It did not take long for news of the appearance of the Lower God to begin spreading.
At first, the news remained confined to the city where he had appeared.
Then it reached the neighboring cities.
After that, it reached the forces that controlled the region.
And as time passed, it became impossible to ignore.
A god had appeared in the main world.
He was no longer merely a name carved into an ancient stone.
Nor was he simply an existence that had responded to an ancient divine seal.
A god had truly left his divine domain and entered Iberon himself.
And that alone was enough to make the various powers begin reassessing their positions.
Yet the matter did not descend into chaos.
The god was only a Lower God, and he had taken no hostile action since his appearance.
Therefore, there was no need to send an army to confront him.
But ignoring him entirely was not an option either.
There was one obvious question that needed to be answered:
What did he want?
In the city where the god had appeared...
The ancient temple was more crowded than it had ever been.
People were not coming because they had suddenly become believers.
They came because the god represented by the statue inside the temple was now truly alive.
The old man responsible for the temple sat inside the hall while several of the god's followers waited nearby.
As for the god himself...
He stood before one of the windows, looking down at the city.
The scene was different from what he remembered.
The city was larger.
The population was greater.
And the architecture had changed.
Even some of the roads that had existed in his memories were gone, replaced by roads he had never seen before.
The old man entered the room.
He bowed.
"Master."
The god turned toward him.
"What is it?"
The old man said:
"A delegation from the force that governs this region has arrived."
The god raised an eyebrow slightly.
"Here?"
"Yes."
He thought for a moment.
Then said:
"Let them in."
The old man bowed and left.
A short while later, several cultivators entered the hall.
At the front was a middle-aged man whose aura was powerful, though it was still far beneath the level of the god standing before him.
The man stopped at an appropriate distance.
Then bowed.
"My respects, Senior."
The god looked at him.
"Who are you?"
"I am one of the officials responsible for this region."
"And they sent you?"
"Yes."
The god studied him for a moment.
Then said:
"Speak."
The man took a calm breath.
"We know that you once held influence over this region during your era."
The god said nothing.
The man continued:
"But after you entered your slumber, the region changed. New powers emerged, the borders changed, and the system of governance changed several times."
The god replied:
"I know."
Then he added:
"That is why I have not made any demands yet."
A slight sense of relief appeared on the official's face.
But he said nothing about it.
"We do not wish for a conflict between us and you."
The god answered directly:
"Neither do I."
A brief silence followed.
Then the god said:
"But I have questions."
"Ask, Senior."
"What happened to my followers?"
The man answered:
"Most of them assimilated into the local population over time. Some families still preserve your traditions, and some temples remain."
"And this temple?"
"It survived because it was protected by the laws of the region. There was no reason to destroy it."
The god nodded.
Then asked:
"Were my followers persecuted?"
The official hesitated for a moment.
Then answered:
"Not in general. There were different periods, but at present, they are not being persecuted."
The god looked at him.
Then said:
"Good."
There was no anger in his voice.
Nor was there any desire to reclaim everything by force.
He simply wanted to know what had actually happened.
Then he asked another question:
"Who controls the lands that were once under my influence?"
"The empire."
"Since when?"
"For a long time."
The god fell silent.
He knew that the answer would not change the truth.
The world had changed.
And the authority he had once possessed no longer existed in the same form.
The official said:
"If you wish to reclaim anything specific, we can discuss it."
The god looked at him.
"I want nothing for now."
The man was surprised.
"Senior?"
"I have only recently returned."
He continued:
"Before I make any demands, I want to understand the era I have returned to."
His words were clear.
No threat.
No attempt to display his authority.
Only a desire to understand reality.
The official nodded.
"We can provide you with the information you require."
The god said:
"I want information about the major empires, the races, and the powers that emerged during my absence."
Then he added:
"And I want to know what happened to the sects that were once associated with me."
"We will send you the available records."
"Good."
The god paused for a moment.
Then said:
"You may leave."
The delegation bowed.
"As you command."
They left.
Outside the temple, the official remained silent for a while.
One of the cultivators who had accompanied him was standing beside him.
He asked:
"Did it really end that easily?"
The official looked toward the temple.
"For now."
"I thought he would immediately demand his territories back."
"He may do so later."
Then he added:
"But he no longer knows the world he has returned to. It is natural for him to gather information first."
The cultivator asked:
"Do you think he will become our enemy?"
The official shook his head.
"I don't know."
Then he said:
"But I see no reason to make him our enemy before he decides to become one."
The two left the area.
Inside the temple...
The god was still standing before the window.
The old man entered once again.
"Master."
"Yes?"
"Are you angry about losing your influence?"
The god looked at him.
Then answered:
"Anger will not bring anything back."
The old man remained silent.
The god continued:
"The world changed. I am the one who returned to it, not the other way around."
It was a simple statement.
But the old man understood its meaning.
The god had no intention of treating the new era as though everything had stopped the moment he entered his slumber.
The god sat down.
Then said:
"Tell me about the powerful cultivators in this region."
The old man began speaking.
He mentioned several names.
He spoke of the powers that existed in the cities.
Of the powerful cultivators.
And of several sects.
The god listened attentively.
Whenever he heard about someone or some power that had not existed during his era, he asked about them.
He was not trying to judge them.
He simply wanted to understand their position within the current balance of power.
As time passed...
The picture before him gradually became clearer.
He had returned to a different world.
Not a world without power.
Nor a world that had been waiting for the return of the gods for life to begin.
It was a world that had built its own civilization during their absence.
And that was not a bad thing to him.
If anything...
It was interesting.
At the same time...
The various racial empires began reassessing their positions.
The god who had appeared had attacked no one.
He had demanded no territory.
And he had threatened no empire.
But his appearance had proven one important thing.
The gods had begun to move.
Because of this, some powers began reopening their ancient records.
They searched for the names of gods who had once held influence over their territories.
For ancient temples.
For old alliances.
And for conflicts that had taken place before the gods entered their slumber.
The goal was not to declare war.
It was to prepare.
For it was now possible for another god to awaken at any moment.
And that god might have an entirely different attitude.
One god might only want to recover his strength.
Another might care about his followers.
A third might wish to reclaim his ancient territories.
And a fourth might have no interest in the main world at all.
The return of the gods did not mean that all of them would act in the same way.
And this truth was beginning to become clear to everyone.
In one of the halls belonging to a certain empire...
Several powerful cultivators were gathered around a long table.
Ancient records had been placed before them.
One of them said:
"This is the first god to enter the main world since the beginning of the Awakening."
Another answered:
"And more importantly, he did not begin with any hostile action."
A third said:
"That is good."
Then he added:
"But it does not mean that the gods who come next will act the same way."
One of the Transcendents raised his eyes from the records.
"Exactly."
Silence filled the hall.
Then he said:
"That is why I do not want you to treat every god as an enemy, nor every god as an ally."
Everyone looked at him.
"Watch their actions first."
Then he added:
"Actions matter more than names."
No one objected.
This was the reality of the new era.
Elsewhere...
The god who had entered the main world had already left the temple.
He did not immediately return to his divine domain.
Instead, he began traveling through the region that had once belonged to his influence.
He passed over cities.
Crossed mountains.
And saw ruins.
In some places, he found the faint remains of his ancient temples.
He did not stop at every one.
He simply wanted to see the world.
That was all.
As he flew over one particular region...
He suddenly stopped.
He looked down.
A group of young people was training in a vast courtyard.
They were cultivators of the new generation.
Their techniques were different from those he remembered.
Their movements carried traces of cultivation systems that had developed during the ages of his absence.
He watched them for a while.
Then said:
"They have improved."
There was no mockery in his voice.
It was simply a straightforward acknowledgment.
He continued flying.
Far away from that region...
Another god was preparing to leave his divine domain.
In a third divine domain, another god had finished recovering part of his strength.
And in a fourth, a god was reading the records of the new era.
Not all the gods were moving in the same way.
But one thing was gradually changing.
The gods were no longer merely recovering their consciousness.
Some of them had begun making decisions.
And those decisions had begun affecting the main world.
These were the first true steps of the Age of Gods.
No one yet knew how far their return would alter the balance of power across Iberon.
But one thing had become clear...
The gods were no longer merely part of Iberon's history.
They had become part of its present.