After Li Mo finished speaking, Yin Xiu fell silent, slowly turning his head to look at Ye Tianxuan standing on the summoning platform, silently mourning for him with a blank expression.
The high priest was still immersed in his own grief, unable to accept the fact that the god of immortality would never return. "Gods have infinite lifespans...gods do not die easily..."
"You must be lying... You... You're all liars!!"
She pointed at Ye Tianxuan and Yin Xiu below, shouting hysterically. Although it was an unconscious act of resistance and attack, she was actually right.
"Is that so?" Ye Tianxuan calmly accepted the high priest's rebuke, pretending to be calm and said, "Your longevity could not be maintained after the gods disappeared, right? Your appearance is also changing rapidly, requiring many years to maintain. These are all proof that the gods have disappeared. The gods can no longer protect you, which is why you are aging rapidly."
Reminded by Ye Tianxuan, the High Priestess hurriedly raised her hand to cover her face in a panic. She still had the face of a pretty fifteen or sixteen-year-old girl, but she was extremely terrified. "Have I changed? Have I grown old?!"
Ye Tianxuan raised his voice leisurely, "You think you've hidden it well, but everyone has seen your changes, they just haven't said anything."
The high priest froze, stunned. "I can't change... I... I must remain this way until the gods return..."
She kept touching her face, turning around to try to escape back to the main city, back to her ivory tower, but as soon as she turned around, she met the gazes of countless people, and she stumbled back, trying to hide herself.
"High Priest... Is what Ye Shen said true? Has our God of Immortality disappeared?"
"Has the High Priest's immortality also vanished? Are you aging rapidly?"
"Then haven't you been using the lifespans we handed over to maintain your appearance? We handed over our lifespans for the sake of the entire Longevity City!"
"Do you have any lifespan left? Did you use it all to maintain your appearance?!"
Faced with the townspeople's questions, the high priest broke down, his face soaked with tears, and he lowered his head helplessly and confusedly. "I can't help it... I don't have a lifespan, I'll die of old age soon... I must live to see the return of God..."
"God said...she has lived too long, and what she hates most is that the things around her keep changing and she is powerless to stop them. God said at least my appearance will not change...at least I will always be by her side..."
"City of Immortality has changed… I can't change it anymore. I have to wait for her to come back, so that at least when she sees me… she can see a bit of what the old things look like…"
"But God is dead." Ye Tianxuan's cold words instantly plunged the high priest into a deep icy abyss.
"No... God is definitely not dead yet, you must be a liar! You can't fool me!" the high priest vehemently retorted. Despite her stubbornness, her bewildered and helpless attitude revealed everything; she simply refused to accept God's disappearance.
"What happened to God?" The people remained confused.
Yin Xiu, who was standing nearby, quickly stepped forward and said, "The ritual of summoning a god is meant to bring back the old god. If the old god is no longer here, a new god will be summoned to take over the management of this area. It seems that your god is no longer here."
The evidence of Yin Xiu's appearance was like a blow to the High Priestess. Even the High Priestess of another god said so, it seemed that the god she had been hoping for was really gone forever...
"It's all your fault!! It's because of your appearance that the god couldn't be summoned! It must be because of you!" The hysterical high priest lunged at Ye Tianxuan in a fit of impotent rage, grabbing his shoulders and shaking him violently, tears streaming down his face, "My god will never return! My god has vanished!!"
"There is nothing left in this world for me to look forward to!!"
She looked desperate, but Ye Tianxuan, who was being grabbed by the shoulder and shaken, was also desperate.
Ouch!
"Calm down first..." Ye Tianxuan raised his hand to push away the high priest, clutching his left shoulder and frowning.
The high priestess, tears streaming down her face, noticed the unusual state of the person before her. She sniffed, her eyes red-rimmed, and stared at the cold sweat beading on Ye Tianxuan's forehead. "You're injured... Did you also participate in that mission to eradicate the calamity alongside the gods?"
Since some gods disappeared during the action that caused all the gods to leave, then some gods must have been injured as well.
Even though the high priest wouldn't admit it, he was convinced that Ye Tianxuan, who came out of the summoning ritual, was a god, just a little different from other gods. Gods don't get hurt easily, so it must be related to the operation to eliminate the disaster.
"Huh?" Ye Tianxuan was taken aback. What did he mean by eradicating disaster? He had just been tricked by the reckless Li Mo.
He thought that having the invisible tentacles curl up and float in the air would give the impression of a divine descent, since no normal person could float in the air. Little did he know that the monster's strength was so great that he almost couldn't keep up the act before he even landed.
Ye Tianxuan was completely unaware of the fabricated stories Yin Xiu had made up. He simply instructed Yin Xiu and Li Mo to trick the High Priest into initiating the ritual to summon the god, and then to use Li Mo to fake the god's descent, leaving the rest to their own devices.
Ye Tianxuan glanced at Yin Xiu below the stage, puzzled. Yin Xiu remained silent, unsure of where to begin his explanation.
There was a two-second silence in the room. Ye Tianxuan immediately turned his head and forced a smile, saying, "Yes, I also participated in the operation to eradicate the disaster as a god... This wound on my body is from that time..."
He raised his eyes and looked at the high priest with a sincere expression. "I was supposed to come out of the summoning ritual, but the situation in the City of Immortality is far worse than I imagined. I couldn't wait for the summoning ritual, so I came here myself for the sake of the people of the City of Immortality. But the price I paid for crossing space was far greater than I imagined."
"My injuries worsened, and I was forced to possess a human body. That is why you see something different about me compared to other gods."
His brief explanation perfectly filled in the high priest's questions about him.
As a god, he descended here voluntarily and deliberately concealed the disappearance of the God of Immortality in order to make the believers less sad. In fact, because he did not appear through the correct summoning ritual, his injuries worsened, and he had no choice but to possess a human body.
He was such a kind and gentle god, yet he was constantly being rejected by her.
The high priest stared at Ye Tianxuan, then helplessly took a step back. Even if she cried out in despair, it was useless. The god who was supposed to disappear had already disappeared. No matter how much she refused the arrival of the new god, she could not change anything. It would only cause trouble for the people of the City of Immortality and the new god.
Now, in this city, she is the only one who refuses to accept the disappearance of the old gods and the arrival of the new ones.
"God is right…" the high priest murmured slowly, his eyes lowered. "Everything is constantly changing, and even God cannot reverse anything, so how could I possibly do anything…"
She never imagined that God was also among the changing things, and that she, still alive, would be the one to suffer this.
She accepted the disappearance of God, but she was still devastated and confused.
The ivory tower that had always protected and sheltered her has vanished, leaving her alone atop the high city walls, facing the expectations of the entire city.
She had been the high priestess for so long that she had long forgotten how to be a human being.