Chapter 809 — The God Is Dead
Blade of Dawn · Page 1 of 4
The god is dead.
Gao Yang stared for a long while at that line carved into the stone, and because he did not know how to react, his face showed no ripple of emotion at all. Behind him, Yuri and the other two had drawn close as well, and those warped, dark-red incised marks came into every one of their eyes.
"...All the forebears of my clan..." Magnum's eyes went wide. "What is this supposed to mean?"
Gao Yang finally shook himself out of the initial shock. Though seeing such a blasphemous phrase at the temple gate had left him dazed for a moment, he still held fast to the rule that in Sandbox One nothing could be trusted and no conclusion could be drawn lightly; his first instinct now was to learn more from Selina. "Did the previous survey team not see this sentence in the ruins of the city?"
"No. Of that I am certain," Selina said at once. "The last team had not yet explored the interiors of the city's buildings, but they had already found the entrance to this temple. If they had truly seen this sentence, they could not possibly have failed to report it."
"The god is dead..." Yuri murmured. "During the last survey this sandbox world was already empty of all people. Who left this behind?"
"Think of the Phantom Town," Magnum muttered. "Empty of all people... maybe it is only that we cannot see them."
"We should search this temple. What do you think?" Selina said, turning her gaze to Gao Yang. Though she and the other two priests of the Order of the Dark Illusion were the "specialists" on Sandbox One, their concrete actions had to follow Gao Yang's judgment—after all, what they might face was possibly a god, and in that field the "Wanderer from Beyond" was the true expert.
Gao Yang knew well how the Sleepers regarded him, but in truth he did not consider himself a professional at fighting gods—that domain was, after all, far too lofty, and he truly could not imagine what sort of person could offer guidance on deicide. Yet he had, after all, brushed against no small number of divine secrets and had even taken part in the encirclement and culinary preparation of the God of Nature (the folk knockoff edition), so at least in the matter of self-confidence he was far ahead of ordinary men.
Of course, if one added the theoretical knowledge he had gained from his usual exchanges with Vero Dai and Kamael, plus the experience accumulated from his own study of ancient texts and the collections of the Order of the Radiant Stars, then in theology and the field of anti-divinity he could indeed count as an expert.
"Let us search the temple," he said with a nod. "A religious site is the 'channel' through which a god influences the mortal world; it can often, in reverse, reveal the nature and state of the god it corresponds to.
"But remember to stay on your guard. If you see anything strange or hear anything suspicious, speak up at once. In this place, do not trust your own mind too much."
The three priests of the Order of the Dark Illusion nodded, and then, together with Gao Yang, they set off toward the interior of the temple building, so steeped in the flavor of the desert.
No one knew how long the temple had lain abandoned; inside it seemed weathered and ancient, seamed everywhere with the marks of time.
Past a short corridor lay the hall used for religious rites. The lamps that had once lit the hall had long since gone out, and the great columns and the drapes hanging down from above wove layer upon layer of shadow through the chamber. Sunlight spilled in through the narrow high windows and cut bright "paths" between the shadows. It was afternoon in the sandbox world just then, and this slanting sunlight seemed none too strong, lending the whole interior an added air of mystery and antiquity.