Chapter 281: Reverse Calculation

After arriving overseas, Stone Bear God was surprised to discover that those few tiny creatures actually knew of a peculiar underwater passage that led nowhere in particular. Though this discovery surprised him, it did not diminish his anger.

Thinking about how he had been escaped by a few weak creatures not even at the legendary level, along with the death of Bull God, this temperamental demi-god was furious.

With speed restricted underwater and repeatedly outwitted by their tactics, Stone Bear God could hardly describe the intensity of the anger building within him.

Having ruled the Totem Continent for thousands of years, aside from those more powerful deities, this was the first time he had suffered a defeat at the hands of others—yet those were just human creatures far weaker than him!

After dealing with those clearly summoned creatures, Stone Bear God, with blood-red eyes filled with rage, pursued those humans without further hesitation and rushed out of the sea.

Donald and the others had already emerged from the water earlier. Relying on their divine power, they sat on floating ice and reached the surface.

The Stormy Sea was still as violent as before, with blade-like winds, dark clouds and lightning, as well as tiny black cracks formed by spatial fragments. As soon as they surfaced, they were attacked by one of these spatial fragments.

However, with their divine power reserves greatly increased, Donald didn’t mind such minor losses. Safety came first; with ample energy in their divine shields, these spatial cracks, which even demi-gods had to be cautious about, were nothing but a gentle breeze to them.

With such advantages, Donald wasn’t worried about escaping, but he wasn’t willing to let them discover the secret of the spatial passage between the main world and this new world—not yet at least. So, in that short time, he didn’t leave. Instead, he stayed at a distance after moving slightly away from the water’s surface, his mind racing. Soon, a smile appeared on his face.

Boom!

The enraged Stone Bear God rushed out of the water. Less than ten feet above the surface, before he could even assess the situation outside, he collided head-on with a tiny black crack.

At that moment, a human mage wearing a pale golden light shield in the distance cast a spell toward him! Stone Bear God managed to raise his hammer, a secondary divine artifact, in time to block the spatial crack. But he couldn’t avoid the surprise attack and could only rely on his divine power and his own physical defenses to hold on. After all, a mortal at the Golden Realm shouldn’t be able to unleash an attack strong enough to seriously harm him, right?

As Stone Bear God thought this, a spatial passage no more than a foot in diameter suddenly appeared before him. Behind it was utter darkness, and faintly, he could see forces resembling black shadows moving within. Wondering how the opponent could use a spell with no offensive power at such a perfect opportunity for an ambush, Stone Bear God’s expression suddenly changed. Filled with alarm, he sensed a powerful crisis approaching.

“Not good!” Before he could retreat, he saw a storm of changes occur within a few hundred feet of the small black spatial passage. Hundreds of black fissures gathered in his direction, encircling him entirely within a sphere formed by cracks in space fragments. It was fortunate for Stone Bear God that his anger had clouded his judgment; otherwise, even if Donald had used this tactic, he might have managed to escape despite being injured. But now, he was trapped in a hopeless situation with no way out. In such an environment, it was impossible to use teleportation or similar methods to escape. Using them would only make things worse and more dangerous. In his current situation, without the power of a lower god or an elementary divine artifact skilled in defense, Stone Bear God, as a demi-god totem deity, was doomed to die on the spot.

The spell Donald had cast was nothing other than the third-level spell, Shadow Box. Its function was merely to open a small portal to temporarily store a small object in a fixed shadow dimension or make it disappear there forever. But even though it was just a minor application of a low-level spatial spell, using it here proved fatal!

Where was this? This was a spatial storm zone formed by the compression of two merging dimensions. There were plenty of cracks created by space fragments, and the surrounding space was extremely unstable. A simple spatial spell was enough to cause a gathering of numerous space fragments! If a more advanced spatial spell like teleportation were used, it might cause space to rupture. The exploding space fragments could kill a demi-god without divine artifact protection in one strike or sweep them away into the endless void, where they would never find their way back!

“Roar…”

Faced with this desperate situation, the Stone Bear God roared in fury and made a wise and decisive decision—to sacrifice himself by detonating the secondary divine artifact in his hands. The spatial rift, which had only gathered energy without yet unleashing its full power, was instantly shattered by the blast from the artifact’s self-destruction. A terrifying spatial storm, like a black, devouring monster, swirled in place; it appeared slow but was actually extremely fast, absorbing even the surrounding light and almost evolving into a spatial black hole.

Yet after the explosion, the surrounding space seemed to calm down. But everyone present knew this calm was merely an illusion, akin to the quiet before a storm—soon, even more violent spatial storms would erupt. Taking advantage of this brief interval, which could last seconds or dozens of seconds, a glimmer of golden light carried a red, incomplete figure, attempting to sneak away unnoticed and enter a safe underwater passage.

“Leave him for me!” Donald had long anticipated that the Stone Bear God might not perish. After all, how could such a powerful semi-divine totem god, who had been a god for nearly a thousand years, die so easily? Donald would never believe that the Stone Bear God didn’t have at least one or two tricks up his sleeve to save himself!

So when the other party detonated the secondary divine artifact and triggered the spatial storm, he had already summoned a projection of the Book of Truth, ready to act. Sure enough, after the storm, a golden light was seen protecting the Stone Bear God, who now had only half his body left and one arm severed, as he secretly dived underwater.

Donald immediately sent a beam of divine light toward that golden light. An item that could still function in such a dangerous environment must be of rank equal to or higher than an elementary divine artifact, and Donald naturally wouldn’t let it go.

The severely weakened Stone Bear God tried to use that golden artifact to protect himself and escape, but it was clearly inferior in rank to the Book of Truth and couldn’t break free from the divine light’s grasp. This was merely a projection of the Book of Truth—just imagine how powerful it would be if its full strength were unleashed!

Now, compared to other divine artifacts, Donald realized that the Book of Truth was far more powerful than he had ever imagined.