Senluo's Apocalypse Arrives

The Monarch of Wind, Rain, and Snow was definitely not a good trading partner. Known by the epithet 'Treacherous Chancellor', He would never break a single bargain, yet the final outcome would always leave His counterpart utterly nauseated and miserable. But on a timescale of thousands or even tens of thousands of years, finding a reliable trading partner left Vichy with no choice but the Four Pillar Gods. After all, even Divine Lords could fall. After concluding a transaction from several millennia ago, the Monarch of Wind, Rain, and Snow had recommended Senluo to him, indicating that he would surely reap great rewards there. Upon arriving, Vichy had appeared right in the Four Pillar Cult and quickly recognized the immense value of Senluo. Without a doubt, every Divine Lord was aware of Senluo's situation. Thus, everyone was actually waiting for the Senluo Azure Lord's demise. The most valuable prize was undoubtedly His divine kingdom and the Secret Realm of the World within it. But never mind Vichy in his present state—even at his peak as the Spectre Prophet, he wouldn't dare compete with Divine Lords for an inheritance. However, Vichy could still seize the most crucial legacy below the Secret Realm— Gods! When he saw three gods leaving the divine kingdom and entering Senluo through his Prophetic Dream, an unexpected rush of wild ecstasy had seized his heart. In thousands of years since achieving godhood, he had never seen such an enormous windfall running around in the open! Although gods possessed the ability to act independently, almost no sorcerer would ever allow them to do so. Divine Lords who possessed Kingdoms of Heaven reared their gods like canaries in their Kingdoms of Heaven; many gods had never stepped outside since birth, never appearing in the outside world. You couldn't catch a glimpse of them even if you wanted to! What was more, the Azure Lord was so severely wounded that He could no longer control the gods. In other words, with just a little maneuvering, Vichy stood a great chance of snatching them for himself! At any other time, such an opportunity would never exist. Even if a Divine Lord were on the brink of death, His gods would only be buried alongside Him, never venturing out of the divine kingdom. Under normal circumstances, the only way to seize a god was to kill its master! Only the Senluo Azure Lord, only these three gods, and only this precise moment could leave such a sliver of an opening! Vichy's craving for gods bordered on madness. Throughout his entire previous life, he had never managed to possess a single god, forced instead to linger on his last breaths hidden in the Kingdom of Heaven in Dreams. And now, not only were three gods present, but all of them were composite-rule gods beyond his wildest dreams. That he hadn't already lunged forward to bite them was entirely thanks to the temperance of a thousand years of life. While gods were inherently priceless, disparities in quality still existed among them. Although Vichy had never possessed one, when it came to judging their worth, he was a master theorist. First, gods of the three mysterious factions—Prophecy, Fate, and Truth—still held top-tier status; obtaining one was worth switching your primary sorcery faction. Composite gods possessing multiple rules belonged to the second tier, worth at least taking up a secondary minor or two. As for ordinary single-rule gods, if you had no use for them, you could find ways to trade them for one suited to your main faction. Pierce Qingji was a dual-rule god of physics and mind. His value was already immense, well worth Vichy trading the Kingdom of Heaven in Dreams to obtain. But Knowing and Guarding Fire was a composite god of three rules—Prophecy, Truth, and Fire; had Vichy been able to obtain her in his past life, he would have willingly sold himself into servitude! Yet the most precious was undoubtedly As Desired! Though she looked completely useless right now, blank as a clean slate, the sheer might of a support god lay in elevating miracles to the level of divine miracles! Furthermore, As Desired would exert different effects according to a sorcerer's varying heart's will, functioning as an all-faction, all-miracle support god. Had Vichy possessed As Desired in his past life, he would have dared to challenge even a Six-Wing Divine Lord! Senluo Azure Lord, what did you ever do to deserve this?! You truly deserve to die! Die soon, die faster! Vichy's heart twisted with envy. Even so, before snatching the gods, he had to suppress them first; otherwise, despite possessing thousands of methods, he wouldn't be able to execute a single one. Thus, he could only help Yaxiu and Silver Lantern fight the gods. After all, he couldn't handle all three on his own right now, so it was far better to use Yaxiu as a minion with taunt to stall them. As for the gods' 'deicide' trait, Vichy didn't care in the slightest. As long as he remained alive, the gods naturally wouldn't betray him, just as these three gods certainly found no opportunity to betray the Azure Lord before He was gravely injured. At this thought, an idea struck Vichy, and he asked, "Where are the Azure Lord's other gods?" *Boom!* White Dove abruptly raised his cane and pointed toward Vichy from afar. A spiraling gale churned through the air, instantly shredding the treetops, but Vichy had flown away before the cane was even raised. Cold light flickered in Vichy's eyes as an invisible mental tempest rolled outward, yet it merely rippled faintly across Blue Bird and White Dove, causing several sorcery spirits to dissolve into light and vanish. Though White Dove and Blue Bird could be harmed by mental shocks, they were learning through instinct. As their injuries accumulated, they began consciously defending against mental attacks, just like how Fire Cat could defend against water. "I know!" Fire Cat raised her hand high. "They're all dead! Now, only the three of us are left in the Myriad Phenomena Heaven!" "How did they die?" Yaxiu recalled something. "Starved to death?" "Yeah, yeah!" Fire Cat was astonished. "How did you know?" Yaxiu said, "The Azure Lord is critically wounded and on the verge of death, naturally unable to tend to the Kingdom of Heaven. Then the kingdom's curse collapsed, destroying its internal resources and leaving the gods with no food, so they starved to death. Right?" Vichy narrowed his eyes and glanced at Yaxiu, his thoughts stirred: *Such insight isn't something even a demigod could necessarily articulate... Which Kingdom of Heaven has he entered before?...* "Nope!" Fire Cat laughed heartily. "They weren't destroyed by a curse!" "We destroyed them!" Yaxiu, Weise, and Vichy were all taken aback. "Why?" Weise asked outright. "Didn't you only want the Azure Lord dead? Why destroy the other gods' resources?" "Because they were helping the Azure Lord manage the Secret Realm and maintain the stability of the Kingdom of Heaven, which was prolonging His life," White Dove explained. "But the Azure Lord decreed that gods may not fight among themselves, so we could only destroy their resources and let them starve to death." "You only destroyed the resources after the Azure Lord fell ill?" Yaxiu was curious. "That smart?" "No, we destroyed resources whenever we had free time, but we just never had time before." Fire Cat shrugged. "Once the command to manage the Secret Realm ended, we were finally free to destroy them." "The other gods didn't do anything? They didn't oppose you, or attack you?" "No, they just watched." An indescribable sense of absurdity sprouted in the hearts of Yaxiu and the others. The relationship between gods was even more naive and innocent than toddlers in a nursery. The other gods had no idea what White Dove and the others were doing; they simply watched foolishly as their food was destroyed, then foolishly starved to death. Compared to ordinary gods, White Dove and his peers merely possessed a sliver more personal initiative. "That can't be right," Vichy said suddenly. "Doesn't the Myriad Phenomena Heaven have a Six-Wing god? In the Azure Lord's absence, a Six-Wing god should have been acting as regent over everything, right?" "Are you talking about Atmosphere?" Fire Cat said. "He died two hundred and thirty-one years ago!" The Senluo Azure Lord's Six-Wing god had died? Yaxiu and Weise's hearts twitched, both recalling the Great Cataclysm two hundred years ago that had wiped out the Grey Fox people overnight. "Sigh, after Atmosphere died, his Myriad Phenomena flock vanished too. And no Grey Foxes ascended, so now I'm the only one running on the ground in the Kingdom of Heaven—all the rest fly in the sky..." Fire Cat was rather glum. Seizing the opening, Vichy unleashed a Water Cascade miracle at her, but with a casual wave of her hand, a fire whip lashed viciously at Vichy. Had he not instantly deployed his sanctuary, he might have been wiped out entirely. Even so, he was thrown nearly a hundred meters, crashing through countless trees. White Dove took the opportunity to point at him again, sending an invisible spiraling gale sweeping out. If Vichy hadn't pulled up and taken flight at once, this combination would have pulverized him into dust. Fire Cat glanced at the fire whip in her hand, then looked at Yaxiu hiding behind Weise, her expression turning to one of sudden realization. *Crack! Crack! Crack!* Sharp snaps echoed through the air as the fire whip lashed relentlessly against the sanctuary behind Yaxiu. Although the damage was absorbed by the sanctuary, Fire Cat had barely attacked earlier; now that she had joined the assault, Weise's sorcery power began depleting rapidly! "Is this also an effect of Knowing and Guarding Fire?" The corner of Yaxiu's mouth twitched as he struggled to interfere with White Dove. "Isn't that a bit too arbitrary?!" "It has little to do with Knowing and Guarding Fire. This is merely her unconsciously using sorcery spirits to launch attacks," Vichy said after retreating to another tree. "Sorcery spirits? Gods can use sorcery spirits too?" "Perhaps the word 'use' misled you." Vichy glanced at them. "Naturally, gods cannot drive sorcery spirits, since they have no sorcery power. But driving sorcery spirits doesn't necessarily require sorcery power—even we sorcerers can manage that." "Sorcery spirit resonance?" Yaxiu caught on immediately. So long as a sorcerer had a good relationship with a sorcery spirit, it would voluntarily work overtime, just as he had relied on sorcery spirit resonance in prison to unleash the Severing Self miracle. "Sorcerers require resonance with sorcery spirits, but the relationship between gods and sorcery spirits is closer to that of a deity and believers. The original meaning of the word 'god' specifically designated them as deities to sorcery spirits." "Think about it: when a deity actively reveals an intention, what will the believers do?" "Actively cater to it?" Yaxiu guessed. "Actively sacrifice themselves," Vichy said. "Their current attacks are all powered by consuming sorcery spirits; they aren't using their own intrinsic abilities at all. They naturally connect to the interior of the Void Realm, where countless sorcery spirits await their summons. The moment they have any thought, sorcery spirits will treat themselves as fuel and consumables, stopping at nothing to fulfill their desires. "If they unleashed their true divine abilities, we'd have died long ago. But as rule-based life forms, they also prioritize self-preservation. Without a sorcerer to supply energy, every activation of their abilities expends their own life force... Look, Fire Cat has shrunk again." Yaxiu looked closely and realized Fire Cat seemed to have regressed by about another year, almost matching Lisi in height now. None of the other gods showed such changes, clearly because Fire Cat had been continuously activating Knowing and Guarding Fire. A thought crossed his mind. "Wait, if we hold on until Fire Cat exhausts her life force, couldn't we..." *Boom!* A spiraling storm swept past, forcing Vichy even further back. He called out, "No chance." White Dove and Fire Cat spread farther apart, making it almost impossible for Yaxiu to stay shielded behind Weise. Their attacks against Yaxiu grew increasingly ferocious; though the sanctuary blocked them, the gods had infinite fuel for their spells, whereas their own sorcery power was finite! Worse still, they found that their attacks not only failed to harm the gods, but were becoming increasingly difficult even to hinder them. White Dove drew a second cane specifically to parry Yaxiu's Heart Sword strikes; Fire Cat's fiery domain expanded to five meters, instantly withering and incinerating nearby trees, rendering any of Weise's water sorcery attacks ineffective! As time passed, Yaxiu and Weise gradually realized a terrifying possibility. "They're learning." Vichy said, "Gods possess learning capacity as well. It's just that the vast majority never need to act independently, so they don't know how to attack, coordinate, or use tactics. As long as you can't destroy them in the first blow, as the battle drags on, they will swiftly grasp combat arts—not to mention, these three were apparently sorcerers in life, so their learning capacity likely far surpasses that of ordinary gods." Indeed. After drawing his second cane, White Dove gradually integrated it into his attack routine, even learning to dispel Heart Swords with his spiraling gales. It was as if he had only just discovered he could dual-wield, doubling his attack frequency! Seeing this, Fire Cat thoughtfully produced a second fire whip as well. Giggling, she lashed out with the whips, assaulting the sanctuary behind Yaxiu like a tempestuous downpour. Under this onslaught, Weise's sorcery power plummeted even faster. Having no alternative, Yaxiu had to deploy his own sanctuary to hold the line. But doing so only made White Dove and Fire Cat's attacks even more unhinged—earlier, they had held back out of concern for Silver Lantern, but now they unleashed their full firepower! If anything was more terrifying than facing an unbeatable enemy, it was facing an enemy whose strength surged exponentially—they had missed their initial chance to kill the gods, and now the gods' combat prowess had ballooned beyond their ability to handle! Left with no other option, Yaxiu and Weise abruptly dropped their sanctuaries. White Dove and Fire Cat immediately halted their strikes, wary of hitting the successor, Silver Lantern. The moment they locked onto Yaxiu for a second wave, Weise snapped her sanctuary open, swapped positions with Yaxiu, and dropped the sanctuary again, once more staying White Dove and Fire Cat's hands through their reluctance to harm her. This was undeniably walking a tightrope, but keeping the sanctuaries active continuously would only lead to both of them being captured once their sorcery power ran dry! Yet playing with fire always led to burns. After another sanctuary cancellation, Fire Cat did not halt her strike; the fire whip lashed squarely across Yaxiu's shoulder, cutting deep enough to expose bone, yet not a single drop of blood spilled—the blazing flames had instantly charred his flesh! "Quick, use the Round Cicada—" "No!" Yaxiu healed himself with his Joy Sword. Though grimacing in agony, his eyes still held a sharp resolve. "Save it for when someone needs saving." "I'm sorry," Weise said suddenly. "Fascinating. Silver Lantern actually knows how to apologize? I thought you'd lost that ability long ago," Yaxiu said. "Still, I expected this. Meeting you is basically having one foot in the eternal Void Realm... We've only met a few times, so why do your troubles drag me in every single time? I suspect if lightning strikes you next time, it'll hit me too." Weise's expression stiffened, and she said bitterly, "Seems to me like you're the one who's always causing me trouble!" "You nearly sucked us dry into human husks! What's wrong with us causing you a little trouble? Evil sorcerers like you deserve to be executed by everyone. Don't think inheriting the Grey Fox sorcerers' will lets you do whatever you want! At best, you might escape the death penalty, but you won't escape punishment. Once I get out, I'll find a contract and sentence you to rebuild Senluo for the rest of your life, doing community service until you drop..." "Catch me first, then we'll talk." Just then, Fire Cat's whip nearly struck Yaxiu again, narrowly blocked by Weise's timely sanctuary. Meanwhile, White Dove had picked up a new trick, striking directly at the ground to trip them up; fortunately, both possessed the technique of flipping with their void wings, allowing them to leap clear. Having narrowly escaped, dirty and disheveled, the two exchanged a glance. Yaxiu gritted his teeth and said, "I can't die here!" A fierce glint flashed in Weise's eyes. "How could we possibly lose to a bunch of feebleminded gods?!" Yet no matter how much they wracked their brains, they couldn't conceive of a way out. Yaxiu could only look toward Vichy in the distance. "Mr. Vichy, do you have a plan?!" Vichy was in an equally wretched state. Fire Cat and White Dove targeted him from time to time, and lacking a shield like Weise, he could only rely on movement miracles to evade earlier; now he was absorbing full-scale damage, so battered that he had even lost his hat. Yet hearing Yaxiu's question, Vichy adjusted his spectacles. "I do." "Then use it already!" Yaxiu said in delight. "Otherwise none of us are getting out!" Vichy hummed softly and nodded. "I originally thought I wouldn't need to intervene... It seems some things still require my push. However, this will take quite a toll on me; after all, I don't have many source crystals left..." "By the way," he asked, "have either of you ever had a daydream?" Yaxiu and Weise froze, instinctively looking at Vichy. At that moment, Vichy's eyes were pitch-black and chaotic; along their line of sight, the darkness contaminated their optic nerves, seeped into their central nervous systems, and encroached upon their souls! In a daze, Weise saw herself drawing a triangular ritual circle on the ground, then kneeling inside it. Her ten fingertips were pricked, bleeding, and the drops of blood floated upward, flowing in reverse all the way into the sky, tainting the azure expanse. Throughout the entire process, Yaxiu had kept his sanctuary deployed to protect her, bearing the gods' attacks alone. Even after his sanctuary shattered, Yaxiu had still embraced her, shielding her with his body so she wouldn't be disturbed by the gods, allowing her to complete the entire ritual. By the time Weise came to her senses, she realized Yaxiu was lying in her arms. Not a single patch of intact flesh remained on his back; he was breathing faintly, more breaths leaving him than entering, as the healing power of the Joy Sword slowly took effect. Had the gods not hesitated out of fear that striking too hard might harm the successor while he embraced her, Yaxiu would already be dead. She hastily used a Water Therapy sorcery spirit to heal Yaxiu, gradually piecing together what had just happened—Vichy had dominated both of them, forcing her to enact the ritual and compelling Yaxiu to protect her to the death! *But how could that be possible?!* She and Yaxiu were already legendary sorcerers! Furthermore, their sanctuaries had been active, yet they hadn't put up the slightest resistance! Unless it was a divine miracle, it would be utterly impossible— Weise's gaze turned sharp, and she snapped her head toward Vichy, only to find him looking up at the sky. Not just Vichy—the three gods had also halted their steps and attacks, staring blankly upward. She looked up and saw that the sky had turned blood-red. A colossal rift ran through its center, resembling... resembling... A scar. Weise froze. She had been so consumed by Yaxiu's injuries that she had forgotten something of paramount importance. The ritual she had just enacted seemed to be... "Vichy," her lips parched, she asked with a trembling voice, "what did you do?" "I merely reenacted the scene from my dream." Vichy produced a notebook from who-knew-where, writing as he spoke: "History shall remember this moment: October 5, Year 1668 of the New Calendar, 3:32 in the afternoon." "Senluo's apocalypse arrives."