He remained calm, but the rest of the nation’s factions were anything but.
Through intelligence from Chameleon, Deacon Water, Commander Mu, and others, it became clear that Cloudtop’s successful hunt had stirred the entire nation into action.
The Resistance Zone, already on the verge of splitting, reunited. Zhang Hetai, Wen Zhong, and Ji Ruiguang met at Sharp Peak Mountain and resolved to maintain its unity. They even sent word to Commander Mu, hoping he would set aside past grievances and reunite the four regions.
When Commander Mu—still harboring resentment—refused, they promptly announced the expulsion of Zone S from the Resistance Zone. Commander Mu responded the next day by renaming his faction the Daybreak Resistance Army.
This wasn’t the end. After excluding Commander Mu, the newly unified Resistance Zone announced a strategic alliance with the Glory Army and Black Star, encompassing over a dozen factions from the national rankings.
The nation was shaken once more.
Many saw this as a direct response to the alliance between Cloud Peak, Thousand Beast Villa, the Daybreak Resistance Army, and Deacon Water. The nation’s second, third, and tenth factions had joined forces to oppose the coalition of the first, fourth, and fifteenth!
Commander Mu’s Daybreak Resistance Army had been ranked fifteenth.
There were chain reactions.
Deacon Water had been kicked out.
But Ye Zhongming knew this was merely a necessary measure—a commercial organization’s way of maintaining client trust. For a long time to come, Deacon Water would still maintain close ties with Five Ring Money.
Another explosive piece of news arrived before people could process these expulsions and alliances.
God Hall, Pin Palace, and Soul Merchant had also allied!
The fifth, sixth, and seventh-ranked factions in the National Power Rankings had joined forces!
With this, every super faction in the top ten—except the commerce-based Five Ring Money and Cannibal Chain—had formed their own alliances.
When Ye Zhongming learned of this, he could only shake his head wryly. He had merely called on some allies for help, yet it had triggered a nationwide wave of factional alliances.
Looking at these alliances, there was a clear pattern—birds of a feather flocked together. Pin Palace, God Hall, and Soul Merchant were hardly benevolent organizations.
With the nation’s factions now divided into three major blocs—whether the Resistance Zone’s alliance or the Soul Merchant’s coalition—neither had good relations with Cloud Peak’s alliance. Clearly, they would need to be cautious moving forward.
However, Cloud Peak and Ye Zhongming’s concerns did not materialize. These alliances did take action—but their target wasn’t Cloud Peak.
Perhaps spurred by Cloud Peak’s success, both alliances launched large-scale operations quickly—their goal? Level-nine lifeforms.
With its overwhelming strength (reportedly commanding over three million evolved), the Resistance-Glory Army-Black Star alliance targeted a mid-northern city inhabited by a level-nine lifeform.
The exact details were known only to participants, but the outcome was clear—the alliance had won. They successfully killed the level-nine lifeform and cleared the city of all mutant life.
Piecemeal reports indicated that the Resistance Zone, Glory Army, Black Star, and other factions had mobilized a million-strong force and fought for three days to achieve this.
With so many factions involved, secrecy was impossible. The results quickly spread: over three million magic crystals of various levels, and the corpse of a level-nine lifeform. The cleared city became a jointly managed stronghold.
Of course, losses were heavy. Whispers claimed the million-strong army had suffered over 30% casualties, including high-ranking commanders from both the Resistance Zone and Glory Army.
Li Daqian’s Thousand Beast Villa had killed a level-nine by targeting a pregnant one—a stroke of luck. Cloud Peak had succeeded by pitting two level-nine lifeforms against each other.
Neither could be considered a true, direct challenge to a level-nine lifeform.
But the Resistance Zone alliance had faced the highest-level existence head-on—and triumphed.
The other alliance—God Hall, Soul Merchant, and Pin Palace—also launched a large-scale operation. Reports indicated they hadn’t deployed as many evolved but had mobilized vast numbers of mutated lifeforms (undoubtedly God Hall’s doing). They targeted an extremely resource-rich dungeon, home to a level-nine monster.
They, too, succeeded—at a steep cost.
Rumors claimed that figures like the Holy Saint’s branch leaders had died, though this remained unconfirmed.
Faced with these two alliances’ back-to-back victories against level-nine lifeforms, Ye Zhongming appeared unfazed on the surface, but inwardly, he was deeply moved.
These factions had profound foundations, each possessing trump cards for survival in the apocalypse. Normally, they avoided such costly endeavors, but the power they unleashed was truly fearsome when pushed to the brink—when they went all out.
Ye Zhongming had never imagined that his large-scale hunt, intended solely for Cloud Peak’s development, would trigger such a chain reaction. Not only had it created a tripartite division of power in the nation, but it had also spurred humanity to bare its fangs at level-nine existences.
Humanity’s march toward nine-star evolution had accelerated…
Although both alliances suffered heavy losses this time, it was also a form of resource concentration. A select few would monopolize the benefits. While each faction might weaken overall, these individuals would only grow stronger.
Cloud Peak’s advantage remained clear—on a macro level. But other factions were rapidly catching up at the pinnacle of the pyramid. A silent competition had formed—to see who would reach nine-star evolution first!
As intelligence reports detailed the two alliances’ large-scale relocations, each consolidating their own regions, Ye Zhongming realized his rebirth had drastically altered the apocalypse. None of this had happened in his past life. He didn’t know if this was good or bad—nor did he care. All he knew was that he stood at the nation’s summit. His task now was to maintain that position and crush all opposition when the time came.
As storms gathered over the nation, Ye Zhongming prepared to face them.
While the nation underwent upheaval, the Blue Secret Realm reached its end. The already fractured world entered its most unstable phase, with space trembling incessantly—annihilation was imminent.
The demon monster commander sought out Ye Zhongming—it was time to bring its forces over.
Ye Zhongming’s gaze fell upon a newly crafted map of the nation, sweeping over the territories of the two alliances…