After the golden cocoons peeled away, Debbie, Guni, and Salome all felt reborn. Faint golden radiance lingered around their bodies. Their features now carried a sacred quality, and every gesture radiated powerful authority.
The clothes they had worn before transformed into gold. Yet the gold did not appear vulgar. It conveyed only boundless nobility.
The moment the three appeared, Debbie struck and instantly killed one ice and snow warrior. The remaining ice and snow warriors froze for a second. Their physiques were immensely strong. Even the modified firearms on Ye Chui’s side could not harm them at all. Yet Debbie had seemingly only waved her hand casually, releasing a golden beam that slew one of them.
“What inheritance is this? So terrifying.”
“No matter what inheritance it is, it cannot withstand the ice and snow power of the Ice Queen. Kill them. Seize the divine artefact.”
“Their divine artefact is already ours.”
These ice and snow warriors had blood as cold as ice. They felt no fear. Ruthless and merciless, they charged again as they spoke.
“Everyone stand back. Let us handle this,” Debbie shouted. She leapt forward and landed before several ice and snow warriors.
Those guarding the temple quickly retreated. They could all sense that Debbie, Guni, and Salome had become overwhelmingly powerful.
“Kill.” Several ice and snow warriors raised their weapons towards Debbie.
Yet in the next instant, golden thunderbolts crashed down from the sky, summoned by Debbie. Boom. Boom. Boom. The thunder struck the ice and snow warriors repeatedly, instantly reducing them to bloody pulp. Their blood was blue. When it sprayed out and hit the ground, it froze rapidly, forming clusters of blue ice flowers.
“Aaaah.” Guni and Salome roared as they charged the leader among the ice and snow warriors.
The leader hurriedly drew a shield from his back. Snap snap. Sharp icicles extended from the shield’s edges, forming a massive barrier before him to block the two girls’ assault. He shouted, “Ice and Snow Empress, grant me the power of ice and snow…”
A blue pillar of light descended from the sky and enveloped him. With it, the air temperature seemed to plummet. Large snowflakes drifted down, bringing a terrifying sense of frozen earth.
Boom.
Guni and Salome slammed into the ice shield together.
Cracks spiderwebbed across it.
The impact forced the ice and snow leader backwards. His feet carved deep furrows in the ground. Ice flowers bloomed within the grooves.
“Ha.” Salome shouted, leapt into the air, and punched downwards at the leader.
Guni glanced back at Kas. “Weapon.”
Kas flung his greatsword with a whoosh.
Snap. Guni caught the heavy blade single-handed. Golden light flared. The originally iron-black sword swiftly turned to solid gold. Salome’s fist landed on the leader at that moment, driving his legs half a foot into the earth.
Shock filled his face.
Guni’s golden greatsword followed. The leader frantically drew his own ice and snow longsword to parry.
Clang.
The blue ice and snow longsword snapped in two. Guni and Salome passed him on either side and landed nearby.
Splash. Blue blood gushed continuously from the leader’s body.
The two girls had effortlessly dispatched the leader of the Ice and Snow Divine Domain invaders.
At the same time, Debbie carved through a dozen ice and snow warriors as though chopping vegetables.
The remaining ice and snow warriors fell into deep shock and fled in panic.
“Is the Stan World a place you can come and go as you please?” Debbie declared domineeringly. She extended her right hand. A golden orb rapidly formed in her palm. Then she slammed it into the ground.
Gold spread outwards from her feet. Wherever the light passed, ground, weeds, and trees all turned to golden substance.
This was the Wealth Goddess’s divine skill: [Golden Domain].
The spreading gold quickly enveloped a vast area that included the temple. Hiss hiss. Golden sword blades burst from the earth all around, turning the domain into a cage that blocked the ice and snow warriors’ escape.
Thud thud. Seeing this, the ice and snow warriors hurriedly turned and knelt, trembling as they begged Debbie for mercy.
“Wow, this move of mine is so impressive,” Debbie exclaimed, startled by her own [Golden Domain]. Everything around had become gold. It looked truly magnificent. Her body flickered, and she instantly appeared before the ice and snow warriors. Within the golden domain, Debbie could teleport freely.
She looked coldly at them. “Did you think the Stan World is somewhere you can enter and leave at will?”
Ye Chui hurried over and stood beside Debbie. He heard one ice and snow warrior lower his head and say, “We inheritors of the Ice and Snow Goddess willingly submit to the inheritance of the Stan World and become your subordinate inheritance. Please spare our lives…”
“Subordinate inheritance?” Ye Chui paused, recalling when they had dealt with the blood elf. Baby had mentioned hearing strange voices that spoke of upper inheritance, subordinate inheritance, and the war of the gods.
Upper and subordinate inheritances appeared to be rules of the war of the gods.
Debbie tilted her head curiously. “Ye Chui, I just heard a strange voice… The inheritors of the Ice and Snow Goddess have submitted to me and become subordinate to the Wealth Goddess inheritance…”
“What do upper and subordinate inheritances mean? Tell me,” Ye Chui demanded coldly of the ice and snow warriors. “And everything you know about the war of the gods, the middle-layer world, the upper-layer world. All of it.”
…
An hour later, the warriors from the Ice and Snow Divine Domain returned to their own domain.
Ye Chui did not fear their return, for the rules of the war of the gods now prevented them from harbouring any hostility towards the Stan World.
It was like the blood elf earlier. After defeat by Baby, it became her subordinate inheritance. When it later tried to ambush Baby, it suffered terrible backlash and decayed to death.
If a subordinate inheritor rashly attacked an upper inheritor, the power of the rules would destroy them.
Just now, Debbie, Guni, and Salome, the true inheritors of the Wealth Goddess, had killed several inheritors of the Ice and Snow Goddess in one breath. The surviving ice and snow warriors had submitted to Debbie. They were now subordinate inheritors of the Ice and Snow Goddess and could no longer attack Debbie.
The war of the gods was essentially a contest of upper and subordinate positions.
In the middle-layer world, divine domains were not ranked. Only divine inheritors were.
Between inheritors existed three relationships: upper, subordinate, and neutral.
If inheritor of god 1 had once been defeated by inheritor of god 2, then god 1 became subordinate to god 2. The reverse made it upper. If two inheritors had never fought, they remained neutral.
The inheritor with the most subordinates ranked highest.
Now, as inheritors of the Wealth Goddess, Debbie and the others possessed one subordinate inheritance: the Ice and Snow Empress.
Those who had already been subordinates of the Ice and Snow Empress would not transfer to become subordinates of the Wealth Goddess.
Meanwhile, Ye Chui held the inheritance of the God of Gods. Debbie, Guni, and Salome held the Wealth Goddess inheritance. Baby held the Life Goddess inheritance. Dragon Baby held the inheritance of the God of Ten Thousand Beasts (though Baby and Dragon Baby were essentially the gods themselves, here they counted as inheritors). Though they had not submitted to Ye Chui, they were bound by the divine order of his God of Gods domain. Ye Chui could inherit their subordinates.
In other words, Ye Chui now possessed two subordinate inheritances: Ice and Snow Goddess and Blood Elf.
The essence of the war of the gods was to determine, among all divine inheritances, the strongest one. That inheritor would become upper to every other divine inheritance.
Upon reaching that realm, one could leave the middle-layer world and enter the upper-layer world.
…
After repelling the Ice and Snow Divine Domain and inheriting the mighty power of the Wealth Goddess, Debbie, Guni, and Salome brought relief to everyone in the Stan World.
It was already deep into the night. Around a campfire before the temple, Green cooked food. Everyone enjoyed the meal while asking the three girls about their experience. The golden transformation caused by Debbie’s golden domain had already faded.
Within the golden cocoons, Debbie had fused with the Wealth Goddess’s soul. Guni and Salome had each fused with half the goddess’s body. They seemed to have inherited some memories from the Wealth Goddess. Yet those memories did not affect their personalities. They felt more like reading recollections of the past.
From Debbie, Ye Chui learned something very important.
“In the [Spacetime Afterimage] we saw earlier, one Wealth Goddess was killed by a devil. The other guarded before the light pillar. Inside the pillar was the God of Gods. He appeared to be carrying out some plan. The two Wealth Goddesses did not know what the plan was, but one thing is certain. The God of Gods was not killed by devils. He seems to have erased his own existence…”
Debbie spoke thoughtfully, her eyes on Ye Chui.
Ye Chui was a crucial part of the God of Gods’ plan, yet no one knew what the plan was. It transcended cause and effect. When the plan began in the past, he had not yet specified its details.
“Do you remember the name of the God of Gods?” Celty asked curiously. She felt strange now. The Wealth Goddess had been her friend for ten thousand years. Debbie and the others were new friends. Her old friend split into three and residing in three girls felt odd. She was also very curious about the God of Gods’ name.
The God of Gods had erased his own existence, including his name. Salome, who had known the God of Gods for tens of thousands of years, had always wondered what the name was. Since the three girls inherited the Wealth Goddess’s memories, perhaps they could recall it.
To her disappointment, Debbie, Guni, and Salome all looked puzzled.
“The name feels very familiar, like it is on the tip of my tongue, but I just cannot say it…” Debbie said, trying hard to remember.
“Do not bother,” Ye Chui comforted. He added with a grumble, “Maybe the God of Gods’ name was super ugly. If we cannot remember it, we cannot remember it.”
“Hm…” Debbie wore a strange expression. “Hearing you say that… why do I feel like laughing?”
…
Time passed slowly.
Ye Chui checked the iPad upgrade progress from time to time. The bar had reached eighty percent. Completion was expected in another four or five hours.
As dawn began to lighten the sky, Kas, who had been dozing with his greatsword, suddenly woke. He looked towards the distant horizon. The rising golden sun illuminated the east, yet that part of the sky carried a faint blood-red tinge.
“New invaders have appeared,” Kas said, standing. He carefully sensed the aura.
Debbie, Guni, and Salome immediately prepared for battle.
Ye Chui asked Kas, “Can you sense what divine domain the invaders come from? What form does their power take?”
“The new invaders…” Kas sensed carefully for a moment, then his expression turned extremely odd. “I sense a blood-coloured world filled with evil and bloody scent. This feeling is very familiar. I once felt it from the blood elf… This time the invaders are blood elf inheritors.”
“Blood elf inheritors.” Everyone froze.
In the lower-layer world, the elf king of the Green Forest World had somehow obtained the blood elf inheritance. He was the only blood elf in the lower layer. After his death, both he and his blood elf inheritance became Baby’s subordinate inheritance, and thus Ye Chui’s as well. That meant anyone possessing the blood elf inheritance could not attack Ye Chui or Baby…
The Stan World’s artefact had suffered an accident. Other divine domains watched hungrily. From the ice and snow warriors, Ye Chui knew several other domains were preparing to attack.
Yet he had not expected the next arrivals to be blood elf inheritors.
“This should be interesting…” Ye Chui said, excitement on his face.
…
The iPad upgrade was nearing completion. The artefact’s performance began to recover step by step.
Outside the Divine Sin Continent, in a hidden fragment world.
This place had a name: Buried Sword Land.
Guni’s people still lived there.
As Ye Chui’s iPad magibook upgrade approached completion, a powerful force descended upon the land and began pulling the entire world.
