Chapter 247: The True Strong (33)

By Swan Lake.

The burly Godly Might Heavenly Father Otal Gangse sat in the courtyard shade pavilion, earnestly reading a modern-era storybook.

Hearing the commotion, he didn't look up, flipping pages while scolding: "Luosen, what's going on? It's been almost half a year—why hasn't Nana's belly grown yet?"

Luosen felt embarrassed at being urged for an heir by his elder; looking at Qi Ge Rui La Na, her already slightly red cheeks instantly turned apple‑red.

Fortunately, Luosen reacted quickly and soon came up with an excuse.

"Grandfather, I already have two children. Strictly speaking, they are also your direct descendants."

"You don't need many—trace back a hundred generations and you'll reach the Godly Might Heavenly Father."

"Given that the leaders of the Natural Alliance deliberately keep their bloodline pure, this lineage is still quite pure."

Otal Gangse hadn't considered that, blinked slightly, then shook his head: "It's too distant—I feel nothing for them."

After saying that, he waved a hand, put away his storybook, and solemnly told Luosen: "There are two kinds of immortality in this world."

"One is divine immortality. The other is mortal immortality."

"Gods exist eternally; they also bless some mortals, granting them a share of eternal power, so these fortunate mortals enjoy longer lifespans than ordinary people."

"Ordinary mortals, however, can only resist the erosion of time's sands by continually reproducing."

Having said that, he patted the chair beside him, gesturing for the two to sit.

Once seated, he said: "What I just said isn't my own idea; it's ancient mythology."

"Or rather, it's what happened in the era before I was born."

"This era is also called the Age of Truth."

Luosen's heart twitched; he immediately recalled that the plane they inhabited was called the De Rui Tan Plane, and De Rui Tan himself styled himself the Lord of Truth.

Meanwhile, Otal Gangse narrowed his eyes, his face full of wistfulness over the passage of long ages.

"Traveling mages say this world has the God Realm, the Demon Realm, and the Mortal Realm."

"Our world is now the Mortal Realm, but over five thousand years ago it was the God Realm, ruled by the Lord of Truth De Rui Tan. And today's elves are the fortunate ones blessed by him."

Luosen knew only fragments of this ancient knowledge, nowhere near as systematic and detailed as Otal Gangse's.

He whispered: "I've heard that the religious atmosphere in the God Realm is usually very intense, deeply oppressing the soul; do mortals feel toward gods something like a strict father's feeling?"

Otal Gangse nodded: "Exactly—both reverent and fearful."

"They revere his extraordinary power and knowledge, yet fear the various hellish lies he fabricates."

"These are deliberately done by the gods; they exploit those two points to toy with mortals' spirits at will, turning mortals into playthings for their amusement."

After a pause, the Godly Might Heavenly Father looked at Luosen: "The faith puppets you and Nana made are not bad, but lately you've gone a bit overboard, gradually taking on a hint of the God Realm's aura."

Luosen had the same thought and promptly accepted the advice humbly.

"I don't like this atmosphere; I'll find a suitable opportunity to lower the believers' religious fervor."

Otal Gangse nodded: "Since you feel the same, I can rest easy."

His face again showed a faint fear, as if the former ruler were right before his eyes.

"The Lord of Truth's wisdom is beyond mortal comprehension, especially regarding the mastery of souls and life; even now I cannot grasp even a fraction of it."

"This Lord of Truth enjoys doing something very peculiar."

Saying that, he fell silent for a moment, as if searching for the right adjective.

Just then an attendant brought up tea, and Luosen eagerly poured him a cup and handed it over.

The old man took the hot tea, sipped, and his eyes lit up: "Right, all things have spirit. That phrase isn't mine—it's an epithet of the Lord of Truth."

"He said he didn't want only one kind of sentient creature to possess wisdom; he wished all mortal beings to have wisdom and be able to communicate with each other."

"To achieve this, he created various beings, then extracted the souls of mortals like us from their bodies and infused them into those engineered forms."

Luosen's eyelids twitched as he listened; he seemed to be looking at a mad scientist.

"This must have a fairly high failure rate, right?"

The old man chuckled: "I'm not entirely sure, but the Lord of Truth built a place called the Truth Judgment Hall."

"Truth followers seize all mortals who commit blasphemy and throw them into the Truth Judgment Hall."

"After a series of trials, if they are deemed guilty, they use the divine art granted by the Lord of Truth to infuse the sinners' souls into various new bodies."

"For example, infusing a person into a pig's body creates a pig‑headed person; likewise there are dog‑headed, sheep‑headed, fish‑headed folk, and so on."

"They are collectively called the Sinful Race."

Qi Ge Rui La Na curiously asked: "Are the fish‑folk near White Sturgeon Island created this way?"

The old man spread his hands: "How else could they have come about?"

Luosen then asked: "Logically, aside from the Sinful Race, there should be other engineered lifeforms serving different purposes, right?"

"That's right; there are quite a few."

"For instance, the Battle Dragon Race includes flying dragons, earth dragons, and sea dragons."

"Also, the Production Treant Race handles food production and house construction, occasionally doubling as combatants."

"Finally, there is the Divine Favored Race, the gods' administrators in the mortal realm—today's elf tribe."

Luosen's heart stirred; he immediately asked: "So, elves are made from modified mortals?"

"Obviously, and they should be considered the most perfectly engineered race, far more perfect than we mortals."

Having studied elves for a while, Luosen deeply agreed: "Indeed, they are perfect."

"All the minor flaws of mortals have been removed, and their souls' resilience has been greatly increased."

"Mortals are products of natural evolution, whose hallmark is 'no rework, absolutely no obsessive‑compulsiveness—just good enough to work.'"

Thus, mortal bodies naturally retain many evolutionary traces, but in elves those traces have been completely eliminated.

The old man sighed: "That's precisely why elves are extremely arrogant, seeing themselves as the gods' eldest son while mortals are just piles of junk stored in a miscellaneous room."

"They describe mortals as 'a pile of rough stones' and believe elves naturally ought to rule over mortals."

They indeed did just that, and thus the Age of Truth, also called the Age of Elves.

Speaking of this, Ao Ta'er Gang Sai spread his arms wide, making an embracing gesture.

For roughly over two thousand years, the entire White Continent, and even the Storm Continent across the sea, were all ruled by the Elves.

But this rule came to an abrupt halt with the sudden departure of the Lord of Truth.

Without divine support, coupled with the Elves' cruel tyranny, the subjugated races rose in rebellion, order quickly collapsed, the world entered an era of conflict, historically known as the Age of Chaos.

The Lord of Radiance, Mi Sai, I was born in the late Age of Chaos, while your ancestor, the Iron Dragon, was born in the middle of the Age of Chaos.

Speaking of this, the old man revealed another secret.

Actually, the natural bloodline I created, as well as the Lord of Radiance's radiant bloodline, are both half-Elven in descent.

Because we each married a fallen Elven noblewoman. Luosen instantly felt this was truly a confused account.

The Lord of Truth transformed mortals to create the Elves; in the end, the Elves considered themselves noble, imprinting not only themselves but also mortals with a spiritual mark.

Eventually, mortals truly regarded the Elves as noble, and powerful mortals vied to marry Elven noblewomen.

In this light, the Lord of Truth has indeed exerted an extremely profound influence on this plane, which is why this place is called the De Rui Tan Plane.

But Luosen found it strange: 'What exactly does the old man want to tell me?'

Ao Ta'er Gang Sai then produced a peculiar rune disk: 'The Mark of Truth, left by the Elven wife I married, who is also Nana's grandmother.'

Qi Ge Rui La Na curiously asked: 'What about my grandmother? I've never seen her, and you never mentioned her.'

Ao Ta'er Gang Sai shrugged, a flicker of secret pain crossing his brow, but it quickly faded: 'She died, killed by Mi Sai.'

But Mi Sai didn't fare well either; I seized an opportunity and also chopped his Elven wife into minced meat!

Luosen and Qi Ge Rui La Na looked at each other speechlessly.

Ao Ta'er Gang Sai continued speaking about the Mark of Truth: 'Before De Rui Tan departed, he left a divine edict that he would surely return, and before his imminent return, the Mark of Truth would emit light.'

Originally, this thing was merely a keepsake I made to remember my wife, but now it has lit up.

The sunlight in the pavilion was too bright, so the old man used a dark canopy to block the sun, after which the light on the Mark of Truth became very conspicuous.

It was a faint greenish glow, flickering slightly, and exuded a faint soul aura that only a legendary mage could sense.

Through this trace of soul aura, Luosen vaguely sensed the strength of the Lord of Truth's power.

Very strong, far stronger than me—estimated at level 12 or above, approaching level 13.

The situation of gods and demons is quite different from that of mortals.

Gods and demons exist in the void, formed purely of soul power; their soul strength and soul scale are closely related.

According to Nawat's knowledge, for each increase in a god or demon's power level, their power scale rises by roughly two to three times.

Initially, the power scale of the Legend 6 Lord of Shade was over ten times greater than that of the Legend 2 Silver-Eyed Demon, and also nearly 400 times greater than Luosen, who is also Legend 2.

The gap is immensely large.

Without the support of legendary crystals and faith power, mortal legends fundamentally cannot contend with gods and demons of the same level.

Even now, Luosen has no certainty of opposing the returning Lord of Truth.

According to estimates based on the data, his magical scale is estimated to be over forty thousand times greater than Luosen's current level! Thus, he is truly a mighty being, worthy of being called a true god, and it is by no means an exaggeration.

On the other side, Ao Ta'er Gang Sai gave a slight nod: 'Yes, he has become much stronger than 5,000 years ago.'

And given my understanding of the Lord of Truth's personality, if he were to see the current state of the De Rui Tan Plane, he would certainly be extremely dissatisfied and then seek to reshape the world to his liking.

Qi Ge Rui La Na whispered: 'His preferred state? What exactly does he like?'

Ao Ta'er Gang Sai spread his hands: 'Good question, but nobody knows.'

After all, 5,000 years have passed; nobody knows what the Lord of Truth likes now.

Having said that, he looked at Luosen: 'I don't know exactly how long it will take for the Lord of Truth to return; he may already have returned, or he may still be on his way back, requiring several years or even over a decade to return.'

But once he returns, he will undoubtedly exert an extremely profound influence once more on the world we live in.

So, get ready, young man.

He handed the Mark of Truth to Luosen.

Luosen received it solemnly, his voice firm: 'I will make preparations, grandfather.'

Also, hurry up and have a child with Nana; no matter how chaotic the times, no matter how busy, we must not forget to propagate—this is the immortality of mortals.

Having said that, without waiting for Qi Ge Rui La Na's protest, he picked up the storybook entitled *The Tragic Era* and continued reading.

Alright, all of you get lost; I want to read in peace—don't disturb my quiet unless necessary.

Luosen and Qi Ge Rui La Na could only leave.

Upon entering the Electric Car cabin, Luosen said: 'Nana, grandfather keeps urging me each time we meet—when will you fulfill your promise?'

Qi Ge Rui La Na's cheeks flushed to the point of bleeding, her body practically shrinking into a quail.

After a while, she finally made up her mind: 'Let's do it today.'

Luosen immediately replied: 'I know a good place; let's go there to take care of it.'

Whatever you like.

Her voice was so low it was almost inaudible.

Soon, Luosen brought Qi Ge Rui La Na to the underground chamber of Swan Fortress: 'This place will absolutely not be disturbed, and no one can spy on us.'

Mm, not bad.

Qi Ge Rui La Na exhaled in relief, roughly to ease the topic, she asked: 'Regarding the Lord of Truth, do you have any confidence?'

Not yet, but soon I will have confidence—at least enough to protect myself.

After all, even a Legend 13 god or demon cannot break through the barrier of the magical ring; they must rely on mortal strength.

While speaking, his hands were not idle.

Qi Ge Rui La Na instinctively resisted, but the intensity was not high.

In a daze, the matter was settled.

Afterwards, she softly remarked: "It feels weird."

Luosen was quite pleased, because this Mother Nature was extremely sensitive, even more than Nai Feiluoniya.

He smiled and asked: "Is that a good weird or a bad weird?"

"I don't know, how come you're here again?"

She couldn't speak, only shouting.

Luosen secretly thought: "It seems I misspoke to Selena; Mother Nature's shout is louder than hers, much louder."

Fortunately there was a magic shield; otherwise probably everyone in Swan Castle could hear.

He also thought of the Lord of Truth De Rui Tan's return, and an idea flashed in his mind.

"We need to start preparing desperately for a mutual destruction."

"How to achieve mutual destruction? Of course by making a nuclear bomb! Fusion is hard, fission just needs materials, and in the arcane world it's very easy."

"Moreover it must be prepared secretly; besides me, no second person knows."

"Why? After all, it's an existence over level 12, its infiltration ability is definitely extremely strong."

"Each additional person who knows adds a risk of secret leakage."

"If the nuclear bomb doesn't blast the Lord of Truth but explodes in a mortal city, that would be embarrassing."

(End of chapter)