The enclosed hall was grand yet elegant.
Fine motes of fluorescence drifted above the ten Divine Seats. The strange patterns on the walls contained unfathomable, endless rules; one glance was enough to seize a person's mind.
Tang Chuan had a realization: if he could grasp even one of the rules contained within any object in the Main God Hall, it seemed capable of transcending everything he had ever understood.
But another clear realization told him that, with his current Mortal body, he had better not touch anything.
Otherwise, he might encounter an unimaginable terror.
Slurp, slurp...
The only sound in the entire hall came from the Little Tentacle wriggling in his hand. The emptiness stirred a feeling akin to claustrophobia for no reason at all.
Fortunately, a deep passageway stretched from some unknown distance into the Main God Hall. His subconscious told Tang Chuan that this was probably the way out.
Gritting his teeth, Tang Chuan walked into the passage.
The instant he stepped inside, his consciousness spun again. In the next moment, Tang Chuan abruptly appeared on a broad road.
Looking back, high above at the edge of his vision stood the imposing and elegant Main God Hall, suspended in a sea of billions upon billions of Powers of Rules.
Ten statues stood along both sides of the road. Each had a different appearance, all beyond common sense and bizarre beyond description. They exuded a vast, ancient aura, as though these stone figures had endured endless ages without perishing—or perhaps they were time itself.
Tang Chuan walked to the center of the road. His mind was still hazy, making it difficult for him to "remember" what these statues were.
However...
As soon as Tang Chuan began to speculate about the statues' identities, an indescribable thought arose within him.
Tang Chuan spread his arms, forcing himself to remain calm and making his voice as majestic and upright as possible. "In the name of the God of Calamity and Terror, I grant you the honor of looking upon me!"
God of Calamity and Terror was Tang Chuan's full title. The Main Gods calling him "Calamity" earlier had merely been an abbreviation.
His Divine Core held supreme authority throughout the infinite universes over the four attributes of disaster, Misfortune, surprise, and fear, as well as the events and sensations derived from them. Even other Main Gods could not interfere.
That did not mean the God of Calamity and Terror was one who brought disaster and fear.
Whether it was an illusion or not, the ten statues seemed to tremble the moment Tang Chuan spoke.
Then, a feeling of being watched arose from nowhere.
Tang Chuan's scalp prickled, but he still pointed majestically at a comparatively "kind-looking" statue. "You. Come before me and await my command."
Crack, crack, crack...
The vaguely humanoid statue, resembling a Demon God, began to shake with dull rumbling sounds. In an instant, it climbed down from its pedestal.
It then changed shape, transforming into the human form Tang Chuan recognized, with its skeleton and flesh perfectly recreated.
However, in order to display his weakness and humility before a Main God, the human formed by the statue took the appearance of a child around ten years old and roughly one point four meters tall.
Apparently having learned human etiquette from somewhere, the child immediately dropped to one knee after transforming, pressed his right hand to his chest, and said:
"My Lord, God of Calamity and Terror, above all things in the boundless and endless universes, your servant Arya awaits your command!"
Tang Chuan said with calm majesty, "This body of mine is Mortal. Take me outside."
Arya dipped his head slightly. "As you wish."
His vision blurred again.
Tang Chuan and Arya, who was still half-kneeling, suddenly arrived in a plaza. Looking back, Tang Chuan could tell they were at the edge of the entire Main God Hall complex.
Yet even after everything so astonishing he had witnessed, Tang Chuan was still stunned by the sight before him.
A faint membrane enveloped the Main God Hall.
Below it, space and time twisted continuously in ways visible to the naked eye yet impossible to describe. A boundless silver river ran from some unknown source all the way into the endless distance beyond sight.
In every direction, countless brilliant specks of light, more numerous than grains of sand in a desert, filled the heavens as they revolved around the silver river.
The information in his mind told Tang Chuan that those endless little specks of light were real universes!
And the universe he had once inhabited was merely an utterly inconspicuous one among those endless points of light.
From time to time, strange "substances" broke away from those sand-like specks of light as though paying tribute, merging into the silver river.
Some were essences nurtured by entire universes and returned to the silver river to maintain their order and operation.
Others were supreme beings from within a universe who had transcended their original Universal Rules. Only then did they qualify to transcend their original universes on their own and enter the Main Universe—the silver river.
Only the outstanding among them could be noticed and crowned by lesser gods or even middle gods of the various Main Universes, obtaining supreme honor.
At that moment, the Main God Hall itself was gradually converging toward the silver river under the pull of some force, as though that was where it had originally belonged.
Tang Chuan forcefully suppressed his terror and silently recited, I am the God of Terror. There is nothing worthy of terrifying me. Stay calm.
He looked at Arya, who remained kneeling and did not dare move recklessly. "Rise. I grant you the right to stand at my side and speak with me."
"I am deeply honored."
Arya stood. His face was still childish beneath his height of one point four meters, yet it was filled with solemn ritualistic reverence.
Tang Chuan clasped his hands behind his back. "My true body is conducting a round of contemplation and analysis and cannot be disturbed. This Mortal body cannot cross the stars at present. Present a spaceship to me."
Not every creature in the Main Universe possessed the power to cross the stars. There were weak beings as well.
Thus, there were still many types of things that could be called "spaceships" and help creatures traverse the starry sky.
However, Arya found himself in a difficult position upon hearing this, seeming to want to speak but hesitating.
Tang Chuan's heart stirred, but his expression remained unchanged. "Why do you hesitate?"
With your power, you could easily seize any spaceship, couldn't you?
Even if rules restricted you, casually creating one shouldn't be difficult, should it?
This is the Main God Hall.
Anything that could guard this place year-round had to be incredibly powerful.
Tang Chuan was very confident about that.
Arya said, "But we have guarded the Main God Hall for countless years. Spaceships have no meaning to us, and not one of the existing vessels is worthy of my Lord's status and power."
Tang Chuan sighed in relief.
So he thinks something like a spaceship is too low-class for me to pilot.
Tang Chuan calmed himself and said, "Any vessel will do. I will not punish you. It merely needs to be easily controlled even by a Mortal body."
Don't give me one that takes hundreds of people to operate.
It would be useless even if you did.
It would be best if it had an Artificial Intelligence. I point, and it flies there.
Only then did Arya nod in relief. "Please wait, my Lord."
With that, he vanished.
The next instant, he returned with a Silver Orb in his hand. Holding it up with both hands, he said, "An offering to my Lord!"
Tang Chuan was somewhat bewildered, but he still feigned composure and accepted the orb.
Even a solid sphere of the same size would not have been something Tang Chuan could easily lift.
Yet once it was in his hand, it seemed weightless, as though Arya had bestowed the property of Weightlessness upon it out of consideration for the Calamity Supreme God's current Mortal body.
But...
How was he supposed to use this thing?
Did they all have to be this weird?
The phone was a living tentacle that constantly secreted mucus.
The spaceship was a silver orb the size of a large bowl.
Even Aihuo Yinjing wouldn't know how to use it!