Where was Norris hiding? This was something many gods tried to find out, but no one ever found any results.
Even Sylvia didn't expect for him to be hiding in an abandoned main plane, and in a place like the Sacred Catacombs of the Undead to boot—a place countless people ventured inside, often overturning everything inside to search for treasures.
Perhaps this was called "the darkest place is directly underneath the lamp[1]."
When too many adventurers were captivated by the treasures in the Sacred Catacombs, they naturally wouldn't notice the other tombs, much less the space between the tombs.
In fact, Norris hid very well. His hiding place was just a single point in the entire Sacred Catacombs. If one didn't smash apart the Sacred Catacombs bit by bit, nobody would be able to discover him.
Moreover, the explorers also must've guessed at his existence and brought along an item containing the law of mirrors he left behind in the past in order to break through the Mirror World and awaken the remains of his soul ahead of schedule.
Both of these conditions had to be met to awaken him, which practically formed a perfect defense. But what Norris couldn't imagine was that even with all this, someone still found him.
Of course NPCs wouldn't understand that there was a group of people called players. When they were bored, they liked to take the whole world apart for fun.
And while dismantling the world, they discovered that there was still a god hidden here. Only then did they start analyzing his origin to look for a way to awaken him.
Norris wore transparent glasses and had a scholarly air about him. His short silver-gray hair covered half of his forehead, and he held a thin book in one hand.
"You're the one who woke me up." Norris's gaze fell on Gu Nan, looking serene and calm. No semblance of madness could be seen from his face.
Just from appearance alone, no one would ever be able to connect Norris with the impression the world had of him.
Sylvia pursed her lips tightly, having already tensed up. She would immediately take action as soon as Norris made a move.
Norris had long gotten used to eliciting this kind of reaction from people. Rather, Gu Nan's always-calm expression made him a little curious.
"Why did you awaken me? Oh, no need to answer—let me guess. To borrow my power? To use me to look for some old fellows from back then? Or is it…"
With a charming smile on his face, Norris said it one word at a time, "You want to finish what I started?"
He didn't even entertain the possibility of "eliminating evil to protect the people." If this was the goal, then there was no way only three people would come.
Sylvia quickly turned her head, nervously watching Gu Nan, fearful that he'd say, "Yup."
Gu Nan didn't let her down. He didn't even have any intention of responding to Norris. He patted Wu Gui's shoulder and told her, "You're up first."
Gu Nan's attitude stunned both Norris and the Goddess of Shadows.
No matter how detested Norris was and how many disasters he caused, he was once a figure that influenced the entire World of Gods.
Whether he was hated, mocked, or praised, no one could ignore his existence—but Gu Nan did.
It was probably very hard for them to understand that Norris was nothing more than a monster to Gu Nan.
No matter how rich a backstory or how many legendary experiences a monster had, a monster was just a monster, and monsters were meant to be killed.
Like Gu Nan, someone else who could also ignore Norris was Wu Gui—she flat-out didn't recognize him.
But since she already acquired the coffin of the Living Dead, Wu Gui didn't mind fulfilling her end of the bargain.
So Wu Gui struck without hesitation. A palm print carrying both demonic and Buddhist intent smashed towards Norris.
Norris laughed involuntarily. He gently raised the book in his hand, and a silver mirror appeared in front of him.
Wu Gui saw her own reflection in the mirror before her. The closer she got to it, the clearer the palm print in the mirror became.
When Wu Gui's strike finally landed on the silver mirror, almost the exact same power hit her back instantly.
The silver mirror immediately shattered, while Wu Gui herself grunted in pain—anyone who blasted herself once with her full strength wouldn't feel too good.
However, Norris just chuckled. He'd seen too many such opponents in his ten thousand years of war.
'Even if I've just awakened from the seal, I'm still not someone who… Hm?'
Silver mist once again burst out in front of Norris. Another mirror was blown apart—this time, it was Gu Nan who attacked.
Gu Nan's fist was covered in blood, and ghastly white bones could even be seen, but he seemed as if he couldn't feel it at all.
Norris's eyes narrowed slightly as he placed silver mirrors one after another in front of him, but Gu Nan blasted each of them apart with a punch.
When the two were finally facing each other, Norris suddenly revealed a faint smile as a thin, frameless mirror appeared behind him.
The thin mirror reflected Norris's figure. Gu Nan's punch landed and shattered Norris's body, but the Norris inside the mirror remained perfectly intact.
Gu Nan didn't even pause for a second and threw another punch at the mirror.
The sound of impact came again, and the thin mirror was also shattered, while Gu Nan had an additional wound on his hand that quickly started to heal.
But it was clear that Norris couldn't be killed so easily.
"It's useless." A clear madness began to seep through his voice, "Although you can kill one of me, what about hundreds of me?"
As Norris's words fell, hundreds of mirrors actually appeared in front of Gu Nan, with the Mirror God's figure in the center of each one.
However, Gu Nan just smiled silently. He instantly rushed into a mirror while telling his companions, "You two guard the center."
Sylvia and Wu Gui didn't dare to delay and quickly reached the center of the hundreds of mirrors, waiting for further instructions. Only then did they see a scene that made their jaws drop.
Gu Nan, who had entered the mirror, rapidly flew between different mirrors like an agile monkey and quickly killed hundreds of Norris reflections.
"You're not a god," there was an inexplicable meaning in Norris's crazed voice.
The Mirror World was his foundation. Here, he could alter the laws at will, so any god who fell into this world would inevitably be helpless.
Not even the Ruler of Light and Justice would be able to use half of his original power after entering a world made purely of the law of darkness.
But this was completely meaningless to Gu Nan, because he was only using his physical body to fight, so he wasn't dependent on any laws at all!
It was precisely because of this that Norris was certain he wasn't a god—no god would have such a powerful physical body.
Gu Nan smiled wordlessly. If this was in the game, then perhaps his identity as an Evil God would already be seen through by now. But fortunately, the Myriad Heavens Universe existed in this world.
The gods' understanding of the Myriad Heavens Universe was far from deep, not to mention there were indeed body-refining cultivators in the Myriad Heavens Universe.
Norris didn't have time to ponder this too much. He'd just awakened and was already in his weakest state. Faced with an enemy who knew him incomparably well, he could only choose to flee for now.
He instantly vanished from the Mirror World. Sylvia reacted extremely fast and immediately attacked with her shadow divine power, which was boosted with the power of her Divine Kingdom. She was already going all-out from the start.
Wu Gui also materialized her true body. Her half-Buddha and half-demon form had eight arms that carried eight kinds of weapons, which all struck Norris at the same time.
Norris's expression remained unchanged. Since he dared to leave the Mirror World, he was naturally prepared to deal with these two. 'A weak god and a mere demigod… Huh?'
Norris suddenly froze as he looked up in astonishment and saw a Buddhist staff hovering horizontally over the top of his head, flickering with a stunning golden light.
"A real god?!"
Even Sylvia couldn't help glancing at Wu Gui, surprised that this person wasn't actually much weaker than her… Now that Norris miscalculated, he would have a hard time.
In fact, it wasn't a matter of having a hard time. Rather, as long as Norris was delayed by even an instant, he would most certainly die.
Norris, who was incomparably mysterious, powerful, and unhinged in the eyes of countless gods, was merely a Tier 8 monster to Gu Nan.
Just like how he crushed Norris's clones, Gu Nan's extremely plain fist smashed the top of Norris's head, instantly shattering the Godhead of this extremely weakened Tier 8 god.
All the mirrors around them disappeared at once as Gu Nan's group was returned to the Sacred Catacombs.
Gu Nan glanced at the corpse on the ground and smiled in satisfaction. "All in a day's work."
"Wait!" Sylvia saw that he was about to leave and rushed up while grumbling, "This is Norris! How can you be sure he's actually dead?"
"It might sound unbelievable," Gu Nan glanced at his own skyrocketing 2,500 Evil Value and answered, "but I'm sure."
[1] "The darkest place is directly underneath the lamp" - People often neglect what's right under their nose