After the Lord of the Abyss Awakens - Chapter 38.2

Luo Jie was once one of the world’s strongest, with power rivaling the Abyss God at his peak. He had never directly fought an Abyss Lord, but he was certainly more confident in his own strength.

However, Luo Jie felt like he was looking at a nephew when dealing with Inpos, so he wouldn’t take offense.

“Alright, wait for my news.”

Inpos looked at the antique shop house again, thinking they should make Father move out quickly. They couldn’t stay any longer. Who knew how many eyes might be hidden in there?

That night, Inpos dragged Morax out and scolded him harshly: You were supposed to protect Father, but you fell asleep. How do you explain that?

Morax knew nothing about it and almost exploded into his true form when he found out.

What? Someone dared to harm Father? Seeking death!

They couldn’t stay in this ghostly place any longer!

They schemed in secret, even waking up Vassago.

Vassago’s temper upon waking was terrible, but after learning the situation, he nearly exploded into his true form as well.

Dare to plot against Father? He’d peel off their skin, grind their flesh, and crush their divine cores!

Moving? Of course they should move. What a ghostly place, good riddance!

The three cats conspired in the night, whispering under the lamp.

Morax was sent to find Aelioge and Beelzebub in subspace. He was very unwilling, but submitted under Vassago’s threats.

“Fine, I’ll go look.”

Morax left.

Vassago selected a location, and Inpos moved overnight.

The sleeping person knew nothing.

Early in the morning, Aelioge and Beelzebub rushed over, fuming with anger.

Aelioge: “Good! They’ve grown bold, actually taking Father away while we were gone.”

Beelzebub’s face was dark, with dozens of super-grade magic spells ready in his hands.

If released, they would destroy the entire Imperial City.

“Search! No matter where they’re hiding, we must find them!”

The two demons were burning with rage. Meanwhile, Buer, realizing she had been left behind, nearly exploded.

“Aelioge, Beelzebub, you dare deceive me? I’ll catch you and use you for medicine!”

The Aust Empire would never know how many nation-destroying crises it had narrowly avoided that day.

Eilinson had been up all night repairing magic arrays, and the military was also rushing to repair various things to prevent enemy countries from taking advantage of the situation to attack.

No one noticed.

Early in the morning, theoretical magician Oror recommended magician Xili for advanced studies in the Oedipus Empire.

Xili thanked Oror. Although she felt uneasy about the Great Oedipus Empire, her desire to learn overcame everything. The series of national crises made her deeply realize one thing:

Without strength, one can only be at the mercy of others.

She wanted to become stronger and become a great magician like Eilinson.

Oror said, “The Great Oedipus Empire is somewhat prejudiced against people from the Aust Empire. You need to be extra careful there.”

Xili nodded, “Thank you, Instructor. I’ll work hard on my own.”

Oror smiled, “Just try to stay in the Magicians’ Association and don’t go out much.”

Xili nodded solemnly, “Alright.”

Meanwhile, in the Continental Human Alliance, some people had been up all night.

Sword Saint Simon had spent the entire night reviewing the history of the Aust Empire and questioning spies hidden in the Aust Empire.

“You don’t know anything at all?”

“Yes, Your Excellency the Sword Saint. Regarding the sudden departure of the otherworld god, we are not clear and have no effective intelligence.”

“The otherworld god said it was a person with black hair and black eyes. Are there people in the Aust Empire with black hair and black eyes?” Simon asked.

The spy answered truthfully. “There are some. Most of these people have been affected by the Abyss. According to investigations, there are 103 in total, but specific characteristics are hard to say. Some just have dark coloring, only appearing black.”

It wasn’t easy to identify a specific person among so many, and they had almost no one in the Aust Empire to conduct a large-scale investigation.

Moreover, the person might not even be among those 103.

They could only confirm that such a person existed who persuaded the otherworld god to leave, protecting 40 million innocent citizens of the Aust Empire.

And such a formidable figure would definitely not appreciate being investigated behind their back.

Simon pondered for a few minutes, then suddenly closed his notebook and said, “Stop your investigation. This person can communicate with otherworld gods. Our investigation is likely to offend him.”

“Understood.”

The spy nodded and hurriedly left.

After he left, Simon sat at his desk, lost in thought, and muttered to himself. “Who exactly is this person, able to persuade an otherworld god and even make Them ‘give gifts’? This is not something an ordinary powerful being can accomplish.”

Simon was widely experienced and understood the natures of various gods, so he knew very well that They would never value a human so much as to specially deliver gifts for one.

Gods are always arrogant because They are inherently transcendent beings. Asking Them not to look down on humans is like ants asking humans not to look down on ants.

Would humans ever consider themselves on par with ants?

They wouldn’t. Since humans themselves wouldn’t lower their own status, how could they shamelessly make such demands?

One despises those below while demanding those above not look down on them.

How could such double standards be justified?

The only ones gods would truly respect are those who have reached the divine realm, rivaling or even surpassing the gods in strength.

Therefore, the “person” mentioned by the otherworld god must be someone of this caliber.

Yet, it wasn’t any of the known powerful figures of today.

“Is that person still in the Aust Empire?”

Simon wondered curiously.

Moreover, since that person had saved his three students, he also wanted to thank them.

Just then, Lia pushed open the door and looked at the old man sitting by the window. “Simon, still investigating?”

Simon turned around. He had been angry about Lia’s actions yesterday, but after thinking about it today, he felt more grateful.

She could have chosen not to get involved.

Simon replied, “There are some things I don’t understand.”

Lia nodded, “Yes, or rather, everything about this incident is abnormal. Even more abnormal things can be seen if we look further back, like the incident with the Divine Kingdom of Light.”

As she spoke, curiosity showed in her eyes, “Don’t you think the Aust Empire has been somewhat miraculous ever since Abyss Lord Aelioge intervened?”

Simon agreed, “It’s as if… someone arrived in the Aust Empire around that time.”

Lia felt the same and nodded, “We just don’t know what that person’s identity is…”

As they were pondering, there was suddenly a commotion outside. The intelligence officer who had just left returned, his eyes full of shock, “Just now, the Aust Empire publicly announced major news!”

Simon and Lia turned their heads simultaneously, “What news?”

The intelligence officer said with a trembling voice, “It’s about the former king of the Aust Empire. Apparently, the cause of everything was that he stole and devoured an otherworld god’s child, still an infant, from subspace. This is what triggered the national crisis!”

“What did you say?!”

Simon was stunned.

Lia said coldly, “We knew he was mad, but didn’t think he was this insane, to even harm an infant.”

Regardless of race, any person would despise such behavior. The level of depravity of the former Aust king was unprecedented.

Simon said angrily, “No wonder the otherworld god went berserk for revenge. This indeed called for retribution. He died too easily; he got off lightly.”

Lia asked the intelligence officer, “Did the Aust Empire voluntarily disclose this information?”

The intelligence officer nodded vigorously, “They announced it themselves. It seems they just found out. They only knew the former king had stolen a treasure from the otherworld god, but didn’t know that treasure was actually the otherworld god’s own child.”

Lia suddenly understood.

Simon lowered his eyes and said after a moment, “They revealed it themselves… I suppose they have some conscience.”

Simon said this, but how could he not know of the Aust Empire’s efforts to improve in recent years?

Empress Anna was married off to another country in her teens, originally a queen elsewhere. She was called upon in a time of crisis to become the ruler of the Aust Empire, and since then had devoted herself to the country, working tirelessly. In recent years, the otherworld god’s curse had manifested, nearly taking her life.

Truthfully, such a dedicated monarch was already quite rare nowadays.

He knew what kind of person Anna was, but he still opposed the Aust Empire at every turn because of his deep-seated hatred.

Lia suddenly said, “The Aust Empire is undergoing reforms, and so far they’ve done quite well. They just need time to settle.”

Her implication was whether they could close this chapter of history, and whether the Continental Human Alliance should reconsider rebuilding peaceful relations with them.

The Continental Human Alliance was an organization established by heroes to protect all of humanity from external threats. The original concept was for all human nations to participate, with a council of representatives from each country making decisions on major events concerning human destiny.

However, now it seemed to be going in the opposite direction. Perhaps they also needed to rethink how to better protect humanity rather than allowing internal conflicts to develop.

Simon remained silent.

Meanwhile.

Xiu Si had just woken up. His eyes still closed, he habitually sat up first.

He had slept well last night, everything seemed normal, but instead of the dim ceiling he expected to see when he opened his eyes, he saw a bright white floral lamp.

What?

Feeling something was off, he immediately looked to his right. His children were still sleeping messily on the bed, not one missing. That wasn’t the problem. The problem was, why did this bed feel wrong?

And where was this place?

Xiu Si quickly tried to recall yesterday’s memories. He only remembered falling asleep, and he should have been in the bedroom behind the antique shop. But where was this?

He was stunned, a sense of crisis suddenly welling up.

Just then, the gray cat got up with a yawn, its cat eyes looking at him as if wondering why he was so shocked.

Xiu Si hurriedly hugged it and asked, “Inpos, do you know what happened last night? Why am I here?”

Inpos thought, here we go, and gave the explanation he had prepared.

He had to borrow Luo Jie’s name for this answer!

“What? You’re saying Luo Jie thought the Aust Empire was too dangerous, so he took me out of the country overnight and settled me here?”

Xiu Si doubted his own existence. Was this real? If Luo Jie wanted to send him away, couldn’t he have woken him up first?

The gray cat then indicated that they had tried to wake him but got no response. He was sleeping too deeply, so Luo Jie had no choice but to send him over first.

Xiu Si was stunned. He had slept that deeply? He did have some idea about this, as he occasionally fell into the depths of dreams and seemed unable to wake up.

Xiu Si stared into the cat’s eyes, as if questioning, you’re not lying to Father, are you?

Inpos felt uneasy in his demon heart, but still nodded, saying this was all to protect Father! Luo Jie would arrange for others to watch the antique shop, so there was no need to worry.

After about ten minutes of back and forth, Xiu Si was still blinded by his child filter. In the end, as he familiarized himself with the room, he smiled and said, “I see, so you were all awake then, only I was asleep.”

He accepted it quickly and soon walked to the front hall to check out the situation of this house.

It was an ordinary bookstore, with living quarters in the back and a bookstore layout in the front.

He was the owner of a newly opened bookstore.

The bookstore was located in the imperial city district of the Great Oedipus Empire.

Luo Jie had really chosen a good location for him.

Xiu Si quickly familiarized himself with the environment and started to settle in. He didn’t have many things, and clothes and such were all provided. Even the short magic wand gifted by the Magicians’ Association was in the luggage.

Who wouldn’t say this was thoughtful?

He spent an hour or two organizing, not rushing to open the store, but instead checking the system’s status.

He hadn’t allocated yesterday’s achievement points yet, and now he had time. So he put all the achievement points into upgrading, and his level suddenly rose to 30.

Level 30 is seen as a watershed by humans, the difference between ordinary people and extraordinary beings.

Today he had finally crossed this threshold, and his title officially became — [Creator]!

Xiu Si found it difficult to level up, so he was very happy each time he gained a level.

Then, the system seemed to recover by 10%, releasing a flood of rewards, including hard currency like gold and silver coins, and unlocking the world news channel in the lower right corner.

Xiu Si used to watch this channel frequently, especially during his time in the abyss.

Through its broadcasts, he could learn about most of the important events in the world.

At this moment, several news items were refreshing on it.

[Continental Rankings about to begin, all humans please take note!]

Rankings?

Xiu Si was surprised, then remembered that this was indeed a thing. The God of Rankings would re-rank humans and countries every year.

The current top ten human rankings weren’t self-proclaimed by humans, but ranked by the God of Rankings.

Xiu Si found this an interesting event, just like game world rankings being announced. It’s just a pity that it had nothing to do with him. As an ordinary person who had just reached level 30, he probably couldn’t even make it onto the list.

He laughed, feeling it was irrelevant to him, and opened the door to prepare for business.

However, what he didn’t know was that this round of rankings would directly shock the world!!