Chapter 147: Entry

Whether the people of Jiuzhou were trying to sneak in and got caught, or those holy spirits of the deities harbored malicious intentions and were intercepted, some kind of sealing power seemed to exist here. Both sides were merely engaged in a standstill without breaking out into a full-scale battle.

The arrival of Zhou Tian attracted the attention of both sides. The Dao Soldiers of the Dao Alliance present had never witnessed Zhou Tian's overwhelming might in the arena, so they did not pay excessive attention to him. Seeing him arrive, they merely motioned for him to join their ranks.

"Roar!"

The stone giant spirit among the divine kingdom's holy spirits let out an incomprehensible roar, and the other holy spirits also roared, but it went no further than that, with no further actions taken.

Zhou Tian glanced sideways at the group of holy spirits, having no idea what they were howling about, and ignoring the Dao Soldiers of the Dao Alliance entirely, his figure flashed and he appeared directly before the bronze ancient hall's gates.

Observing the gate at such close range, an air of profound antiquity and heaviness rushed toward him. Massive patterns were engraved upon it, along with various statues. Zhou Tian spotted a statue surrounded by numerous winged creatures, which should be the Lord of Holy Spirits, as well as a deity standing upon a Pegasus war chariot holding a giant sword, with numerous corpses of all kinds of creatures lying beneath the chariot.

There were statues of all sorts, seemingly depicting every deity, yet many of their faces were blurred, giving off a sense of having lost their spiritual essence for reasons unknown.

A captain-level figure among the Dao Soldiers frowned upon seeing Zhou Tian completely ignore his signal. Disobeying commands on a battlefield was a major taboo that could lead to many unpredictable consequences, and he immediately shouted, "Come back over here! We have already scouted it out—there are restriction barriers, and it's impossible to enter!"

Hearing this, Zhou Tian turned back. He was not angry, knowing the captain meant no harm, and smiled, "Let me try."

The captain's frown deepened, and just as he was about to speak again, his pupils suddenly constricted. Right before the bronze ancient hall's gates, Zhou Tian's figure had vanished abruptly, leaving him utterly shocked and setting a myriad of thoughts racing through his mind.

Bang! Bang!

The stone giant spirit smashed its basin-sized fist against the bronze bricks. Though capable of shaking a small mountain, the blow left not the slightest trace. Possessing considerable intelligence, they naturally knew what Zhou Tian's disappearance signified.

The captain cast an unfriendly look toward the group of holy spirits. Regardless of everything, Zhou Tian was a person of Jiuzhou and had entered the Pantheon ahead of time. Although it remained unknown whether dangers lurked within the great hall, it was by no means a bad thing at present.

Had this place not been shrouded by restriction barriers that suppressed the use of all energy, he would have already charged in.

Meanwhile, Zhou Tian had entered the Pantheon directly. Just as he suspected, those ancient deities were not so bored as to build a gate over three thousand one hundred meters thick.

At first, he entered a pitch-black place where he could not see his hand before his face. But before he could make a move, a light ignited before his eyes, illuminating the space.

"Whoa."

Looking around, Zhou Tian was startled, for seated upon the bronze ancient throne nearest to him was a deity, prompting him to instinctively use teleportation to distance himself from the spot.

Yet after a moment, no movement came. Zhou Tian felt something was amiss; if a deity were truly sitting here, it should have discovered him long ago and taken action.

Returning to the throne, Zhou Tian noticed some abnormalities. The figure looked solid, but in reality, it was merely an illusory projection with an extremely blurred face, making it impossible to discern anything, and it fell far short of the aura projected by the Lord of Holy Spirits.

"Surely this isn't just placed here to scare people."

Zhou Tian rubbed his chin, feeling those deities shouldn't be that idle.

Examining the scene closely, this was a massive hall, far larger than it appeared from the outside—the spatial dimensions here must have been expanded. He was at the very rear, with the bronze ancient hall's gates right behind him.

Two rows of colossal bronze ancient thrones extended forward. A single chair leg alone was dozens of zhang high, covered in carvings, and it seemed the patterns on each seat were distinct.

Looking into the distance, at the very front stood an even more enormous throne, far larger than the others, upon which another illusory figure sat. That appeared to be the seat of the King of Gods.

Furthermore, illusory figures sat upon many of the thrones, particularly dense near the rear where every single bronze ancient throne was occupied by some inexplicable phantom.

"According to this seating arrangement, the ones at the very rear should be the weakest deities."

Zhou Tian adjusted his non-existent glasses and speculated inwardly. This required little thought; in a world where strength ruled supreme, they surely wouldn't adopt a ranking order where "the above rankings are in no particular order," and the shrines beneath the Myriad Gods Mountain followed this exact arrangement.

"Could the phantoms on these seats exist because those deities are still alive?"

"No, it's impossible for so many deities to still exist. Only those powerful deities could barely manage to escape; it's impossible for this many to remain."

Zhou Tian overthrew his own conjecture. A war capable of shattering a great world was no laughing matter—if every stray cat and dog could escape, how could the other major worlds survive?

"Then what is that?"

Zhou Tian let out a soft sound of inquiry. Upon closer inspection, he discovered something emitting a certain radiance right at the center of the phantom, situated directly on the seat of the bronze ancient throne.

Since a question had arisen, it needed to be resolved. Approaching the leg of the bronze ancient throne, Zhou Tian attempted to touch the phantom. As he thrust his hand into it, no danger occurred. Walking entirely into it felt like passing through a layer of water film, and he made contact with the bronze ancient throne itself without incident.

Pondering for a moment and sensing no danger, Zhou Tian looked up and, without further hesitation, directly teleported onto the seat of the chair. The mass of material emitting an inexplicable radiance rested right there.

The moment Zhou Tian's foot touched the seat, however, an anomaly occurred. A dizzying sensation of the world spinning took hold of him, and before he could react in the slightest, he lost consciousness.

When he regained consciousness, Zhou Tian found himself in an inexplicable space. There was a sun in the sky, grass on the ground, and a river in the distance, but the overall feeling it gave Zhou Tian was extremely bizarre—resembling the low-quality scene textures of some terrible video games from his past life, evoking a profoundly awkward sensation.

Without overthinking, Zhou Tian directly attempted to use his teleportation skill. The scene shifted instantly, and his consciousness returned to his physical body.

He found himself suspended in mid-air, distanced from the ancient throne and back on the ground. Raising his head to look at the glowing mass upon the throne, Zhou Tian's eyes flickered. Since that place could not restrict him, he didn't mind finding out what was truly going on.