Chapter 537
Chapter 537 - 517: Demon-Encounters Land
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The Demonic Hour, a term that represents the World Apocalypse, naturally has its unique meaning.
What is a demon? There are many philosophical, theological, and conceptual explanations, but the most understandable one is...
"Any deity without a formal divine position is a demon."
A very direct and easy-to-understand definition, after all, in the eyes of many people, the distinction between gods and demons has always been about their "behavior patterns".
Those with a more orderly appearance and at least some logic are gods, but if they lose their normal behavior patterns and logic, it’s not wrong to call them wicked demons.
Deities have their own divine positions and divine rights. When bound to the world, they are naturally bound by their divine rights. When the shackles are stripped away, they naturally reveal their wild and chaotic side.
"All the deities will fall into the mortal world, and all the shackles will become meaningless. Among them, the weak and unlucky may even lose their divine crown..."
If the first three disasters are unique to the Silent Mountain Range, the fourth disaster of the god-demon calamity is the inevitable path for every Doomsday World.
And the Demonic Hour can be considered as a synonym for the Doomsday World, as it is not only an inevitable path but also extremely important.
A large number of deities, quasi-gods, and god-like creatures roam the earth. Opportunities to ascend, slay gods, and usurp the divine throne can be found everywhere; intense battles between divine beings are common... Many deities seek greater power, while many others fight simply to survive.
That is the arena of the deities, an opportunity for ascension, and at the same time, a hunting ground for becoming prey.
At that time, a large number of god-level creatures will try to join, and the battlefield between them will naturally turn into a human purgatory...
"Sane low-level professionals must retreat as soon as the fourth disaster begins."
Only at that stage will the "Demonic Hour" reach its normal difficulty, as the world loses control over those high-dimensional beings, and everything is completely out of control.
At that time, as long as you are strong enough, you can kill the deities at will, but if you lack power, dying in the aftermath of a battlefield is too normal.
The gods’ hunting grounds, the Demonic Hour, the world’s end...
"The safe period is at most three months, and to be conservative, we must set out in two and a half months."
This is the timeline set by Lu Ping’an. Having faced a quasi-god, he has no interest in a real god battle.
Of course, this is not a completely hopeless thing, otherwise, so many powerful beings wouldn’t try to enter the Demonic Hour.
The Fourth Disaster, "the Fall of the Gods into the Mortal World," is a continuous process.
During this process, the world will continuously lose its deities, and it will also subconsciously supplement what it lacks. The delirious and dying will of the world will subconsciously "swallow" everything nearby to make up for its deficiencies.
Lost its deities? Just replenish them.
Lost the rules? Just replenish the rules.
Simply put, for some entities, the threshold for ascending to godhood will be significantly reduced once again... Under the protection of fate, the lucky ones will emerge, and the fallen deities and those who fall into the mortal world will become their nourishment.
It is a carnival, a purgatory, and a trial, but the entrance fee is quite high.
"There’s no rush for the Demonic Hour. The Gold-tier is the lowest entry level, and even that level will only serve as cannon fodder. Their goal is to pick up ’corpses’..."
The recounting of Meow makes Lu Ping’an dispel his fluke mentality.
"...Earth’s quasi-gods and true gods may also enter the field, but they should only enter in the second half of the fourth disaster, or even the fifth or sixth disaster. At that time, the world will split and provide the nourishment they crave, just like drawing a swarm of bees with nectar."
Well, mortals play the first half, and gods play the second half, and this poor world is clearly divided.
By this point, the Newborn team has already made a fortune, and it doesn’t make much sense to continue pushing hard... Even if they did obtain the remains of a mythical creature, it could only be decomposed in the Life Courtyard. If it were a third-tier or lower professional, instead of absorbing the remains, they would only attract stronger hunters.
But there are some benefits, such as Lu Ping’an’s plans. After the "Demonic Hour," the great harvest of the earth’s gods should not pose a problem.
Quasi-God’s remains? This time, the unlucky ones in the Silent Mountain Range, those deities who are deeply bound to the world and destined to fall, might number in the hundreds.
They are destined to struggle in this hellish pit, facing cruel and greedy predators, seeking a way to survive.
"... Lu Ping’an, get ready to withdraw. You’re still far from qualified to even watch the battle in that kind of battlefield."
Meow has a realistic view, and her opinion makes sense.
"Don’t be too greedy. No one can guarantee that the God of Travelers will survive until the Fifth Disaster. When the ’Plane Travel’ fails, the journey back to the capital will be extremely difficult."
It was also an important issue Meow had mentioned earlier. Impulsive as she usually is, she actually advised Lu Ping’an to not push his luck.
Lu Ping’an and his team were able to reach the border so quickly by relying on the divine power of the native God of Travelers in the Eastern Country. No one can guarantee that his power will remain stable as before. If he were to fall or something went wrong, the journey back to the capital on foot would go from beginner difficulty to epic difficulty.
"... After all, our team’s strength is still insufficient. If we were to encounter a Gold-tier opponent, we might be wiped out."
Lu Ping’an sighed helplessly. He actually had quite a lot of talented people on hand, but the only one who could really fight against the Gold-tier... perhaps, only Catherine clad in Holy Fire during her lucky state.
But he’s not in a hurry as he actually has several cards to play.
In Meow’s words, the core members of his team, given enough time and training resources, most of them could enter the Silver-tier... which is already quite astonishing.
Among them, Meow and Catherine even have the potential to reach Gold-tier... It’s not that Lu Ping’an looked down on Guan Xinxian or Xia Qin, but their future paths weren’t clear.
Meow has her mentor, Meow by her side, and her talent for Spiritualization as a safety net. As long as she obeyed, progressing would only be a matter of time... With the resources at Meow’s disposal, it was like child’s play to nurture a Gold-tier.
Here, Meow was actually being a bit malicious. If Lu Ping’an had chosen the profession of Beast Tamer to start with, eating only Meow’s resources, he might not have been worse off.
Catherine’s path was even clearer. She had completed her spiritualization with the Holy Fire and now had the Holy Fire Church as her backing. As long as she remained a test subject of the Life Courtyard and worked hard... sooner or later, she would reach the Gold-tier.
As for Xue En? Lu Ping’an couldn’t figure it out—he had a feeling that doing nothing would allow Xue En to advance as long as he didn’t die.
It’s not that no one else has the potential to break into higher rankings; it’s just that their ranks are too low now, and the path upward isn’t clear... You can’t just point at a primary school student and say they would definitely get into college.
But some people have embarked on a "guaranteed recommendation" path, and as long as they follow it, they can steadily overcome the difficulties.
Honestly, Lu Ping’an was in the same situation as well. Both the Life Bank and the Life Illustration in his possession could easily boost him to a higher rank. All he needed was time and resources.
"Thousands of dollars in salary isn’t worth risking my life... No, it’s really unnecessary."
Lu Ping’an appeared quite Zen lately because he had a clear understanding of his situation. It’s said that fortune favors the bold, but in the current demon-encounters land, the bolder you are, the easier it is to suffer losses.
But obviously, fate wasn’t going to let him off easily.
Suddenly, the whole world was filled with a buzzing sound.
"The sun, the sun rises again!"
"It’s dawn! Will this end now? All this calamity."
The exclamations came from outside the window, as both the civilians and knights rekindled their hope.
But as Lu Ping’an looked at the sun rising once again in the sky, he couldn’t help but feel an instinctive sense of unease.
"... The corpses outside, they are burnt up!"
Some of the remains outside the city walls started to burn, while others rushed straight for the nearest walls without hesitation!
"Damn it, it’ll stimulate all the contaminated creatures..."
— End of Chapter 537 —