Cthulhu Gonfalon

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

The wine of eternal life had always been a legendary thing. Even the various gods had never seen the real deal. Wall was considered to be the youngest among the various gods. If his age was counted on a mortal scale, he was barely one hundred years of age. This age, not to mention among the gods—even within the group of Legendary Masters—was considered to be very young. Of course, he would not have seen the wine of eternal life before and would not have known how such a wine was concocted.

However, he was the God of Knowledge. Relying on his priesthood, he could search for relevant information on the wine of eternal life via the World's Origin.

Searching in this manner was comparatively vague, and the search results were usually confusing. Furthermore, a large amount of Divine Power would be consumed. The key contributing factor was that he would never be able to find the formula for the wine of eternal life, which was why Wall would never waste his Divine Power on such a meaningless matter.

Yet not too long ago, he obtained some incredible information from a follower.

The ancestors of that follower were medicine experts of the Witch Age and had left a lot of secret records. In those records, there was information on the wine of eternal life.

This marvelous formula was able to grant eternal life to mortals. This was why, even during the Witch Age where medicament played a more dominant role as compared to modern times, this was considered to be one of the most precious kinds of elixirs. However, not only was the process of concocting it extremely difficult, but it also required many rare ingredients. The most precious ingredient was the flesh and blood of a real god—the flesh and blood of a clone would not work. It must be the original body of a real god.

Honestly speaking, this was not considered a big problem. In the formula, the amount of flesh and blood of a real god was extremely little. Not to mention a real god, even a mortal would not be bothered over losing a little bit of flesh and blood. In fact, this bit of blood and flesh was only an introduction. With it as a medium, one could steal a trace of divinity during the preparation process of this formula, and through some ingenious means, one could integrate the stolen divinity into the formula. In this way, the moment this formula was administered, the subject would gain attributes similar to that of an Oracle. In short, one would never grow old nor would there be death following the end of a lifespan.

This was definitely good news to the mortals, but to the gods, it was another story altogether. Because there was a boundary imposed by the Goddess of Life, only real gods with weaker Divine Powers could move around the mortal world. However, how much divinity could these real gods with weak Divine Powers actually afford to lose? Even the tiniest bit of divinity lost could possibly lead to the collapse of an originally precarious deity form, and a real god would be downgraded to a god-to-be.

The mortals would never be able to cheat the gods. This was why no matter how gullible any god was, so long as a mortal requested a tiny bit of flesh and blood to concoct the wine of eternal life, the god would be able to see through the thoughts of this mortal. Then, what would happen next?

Oh, that was needless to say.

To successfully concoct the wine of eternal life, there were only two ways: One, find a generous god willing to bestow a trace of divinity, and two, defeat a god and forcibly seize the blood and flesh.

Because of these reasons, the wine of eternal life was never able to be handed down as time passed.

The first way was too difficult, while the second way would incur the wrath of the masses. In other words, both ways were not feasible. Over time, no one showed any more interest in the wine of eternal life, and so it became nothing more than a legend.

That follower of Wall was a historian and had seen the records left behind by his ancestors. When he heard that the Void Mask had bestowed some divine blood, thus allowing the two Legendary Masters to be able to complete the wine of eternal life, he was startled. He hurriedly went back to check the information he had. Finally, he determined that he did not remember wrongly, so he prayed to, and at the same time, reported the matter to Wall.

Upon learning about this, Wall did not dare to show any negligence. Right away, he carried out a search with his Divine Power, in spite of how much of it would have to be consumed. Although he could not find the formula and effect of the wine of eternal life, he managed to find that in the past, there was indeed an incident where a god flew into a rage because of the wine of eternal life.

Comparing that incident with what his believer had told him, Wall determined that the information given to him was accurate; then he hurriedly rushed to report this to Sui Xiong.

After learning all the causes and consequences, Sui Xiong scratched his head with his tentacles as he wondered.

Had he been duped by those two Legendary Masters?

Impossible! They were simply incapable of keeping such a secret before him. If they had been that capable, they would not have remained at the mid-legendary level that they were now at.

Then, why had he not detected anything?

He thought hard, but still, he could not make light of the situation. He had no choice but to send a clone over to the War God system to seek advice from Augmentin.

Out of all the gods that he knew, there seemed to be only one who might possibly know of ways to deceive the gods and deities. He was none other than the God of Strategy.

After Augmentin heard his introduction, he thought briefly and then smiled.

"I see," he said. "The solution is, in fact, very simple, so long as we do not let them know the truth about the wine of eternal life."

"Ah?" Sui Xiong went blank.

He had never thought of such a possibility.

One look at Sui Xiong's expression, Augmentin knew that such a thought had never crossed Sui Xiong's mind. With a smile, he explained, "We are gods, but we are not omnipotent. Although we are able to read their minds and see through their hearts—but things that even the mortals themselves, are unaware of, how are we supposed to know? So, if they want to hide things from us, there is a very simple, yet effective way. They just have to make the mortals unaware of the truth before sending them over to deal with us."

"Take the wine of eternal life, for instance—those two fellows are not even aware that the wine of eternal life is able to produce the desired effects because of the stolen divinity from the gods, so undoubtedly, there is no way you could see this from looking deep into their minds. Under their impressions, the wine of eternal life is a legendary secret concoction that is extremely rare. It allows mortals to gain eternal life, but it must borrow the flesh and blood of an existing real god… that's all. They are completely oblivious to the principle of how this thing works."

Sui Xiong nodded. Previously, he had probed deep into the minds of those two Legendary Masters before and had seen for himself that the situation was indeed like what Augmentin had said.

"Then, we have a problem… who on earth told them about the formula for concocting the wine of eternal life? Why is there a crucial part missing from the information on this formula?" Augmentin squinted his eyes. "Obviously, that person is the true culprit plotting something against you!"

Sui Xiong nodded. The corners of his mouth lifted as he sneered.

"Actually, I only intended to blackmail for a sum of money as compensation. Now, it seems like I have to take some lives before I can put the matter to rest."

"This matter is not as simple as taking a few lives." Augmentin shook his head. "You cannot think of this as simple as what you see from the surface. In fact, the culprit had played the two Legendary Masters, both who have lived for a few thousand years, like monkeys in the circus, and he even successfully duped you… with such guts, the culprit is definitely not a mere mortal. He must be a real god!"

Sui Xiong shivered with fear. Thinking about it carefully, it was indeed so.

Even if a mortal was able to devise such a scheme, where would they find the guts to actually put the plan into action?

This was like how everyone on Earth knew that the security for the US president was, in fact, not that powerful all. Since nth years ago, there had been more than one incident where the US president was assassinated. But how many people truly dared to assassinate a US president?

Without anyone to back them up, no matter how eager the ordinary people harbored the thought of assassinating the president, in the end, a majority of them would never dare to put their thoughts to practice.

But… who is this culprit behind the scenes? Sui Xiong thought as his brows furrowed and he frowned. "Who would stage such a play just to cause me to lose that tiny bit of divinity?"

"Not sure," Augmentin replied. "But there is one thing for sure—now, we need to go look for the Master of Mystery. He will be able to provide you with some explanations!"

Sui Xiong fell into a daze. His eyes were glowing radiantly.

"Spells, potions, the remnants of the Witch Age… all these things fall within the range of the priesthood for both the Master of Mystery and the God of Spellcaster who is under the Master of Mystery's command. It doesn't matter who devised such a scheme; there is no way either of them can get away so easily."

"But… could it be that someone was deviously plotting in order to drive a wedge between the Master of Mystery and us?" Sui Xiong asked. "After all… for the Master of Mystery to be the one backing this culprit, then this plot might seem too clumsy and straightforward to be his doing."

"The Master of Mystery is definitely not the culprit's backer, however, we should still look for the Master of Mystery," Augmentin said. "No matter who devised such a scheme, no matter what this fellow intends to do, the important thing is, what can we gain from it?"

"Because of the God of Knowledge, you have some existing conflicts with the Master of Mystery. This conflict is irreconcilable, and sooner or later, there will be a war. In this case, it will be fully in line with your interests to weaken the Master of Mystery first," Augmentin said murderously. "And who exactly devised such a scheme is, in fact, not important at all. So long as this culprit continues to be your enemy, then sooner or later, he will expose himself. By that time, all you have to do is beat the life out of him!"

Sui Xiong gave himself a while to think carefully. He had to admit that what Augmentin said made sense.

If he was not willing to hand Wall over, then he would always be enemies with the Master of Mystery. Sooner or later, there was bound to be a war. In that case, why not take the chance to weaken his opponent now?

This time around, he had a just cause for whatever action he intended to take. If the Master of Mystery wanted to make a move, then he could just call upon his friends and deal with the Master of Mystery once and for all. This was a good chance for him to eliminate a major hidden danger.

Moreover, even if he did not kill or defeat the Master of Mystery, so long as he was able to get his opponent to bow before him, he would already be considered to have earned himself some great prestige. The spellcasters within the mortal world were very smart. If they saw how the Master of Mystery was not his match, would they be so stubborn as to continue to tie themselves to the war chariot of the Mitafa Federation?

Just like how Augmentin said—it did not matter who was the one who devised such a scheme. Now, he just had to make trouble for the Master of Mystery, and eventually, it would all work to his benefit!

He could not help smiling at the thought of it; amidst his smiles, there was also a murderous intent.