Chapter 280

The grand door had only one hole, fist-sized, but the wind rushing in was absurdly strong—a stone thrown in vanished with a puff, as if shot from a high-pressure cannon.

Even the mind's spiritual intent couldn't resist this wind to extend to the opening.

Ang tried placing an air bubble stone at the front, but in an instant, the stone shattered under the wind's force.

"The wind's power is too great—we must find a way to open the door. Under equal wind volume, the larger the area, the weaker the force. Then we can slip through," Nagelis said.

How could they open the door?

"Find a space mage. Isn't this door built by the Space Lawgod and five deities? We need to bring a space mage to inspect it first."

At the mention of space mages, everyone's minds simultaneously flashed the image of someone screaming while tearing off their own clothes.

"And look here—six energy slots, one control slot. Hey, Xiamala, you said six deities were needed—could that refer to these? But wait, the Lord of Terror (?!!) said only five deities and one human—why are there seven positions?"

Nagelis circled the grand door several times and found six energy slots and one control slot.

Any magical device requires energy; the larger the structure, the greater the energy needed to operate it.

Like a world transit hub, fully activating it would require a massive amount of magic crystals, fluctuating with the volume of transported goods.

But magic crystals could supply sufficient energy—yet not enough power—so the grand door didn't use magic crystals or soul crystals for power, but instead had six energy slots built in.

According to the Lord of Terror, the human Lawgod and five deities activated this door—so why six energy slots? Could it be that six is ideal, but five will do?

Was this why Xiamala sensed six deities were needed?

Xiamala blinked innocently, unsure how to answer Nagelis's question—sensing six deities was already beyond her usual ability.

After much deliberation and no progress, and unable to open the door anytime soon, they returned to the farm to first summon the space mage Shiludi.

But they didn't stay long in the farm before fleeing in panic.

The minotaurs were used to this scene; braving the howling wind, they soon slept soundly. But once they fell asleep, everyone understood why the wind was so loud yet they could still sleep.

"Ku Bada, these minotaurs' snores are louder than the wind." Everyone with ears couldn't help but plug them.

They began to understand why the Lord of Terror couldn't bear it—why he'd resort to deception just to appease them. Forget a hundred minotaurs bellowing at you—just sleeping before a stone tablet with such snores was more than most could endure.

Especially with the fierce wind howling in the distance and the minotaurs' snoring rising and falling nearby—double assault, double torment. And they'd just eaten, so their snores were full of vigor.

"This noise covering every frequency—it's practically sound magic. I can't take it. I'd rather go slaughter a god. Let's go, let's go, find the Goddess of Redemption."

"Same here, same here, let's go."

Those with eardrums fled. Those without eardrums had no choice but to follow—suddenly, a crowd began searching for the Goddess of Redemption, preferring to slay a god than stay here.

No matter how hard the Goddess of Redemption racked her brain, she never imagined her downfall was caused by a herd of minotaurs.

The wind rushing in needed an outlet in the sealed space—like a well.

When air pressure reached a certain intensity, the water in the well slowly sank, descending all the way to the Shallow Sea Plane, emerging from the reef rocks. But the sea folk in the rocks had already moved away—no more scenes of them fleeing in panic.

Besides the well, some hidden spots were also forced open—like the cave leading to the Goddess of Redemption's garden.

The fierce wind poured through the cave into the garden, making the flowers, grass, and trees sway and rustle.

The Goddess of Redemption began her routine collection and organization—brushing dust off crystal cabinets with a duster was her favorite pastime.

"La la la, la la, la~" She hummed softly, wiping, tapping, carefully placing items into the cabinets, stepping back to observe, returning to adjust, ensuring everything sat perfectly centered before finally closing the lid with satisfaction.

The wind blew in, bringing unfamiliar scents.

The Goddess of Redemption froze, swiftly waved her hand—and all crystal cabinets instantly retracted into the floor.

She hurriedly tidied her dress and appearance, slowly sat back, and as she did, a chair materialized behind her.

First the seat, then the backrest—every material and craftsmanship exquisitely refined. As she leaned back, the chair's backrest also materialized.

It was a golden, exquisitely carved high-backed chair. If any devout follower of the Church of Light were present, they'd instantly recognize it as the Throne of the Light God.

Even non-believers could recognize it—Nagelis, peering cautiously inside, instantly identified the Throne of the Light God.

Originally, Nagelis had been careful—after all, this was a deity's domain, a so-called godrealm, where divine power was maximally amplified.

Deities also understood their own godrealms best, fully exploiting their unique properties. Just one example: water flowing uphill could disorient many, impairing their combat effectiveness.

So Nagelis volunteered to scout ahead—it was only a projection, so death didn't matter. Besides, as the God of Knowledge, it had sufficient ability to detect all godrealm restrictions.

But unexpectedly, along the way, it saw only a proper garden—and nothing else.

No independent rules, no defensive barriers, no dangerous seals. Honestly, even a white rabbit wandering in here wouldn't be harmed.

Could the Goddess of Redemption have some other, more powerful defense?

Nagelis hesitated, fearing it hadn't seen through the goddess's setup, and dared not let Ang and the others enter. It flew on, flying seamlessly into the temple—and saw the Goddess of Redemption seated on the Throne of the Light God.

"Why are you alone? Where are the others?" asked the Goddess of Redemption.

"Outside. Didn't dare come in. What about you? Are you alone?" Nagelis asked.

"Not exactly. I just thought they'd be useless, so I didn't bother summoning them." The goddess waved her hand—several floor tiles sank, and things rose up.

A lava demon, a three-meter-tall steel construct, a suit of armor, and a sword emerged one after another.

The demon was unremarkable—a standard great demon. The construct, however, was a Guardian Construct. After rising, it extended its right hand toward Nagelis… then stopped.

The Goddess of Redemption looked mortified. She stomped over and kicked it, then sighed helplessly: "No energy left. It runs on soul energy—I can't replenish it."

The armor was a Holy Spirit Armor—it should have been worn by a Holy Spirit Angel, but wasn't. Instead, it assembled itself into a humanoid shape, hanging loosely in place.

The sword hovered to the side, its blade burning with soul energy, radiating a powerful soul resonance: Give me blood… give me soul…

This scene… left Nagelis stunned. These weren't the kind of allies a Light Goddess should summon.

Nagelis's expression made the Goddess of Redemption even more embarrassed. She stammered: "I didn't want this either. These are the only animated items left in my collection. I told you—summoning them is useless."

The Goddess of Redemption couldn't have stored Holy Spirit Angels, clerics, or holy maidens. Only these oddities could be stored. After a thousand years, only these four… three still worked.

Even if summoned, these things couldn't stop the Death God, the Knowledge God, the Six-Winged Fallen Angel, the Dimension Beast, and so on.

She deeply regretted leaving—she'd thought a new deity was igniting a divine flame, but instead she'd stumbled into a god's nest.

Honestly, even when the entire Light Pantheon was present, gathering so many deities at once was rare.

The Goddess of Redemption waved her hand—the lava demon silently dragged the Guardian Construct aside. The armor and sword also moved to the edge, clearing the path.

Seeing how weak the Goddess of Redemption was, Nagelis felt reassured and let everyone in. The group surrounded her tightly.

Unconsciously, Ang had already amassed formidable strength—just standing there could intimidate many. At least the God of Redemption had abandoned any thought of fighting. She smiled and asked: "We've done nothing to you, yet you destroyed my body first, then stormed into my godrealm. Isn't that unreasonable?"

?!?! A string of question marks and exclamation points flashed in everyone's minds—this plot was wrong. Why was she accusing them?

But after being accused, everyone suddenly recalled: yes, that's exactly what happened. The Goddess of Redemption had just emerged from the sea when the little angel and little zombie blasted her with two major attacks, then Ang chased her for nine streets, forcing her to retaliate with a hammer strike—only for Ang to snatch the hammer back.

Oh my god, now they'd stormed into her home, surrounded her aggressively, and looked ready to kill. Wasn't that unreasonable?

In a knight's novel, they'd be the villains defeated by adventurers.

After a long pause, they huddled together, whispering: "We've been too harsh. Maybe we should just give up."

"Yeah, yeah. We're so many, bullying a goddess—it'd look bad if word got out."

"True. She didn't harm us. Just emerged from the sea, got blasted by the little angel, and now we're storming in to block her door. It's a bit excessive."

As they whispered, they realized—if the Goddess of Redemption hadn't confronted them, they'd never noticed this. The conflict wasn't started by her—it was them who struck first.

Seeing them seriously debating, Xiamala was stunned. They were undead. They were heretics. The Church of Light would fight them to the death on sight—yet here they were, debating whether treating a Light Goddess this way was too much?

In the past, Xiamala would have judged them without hesitation—and wouldn't have thought it excessive.

Seeing Xiamala's dazed expression, Luna smiled: "Remember what I said? The Undead King is better suited to define Light—they don't have so many complicated thoughts. They won't pity you for your beauty, won't target you for your status…"

Before Luna finished, Nagelis had already decided: "Decided. Let's kill her anyway. Avoid complications."

"Puh…" Luna nearly collapsed. Ku Bada—these guys don't have complicated thoughts, but they hate trouble.

The group re-surrounded the Goddess of Redemption. Ang swept his hand forward—a row of explosive fireballs appeared.

The Goddess of Redemption smiled faintly, opened her arms—and behind her appeared a spectral one-legged scale: "Do you know what this is? Harm me, and you harm yourself."

Nagelis's eyes widened: "The Scale of Equality? Why do you have the Scale of Equality?"

The Goddess of Redemption sighed in relief—the God of Knowledge recognized the Scale of Equality. She feared they wouldn't know. The Scale of Equality was for mutual destruction—but she didn't want to die with them.

If they didn't recognize it and kept fighting, what good would mutual destruction do? She'd still perish.

Only if they recognized it, understood its power, would the Scale of Equality have deterrent value.

"You know its function, then. This is the Redemption Fee paid by the God of Scales—it reflects harm equally onto the attacker. Kill me, and you die too."

As she spoke, she looked directly at Ang—among everyone present, only Ang could kill her.

Nagelis wore a strange expression, telling Ang to reveal the Scale Ring.

Now it was the Goddess of Redemption's turn to widen her eyes: "The Scale Ring? Why is the Scale Ring with you?"

"Because we killed the God of Scales. The Scale of Equality doesn't work on us. Even the original Scale of Equality from the God of Scales couldn't stop us—do you think yours will?" Nagelis smiled sweetly.

But as she said this, her heart felt shaky. The original Scale of Equality from the God of Scales had no effect—but if this Scale of Equality combined with the Goddess of Redemption's damage absorption, the situation changed drastically.

Ang couldn't kill her with one punch—he'd have to weaken her gradually. But then he couldn't use Dragon God Transformation, because its duration was too short. He couldn't use it while weakening her—every weakening would rebound onto himself.

Still, Nagelis maintained a confident demeanor. She knew the key—this goddess didn't. Maybe she'd be fooled?

It worked. The Goddess of Redemption's face fell. Ang's Scale Ring was real—the God of Scales was dead. Could her non-original Scale of Equality possibly work?

"What if you hand over the Scale to him? Let him combine it into a full set. We'll let you go," Nagelis wheedled.

The Goddess of Redemption's expression flickered, then she gritted her teeth and stomped—activating her Escape Boots.