Chapter 151
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 151
Chapter Title: Wine, Judgment, and Strife
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I'd encountered all sorts of human types over the years, along with countless fortune-tellers and prophets who'd swindled or preyed on them.
But this kind of seer? A first in my life.
He wasn't some divine hermit who'd mastered every principle under the heavens, pulling off the impossible.
Nor was he like the old master of Kunlun, who'd peered a thousand li into the future with pure, unclouded insight to foresee my arrival.
No, his eyes clung thick and heavy, just like the wine in the jug he cradled, and they stirred the second wave of unease in me that day.
"Aww~ If you make that face, I feel kinda shy~"
"..."
The god of wine, who'd been alternating between sips from his cup and the bottle with every line I recited, already had his smooth face flushed deep with drunkenness.
Dionysus slinked an arm over my shoulder with that contrived coquettishness, pressing his face close, but he just stared at me without a word.
"Kekekeke! That's why I'm the most fun among all you future-seers!"
The pristine male god giggled on like that for a while, spouting words that were half-graspable, half-not, then suddenly shot to his feet and wobbled away.
"Hey! Wait up!"
"Becoming a god isn't that easy."
I was left speechless as Dionysus turned his lolling head back to look at me.
What the hell did this drunken bum know, and what was he even saying?
"What do I know~? Just drunk babble."
Kekekeke!
Whatever cracked him up so bad, Dionysus laughed until his cup overflowed, then extended it toward me like a scene from a movie.
"It starts with Oedipus, that guy. Divine karma, oracles—they're nose-rings if they snag your nose, earrings if your ear. Figure it out."
With that alone, he slipped away into the cheering crowds.
[Oh right, big bro Apollo's super moved right now? Play it well, and one of your worries might vanish clean.]
[Payment for my fun~ Let's grab another drink sometime.]
Those extra breadcrumbs lingered like echoes, but whatever.
While everyone reveled wildly, I slipped quietly from the scene.
How to put it?
Atalanta kept shooting me glances from earlier, and Oedipus with Jason had called me over for a drink.
But the vibe from that god's weird parting words felt way too much like the banquet's feverish heat—I just couldn't stomach it.
"Ugh... I can't stand types like that."
The ones who smirked like they knew everything, tossing out ominous bait left and right—they'd scared off my buzz anyway, and I had business to attend to, so I wandered the forest path.
Luckily, the tall trees blocked the banquet's racket in an instant, and the quiet woods with their cool breeze washed away the irritation just as fast.
"Alright, so the god of prophecy's a cut above your run-of-the-mill frauds, huh?"
I'd roughly shoved Oedipus toward Jason earlier, then settled into quiet meditation.
With my realm ascended to the pinnacle, mind, energy, and body had all advanced a step, and as Hera said, the first trial to resolve Oedipus's heavenly curse had arrived.
Perfect chance to mull over this divine karma business and my own cultivation.
But no dice.
Even with the trial here, the divine karma wouldn't budge. None of my known arts—the Twelve Demon Arts, orthodox demonic arts, orthodox divine arts, the Nine Ultimate Sects' secrets, Hera and Nemesis's spells—could touch it.
Not even backlash or qi deviation with me spitting blood.
The seed lodged in my heart like an unyielding stone, fueling my frustration right alongside my fighting spirit.
In the end, I wasted time till sunset with nothing to show, and now some drunk was spoiling my guts—how could I not blow up?
"So I gotta do something about Oedipus after all...?"
This divine karma rejected every law I'd known and comprehended.
Hera's warning to never tamper with it on my own, Dionysus urging me to sort it out somehow—did it mean specific conditions? For me, resolving Oedipus's heavenly curse to unlock the next phase?
"What, this ain't some game quest."
If life worked like quests and EXP grinding to level up smooth, I wouldn't have suffered like hell in my past life.
Way too freewheeling for me, tamed by demonic arts full of traps and dead ends—the very idea of divine karma "achievement conditions" felt alien.
Still, Dionysus—that god—had dropped some hint, reason unknown.
Felt like drunken slurs tossed out casually, but every word, every glance stabbed my vitals deep.
"Nose-ring if it snags your nose, earring if your ear..."
Vague, teasing quest hint.
First off, grill Oedipus for the full story. From memory, that cosmic horndog got an oracle: kill his father, bed his mother—purely heinous, horrific stuff.
But having seen Oedipus's heavenly curse firsthand, the oracle felt too skimpy on details.
A curse that heavy? Even Blood Cult's mad bishops would bow out with "my bad" and scram.
Just "kill dad, bang mom"?
"Truly, earring if ear, nose-ring if nose."
"What're you mulling over so hard?"
"Looks like serious trouble from that furrowed brow."
Huh?
A bewitching voice pierced my reverie from behind, settling over me sudden.
I turned cautiously to see a goddess with vast dragon wings spread wide and a black angel with eyes shut descending toward me.
"Eris! Big sis!"
My sisters, reunited after a month's dragon palace detour.
The famed goddess of judgment, Nemesis, and goddess of strife, Eris.
"What, aren't you all off drinking and partying? What's up with you two here?"
Everyone in the woods had heeded Dionysus's call to whoop it up—why were these two hanging back solo?
"Hey! Who you calling out for fun?!"
"Ow! Geez, scared me! Why yell in my ear!?"
Maybe they'd followed to see me—sorry and glad, that's all I said.
But why was Winged Strawberry Milk screeching right in my ear?
"Goddess of strife and judgment crashing the booze fest—who'd be thrilled? You think before you speak, you thick-skulled baby bro?"
"Ow ow ow!?"
Come to think, Eris ripping my hair from midair—she kicked off the Trojan War, right?
Over not getting an invite to Nerine's sis's wedding.
"Hehe, Eris, ease up. Our brother's back after vanishing without word for a month—greet him proper first."
...Whoa.
Nemesis, always the enlightened elder or prematurely wise big sis with her serene air, reined in Eris.
But thorns laced her voice, somehow.
"Um, sis?"
"Do you know how worried I was? Of all things, Orion's mess had Poseidon fuming lately, and once Amphitrite gets lit, she swallows three or four ships to cool off. And those two's favorite, the Nereid's youngest daughter, getting all cozy with you..."
Like the hiss of a burning fuse.
Her words dragged on, black wings unfurling vast, her ever-closed eyelids cracking to reveal glowing whites—and I wasn't the only one shrinking back; even Eris sidled behind me.
'Damn it...! Why hide behind me?!'
'Y-you don't get it! Know how terrifying Nemesis sis gets when pissed!?'
Damn... And you're supposed to be my big sis?
"Know how long Eris and I waited at our usual clearing every night?"
"Y-yeah! When Chiron said you got dragged to sea, we freaked!"
"Sounds like Delphias kept you looped on land news?"
"You could've sent word from underwater!"
"Earthquakes nonstop since you dove in."
"Nothing broken, right?"
Oh crap, not dodging—they'd surrounded me.
Back to a mountain is prime real estate, back to water a last stand. So back to calamity and judgment? This hell?
With judgment's goddess in a rage and strife's goddess chittering beside, they shook my soul clean before I escaped their wrath.
"Anyway, congrats."
"Uh... yeah?"
Nemesis, done threshing me gleefully, beamed relieved and offered well-wishes.
"You got official divine karma from Hera, huh?"
"You're a god now too? Greenhorn blockhead still."
Eris hugged my neck puppy-like, face to face; Nemesis landed with kindly smile.
Both placed hands expectant on my heart, savoring its pulse wordless for a beat.
"Oh?"
"Huh?"
After a moment, they pulled back startled, eyeing me puzzled.
"You... your divine karma hasn't bloomed yet?"
"How's it still a primordial seed, raw in your body?"
"And you manifested authority with divine power in that state?"
What the hell are you? Their weird gazes drilled into me.