# 1227
Chapter 1227: Moon Elderly Man
In mid-air, the figure of Number 22 had been completely engulfed by black hair.
Lin Qiye heard Number 22's murmured words "You are a god," and his heart skipped a beat!
God?
But why was there no divine power fluctuation emanating from their bodies?
Moreover, the King's Treasury strictly prohibited gods from entering—if they were gods, how did they get in?
Before Lin Qiye could think further, within the dark cumulonimbus clouds in the sky, a blinding burst of intense light suddenly erupted. A blazing fireball screamed through the air, hurtling directly toward Lin Qiye's avatar's chest!
There was another one?
Lin Qiye's expression turned grave. Crimson demonic energy逸散ed from both his eyes as the avatar's hands transformed into demonic ape arms, charging head-on into that fireball!
BOOM—!!
The拳劲 of the "matching-heaven-earth" technique collided with the blazing fireball in mid-air, and a wave of red-hot air instantly swept across the sky of the Vast Desert.
Within hundreds of meters around the avatar, all the sand was blasted into the air. Lin Qiye's身形 sank as the avatar's knees sank deep into the desert. Meanwhile, cracks spread across the拳尖, and his form wavered unsteadily.
The fireball was shattered by the force of the collision. A man clad in crimson armor tumbled backward through the air for several steps, his brow furrowed.
"Hmm?" Lin Qiye looked up, surprised that his avatar hadn't completely shattered.
That wasn't right. If it had truly been a Chief God-level strike, this avatar would have been reduced to ashes by now, possibly even damaging his soul.
But not only had he caught this blow head-on, the avatar remained intact—he had even forced the crimson-armored Chief God back several steps...
The most critical point was that during this brief exchange, Lin Qiye truly hadn't detected even a trace of divine power fluctuation from them.
These were no Chief Gods. No matter how he looked at them, they were merely human beings approaching the Human Apex level.
Lin Qiye's mind raced. Recalling the muttering of the Old Man on the Lonely Boat just moments ago, an idea flashed through his脑海. Understanding dawned on him as he spoke:
"I see—you are fallen gods of the Sumerian pantheon!"
Lin Qiye had read analyses of the Sumerian pantheon in the archives of the Oath Society.
The researchers at the Oath Society believed that after the fall of the Uruk Kingdom, with the passage of time, population migrations, and the impact and integration of new cultures, ancient Sumerian mythology had gradually vanished from the river of history.
This disappearance was not physical, but a disappearance of faith.
As fewer and fewer people worshipped the Sumerian gods, with a scarcity of faith power, the source of Sumer gradually withered, and the strength of the gods declined continuously.
While the Sumerian Gods were conservatively maintaining their existence, a hundred years ago, that world-destroying mist suddenly descended.
This mist spared no one—even many ancient divine kingdoms of immense power could not escape. For the already weakened Sumerian Gods, it was an even more devastating blow.
Inferring from the current state of these gods, a hundred years ago the Sumerian pantheon most likely suffered shattered origins and divine extinction... and these few relatively powerful Chief Gods barely survived that great catastrophe, somehow finding the ancient King's Treasury, forged by Gilgamesh in ages past.
Within the King's Treasury, space existed independently, able to shield against the mist's erosion. And these three Chief Gods, having lost their pantheon's origin and fallen from divine realms, would not be rejected by the King's Treasury. They used some means to sneak inside, hiding beneath Wu City all this time, waiting for the opportunity to rise again.
With this thought, Lin Qiye abruptly turned his head toward the crescent-moon boat, toward the old man clutching the Holy Grail.
"The Holy Grail... wishes... that's your purpose?" Lin Qiye murmured to himself.
He couldn't spare attention for the crimson-armored Chief God blocking his path. His wavering avatar rose once more, rapidly flickering toward the old man on the boat!
The ones moving alongside Lin Qiye were not alone—there was also Bifeitu, whose body radiated white-hot divine light.
Just moments ago, the two had been locked in a life-and-death struggle, but under the pressure of shared survival interests, they tacitly chose cooperation. The two of them, like twin meteors streaking left and right, hurtled toward the old man standing on the lonely boat!
As two massive waves of pressure approached simultaneously, the old man's murky eyes suddenly gleamed with a faint light.
His wrinkled lips curved upward. He elegantly gripped the rim of the Holy Grail, and the large quantity of wine accumulated within the cup rippled gently:
"Divine power, awaken."
A梦幻般的 luminous glow flashed across the surface of the Holy Grail. In the next instant, terrifying divine power surged violently from within the old man's body, as if boiling!
The divine power that had long since dried up due to the loss of the pantheon's origin now continuously poured forth under the effect of the supreme wish-granting machine. The old man's eyes brightened like stars in the night sky, and Chief God-level divine might descended in a thunderous crash!
Lin Qiye felt his body weigh down heavily. The overwhelming pressure nearly knocked him from the sky. He looked up at the figure gliding serenely across the night sky with the moon as a boat, and the last ember of hope in his heart was utterly extinguished.
These old creatures had hidden in Wu City for so long—only now revealing themselves because they were fully prepared!
If an ordinary person's life force could be compared to burning ants, then Bifeitu was like a walking sun. Even if it was merely the severed arm of a Supreme God, its sacrifice could allow a Chief God's depleted divine power to surge back to life.
Strands of spiritual energy leaked from Lin Qiye's avatar. The duration of the "Matching Heaven and Earth" technique had reached its limit.
Spiritual energy poured across the heavens. Lin Qiye's soul returned to his body. Badly injured, he stumbled out from behind a sand dune, looking up at the sky.
The method he'd used to charge at the old man had been only an avatar. Once the avatar dissolved, his soul would automatically return to his body, escaping danger... but Bifeitu wouldn't be so lucky.
After the old man standing on the boat recovered his divine power, Bifeitu also came to his senses. He immediately turned to flee, but the old man had no intention of letting him go.
A sliver of moonlight extended rapidly from beneath his crescent-moon boat, like countless ribbons, striking out like lightning to wrap around Bifeitu's body. The latter's eyes bulged in fury as his white-hot heart raced madly, trying to break free from these moonlight bindings. But no matter how hard he struggled, there was not the slightest sign of these moonbeams loosening.
Beneath the night sky, the frantically roaring Bifeitu was like a fish hooked and dragged inexorably toward the crescent-moon boat, struggling all the while.
"Damn it! Release me!!" Bifeitu watched that death's-head face drawing closer, and his eyes filled with terror.
The moonlight bound his body as he hung before the crescent-moon boat. The old man squinted, examining his form, and his smile grew increasingly pronounced:
"The heart of Ra... I'll take it."
CRACK—!
Beneath the night sky, a withered old palm pierced through Bifeitu's right chest like lightning.