After a brief silence in the cavern, a deep and wistful voice reached Shi Feng's ears.
"You've all seen these things now. What exactly happened back then, and what events led to the deaths of so many of the era's strongest—even gods among them."
"My advice is that you ask nothing, think about nothing, and absolutely do not go seeking answers to these questions."
"Because the consequences of doing so are not something you Blessed can bear. Going mad for real—it's not impossible."
The old man had read the questions swirling in Shi Feng and the others' minds, and he offered his warning directly. His tone carried an almost prophetic weight, as though he were already pronouncing the fate that would befall them should they ignore his words.
And despite the certainty in the old man's voice carrying no mental assault or pressure of its own, even Shi Feng and the others present felt a chill run through their entire bodies.
Though the expressions on Jing Wuming and the other three showed fear, their eyes were alive with curiosity about this secret. They clearly weren't taking the old man's words all that seriously.
After all, this matter concerned gods.
To players who had only just entered the Divine Realm, gods were little more than a term—a powerful monster, perhaps. But for those who had truly ventured through the Divine Realm, who had visited the Libraries of its great kingdoms and empires, it quickly became apparent that gods were not merely powerful existences. They represented the pinnacle—an ultimate path leading to the very apex of the Divine Realm.
Anything that touched upon the divine was, without exception, an enormous opportunity for a player.
Especially for those like them who had already reached Tier 3 in their Classes. They understood all too well that their path forward had been cut off. The only way to find a route of advancement was to walk in the footsteps of their predecessors—and among those, the footsteps of gods offered the finest road.
"Stop digging into this matter, all of you. At least for now, it's absolutely out of the question." Shi Feng suddenly turned to Jing Wuming and the other three.
He understood all too well how magnetic the lure of gods was to Tier 3 experts in the Divine Realm. They would risk any danger for a chance at it—the path of advancement was simply too difficult, and only grew harder the further one went.
Normally, even the discovery of a ruin left behind by a Tier 5 Class holder could bring tremendous progress. A Tier 6 god's legacy was beyond comparison.
But he knew even better that in his previous life, some of the disappeared peak experts and apex powerhouses had very likely been involved with Tier 6 gods—which was why they had vanished entirely from both worlds. With only Tier 3 and Tier 4 Classes, they wouldn't even make a ripple before they were buried on the shore.
If they were lucky, their accounts would be destroyed and they'd start over from scratch. If they were unlucky, they might end up just like those vanished experts…
When Jing Wuming and the other three heard this, they looked at Shi Feng with surprise. They hadn't expected him to be the one to hold them back.
"Seems like you've got a good head on your shoulders, kid." The old man looked at Shi Feng, his eyes narrowing with what seemed like appreciation as he spoke slowly. "That's right. Only those who know their limits—those who understand what strength and ability they truly possess—can live longer. Even you Blessed are no exception."
His words finally shook Jing Wuming and the others back to their senses.
"Thank you, Captain. I can't believe I was so blinded by the temptation of what was right in front of me." Jing Wuming's voice carried a note of genuine fear in hindsight as he expressed his gratitude.
The Divine Realm had always operated on balance—gain and loss. To reach for something beyond one's capability meant nothing but death in the end. They weren't even Tier 4 yet, and here they'd been contemplating uncovering the secrets of Tier 6 gods. That was nothing short of suicide.
"It's only natural," Shi Feng said, shaking his head. "Anything involving gods—even across the entire Divine Realm, there are probably very few people who could stay calm about it." If not for all the experience he had accumulated, his own composure would likely have been no different from Jing Wuming's. Perhaps even worse.
In this era when gods had withdrawn from sight, a single clue pointing to a Tier 6 god would be enough to drive every great power in the Divine Realm into a frenzy. Even those Tier 5 NPCs who stood at the pinnacle would risk everything—at any cost.
"That's enough." The old man in the distance, watching as Shi Feng and the others had finally composed themselves, beckoned to them. "Come over here. What comes next is the moment you should be looking forward to—the final wealth and treasures that he left behind for you Blessed."
"The Godslayer's legacy?" Shi Feng felt a surge of excitement at those words.
The Godslayer was a legend of the Divine Realm—a true human. Whether this Godslayer had ultimately ascended to become a god was unknown, but gods themselves had trembled before the Godslayer. More than ten gods had died at the Godslayer's hands. And yet, for reasons that remained unclear, the Godslayer had vanished from the pages of the Divine Realm's history, leaving behind only the faintest of traces.