# 1231
Chapter 1232: The Three Gods' Deception
Wu City.
Embers danced silently in the deathly silence, the cold wind carrying the scent of blood swept over the ruined debris scattered everywhere, emitting low mournful howls.
In a remote alleyway, a soft clanging sound echoed. A fragile figure carefully lifted a stone slab, scanned the surroundings to confirm there was no one nearby, then pushed off the ground with both hands to climb out of the cellar.
It was a little girl, not very tall, wearing traditional Uruk attire. She glanced back into the cellar and called out softly:
"The invader is gone. You can come out now!"
One after another, figures climbed out of the cellar.
These people were mostly elders, women, and children.
When the 22nd wielded the [Royal Scepter] and the [Holy Grail] to slaughter the city, the men who lived nearby grabbed divine artifacts and fought him. They had hidden these people in this cellar beforehand.
Now, they were the last survivors of the city.
The little girl who had come out first gathered her courage and walked ahead. Every street, every house, every ruin was completely empty—without a single soul.
"Where are Father and Uncle?" a child asked, confused.
The little girl stared at the battlefield strewn with debris, and the clothing remnants scattered everywhere. Her face turned pale. "It's the [Holy Grail]... the [Holy Grail]把他们..."
"Tali!" An elderly man cut the girl off. He glanced at the child who was only four or five years old, and silently shook his head at the little girl.
Looking into those innocent eyes, the girl fell silent.
They were all natives of Wu City, having lived in this Treasury for generations. Besides the very young children, almost everyone knew the types and quantities of divine artifacts in the Treasury—including the [Holy Grail] and the [Royal Scepter].
A great battle had clearly been fought, yet not a single corpse, not a drop of blood remained. The only explanation was that after the invader killed those men, he offered their remains as sacrifices to the [Holy Grail].
"Maybe some of them survived." Someone in the group suddenly spoke up.
"Yes, with so many divine artifacts attacking together, they should be able to kill the invader, right?"
"Let's search the city again. Maybe we can find them!"
"May the Three Gods protect them..."
The crowd held onto their final illusions and searched every inch of Wu City's uneven roads, but found not a single soul.
Just as despair fully set in, vague clamoring and noise drifted in from beyond the city walls.
"There's sound outside the city!"
"They're alive! Some of them must be alive!"
"Quick! Quickly! Let's go see from the walls!"
The crowd's spirits lifted, and they rushed up to the city walls. The scene in the distance made them all freeze in place.
Under the dim sky, a figure in white robes descended slowly from the clouds. In the distant desert, dozens of Wu City residents fled desperately, as if chased by a demon. Screams and wails echoed across the heavens.
The white-robed figure coldly pursued behind the fleeing refugees. With a wave of her hand, a spear shot across the sky like a meteor, instantly crashing into the panic-stricken crowd. A terrifying divine might swept outward, and dozens of figures simultaneously exploded, shattering into countless fragments of blood that scattered through the air.
The screams and cries stopped abruptly.
The white-robed goddess in the sky gently hooked her fingers, and the shattered flesh automatically flew upward to the crescent moon-like solitary boat in the sky, collecting into the [Holy Grail].
Tali and the others who witnessed this scene from the city walls turned ashen. Their legs trembled involuntarily, their faces filled with terror.
"They... they..." An elderly man's eyes rolled back, nearly fainting on the spot.
"That's not the invader..." Tali stared blankly at the three divine figures gathering in the sky. "That's... the Three Gods?"
"The God of Wisdom and Moon, the God of Love and Beauty, the God of Fire and Hope... Those really are the Three Gods!"
"But... but why would the Three Gods want to kill us?! Aren't they gods under Our King's command?"
"Right, weren't they Our King's trusted confidants? They knew so many secrets from the Uruk era, understood everything about Our King... and they even had Our King's token!"
"They protected Wu City with favorable weather for a hundred years on Our King's behalf. Why would they kill us?"
"..."
The Wu City survivors present stared with shock and confusion. These words reached Lin Qiye's ears as he had just entered Wu City's walls, causing his brow to furrow unconsciously.
The Three Gods? The King's confidants?
Earlier, while in Wu City, Lin Qiye had heard the townspeople mention "the Three Gods," but at the time he had assumed it was some kind of faith or saying left over from the Uruk era. He never imagined that their "Three Gods" would actually be those three beings in the heavens.
And their "Our King" was undoubtedly Gilgamesh.
Those three gods were Gilgamesh's confidants?
What a joke?
Even though Lin Qiye didn't know much about Uruk's history, he clearly understood that Gilgamesh and the Sumerian pantheon were absolute mortal enemies. One could even say that Gilgamesh's entire life was spent fighting the Sumerian Gods. Even after death, he had specially hidden his King's Treasury precisely to prevent the Sumerian Gods from obtaining it.
From the Wu City residents' words, Lin Qiye could roughly deduce that these Wu City inhabitants must have been deceived by the three gods who had infiltrated a hundred years ago.
Thinking about it more carefully, it wasn't strange at all. The ancestors of Wu City were from the two great forging families of Uruk, and they had moved into the Treasury before Gilgamesh's death, completely isolated from the world for thousands of years.
They knew nothing of Gilgamesh's death or the fall of the Uruk Kingdom.
After thousands of years of reproduction and development, everything from Uruk's past could only become ancient cuneiform script, carved into clay tablets.
When the three gods descended upon the Treasury bearing tokens stripped from Gilgamesh's corpse along with numerous secrets from a thousand years ago, the Wu City residents had no way to verify their identity. They could only allow themselves to be deceived and manipulated. As long as the Three Gods showed a little kindness, allowing the Wu City residents to experience their favor, they would quickly be revered as savior gods.
The God of Wisdom and Moon, the God of Love and Beauty, the God of Fire and Hope... These names were indeed crafted to beautify themselves.
"The Three Gods... betrayed us." Tali murmured to herself.
"Look, that corpse floating in the air—doesn't it look like the stone statue at the entrance of the city lord's mansion?"
"The King... it's Our King Gilgamesh!"
"How did Our King's corpse end up in the Three Gods' hands?!"
"..." The surviving Wu City residents recognized Gilgamesh's appearance and exclaimed.
Above the moonlit pool, the mysterious light pouring out from the [Holy Grail] flowed across the surface of Gilgamesh's corpse.
Gilgamesh's tightly closed eyes trembled slightly. After a moment, they slowly opened...