Chapter 416: 33. The Return (6k)
“This is the angel Es under the Archangel Laggiel of the Fourth Day. Most angels living in the Fourth Day, who govern the law, act diligently, and he is no exception. After all, I cannot forge the Gospel Relics at all, so I have to let this angel Es do it; he will be a good teacher.”
After changing clothes, Fisher didn’t have time to communicate with Gouwen before Hela smiled and took them to a gender-neutral angel standing in front of the forging platform. The angel focused intently on the forging furnace, completely ignoring Hela’s words and the presence of Fisher and the others.
Angels skilled in forging seem to generally maintain a concentrated attitude, hardly caring about the affairs of the outside world. Naturally, they also didn’t give Hela any face, continuing to work on their tasks.
Hela, being ignored, was not angry. She smiled at Es and said, “Thank you, Angel Es. This is the will of Lord Salie and Lord Michael. You only need to talk about the methods and some details of forging the Gospel Relics; it won’t take up too much of your time.”
Es suddenly returned to reality from that ‘mindless’ state. He glanced at Hela, who seemed harmless, then waved his hand at Fisher and the others, without any preamble, and immediately began to speak.
“Forging the Gospel Relics is an incredibly complex process. In fact, it consists of three parts: [Constructing the Gospel], [Forging the Vessel], and [Affixing the Gospel]. Among them, constructing the Gospel is the most important step; it determines the properties of the relic, and the source of the Gospel is the material you are holding, which is the [Resonance Material].”
Fisher looked at the magic materials in his hand, seemingly realizing for the first time that the magic materials had such a wonderful use and that they had another name. Es quickly continued, “Simply put, living beings and materials all come from the authority of the gods, and a very small number may accidentally retain a bit of residual authority, and every kind of residue may bring about the most varied manifestations. The basic steps for constructing the Gospel are to extract the leftover rules using continuous and abundant energy, and with our carving, turn it into the [Gospel] that can adhere to objects.”
“The second step is to forge the vessel based on the type of Gospel, and the third step is to affix the Gospel. This process generates a lot of dissipating energy and is extremely unstable. It usually requires some medium to complete this process. In the past, we used water; now, we use the ether created by Lord Michael.”
Watching Es summarize the process of forging the relics, Fisher suddenly realized that while forging relics and inscribing magic both require magic materials, in reality, the role of the magic materials in the two processes is entirely different.
When forging relics, magic materials serve primarily as the resonance material for the rules. In other words, the essence of forging relics is a process of “harmonizing” rules into objects, strictly following the operational methods of the world’s rules. For example, it is very similar to how humans extract iron ore from the wild and then forge it into various weapons and tools.
But magic is entirely opposite. According to what Fisher mentioned before about the function of magic materials, it acts as a stabilizer in the process of inscribing magic. Without magic materials, the inscribed magic would be extremely difficult to control, leading to unexpected consequences.
The essence of magic is to use the soul to trigger resonant vibrations with the world to disrupt rules, using magic materials entirely to limit the degree of its disruption of the rules.
“Even forging the lowest-level relics requires at least seven days; the forging times of other relics should also be multiples of seven. If possible, it is best for the hours, minutes, and seconds to also be multiples of seven; that would be ideal.”
Tang Zeming Asuka, who was listening half-understood, glanced at Fisher, who was deep in thought, then looked back at Gouwen, who seemed sleepy and completely uninterested. After hesitating for a moment, she raised her hand and said, “Um… why is that? Is there some special reason?”
“There isn’t; it’s just because the forging process is relatively cumbersome and generally requires over seven days. Of course, if you are an existence like Lord Heavenly Lock, then disregard what I said. As for hours, minutes, and seconds, it’s just because we angels like the number seven,” Es replied.
Tang Zeming Asuka bit her lip in silence, turning to look at Fisher, whose frown was growing deeper, seemingly not understanding what he was thinking.
In reality, Fisher had suddenly realized a problem: from the technique that the angels use to forge Gospel relics, the so-called “order” can actually be materialized. It seems to originate from the great authority of several creator gods; conversely, the source of magic that disrupts order to produce effects seems to come from the soul or the Spirit Realm, representing the “chaos” that is strictly opposed to order.
Thus, the first layer of the problem is that since “order” can be materialized by authority, can “chaos” do the same? What does its materialized authority represent?
At this thought, Fisher’s breath suddenly caught. He reached to touch the area over his chest, where there was a reciprocating symbol resembling an inverted eight, stemming from Renee’s so-called authority, independent from several creator gods, as well as the terrifying Crimson Mist in the Spirit Realm attempting to reach into reality.
Not knowing the specifics of the chaos authority, let’s consider the second layer of the problem.
What if we used the authority representing “chaos” to construct the Gospel and cast it into vessels by mimicking the angels’ method of forging Gospel relics?
No. Even thinking about it seems unfeasible because, based on Fisher’s previous experiences, the existence of chaos, whether it be the Crimson Mist, the Supplement Handbook, or magic, is extremely difficult to control. Even if the forging method were replicated, it is likely to go completely out of control at the first step, either exploding or causing other terrifying incidents.
So, what exactly is the chaos that exists in the Spirit Realm? What kind of relationship do the Trans, magic, the Supplement Handbook, and the Mother God have with it?
“Thud! Thud! Thud!”
In the midst of these thoughts, Fisher suddenly felt a wave of extreme heartbeat, feeling as if he was being locked onto by some danger, each hair on his body standing on end. His face turned slightly pale, and the sound of his heartbeat reverberated like thunder beside his ears, momentarily causing him to lose focus.
“Mr. Fisher? Mr. Fisher?”
It was Tang Zeming Asuka’s voice that brought him back to reality. By the time he regained his composure, he felt a chill of sweat on his back and couldn’t help but feel puzzled about what had gone wrong, as if he had returned to the fearful days of being chased by death.
Gouwen, who noticed Fisher’s strange expression, twitched his fingers a couple of times, but soon raised an eyebrow, looking puzzled.
“Eh, your body seems completely fine and healthy… why suddenly does your face look so bad?”
“It’s okay, I’m fine now.”
But in less than a second, Fisher’s condition began to gradually warm up, as if the earlier palpitation had never occurred.
He quietly committed Es’s described process of forging relics to memory and responded like this.
Hela also knocked on her head in confusion, turned her head to look at the sun ring in the sky, and soon spotted Michael returning from the Sixth Day. She squinted her eyes, smiled at Es standing beside her, and then looked at Fisher holding the magic materials, saying,
“However, even to forge relics requires a long time to practice. We are pressed for time and don’t have that time. I haven’t left the boring Holy Realm in a long time; I can’t wait to move! What do you think?”
Listening to Hela’s excited words, one wouldn’t know that she was the outsider being locked in the Holy Realm.
Fisher raised the materials in his hand and said to Hela, “It’s fine; I’m not holding these to forge relics, so don’t worry. I see that Angel Michael is back; we should see him before heading out, right?”
“That’s right. But he is very likely to agree; both Lord Salie and I believe so. I’m just not sure if he obtained any interesting information in the Wisdom Whirlpool. We can just go see now.”
“Okay, let’s go.”
Tang Zeming Asuka bit her lip and secretly recited a Buddhist chant, while Hela bid farewell to Es, who seemed completely uninterested in them, then headed towards Michael’s forging room again.
“You still haven’t told me your true purpose for coming to the Holy Realm?”
Midway, Fisher suddenly remembered something and asked Gouwen beside him. He smiled, turned his head to look at Fisher, and explained, “Fisher, you should know the characteristics of our Whale Folk, right? I mentioned before that we have two opposing attributes: blessing and curse. The curse of the Whale Folk mostly stems from deep-seated negativity, making it difficult for most kin to control it and easily harming themselves, especially for the young and infants with weaker self-control. This has long been a pain for our clan.”
“I have been researching how to counter our kin’s curse, and through experiments, I finally came up with a brilliant method, and it has been proven feasible.”
Looking at Gouwen, who wore a warm smile, Fisher suddenly realized something and spoke, “The accompanying sea beast?”
“Yeah, you know. Oh, I forgot; you… cough cough.”
Gouwen looked at Fisher before excitedly shaking his head, not persisting in asking what might disrupt the rules of fate but continued to say, “Indeed, using the accompanying sea beast to share the burden of the curse will significantly increase the survival rate of newborn Whale Folk. So, we moved the entire clan to the deep trench where the sea beasts reside. But the problem arose here: since we moved in, strange occurrences have been frequent, leaving the whole clan uneasy.”
“Fisher, can you imagine suddenly hearing a child’s voice next to you while sleeping? And when you look around, there’s nothing. For these past few years, my kin have been unable to sleep well day and night. You should know we Whale Folk can usually sleep for a long time. I am the one who proposed moving the clan, and my wife also worked hard to reach a symbiotic agreement with the sea beasts. I absolutely do not want to give up.”
“Previously, my wife accidentally discovered a strange temple inverted against the stone wall in a cave deep in the trench, with a seemingly bottomless abyss beneath it, leading to very deep places. There was also a lot of an unknown black substance hanging above. I indeed felt some unease. When I previously went to the Eastern Continent, I read their texts and didn’t find anything useful, so I came to the Holy Realm to see if the angels know what lies in the depths of that strange temple.”
Fisher opened his mouth, and the focused expression he had while listening faded little by little, eventually turning into a disdainful expression of “Is this it?”
“Have you tried communicating with that voice in your head?”
“Um, besides my wife loudly cursing that voice, others dare not answer, fearing some curse or whatever.”
Fisher increasingly felt a sense of familiarity. The temple in the trench was introduced by Jasmine before, and the Whale Folk had to go there to offer sacrifices periodically. Talking about this, the voice inside the Whale Folk’s head and the origin of that mysterious temple became clearer.
The temple is a shrine dedicated to Ramastia. Jasmine didn’t say who built it; anyway, it was there when the Whale Folk went there for the first time, and the bottom of the abyss beneath this temple hides the main body of Ramastia’s deity. Over the long time, it seems only Xu has faced Him directly.
But now, the time is at least nine thousand years beyond the era he lived in, and it’s unclear whether that illustrious mother Jasmine has been born yet.
“Then it’s nothing to worry about.”
Seeing that Fisher had suddenly lost interest, a puzzled Gouwen looked around and whispered, “Wait, do you know what exists that speaks to us? And do you know the origin of that temple?”
“Well, He means you no harm. On the contrary, He probably likes you a lot since only you can hear His voice. In fact, as long as you actively open your mouth to communicate with Him, you’ll know the truth. There’s no need to come all the way to the Holy Realm. That temple is where He is worshipped, and underneath is His main body, so it’s best not to go down there. You can bring some things for offerings instead.”
“He?”
As Gouwen heard that term, distinct from any other pronoun, his smile grew more and more helpless.
He seemed to have guessed that his clan had indeed set up home on the head of that great deity, but he was not certain about the attitude of the He Fisher spoke of towards his clan.
But this already counted as good news, for he came to the Holy Realm to obtain this answer.
Tang Zeming Asuka, though still understanding little, hadn’t rejected this world since that night’s conversation with Fisher; at least she would silently remember some terms about this world, such as now she roughly knew that Whale Folk seemed to live in the deep sea.
“Lord Michael, you have returned from the Sixth Day. Just in time, I have something to report to you.”
When Hela brought Fisher and the others back to Michael’s forging room, unexpectedly, Mikhail was also here. He greeted Fisher and the others who came in, evidently not their first time coming here.
Michael was sitting in his place, beside him was the prosthetic arm and eye removed from Mikhail. He looked at Hela and asked, “Elf King’s birthday?”
“That’s right. Sixty years have passed, and it will be another month before the Elf King’s birthday. Moreover, according to the observations of Lord Remiel from the First Day, it seems something has changed at Jianmu Palace, which has been closed for a long time. Perhaps we can take this opportunity to investigate?”
Hela recounted Salie’s intelligence to Michael, who chuckled coldly while resting his chin on his hand and said, “Remiel and Salie are in cahoots; what Remiel says is tantamount to what Salie says. She also wants that teardrop—dream on.”
“Then I will go refuse Lord Salie, Lord Michael,” Hela said without hesitation like a weather vane, but Michael did not immediately agree. He just glanced at the three people behind her and asked, “This time, are you acting as a messenger?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“…I trouble you then, willing to take on this tough task. If I’m not mistaken, Salie will definitely want these three to accompany you. With these companions who are not at the myth level, it will be easier to probe Jianmu Palace. I will agree to you, and I’ll provide help, you are only responsible for bringing the message back. As for the teardrop matter, I will fight over it with Salie. But there’s one condition: bring him along.”
Michael pointed at the somewhat surprised Mikhail, then explained expressionlessly, “It’s more appropriate to take one of my people with you; this way, I can know any intelligence first-hand.”
Mikhail shot Michael a wry smile and said helplessly, “I have already helped you create the machine tool, and it can automatically produce our world’s products; the agreement has been fulfilled, so you should set me free.”
Michael smiled and pointed at the enormous star outside, saying, “You should be glad I’m not the kind of angel who manipulates the trading terms. According to our agreement, I could have thrown you out of the Holy Realm to let you fend for yourself. But this will indeed be the last matter; beneath the Holy Realm is the ocean, so even if you go down, you won’t be able to go far. Following them, you can reach the Tree Continent, help them celebrate their birth, and report the information back to me; then you may go wherever you want.”
Then, Michael threw the prosthetic arm that was beside him to Mikhail, adding, “I modified your prosthetic, but your mental illness stems from the inherent fragility of human nerves; it is related to your own experiences. After putting on the prosthetic, do not use it frequently if you don’t want to go mad again.”
“…Thank you.”
Mikhail fell silent for a moment, lifted the prosthetic, and, under Tang Zeming Asuka’s astonished gaze, connected it to the interface hidden beneath his white robe. With a series of crisp sounds, the mechanical patterns on Mikhail’s face began to light up, and several illusory subtitles appeared before his eyes.
[Registrant: 00001]
[Right Arm: Siberian Wind Particle Cannon Biomechanical Limb Connection Successful, Operating Normally.]
[Detected hardware changes; network connection failed; no solutions available.]
[Prosthetic Will Threshold: 34%; no blocking agent detected; beware of risks brought by excessive computing power.]
“Ha,” Mikhail sighed in relief. The sturdy mechanical right arm rotated a few times, causing Tang Zeming Asuka to light up with starry eyes; this cool mechanical arm reminded her of something like Gundam or Unit-01. Although she is a girl, she actually does not like magical girl anime; she prefers this kind of animation.
Fisher observed the visible illusory subtitles, his pupils slightly constricting, as he suddenly realized that the interface Mikhail saw in front of him was about 90% similar to the interface in his Supplement Handbook for Sub-Humans, but his page was visible only to him.
Although Fisher already felt that the contributor to the Supplement Handbook for Sub-Humans had a lot of wicked humor, otherwise she wouldn’t have joined the Creation Society and plagiarized their naming methods to create a strange handbook, even constructing the interface based on Mikhail’s instrument.
“This prosthetic is really cool.”
Mikhail stretched his prosthetic again and took the eye but did not attach it; instead, he put it in his pocket.
That thing is a miniature computer he uses, but once inserted, it would greatly increase the will threshold, likely causing him to relapse, so there was no need to install it for now.
In silence, Mikhail was also a bit surprised. Normally, when inserting this prosthetic, if there were no blocking agents to suppress the prosthetic from invading the nerves, the will threshold would continuously approach 60%. However, after Michael’s modification, the will threshold was only at 34%, and this problem had troubled the company for more than a decade without finding a solution.
But he also didn’t dare to ask this terrifyingly powerful angel and kept silent.
“Heh, indeed, it’s hard to imagine with human thinking. Hela, here’s another [Space Capsule] for storage. You can take it with you. The gift for the birthday is also here; I’ve already placed this gift in the space capsule.”
As usual, the gifts prepared by the Holy Realm are provided by Michael, and this time was no different.
“Thank you, thank you, oh my, how generous.”
Hela stepped forward to catch several hovering round relics that floated in mid-air. Her delighted appearance clearly indicated that these things were extraordinarily valuable. However, Fisher didn’t have time to focus on the value of these relics, as suddenly, he felt that strange palpitation in his chest once again.
“Thud! Thud! Thud!”
His heartbeat thundered through his ears, and it was only at this moment, with the second occurrence of this feeling, that Fisher was deeply certain of its source.
Meanwhile, Michael’s pupils slightly twisted as he had made arrangements, and when Fisher experienced the anomaly, he instantly looked at him as if seeing something unusual.
He frowned and instinctively opened his mouth, “Death?”
In Michael’s eyes, the death rule that had been entwined with Fisher was slowly distorting, becoming strange and peculiar, but incredibly heavy and deadly, to the point where it made even him feel a chill.
The death that had been haunting Fisher at this moment seemed to return with an even more intense momentum, for some unknown reason.
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