Chapter 244: Chapter 128: Taxing the Gods
He quietly studied the Cosmic Altar before him, a Golden Tower Altar type that stood about two meters tall and radiated an earthy yellow halo.
Deep within Zorn’s eyes, the dense and mysterious earthy yellow halo was perfectly reflected.
After a long, long time, he finally pulled his focus back.
He first tried to push the Cosmic Altar.
The Cosmic Altar didn’t budge.
Zorn knew that no matter how much force he used, even if he tried to push it with an Ancient God Curse,
or even if Legendary Powerhouses tried to move it,
the Cosmic Altar would not be shaken in the slightest.
The only thing that could move the Cosmic Altar was the "Cosmic Ancient God Language."
As someone who had mastered the Cosmic Ancient God Language, Zorn’s grand plan—his plan to tax the gods—slowly unfolded in his mind.
Taking a deep breath, Zorn began to act.
He first opened his Spiritual Realm and released the Steam Magical Castle.
Then, he began to slowly push the Cosmic Altar using the "Cosmic Ancient God Language."
Zorn’s goal was to push the Cosmic Altar into his Calamity Divine Kingdom.
The Cosmic Altar was a crucial part of the trinity of cosmic sacrifice.
Once Zorn pushed the Cosmic Altar into the Calamity Divine Kingdom,
he would then use the Cosmic Ancient God Language to have the Cosmic Altar construct 12 "Cosmic Altar Projections" and place them in the Desert Sea World on the first layer.
This way, any future entrants
who explored and searched these Ancient Ruins would only have the "Cosmic Altar Projections" as their channel for making sacrifices.
And this was an absolutely vital part of the entire plan.
By taking control of the Cosmic Altar,
when others made sacrifices through the projections, Zorn would enjoy a portion of the feedback from the Cosmic Demon Pool.
That’s right!
By controlling the Cosmic Altar, Zorn could, through this series of operations,
tax every Sacrificial Offerer in the entire world.
In the future, all powerful Divine Spirits would inevitably come to make sacrifices.
At that time, Zorn would tax the gods!
Every time any other faction made a sacrifice through a Cosmic Altar Projection,
Zorn would collect about 8% to 12% of the sacrificial feedback.
This was the ultimate goal of Zorn’s painstakingly laid Cosmic Altar plan.
As for how to collect the feedback from these sacrificial resources,
Zorn had already made preparations long ago.
Whether it was Zorn’s Calamity Divine Kingdom,
the Lord of War’s War Divine Kingdom,
or the Nightmare Angel’s Angel Divine Kingdom,
they all floated above the Cosmic Demon Pool.
And right now, Zorn was using the Tree of Calamity Magic Ring to push his Calamity Divine Kingdom toward the "Cosmic Demon Pool."
Once it entered the Cosmic Demon Pool,
the portion of power from others’ sacrifices that belonged to Zorn’s tax would be directly fed back into his Divine Kingdom.
At that point, Zorn’s Divine Kingdom and his Tree of the Magic Ring
would be nourished by the resources of many major factions.
And this was also the only way Zorn could hope to ascend to the supreme peak in the future.
’The World is still in its second Chapter. This plan will only show its astonishing effects when the World enters the third Chapter, the Journey of Planes.’
’Once it takes effect, my Divine Kingdom and Tree of the Magic Ring will both experience explosive growth.’
While lost in thought, Zorn had already used the Cosmic Ancient God Language to slowly push the Cosmic Altar into his Steam Magical Castle.
He then continued to push the Cosmic Altar toward his Divine Kingdom.
After spending the better part of a day, Zorn finally succeeded in pushing the Cosmic Altar into his Divine Kingdom.
"Phew..."
Now that this crucial step was complete, Zorn couldn’t help but let out a long sigh of relief.
Immediately after, he used the Cosmic Ancient God Language to manipulate the Cosmic Altar and construct the "Altar Projections."
Constructing "Altar Projections" from the Cosmic Altar was a technical skill.
Across the entire Player World, no more than ten people had mastered this technique and could perform it so smoothly and naturally.
One after another, Zorn deployed the projected altars into the Desert Sea World on the first layer.
Moreover, the locations Zorn chose were exceptionally clever.
The twelve locations formed a micro-dynamic altar cluster among themselves.
Even if one of the projections was destroyed by a powerful force,
the other altars would extend their power to repair it.
Even if all twelve projected altars were blown up and destroyed simultaneously,
Zorn could still redeploy them to restore the 12 Cosmic Altar Projections via the Cosmic Altar.
What Zorn was doing was ensuring that those Sacrificial Offerers could make their sacrifices safely and with peace of mind.
If Zorn didn’t leave the "Cosmic Altar Projections" here,
those Transcendents would just go to the "Cosmic Demon Pool" on the third layer to build their own altars and reap sacrificial rewards.
However, making sacrifices there came with a certain probability that the offerings would be "eaten" by the "Cosmic Demon Pool."
And the probability wasn’t low.
With every resource investment, there was roughly a 15% chance it would be directly consumed by the Cosmic Demon Pool.
In this context, the Altar Projections Zorn left here, which only collected an 8% to 12% tax, appeared much more stable and efficient.
If it weren’t for the fact that one could also make sacrifices at the "Cosmic Demon Pool" on the third layer, and that its location was fixed,
Zorn would dare to raise the tax rate to 95%.
He’d make the gods pay him a hefty tax!
As 12 illusory and hazy projections, filled with the profound depth and mystery of the "Cosmic Ancient God Language," materialized, Zorn finished his manipulation of the Cosmic Altar.
Sensing the 12 stable "Cosmic Altar Projections" through the Cosmic Altar,
Zorn knew that this leg of his ocean journey could finally come to an end.
’The war situation on the Holy Land Continent is still quite stable at the moment.’
’It will be at least another year or two before any clear direction in the war emerges.’
’During this period... it’s even possible for the three sides to sign a peace treaty.’
As he mulled this over, two important future world trajectories gradually appeared in Zorn’s mind.
World Trajectory One: The Defeat of Saintisman.
Saintisman is defeated, attacked by forces from the north and south in a pincer movement.
Internal strife and infighting constantly plague Saintisman. The most likely outcome is that a portion of Saintisman will be devoured, with the rest fracturing into numerous Extraordinary City-States Realms.
World Trajectory Two: War and Peace.
Amidst the continuously burning flames of war, all three sides find it hard to bear the costs.
With the intervention of external forces,
the three sides sign a treaty that is, at least on the surface, peaceful.
Generally speaking, Players can change the course of the war through various actions.
Currently, Zorn was naturally pushing for Saintisman’s defeat.
After all, only by ensuring Saintisman’s defeat could Zorn go and destroy the Jade Magic Ring Tree.
This would let his own Tree of the Magic Ring devour a huge bounty.
Using the remnants of another’s Tree of the Magic Ring to enhance the level of one’s own core Skill.
This was a mandatory operation for Players.
The conventional Skill Level is Level 3.
If you want to be stronger than others, you must have a higher Skill Level.
Others have Level 3 Skills.
Only with Level 4, or even Level 5 Skills, can you have an absolute advantage.
One had to understand that upon entering the Star Realm, among the many powerful Planes,
every Upper Rank Level and Saint Level existence was a top-tier powerhouse within their Plane.
Even though Zorn possessed a special World-level BOSS template and the root of an Evil God, it was still necessary for him to increase his own Level cap and obtain powerful Forbidden Curses, and even Ancient God Curses.
The tides of this era no longer favored Zorn.
Zorn had to find his own ways to become even more powerful.
...
「Half a day later.」
Zorn left the Cosmic Demon Pool Ancient Ruins and emerged onto the open sea outside.
As planned, Zorn began hunting Demons.
Recently, the number of Demon Creatures on the sea had been increasing.
Judging from the fact that the Legendary Demon’s avatar was guarding the Cosmic Ancient Ruins Gate,
the large-scale invasion of the Holy Relic World by the Demons was already a foregone conclusion.
Naturally, the ocean had become the perfect hunting ground for Zorn to hunt Demons.
After more than half a year of consolidation and stabilization,
Zorn’s Sequence Level urgently needed more Demons to nourish it.
Faced with so many Demons, it would be a disservice to his status as a World-level BOSS if he didn’t grind directly to Level 10.
’With my Water Element Hand, I can travel freely across the sea and hide underwater, making it difficult for those Demons to detect me.’
’Once I find a Demon, both long-range kills and close-quarters surprise attacks with my Rune Hand are excellent options for a quick and decisive battle.’
With this in mind, Zorn immediately began to hunt the Demons using this strategy.
Zorn didn’t hunt Demons near Saint Nuoya’s Golden Island.
After all, that was the main nest of the Demon Creatures.
If he happened to provoke the Legendary Demon’s avatar, the current Zorn was no match for it.
Out here, near the resource-rich islands, were the Demons’ absolute pasturelands.
Over the next few days, Zorn’s Demon hunting yielded bountiful rewards.
He even killed two lone Level 10 Demon Lords.
This caused Zorn’s Sequence Level to rise rapidly.
After finishing his hunt on one island, Zorn immediately moved to another island chain.
After hunting for a few more days, Zorn changed locations again.
Aside from the Legendary Demon’s avatar,
Zorn also sensed the avatars of two Holy Crown Demons coming to capture him.
Zorn started playing a game of hide-and-seek with these guys across the open sea.
They searched for Zorn, while Zorn searched for their kinsmen.
Once he found them, he would execute a Surprise Attack and kill, then flee again.
In any case, even if he were caught,
Zorn could just escape at worst.
The worst-case scenario was being killed and losing one life.
A World-level BOSS could afford such a price.
But those Demon Creatures didn’t have multiple lives like a World-level BOSS.
For half a month, the hunt continued nonstop.
Countless Demons fell at Zorn’s hands.
Zorn’s Sequence Experience increased steadily.
Under the strain of these successive battles, Zorn could even feel his Tarktos’ Hand was faintly on the verge of advancing to Level 4.
