Chapter 642
The True Meaning of Sacred Numbers
The Silver Crown Dragon and the Supreme Heaven were locked in a death battle.
It was a battlefield that mortals could not directly look upon, nor could they comprehend.
Just as light is too dazzling to look at directly, lest it injure one’s vision. Contact with excessive killing intent can also destroy one’s rationality.
However, those observers could feel the aftermath of the battle even from the Material Realm.
Looking up at the sky, half of it was boiling and half of it was frozen.
The Silver Dragon roared, gaining a clear advantage:
The Silver Dragon roared and flew past, the Red Bear suddenly stood on its hind legs and swiped at the Silver Dragon with a claw.
The Silver Dragon nimbly dodged the pounce, its tail wrapped around the Red Bear, and it flew into the air, intending to throw it down.
However, the Red Bear skillfully grabbed the Silver Dragon’s tail with its backhand, tearing off the scales on its tail. Instead, it leaped up and lunged towards the Silver Dragon’s eyes below.
But the Silver Dragon suddenly spat out an icy breath, unleashing a heavy blow at the Red Bear’s face, greatly slowing its descent, and frosting its entire body.
Once the Red Bear’s descent was slowed to a certain extent, the Silver Dragon suddenly retreated a distance, then flipped forward again, its tail swinging like a pendulum. It smashed down hard on the back of the Red Bear’s head, causing it to shriek and be knocked out of the sky.
This was the most symbolic and abstract combat scene.
Meanwhile, Eivass in the Dream Realm witnessed a completely different battle—
Of course, what he saw was still not the real battle. It was a scene protected by the filters of the Lord of Scales and Feathers… but it was still closer to the truth than the Material Realm.
The Crown Lord, holding a Holy Sword, with slightly damaged armor, nimbly lunged forward and pierced the Supreme Heaven’s abdomen with his sword—after drawing the blade, he followed up with a spinning slash, causing blood to spurt from the Supreme Heaven’s neck!
The scorching blood dripped into the snow, steaming and melting.
Hail and fire rained down together—this was not the influence of divine power on the Material Realm, but divine blood seeping into the Dream Realm.
This was the effect that a wounded god had on the Material Realm!
“…The Bear Heavenly Envoy is weaker than I imagined,” Eivass said from a distance, standing with the Lord of Scales and Feathers. “I originally thought they would be evenly matched.”
Just then, the Bear Heavenly Envoy, playing the role of “Supreme Heaven,” suddenly turned his head and glared fiercely at Eivass. Eivass was instantly gripped by intense fear—
It felt like a front-row audience member in a theater making a critical comment about a boxer on stage, and then the boxer suddenly turning to glare at the audience. The intense killing intent felt like he was about to jump down and punch the talkative spectator.
“—Still daring to be distracted.”
The Silver Crown Dragon’s cold voice rang out.
And the moment the knight in the silvery white armor spoke, he had already teleported behind the Supreme Heaven like light. A burst of pure white sword light exploded in his path, and a large gush of blood erupted from the Supreme Heaven’s entire body.
Eivass was startled. “Can they hear us?”
“Of course,” the Lord of Scales and Feathers said with a smile. “If you don’t appreciate it in the most dangerous place, what’s the point?
“It’s like a theater performance; if you’re just watching for the effect, you might as well sit further back. If you want to sit in the front row, you must want to see the actors’ faces clearly… and also have them see your face and hear what you say.”
“…I see.”
“By the way, you’re right.”
“About what?”
“About ‘the Bear Heavenly Envoy being weaker’.”
The Lord of Scales and Feathers said leisurely, “Your feeling is accurate.
“Because, strictly speaking, the Bear Heavenly Envoy is not the true Supreme Heaven.
“The true Supreme Heaven is the ‘King of Winged Ones’. In his era as a Wing Heavenly Envoy… he was the protector of the Winged Ones clan.
“Harpies, Harpies, bird-people, Fey, Angels, Rocs, Gryphons… and hundreds of other winged races all fall under that category.”
“…But why is the symbol of the Supreme Heaven a Red Bear?”
Eivass asked, humbly seeking knowledge from his boss about this secret from before the era of the forbidden fruit.
As Eivass asked this question, the Bear Heavenly Envoy seemed to falter for a moment.
The Silver Crown Dragon did not miss this opportunity and launched a fierce attack, severing the Supreme Heaven’s arm.
The Lord of Scales and Feathers mocked, “That’s because of the ‘Sky Devouring Beast Nibiru’… the Supreme Heaven’s first and most glorious achievement.
“At that time, there was a colossal beast on the ground that specifically fed on winged beings.
“Because he was almost the overlord of the land at the time… he became more powerful by eating powerful beasts; he became wiser by eating wise beasts. He devoured long-lived demonic trees and ate tens of millions of scaled beings, thereby obtaining a tough shell and strong bones.
“He considered himself the ‘King of Earth’, his only flaw being the lack of wings. Thus, he was bound by the earth and could not dominate the sky.
“So he ate large numbers of winged races in an attempt to grow wings. One after another, winged races were eaten to extinction… the most populous races became the least populous. His body grew larger and larger, but he never grew wings.
“In the end, the Supreme Heaven, who was still a mortal, finally killed that beast after a fierce struggle, close to death. He did not possess such immense power at the time, nor did he have the ability to reach the Peak. He relied on traps, conspiracies, poison, and curses to complete the ‘hunt’… completing a feat of the weak overcoming the strong.
“—The Sixth Origin River did not belong to the Path of Adaptation back then; it belonged to my predecessor, the ‘Hunting King’. In that primitive era, the sixth Path was the Path of Hunting. He followed the Path of Hunting to victory.”
“He drank the opponent’s blood, ate all of his flesh, and donned his hide. He obtained the power of the King of Earth.”
“…The King of Earth?”
Eivass murmured.
He instantly thought of the Crown Heavenly Envoy.
Completing the feat of dragon-slaying with a mortal body, bathing in dragon blood, and being reborn as a new Silver Dragon through a ritual.
The Supreme Heaven at that time clearly did not complete a similar ritual with the Silver Crown Dragon to seize the opponent’s body…
That “King of Earth” was likely the bear hide draped behind him…
“He who wears the hide of a beast has sharp teeth and claws. Precisely because he inherited the power of the ‘King of Earth’, he became the new King of Earth.”
The Lord of Scales and Feathers said leisurely, “He thus obtained immense power—far greater than he had before.
“When he became a Wing Heavenly Envoy… when he ascended again and became the ‘Supreme Heaven’s Pure Fire’, he never abandoned this cloak. Because this bear hide was the mark of his initial victory.”
“—The Path of Adaptation, the Sacred Number is Six.”
The Hourglass (Deity) said with a solemn expression, “This is the True Meaning of ‘Survival’.”
“Indeed,” the Lord of Scales and Feathers nodded. “A part of the Supreme Heaven’s eventual downfall was precisely because he died six times, while Arthur died seven times.”
“The Sacred Number six is the number of adaptation, the True Meaning of survival; the Sacred Number seven is the number of power, the True Meaning of violence. And the Sacred Number eight…”
The Hourglass (Deity) slowly said, “This is the number of ‘Transcendence’.
“—The True Meaning of Easier.”
It was because the Silver Crown Dragon died for the seventh time that he gained the recognition of power; his eighth resurrection, he sensed the Power of Transcendence—transcending the Pillar God with the body of a Heavenly Envoy, completing the “Easier” of the Pillar God.
That is why he could miraculously come back from the dead—precisely because he, in the depths of his being, resonated with the principles of the Sacred Numbers!
“…So, the Supreme Heaven did not completely die.”
Eivass also understood and continued, following the words of the two Pillar Gods, “Because of the six deaths, he resonated with the Origin River of ‘Survival’. Therefore, he obtained a stronger life force… even though he fell from a high position, the hope of life still remained…”
(End of Chapter)
