(Translator’s note: The continuation of Annan’s encounter with Klaus takes place at next chapter.)
Rotten Man’s ascendancy ritual named “King of the Immortal.”
In the ritual, there would be seven immortals fighting each other. In the end, the only one who survived could get the truth of “immortality.” Thus, granting the winner the opportunity to become the true deity of “immortality.”
But Rotten Man himself had already completed his advancement to become a deity.
He just lacked the complete “immortality” truth.
—The first immortal in this world was Rotten Man himself.
And he was obviously not a fool to let his ritual benefit the others.
Therefore, Rotten Man directly used the deity’s authority to monopolize the “immortal” curse.
The only way in the world to obtain the “immortal” curse was to complete the Rotten Man’s ritual.
“Immortality” at the magnitude of “recovering youth” was unfit to get this special curse. To become a true immortal, one must complete the highest ritual in the Rotten Man domain.
Of course, no ritual could please Rotten Man more than the extinction of the royal family.
Examples of such rituals were “Offspring Bloodbath,” “Regicide,” or “Heirless and Lonely King.”
Indeed, Noah’s Kingdom was plotting an immortality ritual.
The Offspring Bloodbath ritual was to have the current king survive and let all his direct bloodlines fight and die altogether. After that, the king had to receive Rotten Man’s blessing to become a “eunuch.”
The Regicide ritual was to let a blood-related heir kill the monarch, all his brothers and sisters, successfully take the throne and accept the Rotten Man’s blessing.
The Heirless and Lonely King ritual was to have the previous king kill all blood relatives, have no offspring, and accept Rotten Man’s blessing.
The ritual condition of the first and the third was relatively close, but the first ritual targeted the current king’s descendants while the third ritual targeted the previous king’s descendants.
The king could acquire the powerful “immortal” curse and directly advance to the Silver Rank, no matter which ritual was completed.
After that, Rotten Man should immediately become hostile and kill the ritual user directly.
On the one hand, that was to cut off any opportunity for this new immortal to develop and compete with him.
On the other hand, that was also for waste utilization.
After the Great Barrier shattered and after a long “Sanguinary Battle,” only the last five countries were left in the world that mankind could reach.
The country where Rotten Man held the first ritual was now the “Twin Goddess Republican Federation,” also known as the “Underground Federation.”
The guardian deities of this country were Mysterious Lady and Silent Lady. The two deities rarely showed their trace and had been a mystery, unlike Silver Sire and Old Grandmother, who stayed near their own country. This also directly led to their respective churches having weaker power in the Underground Falteration.
One of the main countries of this federation was the country Rotten Man scoured. The country lost an entire generation of newborns and all royal blood.
All newborns born in the particular span of seven years had died due to curses. With that, the country had lost half a generation of people and many potential Transcendeds.
But there were also a large number of ordinary people desperately digging the underground passages. Before any further heavy casualties, they managed to get most young people and a few middle-aged and elderly people to migrate to the underground, absent of gray mists.
Their royal family was completely dead.
Due to their fear of the Rotten Man, who had already become a deity, they dared not elect a new monarch. Of course, it was also possible that some usually authoritative people had found an opportunity and thus propagated this way.
In short, they established the “Diggers Council” and established a “state without a monarch.”
Finally, their guardian, Silent Lady, realized the situation and hurried home.
She held up the barrier again, but it was too late. There were only bones and ruins in the earthly world.
Fortunately, she finally found survivors who moved underground.
But they were reluctant to return to the ground.
Some survivors believe that after the Great Barrier was broken, establishing the underground world was necessary. With the protection of the deity’s power, they could survive underground.
Hence, it seemed to have a great outlook to be the first to occupy this vast land that no one had ever realized.
Silent Lady also agreed with them a lot.
So she invited Mysterious Lady to help her and carried out a large-scale transformation of the underground world.
Since then, every child born in the underground world had night vision and could survive in a completely dark environment. They were also granted unique “curse vessels” made by Mysterious Lady to help them build cities underground.
For example, the moss that could illuminate consistently in the dark and could be made into street lamps. In addition, there were crops that could grow underground, some breedable carnivores that could survive in the dark, clean groundwater and water-drawing equipment.
Soon, several small countries with Mysterious Lady being their guardian also learned the news. After they sought their guardian deity’s approval, they came over quickly. The purpose was to avoid the “Sanguinary Battle.”
Those who failed to seek the deity’s asylum in the Sanguinary Battle also fled after hearing the news. Fortunately, the underground world was vast. Without the invasion of gray mists, it could accommodate many people.
Then, they united together and established the “Twin Goddess Republican Federation.”
They didn’t establish a monarch but were governed by the dual parliamentary model of the “Digger Council” and the “Wise Council.”
After all, the underground world was vast. The current Underground Federation could be regarded as the country with the largest number of people.
In fact, the Underground Federation presided over the construction of the underground passages leading to the other four countries.
Mysterious Lady was “the deity of secrets and ritual.” There were many wise people among her followers, especially with technology. For example, the underground rail train that utilized gray mists as an energy source.
Of course, if other countries wanted to use underground passages or other underground technologies, they would have to pay hefty service fees to them. Usually, the underground dwellers didn’t want money but fresh fruits and vegetables or meat and fiber products from above the ground.
Because they were deep underground, there was no need to worry about gray mists. After the Underground Federation began to operate normally, the two deities left again.
The Underground Federation was also the only country with no upright deity’s protection almost all year round.
Although the seven upright deities of religious countries wouldn’t often stay in the Sky Tower, they would leave at least one or two housekeepers.
After all, those who lived in the Underground Federation didn’t need the Great Barrier’s protection. People in the earth world couldn’t adapt to the underground living environment without Mysterious Lady’s transformation. The underground dwellers also felt contempt for the world on the ground, and they had a sense of superiority in the underground world.
Religious countries dared not to visit because there was no king in the Underground Federation.
The Rotten Man’s ritual seemed straightforward, but it could only take place in United Kingdom, Austere-Winter Dukedom, and the Noah Kingdom.
It had been hundreds of years since Rotten Man became a deity.
Annan had every reason to suspect that he didn’t progress in his ritual.
Because when Annan read the history books, he had never heard of a similar situation before in the Noah Kingdom. Moreover, the Elegant Elder, Silver Sire, and Old Grandmother were all intimidating upright deities. Rotten Man might not be able to find any opportunities.
—So, he resorted to looking for the Book of Divine Transporter.
His “King of the Immortal” ritual was stagnant for hundreds of years because of the three upright deities.
Rotten Man might have given up this ritual.
He was now just using this ritual to cover his plan in secretly collecting the “Book of Divine Transporter.”
At the same time, the player happened to fulfill the condition of “immortal” and “heirless!”
The Book of Divine Transporter’s first fragment granted “respawns” to the players.
For Rotten Man, this was basically the truth of “summoning and controlling the immortal warriors in other worlds!”
No wonder he would covet after the Book of Divine Transporter.
But through the Venerated Skeleton’s tone, Annan vaguely noticed that he seemed to know this.
He might know Rotten Man’s plan and even the fact that Annan possessed the Book of Divine Transporter.