Read Novel Full Chapter 512: Next Stop, God's Moon!
Chapter 512: Next Stop, God's Moon!
Beyond the window, two moons appeared at once, spilling their different radiances across the Floating Island.
Every witch doctor turned toward the window.
"Is that God's Moon?"
"That is the Crown of Wisdom!"
The two moons shone in the witch doctors' eyes. Seen from the Star Realm, the moon bore little resemblance to the one known by the world below.
Their gazes seemed to pierce one glowing silver disc and reach the ancient crown hidden in the moon's deepest heart. Every Wisdom Seed felt its profound bond with that crown and yearned to kneel before it.
Their power, their consciousness, even their every thought existed only because the crown did.
It was the pillar of wisdom itself.
The Creator sat in silence as God's Moon opened like a door.
The Source of Wisdom lay open before them. Four insubstantial fruits hung from the divine tree.The sight struck every witch doctor speechless.
The wills of untold millions of living beings streamed through the rootlets as flowing silver light. Countless threads coursed through the towering divine tree, while vast radiance poured from its crown like a river.
They were the roots of that tree, they were its trunk, they were its branches, and they were its leaves.
No one knew, however, what fruit it would ultimately bear.
Unable to help themselves, the witch doctors raised their heads and edged forward.
"A Wisdom Fruit!"
"A true god's station~"
Just as quickly, the witch doctors drew back. Lowering their heads, they addressed the Creator.
"God Yinsai, can we condense a Wisdom Fruit of our own? Can mythical artifacts become true gods too?"
Seated before the window, Yin Shen watched the same two moons outside.
"The station of a true god means existing as one with the Source of Wisdom."
"A wisdom life at the Mythical Station merely possesses a mythical body. It has surpassed the limits of its mortal form, yet in a sense it remains a special kind of living creature. That is why it is a demigod."
"A divine artifact at the Mythical Station is a spirit bound to an artifact, gaining long life through that vessel. It is merely a mythology spirit. Without the artifact, it has nothing."
"Only a true god can reach the source itself and share in its eternity."
"Only the Four Sovereign Authorities and the power of a covenant can commune with the Source of Wisdom."
Yin Shen lowered His gaze to the witch doctors.
These servants had followed the three of them since the primordial age of the Royal Bloodline. Looking upon them now, he revealed how a mythical artifact might walk the road to true divinity.
"Become the forerunner of a race, or its very source. Swear a covenant before the Source of Wisdom, then merge into that covenant."
"Then you shall become the covenant incarnate."
"Gather the will of your race and condense your own Wisdom Fruit upon the branches of the divine tree."
"It represents no sovereign authority. It represents the agreement between the Crown of Wisdom and all living things."
"The four fruits that already exist were condensed from the Four Sovereign Authorities and the four foundational laws within every Wisdom Seed, Spirituality, wisdom, Desire and Memory."
"A new fruit shall be a fruit of the law of wisdom, condensed from the will and agreement of a single race."
"Thus, a covenant is more than an agreement. It is a law of wisdom established by a wisdom race."
"It is the source of that race's power, the foundation of its existence, and the final destination it shall one day reach."
The witch doctors listened without a word.
In that moment, their thoughts turned to the Abyss.
Suddenly, they understood both the source of the Abyss's strength and how that terrible mythical artifact had grown so swiftly while remaining Sequence Number 3.
They also understood what Yafuan had meant when he cried without thinking, "I am the dark side of all spirits."
The Abyss had been the first to build an unimaginably vast realm around a mythical artifact. Today, its seven layers formed the largest divine kingdom domain any mythology had ever raised.
It had also been the first to become the source of a race, bringing forth the vast system and peoples of the abyss race.
It had been the first to swear a covenant and anchor itself to the Source of Wisdom.
The Abyss held one mythology and many Abyss kings, each of whom had set foot upon the Path of Mythology. Already, it possessed the rough shape of a divine system.
If mythical artifacts had ranks of their own, the Abyss had advanced several steps farther along this road than any other, leaving them far behind.
Yet Xiao was not its only artifact spirit. The other Abyss kings were artifact spirits of the Abyss as well, each holding a share of its authority, though Xiao's was the largest.
Within the Abyss's chaotic will, the witch doctors could dimly perceive the magnificent struggle that would one day erupt over its ultimate possession.
Even as they listened, the witch doctors pieced together the entire Path of Mythology belonging to a mythical artifact.
"Forge a mythical artifact and establish a mythical realm. Become the source of a race and create a wisdom race, or represent one directly."
"Then swear a covenant through that wisdom race, merge into the covenant, condense a Wisdom Fruit, and establish a divine system."
Thus, a complete and unbroken road belonging to mythical artifacts unfolded before the witch doctors.
The other road, the road of the demigod, followed much the same course. One condensed a Gate of Mythology, established a divine kingdom, made servants of an extraordinary profession, reached the Wisdom Fruit at the source, and established a divine system.
Then the Creator continued.
"Once you have established your own divine system and truly plucked that fruit, you shall become true gods of wisdom."
"At that point, a true god is no longer a form of life. A true god becomes a law of wisdom incarnate, a branch of the Source of Wisdom."
The witch doctors could not contain themselves.
"So this is the road to divinity for a mythical artifact!"
The Creator only shook his head. Hila then spoke to correct them.
"Not a god of artifacts."
"A god of races!"
The distinction escaped the witch doctors.
Yin Shen told them, "This road may begin with a mythical artifact, but you shall not become true gods as mythical artifacts."
"You shall become true gods as the gods of a wisdom race."
"The covenant you swear. The Wisdom Seeds you create by making a mythical artifact the source of a race. The agreement you forge with all living things."
"These are the foundation of your existence."
"From the moment they merge into the contract, the mythologies who walk this road shall embody the indelible contract between the will of all living things and the Source of Wisdom. They shall also lead their wisdom race to its final destination."
At last, the witch doctors understood completely. They pressed themselves flat against the ground in obeisance.
No one else could have laid bare the power and station of a true god so clearly, or explained the road to true divinity with such clarity.
The witch doctors rose and lifted their heads, something stirring in their eyes.
If God spoke so, he must already have seen the road that lay ahead of them.
With a single glance, God seemed to see through their thoughts.
"In the future, many shall walk this road."
"Some races, of course, are fated to vanish before they reach its end."
"If you wish to see the final form of the Wisdom Seeds, you must create it with your own hands."
"When you step onto a road of your own, your fate shall enter a new course as well, one that lies in your own hands."
The Creator had not revealed this road for the six of them alone. Once a Supreme Divine Being spoke, those words were destined to spread throughout the world.
This also meant that, from that moment on, the second path to true divinity had truly appeared in the world.
When He had finished, Yin Shen rose.
Standing before the window, the Creator gazed at the moon beyond it.
"We must depart."
As he spoke, the mythology spirit Vellen came wobbling up to the Supreme Divine Being's table like an astronaut. It took its place beside the witch doctors, seemingly awaiting the Supreme Divine Being's will.
For a moment, the witch doctors stood frozen. Only then did they understand what God Yinsai had meant.
Their long journey had come to an end.
They had always known this day would come, yet with the moment finally upon them, they still struggled to accept it.
Some moments defied every rehearsal, no matter how many times one had lived through them in dreams.
When such a moment truly arrived, the heart's sorrow could not be hidden, not even for an instant.
Tears welled in the witch doctors' eyes one after another. Unable to restrain themselves, they shuffled forward on their knees.
"God, is this truly the end?"
"If someday, and we mean only if, might we ever return?"
Standing beside Shelly, the Dream Sovereign Hila reassured them.
"Do not grieve. We shall see one another again."
Shelly was wholly unconcerned.
"Just get stronger, make yourselves useful, and stop being so easy to kill. Then of course you'll see us again."
Still kneeling, the witch doctors paid obeisance to both Hila and Shelly.
They were taking their leave of the two supreme sovereigns.
They knew that one day they might yet see the supreme sovereign deities again.
But never again would they spend such days close beside a Supreme Divine Being, with nothing between them.
In time, they would no longer be who they were now, nor would they remain free of every tie and care.
Even now, they bore little resemblance to those who had first left the Divine Kingdom of Creation at a Supreme Divine Being's side.
Time was a terrible thing. It changed even deathless deities.
The Creator therefore gave them no answer. He said nothing at all.
Even if they returned one day, they could never return to what had been, to what was now, or to this precise moment.
Every parting marked a turn of fate and a farewell to all that had gone before.
Before the God's Mount
Six figures stood among the flowers. They knelt and bowed again and again, then raised their heads a little to gaze up at the three great shining figures framed in the cabin doorway.
Looking down at the six of them, the Creator Yinsai left them with these final words.
"If the day comes when you truly find the answer, we shall await you upon the moon."
The Dream Sovereign Hila lifted a hand to those below.
"Farewell!"
The Life Sovereign Shelly peered down at them.
"You lot had better make yourselves useful!"
The six witch doctors nodded again and again. In an instant, they were weeping too hard to speak.
The Creator, Lady Hila, even Lady Shelly's final words, everything moved them.
With aching reluctance, they watched the cabin door of the balloon swing slowly shut and the great figures vanish one by one behind a blaze of colored light.
Inside the cabin, the Creator raised His hand. Eternal radiance swept over everything.
The mythology spirit Vellen announced the name of the next stop.
"Our next stop is God's Moon!"
Before the witch doctors' eyes, the rainbow hot air balloon rose slowly toward the moon above.
It was like a splendid dream.
Yet as the witch doctors watched that beautiful sight, they felt themselves drifting farther and farther from the dream.
For a long while, they remained kneeling and motionless amid the silver flower cups, unable to shake their sorrow.
Aboard the dreamlike hot air balloon boat, Shelly and Hila gazed down as it flew deeper into the Star Realm. Then something neither had expected stirred.
Shelly noticed first. She raised her head and peered into the distance.
"Something familiar's getting closer."
Far away, points of light flickered one after another like blinking stars.
Soon, it became clear that those stars were hurtling closer.
There were not one or two, but vast flocks of them spread across the darkness.
Shelly recognized them at once and shouted in delight.
"Quick, look!"
"They're Big Meteor's children!"
Dense starlight streaked through the dark sky, swept past the windows, and raced toward the deep blue planet.
It was a sight of matchless beauty and matchless grandeur.
Once again, the Star of Death's yearly meteor shower descended upon the mortal world.
Perhaps the planet's gravity had caught them. Perhaps the Star of Death had deliberately left them at this crossing point, allowing them to rush toward the earth at this very moment.
The Ruhe Great God known as the Star of Death still circled the sun and had not yet drawn near the planet.
It approached the mortal world only once every few decades, and that time had not yet come.
Watching another meteor shower, Shelly shrieked with delight and darted from one window to the next.
Within moments, she had visited every window in the craft.
Meanwhile, Hila asked God Yinsai, "God, what do You mean to do upon God's Moon?"
To Hila, the mount's sudden turn toward God's Moon could hardly be random. Some idea must have occurred to God.
Yin Shen answered simply, "The thought came to me just now."
Coming and going like a ghost, Shelly appeared beside them and wedged herself between the two.
"Why are we going to God's Moon? I want to go to the moon. I've never been there before!"
Shelly had visited God's Moon many times, yet had never set foot upon the moon itself.
The meteor shower that had swept past the windows of the Supreme Divine Beings' mount also streaked past the Floating Island of the Witch Doctor Kingdom.
Kneeling in the sea of flowers, the witch doctors gazed into the depths of the starry sky until the Supreme Divine Beings' mount vanished from sight.
Only then did lights begin to flicker throughout the darkness.
One meteor after another rushed from the far reaches of the starry sky, and one after another streaked past the Floating Island.
They pierced the atmosphere. They pierced the sky and the sea of clouds.
Then they plunged into Ruhe Beast Island and the surrounding ocean.
At the sight, even the witch doctors rose and drifted toward the island's edge without realizing it.
"Rain is falling."
"The Star of Death has brought a meteor shower."
"Have they come to bid the Supreme Divine Beings farewell?"
Starlight tore open the darkness.
Suddenly, the deep universe no longer seemed frightening. Miracles themselves appeared to be taking shape within its darkness.
The starlight came racing out of the universe, carrying the light of miracles from its depths into the mortal world.
For an entire night, the meteor shower fell over Ruhe Beast Island.
At the edge of the divine kingdom, the witch doctors stood witness to the miracle.
The meteor shower brought by the Star of Death seemed to wash every trace of gloom from their hearts.
When it ended, the witch doctors looked at one another and finally smiled.
"From this moment on, the story is ours."
The witch doctors crossed the flower valley, making their way step by step toward the City of the Divine Kingdom.
Witch Doctor Skull said, "God has shown us the steps. Now we must begin our road to true divinity."
The first half of an artifact's Path of Mythology was now clear. Every step before the establishment of a divine system lay plainly before them.
Deep in thought, Witch Doctor Left Hand said, "The Creator told us to merge into the covenant, then gather the will of all living things and condense a Wisdom Fruit."
"But this business of merging into it..."
Witch Doctor Left Hand paused and looked at the others.
"How exactly are we supposed to merge into a covenant?"
They understood how to use a mythical artifact as the source of a race and build a wisdom people. They had already done so.
They had also witnessed the swearing of the Crown Covenant firsthand, so that posed no difficulty.
Even the later step, gathering a race's will and condensing their own Wisdom Fruit upon the divine tree's branches, was clear enough.
They could more or less grasp that step as well.
Yet the words 'merging into the covenant' told them almost nothing.
The phrase was far too brief, leaving Witch Doctor Left Hand utterly at a loss.
The witch doctors froze and exchanged glances. The question had only just occurred to one of them, and naturally it had occurred to all the others at the same time.
The other witch doctors shook their heads one after another.
"None of us knows."
Witch Doctor Left Hand stared at them.
"Then why did you all look so thoughtful? Why did no one think to ask?"
The other witch doctors stared back at Witch Doctor Left Hand.
"You did not ask either, did you?"
The witch doctors stiffened awkwardly.
It felt rather like being handed the answer to a problem by one's teacher.
To the teacher, the answer was so obvious that one should have arrived at it on sight.
As the problem was worked through, one nodded along, wearing the expression of someone who understood everything.
Yet faced with the answer afterward, one could only stare, with no idea how it had been reached.
Now the witch doctors could neither chase down the Creator for the exact answer nor muster the nerve to ask.
Witch Doctor Skull made the decision.
"Let us swear the covenant first. Once we reach that step, might the way forward not become clear?"
Witch Doctor Right Hand asked, "What covenant, then, should we swear before the Crown of Wisdom?"
A covenant could not be sworn carelessly. Once signed, it could never be taken back.
More than that, the Creator's guidance showed that a contract embodied the law of wisdom laid down by a race, just as the darkness of all spirits did for the Abyss.
No one had ever altered a covenant after it was made.
Elena, the God of Demon Spirits, had once added a line to the Monster Covenant. Even then, the earlier clause still remained.
Elena had added to the covenant, not changed it, and even that addition was possible only because she had evolved the demon spirits from the monster race.
Witch Doctor Left Hand said, "Before we swear it, should we not first choose those who will inherit the covenant and carry it out?"
Witch Doctor Torso perked up and eagerly joined in.
"Should we not begin by founding a witch doctor academy?"
Witch Doctor Left Leg said, "And should we not establish the witch doctors' inheritance too? We have not settled any of it, not the second rank, not our divine techniques, not our arts of God's grace."
Only then did the witch doctors realize how many steps still lay ahead on the road to true divinity.
The Sacred Mountain of Light
News of the witch doctor extraordinary profession's appearance in the Oracle Kingdom reached the sacred mountain. The sky messengers immediately learned the full situation and appeared to take it very seriously.
After deliberating, the King of the Sky Messengers ultimately summoned Lomier and decided to send him to the Oracle Kingdom to handle the matter.
Lomier had met the six mythical witch doctors before, making him the natural choice.
Inside the Radiant Temple, Lomier knelt before the King of the Sky Messengers, who held a quill and a cloth scroll. Today, Duma stood watch in this form.
"Lomier, we do not know what the arrival of the witch doctors and the imp race will mean for the Land of Light. Still, I do not believe it will bring harm."
"Yet many of this world's conflicts are born of misunderstanding. We must find a way to learn what those ancient mythical witch doctors intend."
"You have met the mythical witch doctors before, so I entrust this mission to you."
At last, Duma looked at Lomier expectantly.
"Upon your return, I shall personally conduct your apostle transformation ritual."
Lomier left the Sacred Mountain of Light for the City of the Holy Spring, capital of the Oracle Kingdom.
The Oracle Kingdom lay close to the Sacred Mountain of Light. Traveling at full speed, Lomier soon reached the City of the Holy Spring.
The king of the Oracle Kingdom and the archbishop both hurried out to receive Lomier, a sky messenger said to enjoy the King of the Sky Messengers' deep trust.
Lomier descended directly into the Radiant Temple of the City of the Holy Spring.
The temple welcomed him with grand ceremony, complete with a choir and musicians.
The sky messenger descended on beating white wings. Phantom feathers drifted behind him as sacred song rose to meet him.
The king and the archbishop stepped forward and bowed.
"Our respects, Divine Messenger!"
To the winged people, the King of the Sky Messengers was their god.
Ordinary people drew no distinction between a divine chosen and a god.
In their eyes, the divine chosen and reincarnators were already close to deathless and little removed from gods.
Lomier came straight to the point.
"Where can I find the witch doctor apprentices?"
The archbishop answered at once, "They are staying within the temple. We feared others might covet the children or try to harm them, so we placed them under protection."
Lomier gave a curt nod.
"Take me to them!"
In the quarters prepared by the temple, Lomier met the five children who had just become witch doctor apprentices.
The moment he saw them, a familiar figure caught Lomier's eye.
"You?"
Lomier recognized little Matafus. She was a child of the Matale family.
Though Lomier had read the list, he had not known Matafus's name until now.
"I remember you. You are Ose's great-granddaughter, are you not?"
Little Matafus recognized him too.
"Lord sky messenger, I remember you. You're Grandpa Ose's friend."
Lomier nodded.
"You need not call me lord. Just call me Uncle Lomier."
The other children had been nervous from the start. A sky messenger stood before them, and every one was too tense to speak. None dared step forward, and all hid at the back.
Then they saw that Matafus actually knew the sky messenger. Their eyes widened in surprise, their tension eased, and they began to whisper among themselves.
"Wow, Matafus knows a lord sky messenger!"
"But Matafus is from a sky messenger family."
"Little Matafus's great-grandfather was a very important person!"
The questioning went much more smoothly after that. Others had already asked about much of it, but being questioned by Lomier himself was another matter entirely.
"The City of Old Things, then!"
"A city inhabited entirely by imps."
"The imps said they live in a botanical garden on an island, and that a divine being visits them from time to time?"
As he listened to the children's account, Lomier began to form a vague idea.
The island described by the imps had to be the one floating in the sky.
"So that island was the mythical witch doctors' divine kingdom."
"Ray wrote to me that he had seen the divine kingdom pass through a gate of light beyond imagining and leave this world."
Without realizing it, Lomier looked outside and up at the sky.
"Which means that even now, they are beyond the world and above the High Heavens."
Lomier turned back to the children, something shifting in his eyes.
The children likely had no idea that, on that earlier night, their consciousnesses had traveled beyond the sky. They had reached a place even a member of the divine race like Ray yearned beyond measure to visit.
Lomier recorded everything, from the children's journey to the question of how they had been healed.
Finally, he turned to little Matafus.
Of all the questions before him, one now interested Lomier above the rest.
He did not know what gifts the other children possessed, and perhaps no one had ever examined them, but he remembered clearly that the little girl before him had shown no trace of a gift for becoming an ability user.
Even power bestowed by a divine being usually did no more than awaken something already present in a mortal, perhaps exceptionally strong spirituality or some other form of strength.
The little girl before him was different. Lomier sensed in her a gift far beyond anything she had possessed before.
This was not an awakening. It was an outright transformation.
A gift had been added to her.
From his initial assessment, she possessed a gift equal to Ose's, perhaps even greater. Lomier's intuition went further. She had inherited Ose's gift outright, for a trace of Ose's own presence clung to her.
Staggered, Lomier could not imagine how such a thing had been accomplished.
"What kind of power could accomplish such a thing?"
He even began to wonder whether he had misjudged her the last time.