Chapter 333: Descent of the False God

On the sixth floor of the White Tower, the White Dragon Lord soaked in the Elemental Pool, dozing lightly. His body was enveloped by viscous, compressed elemental energy. It felt just like a sauna, with every pore on his body breathing freely. It was simply exhilarating.

Suddenly, the leisurely White Dragon Lord raised a brow. He had received a message from the kingdom's administrator, Hobbes.

"Your Majesty, traces of a Church of Evil Gods have been discovered within the kingdom's borders."

Anything involving deities was no minor matter, so Hobbes had reported it directly to the White Dragon Lord.

The White Dragon Lord rose from the Elemental Pool. Viscous liquid elemental energy slid off his draconic frame. He placed his sharp, steel-hard claws on the edge of the pool and pushed off lightly, leaping out of the water.

Freed from the constraints of the magic array inside the Elemental Pool, the liquid elemental energy rapidly dissipated into free elemental energy drifting in the air.

Spreading his wings, he landed steadily on the floor and teleported straight to the grand hall of the White Castle. Coiling upon his throne—a symbol of absolute authority—his golden, slit-pupil eyes gazed down at Hobbes, who was bowing respectfully.

"What happened?"

The voice itself carried no emotion, but the sheer majesty in the tone jolted Hobbes's mind.

"Your Majesty, this morning, residents of Puji Island reported a mysterious group holding a sacrificial ritual using hibernating snakes as offerings. Following an on-site investigation by the Puji Island Police Station, it was discovered that the evil god worshipped by this group is not registered in the Pantheon. The officials of Puji City have classified the group as a Church of Evil Gods, and the majority of its members have already been captured."

The "evil god" mentioned here did not refer to true evil deities of the evil alignment, but rather to false gods who lacked a divine throne. These false gods might be demigods on the path to apotheosis, powerhouses from another plane, or even mere mortals who had stumbled upon a certain treasure.

Historically, such false gods had brought disastrous consequences to many kingdoms. Therefore, every nation on the Nordhill Continent strictly banned these false gods from preaching their faith, and the Afiaiv Kingdom was no exception.

"Interrogation revealed that this group came from the Kingdom of Pavlan. They operated under the guise of a circus, applying for entry under the pretext of a touring performance. After entering the Afiaiv Kingdom, they performed publicly while secretly gathering followers. Fortunately, the residents on Puji Island discovered them in time, so they couldn't cause any major destruction."

Since they hadn't caused any major damage, the White Dragon Lord didn't bother delving too deeply into the matter.

"Behead the higher-ups of this Church of Evil Gods and display their heads as a warning. Publicly try the other members. Punish the guilty according to the law, and deport those without major crimes back to the Kingdom of Pavlan. Also, hand the brainwashed residents over to the churches of their respective racial gods for salvation."

The White Dragon Lord lowered his head in thought for a moment.

"Remind the Kingdom of Pavlan to conduct their own internal investigations. Nordhill does not welcome these messy false gods."

"As you wish."

Hobbes bowed and exited the grand hall, and the White Dragon Lord teleported back to the White Tower.

Anyone who dared to crown themselves a god generally had some real skill. After all, a mortal picking up a divine treasure was a highly improbable event. With only thirty-odd years left until the Blood War Battlefield, the White Dragon Lord didn't want to provoke a powerful enemy at such a critical juncture.

After this disruption, he was in no mood to continue his soak, so he returned to his private quarters.

The room was sparsely furnished. It held a large, custom-made round bed for resting, three massive bookcases stuffed with various tomes, and a specialized desk. Atop the desk, alongside books and magical grimoires, sat an eye-catching skull candlestick burning with an ominous blood-red flame.

A magical wonder—Moradin's Musical Candlestick!

The White Dragon Lord opened Moradin's Musical Candlestick. Old Jimmy's soul was being roasted over the blood-red Soul-Forging Fire. His eyes were squeezed shut, his jaw clamped tight, and his entire face was twisted into a knot. He was clearly enduring immense agony, but he didn't scream, letting out only an occasional groan.

It wasn't that the pain inflicted by the Soul-Forging Fire had weakened; Old Jimmy had simply gotten used to the torment.

"Hmm, the soul has solidified quite a bit."

Seeing the excellent progress in solidifying Old Jimmy's soul, the White Dragon Lord felt satisfied. He closed the lamp cover and went downstairs to the magic laboratory. Bypassing the experiment tables cluttered with various materials, he opened the door to an adjoining room.

A massive glass cylindrical incubator came into view. Several tubes connected to the top of the tank, continuously extracting and injecting various nutrient fluids. The bottom of the glass tank rested on a magical base, which also served as its control console.

Soaking inside this incredibly expensive incubator was a curled-up white dragon. It looked exactly like the White Dragon Lord, only much smaller—barely a dozen meters long.

This was a puppet the White Dragon Lord had created using himself as the template. The puppet's main body was grown from his own flesh and blood, but its internal skeleton was forged from a modified Abomination's skeleton.

Standing before the incubator, he observed the puppet in the glass tank. The luster of its scales and any abnormalities in its body shape were key points of inspection.

The fluids pumped through the tubes at the top contained massive amounts of nutrients, dramatically accelerating the puppet's growth. Precisely because it was growing so fast, if the puppet had a waking consciousness, it would undoubtedly feel as though thousands of ants were biting every inch of its body.

Thus, the White Dragon Lord planned to wait until the puppet grew to twenty meters before injecting a soul into it. During this period, the puppet in the incubator was highly susceptible to accidents, requiring him to remain vigilant at all times.

Fortunately, with the Gold Finger constantly monitoring things inside the White Tower, he didn't need to stand guard by the incubator all day.

After personally inspecting it, he returned to the laboratory to continue his magical experiments.

Late at night, as the moon set and the stars hid, the White Tower Laboratory remained as bright as day. The White Dragon Lord was entirely focused on using a small knife to carve a purple crystal on the desk.

This magical material was known as Urak Amethyst, named after its discoverer, or amethyst for short. The White Dragon Lord was preparing it for an upcoming magic experiment.

Suddenly, a tremor ran through his heart. His hand applied too much force, accidentally slicing off a massive chunk of the amethyst.

Putting down his tools, the White Dragon Lord frowned at the pitch-black night sky outside the window. He sensed an enormous will descending upon the Overseas Archipelago. It felt like a divine descent, yet slightly different.

"That direction..."

The will had descended from the direction of Fulin Island, the second largest island. And since Puji City was located to the north of Fulin Island, he naturally connected this event to the false god discovered earlier that day.

Not good!

"Tower Spirit Seven, pull up the spatial coordinates around Puji Island."

"Coordinates: 398722, 3697411, 932147."

In the dark night sky, a purple Portal materialized out of thin air. The White Dragon Lord stepped through. To prevent being ambushed upon exiting, he had chosen a teleportation point high in the sky near the edge of Puji Island.

From high above, he gazed down at the massive island. By the standards of the Overseas Archipelago, this was a large island. In its center lay a moderately sized city, and the burning city was incredibly conspicuous against the dark night.

At this moment, a gigantic green snake was flying through the sky over the city, wreaking havoc below. The wails and cries of the people echoed from the streets. Several figures were tangled in combat with the green snake in the air, but none were its match.

Furious, the White Dragon Lord thought, I didn't want to cause you trouble, but you insist on asking for it!

Roar!

An infuriated dragon's roar echoed through the night sky. The White Dragon Lord beat his wings, charging toward the green snake amid a gale of wind.

Mid-flight, he cast various buffing spells upon himself. Since the city lay directly beneath the green snake, he couldn't use high-yield destructive magic.

But magic came in countless varieties, with spells tailored for any situation. The White Dragon Lord rapidly chanted an incantation.

Legendary magic—Haris's Colosseum!

An eerie surge of magical energy struck the green snake's body, linking it to the White Dragon Lord. The two of them vanished together.

The fighters battling the green snake were initially horrified when their foe suddenly vanished. But upon recalling the furious dragon's roar, they realized a powerhouse from the White Castle had intervened. Relaxing slightly, they divided their efforts: organizing people to extinguish the fires on one hand, while remaining on guard in case the green snake suddenly reappeared on the other.

Meanwhile, the White Dragon Lord and the green snake appeared together inside a massive Colosseum.

Upon entering this unfamiliar environment, the green snake immediately assumed a defensive posture. It coiled itself on the ground, glaring warily at the white dragon in the sky. The White Dragon Lord made it sense profound danger.

Instead of rushing in blindly, the White Dragon Lord hovered in the air, beating his wings as he observed his opponent.

The green snake was colossal, estimated to be around a hundred meters long. Its body looked no different from an ordinary green snake, except for the pale, ghastly human face growing atop its head, making for a terrifying sight.

The green snake's body looked somewhat ethereal, lacking physical substance. Its energy level wasn't exceptionally high—merely a standard Legendary Rank. It must have used a method similar to a divine descent. If a mere projection could rival a mid-tier legendary practitioner, its true body had to be at least a High-Tier Legend or above.

However, a mere Legendary Rank projection posed no threat whatsoever to the White Dragon Lord.

Having determined his absolute victory, he felt perfectly at ease. After all, Haris's Colosseum was a double-edged sword; only one of them was destined to leave alive.

Holding an overwhelming advantage in strength, the White Dragon Lord felt no rush. A desire to probe his enemy sparked in his mind.

"You damn worm! How dare you invade my territory! How dare you slaughter my subjects! I will tear you into ten thousand pieces!"

He used the cliché lines of an ordinary evil dragon to test the green snake's reaction. The green snake remained unmoved, its gaze frigid as its crimson, forked tongue flicked in and out.

"Dragon! Submit to me! I shall grant you power!"

"Quite the boast! What could you possibly give me?"

The White Dragon Lord's tone was dismissive, but he calmly made a judgment in his mind. Since it recognized his identity, the green snake wasn't some ignorant native beast.

"Power! Endless, infinite power..."

"Based solely on this projection of yours, which can't even match me?"

"Dragon! Do not try to provoke me. My power is beyond your imagination!"

"..."

After conversing a little longer, the White Dragon Lord realized the green snake was poor with words. This was a bad habit left behind by those who believed in supreme power and were used to talking with their fists. As for intelligence, the green snake was perfectly normal, and it completely refused to disclose the location of its true body.

Yet, the White Dragon Lord still deduced that the green snake knew very little about the outside world.

Clearly, this was an ill-informed Transcendent Beast that had somehow stumbled onto the path to godhood, and it had actually set its sights on the Nordhill Plane.

He had to admit, it was an incredibly foolish decision. Nordhill was teeming with powerhouses, and the various faiths had already been carved up by The Gods. The green snake's actions were tantamount to snatching food from a tiger's mouth while dancing on the edge of a blade. Both The Gods and the Council could easily take its life.

Before long, the White Dragon Lord lost interest in probing any further. He swiftly chanted an incantation.

Master Tier magic—Rain of Ice Arrows!

Ice Arrows rained down upon the green snake.

"Dragon! You will regret this!"

As the rain of arrows struck, the coiled green snake instantly launched itself into the air like an uncoiled spring, dodging the majority of the Ice Arrows as it snapped its jaws toward the White Dragon Lord.

The White Dragon Lord glanced at the green snake's tail where it had been hit. Densely packed white spots dotted the tail, a result of the ice power's erosion. However, since the green snake lacked a physical body, the physical impact of the Ice Arrows had practically no effect.

Innate flight ability. Extremely sharp serpentine combat instincts. Incredible short-distance explosive power. Immune to physical attacks, vulnerable to elemental attacks.

While analyzing the intel, the White Dragon Lord instantly cast an Ice Shield to block the green snake's attack path.

But the Ice Shield failed to obstruct it in the slightest. The green snake phased right through the Ice Shield like a phantom.

Watching the snake head breach the Ice Shield, disdain flashed in the White Dragon Lord's eyes.

"Detonate!"

The stable elemental structure within the Ice Shield instantly collapsed. The chaotic elements exploded like a lit powder keg, blooming into a cloud of ice mist in the sky. The White Dragon Lord heard an agonized hiss as the green snake was blown into two pieces, its head severing from its body.

Once the ice mist dissipated, he noticed the snake's head and body had reconnected. But it hadn't emerged completely unscathed; its body was noticeably more translucent.

"Interesting."

Elemental Sight!

The White Dragon Lord activated Elemental Sight. He discovered that the green snake's entire body was coalesced from elemental energy, but hidden just beneath the human face on its head was a clump of pitch-black substance. This was undoubtedly the medium for the projection.

The projection medium served as the anchor for the green snake's will. Once that vessel was destroyed, its element-forged body would scatter to the wind.

Having found his enemy's weakness, the White Dragon Lord shifted to a defensive stance to test its attack patterns. Even a projection should carry a fraction of the main body's abilities.

An opportunity to personally test the capabilities of a hostile High-Tier Legend within a safe environment was incredibly rare.

The green snake opened its bloody maw, spewing a ghastly green venomous gas from a pore beneath its tongue. A sweet scent saturated the air.

The White Dragon Lord wasn't foolish enough to let this unknown poison gas touch him.

Whirlwind!

The magic whirlwind swallowed the poisonous gas, condensing it into a tight sphere. As he deflected the green snake's follow-up strikes, the White Dragon Lord pulled a flask from his Dimensional Bag and collected the gas.

Seeing the White Dragon Lord effortlessly parry its attacks while brazenly bottling its venom, the green snake instantly realized what was happening. It trembled with rage. Not only was it being utterly looked down upon, but its opponent was also shamelessly harvesting its intel in plain sight.

"Dragon! You will pay the price for this insolence!"