The orange cat read the glowing text in the void of space and contemplated.

​​

When both the black flames Scythe of Death and the Book of Prophesized Destinies were in my hands, the War God UI was able to sense some sort of opportunity.

It seems like I made the right conjecture.

A mass of white fog manifested around the orange cat and enveloped him.

The orange cat slowly retreated.

He vanished at the very next instant.

…

At another location.

The secret divine palace.

White fog filled the area.

The orange cat swiftly appeared.

[Fog Realm Descent] was a World Technique created by the many destroyed worlds of the past that now resided inside Gu Qing Shan's eye, which had always served him well.

The orange cat lightly waved his paws to take out both of the black flames Scythe of Death and Book of Prophesized Destinies.

These two artifacts silently hovered in mid-air.

The orange cat narrowed his eyes and observed his surroundings. The numerous miniature statues of the Myriad Deities didn't change at all, but the statues of the Lord of Radiance and Death God began to give off a faint metallic chime.

Click click click------

The two statues slowly turned their heads to look at the two artifacts.

Following their gestures, the ground began to tremble.

Lines of glowing text appeared on the War God UI:

[You've passed the Myriad Deities' check]

[Some sort of mechanism has been activated]

A few moments later.

The ground suddenly began to shake intensely.

The surrounding barriers that were holding the water back suddenly disappeared.

The water poured in to fill the entire divine palace.

The miniature statues were crushed by the water pressure one after another.

Everything was swiftly destroyed.

-------this whole divine palace is done for.

The orange cat continued to float in the water and patiently waited.

There's no way the Myriad Deities could've set up such secretive conditions just to destroy this place.

A few moments later.

The fountain that was now submerged in water began to give off a pure-white glow.

A voice swiftly followed:

"Envoys from the future, with the last of our divine power, you shall be shown the truth"

The glow expanded to fill the darkness of the water and displayed a beautiful world.

The voice from before continued:

"A long, long time ago, all the Laws converged together to create the first entity to possess infinite Origin power"

"Their name cannot be uttered, cannot be thought of, nor can it be written down, otherwise they would know about it"

"They continued to remain completely alone for countless years within the void, until one day when they sensed the threat that came from outside the Reality Gate"

"That threat was so terrifying that even they had no choice but to formulate a plan for the sake of survival"

"They began to use the power of their Laws to create individual creatures born for the sake of combat"

"----millions of Deities were thus born"

Within the world reflected by the water, sprites of beautiful light descended on the ground to manifest new lifeforms.

These lifeforms took numerous shapes, some were humanoid, some were beasts, elves, spirits, giants, elementals, etc. There were so many of them that it was dizzying to look at.

All of them knelt down on one knee, towards a certain direction with a devout expression.

These Deities were born from 'them', they were the Laws that 'they' had divided from themselves.

After that, the Deities began to occupy themselves by smelting metal, forging armor and weapons, researching magic as well as the essence of the Laws.

The land was prosperous.

The voice suddenly became solemn and low:

"While the Deities were born from 'them', they were individuals with their own will, so they gradually felt dissatisfied with their status as servants"

"However, 'they' were too powerful------ during the Deities creation, 'they' had already prepared for such a situation"

The vision changed once again.

On top of a certain tall platform, one of the Deities was bloody all over, having been punctured through his chest by another Deity who looked exactly the same as them.

The other Deity ripped off the first Deity's head and roared towards everything below the platform.

The voice became a bit gloomy and continued:

"When 'they' created the Deities, 'they' only used 40% of their Origin power to create the Deities, while the remaining 60% was used to create the Deities' shadows"

"These shadows were Law-manifested beings without any consciousness, which were completely under 'their' control"

"------no matter how powerful the Deities became, their shadows would always be more powerful, with their strength being in the ratio of 4:6"

"'They' can imbue 'their' consciousness into any of the shadows to kill a disobedient servant"

"Realizing that it was impossible to rebel against 'them', the Deities could only remain as servants"

"Up until that day------"

The world in the vision around him changed again.

Locust-like monsters descended from the sky, innumerable Apocalypses appeared all over the world, causing unprecedented destruction.

A furious roar resounded throughout the void.

The Deities came forward and began to fight against the Apocalypses"

The voice continued: "Although the Deities had been prepared as a countermeasure, 'they' still underestimated the power of the Apocalypse"

An intense crimson light struck the ground.

The entire world became dark.

And remained that way.

The voice resounded again: "'They' were defeated by the Apocalypse, having nothing but the last bit of power, 'they' could only fall into slumber"

The world lit up once again.

In this tattered world, life was wilting, everything had been destroyed.

The Deities stood sparsely on the ground, their expressions filled with confusion and pain.

Among the many millions of Deities in the past, barely 10,000 of them remained.

Two Deities laid on the ground at their deathbeds, enveloped by profound shadows.

A female Deity stood next to these two Deities, hurriedly chanting a mystical incantation.

All the other Deities stood behind this female Deity, praying.

"The Lord of Radiance and Death God were two notable figures among the surviving Deities"

"They had survived numerous Apocalypses and found the method to remove their shadows just before their deaths"

"However, 'their' remaining will did not allow this method to be passed down"

"By the power of the Time Deity, the Deities of Radiance and Death had tossed the method into a certain moment of the future"

"Once someone in the future had inherited their Laws, they would attain the chance to obtain the shadow removal method from within the Pantheon"

In the vision, the two Deities drew their last breaths.

The light of their Laws flew into the sky as stars and vanished without a trace.

Time was sped up.

The civilization of the Deities became increasingly prosperous, the remaining 10,000 Deities worked together to create a grand divine palace – the Pantheon and established themselves as the Myriad Deities1.

Surrounded by the Deities, three female Deities accepted the scepter that represented absolute power.

"The three female Deities of Fate ruled over the fate of all Deities, they were the embodiments of the Law of Fate, thus worshipped by the Myriad Deities"

The voice continued:

"During the process of countless years, 'their' consciousness would occasionally resurface, constantly reminding the Myriad Deities about the past"

"The Deities of Fate blessed the Foresight Deity with their powers and had him foresee the future of the Deities"

"The Foresight Deity made two crucial prophecies"

"Firstly, 'they' will surely reawaken and attempt to consume all the Deities to replenish 'their' power"

"Secondly, the strongest person in the Realm of Life will be either the future Lord of Radiance or Death God, he still survive all challenges and calamities to eventually become the future Divine King, reestablishing the Pantheon"

The vision slowly faded away.

A sacred chant resounded around the divine palace as illusions of the Deities descended from within the vision, blessing Gu Qing Shan with their voices.

The chant that they uttered was like nothing Gu Qing Shan had ever heard before, but Gu Qing Shan could sense countless unique powers that were slowly seeping into his body.

Gu Qing Shan felt cautious.

At this moment, a line of glowing text appeared on the War God UI:

[You've received the blessing of the past Myriad Deities]

The vision continued to fade away until eventually it thoroughly disappeared.

The water returned to darkness.

All the statues in the divine hall had also disappeared.

It was as if the statues only existed to display that vision earlier.

Faintly, the voice from earlier spoke up one last time:

"Future Death God, we need you to find the secret of the past"

"As you unlock the secret of the Deities' shadows, the Myriad Deities will no longer be bound by 'them' and will finally obtain freedom"

"You shall lead us against 'them', triumph, and heed a glorious new era of Deities"

"You shall become the King of the Myriad Deities"

One of the author's plays on words was lost during translation here. If translated literally, the Pantheon would have been called the 'Hall of 10,000 Deities', and the Myriad Deities were literally the '10,000 Deities'. However, since the number 10,000 was frequently used as a substitute for 'numerous', I translated it as 'myriad', and we would have found out here that there was literally 10,000 Deities, and not numerous deities