A mage's journey begins with a battle mage.

Chapter 697 Authority

For the gods, this war may have ended, but for Jiang Shuzhou and Yege, their contest has only just begun.

This time, it's not just a contest of strength between the two sides, but a struggle for control and power.

The cessation of the Styx River's flow is merely the first step, and also the beginning of Jiang Shuzhou's control over death and souls.

They still have many more fierce battles to go.

"What a clever scheme. I thought his target was fate, but I never expected it to be me."

Jaeger looked at the Styx River, which had stopped flowing, with a complex expression in his eyes.

Because of the different eras they lived in, in Jaeger's time, no one could defy the gods; the gods were the masters of the world.

In this situation, He could not have imagined that someone would dare to take advantage of the special nature of the underworld, launch a surprise attack on the underworld, cut off the River Styx, and then prepare to seize the power over death and souls.

This bold idea was something no one had ever thought of before, nor dared to think of.

Most importantly, the River Styx is merely a manifestation of the laws. Theoretically speaking, even if the River Styx is severed, that person cannot obtain authority; at most, they can only study and comprehend it in hopes of becoming the God of Death.

But times have changed, and the days of divine supremacy are gone forever.

Now, Jiang Shuzhou has risen to prominence.

Looking at the ruins, the deep pit, and the River Styx severed from its original form, Yege sighed deeply.

"It seems that now, the only option is to fight them for power."

He said to himself.

As for how to compete for it?

Naturally, this led to a bloody confrontation.

However, Yege isn't that stupid; he won't go straight for Jiang Shuzhou.

Whether He could kill him or not is another matter, but just to prevent another raid on his home, Jaeger couldn't do that.

Fortunately, Jiang Shuzhou was not able to take away all the power over death and soul.

What the other side has now obtained is only the part representing chaos, while the other part, representing order, is still in Jaeger's hands.

If He wants to reclaim his authority, besides killing Jiang Shuzhou directly, there is another way: to deal with the anomalies caused by Jiang Shuzhou and complete His great undertaking of reclaiming authority once again.

This is not simple.

Long ago, before the underworld existed, the souls of most people had nowhere to go, except for a few who believed in gods and were able to be guided by them.

Even gods wouldn't guide so many believers into their divine kingdom; they would only accept a small portion.

The main reason is that doing so would be too wasteful.

The price paid for guiding believers' souls is far less than the reward.

Back then, all sorts of monsters and demons roamed the land.

That era was a time when humans and ghosts lived together; sometimes, people didn't even know whether the person in front of them was a human or a ghost.

It is not uncommon for humans to kill ghosts, ghosts to kill humans, and humans to become ghosts after killing others, and then seek revenge.

These souls had many names at the time, such as resurrected corpses, wandering souls, and dead souls. Of course, for Jiang Shuzhou, there was a more familiar name: vengeful ghosts.

This may explain why supernatural events were so frequent in ancient times.

Then, Jaeger appeared out of nowhere. Through his own efforts, he finally mastered the power of death and soul, and was subsequently elevated to godhood.

But the cost...

It means losing yourself.

Perhaps, losing oneself is the price to pay for ending all of this.

Fortunately, Jaeger lost himself gradually, as he came to know that he had become one with the law.

This might be a good ending.

Everything should have ended then.

But now, to His surprise, Jiang Shuzhou has come again.

The boundary between life and death has been broken once again.

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On the other side, just as Yeager was looking at the River Styx, Jiang Shuzhou was also looking at the Tree of Souls.

The surrounding lake water rippled, reflecting the shadows of the trees.

"What a pity, we couldn't grab them all."

Jiang Shuzhou felt somewhat regretful.

However, he quickly adjusted, after all, his opponent was the senior Jaeger, and it was also within the Jaeger's divine realm.

If Jiang Shuzhou hadn't confirmed that Jaeger wasn't present, he wouldn't have dared to do this.

As for how those construct knights entered the underworld without being detected?

That's simple, just disguise them as the souls of the dead.

Looking at the tranquil lake, Jiang Shuzhou was filled with countless thoughts.

Now that he had this useful tool, he was ready to get started.

You should know that Jiang Shuzhou is from China, so he is naturally very familiar with those supernatural legends.

Furthermore, many of Jiang Shuzhou's works also draw upon these ideas.

Now that they've even seized the power of death, what more can be said?

Of course, we should create some vengeful ghosts and throw them into the realm of the gods, so that the other side can have some fun with them.

Dragging those worlds into a state of death would also be very beneficial for Jiang Shuzhou's control over the laws.

After all, the more people die, the easier it is to master the law of death.

Of course, Jiang Shuzhou wouldn't harm his own territory; he wasn't an animal.

As soon as Jiang Shuzhou had a thought, the lake water below began to boil.

Immediately afterwards, countless resentful souls of the dead emerged from it.

Some of these people were killed for accidentally offending the priest, some starved to death because they couldn't pay their taxes, and others were murdered and falsely attributed their crimes to others.

In short, they had a blood feud with the gods and their minions.

It must be said that the pastors' consistent incompetence meant that Jiang Shuzhou had no shortage of material.

He could easily find a whole bunch of souls who had a blood feud with the gods.

Ironically, these souls are followers of the gods, and they will eventually return to the gods' hands.

However, most of them will become emotionless prayer machines, completely devoid of any extraneous thoughts.

"It seems those people will have an even harder time from now on."

However, despite saying that, Jiang Shuzhou showed no intention of stopping. After all, they weren't under his jurisdiction, and with the gods' propaganda, Jiang Shuzhou's reputation was probably terrible. They were likely to say that all the bad things were done by Jiang Shuzhou.

But it didn't matter; this time, Jiang Shuzhou really did it.

With Jiang Shuzhou's will, the illusory bodies of these souls suddenly began to tremble violently. Then, their resentment and hatred seemed to materialize, turning into black mist that overflowed.

Then, these souls instantly transformed into terrifying vengeful ghosts, displaying the manner of their deaths in life, which looked quite horrifying.

Finally, Jiang Shuzhou waved his hand and placed them directly on the territory of the Alliance of Saints.

As the saying goes, every wrong has its perpetrator and every debt its debtor; let them take their revenge.

In any case, Jiang Shuzhou only needs to bleed; he doesn't care whose blood it is.

A gentle breeze rustled through the Tree of Souls, making a soft, whispering sound, as if the leaves were colliding with each other.