Chapter 1 The Mummy, the Rat, and the God

Suren was wrapped in the burial shroud, afraid to move, when a gray rat scurried out of some unknown corner into his view.

The rat, with its shifty eyes, scurried around the underground palace, as if observing for danger.

Then, from the cracks in the wall, a dense, rustling sound of "squeak, squeak, squeak" suddenly rang out.

Looking again, hordes of gray rats poured out like a fountain.

Suren was also quite amazed.

Although he knew that these rats were controlled by that "demon god," after all, he had already seen one before.

But what surprised him now was that these rats hadn't been discovered by the dog-headed mummy?

Suren had already tested it with a living corpse, and the dog-headed mummy could sense biological and energy fluctuations. Even though the rats were small, it was impossible to ignore them.

"Strange, why haven't they been discovered? Or do the rats have something special on them that hasn't triggered the dog-headed mummy's killing mechanism?"

Suren's eyes carefully observed the increasing number of rats in the underground palace, and his mind raced.

Before he could fully figure it out, he watched as the tide of rats swarmed toward the mysterious sealed space beneath the altar.

Because the altar seal had been opened for some time, a large amount of white mist was spreading outward. Suren could now see clearly that it was a very large space. Inside were statues, each with unique civilized characteristics: dog heads, hawk heads, crocodile heads, baboon heads... all images of the Tarris pantheon. They sat on thrones like emperors, solemnly lined up on both sides of the sacred path.

"Are these coffins all for the Tarris gods?"

Suren speculated in his heart.

These hundred-meter-tall sculptures were actually a kind of special coffin, sealed tightly.

Suren could now discern that this was a burial standard that even the pharaohs were not qualified to enjoy.

And besides these coffins, the most striking thing in the underground palace was the transparent obelisk that emitted white light.

This obelisk, made of a crystal-like material, was engraved with a large golden Ankh symbol, followed by densely packed golden runes.

Suren couldn't understand what those divine-level runes pointed to, but he immediately guessed the purpose of this crystal obelisk.

The countless lifespans gathered outside were being channeled into this crystal cup, for the use of those indescribable beings in the coffins.

It looked like some kind of divine-level anti-life equation was in operation.

And in the hands of each statue, hung a simple, ancient bronze lamp, with green flames burning inside.

The light source seen when the altar seal was opened earlier came from these bronze lamps.

"Soul-Suppressing Lamps?"

Suren looked at them with a strange familiarity.

Although the things inside the underground palace looked like a full-screen of "***", all were divine-level existences beyond human comprehension.

But he still recognized the flames burning in the bronze lamps.

Wasn't that "divine fire"?

Pestoya's soul was fused in the divine fire, how could Suren mistake it?

In other words, some beings of the Tarris pantheon were actually using the divine fire of a certain god to light lamps and maintain the operation of some kind of special formation?

Suren stared in astonishment.

There must be dozens of them.

Did that mean at least dozens of gods were imprisoned?

What a grand scheme?

And then, a bizarre scene unfolded before his eyes.

Suren watched as the rats that poured out of the cracks in the stone went straight to the third lamp on the left, rushing toward it like moths to a flame.

The halo of the bronze lamp overflowed for several meters, and as soon as the rats touched the ghostly green light, they were instantly incinerated into ashes.

But countless rats fearlessly surged toward the bronze lamp, one after another.

At every moment, a large number of rats were burned to ashes.

But in Suren's Omniscient Eye, he could clearly see that they were trying to gnaw on the runes on the bronze lamp!

With the consumption of tens of thousands of rats,

The luster of the runes would dim a little.

They were probably trying to use the advantage of numbers to gradually break the bronze lamp.

...

Seeing this, Suren immediately understood that the divine fire imprisoned in this bronze lamp was the demon god who had summoned him!

"Such a powerful being has been captured by the Tarris pantheon to light sky lanterns?"

Suren also found it a little unbelievable.

At the same time, he felt a chill down his spine.

He felt that he had been lucky to survive until now after breaking into the tomb.

And now it seemed that the demon god had made meticulous plans to escape. In the past tens of thousands of years, it had not only brought in some contractors, but also cultivated a super-huge rat swarm.

In the blink of an eye, rats poured out from the cracks in all directions of the tomb, and the noise grew louder and louder. The sea of rats piled up into towers, constantly converging towards the bronze lamp.

That demon god wanted to escape!

After watching for a long time, Suren suddenly felt a sharp pain in his eyes and retracted his gaze.

In that space, he saw too much "unseeable" information, putting a great burden on his eyes and brain.

After all, this was the ancestral tomb of the Tarris pantheon, and it inevitably involved the secrets of high-level gods.

Otherwise, a mere tomb guardian wouldn't be a true divine corpse.

Suren also didn't have the mood to speculate on what secrets were inside, nor did he care how that demon god would escape.

He himself was now in a dead end.

As soon as he moved, he would immediately be killed by the dog-headed mummy.

And continuing this stalemate would also lead to death.

If that demon god really escaped, waiting for the people of the Tarris pantheon to open the tomb, he would still be dead sooner or later.

Suren didn't think that a high-level demon god would be interested in helping a trapped ant.

He could only find a way to save himself.

The dog-headed mummy was strong, but after all, it was an inanimate object without its own consciousness.

Therefore, its attack target must have trigger conditions.

Like these rats, which hadn't triggered it.

Suren's mind rapidly deduced various possibilities, and finally came to the most reasonable explanation: "These rats have that turbid divine power aura from the tomb, so they were ignored by the dog-headed mummy?"

In simple terms, the native rats had a local rat aura.

And for Suren, a believer, was an outsider, and that "local aura" couldn't be acquired in a short time.

Moreover, the white mist in the underground palace was a terrifying curse energy, and for humans, touching it was almost instant death.

The demon god had prepared a way to exploit the bug for tens of thousands of years, and he probably couldn't imitate it.

...

"This is troublesome..."

When Suren thought of this, countless thoughts flew through his mind, but the various results he finally deduced were all: a dead end.

Could he only be lucky and wait for the demon god to be kind enough to save him?

He didn't think waiting was a good choice.

And at this moment, the "white mist" around his body was becoming more and more dense.

Just then, a miracle came very suddenly.

Suren focused his attention on these mists, keenly noticing some familiar things. A flash of inspiration suddenly struck his mind: "Eh... [Isaac's God-Empowering] armament fusion, doesn't it require a large amount of super-order divine power to neutralize the dark rules?"

Although he couldn't completely understand what this mist was, he understood that the super-order divine power needed for armament fusion was some of the components of this mist!

Understanding this, a crazy plan instantly popped up in Suren's mind: could he use this divine power white mist to fuse the armament?

Once the fusion was successful, he would instantly have a "local aura," his strength would increase dramatically, and he might even have the qualifications to fight the dog-headed mummy!

Sir Isaac originally designed this armament to deal with divine-level existences.

With this thought, Suren's brain began to operate like a supercomputer.

He quickly calculated various parameters and came to a conclusion: in theory, it was absolutely feasible!

...

With this plan in mind, Suren's thinking instantly became clear.

The [Godslayer] armament involved "dark rules," an unobservable dark energy in the universe, making it almost impossible for the human body to fuse successfully.

Even Sir Isaac, who created this armament, thought so.

And Suren had carefully studied the characteristics of the [Godslayer] armament before. The harshness of the fusion was not only due to the high requirements for the physical hardware of the professional, but also because both the "dark rules" and the super-order divine power needed for annihilation and neutralization were terrifying forces that humans could not withstand.

Fusing this armament was like integrating two super-cursed objects with opposite curse characteristics into the body of an ordinary person, allowing their overflowing curse characteristics to neutralize each other. Under the premise of absolute energy balance, they would annihilate each other, and the fusion would be successful.

If even a tiny bit overflowed, the fusioner would immediately explode and die.

The probability of successful fusion was infinitely close to zero.

But Suren's current conditions were different from those of a thousand years ago.

He still had a treasure in his hand, the [Philosopher's Stone]!

The most important function of this alchemical holy object was absolute equivalent exchange at the energy level.

Suren had already tested it. Whether it was divine power or any other energy, all the energies he had discovered in the universe could be equivalently exchanged!

He had previously had no place to find the super-order divine power to neutralize the dark rules, but now wasn't this underground palace full of the white mist?

The Tarris pantheon had brought so many "divine slaves" to extract divine power and operate some indescribable formation, and now the entire underground palace was full of turbid divine power of various kinds.

This environment simply couldn't be found anywhere else.

Theoretically speaking, if the Philosopher's Stone could precisely extract the energy he needed and then use it to neutralize the dark divine power on the armament, the fusion could succeed.

And the biggest risk that Suren calculated was that he needed to grasp the balance point of energy himself.

With the blessing of [Blasphemer], his current brainpower, as long as there was no external interference, was almost impossible to fail.

...

"Take a gamble?"

Suren made a decision in an instant.

In normal times, he might hesitate, after all, the fusion risk was extremely high, and if he was not careful, he would explode and die.

But at the moment, with almost no hesitation, he immediately decided to try.

Because there was no choice.

If he didn't do something, the ending would also be a dead end.

And if he could successfully fuse the [Godslayer] armament, the future would be different.

This was a risk, but also a huge opportunity.

No sooner said than done!

Although Suren didn't know when the people of the Tarris pantheon would come in, based on the current progress, it would take at least several days for the rats to destroy the bronze lamp.

Since that demon god dared to act, he had nothing to fear.

This time was completely enough to fuse the armament.

But before that, he had to test some necessary data. Suren didn't delay. With a thought, a summoning formation lit up in the sky, and a black crow flew out of the formation.

Old Crow, who had been killed before, was condensed and resurrected again.

However, as soon as it was resurrected, the dog-headed mummy in the distance immediately discovered it, rushed over in a flash and punched, instantly blasting Old Crow into a cloud of death energy.

But the Harbinger Crow could resurrect infinitely as long as the death energy didn't run out.

In this tomb, there was no shortage of anything, all kinds of death energy were constantly flowing.

As soon as it was blasted apart, Old Crow immediately resurrected, and took the opportunity to frantically swallow a few mouthfuls of death energy from the tomb.

Then it was blasted apart again, swallowed a few more mouthfuls of death energy, and resurrected again... repeating the cycle.

Until,

After being killed more than a hundred times, the "local bird" aura on Old Crow's body became stronger and stronger.

Suren also discovered that the dog-headed man's perception of the black crow was becoming less and less sensitive.

Old Crow was in the underground palace, starting to frantically swallow death energy, and was eventually completely ignored by the dog-headed mummy.

"It really works!"

Suren was overjoyed when he saw this.

His deduction was correct!

And in the more than one hundred times that Old Crow died just now, he had observed enough data.

Seeing this, Suren didn't hesitate any longer.

The surrounding white mist was already quite dense, so he tried to control the [Oz Ice Man's Burial Shroud] to infiltrate a little.

Before the white mist touched his skin, Suren felt an indescribable chill sweeping through his body instantly, as if his soul was trembling.

This force almost made him explode on the spot.

Fortunately, he had the [Philosopher's Stone], which filtered out the unnecessary energy, allowing the super-order divine power to smoothly integrate into the [Isaac the Blasphemer] armament, which was worn on his body like a vest.

Suren held his breath, thinking about all the data he had calculated just now, and guiding the divine power.

Immediately afterwards, a magical scene occurred.

The terrifying super-order divine power actually annihilated and disappeared out of thin air!

"This... This is the power of dark rules!"

Suren couldn't observe the existence of that dark energy, but through the phenomenon of divine power annihilation, he knew that there must be a mysterious force neutralizing this divine power.

Witnessing this magical scene, he couldn't hide his surging emotions.

It could be said that "dark rules" was definitely one of the greatest discoveries of alchemical civilization in countless years.

At the same time, the Omniscient Eye identified that the success rate of the [God Eater] fusion had changed from 0% to 0.001%.

Although there was only a small change,

This was what Suren wanted.

He had bet right! It really worked!

He couldn't hide the joy in his heart, and continued to try to introduce those divine powers little by little in an excited and steady manner.

The [Oz Ice Man's Burial Shroud] isolated the energy from leaking, forming an internal space.

Suren devoured a large amount of dragon blood, temporarily bringing his body up to the threshold of fusion, and then began to fuse this sub-divine armament little by little.

Two magical forces were blending and annihilating in his body.

It was like detonating bombs one after another in his body, it was extremely lively.

At the same time, there was a great risk.

Suren felt that his body was like a scale, with the [Philosopher's Stone] in the middle constantly adding chips to both sides, reaching a delicate balance. Gradually, the chips on both sides had been added to the limit that humans could bear, and were still getting higher and higher.

If the balance was slightly off, he would explode and die immediately.

On the other hand, the dog-headed mummy had no wisdom and did not discover Suren, who was not moving at all.

But the corpse couldn't discover it, but that demon god was very clear.

The divine power in the underground palace was inexplicably decreasing, and it was obvious that something was absorbing it.

Moreover, the appearance of the black crow earlier had also been sensed.

Suren originally thought that the demon god would not pay attention to his small existence, but just as he was fusing, a surprised voice suddenly came from his ear: "Oh... you are still alive."

This surprised tone obviously meant that the demon god also felt that there shouldn't be any survivors after the altar was opened.

After all, this tomb was a dead end.

There was a restriction that prevented divine-level beings from descending, but there was such a divine-level corpse guarding it.

Under normal circumstances, it was impossible for there to be a living person.

Even if a demigod came, they would have to die.

But now there was a living person, and the demon god seemed to have some interest.

"..."

Suren felt inexplicably bad when he heard this.

At this critical juncture, he didn't want to be noticed.

But this thought seemed to have been perceived by the demon god, and a ethereal voice came from his ear again: "Human, don't worry. Although the contract has ended, I can escape this time, and I owe it to your luck. Naturally, I won't make things difficult for you."

Suren translated that into: Insect, don't worry, you have little meat, I'm not interested in eating you.

It was as if the powerful existence that had been trapped for tens of thousands of years was free and just wanted to say a few words.

However, this was good news.

High-level demon gods had no interest in fooling him, and with these words, his life was mostly saved.

Suren also responded to that thought, knowingly asking: "Are you the demon god who guided our actions before?"

Although he had no divine faith, it was best not to provoke such existences.

Sure enough, the demon god didn't seem dissatisfied with this attitude, and said again: "Human, you are qualified to know my Dao name. You can call me the God of Darkness and Destruction, the Great Lord of Chaos, the Supreme Pillar of Destruction, Lord Apophis."

"..."

Suren didn't feel that this series of titles was tedious, but instead felt more and more humble in his heart.

He now had a certain understanding of the gods, knowing that the names of the gods couldn't be called randomly. Every title pointed to a cosmic rule.

This was faith.

In other words, this god had condensed at least two divine authorities: [Darkness] and [Destruction].

This was already not comparable to the single divine authority of an ordinary lower god.

He said, "Great Lord Apophis."

In front of the gods, it was best not to ask questions, and wait for the other party to speak.

Because this kind of dialogue was not equal at all, and maybe something would offend a god, leading to death.

Apophis said again: "Oh... so you are an alchemist. Your technique is quite interesting, and you can withstand the erosion of these turbid divine powers. It's a pity, if you believed in darkness, you might have been fortunate enough to become my believer..."

When Suren heard this, he breathed a sigh of relief again.

There was no hostility because he was an alchemist, and his life was basically stable.

And arrogance made the high-level gods disdain to spy on the secrets of a low-level human.

Suren felt that in this person's eyes, he was probably no different from those rats.

But the treasures and secrets on his body were preserved.

He responded with a repeating sentence: "Ah... Great Lord Apophis, you are powerful, wise, and brilliant, you see everything in the world..."

Suren had harvested a lot of memories of god believers, and knew how to deal with gods.

Be as humble as possible.

In front of the gods, don't pretend to know everything.

It was best to know nothing, to be ignorant and ignorant.

Gods liked the feeling of being above lower creatures, high and mighty.

This person also had this qualification.

The reason why this demon god chose to talk was simply because he had been trapped for tens of thousands of years and hoped to escape, and was in a good mood, chatting with an insect.

Suren didn't think that he was really the savior of a high-level demon god.

If he had this idea, he would be courting death.

This response was satisfactory and didn't cause trouble.

Sure enough, the conversation died.

That Lord Apophis didn't speak anymore.

Suren also breathed a sigh of relief and continued to absorb divine power and fuse the armament.

...

In the underground palace, countless rats were still rushing to the bronze lamp like moths to a flame.

And Suren was also accelerating the fusion of the armament, and the fusion degree was increasing little by little.

1%...2%...6%...9%...13%...

He didn't ask the demon god any questions, nor did he plan to spy on the secrets in the underground palace, and just focused on absorbing divine power and fusing the armament.

Finally, his focus paid off.

Three days later, Suren forcibly succeeded in fusing the [Godslayer] armament!