Chapter 137: Feathered Serpent God

The Mage rode a tall horse, turning the ornate gemstone Ring in his hand, looking indifferently at the people before him without speaking.

"Who are you! Why have you come to the realm of the Great Kuaerte!" a short Paiite elder trembled and shuffled forward, leaning on his wooden staff, asking nervously.

"We are humans from another continent, newly arrived, and we need a guide to brief us on the situation."

The Mage used the power of Universal Language to speak, and the Paiites marvelously found that although they had never heard this language, they inexplicably understood its meaning.

"He is the Great Kuaerte's shaman!" several Paiites whispered, their eyes toward the Mage filled with respect and fear.

The Mage frowned; although he didn't know who the Great Kuaerte was, he guessed it was likely a true god or false god, calling himself a shaman, haha.

A shaman is an ancient primal‑faith profession that wields divine power, the predecessor of priests, and obviously this misunderstanding made the Mage very displeased.

He thrust a flaming arrow from his hand, striking the native who called him shaman at the foot, and the supernatural force scared the Paiite into hopping and shouting, further confirming his shamanic status.

Only the elder, with a solemn face, rebuked the Mage: "You are not a shaman; what sorcery is this!"

Before the Mage could speak, the elder began muttering strange words, seemingly praying to a deity.

The Mage rolled his eyes, unwilling to continue dealing with these foolish natives, and began softly chanting a spell, a fierce white light coalescing at his fingertips.

He intended to use a six‑Circle Evocation spell, "Chain Lightning", to roast those little dwarfs into charcoal.

No, leave one alive; his mission still needs to be completed.

But, in the next instant, the anomaly surged sharply.

The spying demonic eye suddenly burst, and the screen the people on the distant coast were watching vanished; just as they were bewildered, a towering white pillar of light rose suddenly in the forest.

Naimi Xisi sprang to his feet, gazing afar, feeling a holy will, a sensation so familiar he had sensed it on Ougma and Selennye.

It was the power of a deity.

At that moment in the forest, the elder was enveloped entirely by white light, a massive scorching white energy blasting from his eyes; the Mage and two hundred soldiers were instantly melted into nothingness under horrified gazes.

The Paiites beside him also looked at the elder with terror, kneeling and repeatedly kowtowing, shouting the name "Kuaerte".

It seemed they had never witnessed such a scene.

The elder flew into the sky, then swiftly approached the coastline, carving a white trail across the night starry sky.

Baolis sprang up, his gaze sharp as he stared at the approaching white light: "What is that?"

Kodel twisted his neck, a look of excitement on his face: "A strong one."

Saifal hurriedly tugged Naimi Xisi's sleeve and whispered: "If danger arises, don't leave me too far behind; fights between Legendary beings aren't for ordinary people to watch, we must get out fast."

"Damn, the new continent actually has monsters of this caliber," he complained, frowning.

Naimi Xisi's gaze grew solemn; he knew the newcomer was not Legendary, at least the entity possessing that creature was not Legendary.

It was an even more powerful thing.

The white light was slow to speak, fast to act; in the blink of an eye it reached the shoreline, landing on the beach with a booming crash, stirring fierce gale winds and sweeping dust.

"Humans?"

As the dust cleared, the humanoid wrapped in white light looked ahead and saw countless strange tents and the humans dwelling within along the entire coastline. Baolis and Kodel's faces changed dramatically; they had realized what had arrived.

Both hurriedly bowed respectfully, speaking in awe: "Honorable Crowned One, we are humans from the far side of the ocean, from the Feren Continent, and we have come here to open trade routes with your people and share wealth."

The white light sneered: "Share wealth? More like come to plunder it, right?"

Baolis's expression grew grim; he turned and signaled, and two priests wearing different insignias stepped forward.

They were followers of Heim and Wojin, respectively.

"Honorable Crowned One, may we know your deity's name?" the two priests asked humbly.

After a pause, the white light proudly declared: "I am the Feathered One, the Feather‑clad Great Dragon, the first son of Kukuer and Maztek, the Feathered Serpent God Kuaerte!"

The two priests immediately revealed their identities: "Oh exalted Feathered Serpent God Kuaerte, we are followers of the guardian god Heim and the commerce goddess Wojin."

The white light paused briefly, seemingly not expecting a deity to be involved; the speed of divine thought was astonishing, and it instantly grasped the underlying implication.

This is an invasion.

An invasion of one continent upon another.

Kuaerte fell silent; though he seemed so majestic, it was merely affectation, and he truly did not dare to massacre mortals under the Great One's eyes, for his divine role had no option for slaughter.

Thus, amid the bewildered gazes of the crowd, the white light vanished.

The elder half‑kneeling on the ground seemed a bit weakened, but he quickly rose again, his eyes now bearing a wisdom unlike before.

"My god has revealed everything to me and bestowed upon me a lofty task, people from the other continent, we have many matters to discuss."

The elder spoke to the two priests in a profound, unfathomable tone. —The elder, the two priests, and Baolis and Kodel held a private meeting; the outcome remained unknown to all, yet the development plan continued.

It seemed that the deity tacitly approved the existence of the Golden Legion.

Under the elder's explanation, the Golden Legion understood the environment they were in.

Kodel Bay lies in the southeastern part of Maztek, and the entire eastern region is ruled by the Paiites.

The Paiites scattered throughout the forest into one tribe after another, but beyond the forest, on the great plains, the largest Paiite faction founded a city called Uratoss City, and from it expanded, establishing many smaller towns.

Clearly, the entire Paiite society had not yet formed the concept of a "state," remaining in a primitive city‑state stage.

As for matters beyond the great plains, the elder was also unaware; he had only heard that far to the central region lay a massive "tribe" of gathered monsters, called the Naike Su Empire, which dwelled in the Naike Su Valley, bloodthirsty and cruel.

Yet the elder did not know whether this was folklore or history.

In short, the entire Paiite world was very backward.

They lacked magic, their metallurgy was backward, and their strength could be described as extremely weak.

Yet it seemed that the deity's arrival caused the Golden Legion's attitude toward forest development to change, becoming more gentle.

Baolis, who had originally planned to use a spell to summon a fire‑element elder to blaze a path through the forest, instead ordered the soldiers to begin felling trees.

(End of Chapter)