Chapter 462: I Can Also Believe in a God

Zhou Qiong's expression changed drastically. Before he even had time to beg for mercy, a black fist seal wreathed in an overwhelming baleful aura filled his vision.

He hastily channeled the power of thunder across his entire body. Tens of thousands of blue lightning bolts erupted in the void around him, making him look like a god of thunder.

But as the baleful fist seal tore through the air, the sky full of lightning shattered with a boom. The direct, unadorned punch landed squarely on Zhou Qiong's chest.

A berserk, crushing force erupted. Zhou Qiong's chest instantly caved in, his eyes bulging. "Ah!!"

A shrill scream rang out as he was sent flying backward like a cannonball. He plowed a terrifying, hundred-meter trench across the ground before finally crashing into a collapsed high-rise.

Boom!

The high-rise crumbled, sending rubble and dust flying through the air.

The members of Dawn's Blade stared in shock at the scene before them, an overwhelming, icy dread seizing their bodies.

The few who had spoken rudely to Su Mu earlier were so terrified their legs trembled.

They never imagined that the Su Mu they had so openly despised was actually such a terrifying powerhouse.

As the flying dust slowly settled, Zhou Qiong's mangled figure was revealed within the ruins.

"Cough, cough..." He coughed violently. His broken ribs had pierced his lungs, and his purplish lips were already dyed red with blood. Small fragments of his internal organs flowed out along with it.

"Divine... divine power... you are a... Saint Lord..."

Su Mu's eyes flickered. Divine power? A Saint Lord?

Was this the title for a Saint Grade powerhouse who possessed divine power?

Thinking about it, Heaven's classification for such powerhouses was quite reasonable. After all, the Saint Grade was the absolute peak for mortal beings, and above that was a Demigod.

If a Saint Grade wanted to continue growing stronger, they could only rely on divine power, and those who acquired it possessed strength far surpassing an ordinary Saint Grade. They indeed had the qualifications to be called Saint Lords.

To extract more information, Su Mu pulled down his Tinted Glasses, a crystalline blue light flashing briefly in his eyes.

Since Zhou Qiong was now in a near-death state, using an Illusion Technique to pry intelligence from him would be incredibly easy.

Zhou Qiong spoke again, "No... that's not right. Your divine power is far too little compared to a Saint Lord. You didn't obtain divine power through a Demigod corpse... you... you're..."

His eyes abruptly widened, terror spilling into his gaze. "You're an Evil God Cultist!"

Hearing this familiar title, Su Mu wasn't surprised. Even Hell had Evil God Cultists; it would be strange if Heaven didn't.

Strictly speaking, his method of obtaining divine power was indeed similar to that of an Evil God Cultist—acquiring divine power through Divinity bestowed by a God.

The only difference was that his Divinity hadn't been bestowed by a God; he had snatched it himself.

It seemed that a Saint Lord was a Saint Grade powerhouse who possessed a Demigod corpse. An entire corpse?

"Tell me everything you know about Saint Lords."

"I'll talk! As long as you spare my life, I can join your cult! I can also believe in a God!"

"Speak."

Under the influence of the Illusion Technique, Zhou Qiong tremblingly spilled everything he knew about Saint Lords.

As a Saint Grade powerhouse, the information he possessed was naturally quite comprehensive.

A moment later, Su Mu finally understood what a Saint Lord was.

Just as he had guessed, the Saint Grade was the end of the mortal path. If Saint Grade powerhouses wanted to advance to the Demigod Realm, they could only inherit the power of already-deceased Demigods.

The Law seemingly ended at the Saint Grade; there was simply no such thing as a Divine Law.

Or rather, a God was the physical embodiment of a Divine Law. Only when a God died and a latecomer inherited their mantle could they become a new God.

This didn't just apply to True Gods like Xuan Tian; it was equally true for Demigods.

And Saint Lords were Saint Grade powerhouses who possessed parts of a Demigod's corpse. They stood at the boundary between mortal and divine, wielding the power of Gods with mortal bodies.

As long as a Saint Lord gathered an entire Demigod corpse, they could ascend to the Demigod Realm after successfully refining it!

The whole process was like a puzzle. Collect all the puzzle pieces of a Demigod, and you would become a Demigod.

No one knew exactly how many puzzle pieces each Demigod had; it depended on how many pieces those Demigods had been shattered into during the divine war back then.

The divine war had been brutal. Even True Gods had fallen, let alone Demigods.

Many Demigods had their origins shattered and scattered across the world. Some existed in the form of corpse pieces, while others were attached to artifacts.

But whether they were corpse pieces or artifacts, these Demigod origins harbored an intense divine aura of death. This caused severe pollution and destruction to the surrounding environment, acting much like radiation.

The areas irradiated by this divine aura of death were known as Divine Ruins.

The reason Zhou Qiong had led Dawn's Blade to this Divine Ruin was under the orders of the master of the Dawn Domain, the Lord of Dawn. They were here to discover which Demigod the corpse within this Divine Ruin belonged to.

The Lord of Dawn was a Saint Lord who possessed parts of the body of the Demigod, the Merciful Holy Mother of Myriad Blossoms. In order to ascend to a Demigod, he had spent years searching for the rest of her body to complete the puzzle.

Therefore, he had issued massive bounties, sending countless God Hunters to explore Divine Ruins and help him achieve his goal.

Zhou Qiong was exactly one of those hunters.

As for Evil God Cultists, this was somewhat beyond Su Mu's expectations. Evil God Cultists were not highly regarded in Heaven; instead, they were treated as despised outcasts hunted by all, with almost no place to hide.

The anti-god sentiment across Heaven was extremely high. The mainstream belief was that Gods were the source of all evil and that humanity needed to purge them. As for how to purge them, the answer was naturally to acquire the power of the Gods and become Gods themselves.

Thus, humans who worshipped Gods became Evil God Cultists, utterly rejected by human society.

Interesting. The closer a place is to the Gods, the more miserable the lives of those who believe in them. Have the Gods of Heaven truly weakened to such an extent?

Su Mu fell deep in thought. Had the divine war back then really been that tragic? After the divine war, had the Gods fallen from grace, hiding in dark corners to lick their wounds and no longer revealing themselves to the world?

Did humanity then rise up, occupy Heaven, and drive away the Evil God Cultists?

If that was truly the case, he could afford to let loose a little. At the very least, he could use the power of the nightmare without worrying too much about the Gods.

The only thing he needed to be careful of was not using the Divinity of the Six Gods carelessly, lest he be mistaken for a cultist. Compared to a Saint Lord who possessed part of a Demigod's body, Divinity was simply too weak and incredibly easy to misunderstand.

It was just that...

Su Mu still harbored another doubt. If the Gods had really weakened this much, then why were the likes of the Primal Angel and the Celestial Sovereign of Longevity still able to infiltrate their power into the Xuan Tian World?

After pondering for a moment, he stopped dwelling on it. Xiao Yuan was absolutely right: since he wasn't a God, he shouldn't try to guess how a God thought. The gap between them was too massive—not just in strength, but in their entirely different ways of thinking.

"Mr... Mr. Su, I have already answered your questions. Can you spare..." Zhou Qiong carefully observed Su Mu's expression, speaking in a subservient tone.

Su Mu slightly raised his eyes, a flash of surprise crossing his gaze. "I almost forgot you weren't dead yet."

Zhou Qiong's face instantly twisted in terror. "No! Mr. Su, you... ahhhh!"

A baleful aura composed of hundreds of millions of tiny black particles swept toward him. Like a dense swarm of black bugs, they frantically surged into his mouth, nose, eye sockets, and ears.

Tiny bumps swelled up beneath his skin, continuously squirming all over his body.

In just a short moment, his eyes were completely covered in black. His screams abruptly ceased, and his aura entirely vanished.