All Gods: Starting with Two Families

Chapter 153 The Clergy ScamInformation that made his heart tremble flowed through Zhou Zheng’s Divine Thought.

In the past, the division of Realms he understood was very simple: Reserve Deity, then Formal Deity, and Formal Deities were divided into low, medium, and high grades based on their godhead Rank.

But this information from the core of the Divine Realm gave a different set of divisions:

Primordial Fetus Deity. True Self Deity. Morning Star Deity. Radiant Moon Deity. Shining Sun Deity.

Primordial Fetus Deity corresponds to Reserve Deity, like an unborn infant who hasn’t yet determined a direction for growth.

True Self Deity corresponds to Formal Deities from Rank 1 to 3, who have mastered Laws and are gradually finding their own paths.

The above two Realms only have different names; their essence remains the same.

But the conditions for promoting to a Morning Star Deity—that is, Rank 4—are completely different.

It is not condensing a divine office, but rather—obtaining authority.

authority.

Zhou Zheng had never heard of this term anywhere. Not a divine office, not a Law, but authority.

The Third-Tier Deities of those ancient God Systems have been stuck at Rank 3 for countless years, fighting over those limited divine offices, thinking that was the only path to promotion.

But looking at it now, the path of the divine office might have been... from the very beginning...

He didn’t continue that thought.

The waters of the Pantheon are much deeper than he imagined.

But for now, he couldn’t obtain authority, nor could he find any more clues. The only hope was still the God-Forsaken Land.

Before that, he still had one thing to do.

...

Calamity Abyss.

Because of the Mechanical Calamity, the Calamity Abyss was filled with frozen red calamity cards, like an ice-bound river.

Zhou Zheng hadn’t been here for a long time.

After the calamity, the calamity cards here returned to normal. But when Zhou Zheng stood on the edge of the abyss again, he immediately noticed a difference.

These calamity cards had changed.

They were no longer simple ”groups of powerful creatures” or ”a certain terrifying individual.” They had become more abstract, more conceptualized, with each card like a twisted parable.

Famine. Not a hungry monster, but a Chaos creature transformed from hunger itself; wherever it passed, the land became barren and crops withered.

Plague. Not a carrier spreading disease, but an entity condensed from the concept of disease, formless and substance-less, yet able to infect all living beings.

War. Not an army, but an aggregate of the will to slaughter and destroy; wherever it went, living beings would kill each other.

Zhou Zheng opened the All-Knowing Eye.

His Divine Thought swept over countless cards, turning into a dense stream of data in his eyes. He filtered through them quickly, searching—

A flash of bright gold passed by.

With a stir of his Divine Thought, Zhou Zheng instantly froze that card.

[S-Rank Calamity: Genetic Collapse]

[Contained Law: Corrupted Life Law]

[Calamity Description: This calamity is born when the Life Law is distorted, desecrated, or used in reverse. Once released, it will transform into a ”Gene Collapse Body,” polluting the Life essence of all living beings within range, causing their Physical Bodies to collapse, their forms to twist, and eventually resulting in complete alienation.]

The card disappeared from his hand.

...

Within the Star Divine Domain, a distorted figure began to condense.

It was a giant monster. One could barely tell it was once some kind of creature, but now, its flesh was collapsing.

Chunks of rotten flesh fell from its body, revealing the decaying skeleton beneath. The fallen flesh squirmed on the ground, turning into new small monsters.

It raised its head and let out a howl unlike any living creature.

Then it saw that Seal—the abyss suppressed by the pillar of the world.

It charged inside!

The Gene Collapse Body crashed into the depths of the abyss where the Weird were entrenched, colliding with those twisted existences. The Corrupted Life Law and the dark essence of the Weird actually began to undergo Fusion.

The abyss shook.

Countless tiny black shadows surged out from the intersection of the two abysses. They weren’t monsters, not physical entities—

They were mosquitoes.

Billions of mosquitoes, dense and overwhelming, flew out of the abyss.

They were too small, so small that any attack was difficult to aim precisely. They were too many, so many that they blotted out the sky.

They flew toward the South Continent, the East Continent, the West Continent, and the North Continent. They flew toward every continent, every settlement, and every living being.

...

East Continent.

The torches of Sun-Shining City burned eternally, illuminating the surroundings. A night watchman stood on the city wall, vigilantly watching the area.

Suddenly, he heard a sound.

Buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz—

He raised his head.

The sky turned black.

It wasn’t the blackness of night, but a blackness formed by countless mosquitoes. They were like a moving dark cloud, pressing down toward Sun-Shining City.

”Enemy attack!!” the guard roared, ringing the alarm bell.

The torchlight shone on the mosquito swarm; the mosquitoes paused, then bypassed the light and surged into the city from the sides.

They lunged at every living thing.

Someone raised their hand, and the power of the Great Sun Feathered Serpent Seal blasted out, killing dozens of mosquitoes with a single palm strike. But more mosquitoes swarmed up, pouncing on him, crawling into his clothes, and biting his skin.

The person screamed and fell to the ground.

His body began to collapse. His skin festered, his muscles dissolved, and his bones twisted. He rolled on the ground, wailing, until finally, he stopped moving altogether.

When he stood up again, he had turned into a monster.

An ugly, twisted, disgusting monster.

It turned and lunged toward its former companions.

...

South Continent.

Feathered Serpents circled the volcano’s crater, being the first to notice the anomaly.

There were too many mosquitoes, so many that even flames couldn’t burn them all. A Feathered Serpent breathed fire, incinerating thousands, but more mosquitoes crawled through the gaps in the flames to bite its scales.

Scales began to fall off. Flesh and blood began to rot.

That Feathered Serpent screamed as it plummeted into the volcano.

Another Feathered Serpent saw things were going badly and flapped its wings, soaring into the sky. It wanted to escape, but the mosquitoes caught up to it, burrowing into its feathers and biting its flesh.

It also fell.

Kunpeng hid in the deep sea, thinking they could escape. But those mosquitoes actually dove into the water, following their scent into the abyss.

The seawater was stained red.

...

West Continent.

Armor Spirits attached themselves to their hosts, forming thick battle armor in an attempt to protect them. But the mosquitoes were too small; they crawled through the gaps in the armor to bite the hosts’ skin.

The hosts screamed, and the Armor Spirits surged frantically, trying to block those gaps. But the mosquitoes were too many and too dense to be blocked.

One host after another fell.

Those Armor Spirits lost their attachment, turned into liquid, scattered across the ground, and fell into a slumber.

...

North Continent.

The Jade Spirits hid in underground palaces, closing the palace gates tightly. The mosquitoes couldn’t get in, but they could feel that the outside was filled with that buzzing sound.

A young Jade Spirit couldn’t help but peek out through a small crack.

Three mosquitoes slipped inside.

They lunged at that Jade Spirit, biting her jade body. The jade actually began to crack and grow dim.

Other Jade Spirits rushed forward, using Medicinal Pills, light, and every possible method to finally kill those three mosquitoes. But the young Jade Spirit had already fallen, the Jade Elixir in her chest shattered in two.

...

Above the Divine Realm.

Zhou Zheng looked down upon all of this.

The combination of the Gene Collapse Body and the Weird erupted with terrifying power.

There were too many mosquitoes, too dense, and too difficult to guard against. The power of the Seals could kill them, but not all of them. Kill ten thousand, and there were still a hundred thousand. Kill a hundred thousand, and there were still a million.

The followers who were bitten began to turn into monsters. Those monsters then attacked other followers, causing more people to be bitten.

A chain reaction. A vicious cycle.

The entire Divine Realm was on the verge of collapse.

Truly worthy of being an S-Rank Calamity.