Chapter 666: Great Horror (1/2)

When Feinie sealed off the rift, the nine women conveniently slipped inside at the same time. For Lu Yun, the arrival of his nine envoys would be an appreciable boost to his strength.

……

Meanwhile, the lord of Dusk and his companions were quietly suspended in midair as minute particles. Not far ahead of them was Yueshen, the immortal ghost having finally caught sight of the god she’d been chasing after.

It was a giant statue more than three thousand meters tall that possessed four heads, eight arms, and magnificent armor adorning his body.

This entity appeared identical to the last emperor of the divine dynasty. The four heads represented the powers of the four original elements, respectively earth, air, water, and fire.

Was this Yueshen’s god?

Had a god been the one to usurp the imperial throne and overthrow Exalted Divine rule? Or perhaps the final divine emperor simply resembled this god?

Yueshen stood unmoving. Instead of leaving Li Youcai’s body, she was silently observing the statue through the human’s eyes.

An enormous altar stood in front of the statue, but bereft of sacrifices for countless years, the altar was more of an empty shell. Time had so thoroughly ravaged its surface that its original appearance was impossible to discern.

“Milord, this is an altar of origin.” Yueshen suddenly whispered. “At the dawn of history, living beings offered sacrifices to the gods on this very altar. Thus were born divine spirits… And in turn, those divine spirits became the divines!

“This statue depicts the first sacrifice-born divine spirit, he who controls the four original elements, the divine spirit of origin.”

“Is he not a god himself?” the dust-sized Lu Yun subconsciously asked with a start.

Yueshen shook her head. “God is no more. Akasha ghosts might be related to him, but they certainly didn’t arise from his death.”

Plop!

Li Youcai toppled stiffly to the ground as Yueshen withdrew from his body and returned to her immortal ghost form. She strode toward the altar for a closer look.

Lu Yun remained hidden, but Empress Myrtlestar appeared from the Scroll of Shepherding Immortals, her purple-golden starlight illuminating the area like a shield of light around Lu Yun and Qing Yu.

“So he was God,” the empress murmured.

“What?” Lu Yun blinked in confusion. They sounded like they were talking about a specific being...

Next to the altar, Yueshen turned back without being surprised by the newcomer. She knew of the empress’ existence and was aware of her identity.

“Have you seen God before?” The startled immortal ghost looked at Empress Myrtlestar with an expression of longing. She’d thought she’d touched upon God’s secrets, but as it turned out, she’d just been following the trail of the first sacrifice-born divine spirit in the tomb.

The primogenitor of the Exalted Divines was the first divine spirit to be born from nature, the shape of dao itself, rather than a sacrifice-born spirit. However, the statue with four heads and eight arms was the semblance of the first divine spirit arisen from sacrifices… which was why its descendants wanted—and eventually did—overthrow Exalted Divine rule.

However, neither of them was God.

“I have indeed seen him.” Empress Myrtlestar nodded gently. “God is dead.”

Blaring silence projected from the immortal ghost.

“Someone killed God and drew his essence into a painting scroll,” Empress Myrtlestar quietly added.

In Qing Yu’s arms, the little fox was trembling violently. Yueshen’s eyes grew wide, and Lu Yun… found the shift in conversation almost too much to believe. He suddenly recalled Ashu’s words during his meeting with Art and Zither Saint: You killed the court’s divine celestial master and used his essence to draw this peerless treasure of the divine race.

Art and Zither Saints used to be the human celestial master, Celestial Master Zhang! He’d killed the divine celestial master and used his essence to paint the Scroll of Shepherding Immortals!