CHAPTER 459: DIVINE PANTHEON INVITATION

"Hoho. You don’t have to be humble around me," Taihao’s grin returned. "Imagine this, I will grant you a new authority within the system we provide Lin Mo and welcome you to our Pantheon. Say, what does ’Purveyor of Miasma and Corruption’ sound to you as a title?"

The Great Poison Demon was taken aback. He was aware of the Divine Pantheon’s way but ultimately, they are all divine beings following the Heavenly Laws. Most of them won’t be able to tolerate a Chaotic Deity who follows the Chaotic Laws like him. It was obvious when Lihua was around, captive or not, only Taihao could truly tolerate his existence within the pantheon. She only inquired about his presence in the Pantheon once.

Nevertheless, he also understood how fond the Goddess is of the Shopkeeper. She’s willing to provide him with her full support if ever he asks for it.

"I..." The Poison Demon hesitated. "Your Excellency, you’re mistaken about my capabilities. I can sense them but pinpointing those purposefully hidden is difficult to accomplish. Besides, how does this lowly one deserve to be part of your–"

"Poison Demon. Our Pantheon isn’t your ordinary divine sanctuary. Everyone can continue vying for hegemony of this Heaven now that the path to the Fourth Heaven and above remains closed. But not us," Taihao interrupted, his tone losing its whimsical edge. Instead, it was replaced by an ancient, profound seriousness that made the very garden around them hold its breath. "The other divine courts, the Violet Deity included, are rulers. They sit on their thrones, protect their domains, and maintain the status quo. They are content to let the lower heavens borrow a crumb of their influence so long as their own gardens remain pristine. They are kings of stagnant ponds. There are even those who will work with these foreign invaders for their own gain..."

He stood up and walked over to the edge of the celestial garden, fixing his gaze on the stellar map floating before them. "Our pantheon is different. We see a problem, an inconvenience on a cosmic scale, and we devise a solution. The path to the higher heavens is blocked, so we seek to unblock it while consequently not allowing foreign interference to halt our progress. The Outer Realms encroach, so we build a bulwark in the form of the store. Why wait for the tide to reach our castle walls when we can build a dam miles upstream?"

Taihao turned, his eyes twinkling with a light that seemed to contain the birth and death of stars. "Your capabilities are limited, yes. But that is because you are using your own, isolated senses. I am not offering you a job, Poison Demon. I am offering you a place in our pantheon or perhaps, you prefer to be a mere captive instead? Hoho."

The old man stroked his flowing white beard. "I am offering you an upgrade. A connection. You will only be required to link your divine sense directly to the Divine System Interface. And it will become the divine sensor for our entire network."

The Great Poison Demon’s form trembled, not from fear this time, but from the sheer, world-altering scale of the proposal. To be linked to the system that was reshaping the First Heaven?

He had been observing the pantheon and how they worked with that little Shopkeeper, propagating what he called ’convenience’. And it was undeniable that the system Taihao and the rest of the Pantheon created had become a loophole that continued to deceive the Heaven’s Will of the First Heaven.

Despite it still being connected to the pantheon, it was recognized to be only linked to the store itself and supervised by the Shopkeeper, who possessed all the administrative authorities. If he realized the extent of his authority, he’d understand that he could also cut off the pantheon from it.

Obviously, it would also mean the high-quality products coming from them would not be delivered anymore.

That showed how much Taihao and the rest of the divine beings within the Pantheon trust Lin Mo’s judgement.

"The system can process data. It can even generate new functions from that young man’s ideas." Taihao continued, his voice taking on the tone of a master engineer explaining his creation. "It sees the realm in terms of spiritual energy, transactions, and logistical flow. Your senses can definitely be utilized by him. You perceive the world in terms of corruption, decay, and chaos. Your very nature allows you to sense the subtle ’wrongness’ of a dormant Anchor in a way our system, which looks for order, cannot. In short, by lending it a portion of your divine senses, it will become its ’anomaly detector’."

He gestured to the stellar map, where the hundreds of red dots pulsed ominously. "Your senses, amplified by the network, will be able to sweep across the entire First Heaven. The data you gather – the whispers of corruption, the echoes of foreign law – will be fed into the system. It will process your chaotic input, filter it, and turn it into actionable, convenient intelligence. Coordinates. Threat assessments. Weakness analyses. This data will then be passed down to our little Shopkeeper, who will turn it into commissions for his new ’Mercenary’s Guild’ and points for his ’Realm Guardian Leaderboard’."

Taihao’s grin was now a thing of terrifying brilliance. "Do you see what I’m hinting at, Poison Demon? Your role in this will not be a speck of dust in the grand scheme of things. Every Anchor they find, every victory they achieve, will have originated from your unique perception. You, a Chaotic Deity, will become the linchpin for the restoration of order in the First Heaven. The irony is... delicious, isn’t it?"

The Great Poison Demon stood in absolute silence, processing the proposal. It was a devil’s bargain of the highest order. He, a being who thrived on propagating his poisonous method, chaos and decay, was being offered the chance to become a part of the Divine Pantheon, a collective of higher-ranked divine beings whose prestige surpassed any other organization in the Third Heaven.

But the alternative... was to remain here. A powerless, nameless captive in a divine garden, slowly fading into irrelevance while the universe moved on without him. He had watched his own followers, his own High Priest, find a new, more fervent purpose under the banner of a mortal shopkeeper. They were growing, evolving, thriving in this new era of ’convenience’.

And he was being left behind.

Was he angry about it? What’s there to be angry about if they still believed in him, in his revelations? Their fanaticism remained a source of nourishment for his Chaotic Will.

This offer... Was it a cage or a lifeline? He had no idea. However, he was a Chaotic Deity. His path was filled with carnage and terror. Many cursed his name and his enemies always wished for his demise. And yet, he was being given a chance to be relevant again.

To wield his unique and terrible power on a scale he had never imagined. It was a chance to be a part of the future, even if it meant serving a cause antithetical to his own.

His nature was chaos, yes. But above all else, he was a survivor.

"...I accept," The Great Poison Demon’s voice echoed. "Your Excellency... I will become your Purveyor of Miasma and Corruption."

"Excellent!" Taihao grinned, his cheerful demeanor returning in a flash. "A most convenient decision! We’ll get you started on the integration process of your divine senses right away. Don’t worry, it will only hurt a lot."