kingdom's mythological system was quite well-established, with the citizens' level of devotion toward their native deities bordering on paranoia. Coupled with various forms of backing from the Beautiful Country, the combat effectiveness of the Sakura Kingdom's divine contractors ranked among the top globally.

However, Ji Ling had never expected that Ji Yun would dare to step onto the divine arena.

Others might not understand Ji Yun, but Ji Ling knew him far too well.

Had Ji Tianxing not forcefully plundered his own deity domain and given it to Ji Yun, Ji Yun would have been nothing more than good-for-nothing trash.

Whether it was military achievements or the identity of a divine contractor,

everything had been snatched from Ji Ling's hands by the father-and-son duo of Ji Tianxing and Ji Yun.

Ji Yun could be said to be good-for-nothing trash completely devoid of combat experience.

Even though he possessed the True-rank deity Lei Zhenzi and the King-rank deity Ao Guang, the East Sea Dragon King, whom Ji Ling had previously contracted,

he remained nothing more than a piece of trash with crippled combat effectiveness.

Before Ji Ling headed to the Eastern Theater, his divine contract tier was merely at the third stage of the Spirit rank—a bottom-tier existence among divine contractors worldwide.

Moreover, it was utterly impossible for him to have achieved a compatibility level with Yinglong high enough to summon it.

As Yinglong's contractor, Ji Ling could see which individuals in the Dragon Kingdom had formed compatibility with Yinglong, and what their compatibility levels were.

Ji Ling was akin to the backend system of a Wi-Fi network, able to see who had connected to this Wi-Fi and how much bandwidth each person was consuming.

Up to now, over four hundred divine contractors in the Dragon Kingdom had formed compatibility with Yinglong, and four divine contractors had even exceeded fifty percent compatibility, allowing them to summon an illusory projection of Yinglong to execute a single attack.

Among those four individuals, one person named Xu Lei had even reached sixty-nine percent compatibility with Yinglong and was about to reach seventy percent, which would allow him to fuse with one of Yinglong's tags.

Yet among those four hundred-odd divine contractors who had formed compatibility with Yinglong, Ji Yun was absent.

This meant that Ji Yun did not possess even the slightest sliver of compatibility with Yinglong.

Even if he were to drop dead from exhaustion on the arena, it would be utterly impossible for him to summon even a single whisker of Yinglong.

Yinglong did not acknowledge him.

Turning his gaze back to the divine contractor from the Sakura Kingdom, Ji Ling had already recognized the opponent's identity.

His name was Ogi Takayoshi, a genius divine contractor of the Ogi family in the Sakura Kingdom. He awakened a Heaven-rank deity domain at age thirteen, contracted the sea god Wadatsumi from Sakura mythology at age fifteen, and now, although only twenty-one years old, he was already an ultra-powerful divine contractor at the fourth stage of the Venerable rank.

The gap in strength was vast, differing by leaps and bounds.

Where on earth did Ji Yun find the courage to dare fight a Void Divine Battle against Ogi Takayoshi?

Looking at his comrades' passionate expressions, Ji Ling truly couldn't bear to dash their confidence.

As a citizen of the Dragon Kingdom, Ji Ling naturally hoped his homeland would win the divine battle.

After all, losing this divine battle meant losing far more than just national fortune.

For the Dragon Kingdom to lose to the Sakura Kingdom was an unmitigated humiliation!

It was something completely unacceptable to every single person in the Dragon Kingdom!

Yet Ji Ling knew very well that with trash like Ji Yun, ten of him might still not match Ogi Takayoshi, the genius divine contractor of the Sakura Kingdom.

Ji Ling could not understand what the higher-ups of the Dragon Kingdom were thinking to agree to such a certain-to-lose divine battle.

And how could Ji Yun dare to agree to take the stage?

Wasn't he afraid of becoming the public target of universal condemnation in the Dragon Kingdom for losing the divine battle?

He currently held the status of a Major-General in the Dragon Kingdom. If he lost this divine battle against Ogi Takayoshi, he would likely face punishment, and all the military achievements and honors he had snatched from Ji Ling's hands could vanish into thin air.

Could Ji Yun even accept that?

Could it be that Ji Yun possessed some special means?

Nangong Lingyue walked over and sat down directly beside Ji Ling, glancing up at Ji Yun standing firmly on the Void Arena high above in the firmament before turning to ask Ji Ling, "How does it feel?"

"What?" Ji Ling looked somewhat uncomprehendingly at Nangong Lingyue.

Nangong Lingyue said helplessly, "Don't put on a brave front. Clearly, Yinglong is the Ancestor-rank deity you summoned and contracted, but now that person who robbed you of everything is using it to strut around and bask in glory."

"If this battle is won, all the glory will belong to him as well."

"You are about to have the glory that rightfully belongs to you stolen away by him once again. Doesn't it hurt?"

However, Ji Ling shook his head, let out a sneer, and said, "You also think that he is going to command Yinglong to battle Ogi Takayoshi?"

"Otherwise?" Nangong Lingyue said immediately, "Ogi Takayoshi is at the fourth stage of the Venerable rank, but I remember Ji Yun is only at the Spirit rank, right?"

"If he hasn't reached over seventy percent compatibility with the Ancestor-rank deity Yinglong to summon its true form for combat, how on earth could he possibly defeat Ogi Takayoshi?"

"If he loses, he won't just be losing his own face; he'll be losing the face of our entire Dragon Kingdom! He might even be punished by the country because of it, and the entire Ji family could end up dragged down with him."

Ji Ling took a deep breath, shook his head, and said, "That is also what puzzles me."

"You know that divine contractors who have contracted deities can see which deities their contracted deities have formed compatibility with, right?"

Nangong Lingyue looked at Ji Ling for a long moment before nodding and asking, "You aren't going to tell me that Ji Yun's compatibility with Yinglong isn't even high enough... to summon Yinglong's true form, are you?"

Ji Ling smiled without a word.

Yet Nangong Lingyue clicked her tongue slightly and said, "Yinglong is an Ancestor-rank deity after all. The other day, you wiped out such a massive horde of bizarre entities with just a single move of its, 'Thunder Shaking Nine Heavens.' Even if Ji Yun can only summon an illusory projection of the deity once... well, isn't that差不多 (close enough)?"