Chapter 531: Opening Chests, the Gazes of Deities (Two-in-One)

Liu Xiaoyue had left this God's Candidate Ticket behind.

However, the system indicated this was a damaged voucher. It couldn't be used by those at the Summit, nor could it bear those powerful deities—only those in the Demigod Realm. But...

Yan Jing still had a wisp of Qi.

A Wisp of Qi from the Heaven-Patching Stone.

If it involved a deity, this wisp of Qi could be used once; if it didn't, it could be used three times.

At the last moment, after some thought, Yan Jing set the wisp of Qi aside.

It wasn't that he was reluctant to part with it, but he remembered he still had two unopened chests.

He needed to open those first.

Perhaps this wisp of Qi would have an even greater use later.

He first brought out the Diamond Box he had most recently acquired.

Yan Jing was already deeply familiar with the chest-opening process.

He picked out a favorite from the dozen or so Inner World Box Keys he had obtained earlier, then inserted it into the keyhole. With a click, the chest opened and the lid flipped back, revealing a chaos-colored vortex inside.

"2"

There were only two items in this Diamond Box.

Yan Jing reached into the vortex.

He pulled out a sphere the size of a quail egg.

The sphere looked utterly ordinary. Pitch-black and dull, its surface felt somewhat pitted and uneven.

But when Yan Jing read the item description, he couldn't help but freeze.

{Item Name: Immortal Pill; Turbid World}

{Usable Tier: No tier requirement (Cannot be used as a Rite)}

{Item Effect: Consuming it after removing the outer medicinal coating can revive the dead and flesh the bones; consuming it without removing the coating will cause irreversible damage to the consumer's body.}

{Item Description: A pill that should not exist in this world. As the Heavenly Dao shifted and the years flowed by, the vast majority of pills from its original batch faded away. Only this one, by a stroke of luck, was coated in a layer of turbid world soil and preserved. Of course, very few people today can peel away this layer of soil.

Its creator was once known as the Immortal Venerable of the Turbid World, but their current name is the God of the Earth.}

Yan Jing put the pill away.

This pill was equivalent to a whole extra life.

Although he already had quite a few life-saving methods for himself, this was the first time he had one that could save someone else.

He reached out again and grabbed another item from the chaotic vortex.

Yan Jing was quite familiar with this one.

As the brilliant light faded, an old glove appeared before him.

Much of its patent leather exterior had peeled off, exposing mottled threads and electronic circuitry to the air. Still, it was completely intact overall, not heavily damaged like the one Yan Jing had obtained last time.

The Gloves of Chaos could be used to fuse items.

{Item Name: Gloves of Chaos (Masterpiece)}

{Usable Tier: No tier requirement (Cannot be used as a Rite)}

{Item Effect: Can fuse five items together; the tier requirement of three of the items cannot exceed your own tier.}

{Description: Within a Domain named Heavenly Kingdom, there is a kingdom famous for its machinery. The people there developed this glove to fuse items and birth entirely new creations. The glove before you is no mass-produced street trash; it is the most perfect work forged by the greatest counterfeiter in this world. Because of this creation, he successfully stepped into the Demigod Realm Stage.

Once all the items are fused within it, the resulting creation will not only retain all the abilities of the original items and rise by a tier and a half, but it will also be granted one additional ability.}

After reading the description, Yan Jing put the glove away as well.

If what Rabbit said was true, the figure behind the great curtain harbored no good intentions.

The next time he entered the great curtain, he probably wouldn't be able to make deals with the figures behind it anyway.

This glove had come at the perfect time.

However, finding five suitable items wouldn't be easy.

Having finished with the Diamond Box, Yan Jing still didn't pick up the wisp of Qi from the Heaven-Patching Stone. Instead, he took out another chest.

Compared to the previous Diamond Box, this one looked far more pocket-sized.

The Diamond Box had been roughly the size of a suitcase, whereas this chest was more like a delicate little jewelry box.

Its outer walls were wrapped in pure, flawless adamantine, and its eight corners were bound in sandalwood. Four emerald-like Crystal Stones were embedded in the chest's front. But they weren't emeralds; speckled with starlight and shining brilliantly, they were clearly four pieces of Divine Source.

Yan Jing examined the four pieces of Divine Source, feeling they were a bit duller than the one he had left in his hand.

He had heard of something called a Pseudo-Divine Source and wondered if these were it.

Regardless, using four pieces of Pseudo-Divine Source to forge a chest was already an unimaginable luxury.

{Item Name: Divine Envoy's Box}

{Usable Tier: None}

{Item Effect: It is guaranteed to yield two items from the same origin, both related to deities.}

{Item Description: When a Divine Envoy under a deity's command makes an utterly outstanding contribution, the deity will bestow a reward. Naturally, not every deity's reward is of immense value, nor will every deity grant one. But without a doubt, obtaining a Divine Envoy's Box is the beginning of a Divine Envoy's stride toward the Demigod Realm.

Note: The more gazes from deities you can attract, the higher your rewards will be.

Addendum: Being gazed upon is not necessarily a good thing.}

Yan Jing stared at the chest before him, which was barely larger than a palm.

This chest was the reward from his last time at the God Storage Land.

Yet, he hadn't opened it.

The reason lay in the final two sentences of the item description.

The first sentence went without saying: this chest was obviously best opened when he was at his strongest.

The key was the second sentence.

Being gazed upon was not necessarily a good thing.

In Yan Jing's philosophy of growth, actively meeting with existences far beyond his own level was just courting death.

But this Dungeon was different.

Pure Blood City, the Great Apocalypse, and Mantou's Domain trial... He was somewhat uncertain about his chances, so he decided to make every possible preparation.

Taking a deep breath, he pulled out a key and opened the "Pandora's Box" before him.

"Click."

With a crisp sound, the chest opened.

Unlike the previous Inner World Box, there was no vortex inside this chest.

Instead, two masses of gas floated up from within and landed in front of Yan Jing.

Almost at the exact same time, the hairs on the back of Yan Jing's neck stood on end, and an indescribable palpitation seized his chest.

He could feel that he was being watched by a certain gaze.

A second later, not only did that gaze remain, but another one appeared.

This gaze was entirely different from the first. If the first gaze was mostly scrutinizing, the second one carried a hint of mockery.

Yan Jing's palpitations gradually faded, and his expression settled into calmness.

He had thought that deities were a bunch of emotionless beings, but now it seemed that wasn't entirely true.

Yet before Yan Jing could adjust his mindset, another gaze descended from high above.

This time, the gaze carried a certain viciousness and resolve, forcing goosebumps to involuntarily rise on Yan Jing's arms.

But this still wasn't the end...

A fourth, a fifth, a sixth... Yan Jing even felt the appearance of a seventh, weaker gaze, but before it could draw near, it was chased off by the first.

In the end, only six gazes remained.

In other words, six deities were now watching Yan Jing, and no one could say exactly what their attitudes were.

Yan Jing's face remained calm.

This was the price of opening this chest.

He had already thought it through before opening it.

The two masses of gas before him gradually began to manifest.

They converged into shapes resembling weapons.

But just as Yan Jing thought it was finally about to end, the weapon-shaped gas masses shattered with a bang, reverting into two round spheres. Following that, he felt one of the gazes above him vanish—it was the third gaze, the incredibly vicious one.

What happened?

Yan Jing wasn't sure, but a second later, the gas masses that had just begun manifesting before him collapsed again. This time, another gaze disappeared from above. It was the fifth gaze.

That gaze had been biting and chilling to the bone; it had made Yan Jing feel cold all over.

Now, with its departure, that lingering chill vanished as well.

The next to withdraw was the sixth gaze. It had been exceedingly tranquil, so tranquil that it brought a sense of peace to one's state of mind, smoothing over all fluctuations, as if nothing in this world was worthy of its attention.

In the end, only three gazes were left: the first scrutinizing gaze that had given Yan Jing palpitations, the mocking second gaze, and the fourth gaze that leaked a rotten, ancient aura.

These three gazes coexisted for a long, long time.

Consequently, the two masses of gas before him constantly shifted.

Yan Jing stared blankly at the gas masses, watching them shrink into pebbles, then suddenly turn into sheets of paper, then into a flute, and then morph into something resembling a truck...

It went on like this until, tens of minutes later, those three gazes seemingly couldn't bear it any longer.

Yan Jing felt all three gazes simultaneously vanish from his body.

'What's going on? Did they all run away?'

Yan Jing pursed his lips. He couldn't be that unlucky, right?

Fortunately, it turned out to be a false alarm. About a dozen seconds later, the three gazes fell back onto Yan Jing.

Only compared to before, all three gazes felt noticeably weaker.

It was as if...

The three of them had just gotten into a fight?

Yan Jing couldn't quite figure it out, but in the next second, the gas masses before him underwent another change.

The original two forcibly split into three.

Then, the three gas masses gradually materialized, revealing the true forms of three items.

They were a mask, a sheet of rice paper, and a pocket watch.

Looking at the three items before him, Yan Jing hesitated for a moment and didn't reach out.

He still felt that all three gazes were watching him.

Was this some classic trope of choosing between mom or dad?

But time didn't allow him to overthink it. Just as the three items finished manifesting, the Divine Envoy's Box before him seemed to have finally completed its mission, shattering into dust with a bang. Without its power acting as a medium, the three gazes above him also vanished instantly.

Only the three items remained, dropping to the ground simultaneously.

Only then did Yan Jing step forward and pick up the three items.

{Item Name: Ghost Mask (Unique True Name)}

{Item Tier: None (Usable only by those acknowledged)}

{Item Effect: Once worn, all Fear-related ability effects are doubled, and all Fear-related abilities used against you are weakened to 10%.}{Item Description: Acknowledgment stemming from Fear.}

{Item Name: Everlasting Paper (Unique True Name)}

{Item Tier: None (Usable only by those acknowledged)}

{Item Effect: Illustrations drawn on the Everlasting Paper will suffer no reduction in capability, and all art-related abilities used against you are weakened to 10%.}{Item Description: Acknowledgment stemming from Art.}

{Item Name: Never-Stopping Watch (Unique True Name)}

{Item Tier: None (Usable only by those acknowledged)}

{Item Effect: Can withstand temporal erosion once, and all time-related abilities used against you are weakened to 10%.}

{Item Description: Acknowledgment stemming from Time.}

Yan Jing looked at the three items, silently analyzing the deities who had bestowed them.

The answer was already obvious.

First was the deity at the end of the Path of [Fear]. This went without saying; whether it was the Fear Bird or the Fear Tree, both were related to Fear.

What surprised him were the remaining two.

The rice paper...

The first thing that came to mind was the Painting Spirit ability.

But logically speaking, the Painting Spirit was just one of Young Master Luo's ordinary Second Tier Abilities.

For some inexplicable reason, he thought of the pitch-black Paintbrush he had searched out from Landlord Lin's backyard.

He took out the Paintbrush and brought it close to the rice paper. Sure enough, the brush began to tremble violently.

That actually worked.

He put away the Paintbrush and rice paper, looking toward the final Pocket Watch.

If he could understand the first two, this one...

It couldn't be because of the two-second time stop from Moonlight, right?

If that were the case, everyone on the Time Pathway should have been gazed upon.

After much thought, Yan Jing could only lock his sights onto the River of Time.

"Is this a blessing in disguise?"

He chuckled self-deprecatingly and took out God's Candidate Ticket.

His harvest this time was already large enough.

But he was still lacking a metamorphosis that could secure a final victory.

Thinking this, he picked up the Heaven-Patching Qi and slowly placed it onto God's Candidate Ticket.

An intensely dazzling light bloomed, and the worn, ragged voucher quickly looked entirely renewed.

{Item Name: God's Candidate Ticket}

{Quality: Items of gods have no so-called quality.}

{Tier Requirement: Items of gods have no so-called tier requirement.}

{Effect: Items of gods do not need their effects explained.}

{Description: God's Candidate Ticket. This is an invitation, but you need to fill in a True Name of a "Pool" for it to take effect.}

No tier restrictions, and no upper-limit restrictions.

This was perfect.

Yan Jing looked at the incredibly familiar voucher in his hand and nodded in satisfaction.

He sought out Shen Youran, and the two of them resumed their research into the notes Father Shen had left behind.

One True Name after another appeared before his eyes.

Insect God, [Eldest Heir of the Five Insects]

God of Virtue, [Witness]

God of Incompleteness and Damage, [Corpse of Incompleteness]

Compared to last time, Yan Jing was much more purposeful in his search this time.

Last time, his overall strength hadn't been great enough, so he mainly wanted to find deities of a higher status.

But this time, he had already identified his biggest weakness.

After looking through the options, he summoned all of his Rites and placed the notebook in front of them.

"Help me find a deity related to speed."

What he lacked the most right now was speed.