Chapter 29
Shepherd
Late night, the waxing gibbous moon nearly sank into the earth again. The horizon was already showing faint signs of dawn.
The grandfather clock in Eivass’s room swung its pendulum rhythmically, its hands pointing to twenty minutes past four in the early morning.
He still sat in his wheelchair like a sculpture, unmoving, poring over the “Shepherd’s Secret Manual.”
Two peculiar crimson tears, as if from a soulless Eivass sitting blankly before the table, continuously slid down from the corners of his eyes, dripping onto the pages of the book. They were immediately absorbed.
Eivass stared intently at the hidden secrets within the book.
The skin on his face flushed a deep red, and the veins on his forehead and forearms visibly bulged. Those veins, which should have been blue, now showed deep purple, spiderweb-like patterns.
Although it was winter, Eivass’s room remained warm. Yet, with Eivass’s deep, heavy breaths, pale white, hot mist continuously flowed from his mouth. Occasionally, when he coughed lowly, a few sparks would fly out.
It wasn’t until in the early morning, when the chirping of birds sounded outside, that Eivass seemed to awaken from a deep dream.
His eyes regained their clarity, and the purple patterns on his face slowly receded.
At this time, the thin, black leather-bound booklet had been turned to its end without him even realizing it. The knowledge was now deeply etched into Eivass’s memory, clearly recalled the instant he closed his eyes. The words even seemed to be shining.
“…So that’s how it is.”
Eivass wore a grave expression, murmuring softly.
This black grimoire described a mystical art called “shepherding.”
It was a mystical art that existed over a thousand years ago—before the concept of “professions” even existed.
Back then, almost all Extraordinary beings simultaneously walked multiple Paths. This was because the common sense of Extraordinary beings, “minimizing the number of Paths one delves into simultaneously,” had not yet been summarized.
Walking multiple Paths at once not only easily drove one mad and made progress on each Path difficult but was also extremely detrimental to inheritance. In that environment, every mystical art developed and mastered by an Extraordinary being with his lifelong efforts had to be passed down to a successor whose personality, interests, and essence were perfectly aligned with their own.
Thus, in ancient times, Extraordinary beings were an extreme minority within human society. Furthermore, their Extraordinary Power was not strong enough.
Without a system of inheritance, almost all Extraordinary beings could not pass on their legacy beyond the third generation. And each individual, relying solely on their own exploration, could only advance so deep on a Path.
It was only around the fourth or fifth century that the concept of “professions” gradually emerged. Extraordinary beings, through various cultivation methods, gradually purified and extremized their personalities, discarding the Paths they had no intention of venturing into. At the same time, they guarded against the contamination of their personality’s essence, striving to align themselves with the safe paths already explored by their predecessors while maintaining their original intentions.
The tenets of the Nine Great Paths were actually quite vague. Their boundaries overlapped, and they constantly shifted.
For example, the Path of “Beauty,” which is related to art, showed the most obvious changes. Almost every few hundred years, people’s understanding of “beauty” would change. Many forms of art previously considered vulgar would, after decades or centuries, become “ancient trends.”
However, without guidance, an Extraordinary being could easily stray.
This was because all psychologically healthy Ordinary Persons undoubtedly met the criteria of multiple Paths simultaneously.
For example, a wild Extraordinary being of the Path of Devotion could also stumble upon an Illuminate Spell. But if they did not understand that the core tenet of the Path of Devotion was “altruism,” they could easily embark on a path of “using their own Healing Ability to seize authority.” For instance, becoming the leader of a small cult.
This could then lead them, unknowingly, onto the Path of Authority.
Similarly, the Path of Balance, which pursues knowledge and science, dissecting all things to dispel illusions, could, if one were too fixated on truth or considered themselves exceptionally wise and superior to mortals, devolve into the Path of Wisdom, which pursues truth.
If one were too fixated on becoming a Pope or a Bishop, yearning for advancement within the Church hierarchy, they would have already embarked on the Path of Transcendence.
It was fine if one walked two Paths simultaneously. However, everyone’s mental and physical energy was limited, and humans areForgetful.
If one completely forgot their original intention and transformed into someone entirely different from their former self… then the power originally from the Path of Devotion would continuously weaken until it vanished.
The most important inheritance within the so-called “profession” inheritance was the “bottom line of the Path.” Even if the scope of a Path was vague, its core was undoubtedly clear. Therefore, one should not probe the boundaries of the Path, but strictly adhere to its most core principles and use only its safest powers. In doing so, one could obtain relatively pure Path Power.
Even a Priest who yearned for advancement, or one who used it for wealth, power, or lust, would not lose their Priest profession level as long as they remembered that the core tenet of the Path of Devotion was “altruism.”
With the emergence of the “profession” system, Extraordinary knowledge could be formally passed down. From then until now, Extraordinary beings have, overall, been growing stronger.
But this did not mean that ancient mystical arts were weak.
The mystical arts from the pre-profession era were almost all inheritances left by the powerhouses of their time.
For example, the “Shepherd’s Secret Manual” obtained by Eivass was a mystical art engraved from the memory of a man named “The Shepherd.”
This art required adaptability to both the Path of Devotion and the Path of Transcendence, and it demanded that these two Paths remain as balanced as possible—only when the depths of both Paths were consistent could the “Art of Pasturing” be used.
After Eivass’s Priest profession advanced, he temporarily could not use it before his Demon Scholar progression.
And this mystical art could be described as a sinister art—
Its basic principle was “nourishing the intangible with the tangible, and the tangible with the intangible.”
Overall, it described a mystical art that could make anyone stronger…
After opening this book, Eivass fell into an illusion. From the text, he vaguely saw a hooded, black-robed man feeding weak demons with his own flesh and blood.
He did not sign a contract with the demons but simply tempted them with his flesh and blood to follow him. It was like raising pets, or like herding sheep. These weak demons were nurtured and became increasingly powerful.
He himself became emaciated and covered in scars.
Afterward, Eivass saw someone kneeling before this black-robed man, pleading for something.
The man, using a special technique, infused the intangible power of that demon into the supplicant. In a burst of fire, the supplicant underwent a drastic change and gained power.
Thus, the supplicant became the man’s follower. He killed many people, offering them as sacrifices to an ever-increasing number of demons. And when he grew weak, he was ruthlessly discarded as sustenance for the next batch of demons.
Through this repeated utilization, the demons gradually grew stronger and their numbers increased. Afterward, he used the same secret method to inject these demons separately into other followers who craved power.
Thus, he obtained an evil legion of demon-possessed individuals.
The legion collected various secret treasures and plundered various riches for him. The increasingly emaciated man began to cultivate more and more Phantom Demons. At this point, he was no longer followed only by demons. Even light-attributed Phantom Demons appeared beside him.
They were all raised by the man since childhood. Without signing contracts, they were willing to accept the man’s dispatch and share some of their power with others.
Under the black-robed man’s management, the followers around him grew in number, and they became stronger.
They grew like a snowball, forming a terrifying influence in a short period, which attracted a concerted attack from various forces.
Ultimately, when besieged by the allied forces, he sacrificed his followers who had followed him, using them as food to nurture powerful Phantom Demons with the Art of Pasturing.
Anyone who had been nurtured by him was powerless to resist the forced sacrifice of the Art of Pasturing.
They were used as food, summoning more powerful Phantom Demons.
Eivass clearly saw it in the illusion.
Although it was just a silhouette, it was undoubtedly the “Fallen Heavenly Envoy” who descended and was defeated in version 0!
The black-robed man’s plan took an unexpected turn at the last moment—he attempted to infuse the Fallen Heavenly Envoy’s power into himself using the Art of Pasturing.
—He never expected the Art of Pasturing to fail at that very moment.
He could not properly accommodate the Fallen Heavenly Envoy’s power. He missed the optimal time.
Without using the Shepherd’s Method, which could extract the essence of Phantom Demons without damaging their nature, his actions became an attempt to steal the Phantom Demon’s essence—the enraged Fallen Heavenly Envoy struck him back heavily, and he was subsequently killed by assassins from the allied forces.
The evil inheritance of the man known as “The Shepherd” thus ended.
“…Because when he tried to infuse the seized power into himself, he had already strayed from the Path of Devotion.”
Eivass sighed.
He certainly hadn’t chosen the wrong name.
Using humans as sacrifices to feed Phantom Demons, then drawing power from the Phantom Demons, or sacrificing the entire Phantom Demon to feed humans.
Just like a true shepherd.
Herding sheep and cattle with ubiquitous grass, then obtaining milk and meat from them.
That grass was the mortals.
The sheep and cattle were the Phantom Demons.
Such a vile analogy.
—Without considering that endless grass as the price, “shepherding” sheep and cattle would naturally be a magic art born from nothing.
