Chapter 1770 - The Exquisite Goddess Statue

All of Suo Wenzhou’s lust disappeared into thin air, replaced by bone-chilling terror.

This was one of the most important places in the Church of the Exquisite Goddess, and the hall was covered in countless formations!

Yet now, someone had snuck in entirely undetected!!

Suo Wenzhou had no time to give the matter any further thought. Years of instincts honed on the battlefield kicked in, and he tossed the beautiful concubines in his arms away.

At the same time, he explosively pushed his seated figure off the ground and gripped a pair of glittering golden short halberds.

The imposing presence of a late-stage Miracle Realm Immortal King erupted around him, but a moment later, his pupils constricted.

That young man in blue had disappeared into thin air.

Where did he go? Don’t tell me I was seeing things?

Meanwhile, his beautiful concubines thudded to the ground. All of them let out muffled grunts of agony, and all of them looked completely bewildered.

“Dear, you...”

One of the beauties looked up, a resentful look on her face.

But just as she was about to say something, her eyes widened, and her scalp went numb. She shrieked, “Behind you! Dear, look behind you!”

Suo Wenzhou’s scalp went numb. He didn’t even turn around to look before swinging his halberds at the air behind him.

But then, a large, powerful hand seized him tightly by the throat, and a tyrannical power sealed his cultivation base. His twin halberd strikes were instantly soft and weak.

“Let’s talk this through! What have you come here to do?” Suo Wenzhou cried out. Despite having overcome countless battles, he couldn’t help but feel overcome with terror and dread.

“I’ve come late at night to borrow your head. I’ll have to ask you to lend it to me.”

Crack!

As that calm voice rang out, Suo Wenzhou’s neck broke, and someone ripped his head off his body. Fresh blood erupted from the stump.

Suo Wenzhou never got a clear look at the man who’d kill him, nor did he learn his origins or how he’d snuck into the Church of the Exquisite Goddess undetected...

Bitterness was written all over his handsome face.

His beautiful concubines paled with fright and shrieked. To them, the young man in blue was like a monster who’d appeared without warning. He’d casually torn Second Libationer Suo Wenzhou’s head off!

He was simply terrifying!

“You’re making too much noise.” Su Yi subtly shook his head.

With a wave of his sleeves, sword qi swept across the hall.

The shrieks came to an abrupt halt, and a bloody mist permeated the room.

Su Yi had already vanished from the hall.

......

Similar scenes played out in the residences of the church’s other higher-ups. One after another, its prominent experts lost their heads.

Swaying lamplight illuminated a hall of worship forged out of bronze.

The statue honored at its center was ninety feet tall, and it depicted a figure with six arms and three heads. One of the heads was kindly and benevolent, and one bared its fangs hideously.

The third, central head was that of an enchanting, beautiful woman.

Furthermore, each of the statue’s six arms held a black sun!

Even stranger, the statue had no legs. Its lower body was that of a serpent, and it was covered in strange and dense blood-colored scales.

The statue was bathed in the light of the lamps, giving it an additional, mysterious quality.

A table of offerings was placed in front of the statue. There was a bone lamp and several other offerings.

An old man in gray held an earthen jar full of fresh blood with both hands, and he was pouring its contents into the bone lamp.

As the blood flowed into the lamp, the lamp seemed to come to life. It produced a strange energy fluctuation that greedily devoured the blood offering down to the last drop.

It was only after the jar was empty that the man in gray took two steps back and set the jug aside. He then knelt on the ground, his gaze pious and fanatical as he lowered his head in worship.

“Reporting to the Divine Venerate, the Blood of Ten Thousand Spirits has been offered to the White Bone Divine Lamp. Our leader estimates that we’ll be able to fully activate its power within three years. When the time comes, we’ll be able to illuminate a spatial node on the River of Spacetime and usher the esteemed divine son into the Immortal Realm!”

The man’s voice was solemn and tinged with heartfelt awe and eagerness.

The ninety-foot goddess statue was silent. There was no response.

Nonetheless, the man in gray knew that the divine venerate could learn what had happened tonight with ease whenever she wished it.

After completing this task, he let out a long breath, turned, and rose, only to stiffen. He wasn’t sure when they’d gotten here, but someone was casting a long shadow across the ground!

“Who is it!?” the man in gray whipped his head around to look.

Just thirty feet away, there now stood a young man in blue. His hands were behind his back as he examined the ninety-foot goddess statue.

The man in gray instantly looked stricken. “Who are you? How dare you trespass in our church’s sacred ground?”

As he spoke, he rose and readied himself for battle.

“Don’t be nervous. Might you tell me this goddess statue’s origins?” asked Su Yi.

The man in gray looked uncertain, but after a little while, he said, “This is the statue of our church’s Exquisite Divine Venerate. She....”

But as he spoke, he waved his sleeves through the air.

Kcccch!

A serpentine silver weaver’s shuttle shot through the air. It was aimed directly at Su Yi’s throat.

But then, Su Yi vanished right before his eyes, and the silver shuttle hit nothing but air.

“Where’d he go!?” The man in gray visibly lost his cool and leaped toward the exit.

But before he’d gotten far, a large, fair hand pressed downward.

Bang!

The man in gray slammed to the ground. Throughout his body, countless bones snapped, and blood gushed from his broken skin.

His right hand quivered, and a talisman floated above his palm, but just as he was about to crush it...

Crunch!

A large foot descended, shattering his right hand.

The gray-robed man’s face contorted in agony. His eyes bulged, and his heart filled with terror.

Just who is this guy? How could he be so terrifying?

“Sit tight. Take advantage of the fact that I still have questions for you, and don’t try any unseemly little tricks,” said Su Yi. He raised his hand, and the talisman flew into his palm.

It twisted like a serpent, and it was as black as ink throughout. Its surface was carved with the strange totem of a black sun, and when it rested against Su Yi’s palm, it emanated a bone-chilling, unsettling aura.

After sensing it briefly, Su Yi immediately concluded that this talisman was full of the power of a deity!

“Was this perhaps given to you by the Exquisite Divine Venerate?” asked Su Yi, gazing up at the ninety-foot statue.

With its three heads and six arms, the statue was quite strange. Each of its hands held a black sun, and the goddess had the lower body of a serpent. It was a strange, mysterious sight.

Su YI couldn’t help but suspect that this was what she really looked like. If so, she was almost certainly a yao goddess!

“That’s right,” said the man in gray, his breathing hurried and his voice raspy. “If you commit violence in front of the Divine Venerate’s statue, you’ll be blaspheming against her! Surely you’re afraid of divine retribution?”

Su Yi laughed, put away the serpentine black talisman, and ignored the gray-robed man’s threats.

He looked at the white bone lamp on the offering table and said, “Based on what you said earlier, once the lamp absorbs enough Blood of Ten Thousand Spirits, it’ll be able to illuminate a spatial node and usher in a divine son. Does that mean your goddess gave it to you?”

The man in gray completely lost his cool as he realized that this trespasser had heard his entire report to the Divine Venerate!

“That’s right,” he said in a low, hoarse voice. “Over the past nineteen thousand years, we’ve poured three thousand catties of the Blood of Ten Thousand Spirits into the lamp at nine-year intervals, all for the sake of one day ushering in the divine son our goddess wishes to send into the Immortal Realm.”

Here, he raised his head with great difficulty and fixed his bloodshot gaze on Su Yi. “I urge you not to touch the White Bone Divine Lamp. Try it, and you’ll be afflicted by divine tribulation even if you have Great Realm cultivation. You’ll die beyond a doubt!”

“Oh,” said Su Yi. “The Church of Divine Spirits was trying to usher in a divine son. Now, it seems the Church of the Exquisite Goddess is after the same thing. Does that mean that the path to godhood will soon re-enter the Immortal Realm?”

In the Buzhou Mountains, he personally ruined the leader of the Church of All Spirits’ plans. Their divine son had been just one step away from entering the Immortal Realm, but in the end, he just barely missed his opportunity to descend.

That divine son had called himself Lu Feng. Su Yi still vividly recalled his bitter, infuriated roars.

It was then that Su Yi learned that the divine son ushered in by the Church of All Spirits had come to prove his Dao and become a god in the Immortal Realm!

Arriving in the Immortal Realm early would have given him an opportunity to seize an Epoch Law and condense a Godhead before others got the chance!

After this, Su Yi also realized that even divine sons needed the right opportunity if they were to prove their Daos, condense Godheads, and forge Divine Thrones!

When the imminent golden age reached the Immortal Realm, chances to achieve divinity were sure to appear!

When Su Yi learned that the Church of the Exquisite Goddess had similar plans, he concluded that it wouldn’t be long before the path to divinity appeared in the Immortal Realm!

This was an absolutely astonishing secret. If word got out, it was sure to shake the entire Immortal Realm!

“Since you know about the path to divinity, you naturally know what the divine children are descending into the Immortal Realm to achieve. The gods are involved in this. Do you dare to provoke them even knowing that?” asked the man in gray.

“I’m the one asking questions,” said Su Yi. “Will the path to divinity appear soon?”

The man in gray shook his head. “It’s a taboo subject. Not even our leader knows the details. But you’re right. As more and more scions of the gods enter the Immortal Realm, the path to divinity will soon appear.”

Su Yi nodded, then asked with great interest, “Are you perhaps capable of helping me converse with the Exquisite Divine Venerate?”

He really was curious how the Church of the Exquisite Goddess typically made contact with the deity they worshiped.

The man in gray was stunned, and his eyes bulged. “You... you want to converse with the goddess?”

“Why shouldn’t I?” Su Yi said calmly. “In your eyes, deities are as grand as the heavens. You think they are to be feared, respected, and obeyed. But in my eyes, they’re just cultivators who happen to be a bit stronger than us.”

The man in gray fell silent. “....”