Chapter 286: Blood-Stained Land

Power comparable to a god...

When seeing this line in the diary, obvious surprise rose in Luo Yan's eyes, and he subconsciously held his breath.

The legend of the dragon slayer seemed to be the key point of the Dragon God's divinity condensation.

Or to put it another way—

The Dragon God Gustav was only placed on the throne of gods by believers after bestowing power upon them.

"The prerequisite for gaining power is giving power... but if he wasn't a god at the time, how could he bestow power upon believers?" Floating beside Luo Yan, Hearing You You, who was still confused, couldn't help but say in a low voice.

Luo Yan pondered for a while and spoke slowly.

"My guess is... perhaps the two behaviors didn't have a sequence, but happened simultaneously."

"Happened simultaneously?"

Looking at Hearing You You tilting its head in the mirror, Luo Yan nodded.

"Yes."

The Dragon God and His believers jointly wove the legend and reward rules about dragon slayers, and His believers believed that the rewarded power was bestowed by the Dragon God. These two things combined to complete a set of mutually self-consistent faith power distribution systems, thereby completing the prerequisite for the birth of divinity.

Aggregating the thoughts of the crowd in the name of God, and then distributing the fruits of creation in the name of God... the extraordinary power and the divinity surpassing the extraordinary were born together!

So that's it.

Luo Yan gradually realized the mystery of this, the expression in his eyes became brighter and brighter, and he continued to read along the content of the diary.

Perhaps because he was also standing in the position of possessing divinity, after trying to understand Gustav's situation, he could understand more and more content.

Because that was the optimal solution, and could even be said to be the only solution—

If it were him, he would do the same.

"... I have realized that as long as I can gain more believers and expand the map of faith, my power will also become stronger."

"Since that's the case, why should I be confined to the fact that my believers must be those ugly hairless monkeys—"

"I can completely use my own DNA to create a brand-new species!"

Luo Yan could feel the excitement transmitted through the words.

And at the same time, this Captain Gustav, whose thinking had opened up, also completely let go of his original persistence and was no longer tied down.

"... It's been more than fifty years, the confidentiality period of the project is almost over, the rescue team is still nowhere to be seen, and there is no signal. Perhaps the Zeta Empire has long forgotten me, perhaps they haven't forgotten, but the distance between us can no longer be measured in astronomical units. Since that's the case... why should I still worry about whether it's illegal? Screw the protection regulations for undeveloped species, I am in emergency avoidance now! That's right, if I become a true god, maybe I can go home!"

"My inference is not without reason. Although the civilization level of this world is low, their application and understanding of subspace far exceed the most cutting-edge scholars of the Zeta Empire. The idiots at Research Station 111 are still trying to figure out how to send aircraft into subspace, while they can even luxuriously use subspace as a warehouse, or even physically shuttle through portals!"

"Just like that, I created the first species loyal to me. In order to let them better adapt to the environment of this planet, I made small improvements to their scales and muscle fibers, letting them possess complete minds while retaining the wildness of beasts, letting them have a stronger desire for territory and reproduction... this way, it can facilitate their rapid expansion of physical territory."

"The experiment was very successful. With my help, these cute little guys soon nurtured the seeds of civilization, and after realizing my existence, they immediately worshipped me as a god, obeying every instruction of mine!"

"I must say, these hairless little cuties look more pleasing to my eyes than those hairless monkeys, I feel like I've returned to my hometown. I even thought that if I really can't go back, it would be good to use the remaining time to help these young children establish their own civilization. Maybe in the future, they will cherish the longing for the enlightener, find the way home for me, and bring my relics back to my hometown."

"I gave them a name—Ankylosaurus tribe, just like those rude natives gave me a name back then."

"Since setting foot on this strange planet, I have never been as ambitious as I am at this moment. Under my guidance, they expanded their tribe and developed rapidly, replacing those hairless monkeys in just fifty years, their footprints covering the entire continent, and even reaching out to more distant worlds!"

More distant worlds should refer to the Ancient Continent.

Spending a century just to walk out of the novice village, Luo Yan didn't know whether to praise him for being cautious or to complain that he was too cowardly.

Of course.

Considering that everyone on this planet is an "alien," Gustav being a bit cowardly is understandable. This guy is not a transmigrator like Lin Te Isaac who soul-transmigrated; he not only integrated into this world as soon as he landed, but was also a member of the circle of vested interests.

With the lizardmen's reproductive speed, assimilating a continent in fifty years can be considered standard.

However, this guy should have hit a wall on the Ancient Continent. After all, judging from the results, the lizardmen over there are living quite miserably, basically only able to live in plots that humans don't want at all, unable to integrate into either hell or the surface, and their situation is not even as good as goblins.

Luo Yan continued to read down the diary.

As expected, he saw the turning point he expected.

"... I miscalculated."

"I considered the possible 'body faith' on the 'Ancient Continent', and the 'God-Chosen' derived from the local pantheon, and even made sufficient contingency plans for different situations, but the situation here is still complex beyond my imagination."

"The Sky God named 'Uranus' can not only manipulate the weather, but also bring down unreasonable thunder in the clear sky for ten thousand miles! Their believers are devout and firm, disdaining the miracles I displayed, and wanting to eliminate them physically requires paying a huge price."

"If my Conqueror research ship were still here, I might have a way to solve them, but now, relying only on the high-tech gadgets left in the landing module, using them a little less each time, is enough to play god, but it's still too difficult to gain a strategic advantage!"

"And this is not the worst part... what's worse is that the Ankylosaurus tribe serving me has suffered a fault-line crushing in the strength of extraordinary power by the natives of the Ancient Continent!"

"This situation existed for quite a long time and troubled me for quite a long time, until the fifth year we set foot on the Ancient Continent, when I found the reason from clues in fragments of words. The reason why the Ankylosaurus tribe's extraordinary power is weak is all because we ignored a crucial clue in our study of extraordinary power—that is the power of the 'soul'!"

Luo Yan roughly guessed what happened.

The Dragon God's believers were fighting entirely with buffs, while humans on the Os Continent had already learned to use inscriptions and magic.

If Gustav had opened the Zeta Empire's warships, it would be one thing, but most of the primitive lizardmen he had on hand were first-time reincarnators, so they were naturally treated as experience by the heroes on the Os Continent, and ended up reincarnating to the opposite side.

This should have happened in the early First Epoch.

If this guy had come a few hundred years earlier, descending before humans on the Os Continent entered the "Mythological Era," the situation might have been a little better.

Luo Yan continued to read down, and soon saw Gustav's reflection and summary of failure.

"... My research has been in a misunderstanding from the beginning. I preconceived that the so-called extraordinary power is just a high-dimensional substance that can respond to nerve signals, but I didn't realize that interfering with this high-dimensional substance is not a nerve signal at all! It is something even more above that—a 'pure consciousness' that can even exist detached from the flesh!"

"The natives of the Ancient Continent call it 'soul'! They believe that higher souls can harness stronger extraordinary power, and wanting to possess stronger power in the next reincarnation requires contributing one's own power to the existence they worship."

"In addition, they also invented methods to exercise extraordinary power in the long process of civilization, which can maximize the development of extraordinary power, while condensing divinity through the thoughts of the crowd, and developing individual power to the extreme."

"It's funny to say, both reincarnation and soul are things we scoffed at before stepping into the starry sky. And that so-called cultivation... sounds more like a trick to fool people."

"However, I can't laugh."

"Because those guys weren't bragging, they could sweep away my lizardman army by reciting incantations, and chop down my city walls by waving their swords!"

"Although I have as much cannon fodder as I want, I still couldn't stop some believers with wavering faith from defecting... and even being assimilated by the gods on the opposite side, becoming their servants."

"The native gods on the Gana Continent are all existence similar to primitive worship, and haven't formed religion or even mythology in the broad sense. And the extraordinary power of their believers mostly comes from their own creeds, and there is no set of 'cultivation methods' established on the basis of broad consensus."

"My research is completely inherited from the prophets among those natives, equivalent to standing on the shoulders of dwarfs. Our backwardness lies not only in the method of using power, but also in deeper theory."

"Although I realized the problem in time, the situation in front of me still makes me helpless—because of the existence of the Underworld, I cannot control the destination of the believers' souls."

"That is the underlying code that was written long before I set foot on this planet. The intelligent creatures in this world can reincarnate into the species they want to become in the next life based on their subconscious identification of their identity!"

"The original inhabitants of this world have too low an identification with 'lizardmen'. In their eyes, we are classified as 'sub-humans', lower than dwarves and ogres, parallel to ratmen and goblins. Instead, the 'dragon race' I originally created is considered a powerful 'fantasy species', but it has to share a reincarnation pool with magical beasts, and due to some historical legacy issues, my relationship with them is not very harmonious; they fear me but don't like me."

"Due to these reasons, powerful souls almost never reincarnate to me, and due to the relatively inferior status and terrible living conditions of lizardmen, even if I promote some powerful individuals, they will bring the soul level I bestowed upon them and throw themselves into the arms of other gods when reincarnating."

"For gods, this rule is simply too unfair! Every reincarnation is a harvest, and weak gods will only become weaker and weaker in a vicious cycle!"

"I can only adjust my strategy, cultivating more and stronger intelligent creatures, trying to turn the tide from a technical perspective! For example, the Wind Roar tribe that can fly, the Tide tribe that can dive... even chameleons were included in my palette by me as a backup option to counter the soul level disadvantage!"

"In addition, I began to try to repair the relationship with the giant dragons, changing the strategy of exterminating the giant dragons... anyway, the low-level creatures enlightened by me are everywhere, it's not bad to have this one, right? At worst, I'll clean them up slowly after I unify this planet. In addition, since that incident, I have been a vegetarian for many years."

When seeing this, Hearing You You finally couldn't help but make a small complaint.

"Why does this guy have such malice toward giant dragons... those giant dragons are at least its children, right?"

Luo Yan thought for a while and said.

"Maybe because they are meat lizards."

This is actually not hard to understand.

Humans and pigs are both mammals, and the genetic similarity is said to be as high as 98%, and the appearance difference is probably not as great as the difference between lizardmen and giant dragons.

He can accept monkeys learning to speak, but if the pig on the dinner table suddenly spoke, he would probably be disgusted too.

Of course.

This Mr. Gustav clearly began to let himself go when writing this diary, and his moral level appeared to have a serious decline.

Due to the disadvantage in extraordinary power, he didn't think about why the Ankylosaurus tribe had such low identification with their own identity, but instead stubbornly walked on the road of "more is better"—using more and richer genetic codes and ruthless techniques from the Zeta civilization to violently bombard the ecosystem of this planet.

This mode of thinking is very consistent with Gustav's personal identity and background. All signs show that he is a "special skills expert from a highly developed and atomized material world." He possesses extremely strong professional skills and scientific literacy, but like a headless fly after leaving the swarm, doing some stupid things that ignore the beginning and the end.

Luo Yan's evaluation of him was unceremonious. Anyway, this guy's bones are probably in his hands, and it is absolutely impossible for him to jump out and hit him.

Although this person realized the existence of the soul, he didn't actually look at it squarely, let alone listen to the appeals of those souls born from his own hands, still treating them as a resource, mineral, prop—or "thing," to conduct research at the academic level.

However, perhaps because they are both villains, Luo Yan found that he was unexpectedly able to empathize with this guy, even more so than with his fellow countryman Lin Te Isaac who had wild ideas.

He also had very high moral integrity at the beginning, but after living in hell for a long time, he slowly followed the customs.

Of course.

Empathy does not equal approval.

For his own subjects, whether they are goblins, humans, or lizardmen, Luo Yan would considerately let them choose which posture they prefer to be violently bombarded with.

"... Gene technology treats the symptoms but not the root cause. If you want to gain stronger extraordinary power, you really have to find a way to solve that Underworld God. Otherwise, the God-Chosen I worked so hard to cultivate will eventually be deprived by reincarnation. Even if I can extend their lifespan, I can't avoid their accidental loss during war and growth."

"From this moment on, I began to realize that the authority of reincarnation must be in my own hands. And before that, I must bet as cautiously as possible to ensure that every bit of faith power is used on worthy believers... for example, those giant dragons."

"By the way, they finally recognized my identity as a father and returned to my embrace... except for some stubborn guys."

"In the battle of faith with Uranus, the Ankylosaurus tribe finally gained the upper hand... although some subspecies of lizardmen defected, overall it was still our advantage. The only thing that makes me feel tricky is that the power of my number one enemy, the Underworld God, is really too powerful!"

"Those guys are simply the projection of all the stubborn spirits of all living things on this land. Wanting to eliminate Him means completely eradicating the stubborn old idea that 'everyone is equal in the face of death'. Relying solely on my power is too difficult. Perhaps I should find an ally..."

This ally is probably Saint Xisi.

The Dragon God was not overly stigmatized in the Os Empire, and even giant dragon was a relatively neutral term, which is probably also for this reason.

To this day, many adventurers on the Os Continent still practice the "Qi" power of the Dragon God school, just not worshipping the Dragon God.

"If it were you, what would you do? How would you defeat the Underworld God?" Hearing You You asked curiously.

"Me?"

Luo Yan smiled lightly and said casually.

"I don't think defeating death has any meaning. The fall of the Underworld God is definitely a disaster for this world, and even... the undead all over this land, the dead with nowhere to go, and even the continuous threats from chaos and hell, are very likely the punishment of causality for that group of rats a thousand years ago."

Speaking of this, he paused and continued.

"Of course, if you have to defeat him... Saint Xisi has actually written the standard answer, and if it were me, I would probably do the same."

The method is not very complicated.

Use people's shortsightedness, ignorance, and fear of death, promise people that eliminating death means they won't have to die, and then change the Holy Word Book after winning.

This is the optimal solution verified by the history of this planet. If you want to be invincible, you must use all means, and talk about the future after winning.

The diary entered the climax part.

Gustav finally found a way to break the situation.

What happened next was not much different from what Luo Yan saw in the history textbooks of the Demon King Academy, except that it was the perspective of the "enemy's ally."

The Dragon God Gustav probably exaggerated the historical role of the Ankylosaurus tribe in ending the First Epoch, but it's also possible that the Os Empire and Hell, because of their respective realistic needs, tacitly erased the contributions of this group of reptiles from the books.

"... The plan went very smoothly. The Emperor of the Os Empire was very interested in my giant dragons, especially the matter of riding on the neck of a giant dragon. In addition to the help of the giant dragons themselves, that guy also gathered the faith of countless people by conquering giant dragons... everything was just like what happened on the Gana Continent back then."

"Yes, I got involved with those hairless monkeys again. I don't actually hate them that much. First, they are not on my menu, and second, I have seen them in the zoo. After I conquer this world, I will consider giving them a reservation to recuperate, while facilitating my research. After all, the Ankylosaurus tribe is the descendant of the Zeta Empire, and my children will eventually return to the camp of the material side."

"We cooperated closely in military affairs, and I helped the Os Empire open up new shipping routes in terms of economy... although the navigation technology of this world is not developed, and I won't build those broken ships of primitive people, but in front of biotechnology, all this is not a problem. Especially now that I have not only giant dragons that can fly, but also some subspecies of lizardmen that can fly, even if I push a hot air balloon over, it will work."

"Relying on the wealth of the three continents, the Os Empire soon rose. We complemented each other's shortcomings... those monkeys who drive holy light lack aggressiveness, while the Ankylosaurus tribe is good at everything except extraordinary power. They can just use their holy light spells to add various states to us, helping the warriors of the Ankylosaurus tribe charge in battle."

"The first to be conquered was Uranus, then Mother Earth, and that so-called Sea God... finally the Underworld God Hagen, who was also the most difficult to deal with. Because we not only want to conquer them, but also want to completely eliminate them!"

"However, just when our coalition forces were singing and advancing, something unexpected happened on the front line—"

"My landing module, which had been silent for I don't know how long, suddenly detected a strong subspace jump signal!"

"At that time, I thought it was the Zeta Empire's rescue team that finally found me, and I was so scared that I hid, but soon I discovered that things were even worse than I imagined."

"It was a group of guys who were like humans but not humans. They suddenly appeared in a slaughtered city, standing on the mountain of corpses. They were like rotting fungi, spreading rapidly with corrupted rebels, occupying a province of the Empire while shouting the name of Kalmandes, claiming to burn this miserable world with fire, bringing true end to pain and death!"

"This was undoubtedly a severe challenge for the Os Empire, which also claimed to eliminate death, but fortunately, the Emperor of the Empire was nearby, and he personally took action under the protection of Saint Xisi, soon extinguishing that ominous spark."

"I breathed a sigh of relief, but soon I discovered that everything was just the beginning. In less than a year, the subspace fluctuation came again, and this time in the hinterland of the Empire, and it was silent."

"I sent an envoy to inform my ally in the name of prophecy, but the Emperor of the Empire didn't trust me... and this also laid the groundwork for the disaster that followed. A guy calling himself the Mad Speaker launched a rebellion within the Empire, almost taking down the capital of the Empire, and this was also the closest we came to failure. The Emperor of the Empire was forced to move the capital and set up a Tribunal in the Church."

"To be honest, what really scares me is not the gains and losses on the battlefield. Whether it is the death of tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of people is just a number to me. What really makes me feel terrified is... I don't seem to be the only visitor on this land."

"I can feel a pair of eyes in the dark watching this land. That seems to be an existence of a higher dimension, or from the void outside the dimension... in short, it is invisible and untouchable, yet omnipresent, weaving all causality, correcting all deviations."

"I told my ally about my worries, but they didn't take it seriously, saying that there was nothing to worry about, similar things had happened from time to time in the past millennium, especially when major events occurred on the Ancient Continent. They even gave those four frequent guests a name, called 'Chaos', meaning the gods outside the domain."

"The stupidity of primitive people lies in this. Their eyes can only see their own feet forever, not the starry sky overhead. They didn't think about what a group of spiritualists with cross-galactic expedition power meant to these natives who couldn't even cross a continent, and didn't even know that the earth beneath their feet was a ball?"

"This is the only reasonable explanation. Otherwise, why would they have the ability to set foot on this land, but stop at just the right time again and again?"

"It is very clear that their interest appeal is not physical conquest, at least not now! What they really want to do is to make the direction of history conform to their expectations, so that the movement trajectory of the 'chess pieces' on this planet does not deviate from the track they envisioned!"

"I seem to have provoked quite troublesome existences. If those 'higher civilizations' discover me, I will definitely be dissected!"

"I told my guess... or prophecy, to those natives, trying to persuade them to stop, but those guys who didn't know how to die said I was crazy. They didn't know that what Underworld God, what master of reincarnation... all this no longer matters. They are just animals in the zoo, chess pieces on the chessboard. If they were a little sober, they would know that the optimal solution is to escape from this cage completely, rather than being the monkey king on the tree!"

"I can't accompany them to die together, I can only execute the final Plan 17—before everything is beyond saving, erase the traces of our existence and retreat to the Gana Continent!"

"It's an honor, I succeeded."

The diary ends here.

Attached below the diary is the detailed plan of Plan 17, but Luo Yan could guess what was written inside without even clicking on it.

However, since he was here, he still clicked and took a look.

Just as he guessed, the so-called Plan 17 was a retreat left by the "Dragon God" Gustav for Himself—when a life-threatening situation occurred, the Ankylosaurus tribe would completely abandon all interests on the Ancient Continent, retreat completely to the Gana Continent, and activate the "Great Barrier" to isolate the entire continent from this planet.

Using subspace to forcibly cut a piece of land from a complete planet... this is undoubtedly a crazy plan.

It can be seen that he was scared out of his wits.

And his brain is already a bit abnormal.

Assuming that the higher civilization he imagined really exists, and this planet is indeed a zoo or pig farm of higher civilization... why does he think that "being the monkey king on the tree" is more dangerous than "tearing a seam in the cage."

Luo Yan remembered hearing Miranda or someone say that "Mist of Deceit" Novier, who represents lies and conspiracy, is the embodiment of knowledge and conspiracy, and the root of madness and fantasy... its favorite corruption targets are wizards who have lost their minds and scholars who pursue forbidden knowledge.

In his view, Gustav highly overlaps with this portrait, especially in the second half of the diary, where every stroke of the plain words is terrifyingly bloody.

Cutting off two pieces of meat that have grown together with a knife, every blood vessel will spray blood.

This guy...

I'm afraid he has gone into devilish obsession.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 287 =====

(End of chapter)