# 265
Chapter 265
Warning from Great Xia
In the boundless deep sea.
Poseidon trod the undersea currents, gliding freely through the abyss. With every breath he crossed a thousand li, racing toward the far side of the ocean.
Suddenly, a golden arrow descended from the sky, cleaving the heavy seawater and streaking straight for him!
The instant the arrow pierced the waves Poseidon sensed it. Feeling the terrifying power within, his expression changed.
He instantly altered course, veering in the depths and flashing away in another direction.
Yet the arrow seemed locked on him; no matter how he twisted, its tip tracked his body, closing the distance.
Crucially, the shaft ignored the pressure of the sea, its speed far outstripping even Poseidon’s.
Watching the golden shaft draw nearer, his face darkened further. Realizing he could not shake it, he stopped and turned.
The golden arrow howled toward him!
Poseidon raised his Trident. Seawater whirled into layers of heavy-water mystic walls stacked before him, while radiant divine light flared from his body; the majesty of the Sea God enshrouded the ocean.
Boom-boom-boom—!!
The arrow shrieked underwater, its momentum smashing every water wall. In an instant it was upon him.
Poseidon snarled, his Trident blazing as he swung to meet the shaft!
Boom—!!
A muffled detonation rolled through the abyss, colossal surges billowing outward. The Trident was torn from his grasp, hurled away by the arrow’s titanic force!
The next moment, a second golden arrow appeared.
Poseidon’s pupils shrank. He wrenched his body aside, barely avoiding the tip, yet the terrible power still ripped his flesh, tearing off an arm.
The blood of the Sea God stained the deep.
Clutching his severed limb, pale with pain, he glared back—no third arrow came.
This was retaliation, and a warning.
He had tried to breach Great Xia’s borders, and this was the price—Great Xia’s gods’ punishment.
“Great Xia… hm.” Poseidon sneered. “I will remember this debt.”
He trod the currents and sped faster toward Olympus.
……
In the illusory underworld.
An old monk clad in robes, body glowing softly, walked the soil of the dead. Wherever he passed, spirits were purified by white light and vanished.
Hades frowned at the intruder.
“Who are you, to block my path?”
The elder halted before him; his white light pushed back the death-qi.
“Amitabha. This humble monk’s Dharma name is Jinchanzi. By decree, I come to deliver your realm’s hundred-thousand vengeful souls.”
The netherworld was Hades’ foundation; to purify those souls here was to sever his arm and slice his origin.
Hades laughed coldly. “Deliver them? Do you have the skill?”
Jinchanzi’s Buddhist radiance blazed like a sun in the darkness, illuminating half the sky of the dead.
“We shall see.”
……
Cangnan City.
The Howling Celestial Dog carried Yang Jian, trotting slowly into the distance.
“Tianzun,” Yang Jian asked the Daoist beside him, “what of that Norse trickster god?”
“I have sealed the surrounding space; he cannot escape. The rest… is up to the boy.”
“My brother?” Yang Jian frowned. “He’s only a Night Watch not yet at River Realm. How can he face a trickster god?”
“Remember, this city’s collapse came half a month early,” the Daoist said, glancing skyward. “That means the Seraph’s power—enough to sustain the Mortal Divine Realm for half a month—has flooded into him. Possessing both divine power and the Mortal Divine Realm, he will briefly wield strength enough to slay a god.”
Worry lingered in Yang Jian’s eyes.
“Yang Jian,” the Daoist sighed, “protection without flaw cannot foster growth. Only through trials can they ripen. Lin Qiye possesses terrifying potential, but his path must be his own.”
He gazed at the war-torn ruins of Cangnan.
“We are gods of Great Xia, yet we cannot guard her forever. Excessive intervention hinders the nation’s maturing. Under pressure they will improve fastest. By revealing ourselves we have warned the foreign gods; for a time, no great crisis will come. Now we must return and rebuild the Heavenly Court without distraction.”
“Rebuild the Heavenly Court?” Yang Jian started. “Tianzun… can it truly be rebuilt?”
“Difficult, but not impossible. In the mist, every pantheon possesses its divine realm—Japan’s Takamagahara, the Norse Asgard, Greek Olympus… Our Great Xia’s divine realm should also reappear.”
Hope lit Yang Jian’s eyes. “How long?”
“Short years, long a decade or more. Speed depends on how many gods join. With only us few revived deities, at least fifteen years.” The Daoist sighed.
“The century limit has passed; Great Xia’s gods reincarnated are awakening. Let us hope more will rise in coming years to aid us.”
Yang Jian nodded, then his gaze dimmed.
“If that monkey still lived, we would not struggle so… alas, he never even entered the cycle of rebirth.”
The Daoist’s brows lifted; he smiled faintly.
“Not entering samsara doesn’t mean utter death. Within this shrouding mist, anything is possible…”
“Tianzun, what do you mean?”
The Daoist shook his head. “Heaven’s secrets cannot be revealed.”
……
Border of Cangnan.
Lin Qiye stood motionless, staring at the vanished city, a statue of stone.
Endless divine power poured from his body, golden light cloaking him. In his eyes, a piercing golden radiance slowly emerged…
In a trance he seemed to ascend to the Moon.
There, the Seraph who watched the world stood before him, slowly opening its eyes.