Way of the Devil - Chapter 729
Chapter 729: Gods (2)
A complete and true god was not a being any ordinary legendary or divine region-ranked beings could defeat.
Throughout history, only some godly spirits whose God Fires were extinguished and were half-dead had been successfully killed. Thus, their Godhoods had been taken away.
However, nobody had heard about a true god being killed and having his Godhood snatched away before.
“Kingdom Come!”
At this moment, Reyr gave a final shout.
His ceramic-like body instantly shattered into countless fragments. The only thing left of him was a spiky crystal with a burning white flame which swiveled slowly in midair.
The interior of the Sacrifice Hall was instantly layered with platinum-colored soil. The ceiling became a vast azure sky.
The walls around them gradually faded and vanished.
In an instant, Lu Sheng was pulled into the God of Sacrifice Reyr’s true god nation.
Lu Sheng was slightly stunned. He had a bad feeling, and wanted to step back. However, it was too late.
From the skies and ground around him, including underground, countless formidable auras were swiftly closing in on him.
Those were the natural guardians of the god nation. Some of them were former enemies Reyr had overcome and killed. Some of them were the Warriors and Sorcerers under his charge before. There were also giant dragons and various monsters he’d enslaved.
The great army numbering in the thousands came at him from all directions like a tide.
Countless forms of attacks including fireballs, electric balls, dissociation arts, storm, laser beams, war ballistae, magic arrows, sharp javelins, and other weapons rained down on Lu Sheng from all directions.
“Rumble!”
There was a loud sound.
The attacks completely drowned Lu Sheng out.
A huge pit was opened up in the platinum ground. The protective spiritual light around Lu Sheng’s body was wildly destroyed. He was soon left with a few layers of energy armor.
His high-ranked defenses had comprised 100 rank-7 arts.
Ordinary Sorcerers would have only been able to unleash a single layer. However, Lu Sheng was different. He derived the energy armor and converted the art into a cultivation method.
The specialty of the cultivation method was that as long as he had enough competence and his body allowed it, he could unleash it as many times as he wanted.
The art and physical attacks hit Lu Sheng’s body mercilessly.
The arcane art’s power swiftly negated the attacks from the external environment. It was swiftly weakened as well. The transparent energy armor grew thinner and weaker.
“Hell Storm!” Lu Sheng raised his arms high. He unleashed his rank-9 evocation school art without reserve.
In an instant, hundreds of Hell Storms were unleashed in compounding layers. With Lu Sheng as the center, an area of several thousand meters was covered in a layer of dark crimson hellfire.
The guardians of the god nation were tainted by the blazing hellfire, and the golden radiance on their bodies swiftly faded. Some of the weaker ones were reduced to ashes in no time.
Most of them managed to hold out for a moment, but were also turned into dried corpses by the hellfire, and fell to the ground.
“What a boring battle.” Lu Sheng leapt up from the sea of flames and hovered in the air.
Countless rules in the dimension around him suppressed him. The rules suppressed his powers so that he could only put out the lowest level possible.
However, Lu Sheng was not affected in the least. He was not even a proper Sorcerer to begin with. His power originated from within himself.
His main body was his energy furnace.
Lu Sheng hovered high in the air. He looked down at the countless guardians who were struggling and wailing among the hellfire-engulfed god nation.
“Where’s the God of Sacrifice?” He swept his gaze around the scene. He did not see any signs of Reyr.
‘This is his god nation, he won’t be able to run away.’ Lu Sheng was in no hurry. If this was the god nation, the core of the god should be here as well.
The god nation was truly the everything of a god. It was their entire wealth which they’d accumulated over countless years. The divine art systems laid out by the divine professions were supplied by the god nations.
Once a godly spirit lost his god nation, his divine art would wither, and the conversion of god power would be greatly diminished. More importantly, his strength would instantly drop. The deity would be reduced to a strength that was slightly more powerful than a demigod’s.
The God of Sacrifice’s god nation was a platinum-colored land. Any treasure planted in the land would give rise to an item of the same value according to the sower’s wishes.
This reflected the nature of the God of Sacrifice.
Lu Sheng walked around casually on the platinum-colored land. He passed through hills and mountains. After walking for a dozen kilometers, he saw the platinum temple which towered high above a mountain peak in the distance.
He could vaguely sense Reyr’s god power boiling in the temple.
“So, you think that you can escape from me by hiding in your little temple?” Lu Sheng looked around himself. He did not notice any guardians.
From the beginning until the end, throughout all the exchanging of blows, the destructive power Reyr unleashed was only at the rank of a demigod. However, compared to a demigod, he had countless saints to serve as his shields. In reality, he was much harder to kill than other ordinary demigods.
His defensive power lived up to his reputation of a lesser god.
In truth, most of the true gods who descended into the main plane were in similar circumstances.
Although their greatest strengths were limited, their hidden powers were too formidable. If he went against a middle god or a higher god, he might not even be able to tire him to death over decades.
Their countless believers gave them a constant supply of belief power. They could rapidly covert that into god power and supply it to their incarnation bodies on the ground.
If they had many believers, the rate at which they were being chipped would lag far behind the rate at which their powers were being replenished.
They would be impossible to kill.
Lu Sheng learned about these special characteristics of the gods from his subordinates. After making some simple preparations, he came for the God of Sacrifice.
Currently, the God of Sacrifice Reyr’s god power was almost depleted. All he had left were the guardians in his god nation.
If his god nation shattered, he would be no different from a demigod. This would still be the case even if he managed to flee from this battle.
When that time came, even a slightly stronger demigod could easily kill him, let alone Lu Sheng. He would be able to accomplish the great feat of killing a god.
“Who are you? Which great being are you?! I have no quarrel with you, why’re you backing me into a corner like this?!” Reyr’s voice came from the temple far away. His words were full of hate and rage.
“Didn’t I tell you this before?” Lu Sheng slowly flew toward the temple. “I’m only a pitiable person who wants to have his stomach filled…”
As he got closer to the temple, Lu Sheng could faintly sense the strong attraction force from the Godhood.
He had a feeling that the Godhood would surely bring an indescribable replenishment and enrichment to his Heart Image World.
“Give it up… You’re only a mortal being. I’ve foreseen this situation a long time ago.” Reyr’s voice came from the temple again. “I’ve connected this temple to the deepest part of the Star World. That’s the graveyard of the gods, a place where everything ends. No living creature has been able to escape from that place before. If you’re willing to be pulled into the depths of the Star World with me, then come.”
Lu Sheng was stunned. He slowed his advance toward the temple.
He did not expect Reyr to still have this amount of stamina.
Star World. That was the name of a graveyard whose name was a taboo among the gods, in the abyss, and even in hell.
It had originally been two tunnel dimensions. Over time, they accumulated countless souls and their byproducts which dropped from the upper planes.
It was the dumpster of the entire universe. The materials it contained were already wrung clean of anything useful. They were impurities and rubbish which contained no nutritional value to the plane and the living souls.
It was a place full of poison and corrosive storms which were damaging to all life and souls. The depths of the Star World had accumulated rubbish over countless years. The countless rubbish had given rise to an unrivalled attraction force.
This attraction force obeyed the most fundamental laws of attraction. It was constantly pulling on the countless planes above it.
It was perpetually attempting to pull everything on the upper planes down and assimilate it.
Fortunately, the planes themselves contained vast amounts of matter and their own force fields. Hence, they could still withstand this force.
Legend had it that when the Star World’s attraction force reached a certain threshold, all the other planes would be indiscriminately pulled down. They would fall toward it.
Everything would eventually merge into one in the Star Realm and return to the primordial state from when the world was made. Everything would collapse into an original point. Everything would be destroyed and merged.
The legends referred to this point as Ragnarök.
“If you don’t want us to die together and have both our souls eternally bound to the bottom of the Star World, it’s not too late for you to back out now.” Reyr’s voice came from the temple once more.
“Die together?” Lu Sheng finally stopped in his tracks.
He suddenly looked down.
“How about this. If you agree to transfer your divine profession and Godhood to me, I’ll spare your life.”
“Let us fall to the Star World, then.” Reyr’s decisive voice sounded.
Faint waves of the tearing of dimensions came from within the temple. A faint, dark aura of deathly stillness wafted out of the waves.
This aura had the trademark smell of the Star World. It was not merely the deathly stillness of dead spirits. This aura could not even be burned by the soul flames of the dead spirits.
It was an utter lack of life.
Lu Sheng’s heart raced. He quickly spoke to stop this. “What are your conditions, then?”
The waves coming from the temple paused slightly.
“You must exit the god nation!” said Reyr with contempt.
Lu Sheng was silent for a while.
“I can do that, but that’s actually meaningless. Even if I go out, I can still come back in.”
Although he said that, he was still flying through the air. He shot up higher into the skies and instantly broke through the fake skies. He left the god nation and returned to the battered Offering Hall.
“Are you satisfied now?”
Reyr snorted. “How will I know if you won’t move in for the kill the moment I stop my operation? I want you to leave. Stay at least 100 kilometers away from me!”
Lu Sheng’s expression remained unchanged. He walked out of the temple and flew away from this place.
“Wait.” Reyr’s voice came again. “You’ve made me spend that much god power and killed my most powerful war puppet. Are you thinking of getting away with it?” There was a hint of greed in his tone. “How did you manage to unleash that Death Finger and Destruction Orb? Leave your secret formula here!”
If a mere mortal was capable of unleashing such a powerful attack, it would surely be much more terrifying if he was the one who unleashed that formidable secret formula.
“Secret formula?” Lu Sheng was stunned. Then, he smiled. “Are you sure that you want my art’s secret formula?” he asked again.
“Cut the nonsense. Give it up or die with me! I have nothing else to lose here, I’ve lost everything. Pulling you down into the Star World with me sounds like a good idea now.” Reyr snorted.
Lu Sheng’s expression soured as he asked in a deep voice, “Do you really want to do that?”
“Cut the nonsense!”
***
“Faster! Over here!”
“Hold that spot! Open your mouth wider! Wider! More!”
Below the god nation, amid the pitch-black void, the giant crane Qianshen was desperately trying to open its jaw and aim it at the Sacrifice God Nation above.
A dozen Lu Shengs were scattered around it giving orders for it to adjust its position. They formed the key points of the sealing formation.
“Alright. Let’s have the clone provoke him some more. If we can get the god nation’s position right, it should fit right into your mouth.” Lu Sheng’s main body hovered in the air and nodded.
This was killing a god, after all. If he somehow attracted the attention of the gods, it would be troublesome. Hence, he had to be quick.
“Don’t chew when you eat it! It must be done in one go! Don’t even one single chew, got it?”
“But won’t that be difficult?” the giant crane Qianshen complained helplessly. Although they were all clones from a single person, at their different positions and with their different consciousness, their feelings and perceptions would naturally be different.
Even though it was just a Divine Awareness that was temporarily split from the main body, a Divine Awareness had feelings like a normal person as well.