The gods trembled, Destruction demanded answers? Xuanwu had existed before the war in the Divine Realm? [3K]

The great hall of the God Realm Committee.

Poseidon pushed open the doors and stepped inside. His gaze swept around, and his heart gave a sudden jolt.

The atmosphere in the hall today was so heavy it was almost suffocating.

Around the long council table of the Divine Realm, apart from the five law-enforcing God Kings seated at its head-

the Asura God, the Destruction God King, the Goddess of Life, the Evil God King, and the God King of Goodness-the seats on both sides were already filled.

The Angel God, the Rakshasa God, the God of Emotion, the Fire God, the Water God...

Almost every First-Level Main God currently serving in the Divine Realm had gathered here, without a single one missing.

As Poseidon entered, several gazes landed on him in unison, their expressions varied.

The Angel God's cool eyes held confusion, while a mocking smile curled the Rakshasa God's lips as he anticipated a good show.

The eyes of the Fire God, the Water God, and the other main gods were filled with gravity and questioning.

Poseidon said nothing. He merely reined in his divine power in silence, walked to his own main god's Divine Throne, and sat down.

"Now that the Sea God has arrived, let us formally begin."

From the seat of honor, the Asura God spoke coldly.

The Asura God raised his hand, and the Asura Demon Sword quivered.

A blood-red light rapidly spread through the air, forming a vast three-dimensional screen suspended directly above the table.

The screen clearly reflected the current scene in the lower realm on Douluo Star.

Enormous waves churned across the ocean.

Sea God Island, which had once symbolized authority over the ocean, now resembled a withered leaf adrift in a raging storm.

Opposite Sea God Island, that vast, dark landmass stretching beyond sight was slowly advancing with the force of toppling mountains and overturning seas.

The Douluo Continent, Sea God Island, and the Xuanwu Continent formed an exceptionally stark contrast on the screen.

The newly emerged landmass was nearly fifty percent the size of the Douluo Continent, covering more than half the ocean.

"You have all seen it."

The Asura God's icy voice echoed through the hall.

"The rules governing Douluo Star's lower realm have been utterly broken.

This continent that appeared out of nowhere is approaching the Douluo Continent along an irreversible course. The two will meet in no more than three days.

And Sea God Island, lying between them, has already been surrounded by its vanguard legions."

The Rakshasa God leaned against the back of his Divine Throne, lightly tapping the tabletop with slender fingertips, and sneered.

"Asura, mortals living and dying in the lower realm, continents drifting and colliding-these are ordinary laws of a plane's evolution.

Besides, this looks like nothing more than an isolated continent emerging from the depths of the mist-shrouded Ocean, where it has remained hidden for years.

Even if it is half the size of the Douluo Continent, surely that does not warrant summoning every law enforcer and First-Level Main God here?"

The Rakshasa God and the Asura God had never gotten along.

Now the Asura God was presiding over a meeting he had convened.

But the Rakshasa God resented how it delayed his recovery.

Previously, the Rakshasa God had interfered with Tang Chen, causing his cultivation to go berserk, and had been wounded by the Asura God's blade. He still had not fully recovered.

"Ordinary laws?"

The Asura God glanced at the Rakshasa God, his eyes utterly impassive.

"Rakshasa, take a good look.

I did not summon you because of this continent's size, but because of its true nature."

The Asura God pointed a finger, and the image on the screen abruptly zoomed in.

It pierced through layer upon layer of seawater, reaching directly beneath that vast continent.

In an instant, every god in the hall held their breath.

On the screen, beneath that boundless continent stretching for tens of thousands of miles, with its rolling mountains and countless cities, there were no veins of earth or stone.

Instead, there were layers of dark armor, thick as a heavenly chasm, gleaming with endless, shadowy light of chaos.

Ancient divine patterns crisscrossed the tortoise shell, faintly emitting a pressure that made even the gods' Divine Cores tremble.

The Super Divine Artifact-the Mysterious Nether Immortal Armor-displayed its extraordinary might even under the Divine Realm's scrutiny!

"This..."

The Angel God's beautiful eyes abruptly contracted. She rose sharply from her Divine Throne and said in disbelief:

"That isn't an earthen continental shelf... it's a living creature?!

How could anything have such an enormous body?!"

"Correct."

The Asura God said dispassionately:

"This land stretching across tens of thousands of miles, home to hundreds of millions of living beings and half the size of the Douluo Continent, is no continent at all.

It is merely a tortoise shell, the back armor of a divine beast's terrifyingly enormous true body.

Even the true body of the Mountain Dragon King, once one of the Nine Great Dragon Kings, could have been no larger, could it?"

At those words, the entire great hall of the God Realm Committee erupted into an uproar.

"What kind of joke is this?!"

The Fire God slammed the table, and crimson divine flames flared up.

"A living creature carrying half a continent on its back?

Since the birth of the Divine Realm, not even the Dragon God of old had a body this enormous!

How could a lower plane sustain a creature of such proportions?

Wouldn't the plane's will reject it and crush it outright?"

The God of Space's expression also changed drastically as he said gravely:

"Even stranger, why did the observation formations at the Divine Realm's nexus never warn us of this creature's existence before?

An enormous creature like this was drifting through the lower realm, yet the God Realm Committee knew nothing about it!"

The Destruction God King coldly surveyed the gods below him before his gaze finally settled on Poseidon, who had kept his head lowered without saying a word.

"That is something we must ask our God of the Sea."

Asura, Evil, Kindness, and Life all found themselves looking toward the Destruction God King.

Back when Poseidon had first ascended to the Divine Realm, he had told the five of them about this.

But at the time, the five of them had searched Douluo Star over and over without finding the colossal divine beast Poseidon had described carrying an entire continent.

The matter had thus been left unresolved.

The Five Great God Kings had even believed Poseidon was talking nonsense.

But now, what did Destruction mean by saying this?

Passing the blame?

The Destruction God King spoke in a low voice.

"Poseidon, Douluo Star is the ancestral land from which you ascended, and the sea is the very domain of your divine authority.

A monster like this has lived in your backyard for who knows how many years, and even its descendants have established a vast empire. Do not tell me you knew nothing."

The hall instantly fell silent.

Every god's gaze converged on Poseidon.

Poseidon was dumbfounded.

Wait, was this right?

They were just dumping the blame on me?

The Asura God looked at Poseidon and said evenly:

"Poseidon, step forward.

When you ascended to the Divine Realm twenty thousand years ago, you did tell the five of us law enforcers about this.

But our investigation found no trace of this so-called Xuanwu Continent.

Now, it seems there truly was something unusual.

But the ocean is your home ground, after all. It falls to you to give the committee an account of this being."

Poseidon felt a burning sting across his face.

It was the humiliation and embarrassment of having his veil of dignity forcibly torn away before the gods.

Poseidon slowly exhaled a turbid breath, rose, and walked to the very center of the table, beneath the floating screen.

"Lord Asura God is correct."

Poseidon's voice was somewhat hoarse, even carrying a barely concealed tremor.

"That monster... I did indeed know of its existence long ago.

To be precise, it was a full twenty thousand years ago."

The Rakshasa God raised his brows and sneered.

"Oh?

Twenty thousand years ago?

Poseidon, you concealed this from the Divine Realm for twenty thousand whole years.

Do you know what punishment the Divine Realm's laws prescribe for withholding knowledge and allowing something beyond the rules to lurk in the lower realm?"

"Rakshasa, stop standing there talking as though your back doesn't ache!"

Poseidon whipped his head around, fury and terror mingling in his eyes as he roared:

"If you had encountered it back then, you wouldn't be alive to sit here and interrogate me!"

The gods' expressions shifted slightly.

A dignified First-Level Main God was actually admitting in public that he had been utterly powerless to fight back in the lower realm?

Poseidon's chest heaved violently. Pointing at the dark depths of the sea on the screen, his eyes filled with the terror of those memories.

"Twenty thousand years ago, I was still seeking faith in the lower realm, intending to draw upon the power of all the sea's creatures to condense the position of Sea God.

Back then, I considered myself invincible in the sea and patrolled the oceans of all Douluo Star with the Sea God Trident in hand."

"Until one day, I discovered the Xuanwu Continent.

Arrogant and conceited as I was, I tried to conquer it."

At this point, a trace of self-mockery and bitterness appeared at the corners of Poseidon's mouth.

"And the result?

I was taken down into the deep sea and discovered a pair of eyes.

Even though they had yet to open, they filled me with dread."

The Angel God could not help pressing him:

"One eye?

And then?"

Her descendants and her legacy were all on the Douluo Continent.

If even the Divine Realm could do nothing about this so-called Divine Beast Xuanwu...

Then what would become of her descendants?

"And then?

There was no 'then'!"

Poseidon's voice rose, even cracking slightly.

"Merely a wisp of an utterly world-destroying presence leaked out, and three cracks split my Sea God Divine Core on the spot!

Had I not fled for my life using an ultimate escape technique that drew upon the ocean currents, that single strike would have reduced me to dust then and there!"

"After that battle, I was so terrified that I ascended to the Divine Realm in a panic, not even daring to look back.

I am certain he wasn't taking it seriously at all. That eye's response was merely an unconscious reaction to a mosquito bite in his sleep!

Had he truly intended to kill me, the Divine Realm would never have had a Sea God named Poseidon!"

Deathly silence filled the hall.

The First-Level Main Gods exchanged looks, each seeing shock in the others' eyes.

A wisp of leaked presence had nearly killed a demigod at the very pinnacle, on the verge of becoming a god, in an instant?

"Absurd!"

The God of Space frowned and rebuked him:

"How could a lower-realm creature possess such divine might?

Douluo Star's planar capacity could never permit power of that magnitude to exist!

Is he not suppressed by the rules of heaven?"

Poseidon let out a long sigh, his tone filled with dejection and helplessness.

"God of Space, a plane's capacity applies to ordinary living beings.

Before an existence like that, the mortal world's rules may be nothing more than a thin sheet of paper."

Poseidon raised his eyes and surveyed the gods in the hall, voicing the reflections and deductions he had made over the years.

"After escaping with my life back then, I searched through the oldest ruins whose traces could still be found throughout the entire ocean.

I suspect... that Xuanwu was not a Soul Beast born later on Douluo Star. Its existence may even predate the establishment of the Divine Realm and the Dragon God War!"