Chapter 1267
Shepherd Oneself
Eivass narrowed his eyes as he looked at Aimel Nour, his voice gentle yet devoid of any bow: “Great Absolver… I received your letter a long time ago, but I was busy with other matters and couldn’t meet you immediately. It’s a shame.”
The implication was: “I got your letter long ago, and I knew you wanted me to come—but I didn’t want to. What could I do?”
“Now that you are all gathered here for a righteous cause, intending to respectfully invite the Sea God to descend upon the Material Realm, turning this desert into an eternal oasis and freeing yourselves from a destiny of thousands of years… I have also come along. Relying on my own meager experience, I intend to lend a helping hand. This is how I have finally made up for this omission and have not missed our reunion.”
Eivass said slowly and deliberately.
The meaning of this passage was: “You rebels have betrayed your mission of thousands of years and are even planning to mutiny and murder your own guardian god! As for me, I have no connection with the Great Abyss, I’m just here to join the fun… Don’t forget I’ve already killed two gods. If it weren’t for this, I wouldn’t even bother to sit at the same table as you idiots.”
—The meaning is the same, but the level of friendliness is quite different.
Unlike their arrogant and violent demeanor, the Lord of Goodness, as a Forbidden Mage, was not entirely uneducated. Therefore, they understood Eivass’s sarcastic tone and their gazes became less friendly.
But at the same time, none of them spoke harshly to Eivass.
The reason was simple—they were afraid of angering Eivass or provoking a fight right there.
According to the nature of the Ouroboros Ring, one of the participants in the ritual would become the vessel for the descending Heavenly Envoy. If Eivass died here, who would serve as the sacrifice? Naturally, it would be the one who ruined everything.
The others would not survive either—they would have to face the unweakened Abyss Heavenly Envoy.
Eivass was the divine prison they had meticulously prepared for the Abyss Heavenly Envoy—like a trap filled with blades for a fierce prey.
Who would want to break such a trap?
If the trap were broken, wouldn’t they have to fight the beast head-on?
Although a certain blind cultural confidence led the Lords of Goodness to verbally believe that if the Pope could do it, they could too… they still harbored a deep-seated fear of the Abyss Heavenly Envoy in their hearts. Even knowing that Aimel Nour possessed a divine artifact more powerful than the Supreme Holy Crown did not alleviate this subconscious dread.
It was like every slave, deep down, feared their master.
From another perspective, Aimel Nour’s plan also required them to act at the beginning of the ritual. If anyone alerted the enemy, they would undoubtedly pay a price. This forced them, causing these high-and-mighty Lords of Goodness to twist their expressions without daring to make a move.
“Hehehehehe…”
Eivass scanned the room and couldn’t help but laugh.
Seeing people’s expressions grow uglier, yet no one dared to speak; watching the Lords of Goodness try to force out gentle smiles to appease him, Eivass became even more unrestrained and burst into laughter: “Hah ha ha ha ha ha!”
Eivass’s wild laughter echoed through the room.
This was not the venue for the ritual, but a meeting hall.
Aimel Nour stood at one end of the long table, smiling sincerely at Eivass and extending his hands. Eivass, however, ignored him completely, sitting down at the other end by himself.
Under the confrontation between these two Lords of Goodness, everyone else present seemed to have turned into a silent background, their faces hidden in the shadows.
Eivass, separated by the long table, propped his chin with his right hand and looked at Aimel Nour with a seem-to-smile-yet-not-smile expression: “You seem very friendly, Your Excellency Absolver.”
He tapped the emerald jewel on his chest and said meaningfully, “I thought you planned to plot against me. In that case… we can still talk.”
The implication was that he could receive revelations from the Lord of Scales and Feathers, who was skilled in prophecy, through high-tier divine arts.
In fact, Eivass was not being reckless—or disbelieving Isma’i’s information—but rather chose to play along with their plan.
Fortunately, Isma’i was a sufficiently rigorous and meticulous person. He had detailed every aspect of Aimel Nour’s plan, allowing Eivass to pick up on a crucial piece of information that the Lords of Goodness had overlooked—
He knew Jacob’s identity, that he was Eivass’s grandfather, his creator, and an apostle of the Ring Heavenly Envoy. However, he did not know what Jacob was doing in the Material Realm or what ideology prompted him to propose this plan.
—Because he did not know the secret of “the various regional forms of the Ring Heavenly Envoy.”
The original Ai Shiping—the Taboo Pillar God who had an extremely short reign, only appearing briefly at the end of the zeroth cycle—had later split himself into many, many pieces.
He bestowed his power upon Amber, his despairing skull became the Amber Heavenly Envoy, and his twisted flesh transformed into the Abyss Heavenly Envoy. The remaining part of his soul, after reincarnation, became the Ring Heavenly Envoy. Later, the Ring Heavenly Envoy severed a portion of his power and important information, forming the Shepherd, and hid this information within the Fallen Heavenly Envoy through feeding.
After cycling through nine lives, the Ring Heavenly Envoy shaped the most precious part of his memory and his essence into a “Divine Entity” and cast it into the Material Realm. He himself, holding seemingly contaminated memories, fought against the Void alone.
So, what about now?
Eivass’s memories had largely returned, and the Shepherd had already been consumed by Eivass, leaving only the toxic memories corrupted by the Void in his infinite cycles. The Pillar God Amber had also reincarnated beside Eivass… The Heavenly Envoy Fragment of the Amber Heavenly Envoy constituted her new body, and her soul was now connected to Eivass’s soul.
—In other words, apart from the spine that now formed the Spirit Tower, they had gathered all the fragments of the Taboo Pillar God from the past. If they were to truly sacrifice Eivass to the Abyss Heavenly Envoy… they would likely not get an “unprecedentedly weak Abyss Heavenly Envoy,” but rather a “nearly completed Taboo Pillar God.”
Power. Soul. Memory. Status. Flesh and Blood. Authority.
All reunited.
It was like piecing together a snake.
Meanwhile…
Eivass had had many opportunities to ascend to the Sixth Tier of the Transcendent Path, but he had never done so. This was not only because he needed to obtain a colorless Mana Pool through Path balance, but more importantly, because the “Shepherd’s Method” could only be triggered in this state.
Now was such an opportunity.
These people wanted to sacrifice Eivass to the Great Abyss…
—Did Eivass not also want to complete himself?
If the Great Abyss were allowed to descend completely, it would unleash a tsunami that would engulf countless people. Even though Eivass was doing his best to help people escape, there were still many who could not be saved or did not have time to be saved.
Should these people be abandoned and sacrificed?
For the noble goal of ultimately defeating the Ring Heavenly Envoy, punishing the Void, and saving the world, should these people who had done nothing wrong be sentenced to death by the Great Abyss under the concept of “premature death”?
If Eivass truly could not interfere, it would be different… that would be a natural disaster, and it would be normal to be unable to resist.
But now, he had found another way out—
Although it might be somewhat dangerous… this path would undoubtedly save the most people.
—That was the Shepherd’s Method.
He could not use the Shepherd’s Method on the Ring Heavenly Envoy, nor on the Void. The most suitable place was now.
Sacrificing his infinitely noble and important life to save as many people as possible, just to forcibly save them from their destined demise—
This was the highest act of devotion.
By abandoning the victory already achieved, to strive for a greater victory; to overcome the strong with the weak, for a mortal to usurp a true god, and to transcend the history of ten life cycles to restore his true self from his past life—
This was the highest act of transcendence.
Originally, Eivass was somewhat worried… after the Ascension Ritual, what if he couldn’t accumulate enough levels in the short span of one month?
Would he have to face the Level 60 Ring Heavenly Envoy right after breaking through to Level 50?
As it turned out, they had sent him a massive experience pack.
As long as he accomplished this unprecedented and unrepeatable feat, he would gain enough Path resonance.
He only needed to do as he did in the initial Ascension Ritual—
At that time, Eivass committed suicide during the Ascension Ritual, lodging his soul within the body of a Deformed. That was undoubtedly a very pure form of shepherding… however, that was the Ascension Ritual, and it was false.
But this was reality!
The Shepherd’s Method, having paid a heavier price, should yield greater power!
Coupled with Protino, who was ready to go—he could drag the Abyss Heavenly Envoy’s consciousness into another space, forcing a one-for-one exchange.
Then, after the Abyss Heavenly Envoy lost his consciousness, who would be more fit to control this body?
Naturally, it would be Eivass himself, who was inside it!
Moreover, the Abyss Heavenly Envoy and Eivass were originally the same person. Could returning one’s soul to one’s own body truly be considered usurpation?
What’s more, the sacrificial body offered to the Abyss Heavenly Envoy was still Eivass’s own!
The success rate of this most adventurous Shepherd’s Method would thus become infinitely high!
—The so-called ritual is a spell that becomes more powerful and closer to a miracle the longer it is prepared.
So if… this ritual, outside of fate, had been prepared for a hundred thousand years?
