“Are you certain?”

“Yes, it just disappeared.”

Unlike immortals, cultivators still had a society. There were cultivators who belonged to factions called sects and cultivators who wandered alone, also known as rogue cultivators. They interacted and relied on each other whenever they needed to. It wasn’t because they had good intentions. It was simply because they were weak.

Unlike immortals, who could deal with powerful opponents by themselves, cultivators were imperfect beings. Depending on their level of cultivation, they resembled mortals to some degree.

Thus, the cultivators joined forces this time as well. They had to complete the constructions of the Full Moon Fortresses to establish a solid foundation for the erosion ritual, so they communicated with each other as much as possible even though they belonged to different factions.

“It’s true that the detection method of the Bonghyeol Sect detected signs of an immortal. An immortal has punished the monster.”

The monster was no one else other than Grid, the founding emperor of the largest empire in the world, and someone who was revered as a god.

The cultivators weren’t exactly impressed when they first heard of his reputation. They thought Grid had deceived and misled the public to worship him as a god. This tended to happen in the lower world. Nobles, kings, and emperors possessing unbridled power became the protagonists of false legends and myths all the time.

They thought Grid was like that as well. He was just an emperor in a lower world, so no one took him seriously. They knew that a few Full Moon Fortresses had been destroyed incredibly fast, but they didn’t think Grid was the one behind that. They thought the fortresses’ destruction was owed to the greatest power in the world, the Overgeared Empire, who had made great sacrifices to dismantle their fortresses.

That alone was surprising. A nation of mortals fought against cultivators and… won? This had never happened before.

Well, they wouldn’t last for much longer. The empire surely lost everything in exchange for destroying a handful of Full Moon Fortresses. At least, that was what the cultivators thought…

“They say that the Full Moon Fortress of the Eunseon Sect has been destroyed.”

“There are reports that the Full Moon Fortress of Cheoljirim has been destroyed...”

“The Full Moon Fortresses of the Paehyeol, Hagwa, and Taebi Sects...”

New reports came in succession only one or two days apart. That was when the small number of survivors started mentioning the name Grid. They said they had witnessed unbelievable things, such as Grid single-handedly defeating the cultivators and splitting a Full Moon Fortress in half.

Many cultivators didn’t believe them, not because they didn’t like what they were hearing, but because they couldn’t find any reliable evidence that Grid was indeed the one behind such things.

It wasn’t until a few days later when they came face-to-face with Grid personally. They died realizing that the rumors were true.

The cultivation world was on alert. The elders of various sects emerged from closed door training and issued an official notice to respond as defensively as possible when encountering Grid.

However, this was useless. Grid continued destroying the fortresses. In addition, his subordinates also became stronger and more distinguished. As a result, many Full Moon Fortresses, which should’ve turned the sky of this world a jade color, ended up destroyed.

The cultivators were so terrified, they were trembling.

Humiliated, they resorted to installing all types of stealth formations so as to not expose the Full Moon Fortresses. They were hiding like rats. Some people prayed that the monster named Grid wouldn’t find them.

The cultivators naturally denied gods. Therefore, they prayed to the immortals of the upper world instead.

Not long ago, rumors spread that an immortal had descended. Then today, Grid’s energy completely disappeared. Did the immortal have anything to do with that?

Detection systems installed in various parts of the continent provided convincing evidence.

“This is our chance to restore things. Let’s select the elites from each clan and launch a counterattack.”

The cultivators had been concentrating their energy on protecting their own Full Moon Fortresses. Now, things had changed. Grid, who even destroyed a Full Moon Fortress guarded by a great ascension cultivator, had disappeared.

Each sect had their own forces. They could afford to launch an attack before the Overgeared Empire’s forces marched toward their Full Moon Fortress. Their target was naturally the moving aerial city with the grandiose name of Tomb of the Gods. This was the empire’s outpost, and the core of its strength.

Only half a day later, hundreds of elite cultivators traveled at high speed with all their techniques and surrounded the Tomb of the Gods. They were all at least on a Transcendent level. They responded effortlessly to the Overgeared Cannon’s bombardment and fought back, making the Tomb of the Gods shake. Magic alarms sounded one after another and flames erupted throughout the city.

***

Hanul wanted to stand at the pinnacle of Asgard. To achieve this ambition, he painted over the myths of the east with lies and deceived humanity. Even though all of his plans had failed and he lost a lot because of Grid, Hanul himself was still alive and well.

After gaining Rebecca’s light, he felt like he was much stronger than he had been in his prime. However, Grid was clearly his enemy.

Hanul’s grudge toward Grid ran deep, so deep that he could never forgive Grid. It was something that could never go away.

Hanul had destroyed a few Full Moon Fortresses, but he hadn’t done that to help Grid. He’d fought the cultivators because he wanted to protect the Hwan Kingdom, so that the people there would worship him. His ultimate goal was to get rid of Grid and Rebecca.

Right now, the Refractive Dragon was chasing Rebecca. This meant that Grid was naturally Hanul’s first target.

It didn’t make sense that Grid would sit on the sidelines when he knew this so clearly. If Grid allowed Hanul to keep doing what he was doing, then he would progressively become more difficult to handle.

Next, there was Chiyou. He was also Grid’s enemy. Since Chiyou wanted to die, he really wanted to fight Grid. Considering his unruly personality, Grid couldn’t know when he would suddenly appear and plunge a knife into Grid’s back.

Chiyou was unpredictable. Grid had just witnessed that through the eyes of his clone. Since his attitude kept changing, so did his position. Sometimes, he was an enemy. Other times, he was an ally. Then, he would go back to being an enemy, and so on. This behavior could only be described as maniacal.

Both Hanul and Chiyou were harmful in many ways. It was the right decision to take care of them whenever an opportunity arose.

And now was the right time for that.

Heaven and earth were in turmoil. Hanul and Chiyou’s fight was affecting humans dozens of kilometers away. Grid could hear the people’s screams.

“Do something...!”

This update had brought tremendous benefits to players who had become Transcendents, such as the liberation of their physical limitations. Previously, players were subjected to various restrictions no matter how high their stats were. One example was their speed. For safety reasons, players weren’t able to reach a certain level of speed. Now, that restriction had been lifted.

Grid was flying at the speed of sound. He gradually accelerated.

“Uh...?”

The people who were frustrated because of their houses collapsing got startled. They heard an explosion in the sky and wondered what type of disaster was going to befall them. When they looked up, they saw gold coins falling down like shooting stars, leaving a faint purple trail behind.

People were left with enough money to restore their homes.

***

[Why don’t you come to your senses and stop?]

Hanul had no time to breathe as he dodged Chiyou’s relentless attacks. It didn’t matter that Hanul had an advantage with his speed. Chiyou kept striking him using AOE attacks. It was a mess but at least he managed to have a conversation through intent.

[How can I stop this fun?]

They didn’t actually communicate. Chiyou was still in a state of extreme excitement from the moment he got stimulated by the female golden immortal’s level of power. This was a chronic disease of the Martial God. He was a god born from the desires of human beings who craved power.

The Martial God was also lonely. He had more power than anyone else, but he rarely got the opportunity to use it to his heart’s content. As a result, he couldn’t feel that he was alive. Once he detected a very powerful enemy around, he lost all of his reasoning.

He just wanted to unleash the desire that he had always suppressed...

[We can’t kill each other, anyway. Don’t you hate meaningless fights the most?]

Hanul was well aware of Chiyou’s condition and tried to persuade him. There was no other way than to talk him down. He could not suppress Chiyou using force. The power of light that Hanul had copied from Rebecca wasn’t complete. It was possible for him to move at the speed of light and shoot destructive rays, but...

Unfortunately, he hadn’t been able to master the method of turning into light itself to completely nullify physical damage.

The biggest problem was that he hadn’t learned how to convert magic power into light. Turning into light didn’t prevent other phenomena from intervening because his magic power remained intact.

The same could be said now. Every time Chiyou’s sword released a fan-shaped sword energy, it sliced right through Hanul’s magic power. Hanul kept turning himself into light to avoid magic damage, thus consuming his magic power.

Of course, a God of the beginning had infinite magic power. His total amount of mana consumed didn’t change. However, the form was lost.

Let’s recall the principles of magic. It didn’t matter whether one relied on external help, such as magic circles, or if they just chanted spells that they could cast. In the end, shaping magic power into the desired spell was magic.

Every time Hanul’s magic power got hit, the casting time of his spells inevitably slowed down. This was very embarrassing for Hanul, who had to rely on magic unless he dared compete in martial arts against Chiyou.

[You have been working so hard, only for you to run your mouth.]

It was clear that Chiyou had gone completely insane.

Hanul grumbled and attacked. In the end, he gave up on persuading Chiyou and had only one option left—escape.

However...

Flash!

Hanul had shot high into the sky at the speed of light only for him to return to his original position. Because of this, Chiyou hit Hanul once more. Hanul finally saw what was happening.

Mirrors forged by magic power appeared all over the battlefield. This was the work of Grid’s clone.

[How dare this dying bastard...]

Hanul held a deep grudge against Grid. He naturally hated Grid’s clone as well. Therefore, he was furious that the clone was holding him back.

Flash!

There was a flash of light.

Flop!

Grid’s clone fell to his knees after being struck by a beam of light. The clone’s limbs twisted in many weird angles. He looked despicable.

[Don’t be overconfident because you are invincible. I can pull out your core and kill you right away.]

“Do you think that will work?”

[......?]

Hanul, who was dishing out threats, and Chiyou, who was continuously swinging his sword elegantly, as if he was dancing, stopped at the same time.

Grid had shown up. Both the furious God of the beginning and the insane Martial God had their eyes trained on him.

“Let’s settle things today,” Grid declared as he struck the clone a few times with his hammer.

The clone, who had been sprawled on the ground with its twisted limbs, stood up without issue. This was the prestige of Grid’s repair skills included in the god-level blacksmithing skill.

This was the end. Grid alone constituted a complete party. Grid the swordsman represented the frontline, while his magician clone was the backline.