Chapter 548: Chapter 405: The Book of Totem Gods: The Hundred Beasts’ Family (Part 2)

This knowledge allowed them to perfectly inhabit the flesh and blood of a certain animal through the "Spirit Descending" ritual, embarking on a transcendent path different from that of humans.

This type of animal is usually akin to their own true form.

Humans evolve step by step from human to Mythical Creature. They, however, evolve from beast to a human intermediate state and then to Mythical Creature. Eventually, they ascend to godhood, becoming indistinguishable from humans at the Fifth Order.

The essence is still a harmonization of Beastliness, Human Nature, and Divinity.

"My ancestor, the great Sun God Inti, was among the first to attain the latter part of the text, though He was a humanoid Nature Spirit from the start. So it seems that the Sun God must have established His own grand empire during the same period as that Heavenly God Itzamna you mentioned. Only after that did we, the Divine Descendants, and our most compatible Forbidden Book, the "Solar Codex," come into existence.

"Apart from us, Nature Spirits are everywhere in the ’Hundred Beasts Paradise,’ where All Things Have Spirit. Through the "Book of the Beast Kinship," they anchor their clans and stabilize their Divinity. They imperceptibly use various methods to remodel the bloodlines of their tribespeople. And so naturally, these beings different from us were born..."

Before he could think of an appropriate adjective...

DING! DING! DING!...

The warning bell on the mainmast sounded, and Gus, the Phantom Blade stationed here, warned the entire ship, "Captain, something underwater is blocking our path ahead and is charging at us fast!"

The warning bell had rung just three times. Already, they saw hundreds of white water lines rising swiftly from the depths of the crescent-shaped bay. These lines, like arrows, cleaved through the waves, flying toward The Golden Deer.

It was as if a hungry shark pack had smelled blood.

It wasn’t as if; that’s exactly what they were—a group of half-human, half-shark Hammerhead Sharks, identical to the tribe’s totem!

Moreover, it was clear that they weren’t friendly; the largest one leading them bellowed threateningly, "Outsiders, you have entered the Divine Domain of Hammerhead God Copacati. Leave half the living people on the ship as offerings, and the rest of you get out of here immediately."

The Hammerhead Shark pack quickly formed a semicircle, blocking The Golden Deer’s escape route.

Byron paid them no mind. His gaze fell on what lay beyond them in the shallow waters two to three meters below the surface of the bay. There, a seven to eight-meter-long hybrid monster, half-human and half-beast, lurked.

It was mostly in the shape of a Hammerhead Shark, but atop the hammer-shaped head extensions on both sides, a blue-black human face grew on each.

One part human, nine parts beast; altogether, a monster, which was the appearance of most of the Totem Gods on the Southern Continent.

The only difference from those bloodthirsty Bizarre creatures was probably that they still possessed reason.

Clearly, this was the so-called Hammerhead God Copacati.

But you know, you really know, some names may be wrong, but nicknames never miss the mark. This guy’s head really does look like a hammer. As for a Divine Domain...

Byron used his Weather Intuition to sense it. The opponent was situated above a leyline source material circulation node, relying on it to deploy a sizable Divine Domain.

In this Divine Domain, his aura had reached the Fourth Order, but the Divine Light on his body flickered inconsistently, as if he were wounded.

Prince Atahualpa, who was beside him, didn’t take these Hammerhead Sharks seriously, merely explaining to Byron and his party in a timely manner, "In the Hundred Beasts Paradise, where All Things Have Spirit, the strongest are the mountain gods, river gods, or land spirits that have claimed a place, known as Apu. On this continent, every important mountain range, river, forest, and even particular large rocks and caves have their own Apu. Many Totem Gods, after reaching a certain level, strive to usurp the position of an Apu, seize a leyline node, and establish their own Divine Domain. At that time, most of them have already conducted a second bloodline ascension ritual, transforming into half-human, half-beast forms. They possess the power of at least a Third Order Transcendent. Within their Divine Domain, they can ascend an additional order.

"These are definitely tough nuts to crack, capable of breaking others’ teeth. Even if one is an order higher than them, assaulting their stronghold is exceptionally difficult. The Sun Empire, expanding bit by bit in the mountains, has only managed to establish its current territory after more than a thousand years.

"Moreover, once they reach the half-human, half-beast stage, Totem Gods can break the breeding barrier between species and procreate with their female or male shamans who worship them. In the tribe, only those descendants with ’Divine Blood’ could become Transcendents, serving as the core force to support their ancestral and deitic figures, while continuously expanding the tribe. Within the bounds of the Hundred Beasts Paradise, there are tens of thousands of such deities. The original Taino tribes, naturally, also slowly differentiated into different ethnic groups over a long period of time. If the great Sun God, Inti, were not a humanoid Nature Spirit, our Sun Empire would have become a realm of beasts by now."

This... Byron, though not fully understanding, was deeply shocked.

So Nature Spirits in the form of beasts, taking on bodies of their own kind, coupled with humans representing ’variables,’ have bred a vast race of Divine Descendants? Half-beast? Half-demon? Half-human? Half-beastman? Even in my past life, I’d only heard of dolphins actually engaging in such acts. However, if you’re talking about foxes, pythons, caterpillars, or even female ghosts, I have indeed heard of it, and thinking about it this way, it doesn’t seem so hard to accept.

While he accepted this, even as someone who was a fan of tentacle girls, whale girls, Night Devil girls, and dragon girls, Byron felt that the Totem Gods’ way of doing things was a bit too avant-garde.

After Atahualpa’s explanation, they also understood the current Transcendent System of the Southern Continent.

The main body was no longer human but comprised various wild beasts as Nature Spirits.

This was initially glimpsed from the Kin of the "Abyssal Horror" Dagon and "Father of the School of Sharks" Bonaparte.

The essence of both was connected.

Bypassing the restriction of not having a Law Network to provide Anchoring, they started from scratch and established their own network of beliefs, with humans as believers and also as anchors.

Then they continuously expanded their Bloodline descendants, allowing them to proliferate like stallions. They constantly enlarged their territory and tribes, also dispersing their own Beastliness and chaos. This made the Divine Descendants their strongest Anchoring in the Material World!

Like pouring cold water into boiling water, reducing the overall system’s level of chaos significantly. There was a concept in my previous life called "entropy reduction."

As for the current state of this Hammerhead God, Copacati, it was similar to that of the "Mother Teacher," the Chǐ God, when she first revived.

Nature Spirits presented this half-human, half-beast appearance based on the proportion of Beastliness and Divinity within them. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

The different ratios of Divinity and Beastliness also led to different proportions of human and beast forms in their appearance; usually, the Beastliness part far outweighed the Divinity part.

As long as the human head and face were retained, they could control their inner Beastliness and maintain rationality.

Even the Fallen state was completely reversible.

The long-term stable method was to cultivate believers. The short-term, immediately effective method was even simpler: cannibalism!

"Talking about leaving half of the people on the ship as sacrifices and letting the others leave was just to sow discord among those on the ship. The only way for the crew to choose who gets eaten and who doesn’t is to fight. They kill until blood flows like a river, and then these sharks reap the benefits as the proverbial fishermen. But for a Totem God who still maintains reason with only two faces, not using His best claws and teeth but instead solving problems with His brain, it only shows His strength is no longer sufficient to solve problems."

However, whether He was fully intact or not didn’t matter at all.

Byron turned his head to face Prince Atahualpa and asked with a smile, "Your Highness, now that you have already ordered our arms, would you like to know the tactical support that comes with cannons, the king of war, during colonial expansion?"

"Of course, please begin your demonstration."

Under the keen gaze of the native prince, Byron exhaled and shouted to the Hammerhead God underwater, "Do me a favor!"

Just when the Totem God was confused, Byron stomped his right foot, creating an Air Blast Ring, and with a backhand motion, tossed out an Earth Vein Sealing Bolt.

He exploited a trait: if someone showed him respect, he was obliged to return the gesture with a gift. And so, his ’prompt return of courtesy’ became... an ’East Wind Express delivery’!