Chapter 524

Chapter 524: The Scrappy God Who Wanted to Steal Food from the Spawn

“This should be a limbless creature with highly degenerated limbs, evolved to resemble a snake.”

The limbless creature lived during the Carboniferous period, resulting from amphibians spreading into various ecological niches. Though snakes emerged only in the Mesozoic Era, many earlier creatures had already experimented with elongated body forms.

Carboniferous limbless creatures and snake-like amphibians were both pioneers of this evolutionary path.

Yet limbless creatures differed sharply from true serpentine forms: snakes retained relatively long tails, while the limbless creature had an extremely short tail paired with an absurdly elongated torso.

This gave the creature a comical appearance, almost laughable.

It resembled a super-sized dachshund.

“Hmm, these weren’t large—barely a dozen centimeters long.”

“Likely fed on insects and other tiny critters.”

“Not particularly strong, but theoretically capable of threatening my spawn.”

“Still, judging by the state…”

Trilobite nudged the limbless creature’s corpse with his claw, observing its stiff, pitiful form before shaking his head.

“The threat seems minimal.”

“Seems it tried hunting my white-haired lady but ended up as prey itself—counter-hunted.”

“Never imagined my ‘ancient jumping spiders’ mastered the divine skill of ‘true sociality’!”

“Excellent. Keep improving.”

“I trust your work!”

Trilobite felt zero surprise at the jumping spiders developing true sociality.

After all, genuinely social spiders existed within Araneae—families like Theridiidae and Salticidae included examples.

Certain Salticidae spiders had even evolved “gentle” and “aggressive” types: gentle ones guarded and nurtured offspring, while aggressive types patrolled webs, hunted, and attacked invaders.

Their division of labor was starkly defined.

Given that jumping spiders topped arachnid intelligence, true sociality emerging someday was inevitable.

Perhaps some species had already achieved it, awaiting discovery.

“Splendid.”

“This… long-legged oddity of a loach is yours now.”

“*Slurp*…”

Trilobite gulped hard.

Honestly, at his size—over six hundred kilograms—this ten-gram morsel…

Wouldn’t even suffice as a toothpick snack.

Yet Trilobite craved it.

He strained every ounce of willpower to restrain his appetite, refusing to shamelessly seize his spawn’s hard-won prize.

“*Gulp*…”

Trilobite swallowed again.

But he didn’t quite succeed.

Copious saliva still splattered downward, dripping onto the ground.

Yet even more fell onto the limbless creature’s corpse.

“Uh…”

“I… I’m helping your digestion!”

“Bon appétit, everyone!”

“Off I go.”

Saying this, Trilobite turned awkwardly, carrying the white-haired jumping spider quietly perched on his shoulder, and walked toward the area of flattened woodland.

“Let’s go try making a fire!”

—-

“Divine grace overflows!”

“Great is the Giant God!”

“Glorious indeed!”

The Valaharl people are silent.

But that’s when facing compatriots, kin, or enemies.

When the Giant God bestows favor, when divine approval and joy nourish their souls, even the silent Valaharl people find long-lost elation.

To these loyal Warriors, this marks the Giant God’s unprecedented "accolade" for the Valaharl people.

“Recorder.”

“Document this glorious day.”

A towering Chosen Warrior spoke. His armor matched the fervently scribbling Chosen Warrior beside him, save for a golden laurel on his helmet and a white cloak draping his back.

He was the war leader of the Death Brigade war organization.

As for his name…

Irrelevant.

Merely a string of numerals.

Proudly surveying the hill-sized divine corpse, he slowly knelt in prayer.

“The Death Brigade war organization, led by the Third Living Saint, has vanquished the evil god.”

“Total victory! Slain the evil god! Won glory for the Death Brigade! And gained the Giant God’s approval.”

“Unprecedented approval!”

Truly unprecedented.

After descending, the Giant God manifested astonishment at their triumph.

Then rumbling sacred words rained from the heavens. Monosyllabic divine speech resonated through every Chosen Warrior; torrents of meaning carrying emotion scoured their souls, making spirits tremble.

But in the midst of this almost soul-rending pain, the Valaharl people trembled with joy.

They heard the Giant God’s disdain for the chaos deity and praise for the Valaharl people.

The Giant God admired their wisdom, their unity, and their organizational strength.

But that wasn’t all.

What made the Valaharl people feel the most honored was the right bestowed upon them by the Giant God in his praise—"As long as it is a war of conquest started by the Valaharl people, I fully support it."

Although the divine language was sacred and could not be recited, this was its meaning.

Without a doubt, this granted the Valaharl people the power to decide on their own and to launch campaigns against the "disloyal"!

Of course, the Giant God wasn’t just a petty deity who made empty promises.

“The Giant God personally lifted the sacred Living Saint, Miss Loseta, to his shoulders; she became known as the ‘Guardian Living Saint’.”

“At the same time, he gave us sacred liquid and used it to turn the demon god’s body into a sacred corpse.”

The "sacred liquid" that "dripped" from the Giant God was very precious.

The earliest group of Chosen Warriors were born by bathing in the “active sacred liquid.”

That sacred liquid had just left the divine body of the Giant God, and some even stayed on the divine mouth and skin of the Giant God.

This was like the Giant God’s own “purification.”

They were incredibly strong in both single combat capability and learning ability, with some top fighters able to match low-tier deities like the “etheric worm.”

The first-generation Chosen Warriors tore apart etheric worms and other beings many times.

But sadly, when the sacred liquid touched the "mortal world," it quickly “went bad” within days, losing much of its power.

It still worked, but not as well as before.

At that time, no technician had found a way to keep the “sacred liquid active.”

So, most “next-generation” Chosen Warriors were made by “watering down the sacred liquid.”

Even though they were still strong “demigods,” their single combat capability was much weaker.

People said that while both “first-generation Chosen Warriors” and “next-generation Chosen Warriors” are “demigods,” the first are “a half-step from being deities,” and the second are “way above mortals but far from deities.”

This time, the Giant God gave them not just fresh, active “divine sacred liquid,” but also used the “sacred liquid” to change a deity’s corpse.

“Technical officer Clest-0189.”

“What’s the situation?”

The war leader asked a Chosen Warrior wearing special armor, whose backpack was very big and had several mechanical arms sticking out, like a giant spider.

“Great is the Giant God.”

The reply was calm, but the war leader could feel the awe and excitement in it.

“The body of the evil god was ‘awakened’ a bit; the ‘divine sacred liquid’ poured on it was slowly eating it; part of the deity’s flesh broke down into energy to keep the eating going, and another part turned into new ‘divine sacred liquid.’”

Hearing this, the war leader nodded and pointed to the “divine sacred liquid” that had pooled in front of him, forming a small lake.

The Giant God not only sprinkled the sacred liquid over the evil god’s body but also generously splashed it around.

Now, it had gathered into a lake in the low ground.

But this was not the end.

According to the technical officers’ scans, the divine sacred liquid kept seeping down, seeming to prepare to take over a huge abandoned shelter.

Then, a grand "sacred underground lake" would form.

But this wasn’t the war leader’s main worry.

“If I got it right, simply put, as long as we keep sacrificing deity bodies to the ‘sacred lake,’ it’ll stay active and even grow.”

“Right!?”

The technical officer stood at attention.

“Yes.”

The war leader thought for a bit and asked again,

“If we move this sacred liquid somewhere else, will what you said still work?”

The technical officer stood at attention.

“Yes.”

The eyes behind the war leader’s mask lit up with understanding.

“I get it.”

“Now I see.”

“No wonder the Giant God gives us the power to hunt the evil god.”

“Seems the Giant God’s ‘Great Plan’ is speeding up his big scheme.”

“He needs more powerful Chosen Ones warriors!”

“So…”

“The great hunt is about to start.”

“Those lower-tier evil gods will be our prey!”

With that, the war leader turned and left, his cloak fluttering behind him.

“Reach out to all factories left in Valaharl right away.”

“Run full speed to make all spider-like mechs!”

“Also round up all Valaharl people in the net path and any void ships we can get. Tell them to build armories in the net paths near Valaharl! Build as many as they can!”

“Finally…”

“Clank… clank… clank…”

A huge spider-like mech moved forward with heavy steps.

All the Chosen Ones warriors from the "Death Legion," busy cleaning up after battle, stopped their work and saluted.

This included the war leader.

It wasn’t because the mech pilots had high rank, but because they were all “glorious veterans.”

In the Valaharl people’s language, “glory” often means dying in battle; a glorious veteran means warriors who almost “died for the Giant God” and lived on thanks to “divine virtual organs.”

Most of these Chosen Ones warriors were crippled for life but still eager to serve the Giant God.

So, the technical officers buried them in “metal wombs,” hooking them up to “jumping spider” mechs, so they could keep serving.

“Honored glorious veterans.”

The war leader of the Death Brigade saluted the veterans and waved them forward.

“Go on!”

“Bathe in the sacred liquid given by the Giant God.”

“It’s the best reward for your hard work!”

“After this…”

“Follow me to battle!”