Myth: The Ruler of Spirituality

News of Apollo's deed would soon reach Hera, and before that happened, Zeus did not wish to provoke his Queen of Gods too much. The Divine King took a step back, and facing Hera, there was only the helpless mortal princess. From this moment on, the curtain rose on Io's half-life of suffering.

The princess of Pislatius was transformed by Zeus into a cow with his increasingly proficient Sacred Power, in order to escape Hera's gaze. But Io did not know, in fact, Zeus did not expect this to fool the other party, he was simply using this method to soothe the Heavenly Empress's fury.

If he had acted as if he did not care in the slightest, indicating to Hera that she could deal with the mortal he had chosen at will, then the Heavenly Empress would have nowhere to vent her anger.

But his "attempt" to conceal Io's presence, easily uncovered by Hera, gave the Heavenly Empress a sense of "victory," allowing her to indulge in the identity of a winner, diminishing the impact of another betrayal of marriage by Zeus.

Thus, around the existence of Io, a ridiculous "struggle" unfolded between the Divine King and the Heavenly Empress. Zeus turned her into a snow-white cow, and Hera pretended to be oblivious. She praised Io's outstanding appearance among the herd, then claimed her for herself, and ordered her to be strictly guarded.

The former princess was henceforth to feed on sweet grass and drink polluted water and even failed to recognize her father Inachus when he came looking for his daughter, only to immerse herself in pain day in and day out.

The Divine King was "reluctant" to admit defeat, so he sent his confidant once more to kill the guards and secretly set Io free, allowing her to regain her freedom. But this was still just part of the "struggle," as Zeus had even forgotten to turn the human princess back into her human form.

So, shortly thereafter, Hera captured a tsetse fly, baptized it with Divine Blood, and commanded it to relentlessly pursue Io. Thus, the princess who still had not returned to human form continued to flee desperately and helplessly across the world, forever unable to escape this unmerited calamity.

Hera was finally satisfied, feeling that her Wisdom had triumphed over the Divine King, and that the mortal had received her due punishment. Zeus also got what he wanted; he successfully appeased his Heavenly Empress and avoided more turmoil at this critical time.

As for Io, even though she really was beautiful and had once provided him with a pleasant evening, this did not compel the ruthless Divine King to spare her a single glance.

There are many mortals; Io was not special. Once Apollo returned to the Mount of the Gods, Zeus would naturally find another beautiful woman, to spread his bloodline among the kings of Humans.

Everything was supposed to continue this way; mortals could not affect the eternal divinities, and even if the present world put shackles on the gods, the humans of the Third Era were still just playthings in the hands of the divinities. Yet fate is so wonderful, even the beings that stand above the mortal world cannot truly glimpse the trajectory of its operation.

So, one day, under the starry night sky, as the ancient Mother Night awoke from within a flower petal and looked outside with boredom,

She saw, above the vast ocean, at the edge of the world, a snow-white little cow dodging the tsetse fly that was closing in behind it. She leaped forward as before, each time trying to put a greater distance, but this time was somewhat unusual.

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Because with that leap, her figure simply vanished into thin air above the sea, without leaving the slightest trace.

...

Whoosh—

A rift tore open in the void, behind it the eternal night sky and the resplendent Stars.

Nyx stepped out, and the profound East Sea inexplicably quieted down. Under the shifting veil of her black dress, the Goddess's expression showed a hint of surprise.

"So... where did she go?"

Curiously observing her surroundings, Nyx reached out her hand, and the nearby space-time began to warp. The Laws of the present world reacted faintly to the Primordial God's violent actions, but she paid it no mind.

Mother Night's power surged forth, meticulously investigating every inch of this void. She was looking for a space-time tunnel, or something else akin to an interface, like the remnants of the fallen Nine Realms, but the results were disappointing.

There was nothing here, everything was so ordinary, as if everything she had seen before was but an illusion.

However, that was impossible, under Nyx's gaze, even the beings that control the Divine Authority of space-time, at the very least, would allow Mother Night to realize that all of this was man-made and not given by heaven.

"Heavenly given...?"

The investigation yielded nothing, but Nyx's interest only grew stronger. Behind everything that seemed normal lay something utterly unexpected.

No one could disappear silently in front of her, even in the Spirit Realm, she had just been "unable to enter," not "unable to find." But now, the facts were in front of her, and Nyx had no idea how the cow, obviously transformed by someone, had disappeared.

"She's human, so she must have a soul, right... Interesting."

With a curve of her lips, Nyx stretched out her hand and directly "knocked" on the door of the Spirit Realm above the sea.

The next moment, the portal opened from the void, but this time, the other side of the door was the fifth layer of the Spirit Realm.

Standing amidst the chaos of space-time, with the illusory Stars as a backdrop, Laine put down what was in his hands and looked confusedly at the rare visitor who was stepping forward.