When the second pagoda spirit came out, Devil Gut Fungus Lord was dumbstruck. It was originally only one pagoda spirit; how had it become two? It was also clear that this wasn’t a clone of the first pagoda spirit, but was truly another one, because Immortal Toya’s strength and aura had doubled after the second pagoda spirit appeared.

　　What on earth was going on?

　　Devil Gut Fungus Lord drew a deep breath and asserted control over the army of ten million insects, which had the power to plunder and devour everything. However, such huge momentum had also been detected by Mixiu’s government troops. Night Chief was already under Mixiu’s surveillance to begin with, and with this huge fluctuation of energy on the border, their defense mechanisms were activated.

　　Immortal Toya wasn’t Devil Gut Fungus Lord’s only opponent now; Mixiu’s national army as well as cultivators who had received the news were on their way.

　　The situation didn’t look good, but Devil Gut Fungus Lord was still unperturbed. In his opinion, the Mixiu cultivators who were on their way after receiving the news were simply nothing more than energy supplements — the more people he devoured, the stronger he would become.

　　Boom!

　　Several missiles were fired at Devil Gut Fungus Lord. Devil Gut Fungus Lord didn’t even look at them as he directly controlled the insect army into blocking the missiles with their bodies. The sky lit up with explosions as massive numbers of insect soldiers were fried. These weren’t ordinary missiles, but spirit power missiles made from the compression of highly dense spirit power molecules. These were large-caliber warheads which were more destructive than the original nuclear bomb. Furthermore, they were very environmentally friendly, and didn’t have the side effect of radiation.

　　In the second great war of modern cultivation human history, a spirit power missile had been used to directly destroy a country.

　　In the sky, Devil Gut Fungus Lord was buffeted by the powerful shock wave, but it was completely harmless to him.

　　“Want to go up against me with a few missiles? Too naive.” Devil Gut Fungus Lord raised his hand, utterly dismissive of the national army’s missiles.

　　In fact, given his current ability, he could have his insect troops gobble up the missiles before they exploded.

　　What happened just now was purely Devil Gut Fungus Lord testing how strong the missiles were.

　　However, he was greatly disappointed by the results.

　　These missiles were too weak.

　　They were far inferior to the Wutian Golden Buddha Palm, and Devil Gut Fungus Lord felt that they weren’t even as strong as Immortal Toya’s light of purification.

　　“Failed?”

　　A military officer at national defense HQ gazed at the scene via satellite surveillance.

　　“Commander, sir… What should we do now?” The technical staff in charge of controlling the missile’s trajectory broke out in a cold sweat.

　　“We can only continue to harass him with missiles; we’re waiting on approval from the higher-ups concerning the larger warheads…”

　　“But is it really alright for us as soldiers of Mixiu to so obviously speak the language of Huaxiu?”

　　“The author hasn’t passed CET 4 ¹ yet, we have no choice. This isn’t the time to bother with that.”

　　“…”

　　“Did Mixiu Alliance send out the notice?”

　　“Yes, Commander, sir! Mixiu Alliance has already called for all hero cultivators to hurry to the battlefield! The closest backup has almost arrived!”

　　“Very good!” The commander-in-charge nodded.

　　Meanwhile, his eyes were fixed on Immortal Toya’s face on the surveillance screen.

　　In the end, this invasion had happened on Mixiu’s border.

　　They didn’t want the spotlight to be snatched away by a Huaxiu cultivator.

　　…

　　While Mixiu Alliance, i.e. Mixiu Alliance of Cultivators, had a slightly different organizational structure than Huaxiu Alliance, the role it played was the same. It was responsible for maintaining order, coordinating among the various major cultivator organizations, putting together ranking statistics of the strongest cultivators in the country and so on… But unlike other countries, Mixiu also had a special feature — the hero system.

　　At that moment, the closest heroes had already arrived on the frontline.

　　In the sky, the two pagoda spirits spun around Immortal Toya before completely fusing with him, and two green spirit spheres revolved around him, like planets orbiting the sun.

　　Just like Devil Gut Fungus Lord said, Immortal Toya’s fighting strength had doubled, but it still wasn’t going to be an easy fight. Devil Gut Fungus Lord was too powerful… it was possible that the Nine Cycles Exquisite Pagoda would have to exhibit all its power before Immortal Toya could match the other side.

　　But to go all out, he had to be killed nine times.

　　Each time he died, a new pagoda spirit would appear.

　　Right now it was a two-person cycle.

　　The strongest form was the nine-person cycle.

　　So Immortal Toya had nine lives in total.

　　Devil Gut Fungus Lord had to kill him nine times.

　　Hm…

　　This was the true pronunciation of the word “cycle” in the Nine Cycles Exquisite Pagoda — it wasn’t the third tone, but the fourth tone ² …

　　This was how the Nine Cycles Exquisite Pagoda got its name.

　　The situation now was very dire, and the last thing Immortal Toya wanted was Devil Gut Fungus Lord to continue to gobble up and gain power.

　　Yet this most worrying situation still happened…

　　From a distance, a masked female heroine dressed in leather swiftly advanced by swinging from the buildings. Her butt spurted out white thread… If Immortal Toya was right, this should be spider silk…

　　“Don’t be afraid! I’m here!”

　　The masked heroine’s butt spurted out spider silk which landed with a splat at Immortal Toya’s feet as she hung upside down in the air.

　　Immortal Toya dropped his forehead into his hand. “And you are…”

　　“I’m a Mixiu A-Class hero, Silky Web Heroine!” The masked woman loudly introduced herself with pride. “I have no other interests apart from maintaining world peace! This opponent looks very fierce, but you can rest assured that as long as I’m here, he can’t hurt you at all —”

　　Immortal Toya: “…”

　　Before this poor Silky Web Heroine could finish speaking, she was gone.

　　Immortal Toya looked down. There was already no trace of Silky Web Heroine under his feet, except for a bit of spider silk that was stuck to the sole of his foot like gum…

　　Immortal Toya was a little speechless at this situation.

　　He didn’t know how strong an A-Class hero was…

　　But it was very clear that an A-Class hero couldn’t handle Devil Gut Fungus Lord at all!

　　Couldn’t Mixiu Alliance send someone a little more reliable?

　　While Immortal Toya was thinking this, in the distance, an old man wearing a blue and white porcelain helmet walked unhurriedly forward in the sky.

　　“Someone else looking to die?”

　　Devil Gut Fungus Lord sneered.

　　He manipulated the insect army into charging at the old man.

　　However, the old man just cocked his head, and in the next moment, the bodies of the insects that got close to him actually transformed as they were assimilated by his porcelain powers, becoming extremely fragile.

　　The old man blew lightly, and these insects, which had become blue and white porcelain, turned into fine powder…

　　Immortal Toya was blank. “You are…?”

　　The old man with the blue and white porcelain helmet said serenely, “I am the SS-Class hero, Porcelaino ³ .”

　　Immortal Toya: “…