Chapter 894: Opening

The vast earth is a sheet of pale emptiness, as if it were the endless Void of the heavens.

At the end of the Void, there is nothing, only a solitary, massive mountain rising abruptly on the horizon, like a bump on skin.

Viewed in parts, that mountain could be considered towering, but compared to heaven and earth, it seems like nothing more than a grain of sand, lonely and abandoned at the end of the sky.

A cloaked figure hurried over from the distance, his footsteps swaying, walking as if not quite smoothly, yet his speed was very fast; in a short while, he had reached the foot of the mountain, slightly raising his head, his eyes, shimmering with divine light beneath the hood, looking up at the high mountain.

His figure was as lonely as the mountain; he watched quietly for a while, then shifted his gaze from the gray, dusty mountain rocks to another cloaked person standing between the rocks, saying, "Taixiong Emperor, you have indeed arrived early."

That Taixiong Emperor turned his head, his cloak lifting slightly to reveal a face of solemn divinity, and said, "My own affairs, naturally I am deeply concerned, so I arrived a bit earlier. It is Haotian who has kept the promise and arrived on time; I am very gratified."

Haotian lowered his head and said, "You are too polite. This was something already agreed upon, so I would naturally come. Moreover, since we have formed an alliance, your affairs are my affairs."

He sized up this mysterious Taixiong God. These days, he had not done little research, searching for traces of this Taixiong God of unknown origin. So far, he had only found a few short records, and they were all legends. He could only slightly guess that this was a new god who had been born for just over a hundred years, and like an ordinary Lesser God, had always guarded a small tribe as the most common tribal god.

Yet, as fate would have it, he caught up with an unprecedented great change in the Shenjie, which actually caused this small, insignificant god to leap up and become a great god of pivotal importance in the world, possibly becoming a new generation of Main God in the future; such an opportunity that comes once in ten million years just fell onto the head of a Lesser God—who could have imagined such a thing as fate?

Haotian knew clearly that the other party's current strength might not be as good as his own, and if they were to square off, his own camp's power would be more likely to gain the upper hand, but facing a god, a god with a limitless future, he still unconsciously chose to take a step back.

It was certainly to preserve the overall situation and not to cause chaos in his own camp in front of the Evil God, but in truth, it was also because he was accustomed to being a priest; even as the world's number one priest, the brand of the thought of serving gods was deeply engraved in his Soul, and he unconsciously wanted to maintain his own concepts, which was also the reason he could not compete more fiercely with the Taixiong God.

If it were the more radical Spirit Realm faction in charge on his side, for instance, the Hutian priest who claimed to serve all gods but not one single god were here, perhaps they could be tougher and grasp more initiative?

Unfortunately, it still had to be him, this old man, to support the overall situation.

The Taixiong God smiled slightly, that cold holiness dissolving a little, turning into another kind of gentleness that was hard to question, and said, "Since we are here, let us go in together."

Haotian nodded slightly, but immediately followed up by saying, "Emperor, will you really not reconsider? This is the tomb of the Main God; there is actually more than one way to obtain the protection of the Main God..."

The Taixiong God cut him off and said, "But this way is the fastest, is it not? What we lack most right now is time. That monster is constantly recovering, and one day it will be even better than before; at that time, let alone borrowing power, even if the Main God were resurrected, it could not be shaken. Besides, this is my second time here; you know the first time, it was the Right Upper God who brought me. If he had not led the way, I would not have found this place today. It is evident that the choices made as gods are all the same. You are not a god, so there is no need to question."

Haotian sighed and said, "Perhaps one day, Emperor, you will also sleep here forever; at that time, you should also hope for a long, eternal rest."

The Taixiong God said, "I certainly hope for long-lasting peace, but if one day after I die the world faces a great catastrophe, I would be very happy for my remaining legacy, whether it be my body or anything else, to be taken by the younger generation to fight the disaster; that would be the greatest memorial to me."

Haotian looked at his profile; it was indeed perfect and divine. Regardless of whether these words were embellished or not, they were spoken in a Righteous and Awe-Inspiring manner, and he truly had no way to refute them, so he said, "Since that is the case, then... let us open it."

Haotian took a key from his sleeve, and the Taixiong God also took out one.

The Zhushen Mu was originally the most solemn place in the world; to enter, two keys were required, one from the Shenjie and one from the Lingjie. They were enshrined separately in the Wanshendian of the surface and the interior. Now the Wanshendian of the Shenjie was already an empty shell, having fallen completely into the grasp of the Taixiong God, so he naturally obtained the key, while on the Lingjie side, it required Haotian, this High Priest, to retrieve it. This was why the Taixiong God had to unite with Haotian.

In fact, Haotian was also a bit curious: how did the Right Upper God enter the Zhushen Mu last time? He had not received any instructions from the Right Upper God to retrieve the key—even if he had, he would not have obeyed, because he was taking orders from the Left Upper God at that time.

In that case, could it only have been... the Songtian priest who was at the same level as himself?

But had the Songtian priest not long since jumped from the Right Upper God to the Evil God? How could he still obey the orders of the Right Upper God, and such dangerous orders at that?

Could it be that he was a suicide agent arranged by the Right Upper God?

If that were truly the case, then Haotian had still underestimated him.

It was just that, with Songtian dying in a muddled state on Tian Jiang Dao, the truth of this matter was left for no one to pursue.

The two keys converged in front of the mountain, and one could hear a chanting sound as if coming from the ancient past; a massive gap appeared in the air, and a tremendous force rushed toward them.

Although that force was invisible, it was as violent as a raging sea; even Haotian was almost unable to stand steady from the impact of the force, and he could not even open his eyes.

Besides the force, there was also the pressure brought from the Spirit. Standing before the gap, Haotian felt as if his Soul were frozen, wishing he could turn and run, but he could not move a single step, only wanting to turn his head and kneel down to kowtow and worship.

In his life, he had experienced this fear twice; the last time was when he saw the world-destroying mother nest rushing toward him in the Void. He had only seen a shadow from afar at that time and understood that he was absolutely unable to contend with that kind of existence.

But the fear at that time was purely awe of power, unlike this pressure that came from the depths of the Soul and from the level of existence. It was not a difference in quantity, but a difference in quality; it was not the difference between an ant and an elephant, but the difference between an ant and the stars.

If there were a similar feeling, it was actually the first experience of fear that was more like it. At that time, he was a young man full of ambition, with outstanding talent; although he believed in gods, he did not revere them so much, until he was chosen as the young messenger of his tribe to pay respects to the Left Upper God.

The moment he saw the true form of the Left Upper God, he finally understood the difference between gods and mortals, and from then on, he became the most devout believer and the most favored priest, serving the Left Upper God diligently ever since.

Later on, with the growth of his strength, the feeling that the Left Upper God was unreachable was actually not so obvious; it was just that serving the High God had become a habit, and he thought he would never put any god in his eyes again, until today, when he re-experienced that initial feeling. And it was even worse.

Cannot get close, will die!

Amidst the fear, he glanced at the Taixiong God and saw that this young deity had a solemn expression, but was not particularly afraid or reverent; instead, there was a trace of something hidden very deep...

Provocation?

This is truly...

Although he is still an insignificant god, and his own strength might not even be comparable to his, he is truly a genuine deity. He is different from the Lingjie people of the mortal world. This is the chasm between gods and mortals.

Haotian lowered himself even more and said, "Emperor, the gate is open; it is not appropriate for a servant to go in and profane the gods; please, you go in first."

The Taixiong God shook his head and said, "No, we will go in together. I need your power." As he said this, he grabbed Haotian's hand.

This was the first time Haotian had touched the body of a god, and he only felt:

It is not much different, after all.

The skin of a god is also very soft, not even as good as most Lingjie people, but rather similar to those earth barbarians.

He thought of a certain absurd rumor: compared to Lingjie people, earth barbarians are closer to the gods.

This thought was immediately interrupted by him—it is too ridiculous; what is the point of thinking about this? Could it be that in order to believe in gods, now that the gods are gone, one should switch to believing in earth barbarians? Earth barbarians are nothing special; even his few old rivals like Gan Jian and the others would be shivering here, not even as good as the Taixiong God before him.

Being held by the Taixiong God like this, Haotian really felt much better; the surging Divine Power blowing out from the gap was still crashing around, but it was nothing more than a violent wind.

This feeling was just like when he was blessed by a god; it was clearly still his own body, but it had already been granted extra power and ability by the god.

The Taixiong God pulled him, and they jumped into the gap together, their bodies passing through the opening.

Immediately after, he saw the gap behind them shrink rapidly, and in an instant, it became ordinary space.

"This..."

Haotian was also here for the first time; he did not know that this gap would "close the door" automatically, and he felt a bit uneasy.

However, the key was still in his own hand; he should be able to open it from the inside, right?

It was just that this would be somewhat isolated from the outside; he had originally wanted to use communication means to remotely control the situation during the process of collecting the divine body, but it seemed that was not possible. Fortunately, he had made arrangements before he left; the Holy Maiden handled things quite reliably, and Hutian would also be rushing back soon, so he thought it would not lead to any mishaps.

Besides, not many people knew he had come here; on the God Realm side, he had only told the Holy Maiden, and had not even explicitly told Hutian. The Evil God was still dormant, and ordinary enemies who wanted to find trouble would also harbor fear toward him, an old-school powerhouse, and would not think he had actually gone to some isolated place.

The Shengnyu would likely not leak the secret, and as for the Taixiong God, for the sake of his own faction's safety, he would likely not leak the secret either... right?

Thinking this way, he stopped worrying about what was ahead and looked at everything in that divine tomb, unable to help but exclaim—

At the same time, Tian Jiang Dao.

Footsteps sounded, and the several high-ranking priests and Protector knights who were performing worship raised their heads at the same time.

The one who came was the Heaven-Bearing High Priest, the new high priest promoted by the Holy God after the Heaven-Praising High Priest was gone; his strength might not be as great as his predecessor's, but he was a member of the young and vigorous faction, and the most radical one among them at that.

The Heaven-Bearing High Priest's face was flushed with excitement at this moment, and he shouted loudly: "The Holy God... the Holy God has given an oracle!"

The gathered divine officials immediately saluted, and Heaven-Bearing said in a voice that was almost a roar: "The Holy God's oracle, the opportunity for battle has arrived! Our elite troops will strike with full force to destroy the... lair of the traitor Haotian!"