Chapter 46 Chapter 23 Everything Eventually Dies

Translator: 549690339

“I understand,”

Before Liana, Iapetus bowed slightly.

“I will surely convey the intention of the Lord of the Spirit Realm. However, I hope that you can provide a more detailed description, so that I can present it to the Divine King,”

Liana nodded, calmly stating the decision Laine had previously prepared.

“The Lord can endow mortals with thought, but the deities need to create life themselves and decide the nature of their creations, granting them the corresponding powers,”

“Be it appearance or abilities, that is the concern of the gods themselves. The Lord will only, at the very end, and according to pre-established requirements, bestow upon them souls, and when they die, the souls of mortals shall also return to the embrace of my Lord,”

“Death?” Hearing this, Iapetus was somewhat surprised.

This was a term he had never heard before, as the language of the deity race naturally born from Chaos did not contain the existence of ‘death’.

“Yes, ‘death.’ It is a term in the language of the Spirit Realm that describes extinction, the end,”

Liana nodded, explaining.

Laine had evolved the Spirit Script using the oldest origins of writing on the Oracle Stone Tablet; naturally, it had its own pronunciation. Many words that did not exist in the divine language of Chaos could be found in the language of the Spirit Realm.

‘Death’ was one of them, and now nectar—a must at the banquets of the gods—came about in the same way.

“I am very sorry, but, respected Goddess of the Nether Moon, I don’t quite understand. Why would life, after obtaining thought, still ‘die’?”

Listening to Liana’s explanation, Iapetus still looked puzzled. That the Lord of the Spirit Realm was uninterested in fashioning shells did not surprise the God of Speech. Even though he had not done it himself, he could guess that creating life was not an easy matter.

But when it came to ‘death,’ Iapetus simply could not comprehend. In all his years, he had never seen anything with intelligent thought die, or rather, he just did not understand why death would occur.

In the minds of the gods, all conscious beings were eternal. Being cast into the Abyss was already a terrible punishment, and eternal slumber was the most difficult ending to accept.

As for the end, annihilation—beings are unable to imagine and understand what is beyond their comprehension, and gods are naturally the same.

Facing Iapetus’s confusion, Liana said faintly,

“Before the Lord took control of the power of spirituality in life, not all beings with consciousness were created. Plants are such beings. You not detecting their faint thoughts does not mean they don’t exist; it’s just that these weak thoughts are not sufficient to form a soul,”

“Just as plants can be destroyed, so can lives with thought die. In this world, only gods are immortal. Unless the gods sever a part of their own divinity, all mortals must eventually die. This is also the end that fate has decreed,”

“…And the soul?” There was a moment of silence before the God of Speech keenly identified a problem, “If the shells of life can ‘die,’ does that mean their souls cannot?”

“Of course, they can, but it happens more slowly,”

Liana had anticipated the ignorance of external deities, and so she continued to explain,

“In the present world, matter is more readily manifest than spirituality, so bodies decay more easily than souls. When the mortal shell dies in the Mortal World, its spirit is far from its end. Life belongs to the gods, but souls belong to my Lord. When they lose their worldly vessel, they naturally should return to the Spirit Realm, to the embrace of the Sovereign of Spirits,”

“I understand,”

Iapetus nodded, indicating he had understood. He could accept such an outcome, but the other gods might not be without objections. However, that was no longer his concern; after all, he was merely a messenger.

“Life and ‘death,’ truly miraculous phenomena, but also very logical. How could the creations of the gods compare with their creator? ‘Death,’ indeed, is an excellent existence. It allows them, after having thoughts, to recognize the difference between gods and themselves,”

With a sense of emotion, Iapetus finally spoke:

“I will convey the intentions of His Highness Laine truthfully, but the specific decision will ultimately be made by the Divine King.”

“Then be on your way,” Liana said indifferently. “The decisions of the gods are their affair, the intent of my lord has been fully expressed.”

“If there is anyone with objections, let them try to come to the Spirit Realm. If they manage to enter, my lord will spare the time to see them.”

“Now, you may leave.”

Having spoken the last sentence calmly, Liana’s wings fluttered gently behind her. In a trice, she vanished silently from Iapetus’s sight.

Watching Liana disappear as she had come, the God of Speech stood still for a while longer and then turned to leave as well.

He did not know whether the gods would accept that ‘souls return to the Underworld after death,’ since for all deities nowadays, ‘death’ was still a new concept.

But since the outcome had been received, Iapetus simply decided to leave the decision to the gods. Whatever the result, his task was over anyway.

Three days later, with the help of the wind and space, Iapetus hurried back to the Mount of the Gods.

Just like six days prior, the feast of the gods was still ongoing, with all awaiting the return of the God of Speech.

In front of all the gods, he recounted his experiences, especially emphasizing his own hardships and how he had cleverly used his divine power to persuade the mysterious Ancient God.

“I spoke at length and, in the end, His Highness Laine told me that only when the body and spirit come together can life have thought. He agreed to endow mortal beings with spirits after the gods have completed their creation, for which I am grateful for his kindness.”

After hearing the God of Speech’s narrative, the gods were moved by his words. They indeed appreciated Iapetus’s hard work, and even many gods of lesser divine power regarded him with respect.

“But in the end, His Highness Laine told me, non-divine life is subject to ‘death.’ All mortals have an end, and the decay of matter is much swifter than that of the spirit, so the souls of the dead should also return to the Spirit Realm.”

“Death? Forgive my frankness, but is this some newfangled term?”

Beside Queen of Gods Rhea, the three Goddesses of the White Oak birthed from the divine blood of Uranus asked.

Like Iapetus before them, the assembled gods expressed their confusion. Seeing this, the God of Speech elaborated on the news he had received from Liana.

The reaction among the gods varied. When true gods concentrated, they could sense the vague thoughts of plants. But just as humans don’t usually pay attention to ants, the gods of the past had never really cared about this aspect.

In the end, they all accepted the existence of ‘death.’ Using life and death to differentiate mortals from gods seemed a logical approach.

It would just be a bit troublesome later on; every few thousand years, they would have to create a new batch of life.

With the last issue of creating life resolved, the God of Speech prepared to return to his seat, confident that his mission was complete. However, at that moment, the eldest son of the ancient Sea God Pontus suddenly stood up.

It was Nereus, the friendly companion of the sea, a Sea God with good relations with many deities. Even among the gods of the ocean lineage, many held him in high regard.

“I am grateful that His Highness Laine is willing to endow life with a spirit,”

Speaking in his usual, heartwarming tone, Nereus looked at Iapetus and slowly said, “But is the destination of the soul still up for discussion?”

“I think this is not only my own thought.”