Book 7, Chapter 101: The Winter of the Gods

The gods’ defeat had sealed the fate of Kun’s territory.

This world, which was still isolated within the Barrier, was forcefully remodeled. The system of faith was forcibly dismantled while the gods squirreled themselves away, attempting to survive on the little faith that their divine kingdoms still provided them with.

At the same time, the human race of the Origin Realm embarked on a widespread crusade, wiping out any organizations of faith that they encountered.

On Holy West Mountain.

This mountain had once belonged to the Lord of Light.

And after the Lord of Light had fallen, the Moon Goddess Mila had designated this location as one of her holy lands for worshippers to congregate at.

Countless geniuses had been produced at this location, and inheriting a church was always a blessing. The records and writings contained here would not at all be out of place in a large library. The artistic statues, oil paintings, and other aspects of the fine arts produced here were also innumerable.

Even so, all of this was useless in battle. The weakness and frailness of the worshippers here had been fully exposed.

Just outside the window, sounds of battle could be heard, and thick plumes of smoke filled the sky.

Jig the Fourteenth clung to the Moon Goddess Statue, gazing at the bloody slaughter unfolding before his very eyes.

“Kill!”

𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

Following this cry, a streak of sword light arced across the sky. A young soldier mounted on horseback tumbled into the temple, his body rolling a few times before finally stopping in a collapsed heap on the ground, completely motionless.

“Mark,” Jig the Fourteenth softly called out to the soldier.

That was his final remaining cavalryman. Each and every one of them had been blessed by the Mother Goddess herself with astounding innate talent and potential. These people were the ones destined to enter her divine kingdom.

Now, however, they were dying in droves. There was no guidance or protection to be found anywhere.

The sound of rough footsteps and clanging metal drew closer and closer. Jig the Fourteenth knew that the enemies who had killed Mark were nearby.

He didn’t raise his head, however, and instead chose to continue stroking Mark’s face gently as he reminisced, “He came to this temple when he was seven years old. Even now, I still remember him as a studious, hardworking student of the sword. One time, he accidentally cut his opponent during a sparring session. He felt incredibly guilty and asked me whether or not the Goddess would still approve of someone like him, who had hurt one of his comrades. I told him that she would. As long as he was truly repentant for his mistakes and learned from them, the Goddess would forgive him and accept him all the same......”

“It seems that he was a good child,” Iron Cliff rumbled as blood dripped down from his iron-like fists. “I have killed quite a few like him already. I wish that there was another way. After all, I did give them the opportunity to surrender their faith and survive. However, none of them chose to accept my offer.”

Jig the Fourteenth grew angry at Iron Cliff’s words. “Even if we die, we will never abandon our faith. And what right do you have to force us to disavow our faith? Freedom of religion is a right that all residents of this land have.”

“Well said!” Iron Cliff began to clap as he replied, “Freedom of religion is indeed a good thing, but what about atheists? Are they still allowed to have free will?”

Jig’s mouth dropped open, and he was rendered speechless for some time.

Iron Cliff continued, saying, “If I remember correctly, atheism is a gross sin in your world, right? It is treated even more harshly than heresy. Is that also not a rule of your land? You refuse to allow others to become atheists upon pain of death. Why wasn’t freedom of religion brought up then? Where was your sense of morality and justice then?”

Jig the Fourteenth couldn’t stop himself from beginning to tremble.

This was a dark truth that the churches could not conceal. Their treatment of unbelievers was extremely harsh, and it was the greatest darkness that they had desperately tried to conceal behind the purported light of worship.

When they had been in power, no one had dared to point out the hypocrisy. Now, however, it had been dug up and fully exposed by Iron Cliff.

Since the churches could slaughter atheists as they pleased, then the immortals had the right to do whatever they wanted to the churches as well.

This was very logical after all.

Iron Cliff did not personally come up with this argument, but he had still managed to learn it nonetheless.

Even then, so what if his viewpoint was unreasonable?

In this world, reason was decided by the strong in the first place.

Ethical reasoning was typically superficial in nature. Regardless of whether or not this thin veneer was present, what needed to be done would be done.

Iron Cliff apathetically waved his hand. “Burn it.”

Waves of flames sprang to life, enveloping the church in a blazing inferno.

As he gazed at the flames, Iron Cliff let out a small smile. “Did you really think that the most dangerous location would be the safest? Fire away!”

Hundreds of Titan-Class puppets descended from the sky before unleashing a torrent of energy at the ground beneath them.

This wave of energy slammed into Holy West Mountain, but seemingly nothing happened. There was no energy shockwave from this massive collision, and not even a single stone was shattered.

However, the space behind the mountain began to tremble, as if something was emerging from the fabric of space in that area.

Finally, that area broke open due to the combined firepower of the Titan-Class puppets.

Boom!

A massive divine kingdom suddenly appeared out of nowhere, and the sounds of pious chanting could be heard coming from its surface.

Iron Cliff glanced at it before being taken aback. “Hm? This is not the Moon Goddess’s kingdom. It’s the God of Discipline’s.”

The God of Discipline, Cleo, was a prototypical low-tier god.

Even though he was a low-tier god, Cleo’s combat power was not bad. At the very least, he was much more powerful than Amelie, even though all of them were stronger than Amelie.

When Iron Cliff discovered that the god hiding on Holy West Mountain was not the Moon Goddess but rather the God of Discipline, he rubbed his head in confusion for a few moments. Then, something seemed to click for him, and he cracked a wry smile. “Who cares which one it is. Destroying one still means that we have one less to worry about.”

Iron Cliff let out a long whistle. Behind him appeared a few Desolate Beasts, who began to confidently stride towards the divine kingdom.

“How absurd. You want to fight me, a god, with just a few weak Beasts?” Cleo’s disdainful voice thundered through the sky.

If it was just a few Desolate Beasts, then there was no need for him to feel fear. After all, he was alone and would not have to worry about drawing too much Method Power from the environment or affecting the surrounding Origin Energy too much.

The current Cleo was completely capable of demonstrating his full might.

Boom, boom, boom, boom!

Powerful fluctuations of divine power pulsated out from his kingdom in rampant waves.

This time, Cleo had wisened up. He was attacking from within his own divine kingdom.

Actually, this was the ideal way for a god to fight. When they relied on the protection of their kingdom, they would be free to attack as they pleased. Any individual who tried to force their way into this kingdom would experience an extremely powerful backlash. Furthermore, divine soldiers could not die within the divine kingdom, and would quickly reform even if they were “killed.” As such, making any significant headway was exceptionally difficult. And since Cleo was not holding back, his combat power was much higher than in the previous battle.

The previous battle had simply come too soon, and the gods had also been too arrogant. By the time they realized what was happening, it was already too late. This time, however, Cleo had made the appropriate preparations and was adopting an intelligent combat strategy. His divine kingdom would protect him while he attacked as he pleased. Perhaps even an Origin Beast would have a hard time taking him down.

Obviously, however, Iron Cliff thought differently.

When he saw that the God of Discipline was cowering within his divine kingdom and refusing to come out, he frowned before taunting, “Do you really think that hiding within your shell will save you? Don’t forget that we thought that we would be encircling the Moon Goddess and fighting her. Do you think that you can survive what we originally intended to use against her?”

As he spoke, a swarm of bats appeared and flew towards the God of Discipline’s blades of divine light. The swarm of bats then opened their mouths wide and spat out blades made of sound, forcibly scattering the God of Discipline’s blades of divine light.

“You old bat!” the God of Discipline roared angrily. His voice, however, also contained a trace of fear within it.

The colony of bats gathered together before assuming the form of the Blood Ancestor. “Don’t be in such a rush. I’m not the one who’s responsible for dealing with you.”

What? You aren’t?

The God of Discipline was taken aback and instinctively asked, “Who is, then?”

“Me, of course.” Su Chen’s voice floated through the sky.

The God of Discipline turned to see Su Chen seemingly step out of thin air.

Then, he took another step forward, entering the God of Discipline’s divine kingdom.

Countless elite divine warriors rushed towards Su Chen as soon as he set foot inside, immediately attacking him with all their strength. Their combat power within the divine kingdom was considerably amplified. Some of the more powerful groups could even injure other gods.

Even Su Chen did not dare to be too overconfident when faced with this attack.

The Universe of Beasts appeared once more. Beasts surged forth as the Shining Dragon danced in the sky.

This was one of Su Chen’s most effective techniques against large groups of enemies. Everywhere around him, Beasts could be seen howling, leaping, and prancing.

At this point, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to give Su Chen a nickname like ‘King of Beasts.’

Countless divine soldiers were almost immediately killed by the terrifying onslaught of Beasts.

Worse still, the God of Discipline quickly discovered that these dead warriors could not be resurrected.

There were certain conditions when it came to resurrection.

In the first place, these divine warriors were a form of consciousness entity. If they were killed, they would be reborn within the Hall of Martyrs.

Now, however, they were not resurrecting there.

The God of Discipline began to panic.

Due to spatial restrictions, each divine kingdom could only hold a limited number of divine soldiers. While the three high-tier gods had millions of divine soldiers, low-tier gods like the God of Discipline only had around eighty thousand or so. They were primarily used as a shield due to their unkillable nature. If his opponent was even the slightest bit stronger, however, that shield would give way and force Cleo to jump into the fray as well.

Now, however, it was as if his shield did not exist in the first place.

The slain spirits were not coming back to life.

The God of Discipline could sense that, while they were still present, their spirits had not returned to the Hall of Martyrs. As such, they were not able to resurrect.

This was as if a pile of corpses were not degrading and returning to the soil after death.

Suddenly, the God of Discipline found himself in a difficult predicament.

He began to cry out in panic. “How could this be? How is this possible? Return to me, my warriors!”

“There’s no need to yell like that. Without my permission, not a single one of them will be able to revive,” Su Chen calmly said as he continued to stride forwards.

“No! This is impossible! This is my world!” The God of Discipline began to attack Su Chen with a desperate madness.

Su Chen’s body began glowing with white light, along him to easily withstand the God of Discipline’s attacks as he continued to press forward. The Beasts surrounding him were still wreaking havoc, leaving a trail of corpses in his wake.

None of the warriors who were killed by him could come back to life.

“No! This world belongs to me! Listen to my commands and rise, my warriors!” the God of Discipline roared unwillingly.

“Your world?” Su Chen harrumphed disdainfully. “That’s where you’re wrong. Right now...... This world is mine!”

At that moment, the Universe of Beasts expanded to fill the entire divine kingdom.