The Wolf Immortal felt something. It was a sensation he had been pursuing and dreading for nearly four decades. As the golden heart reached his esophagus, his power increased significantly, and he felt himself strike an invisible barrier in his development. The Wolf Immortal was on the verge of a breakthrough, and he could tell that the precipice before him was vast. The Dao of War, which he had been able to sense floating above his head like a precarious sword hanging from a thread, loomed large just a few feet away. All he had to do was reach his hand out, and he would become a god.

  The Spider Immortal jerked his hand forward, and the golden warrior was slowed significantly. Five dense strings of pure ki reached out from the Spider Immortal’s fingertips and wrapped around the golden warrior’s thick armor. The Spider Immortal put all of his strength into slowing the golden warrior, but that Immortal armored in shining metal continued to slowly inch forward.

  This opening was all the Wolf Immortal needed, however, and the golden warrior was instantaneously sliced into more than a dozen pieces of viscera. He made sure to bisect the golden heart to make sure that the golden warrior could not survive the attack.

  The two Immortals would have shared a few brief words at that moment, but the battle would be over before two lines of dialogue could be shared. The Wolf Immortal could swing his sword thirty times in the time it took sound to travel the distance between himself and the Spider Immortal. While they stood there, the Rabbit Immortal was still fighting for her life against one of the Golden Immortals.

  In a matter of milliseconds, the two Immortals were flying over the churning sea in the direction of the Rabbit Immortal. As they flew, the effects of their battle became evident. The force of their battle had pushed the water near the island back, causing mountains of roiling sea water to build high up into the air. Tidal waves several li high had formed, and all of Haishan would end up underwater without outside interference.

  The Wolf Immortal wasn’t worried by the tidal waves, however. If any of them survived the onslaught of the Golden Immortals, they would have plenty of time to diver the waves and save the island. It would take nearly ten minutes for the waves to reach Haishan. No battle between Immortals took one-tenth that amount of time.

  The Rabbit Immortal stood on the deck of the blimp. Her removed arm was regenerating at a slow pace, and it would not be completely healed for another four seconds. With her other hand, she was firing a mountainous cone of water toward the golden warrior. Though that Golden Immortal was still moving forward, the flowing cone of water bought enough time for the Wolf and Spider Immortals to catch up.

  The Wolf Immortal reached the Golden Immortal first. He raised Cloud Razor up high in a two-handed stance and brought it crashing downward at full strength.

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  Descending Dragon.

  The golden warrior was cut vertically in half, and the force of the Wolf Immortal’s swing did not stop there. From Cloud Razor to the horizon, the very sea itself was cut in half. Bedrock deep beneath the waves was revealed, and the tides were unsettled on a planetary scale.

  The Spider Immortal formed a protective barrier of thick air around the blimp as hurricane-force wind shot out from the Wolf Immortal’s attack. It was only through the Spider Immortal’s superior skill in ki manipulation that the small blimp was able to remain floating in the air.

  The three Immortals landed carefully upon the deck of the blimp. The Wolf Immortal could no longer sense any ki signatures, so the other Golden Immortals must have fled somewhere over the horizon after the first four were slain.

  They were not safe, that much was certain. As long as the other half dozen Golden Immortals were on the planet, the three Zodiac Immortals could be forced into a pitched life-and-death battle with only a few seconds of warning.

  At least, the three Immortals had the privilege to slow themselves to a speed where normal conversation was possible. The Wolf Immortal sheathed the blood-drenched Cloud Razor and took a breath to steady himself. Strangely, this use of Cloud Razor had barely drained him, unlike the previous times. After eating the hearts of two Immortals, the Wolf Immortal had ascended several steps toward the True Dao, and he felt much stronger than he was a minute before.

  Back at normal speed, the Spider Immortal spoke first. “Four Immortals! Where did they…?” He paused, and, based on his expression, it was clear that he had answered his own question. “They must be the retinue of a god. Do you think they might be with Pluto, Shao?”

  “No,” the Wolf Immortal said, absolutely certain that he was correct. The Death God told him long ago that most gods had retinues, but he didn’t. Keeping in mind that they could be attacked again in less than five seconds, the Wolf Immortal spoke quickly and concisely. “I’ve reached the threshold to godhood.”

  The Spider Immortal looked at him with an expression filled with both pity and hope. They had spoken many times before about the nature of godhood and immortality. An Immortal was essentially an immensely powerful cultivator who could theoretically live forever and was particularly hard to kill. A god, however, was far removed from humanity.

  By their very nature, gods could not remain among humans. Their connection to the Dao meant that they could only manifest in places where their personal Dao intersected. If the Wolf Immortal took the next step and became the new War God, he would have to forsake his identity as a human. He could no longer be a father, a husband, or a friend. He would forever be nothing more than the personification of War itself.

  Before another word could be spoken, darkness fell upon the blimp and the unsettled sea beneath as if the moon had passed in front of the sun. The sky turned a sickly shade of blood red, and a bone-chilling wave of ki flowed through the Wolf Immortal’s body.

  The three Zodiac Immortals and every Zhouji on Haishan could tell in an instant that a god had manifested in the sky high above.