"It's actually... a god!?"
While the murderers who had slaughtered countless lives hid in the tunnel watching the leaderboard, innumerable people outside were likewise watching their own fates.
Mengfeila, one of the ten major cities of Gospel.
Like Azula, Mengfeila had already completed the expansion of a second city tier, with inverted skyscrapers towering in abundance. But unlike other cities, the space above Mengfeila's second tier was not public urban space, but a clan's private territory.
A single clan possessing nearly five hundred thousand hectares of private estate!
Through the wondrous power of miracles, this private garden simultaneously accommodated forests, swimming pools, winter snow, molten lava, graveyards, seas of clouds, and even infernal realms. Most outrageously, it had even created "Mengfeila's Sea of Knowledge"—at the center of the garden lay a sea shrouded in white mist, where knowledge creatures like Fishcleaver Dragons were genuinely bred. However, slaying these knowledge creatures yielded no spoils of war, and they vanished the moment they left the misty waters. They were, in essence, mere toys kept for leisure and amusement.
Merely maintaining the operations of the private garden required eighty thousand servants, yet the family members living in this garden could be counted on one hand.
Inside the main manor at the center of the estate, which offered a panoramic view of the entire garden, the young woman Yifalin lay on her bed in pajamas, her calves dangling and swaying in the air. One eye open, she stared intently at the Book of Gospel, her small mouth pressed into a grave, tight line.
Had they been ignorant, it would have been one thing, but precisely because they understood the immense implications revealed by that footage, countless people found it difficult to remain calm at this moment.
Yifalin was no exception. Even though her clan owned the wealth of an entire city, before a legendary god, they were nothing more than dust to be wiped away with the flick of a finger. According to the records left by her ancestors, gods and sorcery spirits were fundamentally different existences: if sorcery spirits were the embodiment of "technique," then gods were the manifestation of "truth."
Every god possessed the majestic authority to warp reality, overturn laws, and rewrite physical constants. In fact, they were natural laws themselves; injuring one would trigger natural disasters, while destroying one would cause reality itself to convulse!
The might of a god had long surpassed the control of a Legendary Sorcerer; a mortal soul was utterly incapable of containing a god's authority!
Thus, only those whose lifeforms had evolved to a higher tier, successfully ignited their divine soul-fire, and ascended to the pinnacle of the Void Realm—angels, and even the gods themselves—were qualified to command gods and wield truth!
Watching the Future Board about to announce the reward, Yifalin felt intensely nervous.
If the Book of Gospel truly granted that "god" as a reward to Archibald Harvey, Yifalin dared say that all of Gospel would abandon the pursuit of Harvey and his cohort. The Red Hats would stand down, and even the royal family would revoke the wanted notices!
Ordinary people might think that a god was nothing special, believing that with enough guns, cannons, and manpower, they could kill even a god for you to see. Among sorcerers, this line of thought was especially prevalent—the most specialized and elite sorcerer discussion group within the Gospel Curtain was named the Omniscient Weaver Murder Association.
This was actually quite normal. After all, under the glory of Gospel, mortals had no opportunity to witness the power of divine miracles, nor could sorcerers understand the chasm between themselves and a god. Even a Legendary Sorcerer might come to look down upon the gods.
After all, in their eyes, if they could destroy a city, then no matter how powerful a god was, could they destroy more than a country?
Only sorcerers from clans possessing an angel's legacy understood that the sublimation of life's tier brought not a quantitative change, but a qualitative leap. A Legendary Sorcerer's most powerful miracle could never breach an angel's ward, while an angel's weakest divine miracle could effortlessly crush a Legendary Sorcerer's dignity.
To make an analogy, a Legendary Sorcerer was like a figure within a painting, able to attack enemies using various pigments and correction fluids; an angel was already someone outside the canvas, needing only to lift a hand to tear the entire painting to shreds.
The phantom in the projection was not an angel, but merely the lingering ember of one, possessing perhaps not even a ten-thousandth of its former strength. Yet even so, the methods the phantom displayed far exceeded miracles, and ordinary Legendary Sorcerers would have been utterly helpless against its insidious encroaching possession.
It was only because Harvey happened to be a necromancer and possessed the means to counter the phantom that he could stage such an epically brilliant counter-kill, utterly burying the ancient angel's hopes of rebirth.
Once Harvey possessed a god, even if he could unleash only one percent of its authority, it would suffice to overturn the entire Gospel Country. If that god possessed defensive effects, a Legendary Sorcerer would be completely unable to breach his defenses; gunfire, cannon bombardments, and carpet-bombing would be nothing more than tickles to him.
If that god possessed destructive might, then no matter how many miracles a Legendary Sorcerer layered upon themselves, it would be like adding a few more sheets of paper, and the sturdiest walls would crumble like building blocks.
Unless one thoroughly understood all of a god's effects and weaknesses, no one would be willing to offend a combatant who bordered on divinity.
Perhaps having heard the prayers of countless people, the Book of Gospel finally updated:
"Archibald Harvey receives the reward: 'Ghost King Shackles.'"
"Ghost King Shackles: Allows the sorcerer to freely transform among 10 undead unit types, including mist spirits, mech spirits, spirit-reapers, shadow spirits... Nether Knights, Dracoliches, and Blood Moon Corpse Kings. However, the sorcerer must fully master the knowledge of each new undead unit type in sequence to unlock the next. First unlocked unit type: mist spirit."
Phew.
Yifalin seemed to hear the entire Gospel Country heave a sigh of relief.
As long as it wasn't a god, everyone could accept it, to say nothing of the fact that this reward wasn't of terribly high value. In Yifalin's eyes, aside from the Nether Knights, Dracoliches, and Blood Moon Corpse Kings, the preceding undead unit types—though each having their own traits—amounted at most to Two-Winged combat strength, barely posing a threat even to a Three-Winged Sorcerer.
This meant that for a long time to come, the combat power of this necromancer who sought to bury the entire Gospel Country would not surpass that of a Sanctuary Sorcerer.
In truth, thinking carefully about it made one realize that the Gospel could not possibly reward a god. Though the specific reasons were unknown, the ancestral records stated clearly that every god was unique. As long as the stone coffin god of the path of evil souls still existed, no matter how formidable the Gospel was, it could not conjure a second stone coffin god out of thin air.
Still, Yifalin felt that the other clans would now be losing sleep.
If the Gospel had directly rewarded a god, then needless to say, everyone would have eaten, drank, and enjoyed their remaining few years in peace.
If the Gospel had rewarded a Blood Moon Corpse King, most people would likely have stood down as well, since according to the records, a Blood Moon Corpse King was already Legendary-tier combat strength.
While besieging and slaying a legend was not impossible, the cost was simply too great—too great for any single clan to bear. The conglomerate clans, skilled in internal strife but inept in foreign wars, would certainly have sat on the sidelines and left the trouble for the royal family and the Red Hats to handle.
Yet the Gospel had rewarded a "Blood Moon Corpse King that will take a very long time to unlock," making the conglomerate clans all feel that the odds were heavily in their favor.
The Weaving Ceremony never lied. As long as one captured Harvey, one would hold the key to inheriting an angel's legacy—who could resist such temptation?
However, if you failed to capture Harvey and instead offended him to the point of no return, then congratulations on becoming one of the ten great clans of the next fifty years.
Want to go for it, can't sleep.
Don't go for it, can't sleep.
Hear that others are going for it, can't sleep.
Finally make up your mind and go for it, and then you'll sleep forever.
Still... Yifalin sighed. The other clans still had room to hesitate and vacillate, but her family had only ever had one choice from the beginning.
"Allow me tonight to play the old role, allow me happily to replay the protagonist in that beautiful story~"
The communication ring chimed. Looking at the number, it was a call from Bluebeard Headquarters.
Feeling a bit puzzled, Yifalin answered and asked, "What happened?"
"Six people suddenly appeared in Abyss Sector Three," the voice on the other end answered swiftly. "No movement trajectory. They likely crossed over via an Abyss passage."
"An Abyss passage? At this hour?"
Had she not gone down into the Abyss to cultivate a few days ago, Yifalin might not even have remembered what kind of mechanism the Abyss passage was.
Normal people would never choose an Abyss passage as an alternative mode of travel. The Abyss across all of Gospel was unstable; the only Abyss with unchanging terrain was Fanmula...
Fanmula... an Abyss passage... at this hour...
Yifalin opened the Book of Gospel to check on the situation in Fanmula, immediately understanding where these little rats had come from.
"Suppress this news. Block all of the Red Hats' information channels, and have Bluebeard assemble to seal off the Abyss!"
Chapter 369