Demigod

On the eve of the Fifth Hell's descent, the spectating demigods of Hell could finally hold back no longer. True, the five of them promoting simultaneously showed extraordinary potential, unmatched prodigies favored by heaven. But among the sorcerers who could retreat unscathed from the divine realm and battle through Hell for thousands of years to attain the rank of demigod, who among them hadn't been a peerless genius in their own era, a powerhouse who had dominated their generation? So what if they were genius sorcerers? It was precisely genius sorcerers whose gods were worth plundering! The reason they did not rob the quasi-angels protected by God Lords was not out of fear of the God Lords—no matter how furious a God Lord grew, they could not tunnel into Hell to pummel them anyway. Rather, quasi-angels usually already commanded gods with mortal vessels; even if the incompatibility between them was like that between a child and an adult, the God Lord forcibly bound their souls together. No matter what the demigods did, they could not snatch the gods away, making the returns completely negative. The new gods summoned when a sorcerer promoted, however, were an entirely different matter. At this stage, the sorcerer's soul body was unstable, lacking source power, without even a Temple of Sorcery formed yet, making it utterly impossible to integrate the new god into their soul. The new gods merely protected the sorcerer by instinct; in truth, they remained unbonded. If the demigods could snatch one, it was pure profit! Compared to the Fifth Hell, these demigods at the bottom of Hell were the true final ordeal for a promoting sorcerer. Do not think they were weak; even Weixi had once been a 'ghoul' back in her day. She had only stopped being a ghoul later because she found a better path to contend for gods (though in the end, she still walked away empty-handed), not because there was anything wrong with the ghoul trade. Yaxiu had once asked Weixi, "Don't the demigods do anything to stop it? Are all demigods so despicable and shameless?" Weixi had replied: "Not all demigods are despicable and shameless, but only the despicable and shameless demigods survive." Hell was different from reality. In reality, both the good and the bad would eventually die, merely a matter of who went first, so the world always had fresh crops of good and bad people. But the demigods of Hell did not die. If one had to be cruel to survive, then good people had to become even crueler than the wicked. When the scale of time stretched to eternity, moral concepts constructed by mortals who couldn't live past a century held no guiding significance whatsoever for demigods. "A god of swordsmanship! It is fated to be mine!" "My temple happens to lack a god of time!" "She is actually a god! Both a sorcerer and a god—how magnificent! Come over to me!" "You—fuck, it's the Spectre Prophet! Retreat, retreat quickly! The Spectre Prophet is here, she has resurrected and fought her way back!" At the very bottom of the Hell borne upon the backs of Sonia and the other three, countless shadowy specters welled up at once. They seemed like incarnations of Hell's abyss, filth accumulated in the world's dark corners, enveloped in boundless greed and malice. Although they melted like spring snow upon meeting radiance, it did not diminish in the slightest their frenzy to slaughter sorcerers and gods! The shadows around Weise were the most numerous, followed by Diya's, then Sonia's, and finally Weixi's. In fact, Weixi had quite a few shadows around her at first, but with that hysterical shriek of terror, the shadows scrambled frantically back into Hell. Yet how could the women allow this rabble of monsters and demons to defile the gods they had just summoned? In their hearts, these gods were no longer merely the crystallizations of their sorcery journey, but also... A source crystal emerged simultaneously within the souls of Sonia and the other three. Having once witnessed Rajesh's promotion, how could Yaxiu fail to guard against these hellish ghouls? Long before the promotion, he had distributed source crystals to everyone so that they would have the power to drive the gods they summoned! The God Soul Lock let out a venomous laugh and hurled five Netherflame chains from its hands, binding all the fleeing shadows and dragging them before Weixi like dead dogs. Without anyone knowing what Weixi did, the shadows were ignited by the Knowing and Guarding Fire, sending up wisps of ink-blue smoke. Like an enchanting spectress from a ghost story, she inhaled the blue mist into her mouth, and her entire being took on a lustrous sheen. Weise's method was far simpler. Raising the Silver Lantern in her right hand, intense silver light transmuted all the shadows into silver; soon, however, they melted into sheets of silver paper, drifting like homing swallows into the Silver Canon held in her left hand and transforming into resources she could draw upon. The newly acquired authority Weise possessed seemed to grant her the power of self-sustaining endurance. The most unusual battlefield was that of the God Fairy Tale. Though this was Diya's first time using it, she thoroughly brought out its composite authority. As it released oil paints from its palette, the space around Diya transformed into a fairy-tale realm of singing birds and fragrant flowers. The shadows charging in were transformed one after another into animals like rabbits, little birds, and chicks. Above their heads appeared a countdown timer; evidently, until the countdown expired, they would remain trapped in that form. Yet there was a distinct chromatic difference between the fairy-tale world and reality, like two non-overlapping graphic layers. Once drawn into the fairy-tale world, the shadows no longer dissipated. Immediately afterward, the God Fairy Tale made a few strokes on the palette, and the White Queen, Black Butler, and Red Dead Disciple appeared in the fairy-tale world. The White Queen summoned ferocious beasts to encircle the forest; the Black Butler commanded flocks of birds to control their vision; and the Red Dead Disciple directly charged forward wielding weapons. As the protagonists of the fairy tale, they slaughtered all the shadows with ease. Beyond the time faction, the God Fairy Tale also demonstrated attributes of the space faction, the soul faction, and even the fledgling dream faction. In terms of composite authority, it might well surpass even the Silver Lantern. Compared to that, the God Shattered Lake appeared much simpler and more unadorned. Wearing a black veil, dressed in a black formal gown, and spreading a pair of massive white wings, when the God Shattered Lake swung its jet-black greatsword, it was like swinging mountains and seas, churning up landslides and tsunamis. A vast, heavy, ultimate sword light tore all the shadows to shreds, leaving them without even enough time for a single word of nonsense. In the blink of an eye, all the shadows that had crawled out of Hell vanished into smoke. Like a farcical performance, the hellish demigods had rushed forward in a clamor, only to be slaughtered down to the last in a clamor. As for Yaxiu's side, there was naturally nothing to speak of. He hadn't summoned a god; only a demigod bored out of their mind would attack him. Although by virtue of his Soul Kingdom of Heaven and supreme tail feather, Yaxiu's personal value far exceeded that of the four women combined—to the point where not only demigods, but even God Lords drooled over him, and the current Supreme of Sorcery had already reserved him for consumption—it was precisely because his value was so immense that demigods had zero ability to seize his kingdom or tail feather. Aside from leaning in to sniff what he smelled like, all they could do in Hell was quietly wait for the sheep to enter the tiger's maw. Every demigod in Hell knew that the moment Yaxiu stepped into Hell would mark the opening of a grand festival. Even the God Lords would stop at nothing to take a seat at the feast, inaugurating it with slaughter, offering divine blood as sacrifices, until rain of blood poured across Hell and Heaven turned to ruins, whereupon the victor could claim Yaxiu for themselves. *Dong!* The moment the Fifth Hell plummeted, Shattered Lake held hands with Sonia, Fairy Tale burrowed into Diya's embrace, and Soul Lock bound itself to Weixi with chains. A fifth void wing sprouted temporarily on their backs, barely withstanding the descent of the Fifth Hell! The five souls shattered once more, but this time, without needing Yaxiu's longing to guide them, they were able to reform their soul bodies on their own. The reason they had previously lost themselves in the divine realm was that they inherently leaned toward transforming into gods. The more a sorcerer gained from the Void Realm, the more deeply the Void Realm encroached upon them. The trial of Hell was, in essence, the return of sorcerers; those who lost themselves in the divine realm would all become fuel to propel the development of sorcery. There was good reason sorcerers usually summoned gods after the Fourth Hell. It required the first four hells to repeatedly shatter the sorcerer's soul so their soul fragments could be dyed with more colors in the divine realm. And every reformation of the soul body was equivalent to a rearrangement and combination of the rules. If they failed, their experiences would accelerate the birth of native gods. Once successful, in the process of summoning or empowering their gods, orderly colors would perfectly reconstruct their fissure-riddled soul bodies, as if the Void Realm itself were reshaping their physical forms. This was the greatest difference between demigods and mortals: mortals were biological units born of nature through endless iterations, but demigods were magnificent lives custom-crafted by the Void Realm in accordance with the sorcerer's will! To gain anything, one must pay a price—that was the sole law of the Void Realm. As the five hells merged together, the Temples of Sorcery within the five of them finally took preliminary shape, and the gods moved in almost immediately. Before they could breathe a sigh of relief, they realized that Ruby Mountain below was receding farther and farther away, while Hell above grew lighter and lighter. Darkness swiftly engulfed the world like a torrential downpour. Sensing what was happening, Sonia, Diya, Weise, and Weixi rushed to Yaxiu's side. The Sword Princess and the Witch took hold of one of Yaxiu's hands each; Weise wrapped her arms around his waist from behind; and Weixi, after a moment's consideration beneath three unkind glares, leaned right against Yaxiu and hooked an arm around his neck. Though the feeling was odd, Yaxiu couldn't very well say anything. Everyone was just afraid of being teleported to different places in Hell and didn't want to be separated again. Even if sticking close together might not help, it was better than not holding on. Yet under these circumstances... Yaxiu glanced at Diya. At that very moment, Diya happened to be staring straight at him, but the instant she met his gaze, she lowered her head and her eyes dodged away, daring only to clutch a single one of his fingers. Noticing this tiny detail, the others raised their eyebrows thoughtfully.