I Don't Agree to the Terms

Afterwards, Gu Shanhai fried up a large plate of shredded calabash and directly conducted the tribute ritual.

He didn't need to go to the sea, because he wasn't a bona fide deity, and the power of the island on the archipelago was useless to him; after all, the power that filled his divine framework included the more superior force of Earth Power, which ranked above the power of the islands.

The process was very smooth, and then Gu Shanhai watched as the shredded calabash in front of him disintegrated, turning into an incense pouch embroidered with clovers.

At the same time, Gu Shanhai sensed a fluctuation within himself; his mana had decreased by a slight margin, negligible really, but correspondingly, he found that the growth progress of his Abnormal God·Heavenly Emperor had surged by a small segment, and so had the Bridge Wooden Pillar that connected heaven and earth.

The growth was somewhat unexpected, causing the skin on Gu Shanhai's head to burst open, revealing a face full of plant tendrils and writhing semi-transparent patterns.

"This thing seems a bit intense," Gu Shanhai hurriedly patched his head back up, then picked up the incense pouch. It was a low-level piece of equipment that, when carried, provided a minuscule amount of good luck, although this good fortune was essentially negligible.

"Truly a powerful ability, the divine indeed serves just as intermediaries."

This Luck Incense Pouch wasn't crafted by Gu Shanhai, but instead, through the tribute ritual, the ocean directly drew the essence from him and then used the inherent fortune-enhancing ability of the fried calabash to reforge and reshape it, while Gu Shanhai merely provided computational power, not even amounting to a platform.

That's right, Gu Shanhai's essence was his mana, which wasn't valuable, after all, both vitality and lifespan are derived from it, otherwise, how could he dare to squander it so recklessly.

"The divine are thoroughly subdued, powerless even to rebel."

Gu Shanhai wasn't bothered by the fact that his mana was being siphoned. Early on, such a flaw was indeed present, but once the Abnormal God·Heavenly Emperor fully absorbed the dominion power formed by the integration of the Three Elements Power, the ocean would no longer be able to touch him in the same manner.

"However, this seems like a way to feed a potential disaster."

Each tribute, though extracting essence, indirectly enhanced the power of the deity.

On Gu Shanhai, that was mana, of which he had plenty and it regenerated quickly, so he wasn't worried about it being drained.

But on the deities of this world, that would be presence or the power to interfere.

Because they were tributed too much and siphoned excessively, these deities became incredibly strong yet had no presence nor the ability to interfere with this world in the slightest.

So earlier, Gu Shanhai thought it odd that deities seemed to both exist and not exist at the same time.

"If one day this balance breaks, it will be the dawn of the Age of the Heavens," Gu Shanhai was certain, such an approach was merely treating the symptoms, not the disease.

It's probably meant to deal with the vestiges of the past.

"Wait, doesn't that make me a vestige of the past too?!" Gu Shanhai's expression jolted, as it seemed to be the case indeed.

"Oh, no, vestiges are elemental lives dealt with by the Deep Sea Vortex, what I have here is the leader of the rebels."

Thinking of this, he felt numb all over, what to do...

He casually cast divination sticks, and sure enough, he drew a mildly ominous fortune, and no matter how he tried to change it, it remained subtly inauspicious with no solution in sight.

"From the looks of it, I'm probably not going to die, but there's a high likelihood that I'll end up squatting on the ocean floor, serving as an intermediary."

The mild misfortune was normal; the ocean itself had no intention of killing Gu Shanhai but merely intended for him to go where he was supposed to go.

"No way, I absolutely can't just sit and wait for doom, I have to figure something out."

Finding a place to quietly wait for his Abnormal God·Heavenly Emperor to fully develop was out of the question, for he might face various things targeting him.

Even if he were to squat in a trench in the deep sea, chance encounters could be waiting.

What's more, there was no way he would go to the ocean trench; if he actually went there, he might well be planted in place, unable to leave.

Gu Shanhai didn't believe that places that could restrain and confine deities were the sort where one could come and go as they pleased, even if the greatest means to subdue deities was their presence and interventional power.

As for leaving this world?

Dream on, he was already planning to go all out against this world.

"It's this thing... does it have a weird sense of déjà vu?"

Gu Shanhai felt that if the divine beings of this world weren't constantly having their presence and influence sapped by the ocean, there would be an illusion similar to the gods and buddhas in that strange Cultivation World.

Don't be fooled by the seemingly cordial divine beings, but without even approaching them, Gu Shanhai could feel the chaos within them.

If truly unleashed, Gu Shanhai wasn't sure when the era of the skies would arrive, but there would certainly be a great period of chaos beforehand.

"So, this is why there are totems and divine beings."

Totems and divine beings may be from two different eras, but they are essentially the same existence. Both are about visualizing the chaos within and binding it to avert harm to the world.

"That is to say, the reason why the era of earth became the past might be because the civilization of that time delved into the deep chaos within the totem."

"That molten elemental being, it wasn't suppressed for too long but became contaminated?"

"Just like carrying all the transcendent powers of a divine being, that sea dweller would become a quasi-divine level Sea Beast, capable of being subdued and influenced by a God."

"And if someone paid tribute to me and obtained transcendent powers related to me, then that person... they would be my Incarnation!"

"And that's exactly why the transcendent powers obtained by players are such a mess. To be able to use them after removing the chaos is already good enough, and for them to work in the oceanic region, they're essentially the world paying out of its own pocket to compensate since 'the First Epoch' doesn't care about your reasons."

Gu Shanhai and those divine beings are different. Due to their own reasons, they could only interfere. Unlike Gu Shanhai, if someone really obtained corresponding transcendent powers through paying him tribute, it would directly make them his Incarnation. Gu Shanhai's constitution was different from the divine beings.

Abnormal God·Heavenly Emperor is just a part of Gu Shanhai, not the whole. This entity couldn't even merit a separate section in the "Green Emperor Longevity Scripture," rather, it shares a section with other abilities.

"So... do I need to get out of here now?" Gu Shanhai sensed some Sea Beast approaching.

As long as the Se Beast wasn't a quasi-divine level one transformed by a sea dweller, it would be driven by the ocean; even if not, the world could still manipulate some variables to target Gu Shanhai.

Besides Sea Beasts, sea dwellers would also seek out Gu Shanhai directly or indirectly.

Both were inherently the pawns of the ocean, reliant on it for sustenance, easily influenced by the sea.

Or perhaps even more directly, by opening a deep-sea vortex right there, a battle would be unavoidable.

Splash~

Vibrations accompanied by the sound of sea water and an encompassing darkness arrived.

A colossal whale breached the water's surface, hurling itself straight at him.

"This is it? At least send a lord-level one, just a dreadnought-level one is underestimating me too much..." Gu Shanhai commented sarcastically.

This was indeed an unwarranted disaster; whales breaching wasn't something unusual.

Gu Shanhai said this, but he didn't actually plan on dispatching this whale-like Sea Beast with a single slap.

If he turned it into foam, who knows how many Sea Beasts it would attract. It could potentially lead to a maritime beast tide which he could handle through a killing spree, but to waste time on such a trivial matter seemed hardly worth it.

"Little White, floor the throttle for me." Gu Shanhai decided not to entangle with the opponent, opting for the wisdom of escape.

"Yo!" Little White's hooves slammed the throttle to the max and even activated various boosts like nitrous acceleration and high-energy fuel. In an instant, the Five Elements Sect ship became a long, fading streak, vanishing into the distance.