After the Lord of the Abyss Awakens - Chapter 96.2

In this sense, the suspicion of the Primordial God of Humans was at maximum. Even if He wasn’t the main culprit, He must be an accomplice, definitely did something.

But it could also be coincidence.

The mastermind could freely manipulate divine bodies and transfer consciousness, showing that He might have once been born as a deity, switching between not just one or two divine bodies.

“Besides humans and gods, He could also be a nightmare, beast, or elf, just happened to be born human at that time.”

Like reincarnating hundreds of times, becoming different creatures at different times, even non-living things.

He could be anything, freely drifting, unrestrained.

Beleth pointed out a very troublesome possibility. This was also the most difficult part of catching Him.

Unless He walked into their trap himself, jumped out on His own, it would be very hard to catch Him.

But He was particularly meticulous, would never take action personally, just causing trouble from afar – what could they do about Him?

At this point, Beleth keenly said, “In that case, those thoughts Beelzebub found in the temple are even more worth discussing.”

Beelzebub paused, turning to look at Beleth, “You mean ‘despair’?”

Beleth nodded. “Barbatos mentioned ten emotions: nostalgia, hatred, friendship, love, ambition, greed, anxiety, depression, resentment, despair, among which the strongest were grievance, hatred, and despair.”

Amon got angry hearing this, “What the hell is He, what right does He have to feel grievance and hatred?”

Inpos pondered that something wasn’t right, saying in a subtle tone, “Who were these emotions directed at?”

Hearing this, Botis suddenly slammed the table, his magical power almost erupting, face dark, snake pupils vertical.

“If He dares direct them at Father, I’ll tear Him to pieces!”

Amon was puzzled, “It might not necessarily be about being good or bad to humans, perhaps it’s about the world, or about Himself.”

But Beleth, as a wandering demon poet, was more sensitive to emotions, “Friendship couldn’t possibly be about the world or about Himself, right?”

Beelzebub said coldly, “Who knows? If He is the reincarnated consciousness,, He must have lived countless lives, who knows how many friends or even lovers He has had? But so what? After the [Consciousness] awakens, He is still Him, still needs to strategize, still tries to become the God of Gods.”

Beleth paused briefly, thinking Beelzebub’s words made sense, but felt something still didn’t add up.

Especially regarding His “despair.”

Upon careful thought, there was suspicion that these emotional intelligence might have been deliberately leaked by the other party.

Nevertheless…

Amon stood up and concluded. “The intelligence has been updated, but we still lack the most crucial directional information.”

He glanced at the four demons, “The Primordial God of Humans is inside the God of Chaos. If we can find Him, we might be able to solve the mystery.”

Botis said to Amon, “Unlike the Goddess of Harmony, the Primordial God of Humans has been dead for too long, He might have been digested already.”

Amon: “It doesn’t matter. Humans survived the war among gods thanks to the Primordial God of Humans’ uncompromising methods. Perhaps He isn’t dead yet and is still struggling inside Chaos. What we need to do is simple – take down the God of Chaos and investigate thoroughly.”

He really said it, but “take down the God of Chaos” – with just the five of them?

Inpos couldn’t help saying, “Should we call back Aelioge and others? Now that Third Brother is fine, we can look for Gusin later.”

Demons had greater power in numbers. Five demons had gone to deal with Gusin: Aelioge, Valefor, Buer, Morax, and Bachin, along with the little black bird.

If they all came back, they would have enough fighting power to deal with the God of Chaos.

However, Amon’s previous fishing strategy would have to be abandoned.

Amon fell into thought. They had been fishing for so long without any bites, which meant the fish probably knew everything already, so there was no point in continuing to fish.

But if they all returned and managed to repel the God of Chaos and clean everything up, would the mastermind behind it all still make such a grand appearance like today?

Beelzebub said, “With Bachin there, they can return anytime, so there’s no need to rush. I want to know what exactly He wants to do and how He plans to do it. If we drive Chaos away beforehand, we might miss the chance to see His weakness exposed.”

Inpos was stunned, not being as bold as his fellow demon. He thought to himself, did they really want to continue watching? To see what moves He would make?

“What about the Primordial God of Humans?”

Botis: “Finding the Primordial God of Humans is certainly urgent, but rashly searching inside Chaos’s body at this stage probably isn’t safe.”

Beleth nodded, “Yes, and Barbatos hasn’t fully digested the Goddess of Hamony’s memories yet, so it’s not good for us to take action either.”

Beelzebub also stood up, his jade eyes dark, “So we wait and observe for now?”

“For now, yes.”

Amon smiled slightly, “He seems very triggered, perhaps there will be another move soon.”

At this point, they had more or less reached the same conclusion.

Then, Botis rested his chin on his hand, looking sideways at Beelzebub, his vertical pupils showing a lake-green color, “Speaking of which, Beelzebub, you saw Second Brother, right?”

“Yes.”

Beelzebub answered without much thought.

Botis made an “oh” sound, interlacing his fingers, asking curiously, “What was Second Brother’s condition?”

“What condition?”

Beelzebub paused, the scene of that silently guarding figure floating in his mind. He felt it was difficult to describe, “What appeared was His projection, likely with consciousness. For some reason, as soon as He appeared, there was a strong hypnotic effect.”

Inpos empathized with this, “It’s strange, why would Second Brother hypnotize us for no reason?”

Amon interrupted, “Aren’t you misunderstanding? Second Brother should have been hypnotizing Father, you just happened to be there.”

Beleth exclaimed in surprise, asking confusedly, “Why would Second Brother hypnotize Father?”

Inpos froze, guessing, “To help Father sleep well?”

Just as Amon was about to speak, he suddenly paused, his gaze crossing with Beelzebub’s, both realizing the same question.

They hadn’t really thought about this before, but no matter how they looked at it, this wasn’t normal.

Indeed.

—Why could Second Brother only appear after Father fell asleep?

What kind of universe-level magic would have such a restriction?

Moreover, Second Brother had mysteriously interfered with Father’s cognition, creating a relatively comfortable cognitive environment.

Under normal circumstances, Second Brother definitely wouldn’t do this.

Beelzebub recalled Second Brother’s unfathomable gaze from last night, feeling it was somehow different from usual, though he couldn’t pinpoint exactly how.

He really disliked this feeling of uncertainty, which inexplicably made him uneasy.

Seeing Beelzebub deep in thought, Amon seemed to have realized something as well.

That possibility also made him uneasy.

At this point, Beleth tapped the table. “Let’s put Second Brother’s matter aside for now. Haven’t you forgotten about rewriting history? Since we’re going to wait and observe, shouldn’t we use this time to properly handle rewriting history?”

As soon as he finished speaking, the other four demons perked up.

Of course, rewriting history was of utmost importance!

****

Half an hour later.

Beelzebub went to the three heroes’ ward.

“You’re talking about Arnold?”

After hearing Beelzebub’s suspicions, the three heroes looked at each other, all showing expressions of disbelief.

Beelzebub nodded. “Father’s intuition is very accurate. Father said Priest Xilin was somewhat similar to the 19th generation human sage Arnold, so that probably isn’t wrong.”

The judgment was based solely on intuition?

Luo Jie and Ming Jie simultaneously looked at Justin.

They remembered that Justin had a good relationship with Arnold back then, which was indeed true.

Justin looked shocked and admitted frankly. “I never suspected him at all. When we met him, he was only sixteen, and when Brother Xiu disappeared, he was just seventeen. There weren’t any signs of problems.”

Beelzebub: “For beings that transfer consciousness through generations, age is the most meaningless concept.”

Justin choked, honestly recalling, “I only remember he had a good relationship with Brother Xiu and saved us many times during crises. He died not long after Brother Xiu disappeared, just before turning eighteen, in an assassination. Everyone was shocked that the kingdom’s strongest magician died just like that. Although the assassin was the strongest thief elite of the goblin race, who had even killed gods before, so Arnold’s death by their hand wasn’t exactly absurd, but this incident still shocked everyone at the time.”

Ming Jie then said, “I also agree with nephew’s suspicions. The real Arnold is already dead, and what’s alive is a constantly transforming and hiding consciousness ghost. To track a ghost, we either create conditions for It to appear on Its own, or find Its source to know what It really is.”

Knowing yourself and your enemy leads to victory in every battle – this principle held true even in other worlds.

Justin slowly nodded, his tone still carrying some disbelief, “I never thought it would be him. You really can’t judge a book by its cover.”

Causing Brother Xiu’s disappearance, and later causing their disappearance too – this fellow had schemed for ten thousand years, secretly manipulating human history. Such an evil spirit, no matter what vessel it resided in, couldn’t escape the judgment of death.

Ming Jie said coldly, “Arnold was the one who summoned us here. Thinking carefully about it, he was indeed the most likely person to have tampered with the magic.”

I really want to go back in time and give this thing a good punch.

Enough is enough.

Luo Jie remained silent, looked at Belzebub, and asked, “Still can’t find Him, right?”

Beelzebub turned his gaze, staring at Luo Jie as he nodded, “That fellow would certainly die if he made any rash moves, so he’s being unusually cautious.”

“Keep searching slowly, he’ll show a weakness eventually.”

Luo Jie appeared calm on the surface, but his eyes contained deep killing intent. Anyone, regardless of their identity, would have to pay the price for doing these things.

****

Meanwhile, at noon, outside the bookstore.

“Ah ah, did the kitty just look at me? Auntie is going to be so happy!”

“Did nobody notice that big orange cat? Waaah, I want to bury my face in Its belly.”

The short-legged cat secretly poked its head out, only to be scared back in by the humans outside.

Meow, humans are so scary meow. It turned its head and ran to its Father’s side.

Beleth laughed at this – since when were demons afraid of humans? His nineteenth brother was indeed a bit timid.

Xiu Si noticed the hiding short-legged cat and couldn’t help but smile, gently stroking the cat’s back while comforting it. “Don’t be afraid, Father is here.”

The short-legged cat immediately felt better, dreamily leaning its head against Father’s leg, its tail swaying back and forth, completely revealing Its mood.

Over these days, Xiu Si had read through ten alchemy books at once, pretty much thoroughly understanding the essence and history of alchemy.

So he began doing various practices, sometimes magic, sometimes alchemy, sometimes creation.

He was trying to combine these three things into one.

Currently it was difficult, but he had achieved initial results.

For example, he could now create not just static objects, but entire scenes.

Like if he wanted, a cup would appear on this table, filled with water that would spin for a hundred years according to his gravity rules.

There were objects, and events, and events came with energy. It was like creating energy from nothing. And it was a perpetual motion technique.

Although it felt ordinary for now, Xiu Si believed that with continuous refinement, this technique would keep bringing him surprises.

While Xiu Si was deep in thought, suddenly a “Meow~” interrupted his train of thought.

What’s wrong?

He looked carefully, thinking the children had encountered some problem.

But when he looked, the short-legged cat seemed too tired and was lying on its back on the big orange cat’s comfortable furry belly.

The big orange cat was also asleep, making soft purring sounds.

The silver cat was here in the morning, but by noon had run off somewhere, seeming very busy.

Xiu Si could put Them back in their cat bed, but after thinking about it, he decided not to.

Sunbathing was good too – this way they could grow well and level up steadily.

He felt relieved, then suddenly sensed something, went back to the room and crouched down to check on Vassago’s condition.

He hadn’t realized until holding it – his third cub had gained three catties in weight!

Xiu Si’s pupils trembled like an earthquake, almost causing him not to hold on.