Chapter 1187
The Birth of Shang Tian Si
In the deep night, Eivass suddenly awoke in the palace.
— Just now, he had felt like a star had exploded and risen.
A new Heavenly Envoy had been born.
As a star ascended into the night sky, Eivass opened his eyes, the depths of his pupils burning with dark red afterglow.
“Hmm…? What’s wrong?”
Isabel also immediately woke up, letting out a muffled whine like a kitten.
After occupying the palace of the Lord of Rock Cell City, he had gradually arranged for his followers from the caravan to be moved into the palace. After all, even though spatial folding technology allowed for space within the carriage to fit a bed, the lighting and air quality would not be very good, unsuitable for long-term living.
The Lord’s personal belongings were also burned by Eivass along with his corpse.
But for this enormous bed, which could accommodate six or seven people sleeping together—it could even be called a giant bed—he couldn’t find any suitable bedsheets. Thus, only a small area in the middle was covered, and they had to make do for now.
Eivass casually stroked Isabel’s head, kissed his wife, and gently comforted her, “It’s nothing, go back to sleep.”
He then got out of bed, put on his robe, and went alone to the reception hall.
The pure white wool carpet provided enchanting warmth even without shoes. With a thickness exceeding five centimeters, stepping onto it felt like sinking into clouds.
On the table were two sets of pure gold liquor sets, and nearby was a complete set of pure gold tableware. There were also about a dozen sets of lead tableware for others to use—the Anxi people believed that lead, not silver, was the most sacred metal closest to gold, so the Lords used it extensively in their daily lives.
For ordinary people, such usage would easily lead to lead poisoning. But the Lords underwent high-intensity treatment and health monitoring, and often possessed high-tier Twilight Path levels themselves. Therefore, it was only those around the Lord who would fall ill.
When others were poisoned, the Lord remained radiant. This further proved the divinity, greatness, and eternity of the Lord.
Eivass casually tugged a wisp of cashmere from the edge of the carpet, igniting a flame at his fingertips. With his other hand, he took out a golden cup.
He tossed the flame-singed cashmere into the golden cup while chanting, “I invoke the Candlemaster. I offer the lamb’s fire, to seek true knowledge…”
The next moment, the flames in the golden cup suddenly expanded abnormally.
Despite only a wisp of wool to burn, the expanding flame was as large as a basketball. It looked like a golden light bulb.
In reality, it was a hollow ring of fire. The flames were like a crystal ball, or like a door, drawing something out from within.
Eivass’s unusual eye easily sensed a divine power rapidly descending.
— When Eivass first used this divine art, it had taken considerable effort. He recited prayers for a long time with extreme reverence, and finally managed to summon an apostle of the Candlemaster to answer one question.
This time, Eivass only used two sentences… without even using any offerings, he directly attracted the apostle’s personal descent. He was only two sentences away from directly invoking a High-Tier Divine Art of the Candlemaster.
But the apostle who emerged this time surprised Eivass—
The basketball-sized flame continued to expand, becoming a giant ring of fire, slightly taller than Eivass.
The next moment, a beautiful creature, like the Candlemaster with four legs on the ground, emerged from the ring of fire.
Unlike Eivass and the Heavenly Candlemaster Envoy, she had no antlers symbolizing the Child of the Candlemaster on her head, nor the black markings that controlled Sin Thorns on her body, yet she still had a half-human, half-deer form. She had milky white fur, slender deer legs, and hooves burning with pure white flames. Her human upper body was clad in a semi-transparent gauze dress, with only two white cloths wrapped around her chest.
She had long, straight white hair and equally pure white eyes—eyes that felt strange, yet divine.
Her face, which was closer to gentleness and sweetness than beauty or charm, was incredibly familiar to Eivass.
“…Your Highness Ruoan?”
Eivass immediately recognized the person before him.
This half-human, half-deer form was a unique manifestation of the Candlemaster’s apostles, like the Heavenly Candlemaster Envoy and Fiery Wings of Life, as well as “Eternal Vanguard” Karstenning.
And her appearance was that of Ruoan Eternal, the former Eternal Pope who had burned herself to death while vanquishing the Fallen Heavenly Envoy!
“Long time no see, Eivass!”
The little deer hopped, landing nimbly before Eivass. She slightly lifted a hoof, her tone as lively as a young girl’s, “Or perhaps not so long?”
“It’s been a few months, I guess.”
Eivass rejoiced at seeing his old friend, “You’ve finally awakened from the Origin River too.”
Although, in principle, many people he knew in reality could transform into apostles and resurrect in the Dream Realm after death… this was the first time he had witnessed it with his own eyes.
— Eivass inexplicably felt like he was meeting a good friend after many years, only to learn they had successfully landed a stable job. He felt relieved for their good future, yet also a strange sense of unfamiliarity.
“I sensed you were summoning an apostle, so I immediately sprinted!”
Ruoan smiled quietly, hopping restlessly before Eivass and raising a hand to mimic running, “Fiery Wings of Life wanted to respond to the summons, but I threw that little thing out immediately!”
Ah, no wonder.
Eivass thought, no wonder the fireball was only the size of a basketball at first. If it were Fiery Wings of Life’s portal, that size would have been sufficient. But for Ruoan to pass through, the scale needed to be enlarged.
“…Is Fiery Wings of Life okay?”
Eivass was a little worried, “Did you guys get into a fight because of this?”
As soon as he spoke, he felt the question was rather gossipy, and his expression became strange for a moment.
But Ruoan didn’t seem to mind, just chuckling, “It’s busy, it won’t miss this one deal—it’s my first time responding to a summoning! It feels so good to be back in the Material Realm… I’ll answer your questions later, let me catch my breath first!”
She said, hopping around the room, exclaiming, “Wow, Eivass, you fellow… did you inherit some Count’s fortune?”
“This was the former Lord’s house, it has nothing to do with me. And I wasn’t lacking money to begin with.”
Eivass said, holding up the golden cup still burning like a candle flame, and opening the door for Ruoan, letting her into the courtyard.
Watching the little deer, glowing with pure white light, frolic in the garden, Eivass suddenly felt that the Dream Realm was quite wonderful.
Although all his knowledge of the Dream Realm so far consisted of being eaten by demons, chased by giant bears, the pitch-black Shadow Realm, desolate wastelands with nothing, and the old guys and their conspiracies… and then there were the large Dream Realm corporations, their rivals, their employees, and their solo employees.
Now, Eivass truly realized the weight of the statement “Death is not the end of life.”
It’s so good. He sighed with genuine emotion.
After Ruoan had her fill of playing, she walked over to Eivass reluctantly, “Okay… Thank you, Eivass. I’ve played enough. You still need to sleep, right?”
“I guess you want to ask about that Heavenly Envoy just now, right?”
“That’s right,” Eivass nodded. “Which Heavenly Envoy was that? What’s their background? I don’t know if it’s because of my location… I didn’t sense any abnormality, so I couldn’t figure it out.”
“You wouldn’t normally be able to sense it. That’s a Heavenly Envoy of the Path of Balance, how could there be any special phenomena.”
Ruoan smiled, “That’s Shang Tian Si, the Heavenly Envoy of Trade and Hoarding, the Heavenly Envoy of Investment and Speculation. He was an apostle who followed the Hourglass long ago, a Taichu person, surnamed Jiang.”
…Surname Jiang?
Eivass murmured, repeating the name.
For a moment, he couldn’t think of any particularly famous ancient merchants surnamed Jiang among the Taichu people.
“Could it be Jiang Ziya?”
Eivass was somewhat doubtful.
“Jiang Ziya was also an apostle of the Hourglass. But this time, it’s his descendant who ascended to the position of Heavenly Envoy,” Ruoan replied. “I remember his name was Lü Buwei.”
“…Why him?”
“Because this was a transaction in itself, he sacrificed himself voluntarily. However, the specific details of the transaction are unclear.”
Ruoan’s little face became a bit more serious, and her deer hooves stopped tapping. “After all, someone has to hold the position of Heavenly Envoy. Otherwise, the Ouroboros Ring cannot be completely formed.”
…A supplementary Heavenly Envoy?
Eivass immediately understood.
Unlike Heavenly Envoys of other Paths who spontaneously achieved godhood… the Path of Balance, perhaps due to the Hourglass, understood the Ouroboros Ring ritual better. Therefore, no Heavenly Envoy had ascended for a long time.
But if that were the case, the Ouroboros Ring ritual would be missing one member.
Ascending to godhood at this time almost guaranteed being pulled down. This meant whoever ascended would die… and in this situation, Shang Tian Si was born.
Although he didn’t know why the Hourglass would rather sacrifice one of its apostles, or even cede some of its original divine essence, to complete the Ring Heavenly Envoy’s Ouroboros Ring ritual…
— Are you his father?
But it was certain that the birth of this new Heavenly Envoy foreshadowed an imminent demise.
He was born from a transaction, selling his past, his present life, and his future possibilities, in exchange for a meaningless divine position.
Although he didn’t know what he sought… the great transaction of selling his divinity was enough to support his status as Shang Tian Si.
“By the way, Eivass… the next one to ascend should be Morgan.”
Ruoan added, “Morgan of the Path of Love—but she won’t be ascending the Path of Love.”
She glanced at Eivass and immediately laughed, “So you already know.”
“Path of Authority, right?”
Eivass said softly.
“That’s right,” Ruoan nodded. “It should be the Clan Heavenly Envoy—symbolizing family and tradition. She’s already preparing for the ascension ritual; it should be in a few days. But the outcome will likely be the same. If the Path of Authority doesn’t have a second Heavenly Envoy, she’ll inevitably be pulled down by the Ring Heavenly Envoy… I’m not sure if she knows this, but the Candlemaster told me not to meddle, so I’ll obediently stay out of it.”
“I see…”
Eivass mused thoughtfully.
He watched Ruoan’s body gradually becoming transparent and ethereal—her task of descending as an apostle was complete, and she was about to be recalled by the power of Balance.
Before Ruoan disappeared, Eivass suddenly asked, “By the way, how has the Crown Lord’s condition been recently?”
“It doesn’t feel… very good,”
Ruoan hesitated, “He seems a bit deranged lately… Try to pray to him less…”
Before she could finish speaking, she was engulfed by flames and recalled to the Dream Realm.
But this answer was enough.
