All Gods: Starting with Two Families

Chapter 170 Cleaning ContractThe night was deep.

Zhou Zheng’s Divine Thought was still suspended in the temporary space, with the contract left by the Goddess of Gold Coins spread out before him.

The golden paper and golden text emitted a soft light in the darkness.

His All-Knowing Eye was already activated.

That line of hidden small text surfaced—

”Those who sign this contract voluntarily offer their own [authority] to the Pantheon. The Pantheon retains ownership of the authority, and only authorizes the signer to use the power of the authority in the form of a [divine office].”

Zhou Zheng fell silent.

So that was it.

The reason the Pantheon could easily strip deities of their divine offices was not because those divine offices could truly be ”stolen,” but because those divine offices never belonged to those deities in the first place.

They were merely agents. Tenants using authority, not owners!

And those old guys who sat high and mighty, enthroned in the depths of the Pantheon—

They held the true authority in their hands, and through generations of deities, who knew to what exaggerated extent the collected authority had reached!

Zhou Zheng stared at that line of text, suddenly thinking of a question.

Since a divine office is an agent of authority, does that mean that divine authority fragments still contain authority!

With a thought, he summoned a divine authority fragment he had already consumed from within his body.

That fragment had turned into a mass of misty light, slowly circulating in his palm, mixed with the aura of three Laws.

The All-Knowing Eye was activated again.

His gaze pierced through those tangled Laws, layer by layer, downwards, into the depths—

There, there was a mass of something.

Very small. Very weak. Chaotic, constantly changing shape. Sometimes like a drop of water, sometimes like a grain of sand, sometimes like a mass of fog. He couldn’t see what it was clearly, but he could feel it—

That was the essence.

It was the prototype of authority.

Before Zhou Zheng could take a closer look, that mass suddenly ”woke up.”

It seemed to sense something, abruptly breaking free from that mass of Laws, floating in front of Zhou Zheng. Its chaotic form surged violently, as if in anger, or perhaps disgust.

It turned toward the contract.

That line of hidden small text was still there, emitting a faint golden light.

That mass of authority lunged forward.

It was like an eraser, landing on that line of small text, and began to rub frantically. The small text struggled desperately, golden light flickering, attempting to maintain its own existence.

But although that mass of authority was weak, it possessed an instinctive, unshakable power—

It loathed that contract.

It loathed being bound.

It loathed handing over its own essence to anyone.

Two forces clashed fiercely on the contract. The golden light lit up again and again, and was erased again and again. The strokes of that line of small text began to blur, began to break, began to—

Disappear.

Zhou Zheng watched this scene, and suddenly understood something in his heart.

If it were in the outside world, this weak mass of authority would never be able to shake that hidden clause.

The old guys of the Pantheon had been operating for countless years; the power of the contract’s hidden clause was not something a small prototype of authority could contend with.

But here, it was the God-Forsaken Land.

The God-Forsaken Land, which isolated most power.

Here, no matter how weak the authority was, it was still true authority. No matter how powerful the contract clause was, it was just duckweed without roots.

That line of small text completely disappeared.

That mass of authority jumped down from the contract, swayed in the air, as if showing off. Then it burrowed back into Zhou Zheng’s body and continued to sleep.

The contract floated quietly.

On the golden paper, only the explicit clauses remained. It was as clean as if it had just been written.

Zhou Zheng stared at the contract and smiled.

...

The next day.

By the harbor, sunlight spilled onto the sea, shimmering.

Moby stood on the pier, holding that pot of sunflowers in his arms. Alicia stood opposite him, behind her was a team of workers moving supplies.

Boxes were lifted off the ship one by one and piled on the pier. Grain, cloth, ironware, medicinal materials—all were things urgently needed by the Us Territory.

These were exactly the ”newbie gift pack” from the Pantheon.

There were also two small boxes, which Alicia specifically pointed out, saying they were ”divine authority fragments related to the God of Metamorphosis.”

”Things we can’t use, the Pantheon might as well give them away,” she said with a smile. ”Consider it a welcoming gift.”

The timing of this aid was also very particular.

If it were before signing the contract, a deity would only feel it was a transaction.

But giving it after signing the contract would make them feel it was a benefit from the Pantheon, unconsciously strengthening their sense of identification with the Pantheon!

Moby nodded and had people store the boxes.

The two chatted idly, talking about supplies, the fleet, and future cooperation.

And in another space, their gods were having a truly significant conversation.

...

Temporary space.

Zhou Zheng handed over the contract.

The Goddess of Gold Coins took it and glanced at it. Golden light flowed over the contract, confirming it was correct. She nodded and put it away.

The whole process had no unnecessary questions.

In her eyes, accepting the contract was a matter of course. Not accepting it would be the surprise.

Zhou Zheng watched her reaction and sneered inwardly.

She didn’t know the contract had been tampered with. She didn’t know that the line of hidden small text was gone. But more likely—the Goddess of Gold Coins herself didn’t even know the existence of that hidden clause!

”Since the contract is signed,” the Goddess of Gold Coins said, ”all functions of the divine order tokens can be opened to you.”

Zhou Zheng was slightly taken aback.

divine order tokens?

A golden light flew from the Goddess of Gold Coins and landed on the two tokens that had been floating in front of him.

The tokens trembled slightly, the runes on the surface began to circulate, emitting an aura that had never existed before.

Zhou Zheng instantly realized—the divine order tokens were actually a Divine Artifact fragment!

It was precisely because of the status of a Divine Artifact that it could continue to function in the God-Forsaken Land!

According to the Goddess of Gold Coins, the Pantheon itself was a super Divine Artifact composed of many Divine Artifacts! And the divine order tokens were just a small part of the Pantheon.

The strength of the Pantheon was terrifying!

Zhou Zheng stared at the token. The All-Knowing Eye was quietly activated.

The token was peeled away layer by layer in his eyes. The outermost layer was runes, the middle layer was Laws, and in the deepest part—

He was stunned.

It was a broken thing. Very small, very fragmented, only a corner remained. But the aura remaining on that corner made him shudder.

Divine Artifact fragment.

The divine order tokens were actually Divine Artifact fragments.

Only the status of a Divine Artifact could take effect in the God-Forsaken Land. Ordinary wonders and treasures would fail here. But Divine Artifacts would not.

Zhou Zheng’s Divine Thought probed into the token, and a piece of information flooded into his mind.

[divine order tokens activated.]

[Bound deity: God of Metamorphosis.]

[Current authority: Reserve member (divine office not established).]

[Function 1: Identity identification and communication.]

A pattern appeared on the surface of the token—it was a Feathered Serpent molting, its head and tail connected, cycling endlessly. Four characters appeared below the pattern: God of Metamorphosis.

Immediately after, another piece of information came:

[The Pantheon has nine major factions. Divided by the moral axis: Good, Neutral, Evil; divided by the order axis: Lawful, Neutral, Chaotic.]

[Faction determination in progress...]

The light on the token flickered for a long time. Zhou Zheng watched the light jump back and forth between ”Chaotic Good” and ”Chaotic Neutral,” as if hesitating, as if weighing options.

Finally, the light settled.

[Chaotic Good.]

At the same time, he vaguely sensed another existence—that was the aura of the Goddess of Gold Coins, her faction marked beside it: Lawful Neutral.

Perhaps this was exactly the reason the Pantheon sent her; having both resources and a neutral stance made it so that no matter what faction Zhou Zheng was, he would not be repulsed.

[Function 2: Divine authority fragment Law harmonization.]

The token trembled slightly.

Zhou Zheng suddenly felt that the dizziness caused by consuming too many divine authority fragments before was slowly fading.

Those unfamiliar Laws clashing within his body seemed to have found an exit, starting to flow into the token.

A vortex-like pattern appeared on the token, and those redundant, conflicting, and temporarily useless Laws were sucked into it and stored.

[Currently removable Laws: Time (trace amount), Shadow (trace amount)...]

[Laws can be traded through the divine order tokens. Trading objects: Reserve members and above of the Pantheon.]

He looked in the direction where the Goddess of Gold Coins had disappeared.

This transaction was more valuable than he had imagined.