Emerald roots wrapped around the brown-haired witch, and a forest began to sprout in her wake.

Her consciousness was drawn deep into the heart of the earth.

She was pulled into the center of Ruhe Beast Island. This was the sacred altar site of the Life Sovereign from the beginning of the era.

It was a peculiar underground world, a place guarded by the Ruhe Great God.

Transparent, giant jellyfish-like membranes covered the sky. Their umbrella-like canopies, as thin as cicada wings, swayed gently, and there was more than one such jellyfish-like existence in this underground world.

The jellyfish-like beings exhaled air, forming wind and mist underground.

Whoosh!

A green carpet covered the earth, also giving the underground world fresh air. Giant vines, bearing fruit and radiating halos, hung from above and illuminated this space.

The water here appeared to have a life of its own. It formed a transparent barrier on the sky canopy, resembling a lake-like mirror.

From time to time, it dripped down, forming rain in the underground world.

Upon the sacred ancient altar, the light of the Eye of Mutation swept across the underground world. Roars of giant beings echoed through the space as the vassals of the Great God stirred in response.

A thread of roots appeared in the underground world. Numerous root filaments entangled and took shape, merging into the form of a woman.

The Earth Witch’s shadow also appeared beneath the altar.

She knelt below the altar, facing the mark that represented the Ruhe Great God’s Burrowing Demon Worm.

“God!”

Before long, a powerful will descended and focused its gaze upon the Earth Witch.

The Earth Witch knew the gaze belonged to the Ruhe Great God, who was silently watching her.

The other’s body was so massive that it was beyond mortal imagination. It was the body of a Great God, a being that bore an entire continent.

No matter how much strength she exerted, she could not perceive the true form of the Great God.

The other remained in eternal slumber, occasionally awakening with only a thread of consciousness.

The greater part of their consciousness controlled the operation of Ruhe Beast Island. Seven great Ruhe Great Gods together formed this continent.

And the snake people were simply one part of the intricate web of life thriving on this land.

The Earth Witch prayed to the deity named Ruhe. She hoped Ruhe would prevent those gods from descending upon the mortal world. She wished Ruhe would stop them from running rampant on the earth created by the Life Sovereign.

She pleaded for Ruhe to halt their impunity in this realm called Ruhe, the Mother of Life’s backyard garden.

“Great God of Earth, many people on this land have faith in You and the Mother of Life.”

“This is the garden of the Life Sovereign, not a place where they can act wantonly.”

The Earth Witch crossed her hands over her chest, prostrate upon the ground.

“I know my request is presumptuous. As a believer, I can do nothing for the deity. I can only pray constantly for Your grace.”

“But my request is not merely because I am a mortal, not merely because I am a prophet of the Royal Court of Ten Thousand Serpents.”

“It is because this earth is different.”

“The gods can spread faith here, can spread their scriptures here, can select their servants here.”

“But they…”

At this point, the Earth Witch’s voice grew much louder.

“Must revere the Ruler of Life.”

“Revere all that the Great Creator has created.”

Closing her eyes, the Earth Witch knocked her head against the base of the altar.

The Earth Witch prayed, but the deity could not grasp the meaning of her words, perhaps not fully comprehending them.

The Ruhe Great God did not comprehend the significance of the snake people’s faith in it. It also did not grasp the importance these snake people held for the Life Sovereign.

The Life Sovereign created the snake people only to create more anchors, to allow the Creator Yinsai to descend into this world earlier.

But the Creator had already descended into this world, and the Life Sovereign had long abandoned this world, leaving the mortal realm to return to the Creator’s side.

To the Ruhe Great God, all creatures—snake people, land dragons, tooth beasts—were merely lives interwoven within the fabric of the earth, each playing its role in the world’s cycle.

Witches were not created to be special, but to serve as the Ruhe Great God’s eyes, observing the mortal world on their behalf. These witches carried fragments of the Ruhe Great God’s awareness, akin to fleeting dreams surfacing during the deity’s rare moments of slumber.

The Ruhe Great God’s will now rested upon the Earth Witch. Their voice, seldom heard, carried no trace of emotion, resonating like the rhythm of the earth itself.

The sound they made was slow and deliberate. It carried a vast and expansive quality, resembling the gentle wind moving between heaven and earth or the steady flow of a river making its way toward the ocean.

If the Earth Witch were not their apostle, she would likely have taken this sound for the rhythm between heaven and earth.

“Yinsai.”

“The one who created the world is… Yinsai…”

“Supreme… this world… eternal…”

“Creator.”

The Ruhe Great God was not without wisdom.

At the end of the last era, the witch doctors and the God-Created Man Stuen had found a way for the Life Sovereign to birth wisdom from life ability.

They did not possess the emotions of ordinary people, and their way of thinking was unlike that of mortals. Their thoughts moved at a slow pace because the passage of years and time no longer held any meaning for them.

The Ruhe Great Gods were mostly like stones that had gained wisdom, their perception of time and the external world completely different from that of mortals.

Perhaps in a single thought of theirs, thousands or tens of thousands of years passed outside.

Ruhe refused the Earth Witch’s prayer.

Not because they detested her, but because this was not their mission.

And because their era had not yet come.

“The Age of Wisdom.”

“Does not yet belong to Ruhe… the Age of Life has not yet come.”

The Ruhe Great God’s mission in this era was to support this continent. Their purpose was to enable this world to foster more life and to cultivate a greater diversity of species.

This was their mission. It was the mission the Life Sovereign had given them, a purpose that could be traced back to the will of the Creator Yinsai.

They were not anxious, because time and years held no meaning for them.

The will of the sovereign deity and the will of the Creator had already arranged everything. All they needed to do was follow the path, journeying toward the other shore of time.

The Earth Witch rose, looking up at the altar above.

“Creator?”

“Age of Wisdom? Age of Life?”

The Ruhe Great God’s words came in fragments, their voice blending with the rhythm of heaven and earth. The Earth Witch struggled to fully grasp the meaning behind their words.

She vaguely heard the other’s title for the Creator, but that certainly was not the divine name of the Life Sovereign Shelly.

At this moment, however, she did not dare think too much or ask this question.

The Earth Witch raised her gaze and spoke to the Ruhe Great God.

“But how can the world created by the Life Sovereign permit these gods to destroy it as they please?”

The Ruhe Great God Burrowing Demon Worm’s emotions showed not the slightest fluctuation. The Earth Witch’s words were like shouting at the sky, unable to stir any ripples.

The Earth Witch still did not grasp the distinction between different deities, nor did she comprehend the true nature of a sovereign.

From the Creator’s perspective, and in the eyes of the sovereign deity, the actions of the mortal gods within the backyard garden were not seen as destruction by outsiders. Instead, they were regarded as part of the garden’s natural ecology and the operations of its inherent order.

Whether mortals, apostles, or demigods, they were all merely part of the garden, part of the mortal world.

After a long while, the Burrowing Demon Worm finally answered.

“The Mother of Life… does not care.”

“In your eyes, they are gods.”

“In the Sovereign’s eyes… they are also mortals, mortals who… live… a bit longer…”

The laughable thing about mortals was their tendency to measure others, even gods, through the narrow lens of their own perspective.

Even beings as close to the divine as the Earth Witch had yet to fully grasp the true meaning of the word sovereign.

The Ruhe Great God Burrowing Demon Worm, having said this, seemed about to fall back into slumber again.

One could hear their voice growing longer and longer, disappearing into that wondrous rhythm between heaven and earth, disappearing into the earth’s humming, disappearing into the forest’s rustling and the wind sounds in the sky.

The Earth Witch had once been a prophet of the Snake Deity Temple, the most devout believer of the Life Sovereign.

At this moment, she suddenly spoke.

“But do You not care?”

“Is it possible, then, for me… not to care?”

Suddenly, the earth trembled. It felt as though something deep beneath the surface had shifted. The tremor rippled through the underground world, traveling upward until it reached the surface.

The Ruhe Great God Burrowing Demon Worm seemed to awaken somewhat more, and the Earth Witch felt a pressure upon her that far exceeded what had come before.

The other was examining her, seemingly judging the words she had spoken.

This time, the deity’s words seemed much more lucid, no longer carrying that sense of emptiness and drowsiness.

It was as though these words carried a unique significance.

“These words… should not be spoken by a mortal.”

After a long while, the Ruhe Great God Burrowing Demon Worm’s gaze faded away. The Earth Witch felt the immense pressure that had weighed upon her gradually dissipate.

The Earth Witch thought she had failed. She lay prostrate on the ground, somewhat dejected.

But at this moment, a terrifying power surged from beneath the earth. The rhythm of life emanated from the heart of Ruhe Beast Island, spreading outward to encompass the entire world.

At this time, even though spring had not fully arrived, all the plants on the earth suddenly began to grow.

The Mountain of Life’s Origin, standing at the center of Ruhe Beast Island, erupted with a brilliant and intense radiance at that moment.

“Great God of Earth!”

The Earth Witch spoke these words in joyful surprise.

Then, her consciousness drifted away from the underground altar, rising back to the surface and leaving the hidden world behind.

She emerged once more into the open air, still entwined by vines and green leaves.

She knew she had succeeded.

And this success was not just about receiving the deity’s grace again.

It carried a deeper meaning as well.

From this moment forward, Ruhe Beast Island had new rules. Gods were no longer free to act as they pleased upon this giant island. They could no longer behave recklessly in this place of life’s origin.

This was the Life Sovereign’s backyard garden.

This was the place where the gods originated and dwelled.

She did not fully understand why she had been able to move the Great God of Earth, nor could she grasp the meaning behind the deity’s words.

Perhaps it was because the Earth Witch had truly moved them.

Perhaps it was because, at this very moment, the Supreme Deity that they spoke of was present in the mortal world.

Near Mooneclipse City

Two mythological beings fought with true fire in the mortal world.

Truth and original sin powers entangled, neither able to release the other.

The feathered serpent stretched for kilometers, its massive form clashing with the Door of Truth. The God of Knowledge and Truth and the God of Original Sin unleashed a torrent of divine techniques, each more bizarre than the last.

Raging flames swept across the earth, devouring forests and leaving behind nothing but ash. The sea of fire blazed through the night, its glow lighting up the darkened sky with an unsettling brilliance.

Towering mountain ranges collapsed in an instant. Their peaks shattered and fell, turning into a torrent of dust and boulders that rained down relentlessly.

On the battlefield of the gods, the earth’s terrain was reshaped before one’s eyes. Everything that was once familiar dissolved into utter chaos.

The God of Knowledge and Truth deployed a domain. A dense fog covered the entire world as he tried to imprison the feathered serpent within it.

The original sin power surged on the feathered serpent’s body, tearing through the mist repeatedly. Each time it broke free, the mist swallowed it again, pulling it back into its depths.

The feathered serpent’s eyes released world-ending flames and summoned a terrifying black rain, while its throat connected to a black hole that devoured everything seen.

Fighting to this extent, even Asai found it somewhat difficult to stop.

The feathered serpent controlled by Xiao suffered severe wounds repeatedly, but it relied on the power of gluttony to recover each time, coming back to life again and again. Despite this, the pain and torment continued to flow into Xiao’s mind without pause.

“Asai, are you trying to torture me?”

“It is meaningless.”

“I have endured eons of loneliness and endless years of reincarnation.”

“This little bit of pain means nothing to me.”

Asai looked at the feathered serpent and the faintly visible original sin power behind it. Seven kinds of original sin alternately cycled, transforming into shadows of the abyss and the Door of Original Sin.

“Xiao, ever since you descended into this world, you have been the harbinger of this disaster.”

“God of Original Sin, your being is steeped in evil, carrying sins that no effort could ever atone for.”

Xiao first froze for a moment. He gazed at the youth beneath the Door of Truth, suddenly wanting to laugh, to laugh wildly.

But for some reason, he could not laugh at all.

Perhaps it was because emotions and expressions like laughter had never truly belonged to him.

He spoke to Asai in a voice filled with mockery.

“Asai, have you forgotten who created the Little Person in the Bottle?”

Xiao’s voice echoed between heaven and earth.

“Who was the first to touch the taboo of immortality?”

“Who destroyed the Sacred Mountain and God-Servant City?”

“Who bestowed life upon that evil god in the bottle, yet imprisoned it forever in darkness?”

“Who opened that bottle of evil, leading disaster toward the mortal world?”

“Am I the originator of all this?”

The feathered serpent’s head drooped down, pressing against the barrier of the Door of Truth and looking at Asai holding the staff.

“Wrong!”

Xiao’s voice exploded beside Asai’s ear, an intense and thunderous roar.

“It is you, Asai!”

Xiao’s voice was cold and sharp. Asai, however, could hear the unmistakable tone of mockery hidden within that icy voice.

In this world, anyone could say Xiao was evil. They could say he was fallen.

Asai was the only one who could not.

Xiao’s words continued. He kept attacking the Door of Truth while speaking.

“No!”

“It should be…”

“Anhofus Samo.”

“Have you forgotten your former name?”

Anhofus, the third generation student of the Temple of Truth, student of the demon beast ancestor Haru, creator of the Little Person in the Bottle.

Samo, the Royal Bloodline family, direct descendant of the King of Wisdom Redlichia, the mad family pursuing immortality.

At this moment, the name and surname came together, forming the identity of a complete person.

Asai’s expression changed slightly upon hearing this name.

This time he said nothing about being Asai instead of Anhofus.

He offered no explanation.

Throughout his life, it seemed he could never escape that shadow.

He only raised his head and took a breath.

“Then we shall together… rush toward that eternal darkness.”

At this moment, Asai erupted with all his power, as if completely determined.

But just then, rumbling sounds echoed from beneath the earth, resembling the deep and resonant bellowing of bulls.

The sound echoed endlessly, rising from the depths below and reverberating from every direction. It felt as though the entire world was roaring and howling in unison.

In an instant, both the God of Knowledge and Truth Asai and the Evil God of Original Sin Xiao felt an intense chill gripping their hearts.

It was a feeling they had not encountered since becoming mythological beings. It was a deep and overwhelming sense of impending death.

Their spirits trembled with a forewarning of their own destruction.

Something terrifying had appeared.

And that being could destroy them both, these two so-called immortal gods.

Asai and Xiao simultaneously stopped, looking down toward the earth.

Within their sight, the earth was suddenly enveloped in a brown crystalline power, shimmering like a polished surface. Slowly, the crystal began to shift and part, as though a massive door was being pushed open and unveiling the mysterious scene hidden behind it.

Wuuuuu!

When the door opened, the two discovered that what lay behind was not a passage leading to the earth’s depths.

Instead, they were met with a strangely structured pupil.

It was, in fact, an eye.

Amid the earth’s humming, an unimaginably large eye opened upon the land. Its presence was felt everywhere, though its full form remained unseen.

The eye stretched across the earth, its size beyond comprehension.

It extended past plains, mountain ranges, and forests, its boundaries vanishing beyond the horizon.

No one could see where it began or where it ended.

Both Xiao and Asai knew what being had appeared. In this world, there was and could only be one kind of existence possessing such a massive body and such terrifying power.

It was the life ability deity, the one whose power the Life Sovereign used to construct Ruhe Beast Island. This deity bore the weight of the continent, reincarnating countless times under the Eye of Mutation, which was crafted by the Creator’s own hands.

“Ruhe Beast!”

Xiao and Asai spoke simultaneously, their voices perfectly synchronized.

Both felt something was wrong, but at this moment, it was too late.

The Burrowing Demon Worm made its move, attacking both Xiao and Asai simultaneously.

They were not facing just a Life Demigod. This was Ruhe Beast Island, the domain of the Ruhe Great God, where their power was magnified to an unimaginable extent.

The massive eye appeared to radiate a black glow. However, it was not light in the traditional sense. Instead, wherever the pupil focused, that area became engulfed in an ominous and terrifying black shadow.

The entire earth extended countless black tendrils simultaneously toward the sky, reaching for the Door of Truth and the feathered serpent’s body.

Xiao and Asai immediately split apart, each attempting to escape in opposite directions.

However, the black tendrils moved with incredible speed, seizing Asai’s Door of Truth in an instant. The tendrils stretched across the heavens and the earth, slamming the Door of Truth forcefully onto the ground.

Boom!

The sound was not sharp or clear. It was a deep, muffled noise, yet unmistakably the sound of something breaking apart.

The Door of Truth’s pillars instantly snapped, and the door panels carved with tree-like patterns also cracked with dense fissures.

Part of the power accumulated over eons poured outward through the cracks, transforming into silver light that scattered across the sky.

In an instant, the main body of the God of Knowledge and Truth Asai began to grow transparent.

He had suffered a severe injury.

But he did not dare to turn his head, remaining silent as he fled toward the edge of the sky. Without hesitation, the kingdom upon the sea of clouds departed instantly with the cloud light, unwilling to linger near Ruhe Beast Island.

Meanwhile, Xiao seized the opportunity as Asai was struck and forced back. Taking advantage of the moment, Xiao used the Door of Original Sin to open a gateway to the Dream Realm.

But the eye gazed over, and Xiao felt its focus lock onto him.

Only at this moment did Xiao truly feel the pressure of the Great God named Ruhe.

He began to understand why his ancestors referred to the Ruhe Beasts as thrones. He also realized how the Royal Bloodline depended on the power of these beasts to dominate an era.

The feathered serpent turned its head, looking at the black tendrils coiling toward itself.

“This is the grace the Creator bestowed upon Redlichia’s descendants, the power the first priests possessed?”

The massive feathered serpent body was directly covered, but Xiao dared not preserve it.

His consciousness immediately left the feathered serpent’s body.

A dark crimson shadow rushed out from within the feathered serpent, charging into the Dream Realm gate.

Xiao acted decisively, abandoning the feathered serpent body as a lure, employing the stratagem of the golden cicada shedding its shell.

Xiao now sought to return the Door of Original Sin to the abyss.

However, the Ruhe Great God Burrowing Demon Worm had no intention of letting him escape so easily.

The Door of Original Sin charged into the Dream Realm, arriving before the abyss.

The overwhelming black shadows and the densely packed giant black tendrils extended directly from the mortal world into the Dream Realm, reaching deep into the abyss.

In the abyss’s depths, the God of Original Sin stood upon the flesh and blood star.

He watched as the massive black tendrils reached into the Dream Realm, their presence looming ominously. The tendrils stretched forward, nearly submerging the abyss in their overwhelming shadow.

Even Xiao could not help but draw a breath.

However, the black tendrils, after seizing Xiao’s Door of Original Sin, did not advance further.

Xiao could only watch helplessly as those tendrils fiercely smashed against the Door of Original Sin.

In that instant, Xiao felt an intense humming roar reverberate through his mind. His consciousness was overwhelmed, plunging into complete blankness.

The Burrowing Demon Worm, before Xiao’s face, shattered his Door of Original Sin.

Boom!

The foundation of the Door of Original Sin was completely dismantled, scattering its remnants throughout the void.

Only the upper half of the door frame remained, with the two doors swaying precariously before falling into the abyss.

At this point, those densely packed giant tendrils withdrew from the Dream Realm.

Upon the mortal earth

Standing on the hillside, the Earth Witch watched in awe as the two gods fled from the massive eye that had opened upon the earth.

The divine battle, which had seemed like an unstoppable, world-ending disaster, had come to an abrupt end.

For the first time, she began to grasp the true nature of the Great God left by the Life Sovereign in the mortal world, a being that bore the weight of the earth itself.

She also finally understood the meaning behind the Great God of Earth’s words.

In your eyes, they are gods. In the Sovereign’s eyes, they are also mortals, mortals who live a bit longer.

The weight of those words now became clear.

The great battle between the God of Original Sin and the God of Knowledge and Truth had erupted not long ago.

The Scarlet Goddess became aware of the events unfolding in the Royal Court of Ten Thousand Serpents.

Although she did not know the exact cause, she could sense the identities of the two who had descended.

“Xiao.”

“And Asai.”

The Scarlet Goddess did not understand why the two fought, but those who held grudges against Xiao were not limited to Asai alone.

She immediately set aside matters at hand, heading from Suinhor toward the Royal Court of Ten Thousand Serpents.

The Scarlet Goddess had no faith in the Royal Court of Ten Thousand Serpents, nor did she have Trilobite Symbiotes for her to descend upon.

She could only personally rush over from Suinhor.

Life Demigods did not have as extensive special methods as Wisdom Demigods.

The Scarlet Goddess had just reached the Great Serpent Road and was still outside the borders of the Royal Court of Ten Thousand Serpents. She arrived just in time to witness the scene unfold.

The Ruhe Great God intervened directly, driving two Wisdom Demigods away from Ruhe Beast Island.

Even after the Evil God of Original Sin had escaped, the Great God continued the pursuit into the Dream Realm entrance he had opened, relentlessly striking his Door of Original Sin until it collapsed.

This strike left both Asai and Xiao gravely wounded, their injuries so severe that recovery would be a long and arduous process.

The Scarlet Goddess felt no pity for either Asai or Xiao. At this moment, she was more astonished by the immense power of the Ruhe Great God.

Although the Scarlet Goddess was also a Life Demigod and shared the same rank, the difference in their accumulated divine blood was clear.

This vast island was created through the combined power of seven Ruhe Great Gods, shaping an entire continent. In comparison, what she possessed was only a fragment beneath the continental shelf.

“Ruhe Beast Burrowing Demon Worm.”

The Scarlet Goddess watched as the massive eye disappeared into the earth, while the overwhelming shadowy tendrils disappeared from the entire world.