The war has begun.
This can indeed be called a war, even though the number of participants on both sides does not seem to be substantial.
But on one side is the Undead Legion, which has traversed the Multiverse and strikes fear into countless civilizations, and on the other side is the army of the Yomotsu Oni Tribe from the Yellow Springs in Japan's mythology, a force that even the Creator Gods can only flee from.
The collision and battle between these two are enough to be recorded in epic and myth.
Especially now in the sky, the Magatsukami sealed in the Yellow Springs has also begun to emerge with black smoke from the pit at the bottom of the Hirasaka Ridge, engaging in an intense battle with the deities led by the Inari God in the sky.
Chen Yu, at this moment, no longer has the energy or mood to worry about the battlefield's situation. With the Inari God present, as long as no stronger deities appear on the Yellow Springs' side, the battlefront should hold for the time being.
Not to mention, apart from the Inari God, are the numerous legions and ship-girls he has stationed on the ground just for decoration?
In fact, Chen Yu cannot spare any attention to the battlefield now; his entire mind, as before, has once again submerged into the ritual.
Compared to the last ceremony at the Sanzu River Bank, this time Chen Yu clearly feels it is much more demanding. Getting the Network of Rules to manifest, let alone pulling the world rules he selected from it, is much more difficult than last time.
Chen Yu can clearly feel that the world consciousness is now very active and is continuously resisting Chen Yu's plundering of the world rules.
Particularly crucial is that this time, Chen Yu does not have the Stygian River tributary by his side, making it hard to borrow its power, instead communicating through the Dragon Witches to borrow a much weaker Power of the Stygian River compared to last time.
However, although the ritual's difficulty has increased, with the assistance of the Dragon Witch Ghost Mage Corps, Chen Yu's control over the ceremony has undoubtedly increased significantly.
For a Necromancer, having a Mage Corps to provide abundant magic power allows him to unleash his full potential.
The world consciousness is resisting? No problem, just directly overpower it with brute force, gather the magic power to blast the Network of Rules into manifestation.
And unlike last time, there's no need to delicately contaminate the world rules with the power gathered at the ritual altar.
The world consciousness clearly finds it intolerable for such a thing to happen, with the vibrations of the world rules and the world's entire rejection pressing directly on Chen Yu, nearly causing him to lose his footing.
But Chen Yu still stabilized his body, pushing all the pressure back with the power gathered by the Dragon Witches.
Below the ritual altar, two standby Dragon Transformation Mage Corps also saw this and began casting spells to channel power to the already struggling Chen Yu atop the altar.
With the support of the two Mage Corps, Chen Yu immediately felt relieved, and the pages of the "Multiverse Universal Necromancy Spell Compendium" in his hands flew, with a spell developed by Necromancers specifically to counter world consciousness already taking shape.
This actually falls within the realm of Divine Arts, even for demigod-level Necromancers, it's difficult to use such a spell.
But with the support of the three Mage Corps behind him, Chen Yu released this spell.
The invisible spell struck directly at the Network of Rules, following the network to hit the fiercely resisting world consciousness.
For Necromancers, being rejected by the world consciousness is nothing unusual, so naturally, some rather gentle and amiable Necromancers developed spells to deal with world consciousness.
Some of these spells can severely damage or even annihilate the world consciousness, while others, like the one used by Chen Yu, can make the world consciousness enter a slumber, for shorter or longer durations.
Since Chen Yu is not yet a deity, this spell can only make the world consciousness sleep for a short period.
Once the spell took effect, the resistance of the world consciousness immediately dissipated.
However, the cost of this was that more than a dozen Dragon Liches on the ritual altar were instantly drained of all magic power, disintegrating like flying ash.
However, Chen Yu did not care about this; after settling the world consciousness, he needed to quickly extract the four rules before it could react, as his wife and children were waiting to use them.
Just as Chen Yu started to draw the world rules, an extremely terrifying pressure and a piercing laughter emanated from deep within the pit at Hirasaka Ridge, causing an intrinsic fear across the entire battlefield.
Upon hearing this piercing laughter, the Inari God, the strongest on the scene, was the first to change expression, as he acutely knew whose voice this belonged to.
In Japan's mythology, the origins of Yomotsu Hirasaka and the Senzui Stone trace back to the Creator Gods, Izanagi and Izanami, and this thunderous piercing laughter was issued by Izanami, who entered the Yellow Springs after death.
For the other Magatsukami of the Yellow Springs, the Inari God did not concern Himself with them at all.
After all, He is Japan's most powerful deity by sheer Power of Faith, supported by the inexhaustible Divine Power from Inari Shrines across the country, elevating His Divine Position to an unsurpassable level.
Becoming second only to the Three Precious Children in the entire Japanese Deity system.
But even for the strongest Three Precious Children in the Japanese Deity system, they were merely descendants of Izanagi, and compared to Izanami, even Amaterasu Ōmikami Himself might struggle to handle this already deceased Creator God.
Especially aside from Izanami, there is also the God of Destruction, Susanou, one of the Three Precious Children, sealed in the Yellow Springs.
As a deity specializing in combat and destruction, the Inari God felt that even in His own divine domain, He could at most draw against him.
But now, the bow cannot be undone. Even if He couldn't win, the Inari God must press on bravely.
Behind Him, Chen Yu had already begun extracting the world rules, and if He wanted to advance further, He must, at the very least, stall for time until Chen Yu's ritual concluded.
With that in mind, the Inari God hesitated no more. After a golden light flashed over His body, a new attire appeared along with a bow and arrow in His hands.
And the fox that emerged from behind Him carried arrows resembling golden wheat ears, standing by His side.
Bowing and nocking an arrow, the Inari God shot the golden divine arrows in His hand towards the pit where the Yomotsu Oni Tribe was continuously emerging.
The arrow was caught by a massive hand of black-purple hue, revealing a menacing and robust divine figure.
"Susanou!" The Inari God's expression changed, as the situation had turned extremely dire.
Without further thought, the Inari God bent His bow again, but this time, He directed the shots towards the other Magatsukami in the sky.
If He couldn't counter Susanou, He'd have to eliminate other Magatsukami first, freeing other deities to assist the army in holding off the Yomotsu Oni Tribe, making use of the time effectively.