The Shepherds Are Dense – Chapter 1267

Chapter 1265
The Alchemist
“Braveheart” Isma’i felt his heart pounding out of his chest.
…A traitor?
Wasn’t that him?
For a brief moment, Isma’i absurdly wondered if Eivass would betray him… but he quickly realized his mistake and then wondered if he was being spied on.
Fortunately, Isma’i was exceptionally brave.
When he was still a mortal, a mere child, he could kill a male lion with his bare hands—a feat not achievable by strength alone, but requiring immense composure. Thus, he showed no outward panic. He simply furrowed his brow and exchanged glances with the other Masters.
There were twelve Masters in the room, seated in a circle around the Round Table. Their faces displayed a myriad of expressions, yet an absolute silence pervaded the room.
—The Masters did not erupt into a flurry of discussion.
After all, these Masters did not entirely believe Aimel Nour’s words.
“Forgiver” Aimel Nour, however, calmly gazed at them all and slowly spoke, “Brothers and sisters, the reason we gather here is to escape the eternal slavery of the Great Abyss.
“But not everyone thinks this way. Just as not all people are born the same height, not all of us have clean blood flowing within us—”
As Aimel Nour spoke, he suddenly turned his head to look at a Master beside him.
This was the Master closest to him, an elder with white beard and hair. Only his gaze shifted away as Aimel Nour’s eyes fell upon him.
“Forgiver…”
The old Master slowly spoke.
Aimel Nour gazed at him.
Before the elder could finish his words, Aimel Nour suddenly reached out and seized the elder’s shoulder!
“Thnk?!”
The elder couldn’t dodge in time, his pupils suffused with a dim yellow glow. The radiance of the Preservation Technique barely managed to envelop him.
Simultaneously, a dim yellow scorching flame erupted from his palm, consuming them both!
The other Masters were immediately astonished and all rose to their feet.
Some Masters immediately cast defensive ritual spells upon themselves, while others opted for the Preservation Technique. In an instant, the mana of the Transcendent Path and the Twilight Path filled the confined space, causing the very walls to sprout snake-like scales, and the gold-plated floor to show traces of petrification.
—These two were both Extraordinary beings of the Sixth Tier!
Extraordinary beings of the same Sixth Tier, wouldn’t a fight between them be earth-shattering?
The only three Masters who remained unfazed, still seated calmly in their chairs, were—
One of them was “Braveheart” Isma’i.
To everyone’s utter surprise…
Despite both being Sixth Tier Extraordinary beings, there was no Path suppression—in fact, the Forgiver’s Twilight Path was only Fifth Tier, theoretically meaning he should have been suppressed by one Tier… Yet, the battle was decided in an instant.
In just five or six seconds, the dim yellow scorching flame slowly retracted, returning into “Forgiver” Aimel Nour’s body.
Aimel Nour’s pupils were dim yellow, his expression unchanged. The old Master, however, had completely lost his life. He maintained the motion of reaching out to touch the Forgiver, but had already turned into a gleaming golden skeleton!
This was perhaps partly due to Aimel Nour’s sneak attack.
But even accounting for the sneak attack, defeating an Extraordinary of the same Path and Tier in an instant was almost impossible in the past!
Regardless, this was a Sixth Tier Extraordinary being. A few months prior, he could have single-handedly defeated a kingdom.
A being of this level had his Preservation Technique’s protection shattered and was silently melted away…
This felt utterly unreal. It was as if Aimel Nour hadn’t killed an Extraordinary of his own level, but had effortlessly erased a mortal.
—This sent a chill down one’s spine.
If Aimel Nour could kill him so easily, did that mean he could kill them too?
Despite being of the same Sixth Tier, why was the opponent’s ability completely ineffective?
As the other Masters watched with worry, suspicion, fear, and solemnity, Aimel Nour calmly broke off the golden skeleton’s hand.
Like breaking open a pomegranate, he peeled off each finger bone, scattering them like a handful of game pieces before the other Masters.
It was only then that Isma’i suddenly realized—that golden radiance was not the residual spell aura of the Twilight Path.
—It was real gold!
For some unknown reason and by unknown means… Aimel Nour had directly transformed a living person into a pure gold skeleton!
Was this the original pursuit of alchemy, the transmutation of gold?
“—Lawgiver Babak.”
The Master from Holy Spring City slowly spoke, declaring the crime of the old Master he had just killed: “A weak and despicable sympathizer of slaves!
“The foundation of our rule, the consensus that Anxi painstakingly built over millennia, is destroyed by people like him!
“It is because of the voluntary retreat of such people that those despicable wretches were given space to live; they actually stood up, instead of kneeling on the ground. Once they stood up, they wanted the right to walk; once they started walking, they wanted to run. They want more and more, forever insatiable… And all of this is because these slave sympathizers took that step back for their own good reputation, for meaningless pity!
“—He funded at least six resistance organizations, including the Red that besieged our city. Without the funding from these people, where would these resistance organizations have gotten water, gotten food?
“We bound ourselves, generation after generation, sold ourselves and our descendants to the Great Abyss! We sacrificed our conscience and morals to ‘error’ to obtain this water. Yet he gave this precious water to those scum who wanted to destroy everything!”
Hearing Aimel Nour denouncing Lawgiver Babak, Isma’i secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
Fortunately… I managed to get by.
It was precisely because he had maintained his composure and shown no panic that he had not aroused suspicion.
Isma’i even speculated—Aimel Nour had deliberately invited Lawgiver Babak.
These things couldn’t be discovered in a day or two.
Babak was just an excuse, a sacrificial lamb, meant to discipline and intimidate them, the Masters.
Just like the ancient proverb, ‘kill the chicken to scare the monkeys’.
After all, the Masters were also lords of their own Oasis City-state, their status equivalent to, or even exceeding, that of a small king. They were all Masters, and all Sixth Tier. How could they easily obey Aimel Nour’s commands and orders?
And why should he be the King of Anxi, while they were merely ‘Viziers (assistants)’?
Clearly, Aimel Nour needed a target to display his power. Only then could these Masters become his allies. Isma’i was very familiar with this line of reasoning—after all, he had done the same thing back then.
…However, this news must be quickly relayed to Eivass, Isma’i thought.
This terrifying spell that could ignore the Preservation Technique, instantly kill a Sixth Tier Extraordinary being across Tiers, and even refine a living person directly into gold, making them unresurrectable and untreatable.
Although Eivass was powerful enough to wield the might of the Pillar Gods… if he wasn’t careful, he too might fall prey to a scheme.
Just as Isma’i suspected. The purpose of this small gathering was to unite the other Masters to jointly resist Eivass.
And Aimel Nour’s plan was even more ruthless than Isma’i had imagined—
“Eivass’s true identity is a Sacred Entity created by the Ring Heavenly Envoy, whose identity is equivalent to a descended Heavenly Envoy. And according to my consultation with professionals, although Eivass is not a Fifth Tier Extraordinary being of the Twilight Path, he has an extraordinary affinity with the Great Abyss, enough to be qualified as a vessel for summoning the Great Abyss.”
“…Professionals?”
The beautiful Mahidifran hesitated, “These professionals… are they reliable?”
“Naturally.”
Aimel Nour slowly replied, “He is an Apostle of the Ring Heavenly Envoy, Eivass’s grandfather and creator.
“The Ring Heavenly Envoy wishes to reclaim his fragment, and we brothers and sisters wish to eliminate our common enemy. At the same time, we all need to select the most suitable sacrifice for our beloved Great Abyss… and so we have formed an alliance.
“And Eivass, lacking Twilight Path adaptability, is the best Vessel. This will cause the Great Abyss to fall into unprecedented weakness.
“Esteemed Masters, I have truly prepared everything within my power. I have done my best to weaken the enemy and strengthen myself, eliminating all instability and chance… All of this is for sacrificing Eivass as a living offering in tomorrow’s ritual. I hope you will not disappoint me.”
Having said this, Aimel Nour surveyed the room once more.
He revealed his plan: “At that time, we will perform the Ouroboros Ring ritual as usual. Together, with the most lavish ceremony, we will offer praises to the Great Abyss before its slaughter.
“But during the final sacrificial phase, we will all act together to change the ritual’s target to Eivass. It is not intended to kill him, but to use the power of the ritual itself to directly offer him. His own mana will be part of the ritual, equivalent to him voluntarily accepting the sacrifice.
“No matter what trump cards he has, what power he possesses, it will be irrelevant to us. We will not fight him at all… To achieve this requires absolute secrecy… and obedience.
“—I hope the death of Babak can serve as the key and bridge for our communication. My dear brothers and sisters.”