Chapter 713: The Hermit

At the deepest part of the Sea of Ruins, near the entrance to the God‑Abandoned Land.

As the Illusory Tower appeared, specks of brass‑colored glimmer began to float above the sea, darting swiftly, tracing one symbol after another, one eye after another in the air, continuously parsing and reconstituting the seal that exists here.

This is the seal the Seven Gods left together; as a former participant, the God of Knowledge and Wisdom has a sufficiently deep understanding of this place.

Under His control, those brass glimmers become layer upon layer of invisible barriers, strengthening and altering the seal here.

In an instant, the water below turned dim and unreal, as if numerous "passages" converged beneath, forming a complex, mysterious "spiderweb" that wove a deep, uncanny mirror world unlike reality.

Immediately, one black, python‑like tentacle after another protruded from the mirror world, forcefully slapping the surroundings, assaulting the invisible barriers and the Illusory Tower that rose from the sea into the sky.

Each tentacle's tip bears an eye, open or closed; anything seen by them instantly turns into gray‑white stone.

Reefs, the sea surface, illusory books, etc., directly touched by the tentacles all warp, sprouting limbs and heads, becoming women of varying size, remarkably attractive.

Gradually, a thin black mist rose over the sea, so viscous it seemed about to liquefy into sticky black droplets.

The mist carries connotations of decay, curse, filth, and corrosion, shimmering with eerie hues, as if it can evoke and amplify the darkest emotions and desires within a person.

Within the mist, hoarse, overlapping babble constantly emerges; each word can grievously wound a listener of extraordinary caliber, causing loss of control, mental chaos, or a curse.

Across this Sea of Ruins, every sentient being inevitably falls into a hallucinatory state, emotions and desires inflating rapidly, then detonating the soul, shattering reason, and turning into monsters; those already monsters become even more frenzied and aberrant.

On the Illusory Tower, every book and every eye that composes it flicker, continuously spewing brass‑colored glimmers.

These glimmers dart swiftly, forming pairs of illusory eyes that scrutinize each tentacle extending from beneath the sea and each wisp of mist floating above, seeking and creating plausible weak points.

Amid the rustling of turning pages, the surrounding light flared, temperature rose, turning the scene into a golden‑bright daylight.

In this state, the light imbued with a massive solar aura coalesced into droplets that fell from the sky, bringing a rain of "Solar Holy Water" over the sea.

Under the golden rain, the roiling black mist thins and fades as if about to vanish; the black tentacles with eyes at their tips continuously twist and sway, shedding layer after layer of dry, transparent skin like a snake shedding its skin.

Boom!

A silvery‑white bolt of lightning flashed, followed by increasingly many, increasingly dense bolts slipping down from the turning pages, bearing a wrathful, destructive aura, striking the black mist and the twisted, shedding tentacles.

These lightning strikes targeting weak points are hard to defend against, hard to resist.

Under the relentless assaults, the God of Knowledge and Wisdom, who has not yet fully manifested in the Star Realm, forcefully suppressed the joint offensive of the Primeval Witch and the Cosmic Dark Side.

In the Star Realm, within the mottled scroll where black mist swirls, wave after wave of massive, chaotic information streams surge in without order, clashing fiercely with each other.

The terrifyingly massive information flood forms an indescribable storm, causing the scroll that bears millennia of civilization to tremble uncontrollably, as if on the verge of collapse.

Immediately thereafter, faint, dim, colorless shafts of vague light, as if composed of countless illusory things, materialized out of nowhere.

These lights seem to embody a facet of reality's rules, rapidly breaking down the black mist Lei Keton created using the "Mystic" authority, rewriting the local rules, making information transmission and interaction slower and more difficult.

Beneath a hill‑sized silhouette of black robes, Lei Keton's body re‑materialized, solidifying into tangible flesh and blood rather than an illusory informational form.

Gazing at the light that continuously erodes his "Mystic" authority, his eyes instantly became profoundly deep, as if brewing a terrifying storm on a sea.

His aura grew deep and profound, like the boundless starry sky; the information flood incarnated by the Hidden Sage seemed invisibly drawn, continuously merging into him, their auras gradually unifying and rising.

Almost simultaneously, Meidiqi, maintaining the form of a flame giant, suddenly ignited violently, unleashing a torrent of violet‑red fire rain that spewed in all directions, bearing a will of conquest and calamity.

One star after another then materialized, densely scattered, shedding beam after beam of brilliance that melted and shattered the disastrous fire rain.

In the next instant, beams of civilizational radiance blossomed out of nowhere around, weaving a grand silhouette belonging to the God of Steam and Machinery. Silently, the surrounding shining stars grew faint, their colors evaporating rapidly, making it even harder to stop the fire rain that fell like meteors.

The violet‑red flame stream easily pierced Lei Keton's body, disappearing into the civilizational scroll below, causing no injury at all.

Lei Keton's figure shattered within the flame stream, turning into a heap of bubbles.

These bubbles, illuminated by the firelight, reflected hues of scarlet‑white or violet‑red, fleeting in an instant.

Immediately, his figure emerged in another scroll, black mist gathering around into thread‑like ribbons, from which one cold, indifferent eye after another sprouted.

The civilizational radiance that followed arrived here, revealing the God of Steam and Machinery, and using the power of "Reality" to erode the "Mystic" authority.

"Forcibly bearing and assimilating the Hidden Sage's millennia‑long madness, the humanity inherent to your identity will inevitably be struck hard, perhaps even erased."

The voice of the Steam God echoed out of nowhere beside Lei Keton's ear, gender indiscernible, yet its majesty and vastness were easily felt.

Lei Keton gave no reply, continuing to absorb and digest the information of the Hidden Sage.

Since the Hidden Sage did not resist, their fusion proceeded smoothly, aside from an increasingly severe trend of mental fragmentation.

The God of Steam and Machinery unexpectedly did not block Lei Keton's fusion with the Hidden Sage; instead, it used this interval to project its own divine realm here, sealing off the outside while constructing a battlefield advantageous to itself.

White steam began to rise continuously around, the mottled lights in the civilizational scroll flickering, transforming into interlocking gears, chains, levers that together built one exquisite mechanism after another, forming a magnificent, splendid hall.

Amid the rumbling, one towering, hill‑sized mechanical armor after another emerged from the ground, walls, and every corner of the civilizational scroll.

Their forms varied: giants, dragons, demonic wolves from tales, as well as angels bearing layered mechanical wings, demons with fully metal horns atop their heads; each exuded an aura reaching angelic levels.

Their gazes were vivid and lively, clearly indicating they were alive, mechanical beings with souls and self.

"Through millennia of accumulated history, civilization has grown weightier, and the power I can wield has grown ever stronger."

"Steam's words seemed like a pronouncement; as its voice fell, the aura of the mechanical beings that emerged from the civilizational scroll rose again, simultaneously launching an attack on Lei Keton."

Silvery lightning, ferocious razor‑sharp wind blades, blazing white holy fire, frost, darkness, curses—countless forces surged, covering all domains encompassed by the twenty‑two pathways.

From the thin strands of black mist and from Lei Keton's body, the sprouted eyes flickered with pure light, tracing one complex, illusory symbol after another within their pupils.

Silently, all attacks vanished, and immediately the mechanical beings that had emerged from the civilizational scroll also disappeared, leaving only massive, pure knowledge swirling and settling.

Having initially grasped the uniqueness of the Hermit, Lei Keton employed the authority of Knowledge to revert all attacks and the summoned mechanical beings back into the purest knowledge and information.

"Millennia of accumulation have made knowledge and history equally vast."

Muttering softly, Lei Keton absorbed all the floating knowledge around, then released more black mist, attempting to drown the entire divine realm projection.

Under the black robe embroidered with mysterious patterns, Lei Keton's body, like a black, desiccated corpse sprouting countless eyes, seemed unable to bear the pressure and spontaneously collapsed, turning into a roiling blackness and countless eyes.

Beneath the hood, at the head, starlight glittered, outlining a pair of eyes—a pair containing countless brilliant stars, cold and indifferent, eyes evolved from uniqueness! In the Steam's divine realm projection, white steam and black mist intertwined yet remained sharply distinct.

One eye after another, one book after another, one gear and machine after another floated between mist and steam, caught in a wondrous balance; for a short time, neither side could overwhelm the other.

During the stalemate, Lei Keton suddenly laughed, "At our level, the contest is no longer about various powerful or exotic extraordinary abilities, but about how much knowledge one commands, the strength of one's calculation, and one's own authority and stature."

"If no external force breaks the deadlock, we could persist like this for a hundred years, two hundred years, or even longer."

(End of Chapter)