"Hahaha! Finally—finally found you, Li Xiao! Crown Prince of Tang, let's see where you can run this time!"
A cruel laugh tore through the forest. On the back of a huge black wolf, the General of Chen State, clad in dark armor, pointed his halberd forward, his voice echoing with cold hatred.
"Did you think you could survive by running into the Forbidden Land of the Gods?" he sneered. "What a joke. Even if you flee to the very ends of heaven and earth, I'll drag your corpse back myself. There's no one left in this world who can save you."
Behind him, countless soldiers of Chen State roared with laughter.
"Hah! Look at them! Those rats actually stopped and got on their knees—what, are they trying to surrender?"
"Surrender? Hah! What's the use of that? They'll still die. Not a single one of them will leave this forest alive."
The words were like blades. The Chen generals looked down at the small group of Tang remnants with eyes full of bloodlust.
For them, this wasn't just pursuit — it was extermination.
Even if Li Xiao and his men threw down their weapons, they would still be cut down. The Chen army intended to erase the Tang bloodline completely.
But then—
"Wait! General—look ahead!"
A trembling voice broke the laughter. One of the soldiers, his hands shaking so violently he could barely hold his spear, pointed forward into the mist. "There's… there's something there!"
"What nonsense are you babbling now?" The General frowned, annoyed. "What 'something'? Speak clearly!"
The soldier's lips trembled. "A giant…! A giant is there!"
The General scowled. "A giant? You idiot, we're in the forest, not a fairy tale—"
"No!" Another soldier suddenly shouted, his face drained of blood. "It's not just a giant… it's a god. A real one. An ancient god! It must have come out of the Forbidden Land!"
The murmurs spread like wildfire. More and more soldiers looked up — and their eyes widened.
Through the rising mist, they saw it — the same impossible sight that had frozen Li Xiao's heart moments ago.
A colossal figure stood in the distance, its body towering higher than any mountain, its head lost beyond the clouds. Each breath it took stirred the air like a storm. Its shadow swallowed forests whole.
In front of that figure, the soldiers of Chen were like dust motes floating in sunlight.
Even the biggest palace they had ever seen was smaller than one of the creature's toes.
A suffocating silence fell.
Then someone whispered, his voice cracking, "Heavens… how can it be so huge…"
Another soldier dropped his spear entirely. "It's not a monster… it's really a god. An ancient god that escaped from the Forbidden Land!"
In an instant, the entire army—tens of thousands of men—lost their courage.
The arrogance, the killing intent, the laughter—all vanished. What replaced it was raw, paralyzing fear.
Even General Chen Guo, the iron-blooded commander known for cutting through armies without blinking, froze.
His pupils shrank. His throat tightened as he forced his head up, trying to see the being's full form—but he couldn't.
He could only see endless legs of light and shadow, and an aura so vast it seemed to crush his chest.
"Primordial… gods…" he muttered, voice trembling despite himself.
At that moment, one of his captains screamed, "General! It's moving—it's coming closer!"
"Run! Run away! If that thing notices us, we're finished! We'll be crushed like ants!"
Panic exploded through the army. The formation broke instantly; soldiers stumbled backward, faces white as bone.
"SHUT UP!"
The General's roar cracked like thunder. He raised his blood-red halberd and glared at them with fury.
"Cowards! Do you want to die by my hand instead? Anyone who dares take a single step back—I'll kill you myself!"
The army froze again.
Even with gods before them, the General's killing intent felt closer, sharper, realer.
The fear of military law—of immediate execution—bit into their souls harder than divine dread.
"Listen carefully!" he barked. "There's no such thing as an 'ancient god.' It's just some oversized beast pretending to be divine! Don't let your minds rot with superstition."
He swung his halberd toward the horizon. "If it truly is a god—then today, we slaughter a god!"
His words were madness, yet filled with a savage kind of confidence that made the trembling soldiers instinctively obey.
Better to die fighting than to be executed for cowardice.
"Yes, General!"
Tens of thousands of voices echoed weakly, their tone forced but still echoing through the valley.
The General's face twisted into a grim smile. "Good. Then—prepare! Bend your bows, all units ready! On my order—"
He thrust his arm forward.
"—Fire!"
Whssshhhhhh!
In an instant, hundreds of thousands of arrows shot into the sky, filling it with black streaks.
They rained down on the colossal being like a storm—each one glinting with killing intent, each carrying the strength of iron and hatred.
The air whistled, the forest roared.
Countless arrows struck the giant's body, vanishing against its skin with faint pings.
But then—
Nothing.
Not a single mark.
Not even a scratch.
The soldiers blinked in disbelief. The arrows had all been stopped by a faint shimmering light barrier around the being's body. It was like invisible armor, smooth and unyielding.
"It's useless!" one soldier shouted hoarsely. "Our arrows can't even reach it!"
"It's hopeless! That really is a god! How could mortals harm something like that?!"
The panic, suppressed a moment ago, burst back tenfold. Legs shook. Some soldiers collapsed entirely, their bows slipping from trembling fingers.
Then—
BOOOOMMM~~~~
A sound exploded from the heavens. It wasn't thunder — it was a voice.
A deep, ancient vibration that rolled across the land, shaking the trees and making every soldier's ears bleed.
The entire world seemed to quiver beneath that sound.
"W-what's going on?! What happened?!"
A general clutched his helmet, screaming as the noise rattled his skull.
Another gasped, "It's speaking! The ancient god is speaking!"
"But it's… it's not our language… I can't understand any of it!"
"The god is angry!" someone wailed. "We attacked it! We've angered the ancient god— we're doomed!"
And then the army broke.
The Chen soldiers screamed, dropping weapons, running in every direction like frightened animals. The formation that once covered the earth scattered into chaos.
The once-mighty army of Chen State — 100,000 men — was reduced to a sea of panicked ants beneath a being who hadn't even moved.
...
But far above, the so-called ancient god was not even aware of the panic he caused.
In truth, this "god" was a man — an ordinary human from Xuanhuang Star.
His name was Xia Chuan.
And he was… completely dumbfounded.
———
Before this, Xia Chuan had discovered an ancient bronze gate, hidden deep beneath an abandoned temple on his planet. Through mysterious circumstances, he had realized it was not an artifact of man but a door to other worlds — a portal connecting realms.
After days of experimenting, Xia Chuan confirmed it.
That gate could send him elsewhere.
To a world unknown, untouched, and—apparently—miniature.
When he understood its value, he could hardly contain his excitement.
But he wasn't a fool.
Before stepping through, he had spent hours preparing — full protective suit, oxygen system, survival pack, combat knife, flashlight, water, even emergency rations. He made sure that no matter what world he entered, he wouldn't die immediately.
And so, after deep breath and a final look back, he walked through the bronze gate.
The next instant—he was here.
At first, he thought he had entered some kind of wilderness. But soon he realized something… odd.
Everything was tiny.
The mountains barely reached his knees. The rivers looked like little streams.
The tallest trees only rose to his chest, and when he looked down, clouds drifted lazily around his waist.
Even the creatures scurrying around—their size was ridiculous, like insects.
"What… what is this place?" he muttered, frowning under his helmet. He crouched slightly, studying the landscape. "Did I… get bigger? Or did this world shrink?"
He stepped forward carefully, and that's when he felt something strange.
It was faint, like the tickle of a breeze around his ankles.
"Huh? What's that?"
He looked down, confused. It felt like… something was touching his boots?
Or maybe biting?
Because of his full-body protective suit — reinforced armor, anti-venom mesh, sealed joints — even a hornet couldn't sting him.
So whatever it was, it couldn't hurt him. But still, the constant prickling feeling annoyed him.
He frowned and muttered irritably, "Damn it… why are there so many ants?"
He finally lowered his gaze.
And froze.
Below him, at his feet, the ground wasn't just dirt — it was covered in black specks.
Tiny, moving dots. Tens of thousands of them.
They weren't ants.
They were people.
Countless miniature figures, armed and armored, scattering like insects at his feet.
Xia Chuan's breath caught in his throat. "What the hell…"
He blinked, squatting slightly, his massive shadow engulfing the entire forest.
And then, realization struck him like lightning.
The "mountains," the "rivers," the "forests"—
All of them… belonged to a miniature world.
He wasn't just tall.
He was a giant—a god—in this tiny realm.
And the "ants" at his feet… were actually living humans.