(MC POV)
The room was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop.
By now, the room was already filled to the brim with important people of this Plane, so there's quite a lot of people currently witnessing our exchange
Everyone was looking at me with absolute shock, except for Iris who was clapping with a look of glee on her face, not that anyone could perceive her except for me.
Seriously, she's gotten quite expressive lately which I can only assume is a good sign.
I maintained my gaze on her until one of her guards let out a shriek that would put a banshee to shame and slashed her sword at me.
I didn't even bother defending myself and let the blade hit me on the shoulder, watching it with mild interest as it struck my skin and failed to do anything else.
How interesting, I was actually expecting it to shatter. I guess it must have some sort of unbreakable enchantment on it or something.
Lifting a single finger, I tapped at the blade with an air of boredom, "How rude, do you not see that I was talking? Or is this some sort of local greeting I was not aware of?"
"You bastard!" The other guard roared, slashing her own blade towards my neck only to be met with the same results.
"Hmm? Hello to you too, I suppose. You'll have to forgive my choice of using my own way of greeting since I won't debase myself by using such deplorable greeting methods."
The two of them drew their weapons back before stabbing me in the chest.
Once again, their blade failed to even cut through my clothes, which is simply Xun Guan protecting me by reinforcing herself. Needless to say, if they couldn't even hurt the slime girl, there was no way they could even hurt me.
I acted surprised, "Oh? Could it be that the both of you are trying to attack me? Whatever did I do to deserve this?"
With an almost casual wave, the two of them were blasted back with a gust of wind before they found themselves forced onto the ground by an invisible force.
As hard as they tried to struggle, they couldn't even lift themselves a single centimetre off the ground.
Sect Mistress Hua frowned at me, "Release them this instant."
"Oh? Why?" I asked with a slow tilt of my head. "I learnt that this is the standard pose for someone here to ask for forgiveness, am I right? I simply put them there so that they don't need to do it later."
She stood up, "I am Sect Mistress Hua of the Blossom Sect, the number one Sect in this Plane and also the only Practitioner who has cultivated into the Divine Realm. You are in the presence of a Living Goddess. On your knees."
Oh? So that's why she has that holier than thou attitude.
Technically, she isn't a 'living goddess', but more of a Practitioner who has started treading the path to ascension. In other words, the very same path that my other disciples who have yet to ascend are currently on.
The only difference is that she has only taken one step onto the path while my disciples have been running on it for quite a while, that's how big of a difference there is.
I leaned my head on my palm and smiled at her, "No."
Her brows furrowed and she pulled out a golden fan from within her sleeve.
At first I thought it was a normal fan until she pointed it at me and unfurled it. Interestingly, there's a picture of me painted on one side of the fan.
"Do you know what this is?" She asked.
"Oh my? I didn't know you were a fan of me! To think you even had someone paint me on your fan and carry it around, that's rather creepy don't you think?"
"Looks like the rumour that you're nothing but an ignorant servant with a Sacred Treasure is true. This is the Fan of Life, a Sacred Treasure that allows me to hold anyone's life in the palm of my hands, literally. Should I snap this shut before the picture fades, you will die. Painfully."
I leaned forward, a little interested, "Oh wow, did Anul give you that?"
"A… Anul?"
"Anul? You know? This World's administrator god of life?"
"Fufufu… And here I thought it was some weird name you came up with. Everyone only addresses the Gods by their titles, no one even knows their names and yet here you claim to know the great God of Life's name? There's other ways to lie, you know?"
Oh? I didn't know the gods never shared their names around. Guess it's to maintain a sense of distance between them and the mortals.
"Enough of this farce!" She shouted, bringing her fan closer to her chest to grasp it with her other hand. "All you need to do to live through this is to hand over the Sacred Treasure you possess and prostrate yourself in front of me. I am benevolent to forgive your transgressions if you do that!"
I was about to dare her to try it when the entire area was suddenly enveloped with immense pressure. So intense it was that the ground began to shake noticeably.
Almost immediately, everyone in the room sank to their knees, even that Sect Mistress Hua had lowered her fan to kneel as well.
I looked out towards the empty area just as a giant beam of light fell from the sky, encompassing the entire area with blinding radiance.
In the previously empty area of the arena, a giant tower now occupied the space and completely dwarfed all the buildings on the island. The walls of the tower then opened up to reveal a seating area with enough space to fit all the gods of this World inside it.
Seated at the very top were the three Administrator Gods of this World with two seats left empty above theirs.
I don't even need omniscience to tell me who they made those seats for.
All of them were looking at me, I could even tell from here that few of them were barely restraining themselves from throwing themselves at me.
"No… No way… All the Gods came? Even… Even the Three Great Gods? But… But that has never happened before… Even the most we have is just a few of the minor Gods coming to grace us with their presence…" Sect Mistress Hua muttered beside me.
That was when she noticed I was the only one still seated on the couch.
"What… What are you doing?!" She hissed. "Hurry up and kneel! The minor Gods might overlook such disrespect but not when the Three Great Gods are here!"
I didn't even get to say anything before Sylphy, Anul and Shea stood up, capturing the attention of everyone present.
They looked at me and I simply smiled and shook my head.
Knowing what I meant, Sylphy stepped forward and stretched out her arms in a welcoming gesture.
"We thank you all for preparing this! I hereby announce the commencement of the Divine Festival!"
Cheers rang out around the city and the emcee took over in calling out the participants of the tournament on the stage.
Not yet, I don't want to reveal myself just yet.
My girls still want to play, after all~
This stage was set up just for my girls to gain insight to their divinity, so I'll need everyone here to play along to this just for a little while more~
