Divine domains were not the same as god kingdoms!
God kingdoms were the homes of gods. They were divine spaces forged by the deities of the World of Gods using their divine power. Every blade of grass and every pebble in a god kingdom was made out of the purest divine power.
Even the citizens of the god kingdoms were formed of the souls of the most religious believers. Their souls were given new form through the omnipotent divine powers of their gods.
It was because of this intimate connection that the gods used their god kingdoms as an extension of their will and power.
In all honesty, a god kingdom was the true body of a god. It was an impenetrable fortress used to protect their soul.
Divine domains, on the other hand, were far inferior!
Some gods had insufficient divine power to create an independent divine space. For the sake of their reputation, they skimmed on the process and stole a planar space from a material world. They then used their divine power to isolate that space from its original world.
Other, ‘poorer’ gods lacked the ability to imbue a space with their divine power thoroughly. They could only use their divine powers to mark a territory as their own.
These spaces were disdainfully referred to by the adepts as ‘divine domains.’
This divine domain created by the Feathered God was one of the worst divine domains out there!
It was not fully imbued with divine power, nor populated by divine citizens. It lacked a Pool of Rebirth, a temple, angels, or messengers of any sort. The entire divine domain appeared just like another tropical forest in Seawoods Plane. There wasn’t a single sign of any divine modifications.
If Greem had not just passed through a singularity, he would have believed he’d fallen into a trap and been hurled into some corner of Seawoods Plane by the Feathered God.
The nature of the space here was the same as the outside world. As such, Shadow Demon did not need to spend time getting used to the spatial laws here.
Shadow Demon turned into a cluster of shadows once again. It merged into the shadows around him and slowly made its way to the heart of the divine domain.
A squad of male Feathered Serpents with defined scales and crackling lightning flowing through their bodies slithered down a winding path in the forest.
The terrifying aura of a massive carnivorous beast could be sensed along the region they were patrolling. The skeletons and feces of wild animals were everywhere as well. However, it was evident that these beasts feared the Feathered Serpent guards above all else. They scurried into the distance when they sensed the overwhelming lightning energy in the air. Not one of them dared approach the patrol.
This forest wasn’t exactly massive, but it wasn’t small either.
The wild beasts living here were all prey that had been caught by the trolls. They were meant as a sacrifice for the Feathered God. As the totem god of the trolls, the Feathered God only needed to feast once a year. However, the amount she ate every year was shocking.
Consequently, the trolls had no choice but to capture all the large beasts they could find in Degu Forest and rear them within the divine domain. They were morsels of food for the Feathered God to enjoy when she wished.
The divine domain was a tropical forest all about, home to countless beasts and birds. Meanwhile, an open-air temple whose design resembled that of the trolls stood at the heart of the domain.
There were even more Feathered Serpent guards here. There was practically a serpent standing guard every few steps. Without any exception, they were all male serpents. Not one of them was female, and not one of them was of another race.
These Feathered Serpents were more than enough to fend off an ordinary intruder. However, they were basically ants for Shadow Demon, who possessed incredible powers.
Shadow Demon leaped from shadow to shadow, brazenly following the Feathered Serpents as they patrolled the temple.
Long tunnels built out of heavy, giant boulders were everywhere. These tunnels were all lined with two Feathered Serpent statues at the entrance. Moreover, it was obvious that these things were not taken care of or maintained in any fashion. Clusters of weeds and vines devoured both the tunnels and the statues.
Beasts were beasts, in the end. Even if they had become divine creatures because of the power of faith, their instincts as beasts could not be quelled.
The divine domain was like a giant menagerie. There wasn’t any of the elegance or beauty of the god kingdoms. There was no intimidation or holiness. Even the air was filled with the pungent, beastly smell of animals.
The home of the Feathered God was obviously someplace where an ordinary Feathered Serpent could not set foot.
Shadow Demon emerged from a Feathered Serpent’s shadow and dove into the shadow of a tunnel. It then cautiously traveled inwards to where the stench was the strongest.
It was an open-air temple built out of rocks.
Green rocks that were one meter tall and three meters wide were piled together, creating a ten thousand square meter vast space within. A stone platform stood at the end of the tunnel. The skeletons and remains of all sorts of animals were piled above the platform.
A large egg, as white as jade, stood silently in the middle of the skeletons.
The Feathered God, with her white wings and light green scales, was coiled up around the egg. She used her slender tail and thick wings to cover the egg, occasionally breathing lightning towards it.
Shadow Demon did not approach the platform. Instead, it remained hidden in the shadow of a pillar, silently observing the Feathered God on the platform.
At this point, both Greem and Shadow Demon had shut off all their active sensory abilities. They were only using their passive sensory skills. Moreover, they narrowed their eyes and only glanced at the Feathered God with the corner of their eyes. They didn’t dare to stare directly at the Feathered Serpent.
It couldn’t be helped. Divine creatures were always incredibly cautious!
Whenever danger was about to befall them, their divine powers would warn them of the impending crisis through various means. The more powerful divine creatures could even use their divine powers to learn of the origin of the danger and some faint clues about how things were going to unfold.
Divine beings with the ability of divination were even more terrifying.
Even if the enemy were only scheming and planning without putting anything into action, they would know. The moment any thought of hostility appeared in the mind of an enemy, they would receive a warning from the world and understand everything that could happen to them in the future.
Fortunately, the Feathered Serpent before them lacked the ability to divine the future or Fate. Otherwise, she would never have allowed a ‘mortal’ to infiltrate her kingdom and observe her at such a close distance.
Assassinating a god, even a native totem god, was not an easy matter!
Even the slightest breeze could trigger a response from their divine power.
This place was her divine domain, after all. It was the best-suited place for her to unleash her powers. If she had time to prepare herself, the divine domain would be as significant to the Feathered God as an adept tower was to an adept.
Under Greem’s guidance, Shadow Demon remained patient. It hid in the darkness, slowly releasing the power of the Orb of Shadows within its body.
The Feathered God was only Fourth Grade at the moment, while the Orb of Shadows was a Fifth Grade artifact.
Just in terms of their power tier, the Orb of Shadows was far superior to the Feathered God’s lightning powers.
Thus, while the Feathered God was coaxing her egg, Shadow Demon was using its shadow powers to slowly but surely corrupt this space. This corruption was slow and trivial. Each step along the way was so small that it could not possibly attract the attention of anyone.
However, when these changes continued without pause, the shadows in the temple became indirectly empowered.
Darkness was everywhere. That also made shadow substance the most capable of spreading out of any other energy substance!
When one became used to the darkness, that was when the shadow powers became able to seep into hearts and minds.
Shadow Demon was like a hunter spider that excelled at weaving a web of darkness. It slowly and quietly spread its shadow powers. Meanwhile, it hid deep in the dark, observing its prey without a single sound.
It was waiting…for an opportunity, for the moment the Feathered God became distracted for even a single second.
This opportunity would arrive soon because Mary’s invasion was about to begin!
It was hard to keep track of the flow of time in a divine domain.
Three days quickly passed by.
Due to isolation from the outside world, Greem and Shadow Demon had no idea about outside events. However, they could figure it out based on the reactions of the Feathered God.
Sometime on the third day, the Feathered God suddenly opened her eyes. She reared her neck and let out a screech that trembled throughout the divine domain.
Her scream was filled with anger, hatred, and a sort of berserk rage at having experienced humiliation!
The Feathered God could sense many of her faith nodes slowly being extinguished from her already sparse network of faith. She sensed the pained howls coming from the hearts of the troll believers and the despair they felt when their prayers fell upon empty ears. These emotions surged into the Feathered God’s mind, making her more furious than ever before.
Slaughter…she wanted to tear those invaders apart. She wanted to……
The Feathered God screeched, and the Feathered Serpents gathered, preparing for an incursion against the enemies. The beasts in the divine domain shuddered in fright. They returned to their dens and dared not show themselves again.
However, before the Feathered God could even express her fury, the temple turned dark as a shocking storm of darkness engulfed her.
