Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

A ripple of emotion stirred within her, and this time, no one questioned or made any demands of her. With a light touch of her toes to the ground, she defied gravity and soared into the sky. Only after she was gone did the kneeling inhabitants of the divine era tremble and rise to their feet, then noisily discuss and quickly throw themselves into the tasks she had assigned.

A dozen seconds later, Flora stopped in the air at an altitude of about 10,000 meters above the ground.

"The gravitational acceleration is not much different from that of Earth in the future, but the air has a stronger viscosity due to the dense presence of 'true ether'. As a result, the speed of sound has dropped to 105 meters per second, making it much more difficult to break the sound barrier by physical means compared to the future."

Through firsthand experience, the world's information became real. Looking down from a height of about ten thousand meters above the ground, she saw the every move of the mortals in the city-state.

Clearly, the mortals of the Age of Gods possessed the necessary capabilities. Or rather, the useless had been eliminated entirely in the recent monster attack—they quickly established a small but fully functional administrative circle centered around the temple, and the tasks she had assigned were swiftly put into operation. Resources were inventoried, personnel were rapidly categorized, and a newly formed squad of warriors escorted the artisans out of the city to begin surveying the terrain previously distorted by monsters and divine power. Subsequently, the functional institutions within the city-state that had ceased operation during the monster plague were reactivated. Production was expected to be restored within a day.

After all, it was a city-state, a city-state with a small-scale peasant economy. Although the slave system that should have been prevalent in ancient times was strangely absent, the characteristic of a city-state was small-scale self-sufficiency. Farms and pastures could resume operation as long as people were put in, and functional buildings such as logging, mining, smelting, and handicrafts could be quickly and completely repaired with the support of the inhabitants of the divine era, whose mobility far exceeded that of modern mortals.

[It's much better than I expected. I thought I'd need to use extensive mental intervention to eliminate fear, strengthen order and obedience, and improve mobility—but this is a good thing, at least the people in this city-state can do things on their own, instead of becoming puppets of the gods under my magic.]

The girl breathed a sigh of relief, dispelling the large-scale mental interference spell she had prepared. At that moment, the first wave of messengers who had gone out to gather information returned, sending her the firsthand information she urgently needed into her consciousness.

—One piece of intelligence is that three deities have been confirmed to have descended and formed a stable alliance. One member is Tiamat, the goddess of beasts, who is responsible for the current widespread beast plague and is currently based in a hidden temple in northwestern Mesopotamia. The second member is Kukulkan, the feathered serpent god, who, along with his subordinate panther god, has occupied the southern city-state of Ur and transformed the surrounding area into a jungle. The third member is Ishtar, the guardian god of the city-state of Uruk, whose whereabouts are currently unknown, with no specific base or faction.

—Second intelligence report: King Gilgamesh of Uruk summoned foreign heroes through a ritual. They were appointed as generals and dispatched to the defensive line in northern Uruk where a massive wall is being built. Most of them did not conceal their names; the known members include Tomoe Gozen, Amakusa Shiro, Musashibo, Ushimaru, and Leonidas. Two others remain: one whose whereabouts are unknown, and the other who openly rebelled and left the Uruk front.

—Third intelligence report: Uruk possesses effective intelligence-blocking capabilities, and numerous cities within Mesopotamia are under attack by monsters. Among them, a horde of approximately 30,000 monsters is advancing towards Imanithyk, located in northeastern Mesopotamia. But before that…

Information magic – concept barrier

A colossal, semi-transparent barrier, composed of energy, force fields, and airborne matter, and amplified by concepts like 'solidity,' 'defense,' and 'repulsion,' suddenly materialized before her. And from the infinite distance, a beam of blazing golden light shot straight towards the shield!

The consequences of the grand divine descent are already evident. From the moment she, the fourth pillar god, descended until now, only about ten minutes have passed. And the first visitor has already arrived!

Her name is Ishtar, the daughter of Venus!

Chapter 7: The First Battle with Ishtar

Ishtar, also known as Inanna, is the Babylonian goddess of agriculture, symbolized by Venus, and also governs love, fertility, and war. In terms of her divine duties, she is virtually flawless. However, in mythology, she is said to have descended into the underworld, thus incurring seven curses. In other words, underworld magic is more effective against her divine power…

Flora's mind raced, information about the goddess Venus swirling through her thoughts. The other party was clearly hostile; even if she wanted to negotiate, she needed to gain the upper hand in combat. Moreover—

[Will these deities who descend to earth also appear in the world as followers?]

The conceptual barrier shattered abruptly under the bombardment of the golden meteors, but in that instant, it bought Flora enough time—she reached out, and the thorn barrier, symbolizing Tamuz, the plant god and lover of Ishtar in Sumerian mythology, vanished silently the moment it showed any sign of forming around her—her intellect reminded her that there was no need to use a targeted spell from the start. And she immediately adopted this advice, and lightning and fire instantly manifested at her will!

In an instant, dark clouds gathered in the sky. Countless bolts of lightning intertwined within them, like golden snakes dancing wildly, followed by a deafening roar of thunder!

Information Spells - Extreme Lightning Storm

A torrential downpour of lightning followed, tens of thousands of bolts aimed directly at the source of the golden streak of light. Caught in a mental tangle, Flora clearly sensed something about a hundred kilometers away already being struck by the lightning. Then, the flames in her hand transformed into a massive, door-sized sword—

--cut!

The target was ten meters away, thirty degrees to the right of the target, and a blurry outline was cleaved out of nothingness. With a soft groan, a pale golden female figure, barely discernible, parried the sword's strike. Meanwhile, the lightning that had been striking the distant horizon hurtled down from the clouds, suddenly crashing into another spot the fiery sword had missed!

'Boom!'

A double decoy: the attacker had already stealthily moved close when the golden streak of light was unleashed, while the object exuding the aura of a goddess a hundred miles away was merely the bait. The form struck by the flaming sword was an avatar created by the goddess Venus before the attack, while the real form used this opportunity to relocate to a nearby location!

The golden lightning spear pierced straight down, piercing through the void from within five meters of Flora's side—the latter let out a muffled groan, seemingly severely injured. And the next moment—

—A powerful and fierce punch came from less than two meters away from Flora's ear, aimed directly at her temple!

[Bajiquan?]

The thought flashed by in an instant, and the woman's body, pierced by the lightning spear, revealed its true nature as the third layer of bait. However, just as the force of the punch was about to touch her temple, she calmly shifted her stance, her bones cracking and the dragon on her back writhing and roaring like a living creature. She deftly dodged the deadly blow that came from beside her ear, her ten fingers transforming into claws as she turned, the faint shadow of a dragon's roar emanating from her body!

Xingyi Dragon Form

Its essence lies in the eyes and hands, manifesting as the shrinking bones of a dragon and elephant. When she dodged that incredibly fast, devastating punch with her bone-changing technique, her ten fingers, transformed into claws, had already grasped an invisible object resembling an arm. Then, with a mighty tear!

A sound like bones cracking came from her finger bones, and the black-haired woman who had been 'pierced' by the lightning spear finally appeared from nothingness. She could catch a very obvious look of surprise in the other's wine-red eyes.

Surprised, but that was all.

The arm, held captive by the dragon-shaped grappling technique, transformed into a blazing golden light the instant it was torn apart. A burst of intense heat and sharp energy exploded forth. The goddess before her had actually sacrificed one of her arms to get closer. She used the air as her footing, drawing her strength like a drawn bow, and propelled herself forward with the force of the secondary explosion, hurtling straight towards Flora's face like a small mountain!

Bajiquan's Iron Mountain Lean—a classic move, a classic application. When a deity unleashes all their power, the force of that impact is worth millions of tons. Even the space within a thousand meters is distorted, and within a ten-thousand-meter radius, the air reaching even surface cities experiences a suction effect due to the concentrated force. Stone dust and ash rise silently from the ground, and the mortals of the divine age lose their footing. And that mountain formed from divine power and life force has already reached Flora!

[While the boxing style is certainly powerful and domineering, it still needs some refinement.]

The mind operates in the brain, time and space tend to stand still in cognition, and the flame bird resting on Flora's shoulder flutters its wings slightly in half sleep, emitting a silent murmur.

Ultimately, so-called modern boxing is nothing more than a style of fighting and killing. It uses the shoulders, elbows, fists, and feet, and involves the movement of the body, legs, and arms. However, martial arts that are useful to the human body may not be effective against monsters and alien creatures!

The next moment, Flora's form shattered into a shower of blood and gore from the violent impact—no, not shattered by the impact itself, but rather her form spontaneously disintegrated before the force of the blow. The countless semi-automatic molecular mechanisms that formed her body instantly transformed due to the encoded message from her central nervous system, abandoning their integrity as a whole and breaking down into tens of thousands of equally sized tissue blocks, converting and absorbing the kinetic energy released during the shattering process!

The impact force of millions of tons dissipated silently; this heavy blow, which could have caused a cataclysmic event, was reduced to a mere fart. The next moment, the transformed kinetic energy was released, and the semi-automatic molecular mechanisms scattered outwards and distributed over a kilometer radius around Ishtar instantly transformed into a dense line of fire resembling a prison!

“My name is Mangtlund, and my domain is thunder and fire.”

The cage formed from flames then coalesced, solidifying into chains that bound the black-haired goddess within. Meanwhile, more semi-automatic molecular mechanisms absorbed excess energy and atmospheric matter, reforming Flora's form beside the bound goddess. Just then, a dazzling golden light suddenly burst forth from a distant region!

“Maanna!”

A flying contraption resembling a giant bow hurtled in from a hundred miles away. It was this golden bow that had drawn the initial lightning strike. The next moment, an arrow was nocked, its tip imbued with energy equivalent to a miniature nuclear explosion, enhanced with divine powers of penetration and magic-breaking. And its target was—

—Below the area where the goddesses clashed, in the recent battle, lay the divine city-state, where the absence of a powerful protective barrier had been confirmed. This was the Imanitic realm, where Flora had descended!

The atmosphere in the combat zone immediately froze.

The black-haired goddess's lips curled slightly, as if she were about to say something. However, the next moment, a sudden wave of weightlessness and a feeling of falling washed over her. In that instant, Flora grabbed her by the neck and slammed her to the ground like a falling star. The air and the goddess's skin rubbed together, burning against each other. If nothing unexpected happened, they would reach Imanithia before the arrow formed from blood!

This single strike was enough to turn an area within a ten-mile radius into scorched earth, leaving not even a pebble the size of a finger!

"Wait, wait!" The black-haired goddess finally revealed an expression other than surprise, her words transforming into waves of longing that rapidly assaulted Flora's senses. "Don't you care about the lives of those you protect?"

“Since we’re all going to die anyway, we might as well die by my hand.” Flora replied calmly. “I’ve long been prepared to bear their deaths. And then their curse will stay with you and me.”

Before the words, born of longing, had even faded, the meteorite had already closed in by more than half its length from the 10,000-meter altitude. The mortals on the ground couldn't even detect the falling meteor with their dynamic vision, completely unaware that they and their city would face swift and complete annihilation in a matter of milliseconds! Their bones would vaporize, their souls would vanish, and unless a divine-level, wide-area resurrection ritual was employed, all life here would be forever lost after that instant!

However, this Mesopotamia is a chessboard of conflict, so where did this reincarnator come from at this point in time to teach these natives a resurrection ritual of a vast deity that doesn't require too many materials?

No one informed them, no one knew. And the countdown time of tens of milliseconds was reduced to tens of milliseconds.

On the ground, some of the more perceptive divine beings instinctively looked up. Even though their muscles and joints could only lift their necks a few millimeters in that extremely short time, the oppression and unease lingering in their hearts had already stimulated their nerves. Even the more sensitive young girls had begun to shed tears, and all of this was reflected in the eyes of the two falling goddesses!

Flora remained expressionless, her heart as still as stagnant water. The black-haired goddess, possessing the divine authority of Ishtar, also appeared calm. However, Flora sensed that her blood flow rate had subtly increased by one percent!

[A strange phenomenon, where the life and death of mortals seem more important than the outcome of the battle… This is quite different from Ishtar in mythology. In the original texts, she would bring calamity upon Uruk, the land she protected, because her possessiveness was thwarted. Add to that that sudden display of Bajiquan and her fighting style just now… Yes, it's a deity possessing a vessel, just like me.]

The difference between her and me is that although I was influenced by Mangotlund, I retained my own will, while she descended as a deity, yet was influenced by the personality of her own body… Strange, is the mind of a god so fragile? Or is there something extraordinary about this body she inhabits?

With a thought, she temporarily stored the acquired information. A resolute glint filled the girl's eyes, and the ground drew ever closer!

At two kilometers, the abnormal gravitational tides caused by the descent began to affect the ground. Invisible cracks appeared on the flat land.

At one kilometer, the surrounding spatial structure becomes unstable due to changes in gravity, and the flow of time and the integrity of space begin to shift. In the far distance, ** still points towards Imanitis, poised to strike, yet only poised to do so.

At 500 meters, some physically strong individuals had already completed the basic head-tilting motion. Driven by instinct, the hairs on their bodies stood on end, and their faces involuntarily revealed expressions of terror.

Three hundred meters...

"I give up!"

The next moment, the falling stars abruptly veered off course! All the impact was instantly transformed by the shifting gravitational current and the semi-automatic molecular mechanism cluster, acting as a gravitational slingshot, transferred entirely to the black-haired Ishtar. This resulted in the meteors, transformed from the goddesses, tracing near-right-angle trajectories in the sky before crashing headlong into a mountain range tens of kilometers away!

'Boom—!'

The mountains were flattened in a blinding flash, the land melting into pools of fire. A fierce storm raged through the Imanitic, eliciting screams. Meanwhile, Flora calmly descended upon the impact point, her descending lightning bolts locking onto the bow-shaped artifact known as 'Ma'ana' from afar. The black-haired goddess, her body more than half destroyed and endlessly cycling between carbonization and reduction, lay fallen in the pool of fire where she landed.

The mortals of Imanithy wouldn't perceive what had happened in those mere milliseconds, for it was beyond their sensory limits and cognitive understanding. They would only believe that the city-state's protector fought and defeated the provocative goddess Ishtar, unaware that the one driven by determination was actually their patron. After all, in terms of outcome, Ishtar was indeed the invading party, and Flora was the defender, and she held her ground. As for other details, they would become meaningless given the established facts.

Flora could clearly sense that her followers had increased from nearly a thousand to two thousand, almost temporarily filling the entire population of the city-state. And this gain… she didn't think she needed to focus her attention on it now.

She leaned down slightly, gazing at the black-haired goddess rapidly healing in the pool of flames. She could still sense the energy accumulating within her, the hidden trump cards. However, the crucial fighting spirit was gone.

After all, she's a goddess; once she loses, she loses. To launch a sneak attack after admitting defeat is something only a master of intrigue or a mortal would do. Such attributes are irrelevant to the guy in front of her.

"Ishtar, or Inanna?" Flora asked softly, staring at the man before her.

“Not bad, Mangtlund.” The black-haired goddess didn’t answer her question directly. Instead, she raised her chin with a hint of mockery and looked at her: “As expected of an ancient goddess who manifested in the same era as ‘Mother’ but has never answered prayers. Your heart is as hard as your actions. What, do you also intend to join the struggle of this era and seize ownership of this world with our Three Goddess Alliance?”

“I don’t really care about that kind of thing,” Flora replied with a smile, ignoring Ishtar’s glare. “But you attacked me without my permission and were defeated. As the loser, you should pay the price. So, are you mentally prepared? Or do you have a reason that can convince me, or perhaps…”

"...Are you planning to start another round?"

Insertion Section · Reincarnator · Central Continent Team Decision

Around the table, the reincarnated beings, whose status was equivalent to that of the Olympian gods in the Trojan War, lowered their gazes.

“As things stand, we should be the first to descend into the battlefield of the Dao Wars.” Alice rested her chin on her hand, her 'phone' hidden somewhere. A projection area, large enough to mark the entire Mesopotamian continent, hovered quietly in the center of the table. Her aura was much weaker than usual, almost falling from the realm of gods to the level of mortals. And everyone present knew why.

Chu Xuan's 'game'—let's just call it a 'game' for now—possesses an implicit rule. That is, as favored players, the deeper the influence the Zhongzhou Reincarnators have on their internal 'roles,' the easier it is for them to project power onto those 'roles' and the areas where those 'roles' reside. And in that recent divine descent, Alice nearly exhausted a massive amount of resources—enough to destroy and reshape a planet in a very short time, even a true god could drain them dry. And in return, she has gained complete control over most of the details of Mesopotamia.

The grand "divine intervention" was merely a bonus; its true purpose was global intervention. And now it seems... the results have been generally quite good.

"According to current information, there are six pillars of gods on the Mesopotamian plain, three of which are manifest and three are hidden. The three manifest pillars are Ishtar, the daughter of Venus; Kukulkan, the feathered serpent god; and a Gorgon that seems to be a mixture of both. I read in the wind that Tiamat descended and hatched countless monsters to devour all living beings. So it seems that this Gorgon must be a composite of Tiamat's divine authority."

Alice paused for a moment.

"The three manifested pillar gods are basically stuck at the standard level of the transcendent realm—that is, capable of individually suppressing a civilization that has not yet escaped the planetary system or the prime material plane, whether through technology, magic, or any other route. Their combat power should be above the theoretically existing blank fourth-tier gene lock, but lower than a fourth-tier with an enhancement of A or above, or an offensive third-tier ultimate reincarnator with multiple S-level enhancements and items. Kukulkan is speculated to be slightly stronger than the other two pillar gods, while Ishtar is at the bottom without considering that he possesses Grangana."

"Of the three unmanifested deities, two are related to the underworld. I detected information about one of them, which should be Ereshkigal, the goddess of the underworld in Sumerian mythology with a deep bond with Ishtar. The information about the other deity is more concealed, and I haven't been able to fully grasp it yet—if it's still within the Mesopotamian mythological system, I speculate it's 'Elder' Jusudera. But considering the appearance of Kukulkan from the Americas, other pantheons should also be taken into account—and of these two deities, Ereshkigal's combat power outside the underworld is comparable to Ishtar's. As for the other deity, based on my observation, it probably wouldn't take many moves to kill them both."

"Wow, a hidden master?" Xiao Honglu raised an eyebrow, a hint of interest in his voice. "Is he that strong?"

“You can’t beat Xiao Honglu.” Alice replied bluntly, “Even if your true form descends and is in a complete defensive position, your chances of failure are still around 90 percent.”

So Xiao Honglu shrugged and shut up.

"How about I take over?" Zhao Yingkong, who seemed to be in a good mood, toyed with a dagger. For some reason, a certain male assassin surnamed Zhao did not participate in this meeting. A dim black flame flickered in her eyes, and the flame melted the blade with her gaze, turning it into an invisible and shapeless blade of flame.

—The dagger felt like it was made of bone, a leg bone. But everyone present acted as if they didn't see it, as if it didn't exist.

“From your description, Alice, I think this ‘hidden master’ seems like an assassin. So perhaps we’ll have some common ground.” She emphasized the word “common ground.”

“However, the prerequisite is that you must choose a ‘character,’ and that ‘character’ must have a connection with Him.” Alice’s language was unusually sharp and concise. “As far as I know, someone’s game character failed to escape when the control room exploded because the operator was distracted. Perhaps I should emphasize that operator’s name.”

So Zhao Yingkong shut her mouth as well. And as she did so, more than one of the reincarnators around the table looked embarrassed and turned their gaze away.

Okay, that's a generalization.

Alice then moved on to the next point and drew her conclusion.

"Besides that, the last pillar god is hidden in the sea. It seems that He was sealed by someone else or that He himself did not want to come out. I think it is not difficult to guess His name, because His scale is so powerful that even a reincarnated true god would have to be wary when facing Him. And such a powerful god who dwells in the sea can only be Tiamat, the creator of Mesopotamia and the mother of all things."

"Six Pillar Gods, and besides these six, there are also several mortals with extraordinary combat power. Of course, these guys aren't really important; what's important is that Flora, whom I've influenced, would probably have a hard time handling this situation on her own. So I'm requesting outside help. And—"

“I can confirm that there are currently no other reincarnators on this chessboard besides us.” Alice said calmly, her fingers clasped together. “We have a certain advantage in going first, and this advantage is crucial for us to defeat the Demon Team and reap the rewards.”

"Approximately how long, Margot Royd?" Zheng Zha asked in a deep voice. Although there was no distinction between first and second place among those around the table, this man exuded an aura of power even when he was casually sitting there. Compared to Zeus in the Trojan War, he was probably only lacking the rank of god of the sky and thunder. However, even so, when he spoke, his words were as awe-inspiring as muffled thunder.

—Clearly, someone's 'game' process was not going smoothly. This can perhaps be seen from the fact that a certain woman with the surname Jie and Flora were both 'game characters,' but the former was almost entirely absent during the process of restoring humanity.