Su Cheng looked down at the two-headed snake mark on her hand.
"...And, I'm guessing that even a soul from another world can't just do this directly. There are probably some conditions, like becoming a Blessed One to use the power of a deity's authority."
She shook her head. "Now I'm curious about how many people know about this plan."
Kai turned his head to look aside.
Su Cheng also turned her head, following his gaze.
The next second, a certain blood mage appeared, fuming with anger, and met her eyes.
Su Cheng: "..."
Su Cheng: "Can I laugh at the you in the Echo Plane for a moment?"
Camus darkened his face. "My state back then was different from now—"
"I know, calm down," Su Cheng said helplessly. "I'm joking, don't mind it. I know you liked me the first time you laid eyes on me."
Camus: "..."
The God of Memory looked like he really wanted to kill someone.
"Speaking of which," Su Cheng couldn't help but ask, "why did your teachers give me this mark? Did I meet their requirements for a Blessed One?"
Camus looked at the two-headed snake coiled on her hand. "...When did this happen?"
Su Cheng gave a brief explanation.
Realization immediately dawned in his eyes. "In order to get answers, you didn't hesitate to enter the Divine Grace Trial again. From that moment on, you became a truth-seeker eligible for their blessing."
Su Cheng nodded. "Besides that, do they also need me to reverse the aether?"
Camus looked like he had a bit of a headache. "I don't know much about this. I didn't participate in their plans. I used to think it didn't matter whether this world was destroyed or not."
Clearly, a portion of the Ancient Gods shared his attitude, or they simply didn't care at all, whether it was because they inherently lacked the will to survive, or because they felt there were other ways to solve the problem.
There were definitely very few who truly cared about the safety of mortals.
"Considering they were originally a bunch of... I completely understand." Su Cheng wasn't surprised. "Just like humans probably wouldn't care if a certain magical beast went extinct, unless it was delicious. Ahem, anyway, your teachers treated this as a research topic, and the World Reflector just thought it was fun. That's about right, isn't it? Did His Holiness Logos ever explain to you what becoming a Blessed One has to do with reversing the aether? Do you know? Wait, did you get your memories back?"
"...Yes. The moment you met me in the trial, I was able to recall the past."
"Right," Su Cheng just remembered that this guy's authority was memory itself. "Why did you lose your memory? Because they wanted to divide your authority?"
"Yes, when I was defeated, a portion of my power was also split apart. So when I woke up, I was in a completely chaotic state, and I sealed away those pasts. Later, I met my teachers again. They said I used to be their student. I felt they were telling the truth, and they indeed taught me a lot."
Camus glanced at her. "In the end, your good friends, the God of Light and the God of Darkness, both want the Ancient Gods to disappear completely, whether by banishing them or making people forget their existence."
Su Cheng felt that this so-called good friends remark was dripping with sarcasm.
Camus, however, didn't dwell on it. After saying that, he explained her previous question.
The laws of this world—they affected all native souls, regardless of their strength, whether they possessed authority, or how their physical bodies changed. Therefore, everyone could only comply with the laws, which meant burning aether and creating dust of disorder.
If it were a soul from another world, they would not be subject to this restriction.
"...Your world definitely has some laws restricting you, but they are most likely different from the ones here."
Camus said in a deep voice, "Becoming a Blessed One is the fastest way for you to use authority. If you were to become a god yourself, it would take far too long. Otherwise, it would be very difficult for you to even sense the existence of aether, let alone change it."
However, if you only became the Blessed One of a single deity, the power wouldn't be enough.
You could only win through sheer numbers.
The Divine Grace Trial itself was also a somewhat cheat-like path that allowed people to become Blessed Ones.
Humans and gods established a connection in the Echo Plane. As long as a human could obtain some kind of acknowledgment from a god, they could share their authority to a certain extent.
It was just that this was usually not easy to achieve.
"...But you did it."
Su Cheng slightly raised her hand, watching the pitch-black patterns extend from the back of her hand to her forearm. Those exquisite lines intersected into a profound star map, its starting point being the exact spot where the God of Darkness had kissed her.
She couldn't help but touch her forehead, which was radiating warmth, revealing the white-gold holy flame insignia that symbolized the blessing of the God of Light.
The marks of the lesser gods were in more hidden places.
"Even if I didn't show any traits that match their authority?"
Su Cheng couldn't help but frown. "Wait, why does it have to be so troublesome? Back then, your teachers also gave the dust of disorder to Sasha and the others to test, and they didn't become gods either. So, can't you just give it to me directly now? In terms of combat power, I'm probably even stronger, right?"
"That is indeed feasible, but are you willing to repeat the same thing for the next few hundred or even a thousand years?"
"?"
"Yes, if you can perceive aether yourself and personally go to the void to reverse the dust of disorder, then it would probably take a few days at most to complete all the conversions."
Camus said crossly, "But if we were to just bring it to you, there would be way too many procedures involved."
Su Cheng massaged her temples. "I understand."
She thought for a moment and looked back at Kai. "...I'm going to go talk to Ian."
The latter patted her shoulder. "You two probably have a lot to talk about."
Camus obviously didn't intend to voice an opinion on this matter, but he looked somewhat enlightened. "...The person who purified you last time, was it Ilthiant?"
Su Cheng twitched the corner of her mouth. "Yeah."
The God of Memory shook his head, turned around, and disappeared.
Su Cheng returned to the outskirts of the Holy City, standing by the water with the weeping willows, until a shadow was cast beside her and a dazzling gold appeared in her peripheral vision.
She turned her head to look at that brilliant blond hair and the deity's excessively superior face.
Ian looked at her in silence. "It seems you passed the God of Desire's trial. Then you are just one step away from becoming the ruler of this world."
"?"
"Once you can reverse the aether, you will soon be able to completely control this energy—it is the power that makes up everything."
"Oh," Su Cheng nodded belatedly. "That's what I deserve. After all, I was doing perfectly fine at home, and then I was suddenly called over to be the savior."
He slightly curved his lips. "Indeed."
"Speaking of which," Su Cheng couldn't help but narrow her eyes at him, "you've known for a long time that I don't belong to this world."
Ian remained noncommittal. "I roughly know a bit about the World Reflector's plan, but whether you will go and reverse the Aether is not actually something I care about. Because even if all planes collapse, I can still leave this universe at the last moment and go to other planes—when They summoned you, the channels connecting more universes had already opened. It's just that unless it's the very last moment, being bound by authority makes it very difficult to leave."
Su Cheng completely understood.
He was confident he could escape at the last minute. As for the other creatures in this world, they were obviously not something he cared about either.
"I went to see you just because I wanted to see... what kind of person you are," Ian said unhurriedly. "And then you spilled juice all over yourself while drinking."
Su Cheng looked at him expressionlessly.
"It was actually quite cute," he spread his hands. "Though at the time, I also thought you were a bit silly."
Su Cheng: "...I, forget it, I really am silly, in every sense of the word."
"No, actually I can understand. At first, I didn't know the World Reflector gifted you those memories. It made you think this world was supposed to look completely different, right?"
"...Yes."
Ian nodded. "Some of those things were the future They prophesied. You verified their reliability through your own personal experiences, so you deeply believed in some of the other information. This is very normal and can't be called silly. It would naturally dominate your thinking and affect your judgment. Plus, I intentionally didn't want you to guess my identity; I thought it would affect how we get along."
Su Cheng studied him seriously for a few seconds, then turned to look at her own reflection on the water's surface, calling out to the God of Illusions in her heart.
After silently reciting that name twice—
She once again saw those soul-captivating purple eyes.
Someone grabbed her hand.
Su Cheng stood up and looked back at the young man with black hair and purple eyes.
He wore a thin, short shirt that left his chest and abdomen half-exposed. His thick, pitch-black braids hung heavily behind his waist, and snow-white skin was revealed beneath a divided skirt-pants slit up to the crotch.
Gorgeously colored purplish-red agates adorned His ears, wrists, and ankles, like stars twinkling with an eerie, bewitching light.
The moment he saw this ancient deity appear, Ian instantly let out a silent sneer. His gaze swept over those faintly discernible long legs as if he were looking at something filthy.
Su Cheng crossed her arms. "...So, about Lin Yun, he isn't some main character, right?"
Metashil looked at her with a smiling face. "Darling, which of you can become the main character depends entirely on your own choices—"
"Forget it," Su Cheng rolled her eyes at him. "You gave me those memories, making me think he would kill me in the future, so of course I had to take him out! If you gave him similar memories, making him think I would kill him, he'd probably do something similar... Uh, hard to say, he might want to do something else before killing me."
The God of Illusions chuckled. "He couldn't beat you back then anyway."
"Yeah, so as long as you made me possess the knowledge that 'he will kill me in the future,' I was guaranteed to win!"
Su Cheng immediately said, "You wanted to choose me from the very beginning, didn't you?"
"Between you and him, I do indeed like you."
He admitted it directly. "...Logos prepared for many years and completed the Isotopic Resonance Summoning together with us. This was a highly complex ritual, and we all fell into a deep slumber because of it, until you entered this world."
He explained that across countless universe planes, the same soul might have different projections; these are isotopes.
These isotopes might possess similar appearances and names, and thus have a chance to jointly use one body.
But this was not easy to find. After countless observations and searches, the ancient gods only barely managed to locate two people.
"...You had to enter this world before I could understand you."
Metashil spread His hands. "Obviously, Lin Yun is not a person capable of accomplishing this undertaking."
Su Cheng blinked. "So all those things you made up about the original novel were fake?"
"Yes, but not entirely—"
He revealed a playful expression. "I looked through his memories. Before he woke up, I let him drown in dreams. The content of the dreams changes according to the master's will. So, the 'original novel' stories you received—some were the future prophesied by Logos, which I gifted to you so things would go a bit smoother for you. The rest were all experiences Lin Yun desired. They were his dreams. I packaged them as a novel just so you would accept them faster."
Su Cheng: "...They were his dreams? Are you sure? All of them? Including being abused and forced by others?"
"How do you know he didn't like it?" The deity gave a soft scoff. "Those glamorous, erotic, and smooth-sailing experiences were his desires, but those dark and painful things could just as well bring him pleasure. Beyond enjoying himself and reaching the summit, he also desired failure, desired to become lowly, desired to be trampled upon and to have his will destroyed by a powerful external force. Extreme pain and despair, just like extreme pleasure and satisfaction, can both prove the existence of the self—"
Su Cheng's mouth twitched. "Alright, considering the kind of person he is, it doesn't seem that strange. Wait, you definitely did the same thing to me. I don't remember having any dreams before I crossed over, but you should know, right? What did I dream about?"
He tilted His head, light flowing through those deep, charming purple eyes. "You spent your entire life researching academics and became a legendary mage. You raised all sorts of magical beasts, hired several highly skilled chefs and pastry makers, and later you ascended to godhood too. You became good friends with the God of Gluttony."
Ian: "..."
Without even needing to think about it, this was an ascension promoted by the God of Darkness.
Su Cheng wasn't surprised at all; her face even revealed a bit of yearning. "That sounds exactly like the life I want."
"In comparison," Metashil pondered for a moment, "in your dreams, you encountered many difficulties on your path to researching magic, and you always worked hard to solve them, even if no one could help you. But he was different. He was either giving up or just wanting to rely on luck, indulging in boring fantasies like picking up a potion at school that increased his magic power by hundreds of years... That man had a weak will, like an empty shell drifting with the current—he could hardly achieve anything, let alone pass the trials of lust and love."
Su Cheng: "...Actually, he might have just been poisoned by certain novels."
"Indeed, but if he could be so easily influenced by fictional stories, then what could I expect him to do? He entered a new world but only wanted to indulge in his desires. Let alone becoming Dacy's slave, even that lutenist under Elin could turn him into a soulless puppet—"
Su Cheng knew the former was referring to the God of Desire.
Considering that the so-called original novel was merely Lin Yun's dream, it seemed highly likely that the guy wouldn't pass the God of Desire's trial. After all, this world wasn't an actual male-fantasy harem novel, and he didn't truly possess any so-called protagonist halo. When the time came, he would only degenerate into a walking corpse, no different from the natives driven mad by the influence of the gods.
"Alright, you're right, but I have to say the memories you fabricated were incredibly realistic. I actually thought I had read that book."
She paused. Catching sight of a certain God of Light's expression beside her, a sudden wicked impulse arose in her, and she couldn't help but lean closer to the Ancient God in front of her.
"Did I date anyone in my dream?"
"Ah, but of course."
Metashil understood almost instantly, a hint of teasing appearing in his eyes. "You had several black-haired, golden-eyed lovers. Every single one of them looked very much like an avatar of Caecilius. There was also one who, despite having black hair, looked a bit like that little unicorn."
Ian: "......"
