All of Fort Pence was plunged into darkness.

But within the darkness, something emitted a faint light that swayed rhythmically.

Xiuborn floated in the air, carefully examining the scene until he finally discerned the source of the light.

It was countless tentacles of varying sizes.

Some tentacles were like pillars reaching to the sky, others resembled giant trees, and some were as slender as blades of grass.

Around the Temple of Ten Thousand Serpents, these luminous tentacles swayed everywhere.

At first glance, it looked like a dark yet magnificent underwater scene, with seaweed swaying everywhere. It was as if he were in the midst of a strange dream.

He heard someone making bubble-blowing sounds, along with giggles and playful chasing.

“Glug glug glug.”

“Pitter patter patter~” Footsteps rang out clearly in this dark silence.

This was clearly not a sound ordinary Snake People could make.

Xiuborn looked towards the source of the sound, which came from within the long corridor of the Temple of Ten Thousand Serpents.

A girl with a divine form was chasing the luminous tentacles.

Wherever she ran, the tentacles immediately parted to make way.

She ran back and forth, and these luminous tentacles seemed to open and close like a road under her control.

She stopped in front of the Temple of Ten Thousand Serpents and called out to the luminous tentacles.

“Good children.”

“Be obedient now, and protect everyone well.”

The luminous tentacles immediately swayed left and right, as if truly heeding her words.

The little girl was overjoyed, jumping up and down on the steps.

“Hee hee.”

“Hahaha!”

Xiuborn had witnessed with his own eyes the giant eye opening beneath the ground, seen its terrifying power engulf the city and envelope the earth in an instant.

Although it looked completely different from what he had seen on the frozen plateau before, he was certain it was the same kind of entity.

It was a terrifying and horrifying existence.

In Xiuborn’s view, it was an unknown that could rival or even surpass the Scarlet Witch, the God of Knowledge and Truth.

Yet now, it was fawning before a little girl.

But at this moment, Xiuborn, who had thoroughly confirmed her identity, felt there was nothing strange about it.

He felt this was how it should be.

Given her status, what in this world could defy her will, unless she simply did not care about this world?

The little girl finally entered the temple.

She raised her head, looking at the towering statue of the Life Sovereign.

This statue appeared to be of a majestic young woman, wearing black and luxurious clothes, with an ineffable air of mystery and an oceanic profundity.

The Holy Maiden was not afraid or terrified by the changes outside. She believed this was the Mother of Life responding to her.

She had hoped the other would save this city, save everyone here.

And so the other had used Her power to rescue them from this calamity.

She cheered and danced before the statue, speaking to it not with the trepidation and reverence mortals show to deities, but rather with childlike innocence and whimsy.

“O great Divine Being!”

“You are so wonderful!”

“Just as wonderful as they say.”

At this moment, a semi-transparent figure walked in from outside.

Xiuborn came up behind the Holy Maiden, standing just outside the temple’s great doors.

He stared blankly at the Holy Maiden’s back, listening to her naive prayers, and couldn’t help but say.

“You are the Ruler of Life! You are God, aren’t you?”

The Holy Maiden turned her head and replied at the same time: “Me?”

She shook her head, quickly explaining.

“I’m not God at all.”

“I’m not impressive at all, I can’t learn anything.”

“All I can do is make legs appear, and wings.”

The Holy Maiden pouted, telling him.

“They’re all so impressive, they can do all sorts of divine techniques.”

But Xiuborn insisted: “You are God.”

Xiuborn stood outside the temple, not daring to enter.

His eyes were first bewildered, then turned to a bitter smile.

He lowered his head, as if falling into madness.

Constantly murmuring that one sentence.

“Why are you here? Why… are you here…?”

The Holy Maiden examined him carefully, finally recognizing this semi-transparent spirit as Xiuborn, who had attacked Fort Pence earlier.

Her face first showed extreme wariness.

Then she asked him.

“Are you a bad person?”

Hearing this, Xiuborn suddenly burst into tears.

He became somewhat agitated, stiffening his neck and raising his head. He reached out eagerly to explain.

“I don’t want to be a bad person.”

“I once believed in you very devoutly.”

Xiuborn extended both hands forward, but they were already shaking uncontrollably.

“I prayed to You countless times, we once offered You everything, we once built temples for You.”

“We… have worshipped You for generations.”

“Life Sovereign… I was once Your believer!”

The Holy Maiden looked at him, her eyes full of confusion.

She didn’t know if what he said was true, didn’t know if she should believe him.

She didn’t know whether to believe that he was truly a devout believer of the Life Sovereign, or to believe that she herself was the Divine Being.

She could only say one sentence.

“I don’t know.”

Xiuborn was stunned.

He suddenly turned his head, looking out at Fort Pence.

The entire Fort Pence was protected by the tentacles of the Ruhe beast, even the previously opened Door of Truth was entangled by the tentacles of the Ruhe beast Burrowing Demon Worm.

The flowing light also paused at the entrance, and the flood of rainbow and white light began to recede.

The Door of Truth was slowly closing, all calamity ending before the presence of God.

A bitter smile once again appeared on his face, for besides a bitter smile, there was no other way to express the emotions in his heart.

Xiuborn already felt his Witch Spirit form dissipating to its final stage, his emotions also gradually receding, becoming a blank slate.

Finally, he looked inside the temple.

Looking at that enormous golden statue, looking at the Holy Maiden standing beneath it.

Xiuborn prostrated himself on the ground, kowtowing to the Holy Maiden.

Just like his ancestors had done, just as he had done as a child.

Beneath the statue, offering his devotion to the Divine, professing his faith.

Only this time, he was bowing to the true God.

As a child, his heart was filled with utmost sacred reverence when he bowed to the Divine.

When he grew up, he bowed to the Divine with doubt, for the Divine never responded to them.

When calamity struck, he bowed to the Divine with desperation and despair.

When the City of Avel turned to ruins, he was filled with incomprehension and resentment.

And at this moment, he was left with only bewilderment.

His body became completely transparent, leaving only one last sentence.

“O Divine Being! If back then… You could have saved us as You saved them. Would it not have been different?”

As Xiuborn finished these words, his transparent form shattered and dispersed in an instant.

His Book of the Witch Spirit had been shattered by the mythical power of the giant serpent, which also meant that the contract and bindings between him and the God of Knowledge and Truth were destroyed along with it.

Without the Book of the Witch Spirit, he could have transformed into a ghost and journeyed to the realm of the God of Knowledge and Truth, if that deity was truly the one he believed in.

But in the end, he gave up.

Perhaps he did not want to become an eternally wandering spirit.

Perhaps it was for other reasons.

All of his memories, all the images, transformed into a sphere of light.

It floated before the Temple of Ten Thousand Serpents.

Because this place was sealed by the Ruhe beast Burrowing Demon Worm, Xiuborn’s life dream was temporarily trapped in this world.

The Holy Maiden watched as this strange person, after saying a bunch of odd things, disappeared.

And in his place remained a glowing object.

She drew closer, carefully examining Xiuborn’s life dream.

This bubble emitting colorful light.

Through the iridescent bubble wall, scene after scene flowed out.

The first to flow out were all the scenes Xiuborn remembered most vividly.

In that instant, the Holy Maiden saw Xiuborn’s entire life.

He was born into a family that had served the Divine for generations. He grew up in the temple of the Life Sovereign from a young age. All he read were creation myths about the Life Sovereign. He firmly believed everything said in the myths.

He devoutly prayed to the Divine, believing the Divine could hear him.

However, God could not hear.

Everything was nothing more than mortals deceiving themselves.

All their hopes and desires came from their helplessness and weakness, their unease in the face of this terrifying and dangerous world.

Disaster struck. The Royal Court of Ten Thousand Serpents and the Maritime Alliance destroyed their country.

He became a Witch Spirit.

The God he believed in did not respond to him, but another deity gave him everything he wanted.

The Holy Maiden quietly watched Xiuborn’s entire life.

Through these scenes, she vaguely understood a bit of what Xiuborn had said earlier.

She discovered that the person before her was completely different from what she had imagined.

Xiuborn could not be considered a bad person. He had once been a devout believer.

He struggled at the edge of death. He yearned in the face of the crisis of his country and people’s annihilation.

Faith in God, his people, and his country.

He wavered between the two.

For the first time, she truly experienced how difficult it was to judge things in this world using the right-or-wrong method she had used before.

Devotion or lack of devotion to God, a person’s goodness or badness, the black and white of a matter.

She truly used a mortal’s perspective to see another mortal’s faith.

The Holy Maiden suddenly felt a bit sad, not knowing why she was sorrowful.

“People are really so complicated!” she exclaimed.

She came back to her senses and once again saw the statue of the Life Sovereign.

She recalled how not long ago, she had knelt before the statue, begging the Divine for salvation.

Just like Xiuborn once did.

For the first time, she also experienced the feeling of mortals praying to the Divine, that urgency and unease, that feeling of helplessness where one could only place everything in the hands of the Divine and faith.

She tilted her little head back in thought, wondering what kind of relationship existed between the presence of the Divine and the faith of mortals.

“Ah~”

Suddenly, she yawned again.

The previous sleepiness washed over her once more.

This drowsiness was not due to the Door of Truth, but another reason.

She felt as if another self was waking up, becoming more and more alert.

But this body was the opposite, becoming increasingly fuzzy and wanting to sleep as the other awakened.

She faintly heard a familiar and calm voice coming from another world.

That voice, transcending time and space, resounded in her mind like a great bell.

“Shelly.”

“It’s time to wake up.”

She raised her head, as if seeing a massive silver star beyond the world.

The other was so majestic, the light of that star supporting everything.

“Mm!”

She immediately responded reflexively, although she had not yet remembered who the other was.

Yet she involuntarily felt that indescribable familiarity and sense of security.

As if as long as the other was by her side, there would be no problems at all.

“Hiss hiss hiss~”

A strange sound came from outside the temple. A giant serpent suddenly appeared, coiling around the temple.

It lowered its head into the temple, pressing against the ground.

The Holy Maiden glanced at it and knew it had come to receive her.

The Holy Maiden cradled Xiuborn’s life dream and walked out of the temple.

She stood atop the giant serpent’s head.

The giant serpent raised its head, leaving the Temple of Ten Thousand Serpents and flying towards the sky.

The girl and the serpent broke through the Ruhe beast’s seal, appearing beneath the sun.

They pierced through the sea of clouds, seeing the peak of the Mountain of Life’s Origin.

Together they headed towards the City of Life at the very top of the Mountain of Life’s Origin.

The sun was level with the sea of clouds.

The light of the clouds flowed down with the white cirrus clouds, finally covering the City of Life.

Everything was golden and dazzling, so bright it was hard to open one’s eyes.

The giant serpent passed through this ancient and sacred city, arriving before the Temple of Life.

The giant serpent coiled around the Temple of Life once, finally coming to the Tower of Heaven at the edge of the cliff.

The Holy Maiden stood atop the giant serpent’s head, watching as the stone walls of the Tower of Heaven stretched downward, finally reaching the top of the tower.

Atop the Tower of Heaven was a peculiar object.

Identical to the mount of the Mother of Life in Snake People mythology.

A hot air balloon vessel.

The Miracle Tool: Spirit’s Hot Air Balloon.

“This thing… I seem to have seen it before?”

The Holy Maiden seemed very familiar with this object, walking towards it the moment she saw it.

The hot air balloon vessel automatically opened its door.

The Holy Maiden skillfully boarded this magnificent tool with an obvious fairy-like style, entering its interior.

The moment the Holy Maiden stepped onto the hot air balloon, her consciousness once again left the mortal realm.

She seemed to see another world, another self.

She suddenly remembered everything from before.

Her identity, her origins.

She also understood the beginning and end of everything, why she had appeared here.

She was the Ruler of Life, the creator of the Snake People.

She was the supreme deity of the Life Ability.

She had been awake for too long and it was time to sleep again.

The Creator Yinsai wanted her to experience mortal life, to see what real mortals were like.

Their emotions, their faith, their lives.

More and more memories returned. Shelly said to herself.

“I am… Shelly.”

Shelly’s voice also became different, distinctly different from that innocent Holy Maiden.

It carried a hint of loftiness, with a trace of inhuman majesty.

She simply stood there ordinarily, but to mortals, it was like a great mountain. One could even faintly see a shadow that devoured the world.

In the instant of directly gazing upon her, one could hear the sound of horns like the end of days.

From the Spirit’s Hot Air Balloon, the divine being of the Life Sovereign looked towards the giant serpent coiled around the Tower of Heaven.

The giant serpent was slowly shrinking under the sunlight, finally transforming into a being with a divine form before Shelly.

But her appearance, hair, and eyes were identical to a thousand years ago.

Over the millennia, she had fully assimilated the mythical blood of the Life Ability from the Ring of the Serpent, obtaining the ninth Ruhe Seal.

She was destined to become a myth.

Only she still lacked some years and accumulation compared to other demigods.

Her form had also changed from that of a Snake Person to an almost divine form, her serpent tail becoming a pair of long, powerful legs.

Shelly looked at this female knight who had always been by her side, recalling scenes from the past.

A thousand years ago, when she had just created her.

She couldn’t even speak, just fearfully and anxiously following behind her, learning to speak alongside her, and only much later finally mastering the divine language.

Shelly rode a Land Dragon, while she held an umbrella for her.

Shelly called her stupid, and she would just smile foolishly.

Shelly gave her leftover pastries, and she would happily wiggle around outside the temple.

Now, thinking back, everything was filled with memories.

But it all ended when she let the Winged People go.

Although those Winged People hadn’t gone extinct, they now thrived on another continent.

To this day, she still remembered her initial confusion and bewilderment.

Only now did she truly gain some experience and understanding.

She understood mortals’ faith in God, understood some of mortals’ thoughts and emotions.

She also recalled when the Creator Yinsai returned.

Yinsai prevented Sermos from completely sinking into chaos and foolishness, and their conversation when he rescued her.

She asked the Creator, “God! Do you care about her?”

Yinsai shook his head and said to her, “I just think that perhaps one day when you truly understand emotions, you might feel regret.”

Shelly looked at the female knight and spoke her true name.

“My servant, Sermos.”

The Mother of Ten Thousand Serpents had also regained her former power and memories.

She anxiously approached the Ruler of Life, kneeling before her.

“God! Please forgive my mistakes.”

Shelly looked at Sermos and suddenly asked, “Am I really such a harsh deity?”

The Mother of Ten Thousand Serpents looked at Shelly: “I only know that You gave life to the Snake People, gave us wisdom, gave us the earth to live on and everything.”

“That is enough, God.”

Shelly listened to Sermos, the Mother of Ten Thousand Serpents, and continued.

“But I am not as merciful, as compassionate, nor as great as you proclaim. I created you simply because… I could.”

Sermos, the Mother of Ten Thousand Serpents, replied: “Mortals already possess wisdom, already possess the power You bestowed. As for the rest, we should create ourselves. This is the meaning of the wisdom and life You gave us, and the meaning of our existence in this world.”

Shelly looked towards the world beneath the sea of clouds, exhaling with her childlike voice and face.

“Huff!”

Then, she said, “Indeed! I am merely the God who gave you wisdom and life. As for everything in the future, let it be for you to decide and create.”

Shelly asked Sermos, the Mother of Ten Thousand Serpents: “I’m going home now, do you want to come with me?”

Sermos was so moved that tears welled up in her eyes: “You don’t mind the mistakes I once made?”

Shelly told Sermos: “I suddenly feel that it’s a very good thing for a person to have both devout faith and rich emotions at the same time. Although the two often conflict with each other.”

“But…”

She had a feeling, but didn’t know how to express it in her own words.

She suddenly remembered something God Yinsai had said, so she spoke it directly.

“It is precisely because of this, because mortal emotions are so contradictory, that life seems so real. You are truly alive, not a stone, not a tool.”

Sermos raised her head, her high ponytail trembling slightly, and one could see tears streaming down her face.

“God!”

Shelly turned around, cradling Xiuborn’s life dream, and Sermos immediately followed.

Together they boarded the hot air balloon vessel.

The hot air balloon emitted layers of starlight, and the two vanished from the mortal world together.

The deity and the Mother of Ten Thousand Serpents left the mortal realm, heading towards the Creator’s domain.

On the earth, the dense, massive tentacles covering everything gradually receded, withdrawing back into the ground.

That terrifying open eye also slowly closed.

The earth returned to its original state, everything becoming calm.

Fort Pence.

As the tentacles retreated underground one by one, the massive Door of Truth also slowly dissipated, finally closing completely.

But the broken chains did not heal.

The Door of Truth would no longer be bound by chains.

In the blink of an eye as the door closed, the Door of Truth retreated back to the edge of the Dream Realm.

“Ah!” One by one, figures lying on the streets turned over and got up. Everyone had slept deeply, forgetting everything.

“Why did I fall asleep?” Someone rubbed their head, feeling a bit dizzy.

“I seem to have seen a big door just now. When it opened, I fell asleep,” someone nearby immediately said.

“There was something else too, something black.” People also vaguely saw the moment when the Ruhe beast opened its eye, but because that eye was so large and everything happened in an instant, no one understood what had actually occurred.

“Yes, yes, I saw it too,” others chimed in.

“Wait, the Avel people were attacking our city just now. Where did they go?” Finally, someone came to their senses and looked around.

Everyone immediately stood up alertly. Some began to flee, while others picked up weapons.

However, all those Avel people had disappeared.

A group of Avel people woke up on their ships, only to find they were at the mouth of the Shepherd’s River where it met the sea.

“Where are we?”

“How did we end up here?”

These Avel people were utterly astonished.

They had no idea what had happened.

In the palace of the Royal Court of Ten Thousand Serpents.

The ruler of the beast-herding plains also woke up. As a direct descendant of Pence, he had just seen the legendary Mother of Ten Thousand Serpents Sermos in his dream.

He sat up, and many people around him had already awakened earlier, waiting for him.

He scanned everyone, then spoke to the nobles who had narrowly escaped death at the hands of the Avel people.

“Just now, I heard the voice of the Mother of Ten Thousand Serpents. The Mother of Ten Thousand Serpents personally conveyed a divine oracle to me. Release all Avel people and let them return. Stop the war. Everything ends here.”

The nobles nearby didn’t doubt the authenticity of this divine oracle at all. What had just happened was proof enough.

They immediately knelt on the ground, asking their king, “What should we do?”

The king recalled the recent disaster and slaughter, remembered the scene of the giant serpent coiled in the sky and the Door of Truth standing on the earth.

He couldn’t help but shudder.

He had never imagined that this conflict and slaughter between the descendants of Pence and the descendants of Avel would lead to such a scene.

Finally, he stood up and said to everyone, “Of course, we obey God’s will.”