Chapter 45

With the advantage already in his favor, Jetti White Mountain, not letting up, dropped the dagger in his hand, took a step forward, and spread his arms, which were as thick as a human thigh, to grab Luo Zhengdao around the waist. He then tightened his grip, squeezing harder and harder.

Seeing this, the boatswain Zola Hegel was greatly alarmed. He prepared to come to Luo Zhengdao's aid but was tripped by several earth goblin soldiers, leaving him unable to move. The half-elf Vina, who was standing a bit further away, also turned pale. She drew her usual green elven bow and shouted:

"Double Shot!"

After the bowstring hummed, it seemed that Vina Dubov on the foredeck had only fired once, but the arrow split into two in mid-air. Jetti White Mountain, facing the two emerald-green arrows aimed at his eyes, roared in anger, lowering his head to try to use his helmet to defend against the ranged attack. However, the bear goblin commander failed to notice that the half-elf beauty had quietly fired a third arrow after the first two. If the first two arrows were like open attacks, this third arrow was a hidden one. As the saying goes, "Open attacks are easy to avoid, but hidden ones are hard to guard against," and it was inevitable that he would suffer a loss.

"Thud!"

"Ah—You despicable bastard!"

The triangular forged steel arrowhead penetrated Jetti White Mountain's armpit, a blind spot that armor could not protect. As the arrow's tail end still buzzed, the bear goblin commander, suddenly feeling intense pain, was stunned for a moment before he began to scream in agony.

No matter how unwilling he was to admit it, with one arm losing sensation, Jetti White Mountain was powerless to continue strangling Luo Zhengdao. In fact, Luo Zhengdao had already begun to regret his decision after being bear-hugged by the goblin. He should not have worried about the curse of the荒神 (wild god) becoming too severe and given up the chance to use another magic card. In today's battle, he had already used two magic cards, and using a third would undoubtedly trigger an unprecedentedly powerful curse. It was his hesitation that led to his own life being threatened.

When Jetti White Mountain weakly released his arms, Luo Zhengdao was already losing consciousness due to difficulty breathing. He mustered the last bit of clarity in his mind and, with a flick of his finger, activated the third magic card hidden in the secret pocket of his sleeve.

The origins and backgrounds of the荒神 (wild gods), though considered barbaric and uncivilized remnants of ancient times by the subsequent pantheons, were still legitimate deities. Even if they were somewhat specialized in their abilities, this did not change the fact.

One should never expect anyone to be kind enough to overturn the verdict for the losers. Unless they had ulterior motives, the victorious magic card users were capable of destroying the荒神 (wild gods) lineage, which was a testament to their incredible power. However, they also paid a heavy price for this. The power to slay deities could not be measured by human standards. To naively assume that magic card users were just a different kind of summoner or mage would be a gross underestimation of their abilities. After all, the magic card users who could rival the荒神 (wild gods) were extraordinary beings who used the world as a chessboard and all things as pawns. Mistaking a tiger for a kitten was a grave error.

"Roar—"

Determined to act, the unconscious Luo Zhengdao subconsciously activated the magic card to summon the Moon Howling Gray Wolf. He then forced himself to open his eyes, pointed at the powerful summoned creature, and initiated the subsequent transformation of the magic card. This was a high-level application technique that Luo Zhengdao had only recently figured out, and now was the time to test its effectiveness.

In response, the silver giant wolf howled, transforming into a bipedal beastman amidst a dazzling array of colors. With a fierce gaze, it surveyed all non-magic card user creatures, as if ready to launch a relentless and brutal attack at any moment. Standing over three meters tall, with a robust build like a governor, the silver wolfman wielded a chain mace in one hand and a shield in the other. His brown-red leather armor seemed dyed in fresh blood, exuding a fierce and bloodthirsty aura.

Seeing the strange transformation of his opponent's summoned creature, Jetti White Mountain's yellow eyes narrowed. Injured and with only one hand, he was in no position to deal with multiple enemies.

At this point, not only did the bear goblin commander realize the situation was dire, but the goblin soldiers also saw it. An earth goblin officer ran to Jetti White Mountain's side and said urgently:

"Commander, our warships have arrived to support us. Let's retreat quickly!"

Hearing this, Jetti White Mountain turned to look at the goblin warships struggling under the barrage of the Elven Federation's fleet. Reluctantly, he glanced at the silver wolfman guarding Luo Zhengdao, who would not allow anyone to approach him. With a gloomy expression, he nodded and, supported by his subordinates, boarded a small sail-and-oar warship that had come to their rescue.

As time passed, more and more elven warships joined the battle, and the green and gold pentagram battle flags appeared one after another, making it clear to even the most foolish that the balance of power had shifted.

Knowing that their soldiers were mostly landlubbers and would be no match for their distant relatives in naval combat, the goblins were not so foolish as to charge headlong into a wall. They turned back before they hit the wall.

In the vast Ether Sea, the elves and the Yaling had long ago taught the goblin Second Empire, whose confidence had swollen after defeating the Light Dynasty, a lesson. At this moment, who was the egg and who was the stone? Since the last time the goblin fleet had a "accidental" encounter with the Yaling fleet, the goblins had been forced to reorganize a new fleet, reduced by sixty percent, to understand the dire consequences of rash actions.

As the imminent threat of death quietly dissipated, Luo Zhengdao did not have time to breathe a sigh of relief before he lost consciousness, the world darkening before his eyes.

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"Come! Successor of the magic card users, come to me."

Hearing the faint, almost imperceptible call, Luo Zhengdao slowly opened his eyes. After a while, he recognized the strange scenery around him, which was the Eternal Library he knew so well. The towering bookshelves that ordinary people could not see the top of, the rolling clouds and faint lightning at the dome, everything seemed to be frozen in a moment. No matter when he came here, the scene was always the same. Following the direction of the voice, which did not belong to the library's caretaker, Luo Zhengdao, with his weary and slow steps, approached a white wall that stretched into the clouds.

On this smooth, mirror-like white wall, there were no decorations, only a faint, seemingly smiling, silver-gray mouth.

When Luo Zhengdao stopped and stared at the mouth for a long time, he wondered if this was the thing calling him.

"Hey, kid, your thoughts are too disrespectful."

Hearing this, Luo Zhengdao's body instinctively trembled. He looked surprised and asked:

"Who are you? Where are you?"

In response to Luo Zhengdao's question, the mysterious voice emitted a sinister laugh, which sounded malicious, and said:

"Who am I? Am I not the Mouth of True Knowledge, right in front of you?"

This answer made Luo Zhengdao hesitate. He carefully examined the silver-gray mouth, confirming that it had not moved, but the voice seemed to come from that direction. He felt that something was off.

After a moment of hesitation, Luo Zhengdao, remembering that he was in a magical world where scientific principles did not apply, gave up his internal struggle and said:

"I've heard the caretaker mention you. Does this have any special meaning?"

"Ha ha ha ha, listen well, you disrespectful kid. Whatever I describe is the truth."

Pondering the implications of this statement, Luo Zhengdao stroked his chin and continued to think. Finally, he shook his head and said:

"Truth... that's a bit exaggerated! Fine, what do you want to tell me? Speak!"

"Kid, listen carefully. This is one of the highest secrets of the magic card users! I will explain in detail, do not interrupt me, and listen patiently..."

As supreme beings at the pinnacle of the world's power pyramid, the conflict between magic card users and the荒神 (wild gods) must have stemmed from an irreconcilable and sharp contradiction, ultimately leading to an inevitable and fated battle.

The cause of this high-level war must have been far-reaching, certainly not something trivial like one stealing another's wife. The fundamental reason was the vastly different perceptions of the new world's development trends and future direction. Since neither side could convince the other, it was only natural that they resorted to force to resolve their differences.

The magic card users, who highly revered the precision and perfection of numbers and mathematics, advocated replacing all the laws of the new world with their card system. In the grand plan of the magic card users, the future new world would be a data world where everything was quantified and marked, like a computer game. The theoretical foundation of the magic card users was to minimize the unnecessary loss of matter and energy conversion to prevent the universe from falling into a heat death. If the magic card users' plan were implemented, a person would see a "HP-1" character prompt above their head when they sneezed in the morning, achieving the ultimate precision in energy transfer, which was the relentless pursuit of the magic card users.

In contrast, the荒神 (wild gods), who were not idle, proposed a radically different adventurous plan. The innovative荒神 (wild gods) advocated breaking through the barriers of the multiverse to utilize the information disparity between different worlds to alter the process of the universe's heat death, returning the new world to a chaotic and indeterminate state. Since there would be no death without life, they planned to offset and compensate for the "heat death effect" of the new world, akin to a computer user who, faced with too many junk files, would rather reformat the system than organize the hard drive.