When Su Mian regained consciousness once more, the muddled, groggy sensation had faded considerably. She tried moving her fingers, but could not find her familiar limbs—she could not even determine where her body actually was. Her consciousness seemed to cling only to a core that was slowly gathering power.
Divine core. The concept surfaced naturally in her mind, accompanied by a near-instinctive comprehension. It was the heart of a deity and the wellspring of power, and her consciousness currently resided within this core that had yet to gestate a divine body.
There was no panic, no fear, and certainly no hysterical questioning.
Having weathered countless exams, academic competitions, research projects, and defense presentations, she had long since developed a habit.
When faced with a problem, first analyze it; emotions solved nothing—only information did.
As her consciousness gradually focused, fragments of knowledge that had been submerged deep within the divine core began to surface. Divine language, divine names, divine portfolios, and the basic genealogy tied to her own bloodline—things she had never studied were merging into her cognition in an unfathomable manner. Sorting through the information, Su Mian finally uncovered her own name and divinity.
Aergia—Goddess of Sloth.
After confirming this several times, Su Mian fell silent.
Was this some sort of dark humor? Someone who had practically carved diligence and striving into the marrow of her bones had transmigrated into the most unmotivated Goddess of Sloth?
Yet the lineage that emerged alongside her divine name soon left her no room to dwell on that irony.
Aergia, Goddess of Sloth. Her father was Aether, God of the Upper Sky; her mother was Gaia, Earth Mother.
If this were the Greek mythological world during the era of Zeus’s rule, such a status would undoubtedly be exalted beyond measure. Even with such a weak and useless divine portfolio, so long as she possessed the Earth Mother’s favor, she could practically stroll through the world of Chaos untouched.
As luck would have it, according to the knowledge of divine authority in her inherited memories, the one presently perched high upon the celestial vault, ruling over all gods, was the first Divine King, Uranus.
Su Mian’s thoughts gradually sank. Drawing upon the myths and legends she was familiar with from her past life, this Sky Father possessed a possessiveness toward Earth Mother Gaia that bordered on madness. If he learned of her lineage—when that Sky Father could cruelly dispose of even his own flesh and blood—how could he possibly tolerate a child born of Gaia and another god?
Third-Rank Divine Power—that was her current divine rank, practically the lowest tier among the gods. Against the Sky Divine King, power like this would offer no chance even to react before the divine core harboring her consciousness was utterly crushed.
Fortunately, her birth mother Gaia had clearly understood this as well. That was why, prior to her birth, Gaia had entrusted her to Nyx, Goddess of the Night.
Thinking of this, Su Mian could not help but fall quiet for an instant. But soon, she suppressed those strange emotions. Sentimentality was meaningless; surviving was what truly mattered. Continuing to sort through her inherited memories, she quickly discovered another fact: Nyx clearly had no intention of raising her personally, merely placing her within the temple of Hypnos, God of Sleep.
In name, she was Hypnos’s subordinate deity, bestowed with the duty to guard the Temple of Sleep, but in reality, it was more like a form of protection. After all, no one would pay attention to a minor gatekeeping deity, much less a Third-Rank Divine Power holding the divine portfolio of Sloth.
At this realization, Su Mian finally breathed a sigh of relief. She was even somewhat glad, because her divine portfolio was: sloth, indolence, and inaction.
In mythology, she had no achievements, no worshippers, no territory. There were barely even any records concerning her—a marginal deity through and through.
Yet for her present situation, being marginal meant safety.
“This works too,” Su Mian murmured within her consciousness. “Being useless means nobody’s keeping an eye on me.”
This did not mean she was slacking off; rather, it was because she needed time, needed growth, needed to accumulate strength. And right now, time was the one thing she did not lack.
“Lay low and build strength.”
Thinking of this, Su Mian suddenly felt like laughing. This was an experience she had gleaned countless times when facing adversity in her past life. And now, that lesson remained just as applicable.
Until she truly possessed the capability to protect herself: stay low-key, endure in silence, and build strength. This was the most crucial task for the long years ahead.
“Speaking of which, I truly must thank the earth’s gift.”
Su Mian sensed the vibrant vitality coiled deep within her divine core. That was the parting gift from the Earth Mother—the boundless divine power contained within the divine nectar of the Vase of Life was steadily nourishing her divine core, assisting her in shaping and gestating a divine body of her own...
Within the Temple of Sleep, Hypnos still lay reclined upon the obsidian couch. Pure white wings were folded behind him, a bunch of poppies dangling from his fingers as pollen drifted slowly with his measured breaths. The divine power of sleep flowed into the mortal world through dreams, while the dreams of living creatures upon the earth coursed along pathways connected to him, continually pouring into this ancient domain.
The years of gods were vast and immeasurable. Su Mian no longer knew how long she had remained upon that Divine Seat. She grew accustomed to the flow of divine power within her, and gradually felt the power of life accumulating outside the divine core. A hazy cocoon of light enveloped her, and the body gestating within finally took on an increasingly distinct outline.
Until one day, specks of starlight suddenly flickered to life upon the pitch-black Divine Seat.
The luminous membrane enclosing the divine core quietly split open with a slit, then gently unfurled, like someone slowly opening their eyes beneath the water.
An amber, near-stagnant glimmer seeped from the fissure, flowing slowly over the Divine Seat, gathering and coalescing into form.
First came the limbs—slender and pale, the knuckles slightly curled, as if unwilling to expend even the effort to clench into a fist. Next was the torso—the line of her shoulders delicate, her waist slender, as if sculpted from moonlight and mist. Her long hair was neither black nor gold; it was the color of the deepest dusk intertwined with the first light of dawn, a hue from before anything had ever been named. The tresses cascaded down languidly along her slender neck and shoulders, their tips floating faintly as if in water, enveloped in a transparent, near-solidified field of divine power.
As the divine body gradually coalesced, the divine core also sank slowly into her chest, warm divine power flowing outward from her heart to her limbs.
The newly born goddess possessed the delicate, ethereal face of a young maiden. Her exquisite features remained half-lidded, cast in faint shadow, making her appear as though she had just been dragged awake from a dream that spanned a thousand years. Her lips were exceedingly pale, their corners devoid of any curve—neither smiling nor sorrowful, merely pressed together in silence.
Yet if anyone were to gaze upon her face for more than three seconds, beneath that layer of languor they would faintly discern a discordant trace of sharp lucidity—like the only person with eyes wide open on an afternoon when everyone else was dozing.
Su Mian—no, she should now be called Aergia—slowly opened her eyes.
Her pupils were of an undefinable shade, hovering between amber and pale violet. Light falling into them was swallowed without escaping.
“Phew, finally...”
Aergia let out a long breath and looked down at her hands, examining them closely. They were slender and graceful, fair and lustrous, like exquisite, fragile porcelain.
Then, as if squeezing a hand grip strengthener in her past life, she curled her fingers with extreme deliberation. She was feeling—sensing the divine power surging within this physical vessel, tracing the path of every wisp of power coursing through this divine body, assessing just how much capital this existence named “Aergia” possessed.
After a long while, she relaxed her hands and leaned back against the Divine Seat. Her posture was languid, her expression indolent, looking for all the world as though she were preparing to slip back into a century-long nap. Yet her eyes did not close; half-lidded, she gazed at the vine lamp hanging from the vaulted ceiling of the temple, a lamp that would never bloom.
Having fully adapted to her new body, Aergia stood up and immediately furrowed her brows slightly. The godhead of Sloth still had some influence on her. That welling fatigue and impulse toward indolence whenever she moved brought her a touch of discomfort, but that was all.
She was the master of her godhead, never its vassal. Suppressing that discomfort with sheer, monstrous willpower, Aergia’s expression turned serene. She took a step forward and walked toward the main hall, where Hypnos, God of Sleep, resided. As a guard of his temple and nominally his subordinate deity, it was only proper that she pay him a visit upon her birth.
On one hand, it was to announce her birth and existence; on the other, to demonstrate her utility.
Even if she had transmigrated into a “slacker” goddess, the soul of a diehard overachiever would never change. Everything that existed had a purpose, and Aergia believed that “inaction” did not equal uselessness.
Rate on N.U.
