Chapter 245.1: Deity Fragments, Contemplating the Law, Glimpsing the Origin of Heaven and Earth! (I)

"Withdraw," Lu Changsheng muttered.

The Great Moon True God's body had been torn to pieces, nearly half of it already gone, reduced to ash.

Lu Changsheng's colossal hand immediately grasped after the shattered remains, as those were the deity fragments he sought. From the intelligence given by the various sacred lands, Lu Changsheng knew that much clearly.

A deity could essentially never be taken alive. If a deity realized it was outmatched, it would self-detonate, and once it did, its body was reduced entirely to ash, leaving not a single fragment behind. Thus, there was really no point in trying to capture one. The most one could do was to blast the deity apart and see how many fragments were left.

Lu Changsheng gathered the fragments of the Great Moon True God's body into his hand, and one brief sweep of his gaze was enough to make him shake his head with a touch of regret.

Only three of the deity fragments were large. The rest, more than a dozen of them, were small, and those small ones were hardly of any use. What the sacred lands wanted were the large deity fragments.

Eh, three deity fragments will do well enough. That amounts to completing three sacred lands' commissions. Many Martial Saints who came to the Divine Region for the first time not only walked away with nothing, they died there. Even the ones who managed to slay a deity ended up with only a fragment or two.

Although slightly disappointed, Lu Changsheng knew that three fragments was an objectively decent haul. Some had blasted a deity apart and come away without a single fragment, all that effort wasted.

"Hmm?" Lu Changsheng looked up.

The whole of the Moon Capital had been blanketed in dense power of faith, but now, that faith was vanishing astonishingly fast.

With the power of faith scattering and his body already destroyed, the Great Moon False God would never recover, and with the Great Moon True God blasted apart as well, he was essentially dead.

The Great Moon True God, of course, would not die. It was the incarnation of Law, and so long as heaven and earth endured, a deity could not perish. It would only sink into slumber, and one day it would be born again. That was what made the deities so terrifying.

It was why the experts of the Immortal Dao and the Martial Dao had joined forces in those early days to drive the deities into the Divine Region. There was simply no way to kill these deities for good, so banishment was the only option. It also gave the martial artists the means to temper themselves and obtain deity fragments, making it easier to become Earthly Saints.

"S-Spare us, Evil God."

"We are willing to hold faith in you, Lord."

"Great Evil God, have mercy..."

Having witnessed the Great Moon True God being obliterated by the Evil God before them, the people of the Moon Capital were stunned. The ones with quick wits, trembling from head to foot with terror written across their faces, kowtowed toward Lu Changsheng again and again, begging for mercy. They had heard that Evil Gods were unspeakably wicked, apt to raze cities and destroy nations at the slightest provocation.

Lu Changsheng paid the people of the Moon Capital no mind and went to stand before Tang Lu. If he left now, she would be in serious danger, perhaps lynched by the enraged crowd.

"Let's go," he said, and with a beckon of his hand he caught hold of Tang Lu, the two of them turning into a streak of light and vanishing without a trace. He had destroyed the Great Moon True God, but he understood perfectly well that once the other deities began to investigate, he would be in trouble.

The Great Moon Divine Empire was no place to linger either. So, Lu Changsheng simply drew on the power of his Saint Body and quickly reached Kang City.

"Tang Lu, now that the Great Moon True God is dead, remaining in the Great Moon Divine Empire would be very dangerous for you. I'll change your appearance and erase everything that could identify you. Then take your brother and leave for another divine empire, and no deity should be able to trace you."

Lu Changsheng had thought through the aftermath long in advance.

Tang Lu let out a gentle breath of relief. "I'll do as you arrange, Master."

She was not afraid of death. Her own life, in truth, did not mean much to her. But her brother did, and she wanted nothing to happen to him.

This Evil God had not discarded her once she had served her purpose. He had thought out a way forward for her instead.

Lu Changsheng then swiftly remade the appearances of both Tang Lu and her brother, erased every trace that clung to them, and sent them out of the Great Moon Divine Empire. What came afterward would be up to them. They could not leave the Divine Region, and following Lu Changsheng would only mean death.

Whoosh!

With the two of them gone, Lu Changsheng wasted no more time and headed straight for the boundary of the Divine Region. He was utterly resolute in leaving the Divine Region outright and returning to the waters beyond it.

However, he had barely when an overwhelmingly powerful consciousness swept across the whole of the Great Moon Divine Empire in an instant.

This aura... A Martial Dao divine ability. A single Martial Saint, able to destroy the Great Moon True God by his own strength alone. Likely a supreme Human Saint. Fled quickly enough though.

One sweep of that terrifying being's consciousness was enough to set hearts pounding. It was surely no mere Human Saint, and not even an Earthly Saint. That was most likely a Heavenly Saint!

By the deities' own divisions, above a True God stood a Divine King, and above a Divine King stood a Divine Lord, which corresponded to Earthly Saint and Heavenly Saint. The only real difference was in the names.

"Phew..." Lu Changsheng let out a long breath.

That consciousness was terrifying. It has to be a Divine Lord, which is to say the Heavenly Saint Realm! Any slower and it would have locked onto me, and then leaving would have been near impossible. I moved as fast as I could, and I still nearly got caught.

Lu Changsheng felt a chill run through him in hindsight. He had underestimated how keen the deities were. The moment a Martial Saint or a Nascent Soul cultivator was detected, the nearest deity would come at once.

Any Martial Saint or Nascent Soul cultivator was a common enemy of the deities within the Divine Region. But once outside the Divine Region, however, there was nothing to fear.

Lu Changsheng found a barren island in the sea and came to a stop. He sat down cross-legged and immediately brought up his Status Panel.

[Status Panel]

Host: Lu Changsheng

Perception: 904,000 (Praised for a Hundred Generations)

Primordial Chaos Saint Body: Momentum of the Masses (51%)

His Perception had broken through the 900,000 mark. Now, the one million threshold no longer seemed out of reach. The Primordial Chaos Saint Body had reached fifty-one percent as well, remarkably swift progress.

Lu Changsheng took out the deity fragments, and examined the three large ones only briefly before putting them away. He would not use those carelessly. The dozen-odd small ones, though, were useless scarps.

A faint glint of sharp light flickered in his eyes. In truth, he had become quite knowledgeable about deity fragments. He knew that in the ancient era, from Human Saints to Earthly Saints, humanity had possessed no deity fragments at all. The whole world was ruled by the deities, and no one dared resist them. Later, martial artists and immortal cultivators gradually emerged.

The first Earthly Saint had not advanced with a deity fragment either. They had become an Earthly Saint by their own strength.

Deity fragments had nonetheless proven to make the advancement to the Earthly Saint Realm easier and more efficient, and Lu Changsheng was not about to leave the better method aside and insist on comprehending his way to the Earthly Saint Realm by himself.

Lu Changsheng's Primordial Chaos Saint Body had not yet reached Perfection, but the Earthly Saint Realm placed greater weight on contemplation. So after some thought, since the dozen-odd badly shattered scraps were useless anyway, he decided to try one for himself.