Chapter 466 The Origin of Pirates (First Update, Seeking Monthly Tickets!)

Beneath the gradually darkening sky, the procession of former sinners continued its advance towards the Central Sanctuary. Torches and glowing orbs illuminated the thousands-meter-long line, forming a winding dragon-serpent. The God-blessed and clerics from the Central Sanctuary no longer showed any signs of obstruction, all gazing at the procession with a mixture of admiration and guilt.

The former sinners paid them no heed, determined to walk to the heart of this world, the Central Sanctuary.

There, they would demand a truly just and public trial from God for all, seeking justice for themselves and redress for the suffering they had endured.

Among them was the pirate, Arbert, who walked step by step towards his execution… But for some reason, the red-haired pirate had remained silent ever since hearing Su Zhou's words.

He followed closely behind the procession, staring at his hands with a complex expression, before letting out a scornful laugh, directed at himself or perhaps others. Regardless of the target, Arbert showed no fear of death.

In fact, it wasn’t just Arbert.

The conversation between the Lord of Judgment and the Lord of Fire had shaken everyone who had listened.

The ‘innovation’ demanded by the Lord of Judgment, the societal ills he exposed, and even his master-disciple relationship with the Lord of Fire, were all incredibly surprising. Even Aemon, the steadfast priest, couldn’t help but turn back to glance at his Lord and the Lord of Fire, muttering to himself.

"Although the Lord has always called the Lord of Fire by name, He never mentioned being the Lord of Fire's teacher before!"

"So, the Lord and the Lord of Fire have such a relationship? Then what is the relationship between the other Lord of Judgment and you..."

While Aemon was busy gossiping, Ishaar, the black-haired, golden-eyed God-blessed, felt a surge of joy after his initial shock.

"So, the Lord of Judgment is actually this powerful?!"

As a peak God-blessed, Ishaar could easily discern that when the Lord of Judgment and the Lord of Fire clashed auras at the beginning, his Lord had clearly retreated slightly. It should have been disheartening, but knowing that his Lord was isolated and even planning to sacrifice himself to save the world, the once unremarkable Lord of Judgment suddenly possessed such strength.

Good, a great thing!

Thinking this, he couldn’t help but raise his head, looking towards the direction where the Lords had just left together, ascending into the sky. Ishaar murmured, "At least now, with such a strong ally, the Lord shouldn't be thinking about sacrificing himself..."

At this moment.

Cloud Top.

Back in the high sky, away from everyone's gaze, Su Zhou and Elias's conversation was less serious than it had been on the ground.

"I didn't expect that after so many years, you'd still look like this... If I had known, I should have had you accept the Soul of Fire a little later."

Looking at the gray-haired boy's height and build, which hadn't changed in hundreds of years, Su Zhou couldn’t help but shake his head slightly, "Even just two or three years later would have been fine, this really lacks authority."

When a creature merges with the Soul of Fire, it becomes an elemental spirit. These creatures, in harmony with the world, experience a thousand years as if it were just a few days for humans. Their growth depends entirely on the world itself. Only when the world grows can they grow.

If it weren't for the special mechanism of the Reincarnation World, which reincarnated every thousand years or so, elemental spirits could have lived from the Cretaceous period to the modern age.

However, Elias, standing beside the youth, slowly shook his head in response to Su Zhou's feelings, his gaze clear and calm.

[I don't mind this. Only with the power of the Soul of Fire can I try to become a truly dignified lord, and later ascend to godhood, leading my people to live in this world.]

[Compared to power, appearance is meaningless. Moreover, if I wanted to, I could completely disguise myself as an older avatar, but there's no need.]

Although his appearance was that of a young boy, even a little childish, Elias's mind was already mature and stable, like a glacier that had remained unchanged for ten thousand years in the Arctic, completely different from the young child who used to follow Su Zhou, understanding nothing.

It was precisely because of this that Su Zhou could ask some questions without any reservation.

"Although I pointed out some of your problems with the precepts and other aspects earlier, Elias, the greatest disaster in this world is indeed elemental imbalance—I know that this matter cannot be announced to the public casually, so I waited until now to ask."

Saying this, Su Zhou turned his head to look at Elias, his eyes filled with curiosity, "In other words, how exactly did those pirates appear? What exactly was the initial rebellion all about? What is its origin?"

Su Zhou's questions were always straightforward.

After hearing this, Elias remained silent for a long time. The youth looked at him, waiting patiently, without giving up.

After a long while, the boy finally sighed. He turned his head away, avoiding Su Zhou's gaze, and then slowly said: [Actually, these things can all be considered the same thing.]

[Its process may be a bit long.]

——In the past, three hundred years ago.

Sixty years after obtaining the Soul of Fire, Elias, having reached the overlord level with the help of the Soul of Fire, joined forces with the God of Wind to pass through the nine-layered labyrinth beneath the ground and arrived at the void outside the world.

There, they discovered that the gray mist that had originally enveloped the entire world began to dissipate as they reached the void, and that the entire Tartadis world was located in the center of a vast expanse of world ruins.

A distant alien world, the dust of the world, needs a god to maintain the operation of the world...

Elias briefly described the strength in this area, and then he discovered that Su Zhou seemed very familiar with this topic, and even began to ponder when he was halfway through.

"The gray mist, is it the Lord of Silence?"

Su Zhou knew very well that the gray mist of Tartadis was the incarnation of the Lord of Silence, similar to the Banyan Undying Tree to the Great Dao Tree, but at a higher level—well, a bit similar to the Ancestral Serpent and Yala.

The Tartadis world was born because of the gray mist. This was the truth Su Zhou knew at the end of the last era. And now it seemed that the Lord of Silence not only created this world, but had also been protecting it.

And this protection continued until someone could break through the world and leave the void—only then did He withdraw His protection, allowing the protected to work hard on their own.

"I see, that is indeed the Lord of Silence's style."

Thinking this way, Su Zhou was not at all surprised by this phenomenon. Presumably, a world far away from other worlds, needing a maintainer, its existence itself was a ‘reincarnation’, and whether it was finding the existence of distant other worlds, or being strong enough to maintain this world, could be considered ‘breaking the reincarnation’.

Thinking of this, Su Zhou nodded to Elias, he was quite sympathetic: "I roughly understand this—no wonder you are so busy, providing fuel for the flame of the entire world, that is indeed not something you can be distracted from."

In this way, the youth also realized that the current situation of the Holy Fire Continent might not be what Elias intentionally wanted to do. Both the precepts and the Judgment Dragon were created by Him and the God of Wind, wanting someone to maintain order after their departure. As for what specific effects were created, because Elias was too busy, He simply couldn't spare the energy to correct them.

If it weren't for himself, it was estimated that Elias would have to wait until the God of Wind returned before he could have the leisure to make corrections.

In response, the Lord of Fire shook his head slightly: [The God of Wind is truly the one who has worked hard. At that time, He said that I was still a child, and He was used to struggling, so He chose to let Him explore the distant alien world.]

Speaking of this, Elias sighed, His expression carrying a trace of regret: [In short, the God of Wind's clone is still in the Distant Wind Continent, existing as the spiritual network of the Wind People. If you don't mind, Teacher, after some time, we can visit Him together.]

"No problem." Su Zhou nodded seriously, but he did not forget his original question: "But what about the pirates? How were they born?"

Elias looked at Su Zhou with a somewhat complicated gaze, and also at the sky. At this time, they were located at the top of the clouds. In the grayish-blue night sky, the stars were interconnected.

After a while, he slowly said: [The birth of the pirates... stemmed from the dereliction of duty of myself and the Judgment Dragon.]

[The origin of everything... comes from ‘jealousy’.]

One hundred and thirty-seven years ago.

With the completion of the development of coastal cities such as Dusk Light City, and the increasingly large trade fleets to the Distant Wind Continent, the dedicated exploration sanctuary fleets also grew larger.

In order to find continents other than the Distant Wind Continent, and to explore many valuable islands, a group of clerics, and even God-blessed, entered the sea to explore the entire world.

The seven seas that everyone is familiar with now, except for the Jueyue Sea, were all discovered and named by them in that era.

And the purpose of this group of people, in addition to finding new continents and islands, the most important purpose was to find the existence that was thrown into the abyss by the three gods at the beginning of the era, and eventually turned into the entire sea, that is, the ‘Soul of Water’.

Hearing this, Su Zhou couldn't help but nod slightly—this was precisely his purpose. In the past, he, Elias, and the Lord of Wind discussed throwing the Soul of Water into the sea precisely to arouse humanity's curiosity about the ocean.

Exploration, discovery, going to distant places... all this was the most important thing for civilization, and the emergence of exploration fleets proved the correctness of Su Zhou's ideas.

[And they really found the location of the Soul of Water.]

Saying this, the Lord of Fire, Elias's expression did not have any joy: [Tragedy followed.]

After discovering the vast underwater vortex current layer in the Underworld Sea, the God-blessed responsible for the exploration fleet confirmed that it was the location of the Soul of Water. He went to the depths of the sea and obtained a ‘fragment of the Source Soul of Water’, and then happily prepared to use this as evidence to return to the sanctuary to report this situation, when suspicion arose.

"This guy, he must want to take all the credit for himself..."

"It's clearly the credit of the entire fleet, he makes it seem like it's only him..."

"When the Lord bestows grace, or even allows someone to become a new god, it will definitely be this guy."

"A new god..."

Those who said these words were the other crew members in the exploration fleet. Although their jealousy and speculation were not clearly expressed, they did indeed take root within the fleet like seeds, and slowly sprouted.

Although the God-blessed felt a little uncomfortable, he didn't really care—because he believed that the Lord was just, and he didn't care whether he could become a new god, as long as he could continue to serve the Lord.

——Regardless of whether the Lord allows me or others to become new gods, I will serve the Lord, whether as a God-blessed or as a subordinate god.

He thought this way and led the team back to the continent.

[However, the top-secret news that should have been kept secret was leaked midway.]

Speaking of this, Elias's tone became a little heavier, He was silent in sorrow for a while, and then sighed: [And at that time, on the continent, a large number of God-blessed and clerics did not take exploring the sea seriously.]

And just after the vast majority of people in the Central Sanctuary knew about the existence of the Soul of Water, everyone was stunned.

The last remaining elemental soul, the foundation and birth of a new god—the many God-blessed and clerics who knew about this were immediately jealous, they had originally been unwilling to spend effort on this matter, but now, whether it was the opportunity to become a new god, or the theory of trade between the Holy Fire Continent and the Distant Wind Continent, were all too eye-catching.

Thus, rumors arose.

——That God-blessed who explored wants to monopolize the Soul of Water and become a god, he intends to betray God!

——That guy has ulterior motives, he deliberately split the Soul of Water, and he is holding the fragment himself, so that even if others get the Soul of Water, they won't be able to become gods!

——This person does not revere God, and actually妄图 to be on par with God! He came back this time just to test God's attitude!

Many rumors that had no basis at all, and were just simple ravings, arose, and the momentum became greater and greater, as if they were true.

Moreover, there were actually people in this world who would believe these rumors! Even if this rumor was so idiotic that it was almost at the level of injecting disinfectant to kill viruses in the body, or that wearing masks during a pandemic was useless, there were actually people who would believe it!

In response, the God-blessed was a little flustered, but still firmly believed.

Because the Lord is the symbol of justice—He will not wrong him.

"But... God is not just."

Hearing this, Su Zhou had already roughly guessed the final outcome of this event, and he couldn't help but raise his head, looking at the top of the sky, that is, the distant place in the spirit world where the Judgment Dragon was located.

He muttered to himself in a low voice: "The God of Judgment is just a tool for mob rule, He is neither just nor fair, nor does He have wisdom or thought, He only knows how to listen to wishes, and then respond to wishes."

"That is the incarnation of my past mistakes."

The Lord of Fire nodded silently, and then sighed, sadly whispering: [So, when I sensed something was wrong and my soul returned from outside the world, what I saw was the thunder punishment descended by the Lord of Judgment, and what I heard was that sentence]

[He said... Lord, why have you forsaken me?!]

Shock, pain, mixed with endless sadness and despair.

The God-blessed, confident that he was innocent, stood on the judgment platform, and he saw with disbelief the lightning punishment descending from the sky, that was the punishment formed by the power of countless rumors, countless jealousy, and countless denials!

Three men make a tiger, falsehood becomes truth, a thousand fingers pointing, death without illness—this was just the world without transcendence, if there was transcendence, then the real power of wishes, and the gods who punished according to wishes, could really use rumors and falsehoods to destroy integrity and truth!

"Lord, you are unjust! I have served you wholeheartedly, but you have forsaken me, and even punished me!"

Therefore, in the midst of the lightning, the desperate God-blessed ate the fragment of the Source Soul of Water, and endless rain clouds, carrying him, resisted the thunder punishment of the Lord of Judgment, and flew all the way towards the sea, and the rain that fell along the way was his tears, and the continuous terrifying lightning followed all the way, bringing the劫火 named abandonment.

The sanctuary was devastated, and countless bewildered and at a loss clerics could not figure out what had happened, and did not know why it had become like this.

And that was the beginning of the rebellion.

Within a short year, a large number of clerics began to question the canon and the justice of God, and they also fled to the sea one after another, and the Central Sanctuary also modified history during this period, covered up the truth, and completely erased this group of people and the earliest God-blessed.

This was the truth of that rebellion.

[It was me who failed them.]

Elias, walking slowly on the cloud top, stopped, His tone was extremely complicated: [If I had come back earlier, if the Judgment Dragon's judgment method was more detailed and clear, if I had made a divine decree earlier, if I could have realized that jealousy is a natural instinct of human beings, and cannot be eliminated through the canon... too many ifs, this thing should not have happened at all.]

[When Yulra despairingly chose to flee to the sea, I couldn't stop him at all, I could only let him leave...]

"Is that so, so he was able to hold on to the coast, waiting for the lightning punishment to dissipate."

Su Zhou understood Elias's feelings at that time... He was a good person after all, how could he have realized the harm caused by the pirates in the future at that time, and then taken action to kill Yulra, who he had clearly wronged?

And the departure of many clerics afterwards was also the same, they no longer believed that God was just, and how could Elias have the face to stop them from leaving?

And when Yulra died later because of the injuries from the thunder law, and the pirates completely rioted, becoming a major harm, he was already unable to go to the sea to suppress them, even if he did, it would greatly damage the vitality of the Central Sanctuary.

[I am indeed incompetent.]

Saying this, Elias did not have any intention of concealing it, he said it directly, even though his tone was lost: [This is my duty.]

And Su Zhou also found it difficult to comfort him.

——The Judgment Dragon is the incarnation of the collective subconscious of the human race, created with the soul of the earth as its foundation.

However, the collective subconscious of human beings is originally a mob.

It is blindly obedient and ignorant, and very easily influenced by others. Rumors are easily spread among them, and refuting rumors may not be able to overcome some bizarre rumors.

Because of the Lord of Fire's forbearance, the first batch of Sea People appeared, and then, more and more people who had encountered injustice and criminals came to the sea—they were the prototypes of the pirates.

And after a period of time, immigrants belonging to the Wind People also joined, but the Wind People did not have a suppression movement against these immigrants, so these Wind People just lived quietly on the islands, and occasionally traded some sea-specific materials with other Wind People on the mainland.

After listening to the whole process, Su Zhou, in addition to reaffirming that ‘the Judgment Dragon’s punishment process is just sick’, also completely understood the current situation of the Tartadis world.

What the God-blessed Yulra encountered was actually no different in essence from what Old Chuck encountered.

Because of elemental imbalance, the cleric Edmond found an opportunity and set a trap to make Old Chuck fall into the trap, and then be convicted.

Because the world needed Elias to maintain it, the rumors of the crowd had an opportunity, causing Yulra to be judged by the Lord of Judgment, and then be convicted.

The changes in the world caused an imbalance in order, and because the laws and regulations were not perfect, the innocent were convicted, and the good suffered injustice.

[And the purpose of the pirates, I guess, is like this.]

Although he was ashamed and helpless, Elias was very clear that the current pirates were different from the first batch of pirates in the past. These current sea demons were all genuine antisocial personalities, real villains, and He was very clear about their purpose: [To obtain the Soul of Water and become a new god, this is undoubtedly their purpose—recently, the pirates have been collecting fragments of the Source Soul of Water, they probably want to use this kind of strange object to make themselves have a physique that is adapted to the Soul of Water, and this is indeed correct.]

[In addition, they probably also want to use the Soul of Water as a lever to destroy the current elemental cycle—the current world is extremely stable because of the four elemental cycles set by you, Teacher. The power of the four great elemental souls is essentially the same. If they want to defeat me and the God of Wind, they must break this balance.]

[They want to use the power of the godhood ceremony to resonate with the heavens and the earth, and create a large-scale elemental conversion out of thin air, so that the Deep Sea Era, that is, the so-called Water Era, will descend, causing endless floods to submerge the continent.]

Speaking of this, the Lord of Fire's expression was serious: [At that time, when the four great elements are unified, the power of the Soul of Water may not only be at the god level, even surpassing godhood is not surprising!]

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