Chapter 890
The Transcendent’s Illusion
In that instant, Eivass, Zhu Tang who had his eyes tightly shut, and Cardinal Galatea all raised their heads simultaneously.
It was as if a thunderclap suddenly echoed from the heavens.
—This was not an illusion.
An exceptionally powerful Transcendent Will descended from the sky, accompanied by ethereal thunder.
The intense pressure far surpassed what should be expected of the Fifth Tier.
Cardinal Galatea was fine, but Eivass and Zhu Tang both experienced a burst of tinnitus at the same moment.
They saw an illusion for an instant—
It was a scene from thousands of years ago within this Sky-Piercing Tower.
The place was bathed in azure radiance, with numerous runes reflecting on the walls.
Most present were Winged Ones, some with a pair of white wings, others with brown ones. Some had small wings behind their ears, some had a second pair of wings near their waist, and others had wings around their hands and feet. The placement of wings varied slightly for almost everyone.
They floated in mid-air. Even the few standing on the ground had their legs suspended, only their toes touching the ground. Their wings behind them remained still, as if the ground itself emitted some anti-gravity radiance. Only when they moved did they gently flap their wings behind them, allowing them to quickly traverse to the next location.
About a third of the people were Those with scales.
Some had snake tails from the waist down, even their hair resembling snakes; others were beautiful mermaids with ears like fins. The distribution of scales on their bodies was random; some had only sporadic patches, while others were covered at least up to their waist.
But they all shared one common trait: they looked remarkably similar to Humans… or rather, Elves. At least, they belonged to the same aesthetic circle—the kind that looked “a bit strange, but still aesthetically pleasing.”
Their bodies were incredibly agile. Though they moved on the ground, they could take flight at any moment, as if the air had transformed into seawater.
“This creation plan should have failed again.”
“Regarding the improvements for the Resonance Ritual…”
“The Father Oil is running out. Can someone go to the temple and get more…”
“I’ll go. I’ll pick up some young people too; we’re short on manpower.”
“There’s a new directive from the inner circle, a total of thirteen new projects, with difficulties and content being…”
…
Unlike the confusion they experienced when hearing each other’s thoughts before, countless thoughts arose in an orderly fashion.
These individuals seemed to possess a special sense. Just as humans could discern “importance” through visual focus, they could also find the information they needed within this sea of thoughts. Distracting thoughts could not interfere with them in the slightest.
All information and emotions were completely public, with no secrets for anyone.
Even after thousands of years, and with multiple changes in language systems, the basic “thoughts” remained, allowing them to be easily understood.
However, the biggest difference compared to their side was that these people were too “proper.”
They seemed to lack selfishness and desires. Rather than the fleeting thoughts of animal instincts—curiosity, rage, laziness, lust—they possessed a noble rationality akin to divinity.
This illusion lasted only for a fleeting moment. Yet, the torrent of countless thoughts made Eivass feel as if a long time had passed. The intense and mixed thoughts gave him a headache. This wasn’t just one layer, but the shared consciousness of seven entire layers.
…Wait, why seven layers?
Eivass suddenly froze.
But soon, he noticed another, more crucial detail.
Just as the illusion was about to fade and dissipate, Eivass captured a thought that he couldn’t ignore:
“It’s done, it’s done! The Origin River is connected!”
The next moment, a lightning strike that seemed to annihilate the entire world flashed—
The whole world turned white. Radiance gushed forth from all directions. Not from outside the window, but from every rune on the walls and floor. Those azure lights, in an extremely short period, transformed into dazzling, brilliant light blue, sky blue, and then pure white. The increasingly intense radiance obscured the entire space.
Eivass felt as if he had been hit by a flashbang. The world before his eyes gradually blurred and peeled away. The tinnitus became crystal clear, but he could also begin to hear surrounding sounds and see surrounding colors.
“Cough, cough, cough…”
The first sound he heard was Sin’s coughing.
The old mage was half-crouched on the ground, his face even redder than when he was enraged earlier.
He coughed violently as if he had choked, drool dripping down, even tears and snot streaming. His eyes turned bloodshot, his eyeballs bulging like a toad’s. The veins on his forehead were clearly visible, wriggling like earthworms.
This deep red, completely different from his skin color, appeared not only on his head but also on his hands. This made his hands look swollen as if Bitten by mosquitoes—yet, under these circumstances, the veins on his hands were even more prominent!
—This was precisely an early symptom of the Path going out of control!
Eivass, disregarding his tinnitus and blurred vision, placed his hand on Sin’s shoulder first.
A calming Blessing, accompanied by a Ray of Light, fell upon Sin, alleviating his physical discomfort. Following that, Eivass activated a High-Tier Divine Art, using the power of the Lord of Scales and Feathers to employ a High-Tier Hypnosis.
Watching Sin lose consciousness and fall into a deep sleep on the ground, Eivass finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Once he slept soundly and his brain processed things a bit, overly abnormal thoughts and excessively dangerous memories would be automatically deleted by the brain. This was the body’s natural defense mechanism and why many on the verge of losing control never actually did—no matter how intense the pain, fear, anger, or doubt were before sleep, as long as “they would be fine after waking up.”
Because once they entered deep sleep, the most core “abnormality” would be cleared as garbage.
Eivass quickly turned his head to look at Zhu Tang. “Are you alright?”
He had noticed that Zhu Tang had also looked up just like him.
Clearly, as a Transcendent, he had also seen that instantaneous anomaly.
“…I’m fine.”
Zhu Tang rubbed his forehead. “Perhaps it’s because I know too little, so the impact wasn’t as strong. Or perhaps I sealed my Heavenly Eye long ago and don’t habitually open it… so I didn’t receive complete information. If I had my eyes open when I entered that illusion, I might have gone mad by now.”
His tone was half-joking, half-pessimistic.
“You wouldn’t have have.”
Eivass said firmly, “With me here, even if you lose control—I can still save you.”
“…That’s truly reassuring, Your Holiness the Pope.”
Zhu Tang was taken aback, unsure of what to say for a moment, and could only offer dry praise.
He was clearly not accustomed to flattering others, so he quickly changed the subject. “Did you hear the last sentence?”
“I’m not sure if the last sentence you heard was the same as mine… why don’t you tell me first?”
Eivass shook his head and said cautiously.
“Someone said… ‘The Origin River is connected.'”
Zhu Tang’s words shattered Eivass’s faint hope—he had heard the exact same thing.
Zhu Tang said seriously, “So I wonder, is there a possibility… that the lightning that shattered the Sky-Piercing Tower is not necessarily related to the Great Philosopher? You told us the story of the Sky-Piercing Tower before. But if I recall correctly, the Great Philosopher only remained silent about the final outcome, right? Remaining silent… doesn’t necessarily mean he did it. Perhaps they were attempting to bypass the Pillar Gods and connect to the Fourth Origin River from the Material Realm, and were then struck by heavenly lightning? The power the Great Philosopher used was lightning… perhaps that’s a characteristic of the Fourth Origin River?”
Zhu Tang spoke with intense and rich emotions. It was as if he himself had experienced something that required him to “remain silent.”
“…It’s possible, but in that case,” Eivass narrowed his eyes slightly, recalling the phrase “Father Oil,” and a new thought formed in his mind, “what they were trying to connect to might not be the Fourth Origin River. —It could be the Eighth Origin River.”
(End of Chapter)
