Stan City.

Xiao had fled from the north to this southern coastal city of Yinsai, where the Ghost Cult’s influence in the entire kingdom was at its weakest. Even the tentacles of the God of Knowledge couldn’t reach this core area controlled by the Temple of Truth.

Xiao resided in a small house beside the canal. Inside, a lamp burned as he hunched over his desk, putting the final touches on his summary of the Path of Wisdom.

In the lamplight, Xiao lifted the stone tablet in his hand.

The tablet’s reverse side was covered in dense script, while its face displayed the intricate pattern of the Path of Wisdom.

Four types of stones were inlaid on the Path of Wisdom. He had embedded the Spirit Stone at the base, marking the starting point of everything.

The Wisdom Stone formed the main trunk of the road, the Desire Stone became the branches and diversions, and the Memory Stone bloomed into prosperity and midway nodes.

All endpoints led to that supreme myth.

At the terminus, Xiao had carved a mysterious crown, perhaps symbolizing the crown of myth, or what legends called the Crown of Wisdom.

The door behind him opened.

An old servant entered, his back hunched with age, and Xiao spoke.

“You’re back?”

“I have some things to tell you.”

He wasn’t a member of the Ghost Cult, just Xiao’s servant.

This old servant was once Xiao’s student, but after Xiao left the Temple of Truth, he willingly became Xiao’s servant.

Like Xiao, the servant had no particular talent. Upon realizing he couldn’t reach higher realms, he abandoned this path. In Xiao’s words, people like them were destined to be spectators who could never step onto the stage.

But while Xiao refused to accept this, the old servant had resigned himself to it.

The servant looked at Xiao with reverence: “Master.”

The more ordinary a person was, the more they admired and worshipped beings like Xiao who dared to break fate and challenge myths with the body of a mere mortal insect.

In the servant’s eyes, Xiao was another myth.

Xiao’s first words were: “I’m going to die.”

The servant raised his head, staring blankly at Xiao.

He was at a loss, even wondering if he had misheard.

“Master, you’re in good health. How could you die?”

Xiao: “The me known as Xiao must die for everyone to be at ease.”

“Only then will the God of Knowledge be at ease, the Temple of Truth be at ease, and Anhofus be at ease.”

Xiao stood up and opened the window.

The river water rippled outside, and the distant sea stretched endlessly.

The world was so peaceful, but Xiao’s gaze seemed to see turbulent waves, to see storms and tempests.

“Do you see it?”

The old servant looked out the window: “See what?”

Xiao’s gaze was distant: “The final moment is about to arrive.”

He calmly narrated the scene he saw, a grand epic chapter.

He seemed to hear a solemn melody, the soundtrack to the end of this world’s story.

“The God Yinsai has abandoned this world. The Supreme One has grown weary of it all and is preparing to cross the river of time to the next era. Only the messenger Hila and the Mother of Life can follow Him.”

“Anhofus, who has unveiled the secrets of myth, is about to awaken and return, challenging everything from his past.”

“The Temple of Truth, inheriting the will of the saints, will do everything in its power to erase that myth that threatens the existence of civilization.”

“The Temple of Truth hasn’t made any moves for a long time. If I’m not mistaken, Stuen is likely about to ascend to myth.”

“And the God of Knowledge is still dreaming its beautiful dream.”

Xiao felt the sea breeze brush across his face as he spread his arms toward the sea.

“A tumultuous curtain is about to rise.”

“Perhaps it will be a story of the end of an era, though most people haven’t realized it yet.”

The servant listened, his heart surging. Could an ordinary person like him really know such secrets?

In such a story, what role would Xiao play?

Soon, Xiao told him.

“By rights, I should actively step onto this stage.”

“To bloom my radiance freely, to play my role well.”

Xiao smiled: “But I’m not going to participate.”

“I’m planning to escape.”

“Let these protagonists of the end of an era fight it out, turning everything upside down, destroying heaven and earth.”

Xiao was particularly talkative today, as if he were truly imparting his final words.

“Am I particularly inglorious, thinking about how to escape at such a moment?”

“But I know what I want.”

“From beginning to end, I’ve been clear about what I’m doing and what I want.”

Xiao showed a reminiscent expression. He recalled his past and his teacher, Lan.

To break through the limits of power, he betrayed his teacher.

To complete the Path of Wisdom, he became the high priest of the Ghost Cult.

“Actually, I don’t think I’m an evil person, nor do I think I’m particularly crazy. At least my heart doesn’t find hurting others as interesting as the God of Knowledge does, and I don’t think I would do anything insane.”

“If everyone could hold hands and become myths together, if everyone could laugh and smile together and have everything, who wouldn’t want that?”

“Unfortunately, I’m not the kind of character born with everything. I don’t have the love of the gods, nor am I a protagonist on the stage.”

“This wasn’t originally a problem. The problem is that I’m not content with it.”

Xiao suddenly spoke loudly: “I want… to become a myth!”

The servant also moved forward excitedly, saying, “I understand your ideal, Master.”

“I can also understand your discontent. Why should others be born with what we can’t achieve even with all our efforts?”

“I understand your determination to get what you want at all costs.”

Xiao turned back, looking at the servant.

The servant continued: “Are you about to embark on the Path of Wisdom? But your divine blood comes from the God of Knowledge. If this hidden danger can’t be resolved…”

The servant’s meaning was clear. If Xiao didn’t resolve this hidden danger, stepping onto the Path of Wisdom would be like becoming a target.

The God of Knowledge could easily find his reincarnation and kill him effortlessly, even toy with his life like with Asai.

In that case.

He wouldn’t be a reincarnation stepping onto the path of Wisdom Myth, but a toy in someone else’s bottle.

Only with the death of the God of Knowledge could Xiao shake off the hidden danger on his body. Then, through one reincarnation after another, he could repair the problems in himself and finally reach the end of myth.

Xiao had clearly made preparations.

He picked up the Path of Wisdom tablet and walked step by step to the servant.

“My Path of Wisdom is complete, but the God of Knowledge is watching me. I’m destined to be unable to directly walk the complete Path of Wisdom.”

Xiao placed the tablet in the servant’s hands: “I’ve arranged everything. You are my last backup plan, and also my last escape route.”

The servant accepted the Path of Wisdom tablet with reverence. “Master, what would you have me do?”

Xiao: “After I die, my spirit, wisdom, personality, and memories won’t return to the realm of God, but will return to these stones.”

“I will take the Wisdom Stone with me and hide it in a safe place.”

“As for the Desire Stone and the Memory Stone, find a place to hide them.”

“The most important is the Spirit Stone. I need you to find the most common carrier to release my spirit.”

“The Path of Wisdom is divided into four steps: the first step is spirit reincarnation, the second step is wisdom evolution, the third step is personality descent, and the fourth step is memory return.”

“Without wisdom, personality, and memory, it will forever cycle in the first step of the Path of Wisdom.”

The servant remembered everything. He was very clear about all of Xiao’s affairs.

“But Master! This isn’t right!”

“This is giving up the last three steps of the Path of Wisdom? Only executing the first step?”

“In this case, the reincarnation will only blindly reincarnate generation after generation, as a fool without wisdom. Is such an incomplete Path of Wisdom useful?”

But Xiao said: “It’s useful for me. It can help me break this deadlock and avoid this final battlefield.”

“Moreover, my spirit is after all a part of me. Everything about me is eternally attracting it.”

“One day, it will find its wisdom, desire, and memories again.”

“Take back everything that belongs to it.”

Finally, Xiao arranged one more thing.

“As for this Path of Wisdom tablet, go to the Dark River region and give it to Asai, that is, Anhofus.”

Xiao handed the tablet to the servant after digging out the Wisdom Stone, completing his final instructions.

He put on a cloak and walked out of the house, pulling up the hood at the door.

He looked at the sky and said.

“I will return eventually.”

“In… the form of a myth.”

The servant stood behind Xiao, kneeling while holding the Path of Wisdom tablet: “It’s a pity I can’t witness the day you become a god.”

Xiao turned his back and said.

“It doesn’t matter!”

“At the other end of time, there will be people who know everything you’ve done for me, and countless people will sing the story of you and me.”

“That will be the beginning of another myth.”

The servant’s eyes filled with tears.

Xiao strode out. In the night sky of Stan City, one could see shadows flitting across – the shadows of wing demons.

Inside the city, patrols of guards could be seen everywhere, with priests standing on every rooftop, searching for something.

Important figures from the Temple’s Demon-Hunting Group had arrived.

Xiao had come very discreetly, and only he knew of the servant’s existence.

It was clear that his former god, the Little Person in the Bottle, couldn’t spare the effort to deal with him directly. Instead, it had sold him out to the Temple of Truth, a force that harbored an extreme hatred for him.

For the people of the Temple of Truth, Xiao, who had betrayed the second-generation Sage of Truth, Lan, leading to his death, was in some ways more hated than the monster on the Sacred Mountain.

Xiao walked swiftly.

He saw the distant city wall. If he could just climb over it, he would be free as a bird in the sky.

Xiao suddenly stopped.

He looked up at the figure on the city wall. A God’s Grace Priest with a cold aura was looking at him under the full moon, blocking him dead in the city.

Xiao was a bone demon, even if he was a fourth-level bone demon.

He couldn’t resist the oath that the monster race had sworn to God, because this God wasn’t the kind like the God of Knowledge.

It was Yinsai.

The ability to blend into cities was the bone demons’ greatest advantage.

But once discovered and exposed, their death would be imminent.

The newcomer was Anli, the current leader of the Temple’s Demon-Hunting Group.

Anli stepped forward, ice crystals spreading continuously from beneath her feet until they reached Xiao.

“Xiao!” she exclaimed, her voice sharp with anger. “After hiding for so many years, you finally dare to show your face.”

Anli looked at Xiao with cold eyes. After Lan’s death, they had been investigating who the traitor was, until they discovered that Xiao had become the Divine Contract High Priest of the Ghost Cult.

The idea of a former student of the Sage of Truth Lan becoming the controller of the Ghost Cult was beyond absurd.

This was an eternal stain on the Temple of Truth, a matter that priests couldn’t bear to mention.

Moreover, when Anli was still studying at the Temple, Xiao had been her instructor.

Many of Anli’s low-level divine techniques and knowledge had been imparted to her by Xiao.

In Anli’s eyes, Xiao had been an ordinary, quiet person, an unremarkable scholar who would blend into any crowd. He rarely smiled and was meticulous in his work.

But it was such a person who had triggered the most terrible tragedy since the founding of the Temple of Truth, nearly causing its complete destruction.

Xiao glanced around: “Where’s Vivien?”

Anli: “Sister doesn’t want to see you. You’re not worthy of her presence.”

Xiao nodded: “That’s a pity. I had wanted to say something to her.”

Anli suddenly shouted: “A traitor like you has no right to speak to my sister!”

She waved her hand, and countless ice crystals condensed in the sky.

One ice giant after another rose from the ground, and for a moment, a light snow even began to fall in Stan City.

Xiao remained motionless, his gaze fixed on Anli.

“Your talent,” he said softly. “It’s truly enviable!”

“When you were still a child, you had already surpassed most of my lifetime’s efforts. I heard that in your childhood, you once received treatment and blessings from God’s messenger. Perhaps that’s the origin of your talent.”

Xiao looked at Anli with complex eyes: “What I’ve sought all my life but couldn’t obtain, you got effortlessly.”

“The realm I yearned for but couldn’t even look up to, you just leapt and grasped it in your hands.”

Snowflakes danced, and the street had turned into a world of ice and snow.

Ice puppets knelt on the road, and Anli raised her ice sword, pointing it at Xiao.

“Is this the reason you killed our teacher? Is this why you sold your faith to evil demons?”

Xiao’s lips curved into a slight smile. “Of course not,” he replied, his voice tinged with bitterness.

“I wanted more, and I paid more.”

“It’s just that… a genius like you will never understand these things.”

Anli: “But your retribution has come.”

“You traitor who sold out your faith, transformed into a monstrous bone demon.”

“Did you think we couldn’t find you hiding in the city? This place has become your death trap instead.”

“This is God’s punishment for you.”

Xiao didn’t say that he was hiding in the city not to avoid the Temple of Truth, but to avoid the God of Knowledge.

At this point, he couldn’t be bothered to explain these trivial matters.

Anli waved her hand.

Ice and snow swept across the street, enveloping Xiao’s entire body.

Xiao’s body was gradually frozen, covered by layer upon layer of thick ice.

Before being completely frozen, Xiao quietly looked at Anli and spoke his last words.

“My story with the Temple of Truth, my story with all of you.”

“It’s over.”

“And.”

“What Xiao owed the teacher, Xiao has repaid.”

Xiao turned into an ice sculpture, and with a light sound, his body shattered into pieces on the ground.

Anli walked over and saw his mythical organ among the shattered pieces of Xiao’s body.

The bone demon’s brain, once exposed to the air, quickly solidified, turning into a peculiar stone.

“So this is the mythical organ of a bone demon?”

Anli picked up the stone, feeling somewhat strange.

After all, Xiao was the first fourth-level bone demon to die at someone else’s hands.

At the other end of the street, Xiao’s old servant stood on a hidden rooftop, carrying a package.

He watched Xiao’s death, and the stones on the Path of Wisdom tablet lit up one by one.

The servant also realized where Xiao had meant when he said he would hide the Wisdom Stone in a safe place.

In this world, what place could be safer than in the hands of the Temple of Truth?

The servant gently brushed over each pattern and stone on the tablet: “Xiao’s story has ended, the story of myth begins.” —

By the sea.

The morning coastal tide surged, bringing a hint of coolness.

The old servant stood alone at the water’s edge, his trouser legs rolled up against the lapping waves.

He took the Spirit Stone from the Path of Wisdom tablet, then grabbed a spawning ancestral fish from his fish basket.

The Spirit Stone melted.

This stone representing the power of origin transformed into countless mysterious symbols, pouring into the ancestral fish, beginning its initial journey of reincarnation.

The old servant released the ancestral fish into the sea, watching it gradually disappear.

The old servant didn’t know when this spirit would find its own wisdom, desire, and personality.

But he believed in Xiao’s plan.

He believed that even if Xiao wasn’t the strongest, he would definitely be one of those who could survive till the end.

Next, the old servant gave the Desire Stone and Memory Stone to his two sons, watching them go their separate ways.

The old servant himself then set off alone towards the Dark River region—

The entire Dark River region was searching for Asai, and his hometown, Rolling Stone Town, had been turned upside down.

But Asai hadn’t been running around at all. He was still hiding in Anho City, brushing past members of the Ghost Cult and the priests searching for him every day.

In the bright and spacious Medical Fortress, Asai sat up slowly from his hospital bed, his head wrapped in bandages.

Polik came over: “Master, it was successful.”

Asai opened his eyes: “Indeed, it was successful.”

Asai had found a group of doctors, and with the help of Polik, a priest with orthodox inheritance from the Temple of Truth, he finally resolved the tumor in his brain.

The power of the Wisdom Ability returned to Asai’s body, and he gained true fourth-level power.

Unlike before, when he could only use the Bone Field to control bone puppets.

Asai rose from the hospital bed, blinking as his eyes adjusted to the light once more.

He let go of his cane, and his once-lame leg finally regained its strength.

Only due to long-standing habit, he still felt a bit unaccustomed to using it.

“It’s successful.”

“Everything’s better now.”

Polik was even happier than Asai. Asai walked step by step towards the front.

“It’s nothing.”

“I’ve just regained a little power, but our enemies are still incredibly strong.”

Polik said loudly: “I believe Master will definitely defeat everyone and restore your former glory.”

Asai laughed: “Did I ever have any glory?”

Leaving the Medical Fortress, Asai swaggered back home.

In a house not far from the city wall, Asai was adjusting and familiarizing himself with his power. The place was filled with various books on divine techniques, and he was frantically studying all knowledge that could enhance his power.

At the same time, Asai was getting used to his leg.

It had been a long time since he had felt the sensation of being able to run freely.

At this moment, there was a knock at the door.

Asai’s mental power swept across, and the situation of the entire street and nearby areas immediately appeared in his mind.

The one knocking was a child running errands. Though panting from running, his eyes were still bright as he looked at Asai.

Just like Asai once was in Rolling Stone Town, frantically running through the town’s streets and alleys, just to please the priest at the shrine.

Asai looked at the child, examining him carefully.

His appearance had changed greatly now.

Not only were his eyes healed and his leg no longer lame, but his entire demeanor was completely different from before.

It would be impossible to find him based on the portrait on the wanted notice. Asai didn’t even bother using illusion techniques to conceal himself.

“What’s the matter?”

The child handed over a cloth package: “An old grandfather asked me to give this to you.”

As the child said this, the image of the old man that appeared in his mind was transmitted into Asai’s consciousness.

Asai confirmed that he had never seen this person before. He puzzledly accepted the package.

Upon opening it, it turned out to be the Path of Wisdom tablet.

Asai immediately recognized what it was, but he covered it up without showing any reaction.

He took out some money to give to the child running the errand. The child immediately bowed and saluted, loudly calling Asai “sir” and “master,” before happily running off.

Asai held the Path of Wisdom tablet, deep in thought.

Without much thinking, this must have been sent to him by the Divine Contract High Priest Xiao.

Only that person who had controlled the Ghost Cult for decades and controlled his entire life, that calm and rational traitor, could so easily find his whereabouts.

At this moment, Polik also came in from outside, talking about a matter that was causing a great stir outside.

“Have you heard?”

“The Divine Contract High Priest Xiao of the Ghost Cult has died.”

The death of such an important figure as the Divine Contract High Priest Xiao was not something Yinsai and the Temple of Truth would hide. They would widely publicize it to strike a blow against the morale of the Ghost Cult and the evil god, the God of Knowledge.

Asai looked at the tablet in his hand: “Dead?”

“He should have reincarnated, right?”

Asai finally cleared up some of his thoughts. He somewhat understood why he could break free from the control of the God of Knowledge, and he somewhat understood Xiao’s intention in sending him the Path of Wisdom tablet—

The Little Person in the Bottle, like Asai, didn’t believe Xiao was dead. It listened to the prayers of its believers and then transmitted its divine oracle.

“Confirm the cause of Xiao’s death, how he died, who was by his side when he died.”

“I want to know everything that happened at that time.”

Thousands of miles away at an altar, the Original Sin High Priest received the divine oracle.

“Great God of Knowledge, I will investigate personally.”

On the Sacred Mountain, the Little Person in the Bottle also showed a puzzled expression.

Although it had already set a trap to send Xiao to his doom, when Xiao actually died, it felt something wasn’t quite right.

Dying so simply didn’t seem like Xiao at all.

It sensed Xiao’s location: “In the God-Descended City?”

“Has he reincarnated? Or was his mythical organ really taken away?”

Even though the Original Sin High Priest rushed to the God-Descended City, he couldn’t find Xiao’s reincarnation at all, only the remnants of Xiao’s Wisdom Ability power.

From then on, Xiao transformed into a fish entering the sea, and no one could ever find him again.