Chapter 704: Walking into a Trap

In the outer void lay an endless realm of mountains and landscapes. This was a separate area created by Donald outside the divine kingdoms, not connected to Azeroth itself, situated between Azeroth and the Fallen Lands. It hung in the void like an enormous island, acting as a counterbalance to the two divine kingdoms.

The actual form of this completed Divine Abomination Hunting Ground realm was that of a large stone disc, but when expanded, it became a vast medium-sized realm. No one could tell that it was actually a powerful artifact. The spatial rules inherent in the realm’s core and the Annihilation Crystal—two extraordinary artifacts of this realm—were so intricate that Donald was far from capable of creating such powerful and precise spatial rules on his own!

As soon as this realm appeared, its enormity immediately caught the attention of the gods. With news of the auction already spreading widely, everyone realized it must be the Divine Abomination Hunting Ground realm mentioned by the Nature Godhood.

Returning from the star realm, Donald released this realm in front of the two true gods, Loki and Thor, and fixed it outside the divine kingdoms. With his insight, Loki could easily discern the value of this realm artifact.

“A realm artifact that contains its own world, rather than a true god’s own divine kingdom—I’ve only seen one like this before, in the Pangu Godhood!”

Donald joked, “You’re not referring to the Map of Mountains, Rivers, and the Nation, are you?”

To his surprise, Loki nodded in confirmation. Seeing that this God of Doom wasn’t joking, Donald wasn’t too surprised. If the Pangu Godhood existed, it wasn’t unexpected for one or two legendary immortal treasures or artifacts to appear as well.

The three true gods entered the Hunting Ground realm and immediately felt the constraints imposed by its rules. Donald had created this realm to breed divine abominations for outsiders to hunt. Its rules were designed to enforce strict confinement—not only preventing the abominations from escaping but also acting like a prison where they could move freely, while simultaneously restricting the actions of outsiders. Without the approval of the Nature Godhood, even higher gods had to restrain their power to avoid triggering a chain reaction due to the realm’s rules.

After entering the Hunting Ground dimension, the space transformed, revealing a vast and expansive world with mountains, hills, rivers, lakes, and various other terrains. There were also numerous wild animal species, making it a world full of vitality that had developed over many years—far from resembling a newly created dimension.

Donald explained to the Loki brothers, “The creatures here were all selected by me from the Divine Kingdom and released as food for the first batch of Divine Abominations!”

In reality, Divine Abominations hardly needed to eat. However, Donald thought that some blood-based stimulation might increase their chances of reproduction. It could also help ease their violent tendencies after being imprisoned for countless years once they regained freedom, preventing them from killing each other and reducing the number of Divine Abominations.

Although the Divine Abominations would kill and devour each other, reducing their numbers, it could lead to the emergence of even more powerful ones. As for the upcoming hunting activities, Donald needed a certain number of Divine Abominations now. Evolving stronger ones could wait until the Hunting Ground dimension was fully developed.

With that, Donald waved his hand to summon the Book of Truth and began releasing the Divine Abominations in designated locations.

In a remote area of the Star Realm, after Loki opened the massive dimension of the Divine Abomination prisons, Donald used a high-tier artifact to capture hundreds of thousands of Divine Abominations, most of them at the demi-god level, along with some powerful new gods and lower-tier gods. There were less than a hundred of the rarest species and mid-tier gods. Whether the true gods who entered the Hunting Ground later could catch them would depend on their luck.

Among the Divine Abominations were many of enormous size. Yet compared to the space of a medium-sized dimension, they were still insignificant. When hundreds of thousands of them were released into the Hunting Ground, it was as if they vanished without a trace.

Still, hundreds of thousands of Divine Abominations represented a vast wealth that any true god in the Pantheon could use to establish dozens of godly factions. Even higher-tier gods couldn’t help but be envious.

But Donald wasn’t worried that any true god would dare seize this dimension. Since he had declared the Hunting Ground open to the public, it meant that those willing to pay a price could enter and hunt Divine Abominations, thus dissuading most true gods from having such ambitions.

After all, the pantheon of nature gods was not to be trifled with, and such resource exploitation had earned unanimous approval from the gods of the Pantheon—at least on the surface. Thus, even if one ignored the strength of the pantheon of nature gods, they still had to consider the views of the other true gods.

That said, not all true gods were averse to coveting the vast opportunities offered by the Sin Hunt Grounds, especially some evil deities and demons. However, due to the recent dominance of the pantheon of nature gods and their powerful allies, these entities hesitated to act rashly. They would wait until they understood the true situation of the Sin Hunt Grounds and determined that the costs were far lower than the rewards before taking action.

On the third day after the Sin Hunt Grounds appeared, the pantheon of nature gods announced in the Pantheon the date and rules for the first opening of this realm. The opening was set for three months later. By then, all hunters who held access permits and qualified to enter—regardless of whether they were high or mid-tier gods—would have their powers restricted to that of low-tier gods. Anyone who broke this restriction would be immediately transported out and lose their eligibility to enter that time.

There were also other details, which Donald would personally set on the access permits. These rules were one-time only, meaning any previously issued permits would become invalid upon the next opening, thus eliminating the possibility of cheating.

There were many other detailed rules, most of which were designed to prevent honest individuals from being harmed, though they wouldn’t stop those powerful enough, such as mid-tier or higher gods, from attempting to break the rules and plunder the resources of sinners. Such actions would immediately draw the attention of the realm’s master, Donald, who would intervene personally.

Disrespecting the pantheon of nature gods was a minor issue, as it only offended one group. But if hunters violated the rules and affected the gains of other true gods, they would offend most of the gods in the Pantheon—a consequence even any sensible true god could foresee.

Therefore, the members of the pantheon of nature gods, including Donald, were largely unworried about potential problems.

The announcement of the Sin Hunt Grounds event caused a tremendous stir among the gods. The Pantheon was filled with chatter once again, as it had been quiet for centuries. The previous events that had shocked the gods were also related to the pantheon of nature gods.

Interestingly, some of the true gods in the faction of justice were dissatisfied with the orcish pantheon’s entry into the Abyss. As the leader of justice, Lord of Dawn Ivan even made a rare personal appearance to deliver a stern condemnation to the orcish pantheon, rallying other gods to impose sanctions on them. At this time, news of the Divine Abomination Hunting campaign spread from the pantheon of nature gods. This essentially opened up a new resource source for the gods of the multiverse—one that was extremely abundant. Immediately, many true gods praised the pantheon of nature gods for their noble act of serving all gods. Gods are also creatures, and they naturally possess the traits common to intelligent beings; selfish thoughts are inevitable when their own interests are at stake. Thus, most gods paid attention to the Divine Abomination Hunting campaign, with few responding to Lord of Dawn Ivan’s call. Even most true gods in the faction of justice found various excuses to refuse to participate. No one was optimistic about venturing into the Abyss, knowing that in the demons’ domain, the Endless Abyss, gods would lack support and, if injured, might perish or be corrupted by the Abyssal will and fall into becoming demon gods. In the words of a true god from the realm of justice, “A resource plane like the Divine Abomination Hunting Ground is rarely seen in ten thousand years. Entering the Abyss is a vast and prolonged war. Since there’s no rush, it’s better to obtain a pass first and participate in the hunting to strengthen our own power!” It is said that after these remarks, Lord of Dawn Ivan, who usually wore a mask of light, left in a visibly upset mood. During the three-month period before the hunting campaign began, many true gods came to the pantheon of nature gods in advance to greet them and build relationships, while also observing the situation in the Divine Abomination Hunting Ground plane in hopes of gaining insider information to catch more abominations once the campaign started. Donald ignored all of this and left it to the God of Kingship, who served as a diplomat for the pantheon, to handle it. If one could understand the rules of the Divine Abomination Hunting Ground just by observing from outside, then this plane artifact would no longer be a powerful artifact comparable to higher-tier artifacts. However, to Donald’s surprise, some true gods were willing to risk being condemned by other gods and secretly infiltrate the Divine Abomination Hunting Ground plane. More than ten days after the news was announced, Donald, who was studying inter-universe teleportation arrays in the core of his divine kingdom, suddenly sensed something unusual. With a sweep of his divine consciousness, he figured out what was going on.

In the Plane of the Abomination Hunt, standing in the void outside Azeroth, an abyss was sneaking in, thinking it had gone unnoticed. Unaware that this plane was extraordinary, every move it made was under the watchful eye of its master. Seeing this intruder, Donald, the master, couldn’t help but smile and say, “Someone is actually stupid enough to walk right into a trap. I’d better loosen the restraints first, so as not to scare away my prey!” With that, Donald secretly manipulated the Plane of the Abomination Hunt, temporarily disabling most of the rules designed to suppress foreign invaders, so as not to alert them. Once that guy penetrated deep enough into the plane, he could catch it in a trap!