Chapter 116: Damn, Am I Dreaming?

The strange event in Z City drew quite a few fearless spectators. Even Buck, a member of the Kuaiba tribe whom I had sent to accompany the severely wounded Uncle Mao, came rushing over. Flapping his skeletal wings, he flew to my side.

I glanced at Buck, then said solemnly, “Why are you here? Don’t you know that the people of the Divine Realm regard us as demons who bring calamity upon the world? For all we know, the Thunder God may come down and subdue us in a moment!”

Old Buck looked at me, then grinned. “Heh heh, I had no idea. Besides, who wouldn’t want to watch such an incredible divine battle?”

After speaking, Buck turned his gaze toward the Thunder God and the sorcerer a hundred meters away, the latter having been granted an avatar by Amaterasu.

Since he was already here, I could hardly drive him away. All I could do was wait and see which of them was more powerful—the Thunder God or Amaterasu’s avatar.

The avatar’s Serpent Form had already been torn apart by the Thunder Dragon, so I felt that the Thunder God of the Shenzhou Divine Realm was probably stronger than Amaterasu.

But then again, Amaterasu had been able to establish a foothold in the Primordial Wilderness. Her strength certainly could not be underestimated.

Although I had never seen a primordial beast myself, the novels said that such creatures were all extraordinarily powerful, almost on the same level as divine beasts. They were also enormous, with strength far beyond imagination. Ordinary lesser gods would not even withstand a single slap from one.

If that was true, then Amaterasu was clearly no ordinary lesser god. Her avatar had to be terrifying as well.

The blue light in the sorcerer’s eyes suddenly intensified. Two beams of blue radiance shot forth, streaking straight toward the Thunder God ten meters away. It seemed the battle had begun.

By now, the streets and the buildings were packed with people. Everywhere from which the two gods could be seen was crowded with spectators, all pointing and gesturing toward the figures in the sky. Naturally, some were also staring at Buck and me.

The two blue beams fired from the sorcerer’s eyes had already exceeded what this world could endure. Wherever they passed, the air rang with sharp cracking sounds as space itself began to split apart.

“My heavens! What is that?” a passerby cried in astonishment, pointing at the blue light in the sky.

“Is that the legendary ancient immortal art?” another spectator asked, covering his mouth.

“Good heavens! I haven’t lived in vain! From this day forward, I believe in the gods!” a third man shouted, joining the commotion.

The crowd erupted, all attention turning toward the blue radiance released by Amaterasu. In the blink of an eye, it reached the Thunder God.

“Stubborn and unrepentant Amaterasu! You dare challenge the Thunder God, a divine general of the Shenzhou Divine Realm, with nothing but an avatar? What a joke! Behold my Ten-Thousand-League Thunderlight!”

With that, the Thunder God raised his Thunder God Sword toward the heavens. Bolts of heavenly lightning descended from above and connected with its tip. From a distance, it looked like a colossal lightning bolt stretching endlessly through the sky, fixed in place.

“Break!”

The Thunder God swung the lightning-wreathed divine sword and struck the blue radiance unleashed by Amaterasu’s avatar with all his might. The lightning took the form of an enormous dragon, formed entirely of thunder, and charged toward the two blue beams.

The distance between them was only ten meters, yet the power behind that strike was astonishing. If the two forces collided, the shock wave alone might shear the roofs from half of Z City.

“Rumble—boom!”

The two divine powers collided. The resulting force spread rapidly in every direction, sending waves of impact through the air. Rooftops and entire buildings along its path were torn apart, as though the end of the world had arrived.

Neither the Thunder God nor Amaterasu gained any advantage. To unleash such terrifying divine power at such close range, they had to endure the backlash as well. The force hurled both of them hundreds of meters backward through the air before they finally stabilized themselves with their divine strength.

This was the mortal world, not the Divine Realm. Power comparable to a nuclear explosion was disastrous for ordinary people when unleashed here. Those on the ground were relatively fortunate, but everyone standing atop the buildings suffered terribly. Wherever the shock wave passed, space shattered, and the tremendous suction nearly dragged every person on the rooftops into some unknown dimension.

“Empty and formless, return to simplicity. Let battle return to the void; war itself is emptiness. Thunderer, have I not taught you that divine power must not be used in the mortal world? Why did you refuse to listen?”

A vague, ethereal voice came from the celestial heavens. I heard only a fragment of it, however, because Buck and I had also been caught in the shock wave. We were still being driven backward by the blast, and the impact had nearly broken my waist.

After that ethereal voice faded, space seemed to return to tranquility. In my consciousness, I felt as though time had stopped. Everything had frozen in place. I saw the people on the streets caught in the postures of fleeing, and I saw the Thunder God and Amaterasu facing each other high in the sky.

Later, I felt everything begin to recover. Even the people who had been sucked into the unknown dimension reappeared on the rooftops. The buildings had somehow been restored without my noticing, and everything was once again intact, as if nothing had happened. The shock wave seemed to have vanished as well.

I felt as though I had been transported to another place. Only the Thunder God, Amaterasu, and I remained there. Everything had happened so suddenly. The master of that voice possessed power so far beyond mine that I could not even hope to glimpse its limits.

“Damn, what an incredible display of power. To move people from one place to another without anyone noticing… This must be the battle space so often mentioned in novels. Could it be that the master of that immense power dragged me into this unknown battlefield by sheer coincidence? What a joke. Why me of all people?”

I stood alone, a thousand meters away from the Thunder God and Amaterasu, watching them hover motionless in the air. They neither fought nor spoke. I could only mutter to myself, wondering how exactly I had entered this place.

…

“Hey there, young man. You’re all alone? What do you think of those two?”

In the middle of my thoughts, I suddenly heard an old man’s voice beside my ear. I had thought I was the only person there, so when a white-haired, white-bearded old man suddenly appeared, anyone would have been frightened out of their wits.

“Hey, old man! How did you manage to walk without making a sound? And how did you get in here?” The old man had startled me, and I was in no mood to be polite, so I gave him a cold reception.

“I came to watch a movie too. Look, there are only the two of us in the whole theater. I saw you enjoying yourself just now, so I didn’t want to disturb you.”

After speaking, the old man picked up a bucket filled with popcorn from another seat and fixed his eyes on the massive fantasy film playing on the screen ahead.

What the hell was going on? I had just been watching the Thunder God and Amaterasu engage in a real battle. How had I ended up in a movie theater after only a brief moment—and watching the least popular film at that? The entire theater held only me and one old man.

I decided not to think about it any further. After apologizing to the old man and saying that I must have been confused a moment ago, I scratched my head in bewilderment and walked out of the deserted theater.

As I left, I muttered under my breath, “This makes no sense. Could I really have been dreaming? Damn, it felt far too real!”