Chapter 448: Exploring New Lands

Crafting the divine artifact core for Basedo also brought benefits; in fact, HuanNader was quite pleased about it. After going through the processes of crafting these two large-scale divine artifacts, he unexpectedly gained additional understanding in two fields—alchemy and blacksmithing—that were extremely useful for true gods.
Of course, this was also due to Donald being an alchemy master who was highly skilled in these areas. Without a solid foundation, even if one were granted the power of these fields directly, it would be like a three-year-old child wielding a hammer—without practice and growth, little power could be exerted.
Fields such as craftsmanship, blacksmithing, and alchemy are all branches of the even more powerful domain of creation. Creation is a powerful higher divine rank second only to the supreme priesthood. Those who can master this priesthood generally have the potential to become higher gods.
Time passed quickly. By the time Donald completed the main body of the divine magic ship, Sea God Basedo had also finished the final step in creating his divine artifact. It had only been half a month since the two true gods slew the deep-sea serpent Leviathan.
The divine armor, named Deep Blue Armor by Basedo, proved to be far more powerful than its owner had expected. After tests by the two true gods, even a peak primary divine artifact like Fury of Nature could not break through the defenses of Deep Blue Armor in a short time. This was thanks to Basedo’s incorporation of his own tide priesthood, which allowed him to draw in any external attacks into tidal fluctuations. As long as the attack exceeded the limits of this artifact, not even a medium-grade divine artifact could destroy its defenses in one strike.
“Congratulations on your greatly enhanced strength, Lord Basedo!”
“It is truly my luck to have been able to make this deal with you, Lord Donald!”
Basedo was deeply grateful. Under normal circumstances, his chances of defeating a powerful demi-god sea lord like Leviathan would have been slim. As for obtaining such a powerful true divine artifact suited to him? Even as a newly risen god, he would have had to struggle for decades to achieve that.
True gods can indeed do many unimaginable things compared to mortals, but they also face their own difficulties and obstacles on the path to divinity. It is not always smooth sailing. Even powerful beings like higher gods are not omnipotent, let alone a newly risen god like Basedo who is still at the lower levels.
Not to mention the distant future, just the stage of establishing a divine kingdom was enough to keep him busy!

The two true gods spent another half day on the desert island. After testing the capabilities of the divine artifact, Deep Blue Armor, they each put away their own artifacts and set off toward their next destination.

Divine artifacts are generally divided into exclusive artifacts and universal artifacts, depending on the intentions of their creators. Exclusive artifacts are those created by true gods using their own divine powers for personal use; typically, no other being can use such artifacts until their creator perishes. The other type arises when true gods acquire laws or powers that don’t align with their own divine roles. For their own benefit, they transform these into divine artifacts, allowing them to wield more powerful divine domains. Alternatively, there are universal artifacts that become unclaimed after their original owners die. These are the main origins of universal artifacts.

Since these artifacts do not rely on the inalienable powers of the true gods themselves, they can be used by other true gods or even mortals—provided they have the ability to wield them. For example, Among Donald’s artifacts, Fury of Nature is his exclusive artifact, while the Unstable Gate he acquired later is a representative of universal artifacts. This lower-tier divine artifact, taken from the God of Stone Bears, is likely a universal artifact left unclaimed after its original owner died. Although it was in the possession of the God of Stone Bears, Random Wind, it didn’t take much effort for Donald to remove Random Wind’s imprint from the artifact.

This is actually normal. With a powerful high-tier artifact like the Book of Truth, it isn’t difficult to eliminate a true god’s exclusive artifact, as long as it’s not at a mid-tier level or above. Moreover, high-tier artifacts like the Book of Truth, aside from lacking their own will, are essentially on par with higher gods in terms of power. They have their own rules, and it’s rare for them to become unclaimed. Even if they lose their creators, high-tier artifacts will choose the most suitable new owner or simply wander through the gaps of the infinite cosmos, making them hard to capture even for higher gods.

After more than ten days, Donald and Basseto, the two true gods, returned from the Stormy Seas to the Kingdom of Dawn in the southwest of the continent. During those ten days, they hunted down another demi-god Ocean Lord and five legendary Ocean Lords. Although their gains were far less than those from their encounter with the Deep Sea Serpent Leviathan, it still satisfied both true gods.

Especially since Basseto not only received so many benefits but also got a powerful artifact of his own, which was already an unexpected gift for him. After they defeated the second target, the Demigod Sea Lord, Donald handed over the blank demi-plane he had created from the Book of Truth to Basseto as agreed. So the two of them stopped after searching for just five more Legendary Sea Lords. Basseto was eager to return to his kingdom to establish a divine realm and make initial changes to the demi-plane. Of course, Octepus, the leader of all Sea Lords, the Deep Sea Giant, was also one of the reasons they were cautious. If this strongest demigod in the main world discovered that many of his subordinates had disappeared without reason and launched a counterattack, then the situation would be beyond the control of these two newly risen gods. While Donald and Basseto were busy hunting Sea Lords, as the realm fusion neared its end, the interference of spatial fragments on the gods’ vision weakened, and the demigods and true gods from the main world had already thoroughly explored the basic situation of the Totem Continent. They were amazed by the vastness and richness of this continent. What excited the gods even more was the abundance of divine resources there, far exceeding those in the main world, along with the large population—these were exactly what they wanted most! Thus, after the world-changing events that occurred during the establishment of the Sea God’s kingdom lasted for over a month, exploration teams of various sizes, formed by various forces on the main continent, set out from the coastal ports. Their goal was to conquer the land and humans of that new continent. Meanwhile, the main goal of the godly church forces accompanying them was to recruit followers among the indigenous people of the Totem Continent and, incidentally, eliminate some of the Totem Gods there to reduce competitors! This was a global event, and the gods and forces of the various countries on the continent knew it was impossible to hide the news, so they simply made public the basic information about the new continent and openly recruited people from the main continent. Many powerful mercenaries and adventurers accepted the recruitment from various forces, choosing to join this high-risk but highly rewarding mission. After all, if they could complete part of the mission and establish a territory on the new continent, they would receive official rewards from the kingdom of their employer, becoming true nobles with territories and hereditary titles! This was the greatest opportunity for those adventurers with high aspirations but no way out and for noble descendants without the right to inherit family titles! Few people would miss such an opportunity.

With memories of his past life, Donald had the best understanding of this operation that affected the entire main world—it was nothing short of an alternate version of Columbus discovering the New World in his past life! Only this time it was a magical version. In his past life, gunpowder weapons conquered the primitive Native Americans; this time, it was powerful armies, professionals, and church clergy aiming to conquer the natives of the new world. Of course, such colonial wars brought immense wealth and benefits to various forces on the main continent, but they brought cruel invasion and slaughter to the indigenous people of the Totem Continent. Yet this was an inevitable trend, an inevitable outcome of history. Even if Donald wanted to stop it, he lacked the power to confront the entire world or even the gods. Besides, he wasn’t the Virgin Mary—he might feel pity for those natives of the Totem Continent who would die in the wars of invasion, but he wouldn’t feel guilty. After all, in any world, survival of the fittest is the basic law of existence. If you don’t want to be prey, then strive to become a predator! All Donald could do was, within his capabilities, try to minimize the slaughter. Although the main world was advancing aggressively, the Totem Continent wasn’t an easy target to manipulate. They not only had a much larger number of totem gods than the true gods on the main continent but also several powerful beings comparable to higher gods. Meanwhile, due to the fusion of the two realms, their rules became unified, and the rules of the Totem Continent, which was also a material world, imposed strong restrictions on the gods from the main continent—allowing them at most to manifest as avatars rather than appearing in their true forms. Under such circumstances, the advantages of both sides would be greatly balanced. According to Donald’s estimate, he believed this colonial war would ultimately lead to a prolonged stalemate. Perhaps the unprepared Totem Continent might suffer some initial disadvantages at the hands of the invaders from the main world, but he believed the totem gods would quickly react. By then, it would depend on how the gods of both sides handled the situation. In any case, Donald would not give up on the interests of the Totem Continent. He had already sent messages at the beginning of the incident, ordering his territories to prepare, and he also took the time to teleport his magic ship back to his territory outside Leyton Port.

Just as before he was deified, Donald participated in the wars of colonization in the New World as a mercenary. Since he didn’t need resources such as land and population, which were most valued by the gods and human nations, his involvement was beneficial for all parties involved. Guided by the principle of mutual benefit, the Dalaran Mercenary Corps accepted its first employer—the royal family of the Celts—where they would serve as an independent force to help the royal family launch the first strike in this struggle for power.