Chapter 208: Moon
At this point, Zeus suddenly smiled faintly, changing the subject: “Perhaps one day, you will change your minds; perhaps one day, I too will change my mind and want to release you again—who knows?”
“In that case, go and bear the punishment you ought to bear; that will be enough.”
“After all, the punishment in Tartarus is enough to match any wrongdoing committed by any living being.”
Iapetus listened seriously to Zeus’s words, and on his weathered face, a heartfelt smile slowly emerged, full of admiration.
He let out a deep laugh and sigh, exclaiming, “Your Majesty Cronus losing in your hands is truly fitting.”
“Your magnanimity and chest, since existence appeared, no god in this universe can match it. It seems that perhaps you truly being the eternal master of this universe is the fortune of all spiritual lives in the universe.”
“Great Zeus, please proceed.”
Zeus nodded in salute to Iapetus.
Though their positions differed, he did not dislike Iapetus.
Iapetus upheld his oath and adhered to the principle of loyalty; though stubborn, he absolutely conformed to his Sacred Justice Order.
With such divine existences, the universe would be better.
However, even after saying so much to Iapetus, his actions showed no mercy whatsoever.
With the exact same procedure as with the other three Primal Titans, he cleanly and efficiently seized Iapetus’s Source Authority.
The ancient and powerful Primal Laws symbolizing “Death Weaving” and “Cycle of Recurrence” all fell into his hands.
After doing all this, Zeus waved his hand to restore their minds.
Iapetus’s expression was calm as a pool of stagnant water; having done wrong, he accepted it—nothing more than the victor becomes king and the loser becomes bandit; he had accepted it.
If they had won, Zeus would have fared even worse.
Coeus and Phoebe were dispirited, with a look of utter despair.
Only Cronus, the old God King who until now truly felt he had lost everything, let out a heaven-shaking roar the instant his consciousness was restored!
Upon discovering that the Thunder Chains binding him had vanished, Cronus, whose rationality was utterly destroyed by despair and anger, furiously charged at Zeus!
But he had no chance at all to even touch Zeus.
Zeus merely once again casually shattered space and said to them his final words of the day: “Farewell, everyone.”
Then, decisively, he cast the four of them once more into the endless Tartarus!
“No—!”
The old God King’s extremely shrill roar still echoed in the depths of the Netherworld, but under Zeus’s merciless thunder, this voice was soon completely drowned out.
The most terrifying torment in the world once again enveloped them.
They could only wait in that endless Void for the next bounty and opportunity that Zeus would bestow at some unknown time.
Perhaps by then, they would see everything clearly.
Wrongdoing must be punished.
And the punishment received must match the wrongdoing committed.
It must make the wrongdoer truly know their error and regret and correct it afterward; make those harmed receive due compensation; and make all living beings dare not commit the same error again.
This is the fairest and simplest reason.
Afterward, Zeus once again handed those four anchor points back to the six Giants.
After chatting freely with them for a while longer, he turned and returned to Olympus.
It was time to help Metis achieve Supreme Wisdom!
Then, upon just returning to Mount Olympus, Zeus was ambushed again.
As he had just set foot in the territory of Mount Olympus, preparing to find Metis and give her a surprise, he discovered the surrounding scenery change in an instant, and he had already entered a special independent Sacred Domain.
Zeus was greatly surprised at the sight, but he soon became eagerly excited to watch a good show, thinking Olympus had stirred up some new event he was unaware of.
What happened next made this incorrigible philandering God Lord temporarily cast his beloved Goddess of Wisdom to the back of his mind once more.
Within this sacred domain was an extreme moonlit night scene, the night curtain like crushed Ink Jade, with only a full moon in the center of the sky hanging like an Ice Soul.
This bright Silver Moon was like a small silver boat, quietly drifting at the pinnacle of the vast Sea of Stars, its silver radiance cold as water transforming into a silent waterfall, slowly cascading down through the boundless night curtain.
Moonlight gently sprinkled down, plating the wildflowers and exotic grasses across the mountains with a layer of holy silver frost.
In this prosperous mountain wilderness, there were occasionally a few pure, flawless jade osmanthus trees condensed from Moonlight, their trunks glowing with sacred radiance.
At the center of the mountain wilderness was a vast Ice Lake, its surface smooth as a mirror, perfectly reflecting the bright moon above in the Sky Dome, making the heaven and the lake surface echo with two clear moons.
A gentle breeze brushed over, stirring a segment of soft ripples on the lake surface; the breeze continued to sway, making the endless sea of flowers stretching to the horizon dance lightly as well.
At this moment, a goddess with icy skin and jade-like beauty, solitary and peerlessly exquisite, slowly drifted down from that bright moon.
Her pair of bare, jade feet seemingly carved from condensed frost and pure snow lightly landed on the Ice Lake’s surface, only rippling a circle of gentle, spreading light patterns from the lake’s heart.
Her aura was cold as frost, her beauty absolute like ice-carved jade; her face was like freshly bloomed osmanthus soaked in an ice spring, exuding a chilling luster like cold jade.
Her skin was the purest white jade condensed from bright radiance, without a trace of mortal fireworks; her unstained mortal pink lips, merely pursed thinly, seemed to glisten with a piece of crystalline Frost Flower.
She had a pair of aloof and transcendent beautiful eyebrows, like distant mountains with faint haze, always slightly furrowed, as if gathering a layer of Mist that could never melt; her slender, butterfly-wing-like eyelashes, when drooping, veiled all ripples in her eyes.
Yet, the most heart-stirring were her eyes, a pair of silver-white bright eyes fully embodying lunar beauty.
When she raised her eyes, those eyes seemed to hold half a wheel of cold chill moon; no mortal spirit dared look directly, lest even their mind be eternally frozen by this bone-piercing beauty.
She was like a clear soul condensed from moonlight; merely standing there quietly already effortlessly captivated the God King’s entire mind.
In this scene of flowers in full bloom and clear moon shining bright, if Zeus did not indulge, it would be he who was insensitive.
This goddess wore a plain and elegant silver long robe, as if the entire moonlight had been cut and adorned to her garment.
On her skirt hem, the silver threads dotted with moonlight threads trembled slightly due to her master’s faintly nervous aura.
She quietly took a deep breath, her tiptoes lightly tapping the lake surface, like morning dew dropping on bluestone—without a sound, yet she spun into motion.
Her waist-length, waterfall-bright silver hair also danced in the air accordingly.
This calm lake surface reflecting moonlight rippled with circles of hazy silver radiance with her dance steps.
This pool of mirror lake was originally a stage specially made by the goddess.
This was the stage she had laid out for herself, for display to only one god.
This elegant and otherworldly goddess was the eternal Mistress of Radiance, mother of the Stars, Queen of Night, Master of the Night Sky, Mistress of the Silver Crown, Driver of the Moon Wheel, Controller of Tide, Silver-Horned Goddess, Silver-Eyed Goddess, Ice Radiance Goddess, Lord of Silent Night, Radiance of the Void, Guide of Dreams, Eternal Witness, noble and coldly glamorous holy lunar radiance, Face of Frost Moon—Selene!
She did not dance for mortals, nor for the gods’ noisy banquets. No living being was qualified to see her dancing.
She was dancing for the supreme and most benevolent and beautiful God King Zeus, in this cold and silent Sacred Domain exclusive to her, offering a solo dance belonging only to him!
With her gentle dance steps, osmanthus petals filled the sky, fluttering down like rain.
At every light tap between her jade toes, a Lotus Flower of elegant purity condensed from moonlight would bloom on the mirror lake’s surface.
At the same time, a mysteriously cold, ethereal murmur of song quietly arose from all directions.
Her dance steps were a silent poem, a supreme hymn to eternal emptiness.
Her figure was light as wind; every step seemed to tread the tracks of stellar orbits; every spin stirred the deepest Azure of this cold moonlit night.
Her arms slowly lifted like a silver Ribbon, winding through the night sky.
Her fingertips lightly touched, effortlessly plucking the invisible Strings named “Intoxication.”
Her slender jade arms embraced intangible moonlight; holy silver radiance, with every leap of hers, gently brushed and swirled around the somewhat dazed God King.
Gentle shattered light flowed with her figure; her skirt hem swept the lake surface without staining a drop of water stain.
Occasionally, when she spun before the God King, her thin garments would brush ambiguously against his flowing long robe.
Yet, at a mere touch, she swiftly halted, her upright spine straightening again, as if this instant closeness was merely moonlight’s inadvertent, unintentional entanglement.
This sense of near-far distance made her sometimes soar into the sky to dance with the heavenly Moon Wheel; sometimes slowly descend, stirring gentle ripples in this night scene.
When she raised her head, her slender neck traced a swan-like graceful curve; when her fingertips lightly pointed, silver-moon-like star sand turned to meteors, barely grazing past the God King’s shoulder; the watery moonlight also deliberately brushed his brilliant golden hair.
Moon Goddess, her appearance was the ultimate sublimation of “Night Curtain.”
Her fair skin, under moonlight’s glow, was translucent and luminous; her profound eyes were even colder than the chill stars in the night sky.
She carried no mortal warmth, yet seemed to harbor the universe’s solitude and deep affection.
The aloof detachment between her brows seemed to reject all approaches. Yet in her graceful dance, it quietly revealed a trace of fatal softness existing only for one person.
When Zeus’s gaze fell on her, her drooping eyelashes would inadvertently tremble lightly.
When she raised her eyes again, the cold moon in them seemed softened by spring breeze.
But this softness was fleeting like an illusion, swiftly re-covered by eternal aloofness in an instant.
Welcoming yet refusing, seeming to leave yet staying, near yet far, wanting to speak yet holding back.
The God King, unknowingly, followed this goddess’s dance steps, slowly drawing near step by step.
Yet, the speed at which the distance between him and this goddess shortened was astonishingly slow.
But the God King seemed utterly unconcerned.
At the dance’s end, all sounds ceased.
The distance between the two gods was now but the span of a body.
She ended the dance with an elegant curtsy.
Silver gauze robes draped down like cascading frost snow.
Her noble head slightly lowered, revealing a smooth forehead and an exceedingly slender, graceful neck.
Her fingertips lightly brushed the silver threads of her skirt, as if arranging moonlight’s folds.
Her eyes looked downward, her ethereal and cold voice light as flowing moonlight: “This dance is offered solely to the God King.”
As her words fell, she slowly raised her eyes, her gaze colliding exactly with Zeus’s line of sight.
In this glance were moonlight’s chill, the goddess’s aloofness, and a trace of not-so-hidden, wordless admiration.
The corners of her eyes and brows quietly curved half a degree. The faint cherry color on her lips seemed to gain a touch of warmth.
Yet just as Zeus was about to speak, she swiftly lowered her eyes.
At the same time, her jade-like pearly ear tips quietly flushed a faint pink under the moonlight.
Yet it vanished in an instant.
Soon concealed again by that cold silver radiance.
Leaving only her pervasive chill.
Zeus couldn’t help stepping forward, extremely carefully and gently taking the Moon Goddess’s slender jade hands, somewhat dazedly gazing at Selene’s flawless, frost-like pure face.
For a moment, even the sweet talk etched into his bones was forgotten.
This usually aloof, proud, and distant Mistress of Radiance, with this sudden move, hooked the God King completely with her supreme skill.
（Supreme Divine Art—Great Charm Technique, God King Special Edition—Moon Goddess’s Personal Dance!）
Even the well-traveled God King, even the battle-hardened romantic God King, was thoroughly charmed under this Mistress of Radiance’s painstaking preparation.
