On the high ground, upon an altar embedded with eyeballs, arms, heads, and internal organs.
Crimson, blood-like light surged outward like a tide, twisting into the deformed silhouette of a tree.
Amid a droning hum, human bones, candles, silver plates, golden boxes, and other objects trembled in unison, as though capable of scratching the spirit.
The worshippers nearby instinctively lowered their heads and prostrated themselves on the ground.
Then, simultaneously, a moment of clarity arose in their minds:
"The Raging Sea, Reef Island…"
…………
After seeing the ancient palace above the
In that moment, he truly felt that the place would gradually become his.
In just a few seconds, all the anomalies vanished. Klein didn't delay—instructing his two puppets to collect the items that still held value and destroy the rest, he pulled out a paper figure and gave it a casual flick.
With a snap, the paper figure burst into crimson flames, and dense, illusory wings sprouted from its back.
Klein stared blankly for a moment. He hadn't expected that a simple "Paper Substitute" interference would carry a hint of the "Angel's Embrace."
He immediately seized puppet Kunas and puppet Eunice, and through Teleportation, vanished from this reef-built island.
After transferring through several islands in the Sonia Sea and taking a wide detour, Klein finally returned to his residence in
Throughout this process, he had used the qualitatively transformed "Paper Substitute" interference several times to disrupt divination, prophecy, tracking, and observation.
Whew—I didn't expect it to actually trigger a change in the Source Castle, producing an anomaly that couldn't be concealed… Fortunately, I was cautious enough and didn't let my guard down. If I had attempted the advancement in
After confirming that his current situation was safe, he didn't linger. He immediately returned to the real world and, through meditation, began to rein in the scattered spirituality.
Having completed this step, he removed his clothing while leaning backward, collapsed onto the bed, and drifted into deep sleep.
Under normal circumstances, a "Faceless" successfully advancing to "Ancient Scholar" wouldn't be nearly this exhausted—there would certainly be enough energy left to examine one's own condition. But when Klein had been roaming through history, relying on his imprint's ability to trace back very far and on his mastery of ancient secrets far beyond his current level, he had charged all the way to the early Second Epoch or the tail end of the First Epoch, to the time when the "
That in itself was equivalent to digesting the potion.
After sleeping deeply for several hours, Klein slowly opened his eyes and woke up.
He groped his way to a sitting position, pulled a pillow behind his back, and rubbed his temples.
After about ten minutes of recovery, he was fully awake and began examining himself:
"The potion was indeed mostly digested as soon as it was consumed—at least four-fifths… That's about what I expected… But for the remainder, I don't know how much ancient material I'll need to gather and how much true history I'll need to uncover before I can digest it…
It seems there are two directions for portraying the 'Ancient Scholar': being a scholar from the ancient past, and being a scholar studying the ancient past. Both are required. The first is relatively easier, because the advancement ritual itself contains a crucial element of making oneself an ancient. Once the advancement is successful, it should be natural to portray the scholar from the ancient past.
The second point is extremely difficult. In normal society it would be manageable, but in this world with True
Most of what I know is thanks to the arrangements of certain beings, as well as the complexity of fate brought by the 'Source Fort'. This ensures I will constantly encounter all sorts of situations. Of course, even so, I, as a favored one of a True God, have still died once before. What hope would other 'Ancient Scholars' have?
If the roles of the 'Miracle Worker' and the 'Ancient Scholar' were reversed, the portrayal would be much simpler. Unfortunately, there is no such 'if'…
Additionally, the previous two meanings lean towards 'ancient'. One must also pay attention to the word 'scholar'. Only by being able to research and uncover something from history can one be called a 'scholar'.
There are several directions for my subsequent digestion. First, to ascertain the current status of the 'Dark Angel' Sasril and truly reconstruct the specific process of the 'Great Catastrophe'. Second, to expend the effort to properly connect the history of the Fourth Epoch, rather than merely piecing together isolated fragments. Third, to delve deeper, moving from grasping the macro state to studying the microscopic details, such as the rise and fall, the survival or extinction of the
Having confirmed the effectiveness of his preparatory portrayal and considered his future path, Klein began to explore the abilities of the 'Ancient Scholar' step by step. He combined the mysticism knowledge gained from the advancement with his observations of his own divinity marks, relying on 'divination' and practical experimentation.