King

Yang Chen wasn’t the only one in a daze. The masked man was equally as terrorized.

Though the face of the masked man remained hidden, it was clear that this ink-like True Yuan arrow was a threat to him!

At this moment, Yang Chen’s veins were bound. He did not have much strength. His dantian felt heavier than a rock and he was slowly losing perception and everything else. The damage was done. He no longer had control over his cultivation.

In this state, Yang Chen couldn’t even detect who had shot the True Yuan arrow, let alone analyze the person’s capabilities.

The only thing he could feel was a kind of mass of gloomy energy, looming above them in the sky.

“Who the hell are you? If your cultivation is so strong, why not show yourself?!” The masked man asked in his deep voice.

Haunting cackles echoed around in the empty night sky.

“You know you’re no match for me and I don’t plan on attacking you any further. How about you drop your act and leave before I call the other gods over?”

His entire body began to shake from fury. The masked man was enraged but he wasn’t about to look for trouble with the mysterious new appearance.

Though he was sure that he wouldn’t lose, the appearance of stronger gods would certainly be a problem.

“Hmph! Consider yourself lucky!”

The masked man jeered at Yang Chen. He was displeased but retreating was the right course of action!

A few moments after the masked man left, the eerie presence slowly faded away.

Yang Chen could feel that the two were gone.

Plagued by the mist, his assaulter and savior remained a mystery.

He was certain that his savior didn’t save him out of kindness. He must’ve had some ulterior motive or else he wouldn’t have left Yang Chen motionless on the ground in the vast wilderness.

Liu Mingyu and Xiao Zhiqing finally made it over to Yang Chen’s side.

Gathering him in her arms, Liu Mingyu allowed Yang Chen’s head to rest against her body as she extended a palm to touch his pale face. Tears started to roll down her cheeks.

“What happened to you? Say something, please! Don’t scare me like that!”

Yang Chen forced an arm up to wipe away her tears.

“No need to cry… I’m not dead just yet…”

Liu Mingyu threw her arms around Yang Chen tightly. “What’s the matter with you? Please… please be alright! I’m so scared to see you like this…”

She had never seen Yang Chen in such a disheveled state. Finding it difficult to calm herself, pain crushed her heart to fill it with intense pain and anxiety.

Yang Chen sighed deeply. “I think I’ve been poisoned. I have no strength and my mind is heavy. I can’t even bring out half of my cultivation. Damn it, I’m supposed to be immune to all poison.”

Yang Chen tried to remember. “I think he called it the Purple Butterfly Fantasy…”

“Ah.”

The answer made Xiao Zhiqing widen her big round eyes. She covered her mouth and inhaled sharply.

Yang Chen frowned. “You seem to know something about this.”

Xiao Zhiqing proceeded to gaze at Yang Chen intently. Her eyes were filled with disbelief but at the same time, sorrow started to seep through its corners…

Meanwhile in the North Pole, on a glacier connected to a towering mountain of snow and ice near the pole…

After the autumn equinox, the North Pole will be entering perpetual night starting from the pole before it begins its slow crawl down South.

Under the night sky, radiant stars cast light onto the marvelous iceberg. There stood a flowy graceful presence.

Her black silk dress flew with the wind. In the bone-shilling snow-filled environment, her exposed skin was incredibly pale but her eyes were as intense as bright moonlight!

Her long raven hair fell behind her elegantly like a waterfall. Strands of it were picked up by the wind.

The woman seemed to be concentrating on something. Despite that, the expression on her dainty face was ultimately unreadable, rendering her thoughts vague to the outside eye.

Abruptly, a tall mass clad in long black robes appeared out of thin air behind her.

The robed man removed his hood to unveil a demonic metal mask!

Letting out a few eerie cackles, the metal masked man dashed towards the female and scoffed. “That Yang Chen boy is incompetent. Are you really sure this is the man in your prophecy?”

Athena didn’t turn to face him. She continued to stare at the vast landscape. Nonchalantly, she asked, “He’s not dead?”

With disdain, the metal masked man answered, “The little bastard was no idiot. All I did was show a teensy bit of my skill and he had already understood that he couldn’t do anything against us. Worried about your sudden appearance, he decided to retreat naturally. The Yang Chen boy is injured but with protection from the Endless Resolve Restoration Scripture, he probably won’t die.”

“All is well as long as he is alive.” Athena started to mumble, seemingly to herself. “There should be no errors in my prophecy. In the future, some things need to be done to tweak the entire situation into reality.”

The metal mask scowled. “I’ve heard the ‘King’ say that any failures to your prophecy are your own fault. Why can’t you just admit that you suck at prophecies?”

“You insolent fool!”

Athena reprimanded coldly, abruptly unleashing her unhinged powers!

Rumble… Rumble… Rumble…

A good ten-mile radius was affected by the surge of energy. Under its influence, the iceberg rumbled and shook. Soon, it was blasted into debris with Athena at its core!

Only standing about ten meters behind her, the metal masked man frantically threw himself against the floor for stability, losing all strength to pick himself up after the blast.

The metal masked man was shocked to the core, quickly changing his tone to beg for mercy. “I’m… I’m terribly sorry! Please, madam, spare me!”

He had never once seen or experienced Athena’s capabilities. To stop her from causing any potential harm to himself, it was better to cease all resistance.

Though psychological fear had played a bigger part in this, the damage that he had received without even launching retaliation was obvious enough to warn him against doing so. If he had really retaliated, Athena would be able to completely destroy him without breaking a sweat!

Athena retracted her powers like a rapid tide falling against the shore.

“Hmph, know your place! Your king may not even stand a chance against me and yet you’re here spewing nonsense? If this happens again next time, I’ll make sure to turn you into dust!”

The man quickly slammed his head against the ground to beg for forgiveness. “I was stupid! Very stupid! “

Athena turned back. She uttered, “Stand up. Your next task is to search for all divine marks left behind by different God tribes around the globe in my stead. Other than that, you need to keep your eyes on the underground laboratory in the North Pole. I need constant updates of their research progress on God’s Stone. Don’t you dare act without my instructions.”

Scarred by earlier, the man was quick to nod. “Madam, I’m a little confused. Other than you, major gods like Poseidon and Apollo are no match against the experts in Hongmeng and Hidden clans. That goes without saying that Ares and Venus are not even close to their Soul Forming stage.

Why are you putting in so much effort to understand the powers of God’s Stone in order to resurrect the normal gods? Even if they were to be resurrected, they can’t be of much use to you.”

Athena laughed. “Are you trying to say that other than Zeus and I, everyone else is useless?”

The man fell silent though what she said was exactly his thoughts. If they had harbored no fear over Athena’s existence, the sneaky Chinese Tribulation Passing stage experts would’ve already been all over the globe scavenging rare and precious treasures. Yang Chen wouldn’t even have the opportunity to be in Australia for his alchemy material hunt.

“If you really think that our current powers are our real capabilities, you would be sorely mistaken.” Athena continued emotionlessly, “I’ll be frank, we’re only left with the possession of merely the law of space now. Compared to my actual battle form, I’m only left with at most forty percent of my original powers. The other gods who ranked weaker than me and Zeus are only left with less than twenty to thirty percent of their powers.”

“What?!”

Overwhelmed with great disbelief, the man couldn’t help but exclaim. How could it be that the gods were restricted that far?

Athena turned to face him with a raised brow. “Why? You don’t believe it?”

“Uh… Well… That’s not it…” The man frantically shook his head. “If Madam says so, it must be the truth.”

Unfazed, Athena spoke, “No need to force yourself to believe what I said. Ever since we came to Earth, our powers have been diminishing continuously till the point of our damaged current state.

This is a humiliation to us and this is where it hurts most. Not many are willing to bring that up. Funnily, the friars in China had really thought that we’re only truly capable of this.

It won’t be long until I create the thing I desire most. Soon enough, the renaissance of the gods will take place.”