108: Chapter 100 The application for a divine war was rejected.

At the end of the Yomi Hirasaka, several wisps of black smoke darted forward frantically.

This was Tamamo-no-Mae burning the last thirty percent of her life essence blood, forcefully exchanging it for maximum speed.

She didn't even dare to look back. That battlefield, trampled into mud by the Great Qin cavalry, looking at it for one more second could scatter her soul.

At this moment, her mind held only one thought—Ascend!

As long as she could escape back to Takamagahara, as long as she could see her Mother Goddess, Izanami, this dead end could be reversed!

No matter how strong the Underworld Son of Heaven was, he was ultimately fighting on foreign ground. Once the Mother Goddess mobilized the origin of the entire Japanese God System to descend a divine punishment, that arrogant Eastern lunatic would absolutely be crushed into dust by the rules!

"Faster... Faster!"

Tamamo-no-Mae roared madly in her heart, transforming into black smoke and smashing through the barrier mist where Yomi and the Divine Realm intersected.

Her altitude continuously increased, throwing the cold, bloody sea mist behind her.

Ahead, a dazzling golden divine light blazed intensely. That was the sacred aura unique to Takamagahara, the residence of the Eight Million Gods, an absolutely inviolable supreme domain.

The moment she saw the golden light, the nearly broken nerve of Tamamo-no-Mae finally relaxed.

She had arrived!

That was the entrance to the Divine Palace, her final safe zone, a forbidden land where that Eastern lunatic absolutely dared not act presumptuously.

She stumbled out of the clouds and reformed her human shape.

Her originally magnificent twelve-layered robe was shredded into tattered strips, and her face, capable of toppling nations, was now filled only with terror. She scrambled forward, rushing straight toward the vermilion great torii gate that symbolized the supreme authority of the Japanese God System.

"Mother Goddess! Save me! Those lunatics from the East are attacking—"

The piercing shriek was cut off halfway, as if a hammer had smashed down on her head, lodging itself in her throat.

Tamamo-no-Mae's knees buckled, and she collapsed onto the churning sea of clouds. The Takamagahara before her, which should have been sacred and inviolable, was already unrecognizable.

The vermilion torii gate, which had stood for thousands of years and towered hundreds of meters high, still stood in the clouds.

However, it was split exactly in half down the middle. That sword mark pierced from end to end, its cross-section smooth and even, cruelly slicing open the grain of the thousand-year-old divine wood.

The sacred rope wrapped around the pillars and the Shinto talismans had long since turned into piles of charred ashes on the ground.

The entire Takamagahara was unnervingly quiet. The Kagura music had stopped, and the figures of Tengu and Shinto priests were nowhere to be seen.

The air did not smell of sandalwood, only a strong, nauseating metallic scent of rust.

That was the smell of divine blood, the divine blood of the highest-ranking principal god—scalding, pungent, and carrying the decay left by collapsing rules.

Tamamo-no-Mae's eyelids twitched violently, and her whole body shook like a sieve.

Like a rusted puppet, she slowly turned her neck inch by inch, looking into the depths of the Divine Palace through the split gate.

At the end of her vision, the main seat of the Divine Hall, which represented the supreme authority of Yomi, had already been reduced to ruins.

In the pile of rubble, a woman lay face down beneath the steps of the throne, her hair disheveled.

The magnificent divine robe symbolizing the Mother Goddess's majesty had been shredded into rags by sword qi.

The exposed divine body was covered in sword marks deep enough to expose bone. The wounds did not bleed; instead, golden divine power leaked out wildly.

That was Izanami!

The ruler of Yomi, who controlled life and death and made the entire Japanese God System kowtow and worship.

At this moment, she was like a defeated dog with a broken spine, shrinking weakly in the dust and ash.

And standing before her was a young man.

A gray hooded sweatshirt, faded white jeans, and a pair of sneakers. This attire looked as jarring in the magnificent, ancient Divine Palace as a university student who had taken a wrong turn onto the set.

But he held a sword in his hand.

Pitch black, with ancient cloud patterns engraved on the blade—the Heavenly Son Sword of Fengdu.

Pei Fei stepped on the broken stones carved with chrysanthemum divine patterns, leaning forward slightly.

The Heavenly Son Sword hung loosely, its tip less than three inches from Izanami's brow.

"Is this all you've got?" The young man's tone was filled with extreme disdain, echoing through the ruined Divine Hall.

Tamamo-no-Mae's mind went blank. Her awe and faith in Takamagahara spanning thousands of years completely shattered at this moment.

This was Takamagahara, the absolute home ground; how could it be unilaterally crushed by an outsider?

Sensing the movement at the entrance, Pei Fei slightly turned his head, his peripheral vision sweeping over Tamamo-no-Mae on the ground.

His gaze was as indifferent as if he were looking at a pile of unrecyclable trash.

In that mere half-second his gaze shifted, the Izanami on the ground suddenly lifted her head.

That majestic and exquisitely beautiful face was now distorted by extreme humiliation.

The indifference and contempt in Pei Fei's eyes were like a dull knife, scraping away her last shred of dignity as a principal god.

This was the last chance. "Easterner... You bully the gods too much!" Izanami let out a piercing roar.

She gave up on escaping or counterattacking and performed an extremely frantic action.

She arched her long neck, bent her arms backward, and with the resentment of taking everyone down with her, stabbed straight into her own chest.

"Screeech—"

Her sharp claws tore open her divine body; the sound was like tearing raw iron, making one's scalp tingle.

Under Tamamo-no-Mae's horrified gaze, Izanami forcibly dug a grayish-white crystal out of her chest cavity.

The crystal was enveloped by dense laws of death—it was the core origin of the Land of Yomi—her Godhead!

"Crack!"

Without half a second of hesitation, Izanami used the last of her strength and crushed the Godhead.

"I offer my Godhead as a sacrifice! I use the national fortune of Takamagahara as a guide!"

"Apply to the Thriller Game System—Activate the Highest Authority Divine War!"

The moment the Godhead shattered, a grayish-white pillar of light violently pierced the dome of the Divine Palace, shooting straight into the sky.

The rule power exchanged by the principal god burning her life was enough to shake the underlying logic of the Thriller Game.

She wanted to drag Pei Fei, to drag the entire Huaxia Underworld down with her for burial!

If she can't win, then mutual destruction! Once a Divine War starts, it's a fight to the death; even the Great Emperor of Fengdu would be worn down to death in the endless consumption of rules!

"Buzz—"

The void above the ceiling split open.

A giant blood-red single eye opened in the void.

The sound of mechanical operation echoed throughout the Divine Kingdom, and a scarlet scanning beam instantly locked onto the entire Takamagahara.

Tamamo-no-Mae closed her eyes in despair.

It was over. Once the Divine War started, this place would instantly become a purgatory, and all living beings present would become sacrifices.

However, the expected declaration of war countdown did not sound.

After the blood-red single eye scanned Pei Fei's body, the destruction energy that was frantically loading suddenly got stuck.

A completely emotionless system announcement sounded, like a loud slap forcefully striking the face of the entire Takamagahara:

[Target (Huaxia Underworld) detected to be in "Divine War Victory Protection Period".]

[Source: Reward from the "Aztec · Mictlan" Divine War.]

[This forced Divine War application—Rejected. Judged as invalid.]

This series of announcements was like forcibly severing Izanami's last hope.

The soaring sacrificial light pillar flickered twice, then, with a 'poof,' it completely extinguished.

Izanami was still maintaining the sacrificial posture with her hands raised high and her chest covered in blood.

She stared at the blood-red single eye gradually closing above her, the madness in her eyes slowly dissipating, leaving only hollow despair.

As a principal god, she didn't even want her life, and she crushed her Godhead, only to receive a 'Rejected' in return.

Thousands of years of faith and pride were ground into the dirt by the system's 'Rejection' at this moment.

"Protection Period... How can there be a Protection Period?!"

A broken, hoarse sound escaped her throat; her belief completely collapsed in the face of those three light words.

In the corner, Tamamo-no-Mae lay sprawled in the rubble, deliberately suppressing even her breathing.

The heavenly punishment summoned by sacrificing a principal god's Godhead was rejected so lightly.

This Easterner could actually override even the rules of Heaven's Way.

Pei Fei didn't even lift his head, allowing the rule fluctuations above his head to dissipate on their own.

He flipped his wrist, and the wide blade of the Heavenly Son Sword patted Izanami's pale cheek twice, with two crisp sounds of 'pa, pa,' as if patting a disobedient dog.

"Surprised?"