Little Pink Starfish

However, while such a method worked in the Summer Dynasty, it wouldn’t fly in the Anser Empire. Fortunately, Emperor Gubis wasn’t as reclusive as Tianyin. He loved hunting and would regularly leave the palace for the royal hunting grounds. Coincidentally, among the factions the players had infiltrated, one of them happened to be the family of a palace guard squad captain who accompanied the hunts.

In the end, the infiltrating players gave up on their original cover. That family was too stupid, malicious, and stingy—they decided to switch allegiances. With the quest in hand, they went all out and kidnapped the captain’s beloved mistress, forcing him to bring the quest-holding player into the hunting party.

Thanks to the cooperation of scattered players in the capital, the plan was pulled off smoothly. The player successfully slipped into the palace guard and met Emperor Gubis.

Then… he completed the quest—
And got executed as a fugitive.

The execution wasn’t the problem. The issue was that Emperor Gubis began to suspect the Bix clan and wanted to confirm whether the player had revived. Fortunately, players from nearby cities rallied together, and through a coordinated effort, they smuggled the player out. He barely avoided getting captured again.

Compared to the “unconventional” method used in the Summer Dynasty, this approach was also manipulative but less flashy. Still, the result was the same—both empires had the quest completed. If anything, the Anser Empire had more players involved and executed the mission more efficiently. But public reaction was less enthusiastic; after all, the “successful eunuch infiltration” left a much more lasting impression.

“So, now that both monarchs know… what will they do?” Pei Sen was curious. But even if they did nothing, he wouldn’t be surprised. The banquet of the gods was approaching, and the gods’ centuries-old aura of intimidation still hung heavy.

As the day of the banquet drew near, the two monarchs remained inactive. This disappointed Pei Sen. Meanwhile, gods had begun to arrive. Many ancient deities almost never left their Divine Realms. Those who did came at the last moment. Pei Sen noticed how many of them were shrouded in dense faith power—so much that their appearances were blurred. A chill ran down his spine.

Up to now, gods like the Night Ancestor, Mirror God, and the Silent God had been weak. They lacked enough faith power to affect their appearance. They looked just like ordinary people.

But as the banquet approached, Pei Sen realized not all gods were like that.

“Is this okay?” Eagle also felt uneasy and frowned.

Pei Sen glanced at him and said softly, “I originally thought becoming a god meant wielding faith power. But now it looks like… these gods are being swallowed by it.”

At that moment, he thought of the missing Four Major Gods… Swallowed by faith power? A god capable of gathering it?

The gods behind the Gate of Eternity rarely left their Divine Realms. They diligently collected faith and, within those realms, felt invincible.

Pei Sen looked up at the Gate floating in midair—still heavy, silent, and unmoving.

“I’ve always thought—this world’s method of becoming a god is far too easy.”

Eagle chuckled, “Well, to be fair, they haven’t had a new god in a thousand years. Doesn’t sound that easy.”

“But it really isn’t that hard. And… even after becoming a god, it doesn’t feel like being a true god.”

Compared to real divinities, the gods of the Gate of Eternity were just false gods wrapped in lies!

“Bix Magic Cube, since we’ve attracted faith power from players—has anything changed?” Pei Sen asked, reconnecting with the Cube.

Bix Magic Cube: “I didn’t pay close attention, but… something does feel a little off.”

“What do you mean?”

“The faith power I give you is adjusted by me. Other gods don’t do that.” The Cube sounded uneasy. “You two should be careful. Don’t let others notice.”

“Adjusted? How exactly?”

“Wait a second. I’ve also detected something strange in the faith power coming from this world’s natives.” Bix Magic Cube replied quickly. “Hold on, I’ll analyze the composition.”

Pei Sen: “…”

What are you, a lab instrument?

After about ten minutes, Bix Magic Cube returned, “Um… it’s best you avoid using faith power from this world’s native population.”

Pei Sen’s heart stirred. “You mean there’s something wrong with it? Could these blurry-faced gods be getting consumed by it?”

“Pretty much. This native faith power has a strong assimilative force.”

“What?”

“I mean, eventually, you’d be assimilated by the faith power itself—losing your own will and consciousness. And based on my analysis, its composition is essentially the same as that gate.”

Bix Magic Cube added quickly, “Well, except the gate doesn’t have a consciousness—”

Why did that sound—

“Are you saying… that gate is just like you, except it lacks a mind?”

You’re too smart for your own good.

“Wait, there’s no faith power in the real world. Does that mean—?”

Bix Magic Cube cut him off quickly, “Don’t lump me in with that low-level stuff. I wasn’t formed from faith power!”

“Then what are you?”

“I’m just me!”

Pei Sen paused, looking again at the Gate. “So… you’re the incarnation of a world, and that Gate is too?”

Bix Magic Cube: “……”

Yeah. It really hated smart people sometimes.

“No wonder this world feels more solid than the others. It’s taken a different path—condensing itself using faith power. Even if faith is crude, it’s still a kind of belief. Over time, this world will grow more stable, more real. That’s why when it overlaps with the real world, it causes serious trouble.”

Pei Sen was thoughtful. “So the Four Major Gods disappeared because they absorbed too much faith power—and got completely assimilated?”

That meant… they might have become part of the Gate itself. The thought was chilling.

“Maybe so.”

Because neither Pei Sen nor Eagle had accepted native faith power, Bix Magic Cube had never analyzed it until now. It wasn’t all-knowing—it wasn’t a god of the Gate of Eternity.

“Let’s go.” Eagle, unaware of Pei Sen’s exchange with the Cube, was ready to head to the banquet.

Pei Sen looked at his face—sharp and handsome—and remembered those gods so drenched in light that even their features had become indistinct. He reached out and touched Eagle’s cheek. “…If you ever end up looking like that, that would be unacceptable.”

Such a beautiful face going blurry would be a real tragedy.

Eagle: “?”

“Block all native faith power from us.”

Bix Magic Cube: “Relax, I’m not going to let that stupid, mindless gate swallow you up!” It sounded smug, full of contempt for the Gate.

“Because you still want me to guide players on other servers, don’t you?”

Bix Magic Cube: “…” You figured that out so easily?

“Since we know the truth, we can start leaking clues about the Four Gods to the players.”

Pei Sen was about to walk with Eagle toward the banquet when suddenly—a bolt of lightning struck from the sky, covering the entire mountain range!

The two of them teleported away just in time, watching as the meticulously prepared banquet venue by the Goddess of Harvest and Martial Ancestor was obliterated in an instant.

“Is this… retaliation from the two monarchs?” Pei Sen had thought they were doing nothing this whole time.

After so many soldiers had died—if they had learned that the gods were behind it all, how could they not be furious?

Eagle raised an eyebrow. “That move was too blunt, too direct. Doesn’t match their usual personalities.”

Pei Sen nodded. “You’re right. It lacks subtlety. It’s basically a public statement of hostility toward the attending gods.”

That almost-world-ending strike likely involved all of both nations’ top transcendents. Just as Pei Sen suspected—while gods were powerful, outside their Divine Realms, there wasn’t an unbridgeable gap between them and the best mortal elites.

“So… aren’t they afraid of divine retaliation?”

With faith power in their realms, the Goddess of Harvest and the Martial Ancestor were very strong. If the Four Gods were still around, the monarchs wouldn’t dare challenge them. But now that the Four Gods were presumed missing, their protection alone couldn’t stop the other gods.

Pei Sen wondered—was there another conspiracy behind all this?

At that moment, a player named Dongfang Bubai, dressed in eunuch attire, was carefully tending to incense in the palace. Through the curling smoke, he saw the emperor’s face, blurred yet faintly smiling.

“Divine wrath? Let them be angry…” the emperor said softly. “I’m just a mortal emperor—of course I can’t stand against divine fury.”

He murmured, “Looks like it’s time to prepare.”

Prepare? Prepare for what…? The player was confused. But when he checked his main quest progress—he’d done nothing—and yet it had somehow reached 4%. Strange indeed.

A month later, the Summer Dynasty officially declared that the Dragon Ancestor and Flame Ancestor had betrayed their people—hence the disastrous war losses. From now on, they would worship the Martial Ancestor and Scholar Ancestor, rebuild their unmatched army, and strive to conquer the Anser Empire to unify the land.

At the same time, the Anser Empire announced that the War God and Earth Goddess had fallen. Henceforth, they would revere the Goddess of Harvest and Storm God, praying for eternal harvests and storms to sweep across the world under their name.

When Pei Sen got the news, he raised an eyebrow. “Those two surrendered way too quickly. That’s not normal.”

“It’s retaliation and a smooth excuse to switch gods and redirect faith. Smart move,” Eagle commented.

After the banquet was abruptly cut short, only Pei Sen and Eagle didn’t return to their Divine Realms. The other gods fled back immediately.

They now understood—when top-level transcendents joined forces, they could pose a real threat. Only within their Divine Realms did the gods feel truly safe.

“Redirecting faith, huh? That’s a good way to put it.”

The Four Major Gods had likely already been swallowed by the Gate. Now, it was time for four new ones.

They had worked so hard to collect faith power, scheming endlessly. And now that they’d been devoured, their faith power remained—still under the Gate’s control. But compared to indirect harvesting, directly devouring gods must be far more efficient for the Gate.

“I think… Gubis and Tianyin probably know the truth about the Gate,” Eagle said.

Pei Sen frowned. “But they’re just mortal emperors—how would they know?”

“These kingdoms have existed for many generations. The royal families have always been closely tied to the Major Gods. Maybe the secret wasn’t discovered by Gubis or Tianyin themselves, but passed down through the dynasty. Plenty of smart people in that bloodline.”

Pei Sen understood. The emperors might not be old, but their families had ruled these lands for countless generations.

In terms of intelligence, those foolish gods might not even measure up to these so-called “mortals.”

“Besides, the retaliation this time—the coordination among those top-level transcendents—was too smooth. These were elites from two nations locked in generations of bloody war.”

Pei Sen laughed. “Yeah. They looked more united than the gods who are supposedly on the same side.”

So in this world, the gods believed themselves divine, and the mortals beneath them mere obedient believers. But the truth beneath it all was far different.

“No wonder there haven’t been new gods in a thousand years. Did the top transcendents really fail to open the Gate?”

“No,” Eagle said.
“They just… didn’t want to.”

Pei Sen sighed. “So in the world of the Gate of Eternity, only idiots become gods.”

Eagle let out a laugh. “You realize you just insulted yourself too, right, Pei Sen?”

“It’s fine. We’re not going to be this world’s gods anyway.” He looked at Eagle. “Come on. Let’s go back to the Yali Continent. Let’s go home.”

“Okay.”

Having unearthed the truth of the world, Pei Sen figured the integration level must be sky-high. From here, Bix Magic Cube would surely guide the players to dig deeper into this absurd web of lies between gods and mortals.

Gods treated mortals like fools—living above them in dazzling Divine Realms, wanting them to serve as believers and fuel.

Mortals treated gods like fools—feeding them faith power and letting them bask in delusions of grandeur, until the Gate consumed them whole.

Fascinating. No wonder this world was called the Gate of Eternity.

But Pei Sen… really didn’t like this world.

“Hey, Bix Magic Cube, do you think I’ll ever make it home one day? Will that day really come?”

Bix Magic Cube: “Of course it will.”

It replied proudly—
Because it never played those silly, low-level tricks. Not like that stupid gate, lying to mortals. So utterly lame.

It was a clever, graceful, kind, beautiful spirit of the world.
It never lied to mortals.