Chapter 833 - 705: Trapping the God

The sound wave flattened the clouds, snuffed out the forest fire, and even temporarily drove away the nasty sulfur stench in the air.

Fingers pressed the jetpack thrust button, Don Juan dove toward the cliff, inhaled and roared, "Bark—"

The Cold God and Bachin, who were trying to crawl out of the rock fissure, were shoved back again, their spines smashing into the rock layers, plowing out two human-shaped tracks.

In the cockpit of the propeller plane, Mei Wenyi looked down at Don Juan, and what flashed through her mind was, "How the hell is this guy so ballsy."

Down on the surface, what Gouchen thought was, "As if hearing celestial music, my deaf ears clear for a moment."

What Su Jie thought was, "The most satisfying big dog bark in the observable universe."

No time to hesitate. Gouchen kicked a Horror Maggot Beast flying, then reached back into the Backpack and took out a compass-shaped stone about three meters in diameter.

The round stone was covered with moss, its front carved with simple circular lines, its side etched with ancient inscriptions, and at the center was stuck an Eight-sided Han Sword, almost completely rusted away.

"Serve as my protector!"

Gouchen bellowed, jumped onto the round stone, grabbed the rusted blade with his hand, and dragged upward with force.

The rusty edge sliced his palm open, leaving two streaks of blood. The blood seeped into the moss below; the entire stone disk suddenly shuddered and began to slowly rotate along the circular lines.

[Item Name: God-sinking Soul-stealing Iron Unmelted]

[Type: Weapon/Divine Artifact/Cursed Item]

[Attack Power: Low]

[Quality: Epic]

[Special Effect: Inviting Gods into the Sword. Follow the inscriptions on the stone disk and perform the full ritual to seal a target God/sub-god/Divine Calamity/divinity creature into the Rusted Sword as a Sword Spirit, activating the sword’s second form. After success the stone disk will automatically be destroyed]

[Cooling Time: None]

[Consumption: Per second, 1% of maximum Physical Value, Spiritual Power Value, and Sanity Value]

[Use Conditions: Level greater than or equal to Level 30, swordsmanship specialization reaching Martial Arts Enlightenment level]

[Note: The Divine Realm Anti-Fraud Center reminds you: recently, incense-and-offering fraud in the mortal world has spiked. Any so-called "temple sublease, believer transfer, guaranteed profits, high returns" investment is a scam. Please remember the ’Three Nos and One More’—No responding to unknown prayers, No trusting random supplications, No revealing Divine Country information, and More verification when dealing with incarnations. If you have any questions, please call the anti-fraud hotline 96110 for consultation]

The killing field’s first Note was the same old morbid humor, but under that first line were more than a dozen detailed Notes, each as long as an X essay, and as convoluted as a Yu-Gi-Oh card description.

In short, the effect of [God-sinking Soul-stealing Iron Unmelted] is to use a ritual to seal any-level Extraordinary Life and convert it to a Sword Spirit—this one trait alone is enough for Epic Quality.

Conversely, this Special Effect has plenty of restrictions. For example, the ritual cannot be interrupted by attacks;

The target’s strength will significantly affect sealing difficulty; an Ordinary person’s chance of capturing a God is basically zero;

The sealing ritual does not wash away the target’s memories or personality. If the other party bears a grudge against you, then all you’ll get is a Sword Spirit with negative Affinity, thinking about killing its master and rebelling every waking moment;

Pop!

Gouchen, having sliced open his palm, reversed his grip on the hilt, feet planted in place, wrist slowly rotating along with the Compass.

Twenty degrees, forty-five degrees, ninety degrees.

His wrist turned all the way around, with not the slightest intent to stop, following the Compass past one hundred eighty degrees,

The skin stretched past its limit, muscles tore, bones snapped.

The agony of the flesh acted on the soul as well. Gouchen’s forehead was beaded with cold sweat, and a howl of sheer torment leaked through his clenched teeth.

Strands of flowing light seeped out from the stone disk, flying toward the cliff fissure and coiling around the limbs of the Cold God.

The Cold God’s pupils shrank sharply; for the first time, its expression changed. It raised a hand and unleashed cold air, freezing an ice wall up ahead.

"Bark!!"

Don Juan didn’t know the exact effect of the stone disk Gouchen had produced, but judging by the Cold God’s reaction, he could guess that thing was absolutely critical to the battle.

He instantly cranked the power, howling in rage, shoving the Cold God and Bachin back into the rock layer again and again.

Meanwhile on the ground, Gouchen’s right hand and right shoulder were squeezed dry like sugarcane. Jagged bone ends pierced through his skin, and the wounds ignored the Healing Magic Potion’s effect, refusing to heal.

The soul-deep pain blanked out his mind; in a daze he seemed to see fractured, splintered images.

In the Yin Shang sacrificial pits, human offerings who had been beheaded, dismembered, boiled, and left to rot in the open;

On the Aztec pyramid altar, offerings whose chests were cut open by stone blades, hearts ripped out;

In Rome’s Flower Square, astronomers burned alive by the Pope’s Court;

In India’s temples, corpses of men and women drifting along the river;

So many crimes committed in the name of Gods. Gods are not worthy of worship. Never have been.

His arm had already twisted 720°, Gouchen dropped to his knees, eyes unfocused. Up in the sky, a phantom of a gigantic rusted sword actually descended as well, slowly stabbing toward the Cold God trapped in the cliff rock.

Spenerak swung his huge hand down, all the Hellfire Cannons turned and bombarded Gouchen, trying to interrupt [God Trapping and Spirit Stealing]. But how could Merlin let him succeed? The Mage Tower used Shift Position, blocking the continuous barrage with a golden barrier.

The corroded giant sword kept locking onto the Cold God’s position, descending at a constant speed, sliding quickly sideways. Don Juan, who was holding the Copper Bell and roaring nonstop, was already on the verge of burning out; half his teeth had shattered from his own vibrations.

The rusted sword phantom pierced through the mountain, getting closer and closer to the Cold God. The boundless pressure it released pinned him hard into the rock layers, his body curled up, limbs pressed to the ground. Cold air overflowed like a toppled barrel of Liquid Nitrogen.

His lips trembled, mumbling out of instinct, "Tengri..."

Splurt.

At the instant the sword phantom pierced his tattered cloak, it dissipated on its own. The Cold God widened his eyes in shock, and through the narrow rocky crack looked toward Don Juan, only to see the other’s face full of despair.

On the stone disk on the surface, there remained a patch of slime the size of a handkerchief.

It was a micro Horror Maggot Beast the size of a grain of rice, that had fallen down along with the shell fragments. It had been lurking in the grass all this time. No one paid it any attention.

When Merlin wrapped the stone disk and Gouchen in a Magic Shield, this rice-sized maggot crawled onto the disk.

Borrowing the dazzling golden light of the barrier, it slipped past Su Jie who was just a step away, crawled onto the platform, and self-detonated.

Its Self-Destruction power wasn’t even as strong as a one-cent throw-pop, but it was enough to affect the heavily injured Gouchen, thus interrupting the judgment of [God Trapping and Spirit Stealing].

"Sor...ry."

Gouchen remained kneeling, his voice broken and intermittent, his murky gaze looking toward where Su Jie was standing. "Tell my brother I’m not... a coward..."

Su Jie rushed up and held Gouchen, frantically casting Green Blood Technique, but Gouchen’s Physical Value and Sanity Value had already dropped below the safety line. He lay limp like a vegetable, unable to move.

"Call..."

Don Juan’s roar was forcibly cut off. The Cold God burst out of the rock layer, slashed apart the feeble sound barrier with his Ice Blade, and drove it straight through the singer’s shoulder, slamming him heavily into the ground.

A mere Level 30 human had driven a God into such a sorry state. The Cold God let go of the Ice Blade, gently pinched Don Juan’s tongue with his right hand, and released cold air.

Crack.

The tongue froze, snapped off, and was ground into powder. The Cold God stared at the human with a blank expression and said calmly, "Try shouting one more time."

Don Juan’s hair was a mess, yet his lips still held a smile. Then he puffed up his belly and let out a crisp ventriloquized voice: "Call."

"..."

Blue veins bulged on the Cold God’s forehead. He pressed his hand against Don Juan’s ribs; he was going to let the man clearly feel his blood freezing all over.

"Chilled to the core, heart soaring high!"

"What pure ice."

That Ice Blade could disrupt thought and prevent a Player from teleporting away. Don Juan knew his time of death was near, so he chose to go wild, spouting trash talk with ventriloquism.

Suddenly his expression changed drastically, his eyes leaping past the Cold God’s shoulder to the sky behind him, looking on with wild joy. "Holy shit, Pifu you finally fucking made it!"

"...You think I’m three years old? Stalling for time like this."

The Cold God’s eyelids twitched madly, but his instinctive caution still made him twist the Ice Blade, using its smooth surface to look behind him.

High above, a figure was in free fall. Who else could it be but Pifu?

He had no idea where the guy had gone to mess around, but somehow the time had been enough for a wardrobe change.

Sunglasses on his head, a knitted winter scarf wrapped around his neck, an office jacket on his torso, a sweat vest underneath, tropical floral beach shorts below, and special-ops War Boots on his feet.

One outfit, four seasons.

Even more over the top, he was still holding a cracked-open coconut with a straw stuck in it.

Plop.

Li Cheng landed gently in the Forest, sipping a mouthful of iced coconut juice.

The Cold God didn’t know who Pifu was, but judging from the relieved expressions of the other humans, they seemed to trust this man a lot, so he slowly asked, "...Only you?"

"If Gouchen were still conscious, he’d one hundred percent ridicule you with, ’Good thing you asked only you, and not who are you. Otherwise Pifu would go off on a whole cross talk routine.’"

Li Cheng calmly filled in the missing joke for the unconscious Gouchen, shook his head, then pointed up at the sky. "Besides me, there’s also it."

The next second, a black dot suddenly appeared in the sky, rapidly enlarging.

Hundreds of meters tall, branches lush, roots and trunk twisted and coiled.

Hephaestus... Shuren?

The Demon Gods’ pupils shrank sharply. With their eyesight, they could clearly see that colossal being’s body was covered in hideous, terrifying stitch marks.