Deep in the jungle, a hidden town stood.

Behind the town was an underground palace built long ago to store provisions. It had been cleared out for a new purpose.

The passages and walls of the underground palace were lit with lamps. Both the surface and the floor below were inscribed with ritual arrays, and people stood guard throughout.

Although ritual arrays could no longer communicate with the Spirit Country or borrow miracle power, they could still connect with the Dream Realm to obtain supernatural abilities.

Followers of demigods used these rituals and the properties of the spiritual realm to contact divine beings or harness power from potent sequence artifacts.

For instance, the blind prophetess of the Royal Court of Ten Thousand Serpents once communicated with the terrifying Ruhe beast through rituals, even though she died without ever learning the true nature of the horrifying entity she contacted.

Almost all important figures of Avel had gathered here, their expressions solemn and grave.

Deep in thought, Yafuan wore the elaborate robe of the Chief Divine Servant.

Seeing him in a daze, King Sidi spoke up.

“Yafuan, have you decided?”

“If you think there’s a problem, you can stop. I trust you.”

Yafuan turned to look at the trusting King of Avel, shook his head, and stepped into the ritual array.

Dozens of priests from the Temple of Knowledge chanted incantations in unison, guiding the flow of spiritual power.

A powerful storm of spiritual energy swirled through the underground palace and formed a violently rotating tempest.

Within the storm, Yafuan’s body gradually changed as his Witch Spirit form and the Book of the Witch Spirit collapsed into countless tiny silver light particles spinning in the vortex.

The Bone Demon transformation had begun.

The first step was the most painful and despairing. To become a Bone Demon, one had to crush their former body and everything else to extract their most primal power.

Assistance would have made the process easier, but no Bone Demons remained in this era to guide him. Yafuan had to become the first Bone Demon of this new age.

Yafuan had to endure everything alone.

A voice emerged from the void, reciting an incantation in a trembling tone filled with agony.

It was Yafuan’s voice, speaking not in the tongue of the Snake People but in an ancient language.

One could sense that as Yafuan recited the incantation, his spirit hovered on the edge of collapse and dissolution.

“Body Reforging.”

The skull of the Trilobite Man, placed on the ground, floated upward and grew continuously as Yafuan’s power merged with it.

Piece by piece, the bones assembled and finally connected to form a skeletal structure.

After completing this step, Yafuan hastily recited the second incantation as recorded in the Bone Demon Transformation Secret.

“Divine Blood Brain.”

Silver light particles surged into the skeleton, and a strange yet extraordinary monstrous brain appeared in its cranial cavity.

At this point, Yafuan’s voice changed again.

This time, the skeleton itself spoke, calling out the third incantation.

“Consciousness Transfer.”

Something changed in the skeleton’s eye sockets as light began to glow inside, as if flames were dancing.

Yafuan’s voice grew incredibly hoarse and dry, making everyone uneasy.

Combined with his skeletal appearance, his hoarse voice sent chills down the spines of everyone participating in the ritual in the dark underground palace.

Yafuan felt the power in his brain gathering to a threshold, ready to undergo a qualitative transformation.

Within his consciousness, another inheritance appeared that he had obtained from Ghost Polik, the core secret art of the Temple of Truth.

“Art of God’s Grace.”

At the moment of his transformation into a Bone Demon, Yafuan sought to transcend mortal limits and ascend to the rank known as God’s Apostle.

Yafuan immediately activated another ritual array beneath the ground. This time, the spiritual power of dozens of priests formed immense pressure that compressed his spiritual power, seals, and consciousness inward until a God’s Grace Stone appeared in his brain.

Then Yafuan’s power seemed to open a channel, like a massive void in an ocean, devouring all of his power.

Yafuan formed his mythic organ as his brain became completely deified.

With this, everything gradually calmed down.

“Is it over?” Many of the priests conducting the ritual watched as the skeletal monster slowly descended from above, asking anxiously.

“Did it succeed?” Others stared intently at the first Bone Demon of the second era, their hearts filled with unspoken questions even as their lips remained silent.

At that moment, the ground beneath their feet suddenly trembled.

“Rumble.”

A huge crack opened in the floor of the underground palace, and a terrifying monster of enormous size crawled out.

First to emerge was a ferocious Land Dragon skull.

The head alone was the size of a house.

It extended its claws as it climbed upward, its bone wings breaking through the stone below.

The others were frightened out of their wits and scattered in all directions.

“What is this thing? When did something like this exist underground?” Everyone had never seen such a creature before, yet it somehow seemed familiar.

“Did something go wrong?” More people speculated, wondering if the ritual had failed.

At the center of the fissure, the humanoid skeleton monster remained suspended in the void despite the collapsing ground. Someone shouted, “Lord Yafuan? Lord Yafuan?” hoping for a response.

It crashed through the ceiling of the underground palace, creating a massive hole as it poked its head out to roar at the outside world.

The light from outside shone upon the humanoid skeleton, which finally began to move.

He twisted his stiff neck and his fleshless skull looked around. “Everything is fine. Everyone, return to your duties,” he said.

Then his gaze fell upon the bone dragon.

The humanoid skeleton called out, “Skeletal Flying Dragon, move more gently.”

“Roar!”

The bone dragon turned its head in response.

The dragon’s voice stirred waves of air.

The dragon moved more gently, yet even a casual roar sent layers of surrounding vegetation flying and scattered many Snake People in all directions.

Two terrifying monsters, powerful beyond mortal imagination, were now united, emanating a force that forced everyone within thousands of meters to the ground, unable to lift their heads.

Yafuan’s former Paper Flying Dragon had transformed into a being made entirely of bones, becoming one of his puppets.

And Yafuan had become an incredibly powerful Bone Demon, a terrifying life form created by an evil sorcerer named Anhofus from the previous era.

Yafuan walked toward the Skeletal Flying Dragon.

The Skeletal Flying Dragon lowered its head, allowing Yafuan to climb up.

As Yafuan moved, his Bone Field radiated outward.

Under the influence of the Bone Field, one horrifying skeletal puppet after another, both large and small, crawled out of the earth around them.

The tallest stood tens of meters high while the smallest measured only a few meters.

All these skeletal puppets knelt on the ground, facing Yafuan.

“Whoosh!”

The Skeletal Flying Dragon spread its wings, carrying Yafuan on a gust of wind as they soared into the sky.

When magical beasts reach the fourth rank, they can be crowned kings.

Now Yafuan was a fourth-rank Bone Demon King.

People had just heard Yafuan command everyone to hold steady and direct the Skeletal Flying Dragon.

“We succeeded! We did it!”

Many people danced with joy because they had finally attained fourth-rank power. Although the Abyss’s power far exceeded that of an ordinary fourth rank, they now had the ability to protect themselves.

Yet self-protection was barely sufficient. Without resolving the Abyss, the people of Avel would never have a future.

If they couldn’t eliminate the monsters ravaging this land or stop the endless black rain, they would forever live under the shadow of the Abyss.

King Sidi of Avel watched the dragon whistling through the sky as he observed Yafuan releasing his inner pressure.

“This is only the first step.”

Beside him, Nia wept profusely. She was the only one who understood how difficult it had been to reach this point and what price was yet to be paid.

“Taking this step means there’s no way to turn back.”

The Bone Demon Yafuan, sitting atop the bone dragon’s skull, raised his head and felt the power within his body.

It was power beyond mortal limits.

At that moment, a voice suddenly appeared in his mind.

He didn’t see the Door of Truth, but he heard Polik’s voice.

It was a message Polik had left for him, words he could only hear after becoming a fourth-rank Bone Demon King.

“Yafuan, the Book of Xiuborn contains the answers you seek. It will be a crucial step in realizing your plan.”

“Your plan can only delay the curse of the Abyss, but within the Book of Xiuborn lies the method to resolve everything.”

A large amount of information flowed into Yafuan’s mind in an ancient language and script, with reading and writing methods completely different from those of the Snake People.

Yafuan immediately recognized that this was the knowledge he had once sought to exchange with the God of Knowledge and Truth but had failed to obtain.

“This is the language of the most ancient race.”

It is the language of the Trilobite Man.

So the Door of Truth had given Yafuan the Trilobite Man’s Skull with another purpose in mind. If Yafuan had not resolved to transform into a Bone Demon, he would never have known about this message.

The Door of Truth knew everything that Yafuan could think of or know.

However, the information the Door of Truth possessed and the conclusions it drew were far beyond Yafuan’s imagination.

“God!”

Yafuan lifted his head toward the sky, uttering this word.

He understood that the Door of Truth and the Ghost Polik family were using him as a pawn.

But if it meant achieving his goal, what did it matter if he was just a pawn?

He received such bountiful blessings from the divine precisely because he was to become a pawn, and that was the price.

Yafuan hesitated briefly, but ultimately decided to investigate.

Even if it was not for perfecting his plan, he wanted to discover what Lord Xiuborn had left behind and what secrets it contained.

In the coastal wilderness stood the ruins of a city.

The original city had gradually been overtaken by vegetation, with massive trees occupying the roads and growing through buildings.

Once, civilization had carved into nature, but now nature reclaimed everything civilization had built.

Snake Demons were scattered throughout the city.

They dwelled here and bred their offspring.

Under Melde’s Law of Desire, the monsters could mate among themselves, giving birth to the Abyss races.

Given enough time, these Abyss Monsters might replace the Snake People as masters of this land.

“Hiss!”

Several Snake Demons crawled like beasts, keeping close to the ground as they swiftly navigated the wilderness.

They were hunting, and sometimes they killed each other.

Without the Will of the Abyss controlling them, their daily lives were remarkably regular, much like those of wild beasts.

A figure in a black cloak that concealed his entire body entered the area, disrupting the tranquility of the ruined city and monster nest.

Beneath the black robes, it was clear that he walked on two legs.

His arrival immediately caught the attention of the Snake Demons, but before they could approach him, horrifying giant bone hands emerged from the ground and dragged them beneath the surface.

A graceful and agile Snake woman followed him, her waist swaying with the movement of her serpentine tail.

At first, Yafuan found walking on legs quite uncomfortable, but gradually he became accustomed to it.

Nia followed Yafuan, looking at the city with profound melancholy.

In the blink of an eye, more than a decade had passed.

“Lord Yafuan, why have we returned here?”

Bone Demon Yafuan: “I am here to retrieve what Lord Xiuborn left behind.”

Nia exclaimed in shock: “Lord Xiuborn?”

To the people of Avel, Xiuborn was a savior-like figure.

Bone Demon Yafuan continued: “Long ago, I left behind an item that Lord Xiuborn had entrusted to me because I lacked the qualifications to unlock the secrets he had left for me.”

“But now, I am qualified.”

Yafuan sighed: “The God of Truth and Knowledge is truly a merciful and fair deity.”

“When you pay a sufficient price, miracles will descend.”

Nia replied: “Isn’t it normal that effort brings reward?”

Yafuan turned to look at Nia: “Does payment always guarantee reward? Nia, often there is no return for what we give.”

“Equivalent exchange is the greatest blessing the divine has bestowed upon the people of Avel.”

Yafuan continued walking forward: “Choosing to believe in the God of Knowledge and Truth was perhaps the most correct decision the Avel people ever made.”

“He is the deity most suited for us, and I hope this relationship endures.”

Nia suddenly fell silent, carefully considering his words.

Many people were still willing to put forth a thousandfold effort for that sliver of chance even though they knew the truth.

Yafuan finally discovered the former Temple of Knowledge hidden amid overgrown vegetation.

He entered his former residence and reached out to retrieve a stone brick.

Inside lay a book.

Yafuan took it in his hand, and when Nia curiously tried to peek over his shoulder, he blocked her view and said, “Do not look.”

Nia looked at Yafuan in confusion.

Yafuan told Nia: “This is a cursed book of madness. Lord Xiuborn glimpsed secrets that mortals should not know and recorded all those secrets in this book.”

“Even if you cannot understand its contents, merely looking at this book would subject you to the will of the most ancient race from the previous era. Ordinary people would immediately descend into madness, and even those with strong will would struggle to endure it.”

Yafuan held the book, lowering his head as he continued.

“And if someone could understand its contents…”

Seeing Yafuan pause, Nia asked, “What would happen?”

Yafuan shook his head: “I do not know, but Lord Xiuborn experienced a period of extreme delirium and lost control of himself.”

“He glimpsed secrets that did not belong to him and possessed wisdom that was not his own. This power allowed him to perform incredible feats, nearly destroying the entire Royal Court of Ten Thousand Serpents with just one man’s strength while saving all the people of Avel.”

“Polik, the messenger of the God of Knowledge and Truth, said that his ultimate death was caused by his own madness.”

Yafuan told Nia: “It is dangerous. Some secrets are best left unknown.”

“When you draw closer to the divine and know more, you may also draw closer to disaster and death.”

Nia also asked the question that was on everyone’s mind.

“Is it because the divine do not want us to know their secrets that they placed a curse?”

Yafuan laughed, though his fleshless, terrifying skull revealed no trace of a smile.

He said to Nia: “I was born by the sea. My father was a fisherman. When I was young, he always told me that the sea was cursed.”

“He believed that those who went to sea to fish were devoured by the ocean because they took its food and treasures.”

“But as I grew older, I realized that the sea had no curse. Wind, waves, and storms are merely natural phenomena.”

“The so-called curse exists only because fishermen, unaware of their limits, venture into the sea and perish.”

Yafuan told Nia: “We are fishermen who do not know our limits, seeking the treasures we desire amid the sea’s raging storms.”

“What devours us is simply the natural tempest.”

“The birth of these tempests may be linked to the divine, but it has nothing to do with divine will.”

Nia sighed: “But without those who dare to explore and challenge the tempest, the Avel people would never set foot on the ocean.”

“Without those who dare to uncover forbidden secrets, we would never gain the power to confront danger.”

Nia looked at Yafuan, her eyes filled with worry.

Yafuan was the next fisherman unaware of his limits, though Nia hoped he would not be devoured by the tempest.

Yafuan found a house in the ruins of the former capital to rest and prepare to read the Book of Xiuborn.

He spent an entire day preparing.

He arranged ritual barriers inside and outside the house to prevent any problems.

He extended his bony hand from beneath his cloak and opened the Book of Xiuborn.

Instantly, he heard thousands of voices whispering in his ears. The will of the Trilobite Men from the previous era roared at him, forbidding a creature of the second era from peering into secrets belonging to the Trilobite Man.

“Stop… stop… stop.”

“Must not glimpse… secrets…”

“Die… die… die…”

“Must not know…”

Yafuan had once nearly succumbed to madness under these voices, but this time he maintained firm control of his will.

He listened to the voices, and after a long time, they gradually faded.

He began reading the first page of the Book of Xiuborn, which recorded Xiuborn’s journey to an ancient place millions of years ago.

He saw unimaginably ancient cities, towering buildings with magnificent styles, and all manner of miraculous creations. At first, Xiuborn could not comprehend how the most ancient race had created these wonders.

He saw grand divine temples and the gods worshiped within them.

They were the supreme deities of the previous era.

“I entered the temple of the most ancient race and saw our creator and supreme deity, the Life Sovereign. According to our records, She was majestic and omnipotent. Yet now She appeared as a little girl sitting quietly on the divine platform of the true Creator, at the feet of the Creator deity.”

With these words, Yafuan nearly dropped the book in his hands.

Although he had known fragments of the truth long ago, confronting it fully made him feel as if his head might explode.

The deity who created them and governed this era was merely a being who sat at the feet of another deity.

Moreover, the true supreme deity who created all things had vanished into the depths of time long ago.

Yafuan continued reading: “The Divine King of the most ancient race stood beneath the divine platform. He was the first being with wisdom to be born in this world and the source of all wisdom.”

“To the right of the divine throne sat a goddess on an ornate high-backed chair, cradling an eggshell filled with starlight as she slept. One could faintly see dreams as vast as starry oceans spilling from the eggshell. She must be the deity worshipped in the Land of Sunrise and the chief deity of the God of Alchemy and Desire.”

Life, Wisdom, Dreams.

They were three deities of power’s origin who inherited the authority of the Creator. This was the beginning of all stories and the origin of all myths.

“On both sides of the temple walls were many murals depicting ancient myths from billions of years ago.”

Here, Yafuan finally saw the Creator’s name.

“God Yinsai.”

“I saw the Creator’s name recorded by the most ancient race, just as the God of Knowledge and Truth had said. The most ancient ones called him Yinsai, and even the Divine King of the most ancient race named his kingdom after him, calling it Yinsai Kingdom, which means the kingdom that believes in Yinsai.”

“A King of Wisdom who possessed the power of ability’s origin and believed in another deity.”

“Our creator, the Life Sovereign, was indeed the same.”

“He is the God above gods, the beginning of everything.”

Yafuan hastily turned to the second page. “Just as the God of Knowledge and Truth said, they were the lineage of God’s firstborn son and the Creator’s firstborn, possessing the bloodline of the Divine King.”

“They were born to dwell in the Creator’s garden while we remained only divine creations.”

“They were born with all things, inheriting the sky, earth, and sea.”

“The bloodline of the Divine King controlled beasts capable of destroying the world and could command everything in this world except for immortality.”

“Even ordinary people could wield miraculous omnipotence, bathing in divine grace to obtain whatever they desired.”

By this point in his writing, it was clear that Xiuborn had begun to descend into madness.

The text overflowed with frenzied meaning, much like a madman on the verge of collapse in both his worldview and his will.

Yafuan was no better. His body trembled visibly as he held the book.

“Yinsai?”

“Is there truly a Creator? So this is how the myths began?”

This was the first time Yafuan had learned the Creator’s name instead of merely knowing vaguely that another deity had created everything.

Through the text, he deeply felt Xiuborn’s emotions from that time, sensing him kneeling before the temple and collapsing in both tears and laughter.

After reading this far, Yafuan was gripped by an emotion that made him fear to continue. He immediately closed the book as his body shook violently.

After a long while, he reopened the book, still in search of the answer he sought.

The book recorded the names of great beasts and documented both miraculous powers and the Spirit Country.

He read through the pages carefully, feeling terrified, skeptical, and deeply fascinated by everything within.

Then the Book of Xiuborn revealed an obscure myth about the Monster Race.

“The Monster Race once made a covenant with the Crown of Wisdom, eternally inscribed on the crown of the King of Wisdom.”

This was the second time Yafuan had encountered a myth about covenants.

The first covenant was that of the Trilobite Man. Although it was inscribed by the King of Wisdom, Redlichia, Yafuan had regarded it as nothing more than an unimaginable myth.

However, he now saw that the Monster Race could also forge covenants through the Crown of Wisdom.

Yafuan instantly understood.

This was the answer that the Door of Truth had mentioned and the very thing he had been seeking.

When you master a race, you can stand in for its king and make an eternal oath to the source of all wisdom.

The Abyss Race.

It was also a race.

In this world, nothing was more stable or eternal than such oaths because they were bound to the source of all wisdom and the power of ability’s origin.

Yafuan suddenly stood up and shouted.

“This is it! This is the answer I sought and the true solution to everything.”

He failed to notice that, like Xiuborn before him, his behavior grew increasingly frenzied as he read, and his will became uncontrollable.

He clutched the Book of Xiuborn while dancing wildly, breaking through the barrier he had set and rushing outside.

“I found it… I found it.”

“The Crown of Wisdom. I only need to make an oath to the Crown of Wisdom and the eternal will of King Redlichia…”

In his wild joy, Yafuan looked out from the high point of the Temple of Knowledge.

Outside, night had fallen and the sky was cloudless with a moon hanging overhead.

As he looked at the moon and called out the names of the Crown of Wisdom and King Redlichia, his consciousness was instantly pulled from reality into another world.

Even as a fourth-rank ability user, he could not resist being drawn in.

It seemed that while reading that story and chanting the deity’s name, he had established a connection with the spiritual realm.

Such behavior was generally suicidal. As beings grew more powerful, they avoided such actions because their heightened spirituality and power made them more vulnerable to dangerous connections with these entities.

Not even the strongest could withstand the uncontrollable waves of power radiating from these divine beings.

This was especially true in an era when the Ruhe beast had grown as vast as a continent and the Dream Realm had become increasingly unfathomable. Even demigods dared not casually chant the name of the Ruhe beast, let alone anything else.

Yafuan felt himself transported to an unknowable place in a moment of abstraction.

He saw a vast sea of stars.

But that sea of stars filled him with disillusionment. Instead of revealing the depth of the cosmos, it conveyed an indescribable heaviness.

Yafuan turned his head in confusion as an extraordinarily large silver moon appeared before his eyes.

But as the moonlight grew more intense, within the endless silver-white glow, he sensed something else.

“The power of wisdom.”

It was the power of the King of Wisdom. The wisdom race could sense the supreme Divine Artifact, the Crown of Wisdom, within God’s Moon, and they knew that whoever wore that crown would rule all wise beings in this world.

This crown was the supreme power of the wisdom lineage. It was the God of Wisdom.

In Yafuan’s hollow eye sockets, the light of God’s Moon reflected as he spoke in a daze about what he had seen.

“That is not the moon.”

“It is… it is… it is…”

Yafuan’s entire body trembled uncontrollably.

Finally, he let out a monstrous scream.

“The Crown of Wisdom!”

But immediately after, he witnessed an even more terrifying sight.

A majestic figure, as vast as the cosmos, descended from beyond and squeezed into this world.

The being existed beyond the universe and used the power of God’s Moon and the Crown of Wisdom to project its will into our world.

Because of this, the entire world seemed to gain brilliance as wisdom and life descended upon it through him.

Yafuan had previously seen deities compared to the sun and moon, but now these celestial bodies seemed insignificant compared to this deity.

In reality, Yafuan collapsed to his knees before the moon, clutching his head and letting out an agonized howl.

“Ah!”

Yafuan witnessed the same vision his ancestor Avel had seen over a thousand years ago, except that back then the Creator had descended along the river of time and arrived directly in this era.

God’s Moon had thus appeared in the mortal world.

This time, Yafuan saw God’s Moon within the Dream Realm.

Yafuan was about to be consumed by the vision when the sun rose and replaced the moon.

Yafuan collapsed to the ground as his body emitted scalding steam.

Nia had been waiting outside the temple and immediately ran over when she saw Yafuan come rushing out.

“Lord Yafuan! What happened to you? What is going on?”

Yafuan’s body curled up like a giant shrimp as he pressed his head against the floor and cried out like a madman.

“Creator… the true… Creator God.”