Chapter 660: Heroic Spirits Return to Native Soil: The Eternal Monument of the Kunlun Sanctuary
Chapter 660 -389: Heroic Spirits Return to Native Soil: The Eternal Monument of the Kunlun Sanctuary
After three long months of intense, back-and-forth negotiations, a relatively satisfactory agreement was finally reached.
The main terms of the truce agreement reached by both sides were as follows:
Ceasefire Duration: Three hundred years. During this period, both parties are prohibited from initiating any large-scale military conflicts.
Small-scale skirmishes (not exceeding one hundred humans or Exotic Beasts) are permissible, but major wars are forbidden. Specifically, powerhouses at or above the Divine Tier are prohibited from joining any battles.
Spheres of influence would be clearly demarcated, with each side minding its own business.
Specifically:
Human-Controlled Territory: The Earth-Moon Element, Mars and its moons, four of Jupiter’s Moons, three of Saturn’s Moons, Ceres, and a portion of the Asteroid Belt (for resource development).
Exotic Beast-Controlled Territory: The Sun, the remaining six planets and their moons, and four dwarf planets.
All remaining asteroids, dwarf planets, moons, comets, and other celestial bodies not explicitly assigned by the treaty were designated as shared territory. These locations could also serve as the battlegrounds for the permissible small-scale skirmishes.
The only reason a truce was possible—the only reason they had a seat at the negotiating table at all—was because Li Xiang and the women were simply too powerful. Had they been even slightly weaker, they would have been utterly disregarded.
This period of peace was hard-won. Of course, the agreement was only possible because both sides were nursing their own secret plans.
The Exotic Beast Kings had agreed to the negotiations primarily to stall for time. They were waiting—waiting for the Sun’s Refinement to be complete. Once a being at the Fixed Star Lord Realm emerged from their faction, it would be Earth’s doomsday.
From their perspective, there was no need for a fight to the death with the humans. The humans were putting up a desperate resistance, and even a cornered rabbit will bite—especially when that “rabbit” was Li Xiang’s group, whose combat prowess was formidable.
In any case, the Solar Element had only one Fixed Star—the Sun—and it was now under their control. They would defend it to the death, ensuring their leader could complete the Fusion with the Sun. Once that happened, they would be invincible.
At that point, the native humans of this star system would be nothing more than fish on a chopping block, utterly insignificant.
…
Li Xiang’s group, of course, was also employing a stalling tactic. Their plan was to use the peace to continue developing their strength, hoping for a chance to venture deep into the Sun and seize control of the Solar Element.
At the same time, they were pursuing a two-pronged strategy. First, they would accelerate R&D on new technologies, striving to create high-yield weapons capable of taking out a Planet Dominator Realm expert in a single blow. If they could develop a weapon capable of killing a Fixed Star Lord, that would be even more incredible.
The second prong of their strategy was to research Teleportation Arrays. They needed to crack their secrets and develop “Star Gates” hundreds of kilometers in diameter—large enough for even a Divine King Level Stellar Mother Ship to pass through.
Three hundred years was more than enough time for Earth Humans to advance. The Exotic Beasts were completely ignorant of the scientific and research capabilities of Jiang Cai’Er and her team.
Nearly all of the world’s top researchers had now gathered in Country C, all under the command of Jiang Cai’Er. Supported by the staggering Computing Power of a growing number of Supercomputing Centers, Li Xiang was confident that Earth Human technology could maintain its rapid development for at least several hundred years.
Li Xiang and the women returned to Mars. With the truce in place, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Tearing up the agreement and launching a sneak attack was impossible for the enemy. For one, the treaty wasn’t signed with ink, but with a spiritual imprint from both sides. Li Xiang’s group would instantly sense any violation.
For another, small-scale raids were pointless, and any large-scale troop mobilization would never escape Li Xiang’s Nine Nether Falsehood-Breaking Gaze.
Nor could they hide from the “Eye Liners” that Jiang Cai’Er would soon deploy throughout space.
She was planning to launch more reconnaissance satellites and Computing Satellites.
For both sides, the truce was merely a stalling tactic.
Li Xiang and the women gathered on Mars, holding a meeting that lasted for three days and three nights. They drafted a grand development plan for the next three hundred years—an incredibly detailed strategy guide, a sprawling document of a million words.
After the meeting, they all returned to Earth.
The first wave of colonists to Mars had numbered three hundred million. In the ensuing war, roughly half were lost. These were the heroes who had charged onto the front lines to defend Earth Humans.
A Divine King Level Stellar Mother Ship transported the ashes of these heroes back to Earth. The day of its arrival was solemn and somber. Countless people came to pay their respects, and the families’ grief-stricken cries shook the heavens, moving all who witnessed the scene to tears.
The ashes of the martyrs were interred together at the northern foot of Kunlun Mountain. Even the Elder in Dragon Robe and the three other Earth Vein Spirits came to attend the ceremony, as the Kunlun Mountain Ancestral Vein was their place of origin.
This location had been chosen after extensive deliberation during Li Xiang and the others’ three-day conference.
In ancient myths, this had been the dwelling place of gods. With its majestic peaks and roiling sea of clouds, it possessed both a natural sanctity and a sense of vast, open space.
Li Xiang used the immense power of his Planet Dominator Realm to reshape the very terrain, transforming a valley spanning a thousand li into a terraced cemetery. Each level was engraved with the name of a different battle, and at its center stood the “Star Dome Hero Monument,” towering over a thousand meters high.
The monument was forged from Obsidian fused with a Divine King Level Beast Crystal Core. Its surface shimmered with the Immortal Inscriptions personally carved by Li Xiang, emitting a faint, ceaseless golden glow day and night, a symbol of the heroes’ eternal spirits.
This grandest mausoleum in the world was named the “Holy Land of Heroic Spirits.”
Li Xiang held a grand memorial service, and it seemed as if heaven and earth grieved alongside them.
On the day the ashes arrived, the C Country Federation lowered its flags to half-mast across all territories. The sky lane from City No. 03 to the Kunlun Mountain Range was completely cleared. An honor guard of three hundred Divine Level Stellar Mother Ships flew in formation, their hulls projecting massive holograms that looped footage of the martyrs’ final battles.
Li Xiang, clad in black Battle Armor, stood atop the monument. He swept his Divine Thought over every single urn, instantly engraving the names of over one hundred and fifty million martyrs onto the monument’s base.
Jiang Cai’Er then delivered a eulogy on behalf of the Federation. Her voice, carried by quantum satellites, reached across the globe and out to the colonized worlds of the Moon and Mars. “Their flesh and blood forged the bulwarks of Mars; their souls have become the shield of Earth. Today, the flame of human civilization burns on because of them!”