Chapter 558: Leaving the Divine Abandoned Land

Lei Kedun turned around, looked toward the direction that emitted the sound, and softly uttered a word in ancient Hermes language:

"Light!"

A bright, clean, dazzling and pure ray of light fell from the sky, completely dispelling the darkness ahead, revealing a monster in the darkness that was gnawing at a broken, decayed blue stone slab among the ruins.

It stood nearly four meters tall, its whole body gray‑white, its surface carved with armor‑plate‑like patterns, its head bearing goat‑like horns, its mouth resembling a hound's, with fangs flashing between a half‑open, half‑closed snarl.

It held the blue stone slab with both hands, bringing it to its mouth, and at its feet lay a stone long halberd about seven or eight meters long.

What drew the most attention were its pair of eyes burning with red light and its six pairs of gray‑white membranous wings; gazing at them would gradually petrify one.

"Six‑winged stone gargoyle?" Lei Kedun murmured, looking at the monster that had revealed its form before him.

Boom! Boom! Heavy footsteps echoed around, and two more gray‑white six‑winged stone gargoyles, each nearly four meters tall, emerged from the darkness, each wielding a four‑pronged spear about seven or eight meters long, their red‑flamed eyes fixed on Lei Kedun.

"Did I just poke the stone gargoyle's old lair?"

He muttered softly, and his body suddenly became transparent, ethereal, turning into a mass of bubbles.

Bathed in the light, the bubbles reflected dreamlike colors, drifting apart and vanishing in an instant.

The next moment, his figure materialized beside the six‑winged stone gargoyle still stuffing the blue slab into its mouth, his right hand, fitted with a mechanical glove, pressing firmly against the gargoyle's gray‑white stone body.

Tiny bronze‑hued glimmers seeped from the mechanical glove, coursing swiftly through the gargoyle's body, gradually dismantling its structural integrity.

Silently, the towering six‑winged stone gargoyle disintegrated into mottled, decayed fragments that scattered on the ground, while its pair of red‑flamed eyes remained intact, detaching from its body and landing on Lei Kedun's gloved right hand.

Having done all that, Lei Kedun turned his head to look at the two other six‑winged stone gargoyles emerging behind him.

They seemed terrified, sprinting toward the darkness behind at a speed incongruous with their massive bodies, their huge paws striking the ground without a single footfall sound.

Lei Kedun squinted, reached into the air, grasped, and condensed a jade‑white token, then casually tossed it away.

In the darkness, the two rapidly running six‑winged stone gargoyles suddenly slowed, unable to take a single step for a long while.

Lei Kedun examined the two fleeing six‑winged stone gargoyles for a moment; their gray‑white towering stone bodies gradually became transparent, collapsing inward until each turned into a semi‑transparent specter the size of a normal human.

"Three six‑winged stone gargoyles, yet only one is real; it seems unaware that its companions are fakes, and a stone brain is indeed not very smart," he muttered lowly.

He muttered a low complaint, lifted his left hand, and brilliant starlight swirled around him; the starlight burst into form then flew outward, condensing in midair into spears of flickering star‑light.

These spears easily pierced the sluggish semi‑transparent specters, melting and disintegrating their bodies piece by piece.

Compared with the six‑winged stone gargoyles, the trickster fiends' bodies were far more fragile; I felt that if the sunlight I just summoned were a bit hotter, it could melt them outright," Lei Kedun thought, moving forward to collect the items condensed from the two fiends' bodies.

They were peculiar eyes, overall dark, surrounded by intricate indistinct patterns, the pupils like a lightless water surface.

Lei Kedun picked up the primary eyes of the two trickster fiends, then summoned several Invisible Servants, handing them the extraordinary material he had condensed in his hands.

After the Invisible Servants withdrew, he transformed again into a pure information‑flow entity, swiftly roaming the spirit realm toward the Giant King's Court.

As time passed, the frequency of lightning in the sky increased from once every one or two minutes to once every three or four seconds.

In the place where the Giant King's Court stood, a barely observable radiance composed of countless tangled pure informations surged from the spirit realm.

The light carried a peculiar rhythm, as if it merged with the magnificent palace, drifting freely within it without disturbing the guards.

At the front gate of the Giant King's Court, a faint, indistinct glow gathered in midair.

The glows suddenly turned chaotic and twisted, as if they could disintegrate into countless information streams at any moment.

In an instant, the glows abruptly vanished on the spot, disappearing completely without a trace.

Beyond the Divine Abandoned Land, over the sea formed from the Divine War ruins, a faint glow composed of countless tangled pure knowledge floated slowly in midair, as if caught in a sluggish state. The moment he left the Divine Abandoned Land, countless prayers echoed in Lei Kedun's ears—male, female, distant, close, ethereal, hoarse, all bearing intense, pure emotion, earnestly voicing their doubts and petitions.

It was as if the accumulated prayers were suddenly poured into him; Lei Kedun felt an overwhelming clamor in his ears, a urge to silence the whole world.

After a while, Lei Kedun finally finished sorting the prayers echoing in his ears—trivially unimportant ones he blocked outright, those requiring a response he flagged, some he set to auto‑reply, and some he tossed to the Hidden Sage.

Having readjusted his condition, Lei Kedun reassembled his body from the tangled pure data, subconsciously raised his hand to touch his cheek and muttered:

"Successfully receiving faith has stabilized my state a bit; the suppressed humanity and fading emotions are gradually returning,"

"That's a good thing— the more solid my humanity, the more of myself I can retain when I later merge with the Western Continent's core, perhaps even separate again,"

After a moment of silence, he turned to look at the Giant King's Court behind him, shrouded in an amber‑red dusk and cloaked in a golden‑red hue.

The Giant King's Court seen from the Sea of Ruins was more magnificent and spectacular than that seen within the Divine Abandoned Land, resembling a scene stepped out of myth, fitting the Giant King Ao Ermi Er's divine realm! He gazed at the court for a few seconds, his body once again became ethereal, breaking into wave after wave of tangled pure knowledge that surged outward toward the periphery of the Sea of Ruins as he departed.

Aboard the Future, sailing in the northern Suniya Sea, Jia Deli Ya, leaning against the protruding window of the captain's cabin, glanced at the deck crew and the distant sea when she suddenly turned back.

Directly ahead of her gaze, on a dark‑brown desk, a letter had appeared at some unknown time.

"The queen's reply—does she not intend to come?" Jia Deli Ya murmured softly, her tone tinged with disappointment.

She then hurried over, picked up the letter from the desk, and unfolded it before her eyes:

I cannot give you a precise revelation; this involves the Hidden Sage, involves the very top of this sequence, and I cannot make any form of 'prophecy' about it.

If you accept his blood as the ascension ritual for Sequence Four, during the period when he remains himself, you will be fine and may even gain some benefits.

But if his personality completely disappears, you may become a devout follower of the Hidden Sage; as Bo Nuo Wa, my advice is: do not take risks—ascending a few months earlier or later makes no difference and has no impact.

Recently, the Hidden Sage has infused the knowledge given to the Seeker of Secrets with many more directional pieces of information, which repeatedly, to varying degrees, mention an entity representing knowledge and mystery.

It has begun actively interfering with the extraordinary beings on the Seeker of Secrets' path, affecting our minds and faith, making that path even more dangerous.

"God of Steam and Machinery" Church has already begun to pay attention to this matter; it may be a sign of the Divine War.

You can no longer linger on the fringe of the Moss Ascetic Society; once war breaks out, this will be extremely dangerous for you.

If you have time, you could come to Laxia soon; I will head to the depths of the Mist Sea shortly, not knowing when I can return, perhaps never.

Jia Deli Ya's fingertips lightly brushed the paper, and a burst of crimson flame leapt from the letter, quickly turning to ash, which a sudden gust of wind swept out the window, scattering onto the glittering sea.

She walked to the desk, sat down, and took pen and paper to write a reply to Bei Erna Dai:

I have already received a divine edict from the Hidden Sage; all members of the Moss Ascetic Society should have received it. It added descriptions such as 'the essence of all knowledge' and 'the source of all mysteries' to its revered name—does this mean it truly has mastered this path, becoming the 'Hermit' of Sequence 0? Also, why do you say this is a sign of the Divine War? Can the God of Steam and Machinery not tolerate a true deity existing on an adjacent path?

At the end of the letter, she wrote: "The Future has recently been stationed in the northern Suniya Sea; I will return to Laxia Island in the Mist Sea as soon as possible."

After finishing the reply, she briefly folded the paper, then rose and quickly set up the ritual to summon a messenger.

In a moment she didn't notice, a swift traveler from the spirit realm emerged through the passage created by the ritual, circled the captain's cabin a few times, then took the folded letter from the desk and returned to the spirit realm.

Jia Deli Ya only felt a light breeze around her and saw an extremely vague silhouette flash before her eyes and disappear.

When she looked down at the desk before her, the folded white sheet of paper had vanished.

Jiadelinya glanced at the already closed spirit realm passage, and whispered to herself:

"What exactly is the queen's messenger? Perhaps only when I become a Sequence Four 'Mystic Scholar' can I see its true form under the gaze of the 'Eye of Secrets'."

(End of chapter)