Cthulhu Gonfalon

Chapter 912: The Root of the Issue (Part 2)

What was different between Satan and Junior was that unlike Junior, who had gathered enough natural energy, Satan was still lacking a little before he could become a true Nature God.

Without Sui Xiong, Satan definitely would not have been able to obtain his priesthood.

Even without discussing other matters, just the will needed for this priesthood in resisting those ancient grim reapers was not something that every legendary peak master could muster.

Furthermore, the ancient grim reaper who was buried at the lower part of Ashes Forest was not an ordinary character. In the ancient times, he had engaged in conflict with the Goddess of Life over the right way to live life and had even engaged in a large war with her!

If not for Sui Xiong’s help, the fact that the purification array had extended into the ancient grim reaper’s body alone and clashed with his remaining will would have killed Satan and taken his life!

Furthermore, even if Satan had made the necessary preparations and had enough luck to defeat the will of the faraway ancient grim reaper, he definitely did not have the ability to retrieve the corpse’s preserved Divine Powers and divinity to use as a stepping stone for him to become a god.

The reality of the situation was that if not for Sui Xiong’s help, Satan would have died in some far off place long ago, much become an actual god!

This was why, after becoming a god, the first thing that Satan did was to head for Sui Xiong’s God Kingdom and took an oath of allegiance to him in his new status as a god.

In comparison, Junior was not in such a rush to do so. Although he had similarly committed himself to the Void Mask System, his relationship with Sui Xiong was not so direct, and he would not upgrade it so simply. It was more of like a relationship between an employer and a long-term employee.

As long as Sui Xiong treated him well, Junior would naturally invest in and commit to Sui Xiong. However, if there was a day where they had differing views and could not compromise, Junior was free to go his own way and not obliged to stay. This was similar to “Steel Lion” Morani’s position in the Orc System in the past.

After briefly settling some matters with his disciples and choosing his archbishop to give his church a basic foundation, Junior also set forth to the Sanctuary in Sui Xiong’s God Kingdom to visit the gods in the Void Mask System.

However, he did not meet Sui Xiong. Junior merely met his peers in the system as well as Satan, who had rushed here not long ago.

“The Void Mask has gone out,” the God of Knowledge, Wall, said and smiled bitterly. He could be considered the second leader after the Void Mask in the system. “He said that the corpse’s body was very interesting and had even absorbed the energy that was originally guarding our God Kingdom.”

Satan was shocked and asked, “That ancient grim reaper’s powers are actually that strong!?”

“The Void Mask did not go into details, but from his tone and divinity, it doesn’t seem like his normal anxiety and excitement when meeting strong enemies. It’s more like he found some kind of interesting new toy…”

Upon hearing that, Satan was less worried, and everyone waited patiently for Sui Xiong to return.

At this very moment, Sui Xiong was traveling Ashes Forest and exploring that ball of white light with rapt interest.

This ball of white light was warm and pure, an embodiment of good energy. In the center core of the white light, there was a corpse that only had its upper part left. This half-corpse was pure black and emitted infinite amounts of hatred and evil. It could be likened to a giant fountain that constantly emitted negative energy.

Normally, to destroy it completely would require a huge amount of positive energy and waste lots of Divine Power. However, this task was not too daunting for Sui Xiong as he had relatively high levels of power of virtue, which was comparable to and even better than positive energy. This power of virtue would not be demolished when met with negative energy and could lock down negative energy steadily like a sturdy seashell.

Sui Xiong used the power of virtue to create a cage and locked the corpse, which was emitting negative energy in it, and took his time to observe it slowly.

He had previously heard many details about this god who was buried near Ashes Forest and was familiar with it. This fellow had a unique background and was a leader of the ancient gods. Previously, when he had been active during the Goddess of Life’s time period, he had insisted that death was a solid destination for all living creatures and actively directed all living creatures on this world towards death. This had offended many gods, and he had eventually ended up fighting a large war with the Goddess of Life.

That battle had been earth-shattering. Originally, both sides were comparable, and neither side was winning or losing. Afterwards, the Goddess of Life used her ultimate move and shot a beam of white light towards this god, causing the bottom half of his body to disintegrate alongside the full destruction of his divinity. To a god, this was pretty much a full fall from his or her position.

This god, facing death with only half his body left, had entered the underground of the northeast of the Main Plane. By right, at that point, the Goddess of Life should have pursued him and ensured the full destruction of the rest of his body. However, without any particular reason, the Goddess of Life had halted her movements and started to prepare a famous enchantment.

Once the enchantment was done, the Goddess of Life also disappeared, and the gods were blocked by this enchantment. They were all thus unable to truly gather to give this god the final blow to completely end him. Many gods tried to send their clones, but due to a lack of energy, they were unable to transcend the enchantment. They thus stopped trying, and the matter ended there rather abruptly.

The grim reaper had slowly accumulated power in the underground of Ashes Forest and its corpse continued to emit power. This had resulted in the huge amount of ashes that covered the ground, giving Ashes Forest its name.

Afterwards, this situation changed as a new grim reaper appeared.

This new grim reaper had a different mindset from the old grim reaper. He felt that every living creature was stuck in a cycle of life and that death was only one part of this cycle. The new grim reaper felt that death was not an ending but rather a break in one’s endless journey cycle. Once one had died, they could rest for a while before setting out again, that was all.

This new grim reaper’s mindset was welcomed by the gods who celebrated him. Even the mighty Master of Order reached out his hand personally to retrieve a part of the old grim reaper’s powers to bestow upon the new grim reaper.

It was at this point that the old grim reaper totally lost the possibility of resurrecting. He could no longer accumulate energy, and the lands that he infected now reached its limit. However, the old grim reaper was still not totally destroyed, and his half corpse lasted till now.

“Can you give him to me?” Just as Sui Xiong was planning to leave with his prize, with a flash of light, the grim reaper who was wearing a hooded robe and carrying a long sickle materialized and addressed Sui Xiong. “We can negotiate the terms of this arrangement.”

This did not surprise Sui Xiong. In fact, if the new grim reaper did not appear to attempt to claim back the old grim reaper’s body, he would have been more surprised.

Although the new grim reaper had long inherited the old grim reaper’s priesthood, the old grim reaper’s body was still of interest to the new grim reaper for him to increase his knowledge and preserve the remaining divinity left in the body. This did not directly give the new reaper any benefits but at least gave him the inspiration to improve and progress.

Of course, it was also possible that since the old grim reaper had fully fallen, that his corpse no longer had any information that the new grim reaper could use. That was actually highly likely considering that he had fallen for so long.

However, to the new grim reaper, as long as there was the possibility of progress, it was worth it to spend much money to retain this corpse.

Sui Xiong thus smiled a big smile.

“Negotiate? I am someone who loves to negotiate,” Sui Xiong said cheekily. “However, this is not a good place to conduct negotiations. We should find a place with better atmosphere so we can sit and discuss this matter properly. What do you think?”