Chapter 321: If You've Got the Nerve, Eat It All

A soul's oath cannot be broken; admittedly, some can deceive their own souls to bypass such oaths, but certainly not someone as simple as Ang, not unless they reach the level of Anthony.

As for the Lord of Terror? His level is terrible—he only knows a few minor demonic tricks.

So the Goddess of Redemption was kicked out Yijiao, barely saving her life.

……

"So this is what the Holy Heaven looks like inside—apparently you need the Heavenly Staircase to enter. I was thinking of digging a hole." Negril muttered as he stepped out of the Heavenly Staircase.

The Holy Heaven is a half-spherical bowl, inverted above the Abyss of Rest, with its flat side hosting all the buildings—squares, temples, all on this plane, enclosed by a wall to form a perfect sphere.

No one had ever entered the interior of the "bowl," because there was no entrance—was it solid?

If time and manpower had been sufficient, Negril originally planned to dig a hole down to see what lay inside; no one knew what was hidden within—if it were solid, fine, but if not?

Now he knew why no entrance could be found: you had to be teleported directly in via the Heavenly Staircase—no door was needed.

Of course, the Heavenly Staircase can teleport across planes—why wouldn't it be easier to teleport straight inside?

This was a vast underground space, as if the interior of the "bowl" had been hollowed out.

A metal passage extended from where they were teleported, stretching to the center of this space.

Suspended in the center was a large iron sphere emitting holy light, its diameter possibly dozens of meters, its shell covered in countless intricate, exquisite magical runes that flickered slowly.

Seeing those runes, Negril couldn't help but furrow his scaled brows; others might not recognize them, but he recognized them at a glance—all were magical arrays for sealing, shielding, and restriction, but were they really used this densely?

"So many sealing runes? What the hell? Even if you sealed the Light God inside, you wouldn't need this many!" Negril couldn't help complaining.

The number of runes doesn't guarantee effect, but to achieve the effect, you need sufficient quantity—regardless, the shell's dense runes were certainly intimidating.

The sphere's shell wasn't a single piece—it was assembled from many irregular blocks, with gaps between them, sealed by enormous rivets; where rivets couldn't reach, gaps remained.

The holy light streamed out from these gaps.

Eighteen massive iron chains suspended the iron sphere in midair, chains extending in all directions, firmly anchoring it at the end of the passage.

These chains weren't just for suspension and locking—they also served as energy circuits; occasionally, runes on the chains would glow, sending streaks of light along the chains to some unknown destination.

After inspecting it, Negril was disappointed: "That's it? You dug this massive underground space just to hang a ball? Etched a bunch of sealing runes to scare people—anyone who didn't know would think the Light God was sealed inside."

Grumbling, Negril flew up to the iron sphere and peered through the gaps between its shells.

The gaps between the shells of this forty-meter sphere were wide enough—even Negril's embryonic form could slip inside.

But as soon as he peered in, his wings went limp and he plopped onto the ground with a thud.

Ang glanced at him, puzzled.

"Light, light, light…" Negril was utterly uncharacteristically flustered, pointing with his tiny claw, unable to form a coherent sentence for a long while.

Light what? Ang leaned in to look—and as soon as his eyes reached the gap, he felt an overwhelming force, tightly sealed within the sphere's boundaries, leaking not a single iota—only when peering through the gap could one sense its terror.

"Light—the Light God is sealed inside, sealed… sealed inside!" Negril finally managed to speak.

Light God? Ang tilted his head.

"Light, Creation, Supreme—the three-in-one Primordial Deity, sealed inside," Negril peered again, then declared firmly.

Ang tilted his head again—he still didn't understand.

Negril had to explain carefully, his tone unexpectedly filled with suppressed excitement.

"The Light Church has three main gods: the Light God, the Creation God, the Supreme God. I thought they were real beings, but now I see they're not—they're more like tools to gather faith, collecting believers' convictions and distributing them to the Light Pantheon. What a brilliant idea!" Negril praised, clenching his tiny claw.

How did the Light Pantheon stay united? This had always puzzled Negril during his research on becoming a god. Humans have a saying: you're not afraid everyone earns one coin—you're afraid some earn a hundred while others earn one.

An unfair system can't last long, so many religions have only one god—but the Light Church was the exception, with its many gods.

How did they keep the Light Pantheon from infighting? Now Negril had the answer: the three main gods were merely tools—tools to distribute faith-energy—and they were three-in-one, three names for a single deity.

Now, this deity was sealed here, seemingly the Holy Heaven's energy source, powering the entire realm.

"Damn, only the Light Deity's essence could power this Holy Heaven. Found the energy source," Negril sighed.

The three main gods of Light were famed far and wide—yet they didn't even exist; their deity essence was merely a tool and energy source, while lesser gods like Balance and Redemption were more independent.

But presumably, the Light God had no consciousness and didn't care about Negril's feelings.

After checking, Negril found the sealed iron sphere was extremely sturdy—likely built specifically to contain the Light Deity's essence, keeping it stable, with energy periodically flowing through the chains to maintain the integrity of the barrier.

If it needed to move, it probably drew energy from here—even the Heavenly Staircase might use this energy, though Ang hadn't learned how to control it.

"Yes, yes, control—quick, Ang, quickly authenticate the divine runes, let's take full control of this place!" Negril exclaimed excitedly.

Previously, the Holy Heaven was just a space fortress inverted over the Abyss of Rest—grabbing it meant nothing more than seizing a fortress. Even if you flew it to another plane for war, it was still just a fortress.

But now it was different—the Light Deity's essence was inside. Taking the Heaven meant taking the Light God too?

Of course, it wasn't as simple as Negril imagined; the Light Deity's essence was too vast—it could power a fortress to fly across planes and sustain a dimensional barrier, its energy level far beyond Negril's imagination.

Not to mention seizing it—even projecting one's consciousness into it was impossible.

"Forget it, at least we can control the Heaven Fortress—later we'll fly it into the Void… Damn! What are you doing?!" Negril was muttering when he turned and saw a horrifying sight—Ang had stuck a finger into the gap between the iron shells.

His shout startled Ang, who instinctively pulled his finger back—on it clung a holy wraith, clutching a ball of light, mirroring Ang's own shock as it turned to stare at Negril.

As it stared, it casually shoved the light into its mouth and sighed contentedly with a yawn.

Negril sighed: "Don't poke around randomly—I haven't figured it out yet! What if you poke and burst it?"

Ang tilted his head, puzzled—he tapped the iron shell with his finger, producing a solid, muffled thud—how could something this sturdy burst?

"... ine, you won't poke, so you tap instead. Forget it, just authenticate the divine runes quickly," Negril said weakly—arguing with this skeleton would surely kill him.

After sighing, Negril suddenly remembered something and snapped his gaze to Ang's finger—had that little wraith just been digging into the Deity's essence and eating it?

Ang pulled out the Heaven Scepter, searched, and found a depression at the end of the passage—he inserted the scepter and mentally contacted the little angel.

In the temple's control room, the little angel and the little zombie sat bored, glaring at each other, about to fight, when Ang's message arrived—the little angel leapt up and slammed his palm onto the control key.

The underground iron shell glowed briefly—the Deity's power spread through the eighteen iron chains.

At the point where the scepter was inserted, a magical array lit up on the ground; layered illusions rose, constructing a three-dimensional virtual structure around Ang, including the coordinate system he'd seen before.

"Whoa—so this is the real control room? No wonder we couldn't find any movement options upstairs. Don't move!" Negril grabbed Ang.

He'd always been wary of this skeleton—constantly pressing buttons; last time at the World Transit Station he'd pressed randomly, and though the outcome was good—he'd brought back the Purple Bone Titans—what if he'd pressed the wrong one?

What if the Holy Heaven had fallen and shattered the Abyss of Rest?

"Hurry up and authenticate the divine runes—don't press anything," Negril said.

Once here and the illusions activated, divine rune authentication became incredibly simple—it was no different from magical rune authentication.

Many high-level magical items require magical rune authentication—only those with the correct runes can activate or use them, like a space ring.

Divine runes work the same way, except they authenticate the soul or consciousness—technically, it should be called soul authentication.

After authenticating the divine runes, you could summon the Heavenly Staircase from outside to open a portal.

"That doesn't matter—you can open portals anytime with the Heaven Scepter. Quickly find how to lock the door, keep out the Goddess of Redemption and others," Negril said.

Ang searched and several symbols appeared before them—one familiar symbol was a ring encircling a balance.

"That's the Scale God's symbol? Are these all symbols of authenticated Light Pantheon gods?" Negril exclaimed.

The ring-and-balance symbol glowed, as did another: two hands clasping a sword with angelic wings.

Negril pointed at the clasped-hands symbol: "That can't be the Goddess of Redemption's symbol—then who's this one?"

Ang shook his head and mentally contacted Anthony.

"A sword with angelic wings on its back? That's the Judgment God's symbol," Anthony said.

"Judgment God?" Negril sucked in a breath: "Do these glowing symbols mean they're still alive? No—the Scale God is dead, but you stole his Scale Ring."

"The Goddess of Redemption is alive too. These glowing symbols mean those individuals still have divine energy feedback—not necessarily alive; maybe someone stole the Judgment Sword like you stole the Scale Ring. Hurry, erase their authentication!"

Ang shook his head: "Can't erase."

"Damn, got fooled again—that fraud, the Goddess of Redemption!" Negril fumed.

Of course—everyone had divine rune authentication, and they'd had it longer—why should you be able to erase theirs?

This meant they couldn't fully control the Holy Heaven—everyone had access, everyone could open the portal.

What to do? It was like a time bomb hanging over their heads. Before, they didn't know—now they did. If they didn't fix it, they'd live in constant dread, fearing someone might walk in anytime.

What to do? As Negril pondered, he suddenly heard a hissing sound—he looked up and saw Ang's finger emitting red light, sizzling toward the divine rune symbols.

"Of course! Your spot-removal Shu can erase magical rune imprints—can it erase divine runes too?" Negril rejoiced.

But he rejoiced too soon—the red light of the spot-removal Shu left the divine rune symbols untouched.

"Forget it, let's plant a few more War Treefolk around the temple—anyone who enters gets smashed."

Ang shook his head, stepped forward sharply, and his scales flipped up—Dragon God Transformation.

The space froze for twenty-six seconds—thirteen spot-removal pulses per second, three hundred thirty red dots frozen before the divine rune symbols. The instant the space froze, all erupted onto the symbols.

Negril's mouth hung open—"unharmed"? Purely insufficient firepower. With enough firepower, you can erase anything.

The instant the divine rune symbols vanished, a powerful consciousness surged toward them—confused, bewildered—but before it could act, it was completely cut off, locked out.

Negril shuddered: "Glowing symbols mean they're alive—that consciousness must've been the Judgment God. Damn, he never showed up—if we hadn't found this, we'd have been ambushed one day."

"Let's go, let's go—get out first. When your transformation recharges tomorrow, we'll come back and erase these symbols too," Negril said.

Ang nodded, then remembered something—he ran to the iron sphere, reached his palm into the gap, and pulled it out—on his finger, the little wraith once again grabbed a ball of light and shoved it into its mouth.

Negril grumbled: "Eat, eat, eat—why don't you just eat the whole Deity essence while you're at it?"