The Path of Gods was the Path of Faith — the very cornerstone of law that underpinned the entire Divine World.
Whether they were deities, devils, or demons, their craving for believers and souls was absolutely terrifying.
And the competition in the Primary Material Plane had been fierce from the very start.
Compared to the gods, who could spare no expense, devils like Beilubebabu were at a disadvantage from the outset. They had no choice but to resort to underhanded tricks, and their reputation in the Primary World was utterly wretched.
But one day, everything changed!
Beilubebabu obtained a strange divine artifact — the Disk of Mandehawk! That was the name the devil had given it, since Beilubebabu had never found any historical record describing this artifact, yet its function was nothing short of terrifying.
The Disk of Mandehawk possessed the remarkable ability to reduce the consumption of planar barriers.
In other words, if Beilubebabu had previously needed to transmit divine power into the Primary Material Plane and would have been taxed ninety percent of it, then with the Disk of Mandehawk, the cost would drop to ten percent — or even less!
This expenditure was cheaper than what the gods themselves paid from within their divine kingdoms.
It was precisely because of this advantage that Beilubebabu had been able to flourish in the Primary World, amassing enormous quantities of faith power and souls, and establishing his status in Hell in one fell swoop.
Of course, the gods were no fools. After a period of investigation, the gods joined forces and launched a great purge against Beilubebabu's followers in the Primary Material Plane.
Obviously, Beilubebabu, who had to single-handedly oppose all the gods, was immediately ruined. Not only were all his accumulations in the Primary Material Plane wiped out — with only a few stragglers still clinging to life — but even his position in Hell became exceedingly difficult, as the other Hell Lords unanimously opposed him.
Fortunately, the secret of the Disk of Mandehawk had not been leaked; otherwise, Beilubebabu would not have been able to settle the matter so easily.
But after this ordeal, Beilubebabu had become a bird startled by the mere twang of a bowstring, never daring to make any moves in the Primary Material Plane again.
Possessing the Disk of Mandehawk, he turned his gaze toward places beyond the Divine World.
In the vast and boundless Astral Plane, intelligent beings were plentiful, and the faith power they could generate held an incomparable allure for Beilubebabu. Even better, it would never be discovered by the gods or other enemies!
After a period of experimentation, Beilubebabu succeeded.
And then, of course, he had the further misfortune of running into Raylin. By now, his true body had likely suffered grievous injuries and fallen into slumber — possibly even facing outright annihilation. After all, Hell was not exactly a peaceful place.
"Eliminating planar barriers, hmm..."
The radiant disk arrived at the outer perimeter of the Crystal Wall System. Countless runes flickered to life, seeming to resonate with something deep within the Crystal Wall System itself, causing that section of the crystalline barrier to soften — like an anthole in a dam.
"No — it's not a flaw based on laws, but a backdoor left there by design, as if the very programming had been written this way from the start..."
With Raylin's perceptive abilities, he could naturally discern the extraordinary nature of the Disk of Mandehawk.
"According to Beilubebabu's theory, this Disk of Mandehawk was most likely modeled after the supreme divine artifact of the Divine World — the Tablet of Fate. That's highly plausible. In fact, this disk might very well be a piece of the Tablet of Fate itself..."
A fiery gleam burned in Raylin's eyes.
Of course, the one in his hand couldn't be the genuine Disk of Mandehawk — otherwise he could have long since entered the Divine World. Why would he need to go through all this trouble?
The phantom of the disk in Raylin's hand was merely a replica that the Chip had produced by combining the precise model stored in Beilubebabu's memories with meticulous calculations based on the Divine World's rituals.
Having access to the original's experimental data, and after such an extended period of observation and research, Raylin possessed considerable confidence in his ability to produce a replica.
And indeed, that proved to be the case. Beneath the radiance of the replicated Disk of Mandehawk, the crystal wall system in this region had already begun to continuously melt away, revealing a thick passageway.
"Was it really that easy?"
Raylin furrowed his brows, but still extended a sliver of his soul seed into the passage.
"Get out!!!" The moment the soul seed made contact with the crystal wall system, a terrifying voice erupted, carrying a powerful will of rejection.
Pfft! The soul seed was instantly annihilated, and even the Disk of Mandehawk began to show signs of instability.
"The will of the Divine World! Has it already awakened? No — it's merely a subconscious reflex! This level of power..."
In the span of a single flash, Raylin understood what had happened. It was the instinct of the entire crystal wall system — a rejection of his foreign soul. The foreign soul force had been immediately detected without any room for concealment.
" YOU are the one who should get lost! A dormant subconscious will — get out of my way!!!!!"
Two bolts of black lightning erupted from Raylin's eyes, his black hair whipping upward, making him look like an ancient demon god.