At the edge of the sky, a squad of Land Dragons stirred up clouds of dust.

A group of elite female knights in armor approached from the south. They had finally discovered the place the blind prophet had indicated with her dying words.

Yet when they lifted their heads, they witnessed a sight both shocking and perplexing.

Though it was daytime, this place before them lay shrouded in night.

Upon the heights stood an abandoned village, clearly long deserted.

These structures bore little resemblance to Snake People settlements. Such villages should not exist on these pastoral plains, for they had never seen architecture like this before. The building style carried an air of primitiveness while somehow exhibiting a civilization that surpassed the Snake People.

It seemed as though another race had built this place entirely.

The buildings stood upon a mountain range shaped like a starfish, surrounded by dense starlight and darkness.

This place lay completely enshrouded in night. Looking up, they could see an ever-rotating river of stars.

Yet when they turned their heads, the other side showed blue skies and white clouds, with the sun hanging high at its zenith.

“What is this place?” A female knight removed her helmet, holding it to her chest as confusion filled her eyes.

“How can day and night exist simultaneously?” Everyone kept turning their heads back and forth, trying to confirm whether their eyes deceived them.

“Something is wrong. I sense danger,” said a female knight standing beside the captain of the knights.

They all perceived the abnormality.

For mortals, such strangeness typically represented incomprehensible danger. Venturing deeper would mean certain death.

They did not know this was the power manifesting from the Star of Death of the Ruhe beast.

From the previous era, one of the seven Ruhe beasts.

The captain of the knights observed for a moment before making her decision.

“I will enter. The rest of you wait outside.”

“If anything happens,” the vice captain immediately spoke up.

“We will come to your rescue at once.”

The captain of the knights shook her head. “If I cannot emerge, you would only throw away your lives by entering.”

“If anything happens, your first priority should be immediate retreat.”

The temple knight captain loosened her dragon-riding leather harness and her tail.

In the past, Snake People would coil around Land Dragons while riding. They could move nimbly around the dragon’s body, wielding weapons from its back, belly, and flanks to attack enemies from all angles.

Every Land Dragon rider possessed not only tremendous physical prowess but also exceptional combat skills.

They utilized the Land Dragon’s swift speed and impact force while using their bodily advantages to dodge enemy attacks with agility. Few could match them aside from Ability bearers.

After obtaining bows and arrows, they gained ranged combat capabilities as well.

Upon becoming captain, she had made some improvements by creating dragon-riding harnesses.

These allowed better control of the Land Dragons while helping newcomers maintain their balance more easily.

The captain entered the darkness-shrouded area. The moment she passed through that starlit veil, her surroundings instantly shifted from day to night.

The sensation felt as though she had entered another world entirely.

She ascended the mountain, slowly entering the abandoned structures.

She noticed that not only did the architectural style completely differ from the Snake People’s, but even the writing on the buildings was utterly unfamiliar. This was definitely not Snake People script.

Though the writing used in Suinhor city-states and the City of Lights had some variations from their own, the basics remained similar enough to distinguish easily.

But these characters showed no familiar elements whatsoever.

She placed her hand upon the writing on the building and gently closed her eyes.

“Rumble…”

Through her palm, she felt a slight vibration and sounds emerging from deep within the earth.

She could sense the mountain beneath her feet moving slowly, these buildings constantly changing.

“What is this?”

She immediately opened her eyes, shifting her gaze across the entire mountain.

She had noticed something.

“These buildings and the mountain below.”

“Are they… alive?”

At the mountain’s foot, the temple knights grew increasingly anxious as they waited. No sound emerged from above, and that peaceful starlit night seemed to devour everything, dissolving all who entered into the majestic starlight.

The deeper the silence, the more their hearts trembled.

The temple knights below almost wished for some disturbance from above, anything to prove their captain still remained.

When the captain emerged from the starlight veil, everyone gathered around her.

“The captain has returned!”

“My lady, are you unharmed?”

Soon they noticed the child in the captain’s arms.

Without needing to ask, they all guessed who this child must be.

“Did you find her?” A temple knight’s voice carried traces of joy.

“She’s been found,” the news passed between the other knights, confirming the message.

“Is this her?” Some asked the captain directly, seeking further confirmation.

The captain nodded, offering an explanation.

“This village must have suffered some catastrophe.”

“Only this child remains.”

“She is the holy maiden the prophet spoke of, the one we sought.”

The other temple knights first showed expressions of sorrow, sympathizing with the villagers who met with disaster.

Then they gazed curiously at the child, whose emerald pupils gleamed like jewels as she studied them with equal curiosity.

“We have our holy maiden.”

“Our last holy maiden passed long ago. Finally, the temple welcomes a new generation.”

“The city-states have lost their sacred flames, yet our Royal Court of Ten Thousand Serpents alone maintains the fire’s legacy.”

Amidst discussion and celebration, the female knights mounted their Land Dragons and began their journey home.

Shortly after they departed, the mountain range behind them gradually sank back into the earth.

Many would spot it again from afar much later.

By then, it had earned a name.

People called it the Star Night Mountain Range.

Along with the Moonlight Jungle, the Molten Peak, and Thunder Marsh, it became one of the deadly forbidden zones that made Snake People shudder.

People said this mountain range could move, its boundless starlight leading directly to another world. All who entered stepped across death’s threshold.

In the Temple of Ten Thousand Serpents, a small girl darted through the outer corridors, sometimes diving through the massive side doors, sometimes emerging from passages on the other end.

First she slithered across the ground with her serpentine tail, then finding this insufficient and unwieldy, she transformed her tail into legs to run swiftly.

“Holy Maiden!”

“Holy Maiden!”

“You haven’t finished your duties!”

The temple attendants could not catch her as she treated the entire temple as her playground.

Her movements flowed with life and vitality.

Her laughter rang so loudly it could be heard from afar, her voice revealing the boundless energy contained within that tiny frame.

“Nyah nyah nyah!”

“I won’t listen to you. I’m the highest authority in this temple!”

She shouted back at the pursuing attendants while running.

Just then, she collided with a knight.

The knight held her helmet in one arm, her high ponytail swaying above her radiant face that bore an expression both determined and devout.

The small girl recognized her immediately upon contact.

She spoke in a familiar tone: “Oh my!”

“You’re in my way.”

The female knight knelt on one knee, lowering her head to address her.

“Your Holiness, it is time to light the sacred fire.”

This small girl was the Holy Maiden of the Temple of Ten Thousand Serpents, though she seemed utterly out of place in this sacred and solemn setting, completely different from the rigid, rule-abiding knights and temple attendants.

The small girl was quite fond of the female knight. She stopped and looked at her.

“God can’t even see it. Why do we have to put on such a show of lighting the sacred fire every day?”

The female knight replied with unwavering faith: “God can see it.”

The Holy Maiden pouted. “God is just a stone statue. It can’t see anything.”

If anyone else had spoken such words, even the Holy Maiden of the Temple of Ten Thousand Serpents would have faced reproach and displeasure from these devoted believers.

Yet the female knight remained exceptionally gentle, seeming to find such words perfectly natural from her, seeing nothing worthy of reproach.

Or rather, she believed no one in this world had the right to reproach this particular person.

The female knight said: “God resides upon the mountain, watching us from above in the heavens.”

The small girl lifted her head, looking at the sky with puzzlement.

Her eyes could not see the peak of the Mountain of Life’s Origin or what lay beyond in the heavens, for clouds blocked her view and because it stood too far from the earth.

She considered herself a reasonable person, not a unreasonable child.

So she heeded the female knight’s words, deciding to fulfill her duties and responsibilities.

“Very well.”

“Then let’s light the fire for God in heaven to see.”

The small girl’s lively steps suddenly grew listless, her previously energetic body seeming drained of all strength, as though carrying a thousand-pound burden upon her back.

She dragged her feet, refusing to go down for her lessons.

“I don’t want to go. Today is mathematics, it’s both boring and no fun.”

The female knight spoke: “But only through learning can you become more capable and grow stronger.”

“Become smarter and thus understand this world better.”

The Holy Maiden replied: “I’m already smart, with the cleverest mind in the world.”

“As for being capable.”

The Holy Maiden immediately brought her legs together, transforming them into a large tail.

“Look.”

“I can make a tail, and I can change it back to legs.”

“I have legs, you know.”

“They say only God and God’s apostles have legs.”

“That’s the ultimate symbol of capability.”

The small girl spoke proudly.

The female knight asked: “Your Holiness, what else can you do?”

The small girl pondered deeply, only to realize that apart from playing, she possessed few other skills.

She felt somewhat dejected and asked the female knight.

“Can learning really make me more capable?”

The female knight said: “Of course. Through learning you can become a scholar, understand the principles of this world, and earn respect through rich knowledge.”

“Those with talent can become powerful Ability bearers through study.”

“Those with strong bodies can learn to become knights, powerful warriors.”

“In this world, most are born very weak, but through learning they can become very strong.”

The Holy Maiden heeded her advice and began her “make-up lessons” under the lamplight.

Though judging by her blank stare while sitting at the desk, how much she actually absorbed remained uncertain.

The next day.

Early in the morning, the Holy Maiden ran out to the back of the temple.

She seemed to have new, curious thoughts.

She lifted her head, gazing at the massive mountain.

Even craning her neck to its limit, she could not see the mountain’s peak.

Yesterday the female knight had told her God resided atop the mountain, or at least traces of God’s presence remained there.

This made her very curious.

She heard someone approaching and knew without turning that it was the female knight, who always stayed by her side.

Though she hadn’t seen her, the knight always appeared when she needed her or wanted to speak with her.

“Does God really exist?” the Holy Maiden asked the female knight.

“Of course,” the female knight answered with certainty, as she had countless times before.

“Have you seen God?” the Holy Maiden asked again, head tilted up toward the Mountain of Life’s Origin.

“I have not,” the female knight shook her head.

“Then how do you prove God truly exists?” the Holy Maiden’s voice held confusion.

The female knight smiled at the Holy Maiden: “Because I exist, therefore God exists.”

“God created us, created this earth, and thus we came to be, and our civilization came to be.”

“We ourselves are proof of God’s existence.”

The Holy Maiden felt this reasoning insufficient to convince her. She continued staring at the Mountain of Life’s Origin.

“If only I could climb up there and see for myself. If the legendary city truly exists up there with its temple of the Life Sovereign, then I would believe.”

“Then I would believe in God’s existence.”

The female knight said: “You don’t have wings. How could you climb such a high mountain?”

The Holy Maiden asked her: “Wings?”

“What are those?”

The female knight told her: “In this world there exists a powerful monster called the Wing Demon.”

“It possesses wings and can soar freely through the sky.”

“It is the sovereign of the skies, without any natural enemies.”

“We were once merely food in their mouths.”

Speaking of this, she suddenly recalled another kind of being.

The female knight’s emotions grew complex as she spoke with what seemed like excitement.

“No.”

“There was another kind of being that had wings.”

“It’s said our Creator, the Life Sovereign, once created another kind of flying creature.”

“But…”

The Holy Maiden asked: “But what?”

The female knight continued: “But due to the Mother of All Snakes’ jealousy, these beings eventually perished.”

Even now, the Snake People had not fully explored this Ruhe Beast Island.

Let alone knowing what lay on other continents.

The female knight projected an image of the Wing Demon onto the wall, and the Holy Maiden immediately shook her head.

“Too ugly.”

Then the female knight projected recorded images of the Winged People from the scrolls.

The Holy Maiden shook her head again: “This isn’t pretty either.”

But these two beings’ images suddenly stirred a memory in the Holy Maiden’s mind.

In her memory, she stood atop a vast floating island in the sky, watching as a golden bubble rose from below, carrying within it a dream of sacred innocence.

Within this vision, a figure soared skyward with the grace of a bird.

Their wings tore through the cloud layers as they left the earth behind, ascending toward the heavens.

The winged person rose through layer upon layer of cloud sea, their wings radiating flowing light, drawing brilliant trails through the layers of white clouds.

At last, their form blazed with divine radiance as they stood triumphant atop the highest clouds.

It was such a magnificent dream, so magnificent it seemed to embody the ultimate beauty and freedom.

She did not remember this was the Creator’s dream.

This dream lay deeply hidden within the Divine Cup, the Root Divine Artifact of Dream Ability. In this world, only she and one other Divine Being had seen it.

She merely thought she must have dreamed such a scene while sleeping once.

The Holy Maiden’s eyes blazed with light as she suddenly exclaimed.

“That’s it!”

“That’s what I want!”

As her words fell, her back suddenly erupted in flowing light.

“Whoosh!”

Feather after feather emerged from the light until they completely unfurled.

They formed a pair of sacred, luminous white wings large enough to completely envelop the small girl.

The small girl was overjoyed, alternating between spreading and folding them.

The female knight stood stunned. Though she had witnessed the girl’s birth and had various speculations about her origins.

Yet when truly seeing this sight, she remained utterly shocked.

The Holy Maiden showed no awareness of this, happily telling the female knight.

“See that?”

“I can not only make a tail, but wings too.”

“I can fly.”

The female knight said nothing, suddenly kneeling before the Holy Maiden.

Meanwhile, the small girl continued bouncing joyfully behind the temple, her excited shouts echoing through the air.

Atop the temple, the small girl had somehow climbed up there.

The temple’s summit rose nearly thirty meters high. Falling from such a height would turn someone to paste, terrifying the temple attendants of the Temple of Ten Thousand Serpents.

A crowd below shouted anxiously, like ants on a hot pan.

“Holy Maiden!”

“Please come down!”

“It’s too high!”

“Too dangerous!”

But the small girl showed no fear, shouting down to them.

“It’s fine, don’t worry about me.”

“Look.”

The small girl spread her arms as wings unfurled behind her.

“See? I have wings.”

With a joyous laugh, she leaped from the temple’s peak.

Terror gripped the onlookers as they rushed forward. Every Ability bearer present immediately summoned their powers.

But before the small girl could fall, her wings swept once and she spun through the air, soaring skyward.

“Hahaha!”

“Heehee!”

The small girl’s laughter rang down from above as she ascended toward the sky.

She beat her wings, riding the wind toward the cloud layers, her form growing smaller and smaller.

Freedom.

Without any constraints.

The crowd below stood transfixed, too astonished for words.

Yet somehow, they felt this scene made perfect sense.

She seemed not to belong to this world originally, and nothing should be able to constrain her.

The small girl flew toward the heavens, her gaze fixed upon the Mountain of Life’s Origin.

She was determined to fly up this great mountain and see what lay at its peak.