Lord of Prayer

「Divine War Ruins.」

A silver, calamitous star, carrying an overwhelming killing intent, plummeted brazenly from the sky. The three Demigods instinctively sensed a trace of danger.

The Golden Flame Demi-God was the first to act. A golden Fireball, burning at five thousand degrees, materialized and engulfed the silver meteor. Its outermost armor immediately began to melt in the terrifying heat.

[Divine Power corrosion detected... Activating anti-divinity defense protocols...]

[High-temperature adaptation evolution complete... Ability analysis complete... Authority analysis complete...]

A series of reports echoed in Tang Ling’s mind. The outer armor, which should have been burned to ash, suddenly stopped melting. It fully withstood the terrifying heat. Immediately after, her engines spewed endless flames as she accelerated abruptly, rocketing out of the golden Fireball like the brilliant light of a burning meteor.

[Target locked. Activating Skills.]

[Pilfer, Intelligence Reduction, Induce Sleep, Weakness, Petrify, Decay, Seize, Soul Freeze, Deprive, Vitality Corruption, Forced Entering the Dream, Mental Confusion, Cognitive Interference, Wither Eye, Death Eye...]

Her Power Furnace blazed as a massive amount of Essence vaporized. In that instant, countless Extraordinary Abilities were unleashed upon the Golden Flame Demi-God. His aura plummeted, drool trickled from the corner of his mouth, and his eyes closed in exhaustion. His skin slackened, covered in the wrinkles of old age...

The armor hummed. The burning machine god descended from the sky, its cold, smooth steel faceplate glowing with a crimson light—the herald of the Death God’s arrival.

Tang Ling reached over her shoulder and fluidly drew a rod-shaped object from the weapon pack on her back.

Seeing this, Zhou Chen’s pupils contracted sharply.

’This is...’

The bloodstained Saint’s Shroud fell away, revealing a longsword with an ancient, profound aura. A terrifying, murderous energy instantly erupted, tearing through heaven and earth. Streaks of Sword Aura shot out in all directions, slashing countless black gashes into space that refused to heal.

[Godslaying Mode activated. Engines at full power.]

A crown symbolizing destruction materialized above Tang Ling’s head. Layers of light swirled and settled upon her body as the roar of her overloaded engines echoed between heaven and earth.

An intense killing intent spread like a storm, instantly shredding the Extraordinary Plants covering most of the ruins into dust. The other two Demigods were plunged into absolute horror.

The Godslaying Blade, held in the hand of the Godslaying Weapon, swung forward, splitting the World itself.

As a terrifying blade of light flashed past, the Golden Flame Demi-God was decapitated. In that same instant, the Godslaying Blade destroyed his divine soul, extinguishing any possibility of resurrection. Just like that, a Demigod had fallen.

Immediately after, a golden flame surged from the corpse as the Authority he commanded gradually gathered and condensed into a small, quietly burning golden flamelet.

After that single strike, Tang Ling suffered a severe backlash. Her entire body felt as if it had been slashed by invisible Sword Qi. Gashes tore across her steel frame, and severed circuits sparked. She was riddled with holes.

However, as a cold and ruthless robot, such injuries were no issue for her.

Tang Ling turned, the crimson light of her faceplate swaying in the air. The crown above her head suddenly changed style, becoming dazzlingly brilliant. It was as magnificent and noble as if forged from Gold, radiating a warmth like the Sun.

The shadows on the battlefield receded like a tide, forcing a pale-faced man out of the darkness, his expression one of terror.

[Pilfer, Intelligence Reduction, Induce Sleep, Weakness, Petrify, Decay, Seize, Soul Freeze, Deprive, Vitality Corruption, Forced Entering the Dream, Mental Confusion, Cognitive Interference, Wither Eye, Death Eye...]

A series of Skills activated, freezing the pale-faced man in place. His Power was even weaker than the previous Demigod’s.

The Godslaying Blade in Tang Ling’s hand was now coated in sparkling Divine Blood. It CLANGED and hummed, glowing with unprecedented brilliance.

"Mm... I understand."

Tang Ling murmured suddenly, as if responding to the blade’s high-pitched hum.

She tightened her grip on the Godslaying Blade and once again swung it down at the Demigod.

The blade swept horizontally. A flash of chilling light easily severed the Demigod’s head. This time, because the Godslaying Blade had drunk its fill of Divine Blood, Tang Ling suffered no backlash. However, the cost of using the blade was immense. Two-thirds of her Energy Cores were drained and extinguished, and over seventy percent of her components were severely damaged. Puffs of black smoke rose from the seams of her mechanical body.

Afterward, a viscous mass of shadow separated from the corpse of the Demigod who held the Authority of shadow.

"I surrender!"

Before Tang Ling could make her next move, the woman who held the Authority of the Life and Reproduction Realms hastily raised her hands and shouted, "I’m willing to surrender! Don’t kill me!"

Tang Ling paused, then nodded. She opened her shattered hand, aimed it at the woman from a distance, and yanked forcefully. Her entire arm instantly exploded. Countless mechanical parts flew everywhere amidst a shower of sparks, accompanied by the mournful groaning of overstrained metal.

A deep green ball of light was forcibly torn from the woman’s body. The fractured metal bones of her hand seized the light. In the next second, flesh and blood began to grow. Fair, warm, and supple flesh sprouted on the metal skeleton, from which dangled several scorched black wires!

Tang Ling froze. In that brief moment of shock, the shattered arm had completely regrown its flesh, transforming into a smooth, fair, and slender female arm. But then, green sprouts began to emerge from its pores, about to grow into plants.

She immediately sealed the deep green orb of light, which contained a terrifying Life Force, and teleported it to the Star Association Research Institute via an Any Door.

After losing the deep green light, the plants entwined around the female Demigod rustled and fell away, exposing her naked body. She no longer exuded the aura of a Demigod; not even a trace of Essence Fluctuation remained. She had reverted to a mortal.

A look of clear shock, confusion, and disbelief appeared on the woman’s face. She didn’t understand why her Power had vanished.

「Star Association Command Room.」

Li Xiye covered Zhou Chen’s eyes, preventing him from seeing the woman’s naked body.

He, however, was lost in immense shock, unable to pull himself out of it.

Not because of the woman’s body, of course, but because Tang Ling had dealt with three Demigods in less than twenty seconds...

He had thought the Divine War would last for a long time—the kind where two supreme beings battle to the edge of the Cosmos until the Great Dao itself is ground to dust. Who would have thought it would be over in less than half a minute? One could only say that the Godslaying Weapon and the Godslaying Blade were terrifyingly powerful.

"These Demigods from the Old Era seem very weak," Li Xiye said, removing her hand from Zhou Chen’s eyes. She frowned at another screen, which showed the battlefield between the "Silent One" and the Fallen Paradise Demi-God. The two were evenly matched, fighting back and forth, with all sorts of unimaginable Extraordinary Skills appearing one after another.

Compared to that, the other three Demigods were like children fighting with wooden sticks.

Even if the Godslaying Weapon was that ferocious, they were still three Demigods. They went down a little too quickly...

"Heh... Of course."

The Prophet’s voice came through. "If they were proper Demigods, Tang Ling certainly wouldn’t have ended the fight so easily, nor could she have so effortlessly stripped the Authority from a living Demigod."

"Not proper Demigods?" Zhou Chen was stunned. ’What does that mean?’

"The period of the Old Era’s Extraordinary boom and its subsequent destruction were very close together—less than three years apart. Becoming a Demigod in three years?"

The Prophet chuckled. "In an age where they hadn’t even fully figured out the Extraordinary System, that was absolutely impossible.

The Demigods and True Gods of the Old Era basically achieved their status through serendipity, not through their own cultivation. Simply put, they were just a group of ordinary people who suddenly obtained immense Power."

"This... they directly obtained Divine Level Power?"

Zhou Chen was speechless. ’And they didn’t die from that?’ It was truly incomprehensible.

The Prophet said, "The Old Era holds many secrets, and this is one of them. It’s directly linked to the destruction of the Old Era. We don’t know where these people obtained their Power, nor do we know how they managed to withstand it.

"However, we’re about to find out."