Chapter Eighty-Five: Heaven Favors Great Xia
Reports came in across every television and radio channel, every website, every text message, and countless live-streaming platforms.
Each notice carried the same single line:
At three o’clock this afternoon, Great Xia will hold its first conversation with the invading god.
A conversation with an invading god.
The news shook Great Xia to its very foundations.
It even sent tremors across the entire world.
On foreign forums, discussion surged like a tide.
“So Great Xia is going to talk to the invading god?”
“Could it really be that the gods are invading?”
“Don’t be ridiculous. Great Xia is just staging a show for itself. Didn’t President Truman say it already? This is all Great Xia’s scheme, meant to use this excuse to force every country to waste resources and drag the others down.”
“Exactly. Good thing we’re smart enough to have seen through those cunning Great Xia people long ago. Hah, and they still pretend they’re doing this for our own good.”
“I heard Great Xia has even halted all its infrastructure projects to work on some steel wall. If this goes on, Great Xia will probably collapse economically within five years.”
“But what if a god really does speak with them?”
“Stop imagining things. There are no gods at all.”
“Even if there really is some ‘conversation,’ it’ll probably just be an actor hiding somewhere, speaking on cue. No need to take it seriously.”
On foreign forums, this was the prevailing attitude.
Almost no one believed it was real.
After all, with the official statements from many countries all echoing one another and calling it false, foreign netizens naturally would not believe Great Xia’s claims of a god’s descent.
On the one hand, a divine descent sounded impossibly far-fetched.
On the other, although Great Xia had developed rapidly in recent years, its international influence still could not compare with the combined weight of the nations standing against it.
But that hardly mattered.
Lin Fan, and those at the Supreme Command Center, had never cared much for these foreign friends to begin with.
To be frank, Great Xia had already gone out of its way to warn them in advance. That was more than generous enough. If they refused to believe it, what else could anyone do?
Domestic opinion, however, was entirely different from that abroad.
Because just last night, the people of Great Xia had witnessed the live broadcast of the Phoenix Robe’s return to the homeland.
A flaming phoenix rose from the robe.
The empress stepped forth from the flames.
And it was live. There was no possibility of fakery.
Most striking of all was that clear, ringing cry.
At the very same moment, the entire nation heard a piercing call from the direction of Capital State.
That could not be forged.
Even if one wanted to fabricate it, with present-day technology there was no way to create a single cry that would echo through Capital State and be heard across the nation.
Of course, some people took those events to foreign forums to prove that Great Xia was telling the truth, but those foreign netizens would not buy it. They simply insisted that Great Xia was lying.
The people of Great Xia could not be bothered to argue further. Now, as this announcement was made, the whole nation erupted once more.
“Communicating with a god?”
“My God, this would be humanity’s first dialogue with another intelligent life form... If we can speak with the gods, could we use that to stop their invasion?”
“That would be wonderful. We could avoid war!”
“I don’t think it’s likely... Sigh, if those gods are really as powerful as the officials say, why would they bother not attacking you? Do they need a reason to attack?”
“Exactly. Some wars cannot be avoided by talking. There doesn’t have to be a reason at all.”
“Everyone, don’t forget: in the official file on the gods, it says their very method of gaining power is to conquer other planes and bring believers under their rule... Don’t be so naive, all right?”
“No, no, I still think it’s possible. What if they’re actually benevolent? Maybe once we make our position clear...”
Most people in Great Xia remained rational. They understood full well that some wars would happen no matter how much one wished they wouldn’t.
But there were still others who, whether you called them naive or kind, believed one thing above all:
If they could only speak with the gods, the invasion could be averted.
Inside the Supreme Command Center, Lin Fan had returned from the President’s office and was scrolling through the netizens’ comments on his phone.
He said calmly, “I originally thought this conversation might not be necessary at all, but now it seems very necessary.”
“Hmm?” Elder Chen, who was directing researchers as they carried several boxes, paused in mild surprise.
“Many people still cling to hope and refuse to face what is destined to happen next.” Lin Fan sighed. “Since that is so, let this conversation completely sever the last vestiges of their wishful thinking, and let them see exactly how the gods regard us.”
“Let them know that the coming war is unavoidable.”
“Let them know that from here on, Great Xia has only one path left: a battle with nowhere to retreat.”
In the previous life, before the war began, Great Xia had never communicated with the gods.
But after the first two gods fled, when the next wave of gods arrived, Great Xia still found a way to begin negotiations.
And the gods’ answer consisted of only two words:
Kneel down.
It was from that moment on that every person of Great Xia understood the gods’ attitude.
From that moment on, the vast realm of Great Xia had no way back; all hearts were united as one.
“Knowing sooner is a good thing,” Lin Fan said.
Then he looked up at Chen Yan. “Has everything been brought over?”
“Yes, it has all been moved here.” Chen Yan smiled. “I never expected the President would actually agree to your request. This time, the national museum has been emptied by nearly half.”
“The President sees farther than we do.” Lin Fan stood and walked toward the enormous boxes. “The empress was right. Rather than dwelling on the past, it is better to face the present.”
“These things in a museum are, of course, artifacts worth savoring.”
“But they were born for battle.”
“Only on the battlefield can they reveal their greatest edge.”
Lin Fan opened one of the boxes in a single motion.
Inside lay a collection of relics, all thick with rust.
They were weapons, every one of them.
Lin Fan could clearly feel the battle intent of his ancestors, the souls of the sages, and the national fortune of Great Xia lingering upon them.
These were...
The divine weapons of Great Xia.
He stroked them gently and turned to say, “Summon the entire Godslayer Army. All of them, here at once.”
Before long, more than a hundred people filed into the office of the Supreme Command Center.
At their head was the first squad of the Godslayer Army, personally formed by Lin Fan himself, but the rest were all unfamiliar faces.
At the sight of them, Lin Fan was briefly taken aback. He turned to Elder Jin, who had come along with them. “Why are there so many?”
“Didn’t you tell us to search for every awakened one in Great Xia?” Elder Jin spread his hands. “So we did.”
“But when I left, there was only that rescued fifth-rank fire user, Que Hong.” Lin Fan stared in confusion at the hundred-odd people before him.
Elder Jin laughed heartily. “Listen to yourself. You know that was when you left, right? How much time has passed since then?”
“With the vast population of fourteen hundred million in Great Xia, even if the chance of an awakened one appearing is low, there ought to be a few hundred by now. The Godslayer Army has already been divided into teams of six, and we’re up to the twenty-fifth squad!”
As he spoke, his phone rang again.
Elder Jin answered, exchanged a few simple words, then burst out laughing. “See? While we were talking, two more turned up. I won’t say more—I need to go make arrangements.”
In that instant, Lin Fan looked over the roomful of awakened ones, and a smile touched the corner of his lips.
Truly, Heaven was favoring Great Xia.