Chapter 414

Chapter 414: Chapter 411: "So Deities Are Really Not Good ThingsThe soldiers began to attack.

They were unaware and felt no pain, and their weapons consisted purely of energy.

Although their strength was ordinary, being mere energy forms and not possessing the combat power of real people, their sheer number was enough to be overwhelmingly annoying.

"Charge!"

Su Ming’an immediately shouted.

He knew that if he didn’t rush forward now, he would die amid these vast numbers of soldiers—just as he had in last night’s instance. Making the "Demon King" kill the "Brave".

But he refused to become just another fallen shadowy corpse of the Brave.

To unveil the final puzzle, first, he needed to reach the side of that deity, to at least see what the opponent looked like.

"I’ll cover."

Noel stepped forward, following right behind Su Ming’an.

With a "swish", many invisible threads appeared in Noel’s hands. These threads spread out like a spider web around them, protecting the newly formed four-person defense squad.

"Hiss...hiss..."

The faint sound of friction arose as the newly structured invisible threads gradually turned blue from the attacks of the surrounding energy soldiers.

Clearly, the attacks of these soldiers carried with them the poison of Yun Shang City; although not lethal, they could still pose a threat by draining physical strength.

Su Ming’an unsheathed his sword, killing the first soldier who charged at him.

In this team, Noel was responsible for cover, Lv Shu was in charge of finishing off enemies, Lin Yin was tasked with support and buffing, and Ming’an himself was the spearhead of the small squad.

"Swish!"

The blade sliced through the blue energy form, cutting it open like smooth jelly, and as he chopped off the soldier’s head, he saw the face of this soldier.

These soldiers were transformations of NPCs from the real world, representing their respective faith powers, enabling the gods to exploit them in battle.

And this soldier’s face was familiar to Su Ming’an, a transformation of the face of the "Frost Ruler" Sevya.

Su Ming’an remembered the words Sevya had once said to him.

Now, he had come to understand what exactly the "principle of equivalence" meant.

The god of Yun Shang City grew powerful due to human malice and hatred.

Thus, he would maliciously instigate wars, stirring up hatred between the Soul Clan and humans, using this as a source of his powerful strength.

He—was never the kind and benevolent deity described by the residents, who would bless the Soul Hunt unconditionally.

He aided the Soul Hunt simply because—at that time the Soul Hunt was overpowered by the Soul Clan, facing the risk of extinction, and he had to help them grow stronger to provoke a continuous and evenly matched struggle.

And when the overall force of the Soul Clan weakened, he would switch sides, teaching the Soul Clan the power to build barriers—thus sustaining their battles indefinitely.

Su Ming’an had figured it out, that night he went to the city of the Soul Clan built inside the barrier of the Southern District—clearly, that was the work of the god.

Even more so, god did not stop at this.

He would even deliberately promote the tradition of "Maritime Banquet", using the "land of riches" of Yun Shang City as a facade to lure outsiders greedy for treasures to come here, making them kill each other so that the residents of Pulaya wouldn’t be extinct due to internal strife.

The lives, wills, and struggles of these residents—in his eyes, were all expendable, controllable, and could be burned as a source of his strength.

Regarding the scars of the land, the sufferings of the residents...all seemed rather insignificant.

"Swish!"

Su Ming’an swung his sword again, hearing the tense "zzzt zzzt" sound of the threads near his ear.

The soldiers frenziedly fought against their squad, death not causing them to retreat even slightly. seaʀᴄh thё Novёlƒire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

Noel’s silk thread defense was crucial. Without it creating a buffer zone, even though the four of them wouldn’t have been killed right away, they would’ve been easily scattered by the constant onslaught of soldiers.

As soon as Lv Shu’s mantis blade fell, it would kill a soldier who stood in their way.

Lin Yin was protected in the middle, her hands shimmering with the milky white glow of healing. With her help, some of their minor wounds quickly healed within this aura.

The team’s progress was still decent. The combat power of all four was among the top, so they wouldn’t easily collapse in this situation.

"Bang!"

A soldier with Gerald’s face fell before Su Ming’an.

Su Ming’an raised his head.

Through the throngs of soldiers, he could faintly see the sacred white figure standing in front of the church.

The deity seemed to just be silently watching the battle unfold, paying no special attention to their team.

That posture appeared extremely proud.

The vague mist obscured His face, making it unclear.

Clearly, if their team stopped here, they would never get a chance to negotiate further with the deity.

Su Ming’an stretched out his blood-stained left hand and injected himself with a strengthener.

Intense pain climbed over his body like ants gnawing, accompanied by a rapid rise in his health bar. He endured the pain, gripped the handle of his sword, and spun halfway around.

"Swoosh—!"

The body of an energy soldier fell, seemingly an ordinary Soul Hunt.

And such believers in the deity in Pulaya are countless.

However, the residents they were supposed to protect could barely survive anymore.

To sustain their families, some residents would be forced to join taverns that cheat foreigners, traffic slaves, or seduce incoming people to trade their bodies for survival.

Others would voluntarily take on the dirty, tiring jobs of cleaning battlefields and organizing districts, venturing into war zones and carrying bodies.

Some did it out of desire, some unwillingly, and some out of family considerations. But all did so to survive in this cruel world.

Su Ming’an remembered the slave taverns that cheat foreigners, the overly enthusiastic women on the streets, the suburbs that were exceptionally clean during the day, and the bodies being carried under white cloths...

This was a world where, in order to survive, people had no choice but to hurt each other.

Humans and the Soul Clan, Soul Clan and Soul Clan, humans and humans.

People, in this sick mode of survival, divorced from their hearts, gradually coexisted with pain.

Enduring humiliation to survive.

And the root of it all...

Clearly,

—was the deity standing not far away, whose posture seemed indifferent and supremely proud.

Su Ming’an extended his left hand, a small spatial vibration bloomed in the gaps of the silk thread defense, blasting two soldiers trying to break through the buffer zone.

Experience points kept rising.

Just like the last time during the Sea Monsters’ siege, although the battle was tough, the experience was substantial. Su Ming’an’s level was forcibly stopped at Fourth Rank, needing a mission to advance, but the experience points wouldn’t stall and would catch up once he leveled up.

"Bang!"

A soldier with the face of Tulip Princess fell under his sword.

"Boom—!"

Noel spread his arms, and in an instant, threads gathered, changing from sparse to dense.

Above his ten fingers, hundreds of colorless threads were tightly wound, nearly encapsulating his hands into two cocoons.

With his gathering, soldiers who were about to break through the line were sharply bounced off by the net of threads, and the squad was enveloped by the dense web of white cocoons, forming an isolated small space.

Outside the white cocoon, the thuds of weapons striking the cocoon resounded.

"A one-time skill that can forcibly create a non-combat space, lasting thirty seconds," Noel said, twisting open the Blood Bottle in his hand: "Quickly replenish yourselves, the battle will continue once the cocoon breaks."]

They immediately began to frantically consume various items, although there was a cooldown time for the medicines, preventing continuous consumption.

"I saw the deity," Lv Shu said succinctly: "But I couldn’t make out its features."]

"Who knows what that thing is," Lin Yin gasped: "Didn’t they say its Combat Power was 9999? It didn’t kill Su Ming’an, but why didn’t it strike us down?"]

"Maybe..." Noel pondered for a moment and looked towards Su Ming’an, meeting his gaze exactly.

"Hey, wait, the deity couldn’t be..." Noel’s pupils dilated as he realized something.

"Hmm," Su Ming’an said: "Not unexpected."]

"Then, then how will you complete the perfect pass?" Noel’s typically confident expression faded, replaced by rare panic: "Kill It...? No, we can’t kill, but if we don’t, we’ll also get stuck here... This has already come full circle! The difficulty of achieving a perfect pass is just too..."]

"Hey! Stop being cryptic at a time like this, you—"

Lin Yin hadn’t finished speaking when the noisy sounds of battle instantly resumed around them, and the white cocoon broke.

"Whirr—!"

Like a white waterfall tumbling down, the white cocoon slid forcefully from top to bottom, revealing the swarming soldiers.

In the instant the white cocoon shed,

clearly, Su Ming’an swiftly scanned the barren Yun Shang City again.

Apart from these energy-like soldiers, there was not a single living person present.

And in his field of view, the debuff representing "Poison Gas" hung beside his health bar; if not for the special prop "Heart of the Tulip" that resisted poison, he would have already died.

Let alone... those who ascended here sixty years ago without any preparation, still believing they were coming to a paradise.

—They.

Would certainly be the first to die.

Basically, no one,

could successfully survive in this city filled with poison gas.

Therefore, after reaching that Yun Shang City and discovering ’that there truly are no deities in Yun Shang City,’ that historic group of people would surely fall into the despair of impending death.

As the people succumbed to poisoning, in their dying moments, they would fix their gaze on the hero who led them, the captain they repeatedly claimed would save them—Su Rin.

"Lin Yin — conserve mana, no need to heal minor injuries!" Lv Shu finally spoke amid the chaotic battle.

His face was already covered with numerous small wounds, the thin blood trickled down beside his ear, unavoidable minor injuries occurred because the situation was extremely chaotic.

"Understood!" Lin Yin immediately switched weapons, pulling out the familiar black great cleaver and joined the fray, waiting for her mana to recover.

The path to the church seemed short yet it was as arduous as the white sky bridge under the siege of sea monsters; their progress was extremely difficult.

Not to mention, they were not a large group of a thousand people, but only four of them.

The barrage was quite anxious, although they couldn’t help a bit during such times.

Su Ming’an raised his head, drew his sword, and struck.

One by one, the impressive energy soldiers were slashed apart under his sword, as fragile as rag dolls, like tender fabric.

At that moment, his gaze was extremely calm.

In that moment of looking up, his sight leaped over the charging soldiers, over the towering energy bodies, and he saw — the "deity" of Yun Shang City standing in front of the church, now not far from him.

— He met a pair of eyes identical to his own, dark gold in color.