World version update

Chapter 303 Who is in favor and who is against?
A profound silence enveloped the dilapidated ancestral hall, as if time itself had lost its meaning in the long silence.

Only when the brilliant yet extinguished sword light dissipated, as if it had never existed, did the remaining six angel kings awaken as if from a brief fragment, their expressions gradually returning to their senses with a hint of barely perceptible bewilderment.

Their thoughts seemed to be stuck at the moment before they saw Chang Shi Yi Jian.

There is an extremely small gap in memory here. Even with the status of the King of Angels, possessing near-immortal spirituality and vast knowledge, he could not bear the memory of that eternal sword that severed the only one in this world and erased cause and effect.

They subconsciously and instinctively wanted to continue speaking from where they left off or from their previous thoughts.

But the words caught in their throats, an indescribable sense of disharmony, like grit stuck between gears, causing their smooth thinking to stagnate.

Silence spread, and the angel kings stopped speaking and began to communicate secretly through their consciousness, trying to figure out where this sudden sense of strangeness came from.

"Just now... did something happen?" The first to speak was the Angel King of the Church of War. His battle intuition was the sharpest, and he seemed to have sensed something by following his battle instincts.

"There seems to be a fleeting sense of unease, like a shadow passing over my heart," the King of the Earth Angels responded softly. He was most sensitive to the fluctuations of life and soul, but at this moment he could not pinpoint the source of the unease.

"My hidden authority seems to have been touched, sensing some kind of extremely high-level power fluctuation, but when I investigated carefully, I found no problem." The King of Night Angels' voice was tinged with confusion. His authority involved the hidden and the unknown, but at this moment all the deductions pointed to everything being normal.

“This dilapidated temple is definitely suspicious!” The Sun Angel King of the Eternal Sun Church said solemnly, his gaze instinctively falling on the altar as if searching for something.

But all that came into view was a completely broken memorial tablet, with nothing unusual about it.

Just as the angel kings were exchanging ideas and trying to find the root of the problem, the Sun Angel King, who represented the eternal sun, noticed that the Knowledge Angel King, who was known for his erudition and composure, was unusually silent with his head down, not participating in their conversation at all.

"Knowledge, what's wrong with you?" the Sun Angel King couldn't help but ask.

Upon hearing the call, the King of Knowledge, shrouded in starlight and runes, slowly raised his head.

He did not answer directly, but instead reached into his robes and took out a simple yet exquisite silver pocket watch. The watch's hands did not move, and the dial was engraved with complex and mysterious star trails and time inscriptions.

"I wield the Clock of Time, the unique symbol of the path of history." The King of Knowledge's voice was calm, yet carried a slight, imperceptible tremor. "Theoretically, it can perceive the flow of time throughout the world, monitor the past and future, and even manipulate historical changes and the passage of time to a certain extent."

"Theoretically speaking, any unusual changes in time that occur in the world will absolutely not escape the eyes of the Clock of Time."

"So what problem did you discover?" the King of Steam Angels asked immediately, as He was most concerned about such anomalies involving rules and origins.

However, the King of Knowledge slowly shook his head, his tone revealing a deep sense of powerlessness: "That is precisely the problem."

Even the time-stopping clock, which is the only means of transmission, cannot detect any abnormal changes in time.

The flow of time is normal, the historical timeline is clear, and there are no signs of modification or disturbance.

He paused, his voice becoming even lower:
"This means that either everything just now was really just our illusion, or the level of change was so high that it far exceeded our cognitive scope. It's even possible that someone erased that corresponding period of history in a way that we cannot understand, so that even the Clock of Time could not perceive its existence!"

Erasing history?

These words struck the hearts of the other angel kings like a heavy hammer.

For them, erasing history is a trivial matter, but the key point is that the importance of history itself is subject to the information it carries.

At this moment, the seven great gods are awakening, and several of their angel kings have also descended to earth. The stability of history has reached an unprecedented level, and even the angel king of knowledge is finding it difficult to make major changes.

In this situation, erasing a piece of history related to the King of Angels and the Seven Great Gods would be a terrifying act beyond imagination.

The King of the Sun Angels frowned, glancing at Lu Yan, who was lazily watching them, and his unease grew stronger.

"Could it be that all of this is just an illusion? Is it this strange temple and that memorial tablet that are affecting our perception?" He tried to find a relatively reasonable explanation.

"will not!"

A clear and firm voice rang out. The answer did not come from the King of Knowledge Angels, but from the King of Night Angels, who represented the Goddess of Night.

As the only female among the Angel Kings, the Night Angel King wears a long robe that seems to be woven from pure night, her face completely hidden in the deep darkness cast by the hood.

Even with the eyesight of the King of Angels, one could only see the faint light reflected from His exquisite gold-rimmed glasses, unable to recall His exact appearance beneath His hood, as if His very existence was linked to oblivion and secrecy.

The King of the Night Angels gracefully raised his hand and gently pushed up his glasses. His eyes, hidden in the darkness, seemed to sweep over everyone present.

His gentle voice now carried an unprecedented solemnity.

"Gentlemen, haven't you yet discovered the real problem?"

The King of Night Angels slowly swept his gaze over the six angel kings, including himself, and then, in a tone almost like stating a fact, said in a deep voice:
"Do you all remember how many of us have been our King of Angels?"

This question came like a bolt from the blue, startling even the already unsettled angel kings.

"Is that even a question?" The King of Steam Angels answered almost without hesitation. "Since the age of mythology, there have only been six Kings of Angels. Isn't that common sense?"

The other angel kings, including the Sun Angel King and the Knowledge Angel King, also subconsciously nodded in agreement.

In their deeply ingrained understanding and memory, there have always been six angel kings.

However, the King of the Night Angels did not stop there; He continued to ask in that calm yet cold voice:

"Therefore, when the seven righteous gods founded the Church of the Seven Gods, the angel king would take charge of the church's authority while the righteous gods were asleep."

But why are there only six angel kings when there are clearly seven true gods?

Upon hearing this, all the angel kings were stunned!
Yes, there are seven true gods, and the seven churches exist because of them. But why are there only six angel kings? This huge logical contradiction was not realized by any angel king before the king of the night pointed it out, as if the idea itself was blocked by some kind of force.

Their minds raced, trying to come up with an explanation immediately, such as subconsciously fabricating statements like "an angel king has already fallen" or "the corresponding true god has not found a suitable candidate or vessel."

But when they searched through their memories spanning the long mythological era, they were shocked to discover...
No information found!

There is absolutely no information whatsoever related to the seventh angel king!
Whether it was about his name, the church he ruled, the reason for his fall, or even the concept of a seventh angel king, everything was a blank in their memory.

It seems that since the age of mythology, there have only been six Angel Kings, and His Majesty the God of Storms never intended to create an Angel King.

How can this be?

A chilling, bone-deep fear instantly overwhelmed these six beings who stood at the pinnacle of the mortal realm.

They looked around trying to find clues, but found that in the dilapidated ancestral hall, there was a futon neatly placed in its original spot, as if it were hinting at something.

The six archangels suddenly looked up at Lu Yan, who was still sitting on the futon with a playful smile on his face. A guess that made their souls tremble rose up in their minds.

"Just now, in that unforgettable moment, an angel king was truly annihilated."

Was all history and memory surrounding His existence completely erased?

Seeing the undisguised shock and fear on the faces of the six Archangel Kings, Lu Yan understood that they had probably realized the fate of the Storm Angel King through various clues and the inexplicable gaps in their memories.

Although they may not even know who the Storm Angel King is, it no longer matters.

The purpose of the Eternal Sword was not to deal with the Angel King of Sequence One.

It is a supernatural means created to kill a unique being who truly stands at the pinnacle of this world, almost immortal and indestructible.

The reason why the unique being in this world is difficult to kill completely is that as long as it leaves behind even the slightest bit of information, a concept, or a cause and effect in the long river of time—past, present, and future—it is possible to return from the long passage of time by relying on that trace.

Lu Yan was considered a cause and effect by Taiyi Immortal, which is why the Eternal Sword needed to slay him seven hundred years later. The core of the Eternal Sword is to sever and erase all cause and effect and concepts related to the existence of the target, annihilating it completely from its root.

Even if the Storm Angel King was only affected by a tiny, insignificant aftershock of the re-enactment of the Eternal Sword from his memories, the erasure property contained within it was enough to completely erase him, the King of the First Order Angels, from reality to history, from cognition to causality, leaving not a trace.

Lu Yan was even certain that even the seven great gods who had stolen the high positions of the past, after noticing the anomaly, could at most deduce the fact that a Storm Angel King had once existed through some indirect clues, but they would absolutely not be able to directly retain or recall any specific memories related to it.

The status of Changshi Yijian almost surpasses the concept of being the only one in this world. This is also the only method that Lu Yan knows that can kill the only one in this world.

Feeling the six gazes directed at him shift from initial scrutiny and probing to fear and apprehension, even tinged with disbelief and awe, Lu Yan understood that he had essentially achieved his goal.

Compared to the seven major orthodox churches with deep roots and believers all over the continent, the Underworld is currently just an empty shell that sounds impressive but is relatively superficial, lacking the real foundation and essence that has been accumulated over a long period of time.

In this situation, it is far from enough to get the seven major orthodox churches to acknowledge the existence of the underworld, or even to voluntarily concede and allow the underworld to spread its faith. Negotiation and flexing one's muscles are not enough. One must find another way to exert sufficient deterrence.

However, a simple display of power or ordinary threats would obviously not be able to truly frighten these seven angel kings who stand at the pinnacle below the gods and have lived for countless years.

They have seen too many storms and have enough trump cards to play.

Therefore, Lu Yan had no choice but to take a risky approach and seek help from a power that transcends the conventional and even the realm of understanding in this world.

He retrieved from the depths of his memory the earth-shattering memory of witnessing Jiang Zhiwei slay the Taiyi Immortal in the Ancestral Hall of the Taiyi Sect, and briefly recreated it with the help of the power of creation. His ultimate goal was to use the power of slaying the immortal and the might of destroying the One to forcibly kill an Angel King.

This serves as the most direct deterrent, making the remaining angel kings, and even the seven major righteous churches behind them, fully appreciate the immeasurable power and resources of the Heavenly Court.

However, this move is not without risk.

It should be noted that the memory he extracted involved both Taiyi Xian and Jiang Zhiwei, two truly unique beings in this world.

The power levels and causal entanglements contained within far exceed Lu Yan's own control capabilities. If he is not careful, he may be backfired by the power in his memories.

Whether it leads to Taiyi Xian's unexpected resurrection or attracts Jiang Zhiwei's hostility, there is a risk of a complete disaster.

Fortunately, judging from the changes that occurred in the past memories just now, and the light laugh that was somewhat playful and teasing, Jiang Zhiwei was obviously aware of Lu Yan's purpose in borrowing his memories, and he tacitly approved of it, or even watched the show.

That's why the recurring Eternal Sword was precisely aimed only at the Storm Angel King who had stepped out of the safe zone, without affecting Lu Yan himself.

Otherwise, the sword strike that struck Changshi just now would not have cleaved open the memorial tablet of Taiyi Immortal from my memory, but rather Lu Yan himself.

Since Jiang Zhiwei, this big shot, had implicitly done him a favor, which was tantamount to tacitly approving this opportunity to leverage his influence, Lu Yan no longer had any reservations.

He remained seated calmly on the futon at the head of the table, his body motionless, yet his aura seemed to have increased countless times.

He raised his eyelids, his gaze calm yet carrying an undeniable majesty, and slowly swept over the six angel kings below, each with a different expression, all of whom had lost their composure, in an almost condescending manner.

"The underworld intends to establish a palace in this realm, which is the fifth of the Ten Kings of Hell, and it is called the Yama Palace."

I shall establish the Underworld, appoint Yama, to oversee the karma of all living beings before and after death, and to reward good and punish evil.

The words paused slightly, and outside the Ancestral Hall, the Yellow Springs surged forth, creating a raging torrent, as if the entire world was teetering on the brink of collapse amidst the majesty of the underworld.

"Who is in favor and who is against?"

(End of this chapter)