Chapter 44: Divine Descent |
Lei murmured in a low voice.
"Yes!"
"In this world, aside from the great god, nothing is unchanging."
"But… why must it change?"
Lei’s eyes reddened, tears glimmering within them.
At this moment, he felt an incomparable longing for the past.
That time, when he had not yet become a Recipient of Divine Grace.
Back then, it seemed that no matter what happened, he would always be very happy, very joyful.
Because he had been Apollo’s youngest son,
And now,
he was the only one among them still alive.
Lei withdrew his gaze from the starry sky.
Just as he was about to kneel once more beneath the Divine Statue and continue his devout prayers,
he felt his heart begin to pound violently!
He instinctively raised his head and looked toward the starry sky.
At the same time,
all Recipients of Divine Grace, no matter where they were or what they were doing, froze in that very instant.
As if by unspoken agreement, they all lifted their heads.
From the depths of their souls surged an indescribable palpitation.
Although the starry sky remained the same,
they could feel that it had changed!
As though a vast and boundless existence had crossed the endless Sea of Stars, about to descend upon this world!
Tears streamed down Lei’s face.
At this moment, his heart was filled with incomparable joy.
He had finally waited for this!
He knelt down excitedly and shouted loudly.
"God!"
After sixty years, the god descended upon the world once more!
……
You stared blankly at the starry sky.
With his mortal vision…
he could not see the great god.
But he could feel the god’s descent.
He had succeeded.
He had personally brought about the fragmentation of the Solar Dynasty.
And the god had indeed descended, just as he had anticipated.
Yet he felt not the slightest joy.
He could not see the great god!
He did not even have…
the qualification to glimpse a single ray of the god’s brilliance!
"Why… why!"
He muttered to himself.
He had rehearsed countless times in his mind.
When the god unleashed divine wrath…
how he would arrogantly and indifferently state his own thoughts.
All for the sake of…
making the god remember
him, this audacious mortal!
But the great god…
had not cast even the slightest glance his way.
He did not even have the qualification to bear the god’s gaze!
"No!"
"It shouldn’t be like this!"
He would rather be hated by the god
than endure being so completely ignored!
As though all his schemes, all his struggles,
were utterly meaningless in the eyes of the god…!
Suddenly,
he recalled the words he had once said to Shan.
"Because the god does not care!"
"He simply does not care what this world becomes!"
"Hahaha… hahaha!"
You burst into uncontrollable laughter.
His laughter was filled with self-mockery and despairing madness.
So it turned out, the god truly did not care!
But soon…
the despair in You’s eyes
was replaced by an even more extreme light!
"No!"
"It must be that I have not made a big enough disturbance!"
"The god has already descended!"
"He will sooner or later see everything I have done!"
A mad thought emerged.
You thought… since a single Solar Dynasty was not enough to draw the god’s attention,
then…
what about slaying a wielder of Authority?
What if he killed Lei?!
Then… would the great god
lower his gaze
and notice him, this treasonous mortal?!
……
Huang Xing sat upon the Divine Statue.
In but an instant,
all the changes of time and heaven and earth were completely clear within his mind.
"Too fast."
He whispered silently.
For him, it had been but a single day.
For this world, however, sixty years had already passed.
Long enough that even Apollo had long since died,
and among his descendants, only one remained alive.
"Apollo."
The voice of the god sounded.
Yet it carried a trace of regret.
Perhaps, he should have left a little later.
Afterward, his indifferent gaze swept across
this familiar yet unfamiliar world.
All the conflicts, love and hatred, ambitions and regrets,
were but fleeting shadows in his eyes.
Now, the only thing that could stir even a trace of his interest
was the Divine Grace Technique created by Ya, and those who had become Recipients of Divine Grace through it.
With but a single thought,
all the mysteries of the Divine Grace Technique had been completely unraveled.
Even he
could not help but sigh in admiration at Ya’s talent.
She had actually managed, through her comprehension of Authority Bestowal, to reverse-engineer such a path.
This path allowed mortals to obtain the blessing of the Leo Constellation and possess extraordinary power.
However, this divine art was far too crude.
It could only allow one to become a Recipient of Divine Grace.
And being a Recipient of Divine Grace was the end.
It could not allow further cultivation,
nor grant greater power.
But Huang Xing did not casually perfect it.
Because the current civilization was still too immature.
The existence of wielders of Authority was already a massive imbalance.
Unlike the minor skirmishes of Recipients of Divine Grace,
with the Authority controlled by Lei and the others,
toppling a dynasty would be as easy as turning one’s hand.
However, this world at present
was ultimately still too… dull.
Huang Xing’s thoughts stirred as he contemplated.
Perhaps…
it was time for the second constellation to step onto this stage.
……
Meanwhile, beneath the Temple of the Stars.
Lei called out again and again, prayed again and again, confessed his sins, and begged for the god’s guidance.
However, the starry sky remained silent, and the Divine Statue gave no response.
The god did not cast his gaze,
nor did he offer any reply.
A sense of panic began to rise in Lei’s heart.
He wondered…
whether it was because he had failed to maintain the unity of the dynasty, causing his father Apollo’s legacy to be destroyed,
that the god had abandoned him?
Unwilling to listen to his voice any longer?!
At once…
Lei knelt even more devoutly, his forehead pressed tightly against the cold ground, his heart filled with helplessness and fear.
……
At this moment, Shan
was traveling toward the direction of his homeland.
He and You had succeeded.
The Solar Dynasty was now history.
Ze’s young grandson Yula had died beneath arrows.
The Wa Bloodline and the Ze Bloodline had completely turned against each other in enmity.
He had finally avenged the tribe, the tribal chief, his mother, and Fu…
"Chief, Mother, Fu…"
He softly recited these deeply engraved names.
Yet in his heart, there was no sense of relief or satisfaction.
Instead, he was engulfed by a profound emptiness and exhaustion.
It was as if he had lost the purpose of his life,
lost the motivation to move forward.
He felt the descent of the god.
But when he instinctively tried to pray in his heart, he fell into confusion.
In the past, what he had spoken to the god day and night…
was nothing more than Ze’s indifference, the injustices suffered by the tribe,
and how they had acted under the command of Ya, the divine envoy…
only to be met with catastrophic destruction.
But now, the hatred had been resolved.
These prayers seemed to have lost their meaning.
The god…
had he long grown tired
of his resentful murmurs?!
But aside from these…
he found that he did not know how to speak to the god at all.
Within Shan’s heart, a trace of bewilderment arose.
"God!"
Shan knelt toward the starry sky.
Praying devoutly.
"O great Lord of the Stars! Please guide your devout believer toward the path forward."