Chapter 1730: Chapter 1730

1730: Chapter 1726: Repayment 1730: Chapter 1726: Repayment In the end, any debt accumulated must be repaid.

The world’s investments never come without a price.

On this day, Lu Ping’an witnessed the fall of the stars.

“….Within the contract for ascension to godhood, there is bound to be a clause—when the world faces mortal peril, deities must salvage it at all costs.”

“This is likely a fundamental logic of the world’s divine system.

After all, in some sense, deities connected to the world are still a part of it.

Saving the world is, in essence, saving themselves.”

Usually, this isn’t anything grave.

Even if such a situation were to arise, one could attempt to sever ties and flee directly…

During his time in the Silent Mountain Range, Lu Ping’an had already seen enough.

However, severance requires time, cutting involves sacrifice, and this time it came too “abruptly.”

At least, those deities likely didn’t realize, up until the moment they were forced into mortal descent, that they’d end up personally entering the fray.

“Too fast, too fast… From the tranquil rhythm of daily peace to the Supreme God being snared by the world, and then to the betrayal of the deities—all within the blink of an eye.”

No deity could have foreseen this, not even Earth’s most ancient divine entities, who had no experience facing the Supreme God in such a scenario.

They had no reason to anticipate that the Supreme God would be trapped by such a simple snare within the world itself.

Its downfall shattered the world’s defenses in a single moment, tearing a gaping breach wide open.

This meant that the heavenly gods and the evil demons of the Foreign Domain could easily descend upon the surface.

And if that were the extent of it, sacrificing a few avatars or divine envoys to join the battle may have been an acceptable outcome…

For deities to summon their actual forms into the mortal realm, however, inflicts harm upon the world itself.

If weaker gods were forced to join the battle, even that might still have been tolerable.

But they never expected that with the Supreme God devoured by the world, and as the deities continually perished in battle, the world itself would begin to elevate its dimensions.

The world was willing to pay the price of “deities” to ensure the stability of its trap.

As a lump of sugar dissolves in water, so too did this nourishment begin its transformation.

And these “nutrients,” whether they came from fragments of the Supreme God, parts consumed by the world’s erosion, or even the flesh and Divine Right of the deities dying in combat, were all metabolized into fuel for the world’s evolution.

The world had awakened, ravenous like a hungry snake that firmly clamps onto its prey and greedily siphons its nutrients.

The more it consumed, the stronger it grew, and its grip tightened evermore.

If the God of Brain Chewing possessed enough rationality, it would tear off a portion of itself now and sever its tail to escape.

Then it could destroy the world to reclaim its lost fragments or summon its brethren for assistance—all guaranteed paths to victory…

But evidently, if it had such rationality, it wouldn’t have fallen into such an obvious trap in the first place.

When a beast falls into a trap it cannot break free from, it does not rationally bite off its limb to escape but fights back with all its strength.

Naturally, this escalates into a battle to the death.

As the world consumed its “nutrients,” its stability surged.

Consequently, when deities’ actual embodiments were drawn to the mortal realm, they were utterly compelled to enter the battlefield.

Against the fragmented “Divine Incarnations” of the Supreme God, the gods fought desperately, crafting a battlefield wholly imperceptible to mortals.

Yet, Lu Ping’an watched with keen interest.

He saw many deities fall within moments.

Their actual selves were woefully inept at combat, and portions of them were seized by the world to refine its rules and order while other parts were devoured by their adversaries.

Perhaps this was precisely what the world craved most.

No matter who emerged victorious, the world profited immeasurably.

“So this is the cost of immortality and power?”

Leaping from the ninth-tier into the realm of immortal divinity, basking in the faith and sustenance of mortals—yet now, it seemed all of that might be forfeit.

Lu Ping’an’s attention shifted to the monsters that devoured the corpses of the gods.

Their forms began to transform.

The grotesque tentacles contracted, the warped beastly heads morphed into simian ones…

Slowly, most of them took on humanoid shapes.

Earth’s gods were not easily consumed… What they ingested were concentrated aggregates of the world’s rules—and tangible interference by the world’s transformative processes.

They, visibly and rapidly, were becoming them.

Earth was the World of Thousand Gods, teeming with countless weak deities and evil gods ripe to be bait for this battlefield.

Their demise further elevated this world’s dimensions, drawing even stronger deities into the mortal plane.

Some deities tried to sever ties and flee…

Yet, even if they were willing to sacrifice, the half-mad, thunderous Supreme God waited outside the world, and the fractured space made escape utterly impossible.

Meteorites rained down incessantly; one god after another fell miserably.

But simultaneously, a succession of “new gods” emerged.

Ethically speaking, they were hybrids of the Supreme God and the native bloodlines of Earth’s gods, the offspring nurtured by Earth Gaia.

Compared to those “weak gods,” perhaps their potential was far greater.

The Supreme God roared once more.

This rending of its flesh, this perpetual transformation, this ubiquitous erosion of rules—it was as if it were being flayed alive.

It struggled instinctively, splitting countless more clones in an effort to destroy the world and liberate itself from its captivity.

But the outcome of this only served to accelerate its dissolution and reinforce the world’s prison all the more.

“…..The world, it’s too greedy.”

This spectacle had already exceeded anyone’s expectations.

Originally, even the boldest schemers dared only to design a trap that would injure the Supreme God, forcing it to retreat.

Now, however, the world commanded the gods to serve as expendable pawns, aiming to devour the Supreme God entirely.

Earth’s records yield no reference for something .”

Even Big Cat seemed dazed.

Such a battlefield… even in her prime, she would’ve never been foolish enough to rush into its frontlines.

She would’ve fled as quickly as possible.

A battlefield of direct divine combat wasn’t unheard of, but ordinarily, it was inaccessible to the mortal realm.

How could the “history” of this fledgling mortal world have any knowledge or expertise about scenarios ?

Lu Ping’an remained pragmatic.

After his initial shock faded, he focused solely on results.

Chris pondered briefly; while such occurrences were unprecedented, there were precedents of giant gods’ demise in weaker star-zones, catalyzing planetary ascensions.

The mother star’s elevation, especially aided by its principal races…

the races themselves would benefit, with difficulties in becoming an Extraordinary greatly reduced, as well as in promotion—at least it wouldn’t be as harsh as now….”

Don’t be fooled by Lu Ping’an and those around him; their rapid advancement was anomalously absurd, mainly because his courtyard’s core ability accelerated progress.

This world’s typical evolution speed resembled what the Special Service Team predecessors experienced.

Most people couldn’t surpass 2-tier in their lifetime; reaching 3-tier marked elite status, while fourth-tier abilities signified regional dominance.

Beyond that, fifth-sixth tier encompassed international-level elites, with seventh-tier being national treasures.

The world had accumulated only so much; it was originally a non-magical realm, and such evolutionary pathways arose only forcibly through dimension elevation and the linkage of ten thousand gods.

Evolution here wasn’t about higher contamination levels being better… It was about higher order levels combined with contamination.

This wasn’t trash compacted into a heap but a tower built of countless blocks, utilizing the world’s rules and logic to fill each gap.

“…Uh, I meant, is there any benefit for us?”

Lu Ping’an was even more pragmatic, completely uninterested in long-term implications—that was for generals, rulers, and societal elites to ponder…

Uh, wait, technically, he *was* one of those, but he didn’t see himself that way, so therefore, he wasn’t.

Chris shot him an irritable glare.

How could she not know that Lu Ping’an was already tempted but merely seeking an excuse of “it benefits them, it benefits us, so we act”?

His lips weren’t tough, just fussy.

Chris thought for a moment, then shook her head.

It wasn’t that there weren’t benefits; rather, the benefits were *too excessive.* The only question was whether they dared to seize them.

“If I fall, and you gorge yourself on the spoils…

Think about it: with so many gods falling in their entirety on that land, if you managed to snag a morsel, what do you think will happen?

The real question is…