My skills have mutated again!

Chapter 427 Returning to the old place
The meeting point is located somewhere in the Dark Domain, a secluded place not near any of the Dark Realm passages.

When Xia Lin arrived, he found the area completely empty, with no sign of Cheng Lin, Wang Yanshan, or the others.

After waiting a moment, a flash of light appeared.

A hidden passageway suddenly opened, revealing the colorful glow of the sunset behind it.

Wang Yanshan's voice rang out from the passageway: "Come in."

Without much hesitation, Xia Lin steered the starship into the fray.

As the light and shadow shifted, a magnificent and vibrant world unfolded before Xia Lin's eyes like a scroll painting.

Ahead, Wang Yanshan stood with his hands behind his back. When he saw Xia Lin's starship, he smiled kindly at Xia Lin and waved.

"This place is my divine kingdom, it is safe and reliable, Xia Lin, you can come out and take a look."

The starship's hatch opened, and Xia Lin stepped off the starship and came to Wang Yanshan's side.

"Greetings, Mountain King."

After offering a polite greeting, Xia Lin then looked at the person next to Wang Yanshan.

"Greetings, King Kong."

The person standing next to Wang Yanshan was also dressed in a python robe, with a young appearance and features more similar to Wang Wei's.

This person is the third son of the Wang family and Wang Yanshan's closest ally, the Third Prince, Wang Yankong.

Wang Yankong smiled back at Xia Lin, and after returning the greeting, he said with a smile, "I'll have to trouble you to wait a moment, young friend, as Cheng Lin has not yet arrived."

……

The Three-Pillar Gang's intelligence system is indeed the strongest among the Six Pillars.

There may be gaps in the intelligence, but when it comes to critical issues, it's better to have gaps than to make a fatal mistake.

For example, Zhou Xinglin once told Xia Lin about the attitude of the eight sons of the Wang family towards him.

The eldest and third sons have feelings for me.

Apart from Wang Laoliu, who never fights or grabs, everyone else harbors resentment towards him.

Xia Lin's decision was based on this premise—he naturally assumed that Wang Laoda and Wang Laosan would not harm him for no reason.

Without this crucial premise, Xia Lin wouldn't have been able to find even the slightest opportunity in this game.

Fortunately, after a brief encounter, Wang Laoda and Wang Laosan did have a decent impression of Xia Lin.

The three of them sat shoulder to shoulder, without any distinction of rank or status, chatting to build rapport and pass the time.

"I had long heard that the Wang family possessed the bloodline of ancient gods and had studied the path of divinity extensively. Seeing it today, I can confirm that it is indeed true."

While praising him, Xia Lin observed Wang Yanshan's divine kingdom with his naked eye.

big……

It was incredibly huge!

In terms of area alone, it is comparable to any of the thirty-six floors of the Heavenly Palace.

A rich power of faith permeated the air, with faint dragon roars that were not harsh—this was a manifestation of the dragon's energy taking form!

At this moment, these powers of faith and dragon energy are relatively friendly to Xia Lin because of their master, and there is no hostility between them.

Therefore, Xia Lin felt normal.

But he also knew that in the blink of an eye, this dragon energy would obey Wang Yanshan's will, transform into unparalleled divine power, and crush him into dust!
What is quite counterintuitive is that...

Those who delve the deepest into the divine way and the power of faith in this main universe are not those innate gods or those with divine professions.

He is the master of all armies! There is no one else like him!

"Before the creation of the new universe, Father had already embarked on the path of combining royal and divine power. As the master of all armies, ascending the throne was just the beginning; there were still so many things to study. What about political systems, the influence of religion, economic development..."

The interesting thing about this profession is that the whole profession is like a game called "civilization".

The main focus seems to be on "farming," but a closer look reveals that the profession has a surprisingly large number of built-in DLCs.

As the pioneer, the King of Kings embarked on the path of combining the powers of God and Emperor.

Secular power and divine power are combined.

He is both emperor and god.

The Divine Kingdom, one of the three great treasures, is the embodiment of this path.

As the saying goes, dragons beget dragons and phoenixes beget phoenixes.

The Wang family's innate divine bloodline brought them a natural affinity for divine power, so it was only natural that all eight sons of the Wang family would embark on this path.

Yes, the vast majority of them are following in their parents' footsteps.

As for what we mean by pioneering and innovating?
Stop fooling around...

You're lucky if you can figure out this path yourself, what's with all this talk about pioneering and innovation?
“It’s not that we don’t have innovative ideas,” Wang Yankong said with a smile. “My second brother and seventh brother, or rather my second brother’s entire faction, actually want to take a different path from Father Emperor.”

The Heavenly Soldier God Lord is a manifestation of this concept, even if it is only a very insignificant one, it does not change the minor change in the professional logic of the Lord of Ten Thousand Armies.

Wang Yanshan scoffed at this, saying, "It's just a crooked and unorthodox approach... The existing path is right in front of us. We haven't even reached the extreme of the old path yet. What's the point of doing all this fancy stuff?"

Wang Yankong nodded slightly: "That's true."

Xia Lin pondered for a moment and then realized what he meant.

"This is a clash between conservatives and radicals..."

There are internal disagreements among the eight sons of the Wang family regarding the future of the profession of commander of ten thousand armies.

The eldest and third sons of the Wang family are conservatives. They believe that it is enough for them to live off their father's influence—after all, the upper limit of this path is undoubtedly one of the strongest.

On the contrary, Wang Lao Er's group had some ambitious ideas.

This disagreement may also be one of the less significant reasons for the internal divisions among the eight sons of the Wang family.

"So the key question is, how does the King of Kings view this matter?"

When Xia Lin asked this question, both Wang Yanshan and Wang Yankong shook their heads.

"Father doesn't care, or at least he hasn't made a clear statement."

How you do it is up to you.

There's no right or wrong way to say it; every choice makes sense. As a father of eight sons, not interfering or controlling, but simply providing support, is the way of fatherhood with modern thinking.

Xia Lin actually felt that Wang Lao Er's idea was more forward-thinking.

This path will definitely be more difficult, but it's also an excellent opportunity to hone your skills.

From a factual perspective...

Wang Lao Er's influence is greater, and it's unclear whether his personal strength is stronger or weaker than Wang Lao Da's, but Xia Lin thinks he might be stronger.

Those with a pioneering mindset are more likely to grow stronger.

I didn't even bother to ask Boss Wang who's the cooler one between you two...

Based on what's happening right now, it's highly likely that Wang Lao Er is more powerful.

— Surely the stronger party wouldn't be forced to hide in their divine kingdom and cause trouble in secret, right?
After some back and forth, Cheng Lin finally arrived.

So the four of them held a brief meeting in the palace of the divine kingdom to discuss their next steps.

……

"I will use the essence of timelessness to lead the entire divine kingdom into the dark realm."

Instead of using the dark passage, they directly infiltrated using the principles of time travel.

This method is extremely difficult; at least Xia Lin, who also possesses the essence of time travel, had never considered this possibility.

Because it's impossible...

What merit or ability does he possess to penetrate the realm of the primordial dark side with his own power?
But what Xia Lin couldn't do wasn't difficult for Wang Yanshan.

This smuggling-like method effectively evaded Wang Lao Er's group's surveillance of the first layer of the Dark Realm: The Reappearance of the Past.

"Once we enter the Dark Realm, we'll have to play it by ear."

"Known situation: In the Dark Realm, the battle between my second brother's side and the two emperors of immortality and demonism is still ongoing. In order to enter the second layer of the Dark Realm: the Bottomless Abyss, the two emperors of immortality and demonism must be brought into direct confrontation to open a gap leading to the second layer of the Dark Realm."

This is the only way to open the second layer of the Dark Realm.

Xia Lin asked, puzzled, "Can't we use the 'Secondary Dimensional Technique' again?"

Wang Yankong responded: "Entering the Dark Realm is equivalent to entering the home ground of the Primordial Dark Side. In the home ground of the Six Pillars, the rules are distorted, and my second brother must have taken countermeasures. It is highly unlikely that he can enter the second layer of the Dark Realm in the same way."

"The key belongs only to the two emperors, the Immortal and the Demon."

"The current situation is that Second Brother and the others are each entangled with the afterimages of the Immortal Emperor and the Demon Emperor, forcibly preventing the two from meeting. Once the suppression is completed, they will have essentially controlled the only key to the second level of the Dark Realm."

"So what we need to do is very simple... create an opportunity for the two emperors, the immortal and the demon, to meet."

Knowing their personalities, they'd definitely fight if they met.

As soon as the action was taken, the passage to the second level of the Dark Realm opened.

"And this opportunity will be fully managed by me and the third brother."

Strength determines the ability to seize opportunities.

Xia Lincheng's strength is insufficient, and theoretically there is no room for maneuver in this stage.

Therefore, it took Wang Laoda and Wang Laosan to personally take action.

Wang Yankong said, "After it's opened, I'll stay near the passage to block Second Brother's men."

Wang Yanshan then said, "As for me, I will enter the second level of the Dark Realm with Cheng Lin and Xia Lin to find the Evil God and help Cheng Lin achieve his goal. Then Cheng Lin will turn around and provide me with assistance."

Evil gods gathered in large numbers in the bottomless abyss—this was the situation during the War of the Myriad Races.

At present, strictly speaking, not much time has passed. Given the "subjective initiative" of the evil gods, they must still be wandering in the second layer of the dark realm.

I'll help you first, then you can help me!
Boy helps boy!

That's the general idea.

The specific implementation will depend on the actual situation.

Once you actually reach the Dark Realm, nothing is surprising, and the plan naturally cannot remain unchanged.

In fact, Xia Lin's steps were not required in these processes.

The reason why Xia Lin was brought to this meeting was because of the goodwill that Wang Laoda and Wang Laosan had towards Xia Lin.

But if they really let Xia Lin do anything... they wouldn't feel at ease. No matter how clever he is, his strength is what it is, which means he has no room for maneuver.

This also means that Xia Lin has a high degree of autonomy.

Once he entered the Dark Realm, he was free. He could choose to act as he pleased, but he also had to bear the price of that freedom.

None of the four people present had any objections to this general plan.

"Ten minutes to prepare, we'll enter the Dark Realm in ten minutes."

As soon as he finished speaking, everyone except Cheng Lin was enveloped in a flash of skill light!
……

Xia Lin started drawing cards.

Using the Eternal Inscription Replacement System, he installed a super system called "Deceiving the Heavens and Crossing the Sea" on himself. Its main effect is to reduce his own presence and distort his aura and appearance from a causal perspective.

In layman's terms, Xia Lin changed her identity.

Of course, whether this system can fool the Wang family's group of level twelve members is probably out of the question...

At least Xia Lin asked Wang Yankong, and he was able to see Xia Lin's true nature.

In short... it's a psychological comfort.

Subsequently, Xia Lin bought back the skill of the Heavenly Equation from the cookbook.

Having entered the Dark Realm, the Heavenly Dao Equation should once again shine brightly!
Of course, Xia Lin didn't tell Wang Laoda and Wang Laosan about this... it was a trump card and a little secret he prepared for himself.

—And this move is actually Xia Lin's biggest source of confidence for his second entry into the Dark Realm.

With that, Xia Lin's preparations were complete.

Ten minutes passed in the blink of an eye.

Wang Yanshan raised his hand, and a pure white light suddenly burst forth, instantly spreading throughout the entire divine kingdom!

The divine realm is a special type of domain force field, hidden within the dimensional interlayer.

Most people cannot observe it with their naked eyes and senses.

However, if six pillars were to cast their gazes upon this place, they would see that as Wang Yanshan activated his skill, the vast divine kingdom hidden in the dimensional rift instantly shrank to the size of a grain of rice.

The next second, a flash of spatial light appeared.

Xia Lin, who was inside the divine realm, had no idea what was happening.

He simply watched Wang Yanshan perform a simple operation and then breathed a sigh of relief.

"Here we are."

He waved his hand again, and the power of faith coalesced into clear images.

The scene depicted is exactly what is happening in the first layer of the Dark Realm at this moment.

……

For Xia Lin, this was like revisiting an old haunt.

Compared to my last visit, the overall environment here hasn't changed much—it's still a desolate place, devoid of stars and filled with pollution.

The various warships, soldiers of different races, and royal flags scattered throughout the stars added much color to this place.

Wang Yanshan removed the useless images and focused the main points of the images on three areas.

One place was the central command tent of Wang Lao Er's gang.

—With magnificent starships comparable to cities as the main body, and countless other types of starships like satellites, an extremely astonishing fleet of warships constitutes the central command of this interstellar age.

—Endless light shone from the warship. It wasn't just the light of technology, but also the light of various formations, including those of the divine, martial, and immortal paths.

Due to the nature of their professional logic, military leaders are extremely comprehensive.

An individual's energy is limited, but a group's energy is limitless—I'm not good at this, but that's okay, as long as someone under me is good at it.

As military leaders second only to the Six Pillars, the Wang family group has many high-level professionals outside the military leader system.

Due to the variables in the dark side of the universe, the Bound Spirit Immortal Venerable and the Saintly Confucian Immortal Venerable also joined this side and are currently working for Wang Lao Er's group.

From this image alone, Xia Lin couldn't discern anything—he only felt that it was enormous and incredibly powerful, and that the Wang family was indeed an existence he couldn't contend with at the moment.

Wang Yanshan and Wang Yankong focused intently for a long time, then exchanged a glance and nodded in unison.

"It's all there."

The five eldest sons of the Wang family on Wang Lao Er's side were all on the main warship in the central army and did not participate in the encirclement and suppression of the two emperors, the immortal and the demon.

—This can be considered the military lord's non-full-power form...

You asked what the full-power form of the military commander is.
Of course, it was the emperor himself who wielded the sword...

Xia Lin was startled upon hearing this.

"They're all over there!?"

Wang Yanshan nodded: "All five of my younger brothers are there, not one missing..."

"That one that withstood the pressure from the two emperors, the Immortal and the Demon..."

"He is a general under my father's command."

The image shifts, revealing two other images.

In the scene, the two emperors, one immortal and one demon, are separated in a corner of this broken universe, fighting fiercely with their enemies, but they cannot gain any advantage!
Moreover, it wasn't even a one-against-many situation; he wasn't even at a disadvantage in a one-on-one fight!

The one who faced the Immortal Emperor was a young warrior.

He wore blue armor and held a silver spear.

With a well-proportioned physique and a combination of strength and agility, he moved like a dragon, bringing with him the solidified energy of wind and thunder!
"Zhao Yun is ranked second among the eighty-eight generals under my father's command."

Xia Lin's mind went blank for a moment, and she vaguely felt a sense of temporal and spatial disorientation.

The sense of disorientation reached its peak when the name of another burly warrior who was facing off against the Demon Emperor was uttered.

"Lu Bu is ranked first among the eighty-eight generals under my father's command!"

Xia Lin: ...

No, where did I get this?

The Three Kingdoms!?
Wang Yankong seemed to notice something was off about Xia Lin's expression and spoke with a smile.

"It is said that Xia Lin, you are a time traveler. Judging from the situation, the world you came from before was probably a parallel universe of my father's hometown."

"The so-called parallel universe is a similar timeline where the history is roughly the same but the details are different."

"The timeline you live in may be ordinary. But the timeline where my father lived once possessed a fragment of a divinely bestowed stone. This fragment was created out of thin air, connecting historical nodes and guiding history to repeat itself."

As he spoke, Wang Yankong pointed at Lü and Zhao.

"They were the peerless warriors my father recruited from the historical timeline during his rise to power. To this day, their strength is the greatest among the twelve levels!"

“They are even far stronger than the eight of us brothers.”

If you were to ask who is the number one person under the Six Pillars... everyone would probably have a different answer.

There are a large number of experts at the peak of level 12, but as mentioned before, level 12 is just a general term. Among these people, the difference in strength can be extremely large, even ridiculously large, and it is not surprising that instant kills can occur.

Therefore, the relative strengths and weaknesses among them are absolutely debatable.

However, there are only two generally accepted and mainstream opinions.

First: The Demon Emperor's fourth soul, Faceless, is the strongest level twelve, the number one existence below the six pillars!

Second: Among the eighty-eight generals of the King of Kings, the top two are the two currently fighting against the fake immortal and demon emperors!

The logic is not hard to see—the deeper your relationship with the Six Pillars of Destiny, the stronger you are!

This relationship is not based on blood ties, but rather on shared abilities!

These three are all deeply integrated into the Six Pillars' ability system, and can even be said to be part of the Six Pillars—only such beings can be worthy of the title of pseudo-Six Pillars!
Wang Yanshan slowly spoke up: "Most of the eighty-eight generals have been by my father's side since he rose to power."

"And his merit in following the dragon was so great that it broke the heavens."

Why did Zhou Xinglin say that the Primordial Ruler was a good leader?
Because the difference between rising alongside the Six Pillars and joining after they have risen is a completely different concept, and the benefits are also vastly different—it's the difference between providing timely help and adding to existing success.

"And as for the military commander, you know, the level of support he gives to his subordinates is outrageous."

"Both uncles are already very strong, and with the Emperor's blessing, they cannot be defeated by anyone who is not one of the Six Pillars."

The fake Immortal and Demon Emperors roughly replicated more than half of the strength of the original Immortal and Demon Emperors.

Moreover, possessing the core skills of the Six Pillars, if they were to transform from illusion to reality and travel to the main universe, they would likely be strong contenders to become the number one person below the Six Pillars.

However, it's unreasonable to say that these two could easily defeat the powerful competitor who is currently the number one person below the six pillars of the main universe.

In actual combat, they were indeed evenly matched and evenly matched.

Xia Lin looked back at the battlefield between the two immortal emperors and the two great generals.

The surging power spread wildly, and the light of various skills emerged. Xia Lin even saw the shadows of the Heavenly Dao Equation and Absolute Balance.

After only a brief glance, Xia Lin turned her head away, no longer daring to look.

The intensity of this battle was so high that Xia Lin even felt a sense of dread, as if he were watching the Six Pillars make their move...

Don't even mention Xia Lin.

With the help of Lü and Zhao, Wang Lao Er and his group still haven't managed to defeat the fake Immortal and Demon Emperors.

This may mean that they are also unlikely to cause too much interference in battles of this level.

In short, it's about grinding, building up an advantage little by little through prolonged, drawn-out battles.

Facing figures like the fake immortal and demon emperors, Wang Lao Er probably doesn't have much room to maneuver.

"So, we're going to be competing with guys of this caliber, right?"

Admittedly, at this moment, Xia Lin was having second thoughts.

Wang Yanshan slowly said, "This is a problem for you, but not for us."

“The generals are indeed qualified to participate in the struggle for the throne among the six pillars… but out of loyalty to the Emperor, they will not kill us.”

"Even though they seem to be on my second brother's side right now, when the real power struggle begins, they will only fight for themselves."

At this moment, loyalty to the emperor and personal will clashed to some extent.

Fortunately, the King of Kings chose not to favor either side.

The meat, once cooked and left to rot in the pot, is fine for any family member to eat.

With the King of Kings overseeing the overall situation, even if one loses the competition, there is no fear of losing one's life.

Xia Lin: ...

Is it too late for me to become your sworn brother now?
It's probably too late...

Poor Xia Lin, however, was not protected by this unspoken rule.

So right now, Boss Wang has stopped pretending.

Let's not use "us" or "them"... You are you, we are us, we are different.
Now, I've brought you into the Dark Realm, and I've paid the broker's fee.

What you do after that is none of our business. If you run into any trouble, you'll have to fend for yourself.

Even if you block our way, we will certainly not be polite to you.

In fact, the fact that Xia Lin can still stay in Wang Yanshan's divine kingdom is already a sign of goodwill, a favor bestowed upon Xia Lin by the two princes.

And what happens next...?

Wang Laoda and Wang Laosan also have to fight for their future.

They looked at each other and took a deep breath.

"let's start."

(End of this chapter)