Ch268 - End
The god of the understood stood still but his head abruptly turned 180 degrees to look behind him. He saw the young man’s face and relaxed slightly before asking in surprise, “Is it you?”
Shen Chenzhi let go of his hand. He ignored the other person and walked straight past the god of the underworld to Xiao Li. He wiped the blood on Xiao Li’s face and frowned. “Is everything okay?”
Most of the attacks had hit Bloody Mary. Xiao Li just received some of the aftermaths. He shook his head at Shen Chenzhi and pushed away the arm.
The series of actions combined with Xiao Li’s name for Shen Chenzhi meant there was no need to ask about the relationship between the two people. The god of the underworld controlled the surprise in his eyes and returned to his previous lifelessness. He turned his head and quickly glanced at the heavens before speaking to Shen Chenzhi. “You stopped them.”
Shen Chenzhi stared at him coldly but the god of the underworld had been accustomed to his indifference to others. This was his normal state the few times they met. The gentle appearance of falling in love just now was abnormal and was enough to make the god of gossip extremely excited.
Shen Chenzhi glanced around at the ghosts trapped around him. He moved his wrist and the teeth in the mouths trapping the ghosts were all broken. They scattered on the ground and the ghosts were released.
Since the god of the underworld didn’t get a response, he also fell silent. It was just that once the teeth fell off, his hand suddenly grew longer. He grabbed Tan Li who was closest to him, pulling the doll’s long hair and hanging her in the air!
“Are you trying to control it to the end?” The god of the underworld tightened his hands. His human head split in the middle and looked out. The rain outside was still present and was even expanding. It was so dark that people couldn’t see their fingers but in this darkness, there was a small change.
The light ghost tenaciously hid in the lampshade so Xiao Li could see that the raindrops falling on the window were no longer transparent water. It was instead a pure black liquid after being contaminated.
The black rain filled with countless resentments and hatred fell to the soil, into the hair of human beings and onto high-rise buildings, polluting everything in the world to their heart’s content. Before the black raindrops could splash on Xiao Li’s arm, Shen Chenzhi reached out a hand to block then. The liquid fell on the back of Shen Chenzhi, creating black smoke.
Hiss.
It wasn’t Shen Chenzhi making the burning sound but the god opposite of him.
The moment the black rain had fallen on the back of Shen Chenzhi’s hand, the arm of the god of the underworld holding Tan Li was also ignited by an invisible karma fire. The flames burned strongly until he threw the doll away and cut off half his arm. This prevented the fire from continuing to burn.
The man’s strength was so great that Tan Li was directly smashed into a load-bearing wall. There was a loud noise as the wall shattered. The ground under Xiao Li’s feet shook and half the building collapsed.
Xiao Li threw the coffin lid aside and ran over immediately. The dust over here was too much and he coughed a few times. He raised his hand and waved it through the hair several times before digging through the dusty ruins and taking out the doll buried underneath.
Tan Li could no longer maintain the form of a girl. She had changed back to the most energy-saving doll form. Her arm was folded in the opposite direction from the elbow joint and there were many cracks on her cheeks. Most of her hair was cut off and it only covered half of Tan Li’s face.
Xiao Li picked her up and gently wiped the dust covering her face. The doll raised her hand with difficulty. Her half-length hair was extended by less than two centimetres with her efforts. After trying several times and being unable to recover, Tan Li had to hook her finger around the boy’s index finger to indicate she was okay.
Now wasn’t the time to care about her. Xiao Li put the doll back in his pocket.
There was still half an arm on the ground but the man standing upright had healthy limbs. The god of the underworld had grown a new arm. He looked at Shen Chenzhi with a bit of annoyance in his expression. “Even if you try to manage them, how long can you manage humans? You love him now but can you love him forever? Sooner or later, I’ll get this place and transform them into my experiments!”
“Is a lifetime long?” Shen Chenzhi replied coldly. His voice was very low and contained a bit of subconscious lingering. “I will always love him. Nothing can separate us.”
The god of the underworld sneered. “You are very confident but you always have to go back to the abyss. Once that happens, the human being you will be left behind. What can he do? It is better to directly give me reality. I’ll give you some face and let Sherlock follow you.”
Xiao Li had already come back and raised three fingers. “You are going to die anyway. Why don’t you give me some face and commit suicide to save me a bit of trouble?”
The god of the underworld, “......”
He paused for a moment before continuing, “No matter what you say now, it is just a final struggle before death. You must know that I can crush you to death with one hand.”
The god of the underworld was taunting him but Xiao Li didn’t get angry. He turned and walked to Shen Chenzhi who was standing in front of the open window. Then he slowly stated, “I told you, I want more. In fact, this doesn’t include him.”
The dark raindrops merged with the sky. If it wasn’t for the sound of water everywhere, the rain could hardly be seen in the world. There were screams and howls everywhere.
The god of the underworld asked with interest. “What do you want to do to preserve humanity? Force me back?”
“...Become a god.”
Xiao Li gripped the little yellow book in his hand. The black rain fell on the pages and burned black holes one after another. Xiao Li opened it and paused on the mark of the soul of Atlantis. Then he tore it out of his little yellow book!
At the same time, a faint blue halo emerged from this page. It propped up a barrier to hinder the erosion of the black raindrops. The soul of Atlantis created a magic circle with materials that had been preserved for centuries and a dragon-like symbol illuminated the sky.
Xiao Li took out the chaos fragments obtained by himself and that the others had given him from his pocket and raised them into the air. These fragments flew up automatically as if attracted and embedded in various key points of the magic circle.
The moment the magic circle appeared, the god of the underworld understood Xiao Li’s intention. The black knife shot out in order to cut the magic circle in the air but was stopped by an invisible hand in the middle.
The ghosts who had escaped from the trap attacked him again and again. After being beaten back, they stepped forward again. The baby ghost cried loudly while holding the thigh of the god of the underworld. The painter ghost staring at the ancient woman even took out a brush and directly poked him in the eye.
The magic circle in the sky became brighter, illuminating the entire sky like the sun. Above the magic circle, a shadow court broke through the clouds and replaced the position of the magic circle. Xiao Li was very familiar with the shadow of this court. It was the adjudication court!
The adjudication court landed and felt the breath of a wanted criminal below. The moment the chains were produced, Xiao Li shouted, “I use the immunity to exempt me from my crime.”
“The exemption is successful.”
The adjudication court’s mallet struck and the chains fell apart.
It wasn’t over yet. The buildings above the clouds stacked on top of each other. Behind the adjudication court, there was a larger round table. The round table was tall and majestic. There were dozens of seats, each one exuded the prestige of the gods. From time to time, several shadows sat on the seats around the round table.
A meeting of the gods. The thing that Wang Huai gave Xiao Li flew out of his pocket and into the hands of a black-haired female shadow at the round table of the gods. The goddess of the night smiled at the human beings far below and looked at the god of the underworld.
In the distance, Wang Huai and the others were looking up at this vision in the sky. As a believer of the goddess of the night, he was no stranger to the pressure of the gods. Almost instantly, he recognized the adjudication court but he didn’t understand the round table behind it very well.
His guess was that Sherlock wanted to kill a god so he gave an item of the goddess of night. The goddess of night was a god of the close kin faction. She had always been close to humans and even mixed in with the human race from time to time.
It was just that Xiao Li’s ambition was greater. All Wang Huai wanted was for Xiao Li to stop this disaster while Xiao Li wanted the position of a god!
One obstacle couldn’t stop the gods. Even if the god of the underworld was successfully killed, there was the god of death and dreams. There would be other gods who coveted reality. This was treating the symptoms rather than the root cause.
Reality had to produce a god that belonged to them, a human god who became a god with the body of a mortal, who could protect it with his own hand when the hand of annihilation lowered, forming a deterrent and preventing other gods from coveting reality!
This was the plan after the many discussions between Xiao Li and Atlantis’ soul.
The people of Atlantis were all in the hands of the god of dreams. They were asleep and the source of the Styland instance. However, the soul of Atlantis hoped to liberate its people. After many inspections, it chose Xiao Li.
It told him about what it had accumulated over the past few decades and made a deal with him. It swore an oath that it would help Xiao Li become a god, provided that after Xiao Li became a god, he would rescue its people from the god of dreams and find a new place for them to survive.
The soul of Atlantis stated there were three conditions to becoming a god.
First, the corresponding magic formation and a strong enough power of sacrifice. Second, the magic power and sacrifices would trigger the meeting of the gods. Those who wanted to become a god must get the agreement of the majority of gods at the meeting. Finally, there needed to be the death of an old god. It was only after death that a new god could appear!
Then Xiao Li made a deal with Pseudo-Logoi and he had a 40% certainty that the reason why the god of the underworld was so eager to invade reality a few years ago was because he himself had no time. His power was close to exhaustion and the energy of reality was needed.
The god of lies revealed that the god of the underworld had experienced a great battle in ancient times. He wanted to disrupt the order but was suppressed and slept for a long time. Xiao Li’s certainty rose to 70%, enough for him to regard the god of the underworld as a target. Shen Chenzhi was responsible for stopping the god of dreams and death from joining the battle.
The soul of Atlantis had the magic circle and the power sources of several worlds. Add in the chaos fragments in Xiao Li’s hands and the first condition was met.
The second condition:
Many shadows were seated around the round table. Most of the gods hadn’t come but the number was close to 10. The basic condition for the meeting of the gods had been met. The real bodies of these gods hadn’t come. It was just their shadows. Therefore, the god of the underworld and Shen Chenzhi also turned into shadows to sit among them.
In the silence of the round table, Shen Chenzhi spoke first in a concise manner. “Agree.”
The god of the underworld immediately objected. “No.”
Dream and Death also voted ‘no.’
historical
Shen Chenzhi stared coldly at them.
The other gods didn’t speak at first until Pseudo-Logoi smiled and put his feet on the table. He drew back his back and jokingly said, “Sherlock Moriarty Hercule, the first time I met you, I never thought this day would come. Should I agree?”
The god of the underworld coldly reminded him, “He spread the rumours about you and the goddess of beauty.”
“Ah, I know.” Pseudo-Logoi reached out and squeezed his chin. “In fact, I enjoy it. After all, the goddess of beauty is really beautiful. How about it? Goddess of beauty, do you want to promise me?”
The long-haired female shadow who was four seats away from the god of lies opened her mouth. Her voice was very nice, like string music playing at the same time. “Pseudo, shut up.”
Pseudo-Logoi said, “Yes yes, let’s get back to business. In fact, I don’t want to agree. After all, he is human.”
The god of the underworld’s expression relaxed but then he heard the other person continue, “However, agreeing can make Death unhappy and this will make me very happy.”
The god of death opened his mouth. “Pseudo, no matter the disharmony between you and me, it is our internal affair. He is just a small human being.”
“Yet he is very funny.” Pseudo-Logoi spoke slowly. He dragged out his tone and spoke lightly, “I like fun more than being bored. I agree.”
Death’s face looked ugly.
Following Pseudo-Logoi, another female shadow opened her mouth. She was wearing a pair of glasses and pushed the glasses up the bridge of her nose. “I agree. No matter what, isn’t he the seventh strange story in my book? If I don’t protect him, who do I protect?”
There was a book under her hand. The cover of the book had the words ‘Book of Strange Stories.’
“Mnemosyne, you—”
“Words, when did you—”
Death and Underworld spoke at the same time but another voice interrupted them. The goddess of the night spoke briefly. “Agree.”
Among the gods, the goddess of the might had always been closest to humans. The god of the underworld wasn’t surprised. His goal was mainly the next one.
Next to Night sat a snake. It appeared as a snake with its tail in its mouth rather than a human body. It had its own tail in its mouth and looked like it was sleeping. Now it opened its eyes and a chilling light appeared in it.
Before it could speak, the god of the underworld said, “Ouroboros, you should consider your words again.”
“Hiss, it’s no use threatening me.” Ouroboros hissed like a snake. “He helped me and I owe him a favour.”
The little snake pointed to Shen Chenzhi with its tail. “I have to pay him back. I agree.”
“......”
It was more than half.
In front of the building, Xiao Li watched the lights of the magic circle light up on the magic circle one by one until the last corner was left. He turned his head to face the god of the underworld in front of him. “It seems there are more gods who agree with me.”
The god of the underworld’s complexion was very bad and he didn’t bother maintaining his demeanor anymore. He only said, “Human, it is the wrong choice for you to choose me. Even if he blocks Death and Dreams for you, in the end, your fate is to be my prisoner.”
“Or maybe I’ll step on your bones, who knows?” Xiao Li said. “However, I’m not the only one who wants you dead.”
“They may want me to die but they can’t take action against me. The adjudication court is responsible for maintaining the agreement of the gods. The gods can’t take action against each other.”
Xiao Li had heard Shen Chenzhi mention this agreement of the gods. It was said to be order established during the chaos period to prevent civil war. Of course, they couldn’t directly kill each other but it was possible to do some tricks. It was fine as long as it wasn’t fatal. It wasn’t considered a violation of this agreement. This was why a god gave Xiao Li a bit of help.
Xiao Li declared, “So it will be up to me to end you.”
He just finished speaking when a light blue shadow tightly held the arms of the god of the underworld from behind. Countless sea water filled the body of the soul of Atlantis and rushed toward the man.
Meanwhile, Xiao Li held the coffin lid again and hit the head of the god of the underworld hard!
Bang!
This coffin lid filled with supernatural power smashed hard against the god’s face. His face turned red and a nosebleed instantly gushed out. The god of the underworld tried to move his body away but the power of Atlantis’ soul didn’t allow this. The water flowing everywhere was like a type of containment device, constantly arousing the exhaustion in his body.
This method was useless for gods with abundant internal energy such as the god of dreams but it was quite effective for old gods such as the god of the underworld, who had old wounds. The god of the underworld couldn’t break free for a while and was hit by Xiao Li with the coffin lid several times.
In the end, Xiao Li didn’t think it was enough. He turned to the coffin ghost and ordered, “Bring your coffin and do it together!”
The coffin ghost stammered. “T-The secret to living until now is that I have never been involved in such disputes—”
“If you don’t come, I’ll split your coffin in half and burn it!”
The coffin ghost was full of sadness but in the end, he gritted his teeth and raised his coffin. He smashed it toward the god of the underworld together!
The god of the underworld’s head was smashed several times with heavy objects like a watermelon. Ordinary humans would’ve died long ago but the god of the underworld could still move. This wasn’t fatal to him. Xiao Li took out the scalpel and stabbed it several times.
The half of the arm that was just cut off moved behind Xiao Li. It was holding a black knife and rose in the air, slamming into the back of the young man’s head with a loud sound! The bloody butcher’s figure appeared behind Xiao Li and there was the sound of weapons colliding! The people who heard it had goosebumps.
The hand holding the black knife was powerful and the bloody butcher took several steps back. Just as it was about to lose, Bloody Mary appeared behind the black knife. She directly grabbed the arm and weakened its strength in the middle. Then the bloody butcher used its strength to strike back.
The god of the underworld took advantage of this moment to escape from the coffin and the fangs from the ground appeared again like before. They opened their mouths to try and stop these ghosts but the ghosts were experienced. They took precautions and were always paying attention to the ground. Most of them escaped from the attack of the fans and were just a bit less anchored.
However, there were still several chains that emerged from the fans. They flew back and forth in the air, chasing the ghosts in order to tie them up.
The weeping woman’s crying became louder and finally became a crying shout. Her skirt was dyed black and red and half her leg was torn. She pulled her leg tied by a chain but it wouldn’t let go.
A wisp of invisible power floated out and covered the eyes of the god of the underworld. He suddenly turned around and a black bone hand stretched out to tear at the enemy fiercely. This strength was very heavy and it was 30% stronger than the previous black knife. However, it just encountered air.
This was the talent of the god of lies. Pseudo-Logoi deceived the god of the underworld and made him think he was attacking Xiao Li, but this made him reveal his actual back to the real Xiao Li.
Xiao Li and the bloody butcher exchanged a look. At the same time, both sides aimed at the god of the underworld’s eyes. Bloody Mary picked up the black knife that had fallen to the ground and viciously joined the battle.
Shen Chenzhi’s words rang in his ear. “The weakness of the gods isn’t like humans. If you want to kill him, you need to find the place where he stores his divinity. It might be any area but it will never leave its incarnation. Once a god is in trouble, their divinity will be the source of their power and the most concentrated point of their power. You need to feel this with your heart.”
The place that Xiao Li and the other ghosts sensed was the eyes of the god of the underworld. The knife in the hands of the bloody butcher penetrated the divinity. Xiao Li’s coffin lid smashed the divinity and Bloody Mary’s black knife lifted up the divinity fragment.
There was a stream of black smoke from the god of the underworld’s body. The god of the underworld only had time to say ‘Sher—’ before disappearing.
The verdict of the adjudication court rang out. “The god of the underworld is dead. His divinity is stripped away and a new god is formed. It is recorded in the book of the gods.”
There was the sound of a gavel and all the shadows of the court and the round table disappeared. The magic circle shrank rapidly and sank into Xiao Li’s body. He felt a type of special energy flowing back and forth in his blood, constantly transforming his body.
He closed his eyes until he could use this power.
The control of the god of the underworld was lost and the rain falling on reality gradually reduced. The dark clouds dispersed and the sky returned to normal apart from the existence of the cracks.
Xiao Li came to a crack and stretched his hand to it. The divine power gushed from his palm and the crack in this area healed directly. It wasn’t just the crack. It was also the destroyed building. Everything was restored to new.
There was a faint movement ahead. Xiao Li turned his head and found Shen Chenzhi standing by his side. “They are gone.”
The god of the underworld, who was most eager for reality, was gone and Xiao Li had become a new god. The god of death and the god of dreams couldn’t get any benefits and they decisively went away.
Xiao Li smiled at him. Shen Chenzhi held his hand and they disappeared in place. They went everywhere to rebuild and heal the cracks.
The rain passed and the sun was shining on every corner of reality. After confirming that the disaster had passed, humans all over the world cheered and hugged each other. There were no better words than ‘aftermath after a disaster.’
In the end, they came to Zheng Yi and he stopped Xiao Li. Zheng Yi had been really scared just now. He gasped and asked Xiao Li, “Sherlock, is it completely over?”
“Yes.” Xiao Li tried to sum it up in one sentence. “It’s over.”
Zheng Yi sighed with relief before asking curiously. “As expected of Sherlock. How did you do it in the end?”
Xiao Li described what happened. “The god of the underworld is gone. I took away his divinity, became a new god and healed the cracks.”
Zheng Yi, “......”
Zheng Yi, “???”
“You became a god? Is it like the god of death?! How did you become a god? Have you changed? Are you a ghost? What is your title?”
“Nothing special, I’m still me.” Xiao Li patiently answered and thought about Zheng Yi’s last question. “It seems to be...”
“The god of fear and bad luck.”
-End of the Main Story-
TL: The main story has ended but there are still a few extras left.
Proofreader: Tofu