Chapter 667 — The Beginning of the Defiance Plan

That the church acts on the gods' behalf to oversee the world—that is one of the rules of the mortal world. In other words, those orders of priests made up of mortals are in fact the true exploiters and oppressors, even the interpreters of divine authority. And after Wright took over the Yaochen Church, he had confirmed this too: oracles and the like did exist, but in truth the gods issued them pitifully few times. Apart from their connection in the field of divine arts, they might be said to be wholly detached from this world. Those who truly did the work were merely the priests…

Of course, Gao Yang himself still regarded the gods with abundant wariness, even a degree of hostility—but that was decided by his own experiences and worldview.

Then what of those besides him? What of the natives born and raised in this world? What of the ancient Defiers?

For the Defiers to have first decided to oppose the gods, there must have been a more compelling reason. According to the intelligence Ophelia had revealed, the Defiance Plan opposed the gods on virtually every front: not only stealing their power, but studying their nature, seeking their coordinates, searching out their weaknesses, and beyond that… they surely would not have minded killing those gods.

If the sole aim had been to let mortals survive the demon tide, they would not have needed to go this far. That they did so must have rested on a deeper reason—for instance…

That the gods themselves were an "absolute threat" to the continued existence of mortals.

On this point, Kamael, merely a senior researcher and team leader, could give Gao Yang no answer—but Ophelia Norton, member of the old imperial house and high-ranking administrator of the Defiance Plan, certainly knew something.

Gao Yang's question had perhaps truly struck the mark. A faint gravity crept into Ophelia's expression, and after a long silence she spoke slowly:

"So long as the gods exist, humanity will one day be destroyed."

Gao Yang knit his brows. "…So it really was them who caused the demon tide?"

"Quite the opposite. The gods never caused the demon tide. In fact, according to our research, among the lost civilizations of antiquity—do you know of the lost civilizations of antiquity?"

Gao Yang nodded. "I've had contact with the dragon race and know a little about the ancient civilizations. It seems you know of them too."

"Then we can speak more easily. According to our research, the ancient civilizations also encountered the demon tide, and some of them survived the catastrophe. Yet not every civilization that survived did so by its own strength…"

"You mean…" Gao Yang's tapping on the tabletop stopped at once, his gaze grave. "The gods lent a hand?"

"More than lent a hand. The deeper the darkness, the more dazzling the light; the more grievous the disaster that befalls mortals, the more the gods spare no effort to protect them. There is evidence that in ancient times gods may even have descended into the world in their true bodies to help mortals withstand the demon tide. Not every time did it succeed in preserving a civilization—but those gods did indeed do so."

Gao Yang thought it over. "...Is this information reliable?"

"We cannot be certain about events of such antiquity, but we have more than one thread of evidence—accounts passed down by certain ancient races, and relics we have unearthed in the central regions of the continent," Ophelia said, unhurried. "The demon tide was not brought on by the gods; on the contrary, the gods manifested to help humanity hold it back. As a pioneer, you must know that during the Age of Exploration many priests served as vital combatants on the front lines. Did the divine arts in their hands not come from the gods they worshipped?"

Gao Yang could not help but follow that line of thought toward conspiracy. "What if it was precisely the gods who caused the demon tide, and then used miracles descending from heaven to swell their followers?"

"By wiping out more than seventy percent of the population, to increase the number of their believers? After the demon tide, the congregations of every church shrank by more than half, and not a few faiths were extinguished outright—and in ancient times there were civilizations destroyed utterly by the demon tide. From that, I judge your conjecture does not hold."

"All right, that does seem overly conspiratorial," Gao Yang admitted, realizing his guess had been poorly considered. "In that case, what is your reason for opposing the gods?"

Ophelia drew a deep breath, then said gravely: "In ancient times more than one civilization survived the demon tide. But those civilizations that survived—where are they now?"

In the brief two or three seconds of silence, a concept Mei Hengponia had once told Gao Yang surfaced in his mind.

The Black Pit.

"It was the gods who ultimately destroyed those survivors?"

Ophelia nodded slowly. "I fear so."

Gao Yang was stunned for a moment, then suddenly spread his hands with a strange expression. "...Are all the gods split personalities?"

"We do not know the reason, and at first we found no thread or evidence whatsoever to support 'the gods destroyed the world.' We found only records of the gods protecting humanity during the demon tide, and the fact that every civilization which endured the demon tide was ultimately exterminated.

"At first we did not know what had destroyed those survivors—until, while adjusting the flow of magic in the Deep Blue Well, we accidentally opened a flawed rift that connected to the 'Boundary of the Divine Realm.' Within that warped and resplendent rift, we glimpsed for the first time a sliver of the phantom of the realm of the gods...

"The Gondor royal house of that time organized a secret expedition, composed of the mightiest priests and scholars. Its purpose was in fact quite simple: to look across the rift, and if possible to pay their respects to the gods in person and thank them for their protection of the mortal world. The expedition would neither truly enter the divine realm nor commit any act of offense.

"Yet the instant the act of 'crossing the boundary' occurred, the situation spun out of control. From the rift poured an utterly chaotic and frenzied malice; the glorious vision of heaven in an instant became the most terrifying nightmare, and hidden beneath that radiant veil were twisted 'knowledge' that shattered the mind and 'truths' the human mind could not comprehend. The expedition beyond the rift was all but annihilated in an instant; only two half-mad legendary powerhouses returned to the mortal world clinging to their last breath, and before they died they left only two sentences:

"They mean to destroy us.

"It is a countdown."

Ophelia stopped and regarded Gao Yang quietly. After more than ten seconds of silence, she softly broke it:

"Those two sentences were the beginning of the Defiance Plan."