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Book 7, Chapter 54: Countermeasures

“So that’s how it is.”

Su Chen felt extremely enlightened after hearing the Blood Ancestor’s explanation.

Even though the Origin Beasts had successfully expelled the gods, it turns out that they had been forced into hibernation because the gods’ plan to migrate the Origin Realm back to the center of the Origin Energy Sea had failed.

But before then, they had enjoyed a period of relative ease.

Just like the gods who had enslaved them, the Origin Beasts used their might to enslave the thousands of races left behind. For the Intelligent Races, this was the Dark Ages of their history.

Sometimes, suffering would only make an individual harsher instead of compassionate.

“So what is the Eternal Treaty?” Su Chen asked.

“I don’t know,” the Blood Ancestor replied with a shake of its head. “That probably took place after the gods were confined to the Kun territory.”

Su Chen said, “Maybe I should rephrase my question. The gods have been locked up in there for at least a hundred thousand years by now, right? Without any sources of divine power, they should not be able to live for that long. So why are they still even alive? Are there new gods being born, and are the current gods not the same ones that you all fought against?”

The Blood Ancestor immediately replied, “That’s impossible. The Deep Freeze Prison’s environment is not conducive to birthing gods, so they must be the same gods that I remember. There can only be one explanation as to why they are still alive: they must still have a source of divine power.”

Su Chen was immediately reminded of the Moon Sovereign’s sacrifices, the strange glowing statue within the Mother Goddess Sect’s headquarters, and the magnificent Dreamrealm created by the Lord of the Dreamrealm.

Su Chen somewhat understood the situation after analyzing it more closely. “So the Barrier of the Gods doesn’t completely cut them off from the Origin Realm. One way or another, the gods are able to find loopholes in their isolation. Between the Dream God’s Dreamrealm, the Moon Goddess’s bewitching, and the Mother Goddess’s religion...... They all have ways to continue receiving divine power. Even though it isn’t much, it is enough to allow them to survive.”

“The Kun territory must also still be giving birth to more Origin Beasts...... Even though no new gods will be created, new Beasts will still appear. As long as they use them sparingly, they should be able to survive.”

“And if that’s still not enough, they can always throttle their resource consumption,” the Blood Ancestor said.

“How can they do that?” Su Chen asked curiously.

The Blood Ancestor chuckled darkly. “The tiny Kun territory cannot sustain hundreds of gods, but a smaller number should still be possible.”

Su Chen immediately recalled Jia Luo’s current status.

Who had turned this Reaper into a shell of his former self?

At first, Su Chen had thought that it was the Origin Beasts.

But now, he knew that it wasn’t them.

It was actually the gods themselves.

While the gods continued attempting to exert influence on the Origin Realm, they also fought against one another over the limited amount of resources and Origin Beasts in the Kun territory . They were lowering their overall consumption of divine energy by lowering the number of gods inhabiting the territory!

Su Chen’s gaze grew frosty. “I think that I’m beginning to get a better idea of what the Eternal Treaty is all about.”

“Ah.” The Blood Ancestor also seemed to understand. “Like the Barrier of the Gods, it must have also been for self-preservation.”

“That’s a very likely possibility,” Su Chen agreed with a slight smile. “But it doesn’t surprise me that the gods were willing to do anything just to survive.”

“That’s right,” the Blood Ancestor replied with a nod, “Now that a hundred thousand years have passed, the Kun Territory is beginning to merge with the Origin Realm once more, and there is no longer a need for the Barrier of the Gods to exist. Once it is fully destroyed, the gods will return.”

“They can’t destroy it themselves?”

“That barrier was created by a few hundred gods with their full strength. I don’t know how many gods are left, but I imagine that they lack the strength to fully destroy it, which is why they have no choice but to wait for time to erode it away.”

All of the effort that they had put into protecting themselves had ended up imprisoning them. The barrier was being eroded away under the constant assault of Origin Energy, however, which gave the gods an opportunity to return.

But as time passed, the new owners of the Origin Realm no longer wanted their former masters to come back.

Su Chen said, “If that’s the case, then shouldn’t we team up? Do you still have any objections to this?”

The Blood Ancestor chuckled coldly as it replied, “Team up? Do you not understand why I told you all that? We are simply not qualified to be their opponents. Even in the past, the gods steamrolled us due to their control over divine power and Method Power. Don’t delude yourself by thinking that you’ll be able to defeat them just because you’ve made some progress in your cultivation. Even with Sky City, I would be quite impressed if you could defeat one of us Ancestors. As for a god? Don’t even think about it.”

Su Chen seriously replied, “Won’t they be much weaker after being confined in Deep Freeze Prison for a hundred thousand years?”

The Blood Ancestor replied, “I understand where you are coming from. Yes, their strength will have regressed, perhaps even to the point where they’ll be weaker than a Desolate Beast. However, trust me when I say that the gods’ strength doesn’t lie in just their power. Rather, their most terrifying aspect is their limitless potential. As long as they return, they will immediately begin regaining massive amounts of divine power. They can harvest divine power through battle and slaughter, which will allow them to grow stronger at an unstoppable pace. Unless you can kill all of them at once, there is nothing you will be able to do other than watch them grow stronger than beyond your wildest imagination. That growth will show you the true meaning of despair!”

Su Chen fell silent.

The Blood Ancestor was completely right.

The gods might have been weakened, but they would definitely recover their former strength.

Kill them all in a single blow?

Forget about it. Even if the gods had become as weak as a Desolate Beast, could Su Chen kill a Desolate Beast in a single blow?

Of course not.

Even the Blood Ancestor couldn’t.

So if neither of them could accomplish this, then the gods would quickly show Su Chen just how high their peak power really was.

Their rate of growth was enough to cause anyone to fall into despair.

There was nothing surprising about that.

The prospect of facing an Origin Beast was already enough to cause the human armies to fall into despair, not to mention facing the gods, who were even more powerful.

Su Chen fell silent.

Even though he already knew that the gods were exceptionally powerful, the deluge of information that he had just received made him feel he was being crushed by an unstoppable pressure.

But did that mean that he should just give up?

Su Chen was unwilling to accept that possibility.

He had been fighting valiantly for the human race’s sake his whole life.

He had managed to complete an entire series of bloodlineless cultivation techniques, a feat that everyone else had deemed impossible. And now, the path of cultivation was open to everyone.

The human race was about to enter a period of unprecedented growth.

And he was being told to give up now?

Su Chen couldn’t and wouldn’t.

He refused to accept such an outcome no matter what.

As Su Chen continued to ponder the situation in silence, the Blood Ancestor did the same.

Actually, how could the Blood Ancestor calmly accept such an outcome?

Hadn’t the Origin Beasts lain dormant for a hundred thousand years for the express purpose of stopping the gods’ return?

But now that the return of the gods was imminent, the Blood Ancestor’s will was suddenly struck by doubt and a lack of self-confidence.

Fight against the gods?

That was simply too difficult!

The power that these gods could wield had left an indelible mark in his mind. Even a hundred thousand years could not erase that impression.

What the Blood Ancestor wanted was merely to put up a good fight, not to win.

Fear had destroyed any hope he may have ever held of winning.

This may also be the reason why he was willing to explain all of these things to Su Chen in such great detail.

In the face of the Barrier’s imminent collapse, the war between the Beasts and the Intelligent Races was no longer as important.

But just because it had given up didn’t mean that Su Chen would too.

After a moment’s thought, Su Chen said, “There’s still one thing that I don’t quite understand.”

“Speak.”

“Where did your intelligence come from?”

The Origin Beasts originally possessed no intelligence. Like the Desolate Beasts, all they once had were their instincts and low-level mental functions.

The sudden increase in intelligence and reasoning that they had gained was a little shocking, to say the least.

Su Chen’s question caught the Blood Ancestor slightly off guard. After a long time, it replied, “To be honest, I’m not really sure myself. I just remember suddenly having it, as if I had been enlightened overnight.”

“But even if you suddenly gained intelligence, how did you all come up with this plan so quickly?” Su Chen continued asking.

Intelligence was nothing without sufficient experience and knowledge as a foundation. Even the most intelligent person in the world would behave like a complete barbarian otherwise.

Severing the connection between the Origin Realm and the Kun territory was not an idea that could be conceived of through pure intelligence alone.

The Blood Ancestor had no answer to this question.

Even the ancient Origin Beasts couldn’t possibly know all of the secrets that this universe contained.

But Su Chen seemed to have realized something from the Blood Ancestor’s lack of an answer.

He then asked, “So what combination of Origin Beast and deity produced the humans?”

A thoughtful expression appeared on the Blood Ancestor’s face.

After a long time, it slowly replied, “Strange, why can’t I remember? It’s almost like......”

“Like someone erased that part of your memories?” Su Chen interjected.

The Blood Ancestor opened and closed its mouth a few times, seemingly at a loss for words, but it didn’t deny Su Chen’s assertion.

Su Chen smiled slightly.

That slight smile was an expression of his joy and confidence.

It was as if spring had come after a long winter, an oasis had appeared in the desert, or a terminally ill patient’s heart had suddenly begun to beat again......

An irrepressible joy that came from seeing the light at the end of the tunnel!

The Blood Ancestor was mystified by Su Chen’s elated expression. “Why are you smiling? Is there anything I said that’s worth smiling over?”

Su Chen vaguely replied, “There are some questions that I was never fully able to wrap my head around. Now, however, I realize that the answers were before my very eyes. This makes me quite happy.”

“What answers?”

“Answers to a difficult problem that has plagued me for virtually my entire life, and also the answer to defeating our enemy.”

The Blood Ancestor didn’t understand the first half of Su Chen’s cryptic statement, but the second half was extremely clear.

“What did you say? A way for us to defeat our enemy?” the Blood Ancestor hurriedly asked in anticipation.

“Yes, a way of defeating our enemy. Perhaps there might be a way for us to deal with the gods after all,” Su Chen replied confidently.

“Hahahaha!” The Blood Ancestor began to laugh, but out of derision instead of happiness. “How arrogant. So just how are you going to defeat the gods, pray tell? Stop spouting nonsense. You won’t be able to deal with them.”

“Oh really?” Su Chen shot back. “And what if I do?”

“Then I will obey you unquestioningly and give you command over every Origin Beast at my disposal! To defeat the gods, I would even sacrifice myself,” the Blood Ancestor replied decisively.

This was not an empty statement. Regardless of the situation, the Origin Beasts would die if they hibernated for too long.

If they could accomplish something that they should have completed a long time ago before their death, then death was a worthy price to pay.

Su Chen said, “My method is very simple. Since the gods will regain their divine power before they return, then why don’t we just slaughter our way to them before they have a chance to recover?”

Slaughter his way over to them!

That was Su Chen’s decision.

Instead of waiting for the gods’ inevitable return, why not seize the opportunity to attack?

The Blood Ancestor was clearly surprised by such a proposition. “But the Barrier is still active, separating us from them. How can we cross over to their side? You don’t even know where the Barrier is physically located.”

“Well, I guess I’ll need the help of a friend then.”

“What friend?”

“A friend who has crossed through the Barrier before.”