The Shepherds Are Dense – Chapter 1346

Chapter 1344
“Let There Be Light”

It was an extremely pale painting.
It seemed to have absorbed all colors, yet also to have shed all colors.
From a distance, it was almost a purely white canvas. But when viewed from a divine perspective, one could see that something had been layered upon it.
When had this been left here?
The Ring Heavenly Envoy was stunned.
He found no information regarding this scene in the Ring Heavenly Envoy’s memories.

“…Ah.”

Perhaps it was deliberately not looked at, for this very moment?
Clearly realizing that anything he knew would also be known by me, he chose “complete ignorance.”
He wanted to trust Eivass.
The Whisper of the Void did indeed harbor some apprehension towards Eivass.
After all, he had been confined within Ai Shiping’s body for a hundred thousand years—as a prisoner trapped for such a duration, it was no surprise that he would show Eivass respect. This was, after all, the “Savior” personally sculpted by Ai Shiping, who had accumulated power through countless cycles of reincarnation, believing himself capable of defeating the Void.
Even out of respect for Ai Shiping, he had to harbor the utmost killing intent towards Eivass.
This was why, after descending into the Material Realm using the Ring Heavenly Envoy’s body, he had immediately set about destroying the world without a second thought, merely by taking a breath of free air.
—Delay invites complications.
The Void had already learned this lesson from such a “delay” a hundred thousand years ago.
Although he had also made some countermeasures against Eivass, since Eivass was not present now, he might as well seize this opportunity to act—the time was ripe, and opportunity never waits.
But it was just a painting, what could it possibly do?
Yes, the Whisper of the Void could indeed sense it.
This painting contained a portion of the Void’s power.
It was precisely because of this that it was able to survive within the vortex formed by the Void Power.
In addition, it possessed various mixed Path Powers such as “Devotion,” “Beauty,” “Twilight,” “Transcendence,” and “Love,” though all these powers were not particularly strong. There was also some divine power obtained through sacrificing souls—but not much, not even enough to form a Heavenly Envoy Fragment.
At most, it was only a Fifth Tier, or perhaps not even that.
Yet, for some reason, the Whisper of the Void could not stop staring at the painting, lost in thought.
It was as if an art lover had truly encountered a work of art that could touch the soul—
The Ring Heavenly Envoy’s body possessed superior performance. Relying on the Ring Heavenly Envoy’s wisdom, the Whisper of the Void quickly understood everything:
So, they wanted to gather the Sacred Number of Miracles.
“Love and Void,” “Beauty and Twilight,” “Devotion and Transcendence”—these were indeed the three powers of miracles.
And this painter voluntarily fell into the Void.
“Voluntarily fell into the Void?”
Suddenly, the Ring Heavenly Envoy murmured.
He seemed to realize something, his face changed instantly, and he forcefully annihilated the painting completely, turning it into pure nothingness.
But at that very moment.

A dazzling radiance bloomed in that black hole.
“If one mixes many colors, one gets darkness like the night,”
Eivass’s voice echoed from the void: “But if one mixes all splendors of light, one gets whiteness like the sun. From this, we can conclude that the nature of color is the opposite of light.
“Therefore, the ‘Extremely Pale Painting’ is a paradox that should not exist. It is painted by mixing all colors, yet it results in purity like the beginning. There can only be one answer—
“—It is a painting created using ‘light’ as its pigment.”
The last sentence was spoken by the Ring Heavenly Envoy himself.
His thoughts were in sync with Eivass’s, so when Eivass thought, he could always reach the same conclusion.
He realized he had made a mistake.
He shouldn’t have destroyed the painting.
As the painting bearing light was destroyed, the light that served as pigment was released, blooming in the vortex of the Void—as the final achievement of the painter who sacrificed himself to the Void, when this painting was once again offered to the Void, the refined light merged into the vortex of the Void, becoming an existence that could neither be digested nor eradicated.
It was the fruit of the Void.
But the Void did not need “fruit.”
At the same time, its foundation was “miracle,” which the Void could not encompass or dominate!
Yes, the power of the Void contained the powers of all Origin Rivers from the first to the ninth—just as “10” can be formed by any combination of natural numbers from “1” to “9.” However, it lacked the miracle power of the “Eleventh Origin River.”
The reason was simple.
Because when the Void was born, miracles certainly did not exist.
And as the embodiment of the concept of “ultimate negation”—”meaninglessness”—it could not dominate a new concept that had not yet come into existence.
Something that has not yet been born cannot have its meaning determined. Just as an unborn child naturally possesses all possibilities—

Thus, the “Whisper of the Void” was stained with the light of miracles.
This power from “possibility” greatly weakened it.
—But from another perspective, it had to be destroyed.
For if he did not destroy the painter’s final painting, one that “sacrificed itself to the Void,” but instead allowed this glowing painting to remain in the vortex, it would be equivalent to giving meaning to meaninglessness. This would also be equivalent to weakening its own “power of negation,” the difference being whether it was self-negation of the concept or the inclusion of “miracle.”

“—Drank poisoned blood.”
The Ring Heavenly Envoy sneered, looking at Eivass who was gradually condensing before him—with such divine power, Eivass had undoubtedly reached the realm of a Heavenly Envoy.
He was no longer a snake-tailed being but a great existence on the same scale as himself.
“A clever scheme,” the Ring Heavenly Envoy said indifferently, gazing at Eivass, “Setting up the Ouroboros Ring ritual in the Spirit Tower, precisely because you calculated my anxious state, wanting to trick me into engulfing the Spirit Tower into the Void on the spot, and then having me swallow the ‘poison’ you had pre-arranged here?
“This was a trap set by you and Ai Shiping, wasn’t it?”
And the radiance overflowing from his body condensed before him into a winged being with six-colored white wings, crowned with a halo of thorns.
“I didn’t scheme against you.”
Eivass’s words held no mockery.
But amidst seriousness, there was a hint of emotion and wistfulness: “This is simply a joke played on you by—your favorite ‘fate.’
“—This is merely the artwork of a mortal.”
From the completely annihilated painting, rivers of light surged and roared.
Those lights entered Eivass’s eyes, forming illusion after illusion:
A snake biting its own tail;
A swaddled infant;
A three-branched candelabra with a black candle on the left and a white one on the right;
A munia flying from a branch;
A rose blooming and then wilting;
A human-shaped charcoal burning on a cross—
And, the end of all these illusions.
An existence with no existence, no boundaries, no meaning—pure white void.
—But if it had color and emitted light, could it be called “true nothingness”?
Eivass, mimicking the Ring Heavenly Envoy, raised his right hand and pointed to the sky.
“I will perform a miracle,”
Eivass said slowly, “The name of this miracle is: Let There Be Light.”
The next moment, this inexhaustible river of light exploded on its own!
Above the canopy, in the black hole left by the falling sun, an endless stream of light poured out, illuminating the entire world—
And restoring the world distorted by the black hole!
Those black, writhing snakes shattered abruptly, and while the sky was not truly azure, the clouds themselves shone with a subdued sacred light.
The continuously emerging light gathered at the mouth of the black hole, like the light appearing at the end of a dark tunnel.
This light, emerging from the Void, thus became a new “sun.”
Seeing this, the Ring Heavenly Envoy became enraged.
The dark runes on his body lit up, emitting cyan, red, white, and yellow radiance. Above the symbol “—” on the Ring Heavenly Envoy’s back,
Indeed, two sharp wings composed of the four elements emerged!
They did not resemble wings, but rather sharp crystal clusters, straight and sharp.
After expanding to their limit, the colorful wings burst out in all directions, diffusing once more into four single-colored wings of cyan, red, white, and yellow!
It was in the posture of butterflies. And the black hole he held in his right hand did not dissipate, still continuing to resist the light, distorting the surrounding world. The Ring Heavenly Envoy raised his left hand forward as well.
A giant halo appeared.
The Leaders of the Four Elements were forcefully summoned by this controller of the four elemental powers, appearing in the Material Realm as if driven.
These Phantom Demon Kings were each close to Queen Titania in strength, roughly half-step Heavenly Envoys. Some weaker Heavenly Envoys might not even be able to defeat them; they were roughly equivalent to the strength of a Candlemaster Disciple. Among them, the fire element was the Disciple of the Flame Heavenly Envoy, meaning the elemental creatures summoned by the crafting masters.
They were all composed of the purest elements—but as soon as they appeared, black collars materialized around their necks.
The Void Power spread and corrupted them. Without even a moment of resistance, these phantom demons were captured and completely controlled!
This was the absolute restraint the Void had over “phantom demons,” beings without physical form!
However, seeing the “Ring Heavenly Envoy” make the first move, Eivass remained unfazed.
Rather, he relaxed. Because the Ring Heavenly Envoy’s active attack meant that: the fearsome, irresistible mechanisms of the “Void” had all been cracked by Eivass, Ai Shiping, and Eivass’s other companions—the many ordinary yet great Saviors of this world.
In the face of everyone’s wisdom, power, life, and fate, this Void, which negated and assimilated everything, was ultimately pulled into the mortal realm.
It shed its divinity, revealing vulnerabilities.
—It had, at last, shown its hit points.