Chapter 900: The Dream of the High Priest

The High Priest Haotian had a very, very long dream.

He never knew he still had the ability to dream; in his mind, he should have been incapable of dreaming anymore. He had even almost lost the ability to sleep and rest.

In the dream, he saw the deity he served, the Left Upper God. The Left Upper God was as merciful and majestic as ever, patting his head and saying, "Hao, from this day forth, the world is entrusted to you."

He accepted with humility and confidence, watched the deity depart, then turned to take up the scepter and face the whole world.

Believers from all over the world looked at him, gazing up at him; their faces, including the Hundred Races of the world, were all pious and reverent. He loudly proclaimed the deity's prophecy...

Suddenly, at a certain moment, the faces of all the believers changed.

They were no longer docile, becoming fierce and twisted, with black Qi rising from their bodies, like ghosts.

Those black mists grew more and more, tangling in the air into a huge, evil figure...

The Evil God, the Evil God has come!

The world has been polluted!

The next moment, those Evil God believers enveloped by the black mist lunged forward, more ferocious than wild beasts.

Haotian felt a sense of horror, but he was not afraid. He reached out and waved his scepter, and endless Divine Power poured out. Behind him, there was also a majestic army; that was the righteous army guarding the Left Upper God's Heshen Jie.

The righteous army was entwined with golden light, layers of golden light pointing like sharp swords at the Evil God. The two great armies collided head-on, the shouts of battle shaking the heavens!

Haotian held the scepter and supervised the battle from the rear, while using Divine Punishment to strike the heads of the Evil God's believers.

His offensive was quite effective; at first, he could hold off the onslaught, but there were too many believers on the other side and too few on his own, and finally, they retreated step by step, falling back toward the Shendian.

"Charge! Charge! Follow me and charge!"

He shouted until his voice was hoarse, charging forward himself, but he could not stop the enemy's army from pressing down, and his own troops began to crumble...

Haotian, of course, would not retreat. He kept moving forward, charging all the way, feeling his strength constantly slipping away. He was going to die...

Boom!

Suddenly, the sky collapsed!

Haotian woke up with a start, feeling a wave of dizziness.

"Awake?"

Was that the voice of the Taixiong God?

Haotian moved his eyes slightly and saw the face of the Taixiong God.

Hmm? Is this still the Taixiong God?

He discovered that the Taixiong God's appearance seemed to have changed slightly from before. Although the hair was still fire-red, it seemed to have become much softer, and the temperament had also changed; it was no longer so sacred, but had become rounded, as if he had fallen into the mortal world.

"You are..."

But immediately after, before he could finish his sentence, he saw the Taixiong God recover his original appearance in the blink of an eye, his temperament as sacred as ever.

Did he see wrong?

Haotian supported his forehead, feeling it was possible. That dream just now was truly too strange, and he still remembered it clearly after waking up, so his mind was a bit dazed.

Dreaming of his army fighting a decisive battle against the Evil God was not strange, and dreaming that his side lost was not strange either; to put it plainly, these were just reflections of his daily anxieties in his dreams. But why did he dream that the sky collapsed while fighting?

Even if he dreamed that the gods were resurrected during the battle and descended with miracles to help his side fight back, that would count as a good omen. What did the sky collapsing mean?

Was it a divine revelation? Enlightening him that continuing to fight would not only lead to defeat, but the world itself would be destroyed?

The world is truly becoming more and more fragile, ready to be destroyed at the slightest provocation. It had only just almost been destroyed once before.

"Your Majesty Taixiong God, where is this?" Haotian pulled himself together slightly and found that the surroundings were a blank void, as if it were the endless Void above the firmament.

But this was not the Void, because the Void was gray-white, and this was more like pure emptiness, without even that hint of gray-white hue.

"This is, of course, the Shenmu Kongjian. The key is still with you, so how could we get out?"

Haotian touched his chest; that was a special pattern, and also a special space. It was indeed what he used to store the key, and it could absolutely not be taken out without him doing it himself. Even if he died, that patterned space would collapse along with the decay of his physical body, and the things inside would be damaged along with it.

Indeed, the Taixiong God could not bring the key out.

But...

He looked around: how is this the Shenmu?

Where are the big trees? The jungle? The main god's fingers?

Even if this was a projection of his inner heart, and his heart was currently a blank slate without any embellishment, the things that existed shouldn't all be gone, right?

"The main god's tomb..."

Suddenly, the Taixiong God took his hand and said excitedly, "High Priest Haotian, I have seen the main god."

"Ah?" Haotian found it hard to understand, "The main god has already fallen, how could you see him?"

The Taixiong God said, "Is the fall of the main god the same as that of ordinary gods? Ordinary gods die when they die, but the main god still has an undying true spirit. Recall, how did you faint?"

Haotian closed his eyes to think carefully and finally remembered: he and this person were struggling to dig up the main god's body, then the whole world suddenly changed, everything around them attacked crazily, he was suppressed and unable to move, and so he fell down.

Right, it is indeed possible for the main god to have an undying true spirit, but...

"Was he not angry? He sent down Divine Punishment, and we were unable to resist it. How are we still alive?"

Speaking for himself, if he still maintained a sliver of soul after death and saw two such arrogant grave robbers digging up nothing but his own corpse, he would have long since sent down Divine Punishment to blast them into Fragments.

Although he and the Taixiong God were not weak, he still remembered the might of the main god; he could have blasted them both to pieces without any effort.

The Taixiong God became smug upon hearing this and said, "I think the main god wanted to blast us to pieces at first. But I held on the whole time, persisting without falling. So he was probably a bit surprised. Thus, the main god appeared and asked who I was and why I was doing such a thing. Do you know what the main god looks like?"

Haotian shook his head, and the Taixiong God said, "The main god is a drop of water..."

He vividly told Haotian about the main god's appearance, voice, and temperament, all of which were completely true, and the details were also ten-tenths real.

Because he had to say quite a few lies, he had to strive for truth where he could; lies were only for a few key points, and mostly truths could fool people.

Haotian listened with fascination. He had admired the main god before, but that was only a body manifested by the main god, not the true divine body itself. The classics in the Wanshendian absolutely did not introduce the true form of the main god. Hearing this, he couldn't help but think to himself: "So the main god is a Yuanshen; that is truly remarkable, and it must be unique. Sigh, this is a once-in-a-thousand-years opportunity, why didn't I have the fortune to see it?"

Seeing that Tang Zhao had believed him completely, he continued, "I naturally had to explain our difficulties to the main god, saying how powerful the Evil Gods outside were, that we were all living in precarious conditions, and that only by borrowing the main god's power could we win. The main god was indeed reasonable; he said that if this were the case, it was understandable. If it truly came to a critical moment of life and death, we wouldn't even need to dig up the Shenmu; he would help us."

Haotian's spirits lifted, and he said, "The main god actually agreed? Is he going to descend to help us?"

Originally, he had been secretly despairing about the future in his heart, and coming here was just a last-ditch effort; he hadn't expected such a big surprise.

Tang Zhao waved his hand and said, "That's not quite it. It said that since it is a moment of life and death, it must wait until it believes it is absolutely necessary to act. It won't bother with ordinary crises. Then it said: 'Tell me, what is the situation like outside exactly?'"

"I naturally told it everything about the Evil God, point by point. I even embellished how formidable the Evil God is. As a result, the Main God said: 'I see. But listening to your words, although it is difficult to oppose, there is still a possibility of fighting, so go and fight.' I asked, are you unwilling to act? It said I can act, but there is only one chance, because I have indeed already fallen. If I act one more time, even the Shenmu will not be able to remain. Are you sure you want me to act to eliminate the Evil God?"

Haotian was speechless for a moment. If he had to choose, he truly felt that this was the most critical moment, but this would require the Main God to sacrifice completely, which could only be voluntary. If the Main God asked him to his face, he really would find it hard to speak.

Tang Zhao continued: "Of course I didn't speak. The Main God said: 'Have you used your full strength now? Has all power been gathered? Is there no extra power left?' I said no, that monster launched a sneak attack, causing the entire Shenjie army to be wiped out. The remaining power now is just small tribes in the corners. You wouldn't expect us to unite with the Human, would you?"

Haotian was slightly shaken when he heard this. In fact, he had not failed to consider the idea of uniting with the Human, but after various trade-offs, he still gave it up. It was not that he looked down on the Human, but that he thought too highly of the Human. He knew well that the Human progressed rapidly, and their minds were treacherous and difficult to fathom; he always felt that uniting with the Human would have endless future troubles.

If the Main God Emperor meant this... he himself was still unwilling, but there were always those who were willing, such as Hutian; this pro-Human faction, second to none in the Spirit Realm, would certainly be willing. Then he could just take a step back and let the willing Spirit Realm citizens do it.

Tang Zhao said: "The Main God said: 'Who you unite with and what kind of power you obtain is not my concern. There is only one thing: if you cannot even defeat this Evil God, then the world will be destroyed sooner or later anyway. It won't make a difference of a few years, and it makes no difference when I make my final appearance.'"

Haotian listened to these words, which seemed to have deep meaning, and could not help but ponder secretly.

Tang Zhao continued: "I asked at the time: 'Do you mean that, besides this Evil God, you clearly foresee a world-ending crisis in the near future?'"

"It asked back very strangely: 'Isn't this obvious? Could it be that because you are too young, you don't even know about this?'"

Haotian frowned. Taixiong was relatively young as far as gods go, but he was not young; his age was much longer than Taixiong's. If the Main God was implying something, he should know it, right?

However, he really could not figure it out for a moment.

After thinking for a while, if he had to say, could it be...

Tang Zhao said: "The Main God said: 'Let me ask you, do you think I am still worried even after I have fallen, and am desperately leaving behind my true spirit and the power for one strike, to guard against whom?'"