When the darkness cleared completely, Magellan found himself not in the realm of the gods.

This is where he once passed, mortal villages, the hot and humid air was stuffy, and the trees were green and lush, but more often than not, they were filthy clearings.

Magellan raised his head and looked far to the north, where there was nothing.

He was too far from his destination.

Mount Meru was far away, and Magellan began to wonder what he had encountered, and whether he would fail in his ascetic journey because of his tardiness was not on his list of questions for the time being.

The ubiquitous divine power is gone.

Magellan was not as sensitive to essence and divine power as the countess, and his vision was very limited, but in the face of the poison, a place where divine power was ubiquitous and controlled everything, he could clearly feel the sudden disappearance of divine power, in a sense, it was as difficult as occupying this land with divine power.

There was some kind of terrifying force that accomplished this almost impossible thing in an instant.

Standing outside the village, Magellan turned and walked towards the hill to the side, where he hoped he could find herbs to stop the bleeding.

There may be doctors or Brahmins in the distant villages, but Magellan is not willing to put his hope in them, the villagers here are all untouchables who cannot be counted as humans, and whose tradition is that they are not concerned with hygiene, which is a dangerous source of infection for a person who has been traumatized.

Magellan chewed on a pungent bitter herb and rubbed it on the wound, which was mostly healed and now barely affected by movement.

He stood on the hillside and looked around blankly, this was a familiar place, but it was extremely strange, if there were no gods, then Mount Meru would be nothing more than an empty snow-capped mountain, and Magellan's asceticism could not be completed.

But Magellan knew that it wasn't over yet.

He turned and walked into the village.

As expected, this is a place that is filthy because of poverty, and not so filthy because of poverty—and because of poverty, it is almost empty.

The villagers faced the outsider with a serene, almost sluggish expression, just like all the natives Magellan had seen before.

Magellan tried to imitate the way and accent he remembered the gods talking, claiming to be a Brahmin, as if in an instant, the villagers came to life.

With astonishing speed, they concentrated all the riches of the village in front of Magellan, including a cow and two emaciated girls, while also setting up a fire.

However, Magellan did not hold a sacrifice in the village, he did not light the fire, but asked a few questions and left.

Without the gods, without the divine powers, the world is no different, and the brahmins in the mouths of the villagers are no different from the gods, and they still have nothing.

The question is, how to leave.

......

Indra held the vajra aloft high in front of the countess, and with a thunderclap, the darkness dispersed.

"What's that?"

The countess looked at the familiar courtyard of the forest around her, and knew that she had arrived at the next heaven.

"Asura. ”

Indra's voice sounded a little weak, and it was very rare for this Emperor to be at such a time, he was very weak indeed.

"When did the Asura become so powerful?"

The countess knew more about the gods than expected, but Indra was no longer surprised by this, and he sighed weakly and did not answer.

"We need to rest. ”

Indra walked towards the courtyard to the side, the terrifying weapon in his hand that could create thunder was dimmed, and the countess could clearly feel that there was some subtle but profound change in the divine power belonging to Indra.

It seemed more like Indra's own power was rebelling against his mastery than being consumed in the confrontation with external forces.

The owner of the courtyard, a deity, welcomed the guests and prepared a welcoming banquet for them.

There are quite a few gods here, and they are not as powerful and high-ranking as the Indra brothers, but they are all brahmins who have been practicing penance, and thus won this abode on Mount Meru.

All the brahmins were gathered in the hall, and the Emperor Indra was a very distinguished guest, and they were all very welcoming.

They also maintained considerable respect for the strange mortal of the countess, and even a little more cordial, as if it came from the empathy between ascetics.

Indra sat down in his seat and drank tiredly, and most of the Brahmin enthusiasm fell to the countess.

They politely restrained their desire to talk, and instead of dwelling too much on the difficult Fa-rectification debates, they were talking about the troubles they had encountered in their ascetic practices, and unexpectedly, they were filled with a truly surprising sense of humor.

Soon the conversation shifted to the penance of the countess, who had already won three games, the first time such a thing had happened in all the confrontations of mortals against gods.

"Actually, I would like to know why Lord Shiva chose such ascetic content. ”

The brahmins looked at each other, but did not give the countess the answer she wanted.

"The success of ascetic practice is in the Dharma, and it is Lord Shiva who knows the ascetic best, and Brahma and Vishnu who know the Dharma best, and they will appear when the ascetic is eligible to receive a reward and give the ascetic the reward he deserves. ”

"It's all about time, and only then can the austerity be done before it's all over. ”

They knew the answer, but the countess had determined that these brahmins would not tell her the answer, and that they knew what the gods were planning, and that was very important.

"The gods aren't good at games, do you have anything interesting?"

The brahmins did not want to let the guests consume their spirits too much, but the brave thunder god Indra was here, and as the host, they also wanted all the guests to have fun, and several gods thought for a while, and then the brahmin at the head stood up.

"We have two bulls in our yard. ”

Cattle are an important possession of poison that is recognized by all people and gods, and for these brahmins, it is something to boast of having two bulls in their herd.

"We had been arguing about which of the two bulls was stronger, but it never came to fruition. The brahmin said this with a look of pride on his face, "Maybe the new ascetic will give us the answer." ”

Before the countess could reply, Indra laughed: "I said that if you let those two bulls fight, the one who survives must be the stronger one, but you are reluctant, how can you judge the winner of the game with the ascetic now?"

"If the ascetic can't think of a way, change the game. ”