Chapter 953 — The "Chosen" Amber
Blade of Dawn · Page 3 of 4
Gods share the years of civilization—this was the rule Gaoyang and the experts under him had distilled after detailed study of how deities operated.
Yet the Dragon God had simply come out and said it, in so calm, so utterly unguarded a manner...
Gaoyang suddenly realized that this journey to Tarrande might well be one of the most correct choices he had ever made; now... at least he finally knew the exact date of that ancient Godslaying War—one million eight hundred and seventy thousand years ago.
"The Voyagers... killed nearly all the gods of the civilization of that season, one million eight hundred and seventy thousand years ago?" Virodai finally could not help breaking the silence. "That is..."
"That is something I lived through myself," the Dragon God said mildly. "I cannot tell you the deeper details, because even I cannot, while guaranteeing safety, tell a mortal of that point in time and of what happened before it. But I can tell you that all of it truly happened."
"Then what does all this have to do with the peculiar state of the Goddess of Shadow?" Gaoyang could not help asking.
"If you know that gods have died, then you should also know that gods are reborn in every season of civilization," the Dragon God said, discussing the fall and resurrection of gods as though discussing the weather. "I would guess... you have certainly researched this far already? And even... you already intend to use such knowledge to do something rather bold. There is no need to deny it; it means nothing to me."
Amber's eyes went wide at once. As chief of intelligence, she was extraordinarily sensitive to any leak of information: "How could you know that?"
"With a rough understanding of what you have been doing lately, it is not hard to guess what you have learned," the Dragon God said calmly. "I can see through many things only because I have seen many things."
Gaoyang grew all the more wary. He realized that this seemingly gentle deity before him would, if she harbored ill intent, be the most difficult opponent of all—even setting aside the power of a god, this ancient being far surpassed mortals, and even surpassed any deity now existing, in the accumulation of knowledge, experience, and wisdom. How much more did she know? How much had she already guessed? Was she aware of the Defiance Plan? Did she know of the various "theological experiments" of the Cecil Empire? Had she seen through the thoughts of him and his companions? Had she seen through... him, this "visitor from beyond the heavens"?
Gaoyang could scarcely control his deepening thoughts; he could only govern his own mind while maintaining an outward calm, and nodded slightly: "We have indeed discovered that gods are reborn in every season of civilization, and have roughly deduced the mechanism of a god's birth... but what does that have to do with the Goddess of Shadow?"
"The Goddess of Shadow has never undergone rebirth—she has lived on all along, from the war one million eight hundred and seventy thousand years ago, through the successive changes of civilization in between, to your arrival. She has lived on all along."
Gaoyang was dumbstruck.
"You are surprised," the Dragon God said, watching Gaoyang with a faint, elusive smile. "But there is no need to be. After all, the Goddess of Shadow was not the only deity to survive that war one million eight hundred and seventy thousand years ago; it is only that the other god who lived by chance is in far worse a state than the Goddess of Shadow, and by now she is little different from having utterly fallen..."
Gaoyang frowned slightly: "You mean..."
"She fell from the divine kingdom, plunging into the deep sea of the mortal world. Her wounds were grave, but she still had a chance to recover... Unfortunately, before she could draw nourishment from the new season of civilization, a band of uninvited guests came into this world, and that unlucky creature instead became nourishment for others."