The People's God: Sacrificing Trillions to Ascend

Chapter 818 - Assassination Tactics

Back in the Wealth Faction, a grin of pride stretched across the Wealth God King’s face when he received word that the Wisdom Faction had won the smear campaign. “Han Wu has a way about him. He found a way out despite that awkward position.”

“From what I know, the one who actually led the Wisdom Faction out of that mess wasn’t Han Wu,” said a God King, speaking to Zhao Zihong as an equal. “Someone else did it. This person is a freeloader, a Casanova who’s sleeping with at least three women in the Divine Civilization alone, with an estimated thirty-plus other girls in various foreign civilizations without regard to their ages.

“Setting aside his personal taste, what caught my attention was his approach to the rumor problem. When you can’t fix the problem, aim the spearhead at the person making it. He reminds me of my younger self.”

The admiration in the God King’s voice surprised Zhao Zihong. This God King—the Information God King—controlled the flow of all information into the media within the Divine Civilization, and was ranked just below Zhao Zihong in the Wealth Faction.

“So you want to take on a disciple?” Zhao Zihong asked curiously. It seemed like the logical next step when the Information God King was so freely praising a freeloading nobody.

“Sun Qingnian has potential, but he’s not quite there yet,” the Information God King said with a shake of his head. “Whether I take him depends on the Divine Jurisdiction he develops. If it relates to information in any way, he’ll be worth accepting.”

Happy to help an old friend find a promising student, Zhao Zihong instructed, “Increase our investment in the Wisdom Faction by fifty percent, and prepare a special reward for Sun Qingnian!”

Meanwhile, at the site of the divine war, the Wisdom Faction had found new life. The returning students cleared away the low morale, and Xu Hai was enjoying the good turn of events when the additional investment from the Wealth Faction arrived.

They had invested another 100 million Divine Essence and sent five more God Kings to assist. Morale in the Wisdom Faction surged, as if injected with a shot of adrenaline.

News of this investment would undoubtedly draw in another wave of students and talented individuals who wanted to be part of a winning side. They would become the Wisdom Faction’s foundation going forward.

At the same time, Sun Qingnian received a special reward from the Wealth Faction. It was a brush that contained a strange energy.

The moment he held it, that energy flowed through the brush and into his body. It didn’t strengthen him physically or improve his resistance to any element. The only change he noticed was that he could now observe a person’s expression and detect their mood. He could even catch glimpses of their thoughts.

This new power captivated Sun Qingnian. He could use it to pick women up with greater ease. As he held the brush, he also grew increasingly certain that it hid even greater secrets, though its other functions would take time to uncover.

After taking his reward, he headed back to Imperial College alone. Shi Shan stayed behind to help the Wisdom Faction in combat.

The Slaughter Faction was not yet a vulnerable target. They had taken a loss in terms of public opinion, but their quick dropping of Wei En had mitigated that somewhat, and the hit to their actual fighting strength was limited. They still had plenty of powerhouses left to fight the Wisdom Faction.

However, the Slaughter Faction no longer held an advantage in numbers. The influx of students joining the Wisdom Faction meant they actually had a surplus of cannon fodder.

Unfortunately, cannon fodder couldn’t do much against powerful life forms or anti-World life form equipment. The Wisdom Faction would’ve already thrown its sheer number of cannon fodder at the Slaughter Faction’s command center if that were the case.

Still, cannon fodder had value, and the steady pressure of sheer numbers helped them eat away at the Slaughter Faction’s territory, bit by bit. In response, the Slaughter Faction switched to a different tactic: assassination.

A bounty list was issued targeting key figures in the Wisdom Faction. This list included the various God Kings in the Wisdom Faction, as well as Han Wu, Jing Jing, and Shi Shan.

In fact, Han Wu’s bounty was actually higher than some God Kings, at 30 million Divine Essence, second only to Xu Hai.

The Slaughter Faction’s elite fighters all pivoted to assassination. In the early phase of the bounty campaign, they went after smaller targets in the Wisdom Faction as they were easier. Going after the targets with higher bounty was a risky gamble.

The real problem arose when the bounty list circulated beyond the Slaughter Faction, catching the eyes of professional assassin organizations and independent God Kings. The rewards were simply too good to ignore. Killing even one minor God King in the Wisdom Faction carried a reward of anywhere between 100,000 and 20 million Divine Essence.

Han Wu’s bounty stood out among these at 30 million Divine Essence. That kind of money could fund an entire mid-tier faction. Moreover, he was just a Major God, which made him seem manageable to most assassins.

The assassination attempts against Han Wu came one after another. The moment he stepped outside the command zone, even just to go to the toilet, three to five assassins would materialize and try to take him out. Even World life forms joined in on the assassinations.

Han Wu had zero tolerance for assassination attempts. Those below the World rank were crushed on the spot and fed to his units. For World life forms, he first used Stellar Plunder to strip their Microcosms, Divine Ring, and divine weapons, then crushed them and fed them to his units.

However, the strength of assassins only increased with every failed attempt, to the point that even Han Wu felt pressured.

This made him realize he needed to work on improving his strength. There were many aspects of his power he could develop, but he wasn’t sure which would bring the best return, so he asked Xu Hai to assess it with his Mind Eye.

Xu Hai activated his Mind Eye and examined Han Wu’s full range of powers. Even with his exceptional intelligence, he found himself stumped. Han Wu simply had too many powerful abilities. Elevating any one of them came at the expense of neglecting the others.

In the end, Xu Hai ranked Han Wu’s upgradable powers in order of priority.

The Divine Weapon Atlas came first. Not only did it contain powerful divine weapons, but it also housed an ancient king’s soul whose value far exceeded that of a legendary Armament Spirit.

The Machine God came second. Its ability to equip chips without limit meant its potential was essentially boundless.

The Five Element Seal ranked third. Once mastered, Han Wu could handle World life forms with ease.

Han Wu looked over the list, but couldn’t bring himself to choose only one to improve. After mulling it over, he wondered if he could create a fusion approach that upgraded everything at once.