Chapter 513: Cosmic Orange

Though he felt sympathy for Yamato Yūichi, who was about to be forced into a situation of eating soft rice too hard, Hermes changed his mind—compared to Yūichi, Yamato Hikari was far more to his liking.

Perhaps.

Could this girl, Yamato Hikari, whose destiny, talent, and opportunities were all beyond imagination, inherit part of his Dao lineage?

After all.

Digital·Cosmic Truth was also one of his specialties!

Thinking of this, Hermes added another message to the chat group—

“Yūichi, ask Hikari if she’d be willing to become my direct disciple.”

“If she’s willing to join my sect, undergo training and trials, perhaps Hikari has the potential to reach the level of Great Divine Power!”

He wasn’t unwilling to guide Yamato Hikari—even if he didn’t take her as a student, a few pointers wouldn’t be withheld.

But.

If she wasn’t even a student or disciple, with no sufficient karmic connection, Hermes giving her abundant opportunities and pouring out his entire Dao lineage would not be a good thing.

A teacher transmits the Dao, imparts knowledge, and resolves doubts—this is natural and beyond reproach, and carries absolutely no future hazards.

Yet if one merely admires a younger generation and offers a little guidance, that’s fine; but if one bestows too much, imparts too deeply, even a good cause and good result will, at the moment of attaining the Dao, turn that unearned favor into a heavy chain, drastically lowering the chance of success.

Yamato Yūichi: “…”

Yamato Yūichi: “I… I’ll ask Hikari for her opinion as soon as possible and give Itachi an answer!”

When he saw the group’s elder, who rarely spoke, suddenly expressing interest in taking a disciple, Yamato Yūichi was speechless, his eyes moist—

It was from emotion!

He couldn’t help feeling that his role as the Digital World’s savior was about to inevitably become nothing more than an accessory attached to his precious little sister…

Hermes: “Then it’s settled. Perhaps Hikari can go to Yuxu Palace and form a team with Nigeki Jūroku’ya and Galgi, becoming one of the Twelve Immortals of Kunlun Yuxu.”

To become one of Yuxu Palace’s Twelve Immortals, one must at least have some standing—the average new adept wasn’t even worth considering.

At the very least, one must show great promise of becoming a Great Divine Power; only then, under Hermes’ guidance, could one have the potential to glimpse the next higher realm.

Otherwise, when he later conversed with other Yuan Shi Tianzuns, and their disciples all shone brilliantly, towering and majestic, each a peerless talent, but when he turned to his own…

His disciples were few and insignificant—what he lost wouldn’t just be their faces.

Aozaki Sōko: “Yūichi, Itachi don’t need to rush so much—or rather, rushing won’t help.”

Aozaki Sōko: “I’m currently replicating the Cosmic Ishthar Project and the Aoki Silver Galaxy. So far, the plan is proceeding smoothly, but even so…”

Aozaki Sōko: “Even if the plan succeeds completely, I still lack confidence in attaining Cosmic Truth.”

In the deepest void workshop beneath the Garan Hall of the Type-Moon world, not a trace of smoke or fire remained; countless life-sized dolls stood silently, each body replicating Aozaki Sōko’s flesh, magical circuits, and soul vibrations, her signature Runes crawling across their joints, glowing with a cold silver-blue sheen.

“Sigh, it’s hard, too hard—what exactly is Cosmic Truth…?”

Aozaki Sōko gently pushed up her black-rimmed glasses, gazing at the chat interface, letting out a quiet sigh—beneath her gentle brows lay a flicker of uncertainty toward the future.

Yamato Yūichi’s predicament wasn’t just his own; many ambitious group members also felt utterly lost along this path.

As the Crown Puppeteer, Aozaki Sōko’s wisdom ranked among the highest among Type-Moon magicians, and now, after joining the group and undergoing countless transformations, her inability to become a Magus wasn’t her fault—it was the world’s.

The Two Inhibitors had always guarded her fiercely, denying her any chance to reach the Root!

Without access to the Root, her painstakingly created Puppet Magic could never ascend through the grand power of the Root Vortex.

Gaia maintained the planet’s closed loop, Alaya sealed the karmic chain of hominids; the Two Inhibitors wove karmic threads spanning countless parallel worlds, tightly binding the future of all living beings—she had long grown weary of Earth’s shackles.

Thus, she ultimately put the Aoki Silver Galaxy path and the Cosmic Sōko Project into practice.

“First-tier dolls: deploy a thousand-layer Rune barrier to encase Gaia’s planetary anchor at the core. Second-tier dolls: infiltrate the Sea of Unconsciousness and bind Alaya’s flow. Third-tier dolls: construct dimensional barriers to sever the Inhibitors’ extending karmic threads.”

Aozaki Sōko raised her hand, and over a hundred specially crafted dolls in the workshop simultaneously opened their eyes.

These were the karmic-severing dolls she had exhausted her Puppetry art to create—she even had Indi Kesi intervene to overcome numerous obstacles, pouring her heart, soul, and wealth into them using the group’s true simulation function, forging their bodies from dragon blood, star-silver, and primordial Runes, inscribing a thousand layered magical circuits within each, granting every doll the independent ability to analyze and sever aetheric karma.

At her command, the grand rituals she had long concealed, reversing yin and yang, activated one by one through the movements of her doll avatars.

Rune symbols spread across the core in a circular cage, sealing off Gaia’s channels for transmitting planetary will.

Semi-transparent doll bodies sank into the boundless deep sea of human subconsciousness, layers of spiritual membranes wrapping the surging collective consciousness of Alaya.

Countless silver-white threads burst from the dolls’ palms, like razor-sharp blades, slicing down upon the tangled karmic networks connecting countless other worlds.

Deep within the earth, a roar capable of crushing all things surged—Gaia enraged, the planet’s spiritual roots trembling violently, strata cracking, crimson magma erupting from crustal fissures, thick black miasmas laden with the earth’s resentment filling heaven and earth; the collective unconscious sea of humanity erupted into a tidal wave of chaotic consciousness—Alaya went utterly berserk…

Aozaki Sōko merely lifted her black-rimmed glasses slightly, her expression utterly impassive.

She clearly sensed that the two supreme wills, already transcending this world, had been stirred by her act of severing karma and extracting their essence—but no matter how fiercely they drove planetary power and collective consciousness to crash against her, they could never penetrate the Rune barriers or the karmic-severing doll array.

Her pre-placed thousand-layer dimensional isolation had already severed Gaia and Alaya’s informational pathways to the Root of the multiverse—let alone…

Gaia and Alaya were merely Inhibitors, not World Will!

“Since Itachi refuse to let me walk the path of the Magus…”

Aozaki Sōko’s lips curled into a chilling, bone-deep smile, cold enough to crystallize into tiny ice shards:

“Then get as far away from me as Itachi can.”