Cthulhu Gonfalon

The underworld was a place of eternal darkness. The sky was dark and dense, the land was gloomy and lifeless, and there was even a disturbing fog that was spreading in the air. No need to speak of the living, even the departed souls of the dead would have felt restless and panicky if they had to be here all day long.

Fortunately, such a situation would not last for long. The underworld would periodically get windy, and every time, a vast, mighty wind would sweep through the entire place, and those departed souls would be blown away. Like paper confetti and fallen leaves, they would flutter with the wind and eventually fall into the underworld river. Then they would drift along the river and head towards a place that was the ending and beginning point for all souls. That place was called the Sea of Souls, a sacred land that all gods yearned for but were forbidden from approaching.

Of course, in the process of heading towards the Sea of Souls, these souls would be scoured by the underwater river in their entirety. Gradually, they would collapse and be scattered into countless spirits—these were the basic units that constituted the soul. In this process, every event that this soul underwent in its past life would completely dissipate, and even its physical body would disintegrate. Then in the following days, these spirits would recombine with other spirits to form new souls, and these new souls would begin a new life.

Sui Xiong floated by the side of the underwater river and watched the souls be swept up by that cold wind successively and continuously fall into the underwater river. Originally, their faces would carry all kinds of expressions, but soon after they fell into the underwater river, all expressions would gradually start to show calm and peace instead. Eventually, all would show the same look of tranquility.

It was said that within the underwater river, all souls were in a deep slumber. It was the kind of deep sleep where they would never be able to wake up.

With Sui Xiong’s ability, it was not difficult for him to fish out a few souls from the underwater sea. He also had such a thought—souls that had entered the underwater river would most likely be regarded as things without masters, so whoever had the ability to fish them out from the river would be able to claim ownership over these souls. As for bringing the souls back to nurture them into followers or to transform them into oracles, those were all up to one’s personal business. So long as nothing harmful was done, no one would probe.

For example, the Night God System that once had a conflict with Sui Xiong, but later, with Javier’s help, made peace with Sui Xiong and even gifted him with a Soul-Reconstruction Technique. This Night God System frequently went over to the underwater river to fish for souls, which they would then bring back and transform these souls into followers.

No choice. The members of the Night God System were mainly phantoms, vampires, necromancers… it was certainly not easy if they seriously wanted to search for followers. On the contrary, relying on the method of soul-reconstruction to create man-made followers, the efficiency rate was much higher.

Many small god systems, as well as gods on the Main Plane who had yet to begin preaching, would choose a similar approach. Even the good gods did not object to this approach. In any case, it was better to either become a follower living within a God’s Kingdom or an Oracle than it was to become a spirit that had to flow into the Sea of Souls again.

Sui Xiong observed this very carefully, but after half a day, he still did not find any souls worthy of being rescued from the Sea of Souls.

He had very high requirements; if the soul was not outstanding enough, he would not make a move.

A god like him with a church of sizable scale did not lack the souls of followers.

After a while, he finally found a soul that was not too bad. The degree of strength that the soul possessed was high. Though it had already fallen into the underwater river, it still maintained a relatively complete self, unlike the ordinary souls that would begin to disintegrate after falling into a peaceful slumber. This was the best material that could be used for the construction of an Oracle.

He waved a tentacle, which transformed into a strip of silk that was fine like a fishing line, and lightly probed the underwater river with it. It did not take more than a moment to encircle that soul and hook it out of the river.

“Its strength is indeed not low,” said Sui Xiong.

The moment he got the soul, he had confirmed that his observation was correct. The soul was entirely worthy of the special effort put into fishing it, so he quickly infused some Divine Power into it to stabilize it. He kept it like that for the time being…

Because he had something important to do right now.

“Hello, it’s been a long time,” Sui Xiong said hello to the figure that had suddenly appeared not too far away from him. It was cloaked in a black robe and carried a long sickle. Sui Xiong first broached an irrelevant topic, “Say, I’ve always had this question. Your clothes and those of the other Soulbringers are similar; did they learn from you, or did you learn from them?”

This figure was naturally the Supreme God from the underworld—the Grim Reaper.

Apparently, the Grim Reaper had not expected Sui Xiong to especially make a trip to the underworld, and after releasing news of an invitation to meet, Sui Xiong’s opening statement was actually such a question. The Grim Reaper was momentarily frozen from shock before replying, “I have a cooperation agreement with hell, so I have lent them some power. That attire of the Soulbringers is a necessary part of the ritual for borrowing some of my power.”

This answer was not out of Sui Xiong’s expectations at all, so he could not help asking, “So would you be willing to sign a cooperation agreement with me too? If there is a messenger from the underworld assuming command in the courtroom, I believe it can greatly enhance the national deterrence against criminals.”

The Grim Reaper nodded and said, “No problem. I’m willing to cooperate with all gods who respect the principle of life and death—but the reason you came to me was just because of this small matter?”

Sui Xiong laughed, hesitated slightly for a while, then told the Grim Reaper his true intention of visit.

“I don’t agree,” the Grim Reaper simply replied after listening to his account. “Those lords have already lived long enough. They shouldn’t be living even longer. I have no issue with you occasionally helping one or two of them, but this will not do if you want to help them extend their lives on a large-scale.”

Such an answer was not surprising to Sui Xiong. In fact, he could almost guess that this would be the answer he would get. To the Grim Reaper, nothing else other than protecting the principle of life and death was important to him—be it good or evil, order or chaos, none of these made any difference to him.

The Grim Reaper could still accept if the gods had interfered slightly with the life and death of mortals, but if they wanted to stage a large-scale intervention, that would be beyond the limits of his tolerance.

Of course, everything was negotiable. However, Sui Xiong was unable to list any exchange conditions that could satisfy the Grim Reaper. Besides, he was not a Garfield who wanted to be in the limelight, nor did he intend to go to war with the Grim Reaper over such a small matter. So he could only give up on this matter.

With some regrets, he sighed. Just as he was about to leave, the Grim Reaper suddenly asked, “Why do you want to help those lords in extending their lives?”

“In exchange for helping me preach,” Sui Xiong replied.

“There are so many conditions that can be used as exchange; why must you use the most difficult, but also the most valuable thing to exchange?”

Sui Xiong froze.

He really had not thought about this. Continuing one’s life was naturally a big thing, where almost anything could be used in exchange for it. However, just as what the Grim Reaper said, as a powerful god, he was capable of so many things, so why must he use such a big thing like extending their lives to exchange with those lords?

“And… from my impression, aren’t you pushing for republicanism?” the Grim Reaper asked. “That means you should be against the Familial Lord Hereditary Succession System. Since you are against this, why do you want to help those aristocrats who treat the rulership of territories as their personal possessions, then pass on and inherit these from generation to generation within their family clan?”

Sui Xiong’s eyes widened as the intensity of shock deepened.

On one hand, the blind spot in his line of thoughts had been pointed out. On the other hand, he was surprised that the Grim Reaper could be so concerned about the matters of the mortal world.

“You… why do you study up on all this?” he could not help asking.

“Because I’m bored,” the Grim Reaper calmly replied. “The underworld is so boring; I’m always finding ways to pass the time.”

Because of boredom… Sui Xiong was speechless. For a long time, he was silent. Then he asked, “So according to what you think, what should I do?”

“What you should do? Why are you asking me?” the Grim Reaper asked him back. “What should be done is up to you.”

“No suggestions at all?”

“I’m the Grim Reaper, for the matters of the living, don’t ask me.”

With that, his figure vanished without a trace, leaving only Sui Xiong standing in mid-air as he pondered in silence.