Indra had misjudged them. These gods were no righteous martyrs; they were also part of the surrender faction. They just didn't want to merely surrender—they wanted to sell themselves at a high price.
They wanted to have their cake and eat it too.
Aside from a few contrarians who couldn't grasp the situation and still thought Su Mo should respect the sanctity of life and play some game of treating worthy men with courtesy, the vast majority of these gods had no specific demands.
They were simply thinking that it would be best if Su Mo showed them a little more respect.
If Su Mo agreed, great. If he didn't, they could take a step back.
They were applying negotiation tactics to their relationship with Su Mo, a decision driven purely by self-interest.
Since they were going to sell out anyway, they certainly weren't going to sell themselves cheap.
They tailored their words to their audience.
If not for Indra's precedent of "malicious competition" driving down the market price, and Canary's calm, unconcerned posture as if she were watching a play, they might have proposed some truly outrageous conditions.
But now, under pressure from Indra, the "god-traitor," and Canary, the upstart lover of a powerful figure, they were forced to lower their conditions to the bare minimum.
At least, what they considered the bare minimum.
Before submitting to Su Mo, shouldn't he at least provide a guarantee that he could defeat the End Emptiness?
For them, this was already the absolute minimum requirement, one that cast aside all dignity and glory.
If they submitted to him and still couldn't be guaranteed to survive, then why should they submit?
Holding this thought, their expressions were even rather tragic, as if they felt they were making an immense sacrifice.
Paying any price just for a promise—who could say they weren't loyal?
However, these gods completely failed to notice the helplessness and pity that showed in Indra's eyes after he heard their demands.
They also completely failed to notice the slight twitch of Canary's lips and her expression that was on the verge of breaking into laughter.
"A guarantee?"
Canary tried her best to suppress her amusement as she repeated the word.
She could have just ignored these fools, but considering that not all gods were as pragmatic as Indra—and that, in fact, most gods secretly harbored hopes for a similar guarantee—she had no choice but to spell it out for them.
"Why should we give you a guarantee?"
"..."
The question made the gods choke on their words.
"Why not? Is it that Lord Su Mo cannot defeat the End Emptiness? Or is he planning to refuse our allegiance?"
Subconsciously, they resorted to goading tactics and threats, trying to continue the negotiation.
However—
"..."
Canary shook her head, making her point without wasting any more words on them.
"There is one thing I need to remind all of you."
"Lord Su Mo has never said he wants to accept our allegiance, nor has he ever said he would accept our submission."
"So, before you all try to haggle, before you try to make Lord Su Mo bear the responsibility of a leader and point the way for us, please be sure to remember one thing—"
"Until Lord Su Mo agrees to accept us, we have absolutely no right to discuss conditions."
"It is not Lord Su Mo who needs to give a guarantee to win our submission. It is we who need Lord Su Mo to accept our submission, thereby gaining a chance to survive the End Emptiness... Don't get it backwards!"
As soon as she said this, the divine host fell silent.
The gods finally broke free from their earlier panic and fully understood the current situation.
The greatest difference between the gods who chose to follow Indra in unconditional surrender and those who tried to haggle was that the former were not man-children.
A self-centered worldview, believing others should reward you for your actions, is completely different from an other-centered one that considers one's own value.
To put it simply—
"Ask not what Lord Su Mo can do for you—ask what value you can provide to Lord Su Mo!"
Now that things had come to this, Indra simply acted as the henchman, taking on the dirty work of offending people.
His words finally made many of the gods clearly realize that no matter how noble they had been before, they might not have any positive value in Su Mo's eyes.
Just as Su Mo had once chosen to abandon the divine host's cosmology without hesitation, in his eyes, the gods might truly be worth less than trash.
With this realization, a commotion once again stirred through the billions of gods, but this time, they were clearly much more sober.
Just as the gods began to doubt their own worth and sought to prove they might be useful to Su Mo, the god who had been sealed by Indra's slap found this turn of events difficult to accept.
"Don't listen to that god-traitor Indra! He's a complete turncoat!"
"We are the supreme divine host! We have the right to propose conditions to Lord Su Mo! Even if Lord Su Mo rejects our conditions, he must be the one to pass judgment! How can we listen to this woman's nonsense here?"
Extremely confident in his own value, he seemed to view Canary as a treacherous courtier blocking his access to the emperor. He raised his arm and shouted.
"What you say doesn't count! I want to see Lord Su Mo! You let—"
A flash of crimson light. Before the word "me" could leave his mouth, a massive, vaguely familiar body suddenly appeared.
The very instant it appeared, it swatted down, crushing several hundred gods who had huddled together, intending to incite the divine host and negotiate with Su Mo.
However, at this moment, no one cared about the life or death of these clowns. Staring at the crimson monster before them, all the gods were utterly stunned.
The gods who had experienced the previous struggle instantly recognized the monster's identity.
"The... The Dystopian Demon Lord?!"