On the bridge of the *Unyielding Truth*, the Emperor's will surged like the cold vacuum of space, silently permeating every corner of the ship. On the holographic star map, points of light representing the territories of various pantheons were being marked one by one.
"First Legion, objective: Nile River basin."
"Fifth Legion, objective: the Indian subcontinent."
"Thirteenth Legion..."
Command after command was issued, absolute and unquestionable. The towering Primarchs accepted their orders in silence, transforming into streaks of light as they surged toward every corner of the globe. The cleansing operation had begun in global synchronization.
The Emperor himself turned his gaze toward the Nile—that ancient land shrouded in the divine powers of death and reincarnation.
"How boring. It's either deserts or ancient tombs; there's no creativity at all." Ian pointed toward a secluded cluster of islands on the map. "I've heard the goddesses in Japan have a unique style, and more importantly, they come in large numbers. I'll head over there and add some variety to my collection."
The moment the words left his lips, he vanished and reappeared beside Lin Qiye, casually grabbing him by the back of his collar. "Come on, kid. Let me show you something."
With a casual tear in the fabric of space, the two of them were suddenly suspended in the sky above the prosperous divine realm of Japan.
Unlike Mount Olympus, which was a physical divine kingdom that arrogantly occupied an entire dimension, the land beneath their feet felt strangely eerie.
Lin Qiye felt an unnatural mist permeating the air. It was as if the entire Japanese archipelago was deeply bound to a semi-plane that existed just out of reach, blurring the line between reality and illusion.
Ian's arrival instantly triggered the land's defense mechanisms.
In an instant, countless phantasmal, vermillion torii gates materialized in overlapping layers across the city skyline, forming an invisible barrier that spanned the heavens and earth. It wasn't an energy shield, but rather a "repulsion" and "oblivion" acting directly upon the laws of reality.
An invisible force enveloped Lin Qiye.
The image of Ian began to blur in his mind, and even the memory of why he had come here began to slip away.
He suddenly bit his tongue hard. The sharp pain forced him to concentrate his spirit, fighting against this "correction" imposed by the world itself. This was *Kamikakushi*—the Divine Hiddenness—a terrifying rule capable of erasing an intruder from reality and forcing the world to forget them.
Ian watched Lin Qiye's struggle with indifference, looking down at the streets below as if nothing were happening.
The pedestrians on the street all wore the same formatted, fanatical, yet numb smile.
In Ian's perception, the mental energy of every single person had been turned into a trickling stream, being continuously siphoned away and fed into the somewhat fake-looking sun in the sky—the chief deity of Takamagahara, Amaterasu.
"Tsk, what a crude method of livestock farming for mental energy. There's no technical skill in this at all," Ian curled his lip in blatant disdain.
Within Takamagahara, Amaterasu looked through the Yata Mirror and witnessed Ian's descent. A power so incomprehensible that she felt a tremor deep within her soul.
She immediately issued a divine decree, ordering the eight million deities under her command to hide completely. She sought to minimize the connection between the divine realm and reality, hoping to simply "stall" until this uninvited guest grew bored and left.
Most of the gods obeyed. However, a violent roar exploded from the depths of the ocean.
Susanoo, the banished god of destruction, was not hiding. On the contrary, he was beyond excited.
"You expect me to hide from him?"
Clutching the Kusanagi sword, Susanoo unleashed a colossal tsunami capable of swallowing coastal cities. He emerged from the depths of myth, roaring as he surged toward Ian.
Facing this world-ending strike, Ian didn't even bother to look up. He simply extended a finger with an air of impatience and tapped the source of the tsunami.
Instantly, time seemed to freeze. The violent wave, the destructive divine power within it, and the arrogance on Susanoo's face all solidified. Then, the water turned into a docile stream, silently receding back into the ocean.
Susanoo's divine body froze mid-air. Just as he was about to let out a horrified roar, Ian appeared before him and pressed a hand firmly against his face.
"I'm here for business, not to play house with children."
Ian wore a smile, but his palm erupted with a force that made Susanoo's Divine Spark wail in agony. His divine body began to crack inch by inch.
Watching her brother be subdued in an instant through the divine mirror, Amaterasu was pale with shock. She realized that hiding was useless; the opponent's strength was beyond her comprehension.
Acting decisively, she activated the Yasakani no Magatama, attempting to sink the entirety of Takamagahara into the conceptual reverse side, completely severing it from the physical world.
"Trying to run now? Too late." Ian looked up at the sky, a playful smile curling his lips. "The thing I hate most is when people slam the door in my face."
He let go, allowing the unconscious Susanoo to plummet into the sea, and then casually snapped his fingers at the sky.
*Snap.*
With that crisp sound, the spatial laws of Japan began to collapse into chaos. The "Ama-no-Iwato" barrier that separated reality from the divine realm shattered like a mirror struck by a heavy blow, spider-webbing into countless cracks before exploding.
The magnificent palaces of Takamagahara, once hidden in the mist, were exposed to the real world for the first time—crystal clear and utterly fragile.
Ian stepped inside, with Lin Qiye following close behind.
The moment they entered Takamagahara, Lin Qiye paused. There was no oppressive weight of a powerful individual like in the Western pantheons. Instead, it felt like walking into a massive, precision-engineered server room.
The air was filled with countless faint but distinct "concepts." A stalk of rice was the manifestation of the concept of "Harvest"; a gentle breeze was the embodiment of the rule of "Airflow." Even an unremarkable stone by the roadside carried a sliver of divinity.
Ian switched off the violent mode he used for clearing large-scale trash.
He turned to Lin Qiye and smiled. "You can't use brute force on a system like this. You have to find the administrator account and format the whole thing for a clean result."
He raised his hand and spread his fingers. Lin Qiye couldn't see it, but he could clearly perceive countless golden codes—unfathomable to any mortal—pouring from Ian's palm. Like mercury spilling across a floor, they instantly permeated every corner of Takamagahara.
In Lin Qiye's perception, the underlying rules of the entire divine kingdom were forcibly stripped, analyzed, and finally transformed into a clear, transparent architectural map presented before Ian.
"Let's see... what's in the inventory."
Ian's gaze was like that of someone browsing a luxury mall. Soon, he pointed toward a weaving workshop in the distance, where a goddess was intently weaving cloth. Sensing something, the goddess looked up blankly, her eyes still holding a sliver of divine serenity.
"Hmm, the Goddess of Divine Clothing. Responsible for weaving the garments of the gods. Good craftsmanship, excellent attention to detail. A limited edition... I'll take her!"
As soon as he spoke, the goddess and her loom rapidly shrank under an invisible force. The confusion on her face turned into sheer terror, but she couldn't make a sound. Eventually, she became a palm-sized, exquisite doll that automatically flew into a transparent grid floating behind Ian.
Lin Qiye's Adam's apple bobbed; for a moment, he was speechless. That was a god, and she was just... gone?
Ian's "shopping spree" didn't stop. He shifted his gaze to a rice field where a goddess in charge of food was inspecting the crops.
"The Goddess of Food. This design is quite creative, though the divine power is a bit cluttered—feels like a knock-off brand... whatever, I'll take her too!"
Another "figure" was added to the inventory.
This "procurement" of goddesses continued eerily throughout the empty divine realm. Ian was in high spirits, critiquing them one by one, sometimes nodding in satisfaction and sometimes curling his lip in disapproval, as if he were enjoying a pleasant day of shopping.
The Collapse of Takamagahara
In the deepest reaches of Takamagahara, Amaterasu—the "System Administrator"—witnessed everything through the Yata Mirror. Her divine form trembled violently, seized by a mixture of fury and dread. This was no longer a mere provocation; this was the dismantling of her very foundation, and he was hauling away her divine subjects as a convenient side project!
She finally snapped.
"Blasphemer!"
A piercing shriek tore through the entirety of Takamagahara. The sound didn't originate from any single direction; it was the divine realm itself roaring in rage.
Amaterasu completely fused her authority with that of Takamagahara. Her physical form dissolved, merging with the false sun suspended above the realm. In an instant, the sunlight ceased to be warm. It turned a ghastly, frigid white, emanating an aura of absolute oblivion.
Takamagahara began to collapse. Palaces, mountains, and rivers—everything disintegrated into streams of pure conceptual data, surging violently into that pale, dying sun.
The ultimate divine art, [Divine Punishment of Takamagahara], was unleashed.
Its goal was not mere physical annihilation, but the complete erasure of Ian and Lin Qiye from the very root of existence.
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