Picking Up "Squid" (Part 4) / The Three Kings' Tea Party
After several unsuccessful attempts, the Luminous Polymer that had peeked out from under the iceberg retreated back into the dark boundary.
The remaining Starlight Tentacles disintegrated one after another amidst twisting and trembling, until they vanished into nothingness.
The three breathed a sigh of relief, their expressions grave. Ryze whispered worriedly to Ding Gehei.
"How is Principal Kieran?"
"Just woke up, and now I'm unconscious again..."
"How long can this Void Barrier last..."
"We need to speed things up!"
The founder of the Super God Academy took a deep breath and made a difficult decision.
Chapter 1025 Picking Up "Squid" (Fourth Update)
In the beginning of time, the clear and the turbid were distinguished, and heaven and earth were separated, giving birth to all things.
Tracing back to the origins of mythology, "Hongmeng" in Eastern classics refers to the chaotic period of the universe before Pangu Creates the World.
Before chaos was formed, heaven and earth were in disarray, a vast and boundless expanse unseen by anyone. Since Pangu broke the primordial chaos, the distinction between the pure and the impure has been established.
According to the legend of the San Wu Li Ji, Pangu was the Primordial God who was born in the primordial world and became the pioneer of civilization.
From a practical standpoint, the name "Hongmeng Galaxy" does not lose its true meaning on Earth.
As one of the oldest known Divine River Body Life in the Known Universe, the Pangu Clan is, in a sense, equivalent to the source of civilization.
According to the star map markings, this area is located at the core of the Big Bang Singularity, definitely the central position.
It was precisely because of these uniquely favorable conditions that these gods were able to boldly capture the other emerging cosmic singularities and condense the Six Infinity Stones!
Ironically, the almost invincible Pangu Civilization, despite its unimaginable glory, also experienced a more rapid and unpredictable decline.
Now, times have changed, and this area, which should have been the most civilized, has become...
Furthermore, the closer they got to the Hongmeng Galaxy, the more desolate and dilapidated the surrounding area became.
As Heavenly Blade No. 5 traveled along the star-crossing route, it observed countless celestial bodies around it shattered, and one galaxy after another was reduced to cosmic dust by some unknown force.
Some unidentified floating objects contain buildings from the Age of Giants, as well as armor and firearms inscribed with runes and spells.
The angels even spotted a starship entirely made of Dark Iron!
In addition, the strange and fragmented celestial bodies around us, when scanned, revealed a series of shocking pieces of information.
The reserves of legendary precious metals such as Dark Iron, Dark Silver, and Uru Metal are all calculated in tens of millions of tons.
This left Leng, who was piloting the Heavenly Blade No. 5, speechless. She almost had a sudden impulse to grab a shovel and take her angel sisters to mine.
Their angel numbers are increasing year by year, and the Sword of Flames forged from rare metals such as Dark Iron are simply not enough to go around. They are desperately short of these things!
Strangely, neither Keisha's Knowledge Repository nor Hexi's space-based network contained any data records.
It's as if someone in the Angel Nebula is deliberately concealing all of this.
As the boiling passion subsided, the virtual model of the half-broken celestial body on the Illusionary Screen gradually took shape.
However, after Leng casually pieced together a few pieces, the group of female angels stared in horror at the shocking scene, their blood freezing instantly!
This is not some strangely shaped celestial body at all!
It's just a shell! It's all just a shell!
From as small as a kilometer or tens of thousands of meters to as large as half a galaxy!
Over the long years, because these monsters' bodies did not decay, the substances inside them were transformed into various rich mineral deposits.
Therefore, this place is basically a giant graveyard for gods!
An indescribable fear surged through the angels' hearts, and Leng immediately sounded the alarm, notifying the "Three Kings" who were continuing their tea conversation in the pavilion.
(Kevin, the King of Angels; He Xi, the Heavenly King; and Hela, the Queen of the Aesir Gods, can also be considered the Three Kings in another sense.)
The three people who rushed to the main control room of Heavenly Blade No. 5 looked at each other in bewilderment at the scene that was so shocking.
Holy crap! We haven't even reached the Hongmeng Galaxy yet! What the hell is this?!
Kevin, who was the first to react, looked grim. The ancient and primordial aura made him curse inwardly.
Fortunately, being a seasoned veteran, the man quickly composed himself and regained his composure.
Hexi was the second to adjust her mindset. Seeing that the angels were in a daze, a milky white light emanated from her palm.
The calming effect spread, noticeably easing the soldiers' tension.
Surprisingly, the resilient and ruthless Hela was the last to be awakened, and even after regaining her senses, she still felt a vague sense of oppression.
Could this be... why Odin stopped conquering the Nine Worlds? Was he the one who was in the wrong?
How many secrets are still hidden in the universe?
Hela, who once stubbornly believed she was right, now finds her worldview crumbling and her thoughts in turmoil.
At that moment, a warm hand gently grasped Hela's cold, trembling hand. The words were calm, containing both emotion and irony, but mostly stating an undeniable fact.
"Stop thinking about it, we, the Divine River Body Life, will never stop exploring..."
"We have enjoyed the benefits of civilized development, and it is simply impossible for us to suppress our desires and return to the era of eating raw meat and drinking blood..."
"Whether it's hell or an abyss ahead, we will keep going..."
Hela, caught in a cycle of self-doubt and self-denial, quickly broke free and transformed back into the defiant Goddess of Death.
As a token of her gratitude, she merely nodded indifferently, but a burning light shone deep within her eyes as she looked at Kevin.
The scent of her prey beside her was getting stronger and stronger; she almost couldn't resist dragging it into a dark corner to savor it.
Unfortunately, it was just an empty shell...
No rush, she can wait to taste the perfect flavor...
When the Chiwu Star System is unsealed, when his consciousness returns, when that "fruit" is fully ripe.
At the control panel, Hexi noticed that Kevin's brow furrowed and relaxed as he repeatedly disassembled and examined the bodies of these gods, and couldn't help but wake the man who was engrossed in his exploration.
"You seem to have figured out something about the causes of those things outside?"
Kevin nodded slightly and responded casually.
"More or less..."
As the soft flesh around his waist was twisted 360 degrees by a slender hand, the man caught a glimpse of Hexi's expression, nodded in understanding, and smiled at the group of somewhat uneasy female angels.
"Don't worry, they're all dead..."
"Similar phenomena have occurred in other Star Domain as well..."
"After some ancient gods die, their bodies transform into celestial-like structures, and the matter and energy within them exist in a new state..."
"There's nothing special about this place, it's just that there are a lot of them."
Hela nodded and stepped forward, offering her own observations to corroborate Kevin's statement.
"That's right. When I accompanied my father on his expedition to the Star Domain of the Nine Worlds, I saw a celestial being who had transformed into a star after his death..."
"Moreover, because the minerals within his body are so precious, they have attracted a large number of space pirates and pioneers..."
"I remember that group of people seemed to have already emptied the chest of this unfortunate god and were digging into his head..."
"By the way, this kind of work seems to have a special name: 'squid picking'..."
Indeed, this is true. Not only does the Marvel universe exhibit similar phenomena, but even Star-Lord's father, Ego the Celestial, is a living planet.
Of course, due to the "greetings" from the filial son, he has now also become a large-scale mine.
Compared to the more ancient realms, the rise of the Merlot Heavenly Court was relatively recent, so Hela's novel and somewhat sarcastic remarks eased the angels' unease.
But a lingering shadow remained, a frown hanging over everyone's brows.
These isolated cases are incomparable to the scene before us.
The key question is: how did so many ancient gods die...?
The mere thought of it with their eyes closed sends an indescribable sense of dread crashing down upon them, making their souls tremble in the darkness.
PS1: I recommend a new book for fellow fans, <Saber, I Didn't Steal Your Wife!>, by the author Tentacle Monster, updates are guaranteed.
"How am I any different from that traitor Cao Cao, who lusts after other women's beauties!"
Saber: I'm asking you, you're mine... you?! I'll beat you to death, you bastard who seduced my brother's wife!
Alice: Honey, Ilya's asking for a hug again~
Scathach: You've already had three kids, do you still want me to have more?
Brynhildr: My lord, when are we going back to Northern Europe?
Medea: Darling, this time I won't kill your new wives, please let me stay, okay?
(This is a lighthearted, silly, and enjoyable story. Don't worry too much about the strength of the battles or anything like that. The author is just trying to please the readers.)
ps2: Today's fourth update, thank you to reader @{"reader_id":"1728050","reader_name":"Attack on Pandora"} for the 15 blades, and thank you to reader @ Fleet @Yggd@@?? Texas??@Long Live the Conquering King@@juda@ and other readers for their support.
PS3: Picking up squid has a hidden meaning of collecting body parts, which will not be discussed in the main text, but will be explained briefly.
Chapter 1071, Section 1026: The Tea Party of the Three Kings
The female angels, after being comforted by the Three Kings, calmed down a bit and went to their posts one after another.
Kevin and the others calmly returned to the ancient Roman-style pavilion. They then used the permissions granted by Heavenly Blade No. 5 to connect to the Illusionary Screen, activate their holographic vision, and keep a close eye on the surrounding area.
As the distance increased, similar remains of gods became increasingly common.
Even more incredibly, the Three Kings saw various familiar outlines on these broken shells.
A colossal dragon with the body of a python, scales of a fish, the head of a bull, and the belly of a crocodile; Phoenix with wingspans a thousand meters, formed from the convergence of fire elements; a three-headed hellhound with feathers like steel needles and a body as imposing as a mountain...
And the Demon Bird Guiche, the Hydra Xiangliu, the stitched-together monster Abomination, the fire dragon...
Besides, various indescribable, Beast Body life and giant skeletons, whose names the three of them couldn't even recall, intertwined and tore at each other, lying lifelessly paralyzed in the starry sky.
Having endured too many shocks in succession, the Three Kings had become somewhat numb.
They roughly calculated that, judging from their appearance, there were about three thousand relatively well-preserved remains.
More than three thousand? A thought flashed through Kevin's mind, and he seemed to understand something.
What came to mind?
Hexi noticed Kevin's micro-expression and, completely confused, eagerly nudged her friend beside her.
" In the Hongmeng Galaxy, is there really a story about Pangu slaying three thousand Chaos Demon Gods to establish civilization?"
Kevin murmured to himself, and after noticing Hexi's subtle movements and Hela's equally puzzled look, he composed himself and voiced his guess.
"The situation we are seeing now is very similar to the myths recorded in Chinese history..."
The man paused, then flicked his finger to open Spatial Rift, from which he retrieved a thin, flimsy ancient book titled "The Wu Yun Li Nian Ji," which he then opened and handed to Hexi and the other man.
"The first being was Pangu, who, upon dying, transformed into his body. His breath became wind and clouds, his voice became thunder, his left eye became the sun, his right eye the moon, his four limbs and five organs became the four cardinal directions and five sacred mountains, his blood became rivers, his veins became the land, his muscles became fields, his hair and beard became stars, his skin and fur became grass and trees, his teeth and bones became metals and stones, his essence became pearls and jade, his sweat became rain, and the insects on his body, moved by the wind, transformed into the common people..."
It matches up! There are similar records of the physical changes that occur after the fall of gods!
"Through the Supreme Divinity of the Space Stone, I've managed to barely reconnect to my storage room..."
"This ancient book originally belonged to the Nine Heavens Xuannü, who is also my Fu Hua. However, I later took it for some information about the Kunlun Secret Realm and Pangu Tomb."
After finishing reading the Book of the Three Kings, Kevin closed the book again and placed it in the Spatial Rift for safekeeping, his expression showing a mixture of strangeness and emotion.
"As we defined before, mythology may simply be a distorted version of history..."
"In fact, as early as the beginning of ancient times, the bloodline of the Pangu Civilization, such as the Queen Mother of the West and the Eternal Race, was probably conveying some traces of this ancient civilization to us through mythology."
Hela unconsciously flicked her nails, stepped forward, and nodded gracefully.
"It seems that's indeed the case..."
"Our Asgardian God Clan also has similar legends on Earth. For example, the origin of world civilization is said to be the sacrifice of the flesh and life of the primordial giant Ymir, which gave birth to all things."