The First Immortal of Destiny

"The last time an Immortal Master visited was probably over two hundred years ago!"

"My venerable ancestor, when young, once had the fortune to witness figures like Master Shen and Master Chen firsthand. All I have known is passed down orally through generations..." Leader Ma muttered, while trying hard to recall buried memories.

Approximately two hundred and thirty years ago, seven cultivators arrived at this nameless mountain village, which at that time had not yet moved to the border mountains but was hidden in another remote mountain area of Qing Country.

With the arrival of the seven Immortal Masters, the village began to prosper;

At its peak, it had over three thousand people, gathered mountain herbs for the Immortal Masters, brewed blood-replenishing potions, forged weapons and armor, and provided all other necessary support!

In other words, the so-called Godslayer Palace was more like a logistics base for outsider cultivators resisting the power of deities.

Of the seven outsider cultivators, five died in battles against god disciples and deities, whereas the other two successfully slew a deity, then mysteriously disappeared soon after returning to the nameless mountain village; according to their words before disappearing, they had met the conditions to leave and returned to their original world.

Moreover, these two had told the villagers that perhaps they would return to this realm after a period, but Leader Ma’s venerable ancestor waited from childhood to old age and never saw them again.

In the two hundred years thereafter, the cultivators active in various places either perished or left, with no new outsider cultivators joining, causing the forces of Godslayer Palace to lose the strength to counter the deities, gradually declining.

The nameless mountain village also moved to the border mountains during this period, to avoid the frenzied massacres by god disciples.

Struggling to survive until now, the village now has only a little over a hundred people, mostly the old, weak, women, and children.

If Shen Mo and Chen Mengze arrived any later, this village would have been slaughtered by god disciples completely!

"So that’s how it is!"

After hearing Leader Ma’s narration, Shen Mo felt a complex, indescribable emotion.

Sympathy for the hardships faced by the nameless mountain village and other Godslayer Palace forces, admiration for their indomitable will, and a sense of revelation that the path ahead had become clearer!

He, Chen Mengze, and other outsider cultivators, having witnessed the beauty of the immortal world, naturally wouldn’t willingly lose their Immortal Dao Cultivation and grow old and die in this world where the immortal path is extinct, thus any cost is understandable; however, beings like Leader Ma from this realm are different, they purely believed that a world without deities would be more beautiful, silently enduring for tens of thousands of years for it!

Shen Mo didn’t know where the Godslayer Palace disciples’ thoughts originated, perhaps it was planted when they first encountered an outsider cultivator and heard their description of the immortal world.

Little did he know that for ordinary mortals, even in the immortal world, they face utterly different situations.

Some mortals spend their lives in mediocrity, oblivious to cultivation; some are raised by demons and monsters, becoming the resources for their cultivation; others reside in cave paradises, where they can live worry-free without labor, enjoying a hundred years without the need for cultivation...

If all deities in the cultivation world were eradicated, even Shen Mo couldn’t predict whether the beings in this realm would be better off or worse off!

One thing is certain, at least there’d be no need to sacrifice their flesh and soul; if free of disease, with the environment of this blue planet, living to a hundred and eighty isn’t too difficult for an ordinary person; even after death, they could reincarnate, rather than having their soul scatter upon death.

In any case, Shen Mo has no position or qualification to criticize the Godslayer Palace disciples’ persistence over tens of thousands of years!

"Originally, I just wanted to act according to my heart, to make contact with the Godslayer Palace forces here, to see if I could glimpse the truth of the deities, paving the way to immortality."

"Unexpectedly, it became a chance to leave this realm..."

Shen Mo looked at Chen Mengze’s similarly thoughtful, beautiful face, pondering silently.

The situation is very clear now; for outsider cultivators like them, caught by Death Jaw, wanting to leave the cultivation world, there’s only one path—to slay a deity!

Of course, they could choose to live incognito, ignoring worldly affairs.

However, they might be sought out by god disciples, and under the relentless assault and siege by unending strong enemies, they’d continuously deplete their primal Essence and Qi, eventually starving to death or being beaten to death; and the best outcome would be maintaining their original cultivation level, waiting until their Lifespan expires and dying of old age in this world!

Instead of this, better to choose collaboration with Godslayer Palace forces, trying to kill a deity.

After all, during Leader Ma’s venerable ancestor’s time, two "Immortal Masters" did disappear after completing the god-killing task!

As for why they didn’t fulfill their promise to return to this realm, according to Shen Mo and Chen Mengze’s speculation... either there was a problem with Death Jaw in between, or the two got delayed due to seclusion and cultivation after returning, or they perished in their original world.

There are still many unanswered questions, unable to be resolved for now!

For instance, what is the purpose of Death Jaw in asking outsider cultivators to slay deities? Was it simply treating it as a challenge for everyone?

A powerful celestial artifact like Death Jaw wouldn’t target deities of this realm out of "compassion for the beings of the cultivation world"; after all, it’s a magic artifact, its existence form is entirely different from ordinary mortals, how could it have compassion or empathy for the Human Race in this realm?

Even if Death Jaw had thoughts of compassion for all beings, just in the Universal Realm, suffering immortal and mortal humans number in billions, why go to great lengths to come to the cultivation world, persisting for tens of thousands of years!

"Perhaps, after we slay a deity, the truth will be further revealed to us."

While pondering, Shen Mo helped Leader Ma pour a cup of tea, continuing, "God disciples are easy to deal with, only having supernal power beyond ordinary people. But those so-called ’deities’, we don’t even know what they are, so it’s impossible to kill them!"

The vast majority of the Human Race in this realm worship deities, whether Righteous God or Evil God, thus they are all god disciples, merely differing in strength and weakness.

Therefore, unless committing boundless bloodshed, killing all human beings in the cultivation world regardless of strength, entangling with god disciples is meaningless... kill one batch and another will flood in, almost endless!

The crux of the problem remains with the so-called "deities".

Upon hearing Shen Mo’s inquiry, Leader Ma pondered for a long time, then tremblingly fetched paper and pen from a worn-out cabinet, drawing a rather complex pattern on the yellowed paper.

Shen Mo and Chen Mengze fixed their gazes, quickly noticing the oddity of the drawing.

"Seems... it’s a kind of rune!"