Even in today’s World of Gods, not many people knew about the legend of the Evil God.
In fact, similar legends weren’t uncommon during the ancient era of the World of Gods. All sorts of creatures that were enemies of the gods and even all humanity—with a strong penchant for self-destruction—were said to exist.
But how many people had actually seen such an existence with their own eyes? The answer was zero.
In fact, these legends didn’t really seem realistic. Be it the World of Gods or the Myriad Heavens, the path of development for gods and Star Rulers was essentially the same.
They strengthened themselves by developing their own planes, eventually reaching Unified Dao, merging themselves with the laws of the great world, and from then on, they would exist alongside the world for all eternity.
Since this was the case, how could there be beings in this world who made it their mission to kill gods? What was the meaning of their existence? What benefit would killing gods give them?
There was always a profit motive incentivizing living beings’ actions, and no one had ever heard of someone who benefitted by killing other gods.
But Gu Nan's appearance made Sylvia realize that such a person might actually exist.
Sylvia personally witnessed Gu Nan seeking out the Mirror God in an unheard-of place and then killing him, and this time, he even made a special trip to kill Luke and Cliff.
And it seemed that his power grew every time he killed a god…
As she replayed past scenes in her head, the conjecture in Sylvia's heart grew firmer—Gu Nan was definitely some sort of ancient evil creature that came to the Myriad Heavens for some inexplicable reason and took on a human form.
Not even Sylvia had ever seen such a peculiar existence before, and she suddenly felt as if her heart was gripped by something, feeling like she was duty-bound to save the world.
She was indeed trying to save the world, because those kinds of legendary evil creatures were all bent on destroying the world!
"Escape, I must find a way to escape." Sylvia forced herself to calm down. Despite the fact that most of her senses were sealed, the voices from outside were still coming through.
There was no break in the reports she heard. It seemed that many individuals had already entered and left, and their conversations with Gu Nan were all centered around an upcoming Divine Kingdom War.
The term Divine Kingdom War was one that Sylvia hadn't heard in a long time. This was because most gods in the World of Gods would never casually start a war; they preferred to fight battles as individuals.
This was unlike the Star Rulers of the Myriad Heavens. As long as they defeated other Star Rulers, they could plunder resources from other people’s territories, strengthen their reputation, and attract more powerful subordinates.
If the gods of the World of Gods waged wars, it was basically just for the sake of "doctrine", and there would hardly be any real benefits—believers couldn’t be plundered; they could only be raised.
Sylvia endured the discomfort of not being able to sense the outside world and listened carefully to Gu Nan's conversation with his subordinates, but the more she heard, the more alarmed she became.
Unlike the wars she was familiar with, Gu Nan didn’t seem to care about resources or territory and wanted to send his army out purely to kill people.
All his arrangements were to kill people more efficiently. His targets ranged from mortals to all cultivators weaker than gods, with no exceptions.
Sylvia secretly noted down this detail, then tried to empty her thoughts as much as possible, quietly waiting for a chance to escape.
After a while, she sensed that the outside had been silent for a long time, and Gu Nan seemed to have left long ago.
So this Goddess of Shadows began to cautiously test the waters, mobilizing the divine power in her body bit by bit, seemingly breaking through the shackles from outside.
Unfortunately, the same power of shadows was outside, and her divine power was completely assimilated the moment it left her body, in turn making her restraints even stronger.
"Damn it!"
Sylvia had never hated shadows so much. If not for the fact that the other party also controlled shadows, it would’ve been impossible for anyone else to imprison her like this.
As the goddess who controlled shadows, she was confident in breaking free from her bonds in any situation, as shadows themselves couldn’t be bound—unless the other party also used shadows to bind her.
In the past, Sylvia might have given up hope at this point, praying with all her heart that her brother would quickly realize she was missing and find her.
But now that she believed she was carrying the hopes of the entire world, she was driven by the heavy sense of duty and actually didn’t have the slightest intention of giving up.
"Must… get out!"
The Shadow Goddess launched herself viciously, giving up on the idea of escaping using the power of shadows, and actually started to smash her body against the law of shadows.
Apart from monsters like Gu Nan, the divine bodies of normal gods couldn't be considered powerful, but they weren't weak either. The essence of a god's divine body was stronger than laws, but it was very hard to heal injuries to their physical bodies, so few gods would ever fight with it.
But at this moment, Sylvia couldn't care less.
The power of shadows invaded from the surface of her body, causing Sylvia to feel vague stabs of pain, but she forced herself to endure it and instead became somewhat excited inside.
This was because she could sense the power of the laws binding her outside being worn down slightly as well.
Even if it was just a very tiny bit, these laws that had left Gu Nan would not be replenished. As long as she kept on doing this, sooner or later, she would be able to free herself.
"Hang in there!" Sylvia encouraged herself.
She began to try again and again, pausing for a short rest when her divine body was damaged too seriously, and soon began the repetitive work of "trying to puncture stone with drops of water" once again.
It was only when she heard the sound of footsteps that she hastily stopped moving, fearing that Gu Nan would notice her actions.
Her caution was completely necessary, as Gu Nan's voice soon traveled over.
"Target: Daoist Sect Realm. Set off."
……
Daoist Monarch Wu Tian of Daoist Sect Realm had been tormented miserably by Gu Nan recently.
The thought of Gu Nan specifically targeting the living beings in Daoist Sect Realm never occurred to him; he just believed the invasion was due to the past grudge between them, and Gu Nan came back to seek revenge now that he ascended to a Realm Level Star Ruler.
But he couldn’t even do anything about Gu Nan back in the day, so of course he could only endure the current disaster. Turning the tables and going to Gu Nan's house to wreak havoc was something he could never do.
Who was he kidding? Even Fang Chaoyun suffered a loss in Gu Nan's lair, and now the Star Rulers who had a grudge against Gu Nan all regarded it as a tiger’s den.
Therefore, when a group of divine servants descended from Gu Nan’s Divine Kingdom and landed directly on various parts of Daoist Sect Realm, Daoist Monarch Wu Tian was still in a trance and hadn't regained his senses.
‘Didn’t you just want to vent some anger? How did it turn into an all-out war?’
"The… Lady Sylvia in the Divine Kingdom, do you need me to dispose of her?" In the Divine Kingdom, Yan Xiaoxiao projected a figure next to Gu Nan and asked.
Sylvia probably never imagined that everything she did in the shadows was actually all under Yan Xiaoxiao's watchful eye.
"No need." Gu Nan waved his hand. "If she plans to escape like this, even the monkey would’ve freed himself from Five Elements Mountain before then[1]."
T/N:
[1] Reference to Journey to the West, where it took Sun Wukong 500 years to escape the mountain
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