Chapter 148: The God's Second Invasion

"Layman Su, there is no need to worry," Taoist Priest Xuanqing said. "I am not from the Chiyan Empire. I have worshipped only the Celestial Sovereign of Longevity my entire life. I invited you here primarily because you are the one the Celestial Sovereign of Longevity has been searching for."

"Oh?" Su Mu's eyes flickered. An entity suspected to be a God was looking for him?

"I have never met the Celestial Sovereign of Longevity. Why would he be looking for me?"

Taoist Priest Xuanqing shook his head. "To tell you the truth, I don't know either. Before meeting you, I didn't even know whether the Celestial Sovereign of Longevity was searching for a person or an object. Finding you was a sheer coincidence; I stumbled upon you while divining the Seven Deadly Sins. The Divine Statue of the Celestial Sovereign of Longevity is inside the main hall. You will understand once you go in."

Su Mu glanced at the main hall, where wisps of blue incense smoke curled into the air. It was pitch-black inside, entirely unlit.

"And if I say no?"

Taoist Priest Xuanqing sighed. "Then this poor priest will have no choice but to exchange pointers with Layman Su."

Su Mu looked the elderly priest up and down. Taoist Priest Xuanqing appeared to be nearly a hundred years old; his frail, aged body looked as if a gust of wind could blow him over.

Taoist Priest Xuanqing smiled faintly. "Layman Su, I know Pride is a Gold powerhouse. Do not be fooled by my appearance. If I truly put my life on the line, you might not be a match for this old priest."

"I believe in your strength, Priest. You suspect that I am Pride, yet you still dared to invite me here. That explains everything. Even if I hadn't come this time, I'm afraid you would have sought me out yourself."

"Indeed. Even if it costs me my life, I must bring the person the Celestial Sovereign of Longevity wishes to see. Furthermore, there is no need to worry, Layman Su. The Celestial Sovereign of Longevity is not some malicious evil god. He is a genuine God. The Longevity Daoist Temple has been passed down to this day, and I dare say we have never harmed a single person."

Whether it was an illusion or not, Taoist Priest Xuanqing felt that right after he clarified the Celestial Sovereign of Longevity was not a malicious evil god, a fleeting look of disappointment crossed Su Mu's face.

Su Mu strode into the pitch-black hall. He had to see the Celestial Sovereign of Longevity. He was intensely curious: were the Gods of the Real World the same as the Gods of the Nightmare World?

First the Primal Angel, then the Serpent God, and now the Celestial Sovereign of Longevity. What exactly were these so-called Gods?

Silent darkness enveloped him the moment he entered. Su Mu pressed forward and soon spotted the miniature Statue resting on a massive altar—a depiction of the Celestial Sovereign of Longevity standing less than twenty centimeters tall.

The Celestial Sovereign of Longevity looked worn out, its peeling paint making it resemble a cheap clay figurine casually tossed onto a street vendor's stall.

But the moment he laid eyes on it, Su Mu realized a colossal entity had invaded his vision. Its towering figure practically pierced the heavens, looming before him like a gigantic planet. This behemoth was none other than the Celestial Sovereign of Longevity!

The surrounding darkness and the hall itself completely vanished, replaced by the Summit Immortal Palace.

Su Mu sat within it, clad in the Heavenly Emperor Robe, while the Celestial Sovereign of Longevity stood a short distance away, taller than heaven and earth.

'A dream invasion?' Su Mu's eyes narrowed slightly. He realized the Celestial Sovereign of Longevity and the Primal Angel were cut from the same cloth. Why did they all resort to invading dreams the moment they appeared?

Waves of Daoist chants echoed through the Dream World. The planet-sized Celestial Sovereign of Longevity wore an expression of sheer indifference. He didn't speak a word or make a single movement. He merely stood there as a blinding azure light rose from his body like the morning sun, bathing the entire Dream World in its glow in the blink of an eye.

As the azure light surged, Su Mu noticed a layer of that same light cloaking his own body. It spread over him like a plague, radiating outward from his abdomen and continuously tainting his form.

'It really is the exact same method as the Primal Angel.' With a mere thought, Su Mu's body crumbled inch by inch as he shifted his soul to the boundless higher dimensions.

Thanks to his previous encounter with the Primal Angel, he already had some experience dealing with Gods. He didn't know why these Gods all wanted to seize his soul. Could it be because of this dream?

Just as he was pondering this, he suddenly realized the azure light was still spreading across his true soul hidden within the boundless dimensions. The light seemed completely unaffected, invading his soul at a visible rate.

In an instant, waves of Daoist chants rang out from the deepest depths of Su Mu's soul. The chanting was boundlessly majestic, tempting him to lose himself within it.

'The dream's isolation is actually ineffective? Could this Celestial Sovereign of Longevity be even stronger than the Primal Angel?'

By now, the azure light had shrouded everything below his neck and was steadily creeping toward his head.

'No! It's not that the isolation is ineffective. The Celestial Sovereign of Longevity isn't invading my soul... he's invading the Dream World! My soul and the dream are one and the same, so if the dream is invaded, my soul is affected too.'

Su Mu's gaze flashed like lightning as he swept his eyes across the Dream World. The azure light was eroding it like a tsunami, and he felt a faint sensation that the dream was slipping out of his control.

'The true target of these Gods really is my dream!'

He knew that if this continued, he would be thoroughly consumed by the Celestial Sovereign of Longevity. Yet no matter how he altered the dream, he couldn't stop the Sovereign's encroachment.

The illusory dream fundamentally couldn't affect reality. The only thing that could fight a God was a God!

In the next moment, a vertical fissure split open on Su Mu's forehead, and a Silver Vertical Pupil brimming with Divinity forced its way out. A holy radiance shot into the sky, relentlessly scattering the azure light within the dream.

The azure light on his body was forced back by the silver glow, slowly retreating down to his chest. The two forces deadlocked, but after only a brief stalemate, the azure light began to spread once more.

However, met with the resistance of the Silver Vertical Pupil, the azure light's advance had slowed by over a hundredfold. Unless one looked closely, they wouldn't even notice the light spreading.

But no matter how slow, the azure light was undeniably eroding the dream. Su Mu gauged the speed of the invasion and deduced that in three days at most, the entire dream would be completely corrupted by the azure glow.

At that moment, the massive Divine Statue of the Celestial Sovereign of Longevity within the dream made a sound. This was his first time speaking. His previous silence had seemed born of a God's disdain for mortals—just as a person stepping on an ant felt no need to converse with it, unless that ant suddenly lifted their foot.

The voice was limitlessly grand, ringing like the voice of the Great Dao. It clearly didn't belong to any known language, yet it seemed to strike directly at the soul.

Su Mu couldn't understand the language, but he could sense the faint traces of anger woven within it. Suddenly, a true name he could comprehend slipped from the Celestial Sovereign of Longevity's lips—Primal Angel!

Because he possessed the Divinity of the Primal Angel, he understood it the moment the God uttered the Primal Angel's true name.

Although he had no idea what the Celestial Sovereign of Longevity was actually saying, he could feel the God's fury toward the Primal Angel, as if someone else had beaten him to a cherished prize.

Su Mu quickly realized that the Celestial Sovereign of Longevity's target was indeed his dream. The God had assumed he could effortlessly take control of it, only to encounter the obstruction of the Primal Angel's Divinity, hence his rage.

From start to finish, he had never intended to speak to a mortal. Even his current display of anger was directed entirely at the Primal Angel.

'Is this the arrogance of Gods?' Su Mu smiled silently, even though he only had three days left before the Celestial Sovereign of Longevity would devour him.

There wasn't a shred of panic in his heart. It was nothing more than death, and death was a trivial matter he had simulated countless times in his dreams.

Right now, his heart was mostly filled with excitement. How thrilling it was to play a game of chess against a God!

Furthermore, he was growing increasingly curious about what exactly his dream was, to the point that it would provoke Gods into fighting over it.