Chapter 692: Am

"Eve!"

Lily rushed in and, upon seeing the situation inside the magic chamber, wore the same bewildered expression as Rod.

"Mother? How did you two come together?"

The serpent eyes flickered between her mother and Rod, as if vaguely suspicious.

Lily hesitated slightly, then quickly said:

"It was Mr. Rod—he noticed you were acting strange, so he called me to come stop you."

"Oh, I see!"

Eve's face bloomed into a warm, pure smile, all suspicion vanished.

Seeing her daughter's unquestioning trust, Lily felt a sharp stab in her heart—regret surged again.

Rod had already stepped forward.

At the instant his foot touched the ritual's edge, he poured in an enormous amount of spirituality; the spiritual light blazed fiercely, nearly engulfing the entire magic chamber.

"Aaaaaaaahhhhhhh—!!!!"

The central sand sphere's cries grew even more agonized and desperate.

Rod noticed the ritual was extremely crude, with spiritual flow hindered and obstructed.

Meanwhile, Eve's body also glowed in sync.

"The ritual's effect is limited; no matter how much spirituality you pour in, it can only suppress—not achieve the intended result."

Lily nodded: "I'll refine it."

"Tally, assist me."

"Oh~~"

Tally had taken forest elf magic classes; she understood a bit.

Seeing the matter was settled.

Rod hadn't even begun to ask, but Eve started chattering excitedly, proudly recounting the whole story.

Basically, she hadn't realized at first that the sand sphere was influencing her.

Only when sunlight struck the next day did the 【Daylight Blessing】 activate and barely exempt her from its effect.

After that, of course, she pretended to help.

Using the slow development of the Thousand Throats Tomb as an excuse, she lured the sand sphere into accepting the sacrifice prematurely—before erasing the tomb's rune seals.

Then she moved as far away as possible, further weakening the sand sphere's connection to the Thousand Throats Tomb.

When the sacrifice began.

Eve, leveraging her identity as a spiritual warrior, feigned ignorance, deliberately introducing errors to force the sand sphere to use a lower-tier ritual.

This played right into Eve's hands—years spent learning ancestral magic beside Lily, plus the three spiritual seeds Rod had fed her, had given her strong comprehension and insight.

After successfully breaking through to First-Rank Mage on the spot, she secretly altered the ritual, turning it into one focused on binding and draining.

"Impressive."

Rod patted her head.

But Eve didn't like this gesture like other girls did; she huffed and swatted his hand away.

Rod didn't mind.

He gave the land naga mother and daughter another lecture on the evil god affairs of the First Era and the divine power system.

Eve's beautiful eyes sparkled continuously.

Meanwhile, as the draining ritual intensified, spiritual energy surged within her; her face flushed red, her power climbing steadily.

"This thing says its name is Am, and that it's a deity—so can't I just keep digging up more evil god tombs?!"

This thing was clearly greedier than her mother Lily.

Her first thought wasn't fear—it was tomb-robbing.

"Also, if I drain Am's divine spark, won't I become a deity too? Like Lady Mystra!"

Eve grew excited, a haughty smile spreading across her face.

"Probably not."

Rod shook his head. "The divine spark grants the potential to become a deity, but it doesn't automatically elevate you."

He and Moon Goddess Miss Lu Ka had discussed this before.

Low-rank individuals, due to the fragility and limitations of their flesh and soul, cannot withstand divine power beyond mortal limits.

To become a deity through this means, one must possess some mastery in a domain of authority.

According to the panel's data, the domain's authority must reach at least 80 points to qualify for godhood.

Even Rod's highest domain, 【Moon Domain】, is only at 71 points.

The highest domain authority he'd ever seen belonged to the father of the superstar Lila Star-Speaker—【Skyward Eye】 at 91 points, enough to effortlessly pierce through his disguised domain.

Only veteran ninth-rankers like that could possibly achieve godhood.

As for Mystra, she was already ninth-rank, a prodigy who created the Weave—her domain level couldn't possibly be low.

The divine spark is like a firefly in the dark.

It's fine when hidden, but once exposed to spirituality, all divination spells and star-destiny observations will detect it.

Other demons or powerful beings are highly likely to covet the divine spark and seize it by force.

Besides,

We have no way to strip away the divine spark.

Eve is greedy, but she's not suicidal.

Her face immediately fell: "Then what do I do? I don't have any domain authority at all."

Tally, who was holding a jar of magic powder for Lillian, immediately sneered upon hearing this.

"Aha, cauliflower snake, Tally possesses a full three domains, doesn't she, cousin?"

The cousin was none other than Rod.

Who knows when she added this persona for herself.

"You, a succu-"

Eve's voice halted as she glanced at her mother.

She did not want her mother to know that a succubus was following her man.

Although they would divide and consume their husband among the sisters upon divorce, land naga did not usually share a husband.

If two women served one man, it would make her lose face.

So she glared at Rod and asked in a lowered voice, "Did you give her special lessons?"

Someone shrugged: "She eats two meals a day, finishing every meal until her face puffs up like a squirrel's; if she isn't strong, that would be a miracle."

"From today on, my appetite will be the same as hers!"

"Fine, fine, fine."

What followed was much simpler.

That sand sphere named Am was, to speak the truth, far weaker than Moon Goddess Miss Lu Ka, and the sealing runes had not been opened at all.

Once Lillian's improved ritual struck it, it immediately withered.

Shrinking from the size of a fist to the size of a thumb, it lacked even the strength to speak.

Eve directly advanced from the early stage of the seventh tier to the high stage, and forcibly extracted a 【Sandstorm Domain】 from its body.

This fellow had good methods and was sufficiently clever; the harvest was quite abundant.

Sand sphere Am was utterly miserable; calling it humiliating would not be an exaggeration.

But this was, after all, a spiritual body that had escaped from the sealed original; it could indeed draw upon the original's power through its absorption, but true handling required entering the Thousand Throat Tomb.

After having someone guard the mis-cast small snake in the magic chamber, the four rushed without pause to the Thousand Throat Tomb.

Am, whose spiritual body had been nearly drained, was left with only a lump of flesh; he had expected to endure a fierce battle.

Only after entering did he realize.

This thing was different from Moon Goddess Miss Lu Ka; it was a shapeless contender, its sole 'physical body' being merely a yellow crystalline core.

Simply drawing the power of the soul's original body along the spiritual body caused it to fall into slumber once more.

Inside the tomb, apart from a pile of sacrificial items, scattered gravel, and dropped equipment, there was nothing else.

Eve went mad with joy, declaring everything was hers, and swept the equipment into her arms.

Rod did not care much, but when he gazed upon that yellow crystalline core, he unexpectedly felt a desire for it emanating from each of the war souls within his body.

"Hmm?"

(End of this chapter)