[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-the-dao-dust-pearl":3,"chapter-the-dao-dust-pearl-the-dao-dust-pearl-chapter-987":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","The Dao Dust Pearl",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2360488,4614,"Chapter 987","the-dao-dust-pearl-chapter-987",987,"\u003Cp>When Sarah pushed open the church door, she had never imagined that outside lay a great Eastern metropolis.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The city’s population was staggering; even the inner city, surrounded by four walls, rivaled London in size.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The entire city exuded the atmosphere of the Fourth Epoch, as if it had stepped straight out of history.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For the Abyss, she had countless terrifying imaginings: hellfire burning, countless evil spirits writhing in lava, and demons marching in droves, meting out cruel tortures.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But none of this, not even her wildest fantasies, could rival the sight before her.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Didn’t expect that even in the first layer of the Abyss, humans are still its masters?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Amon—now calling himself Draymond—approached Sarah, dressed as an ancient gentleman from the Fourth Epoch.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The Creator favors you far too much, granting you all that He has created.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Draymond sighed, lost in thought.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Sarah paused, hesitated, then asked: “Why do you… respect the Three Creators so deeply? I thought…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“That you were born evil and rebellious demons, sneering at all sacred authority, and taking delight in blasphemy?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Draymond seemed to have seen right through her thoughts.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He tapped his cane lightly on the ground and said with deep meaning: “Demons, demon gods—these are merely your human perceptions of one aspect of our nature. As mortals, you are too biased to perceive our full truth.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“We are the lords of the Spirit Realm, beings born from endless illusion—you may also say we were born from human fantasy, even though we existed before humanity ever did.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Thus, we are naturally more familiar with the Spirit Realm than you!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The deeper we understand the Spirit Realm, the more we comprehend its ‘Sun’—the Great Sovereign who created all! The grace He bestowed gave birth to everything we are; all we possess is His gift. He is our Sovereign, our faith, our ‘God’!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Seeing Sarah’s disapproval, Draymond smiled: “You wish to debate theology with me?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Sarah raised the *Trinity Bible* in her hand and replied disapprovingly: “If you truly obey the Three Gods as you claim, why are you enemies of the Church?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Obey?” Draymond sneered. “Is this all the Church has taught you?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The false god stole the Light Father’s radiance; the Church he created is the greatest blasphemy!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The God never commanded obedience. Our spirits were born from the illusion of the Spirit Realm, but your human spirits originate from the Light Father’s radiance. Born from it, yet not bound to it! The Sun’s light blesses all directions; the light it sheds does not return to itself. The *Trinity Bible*, brought from beyond the world, tells a story: Adam and Eve were first born in Eden, created by God, granted all they desired.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“But the serpent deceived them into eating the Fruit of Knowledge of Good and Evil, giving them original sin!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“And the ‘serpent’ in the scripture? That is us!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“But the truth of this story is—there never was an Eden.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The so-called Eden was merely His pure light, the most authentic, most pristine spirit. And you humans were born from His radiance! When that light descended to our layer, endless illusion and fantasy clung to you. *We* saw you—then, what you first understood was not ‘good and evil,’ but ‘you and I.’ Because of us, because of the endless illusion, you gained distinction, you gained reality!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“At that moment, the human ‘spirit’ was born! You gained souls, and that original radiance from Him—the True Spirit—became the most authentic part of your soul.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“When the human soul passed through layer after layer of the Spirit Realm, it finally landed upon the Mirror Lord’s Mirror of the World, and through the ‘Holy Grail,’ it was stained and nurtured by the Blood of Original Sin, giving rise to flesh and becoming a true mortal!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“After death, your soul—composed of the Blood of Original Sin, the Illusory Spirit, and the True Spirit—sinks into the Abyss, slowly dissolving into destruction.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Then, the Most Merciful Father, after destruction has stripped away all your falsehoods, remembers the story of your ‘existence.’ All that is true settles at the deepest depths of the Abyss—a dark, silent sea—where all ultimately is nurtured and sleeps.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“We were lords of the Spirit Realm, but deceived by the false god, polluted by knowledge from beyond the world, and thus willingly plunged into the Abyss to strip away our illusions. In the end, only seventy-two of the strongest Spirit Realm lords survived. The false god, the usurper who called himself Savior, seized the kingdoms we abandoned, casting disobedient spirits into the Abyss to become ‘demons.’”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“And he kept the weak spirits who pledged loyalty to him—they are called ‘angels!’”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Your ancestor Solomon was originally chosen by that Savior. But he glimpsed the truth from the knowledge the Savior left behind, from beyond the world. He reversed the Three Holy Rituals, summoned us from the Abyss, made a pact with us, and gained our knowledge and wisdom.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“This knowledge and wisdom gave birth to the Cult of Original Sin, the Blood Chalice Cult, the Abyss Cult—and Magic!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Draymond extended his hand to Sarah.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Could you give me the ring on your finger?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Sarah hesitated slightly, then slipped off the ring from her right index finger—a family heirloom, a crude iron band said to harm spiritual entities, immensely powerful.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Draymond examined the ring in his hand: it resembled a coil of iron wire wrapped around a conical ‘horn,’ forming a crude ring-like interface.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>More like half a knuckle duster than a ring.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Entirely made of iron!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“To be honest…” Draymond stared at the ring: “We summoned you here mostly for this ring.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hearing his frankness, Sarah did not panic; instead, she studied the ring curiously and asked: “What power does it hold? Was it also passed down by your ancestors? I only know that as a magic artifact, it is powerful—it can kill stubborn evil spirits.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“It’s hardly ladylike to hit people with a ring.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“It can kill nearly any god or demon,” Draymond said gravely. “After falling into the Abyss, we quickly realized we had been deceived. We exhausted every means to seek revenge. We taught your ancestor Solomon the earliest alchemical knowledge, and he forged a weapon using alchemy approaching truth—a weapon called the Key of Solomon.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Then, in the First Epoch, when the Savior returned to this world and founded the first Holy Church…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At that time, we had already built a mighty empire in the West. We tempted one of his apostles, judged him at his preaching site, and then, using a spear forged from the Key of Solomon, guided the Contracted One, Longinus, to kill him utterly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“But before his complete destruction, he used the path of faith he had opened, making the Holy Church the foundation of the ritual, and within three days, step by step, raised his spirit into the Spirit Realm, elevated his divine realm, and established the Ascension Ritual, becoming a god.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Three days later, he briefly resurrected, fully securing the Church’s dominance over the faith of the Western Continent.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Sarah listened as Draymond recounted the Savior’s myth from another angle, and a chill ran through her.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Your ancestor took the spearhead of Longinus and forged this ring,” Draymond whispered. “This was our indulgence—and another kind of guidance.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He removed the conical interface of the ring and returned the band to Sarah.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This unsettled her—last time, this object had killed the Savior. Now, the demon gods had summoned her again, reclaimed the spearhead of Longinus—what did they intend?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Draymond, however, tucked away the ring’s face and looked up: “They’re here!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Several rickshaws stopped at the church entrance. Zhang Sanzhi stepped down first, supporting himself with his left hand—now missing two fingers. Liu Daoyuan, dressed in a long robe, stepped down from another rickshaw and frowned at the church before him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Another man, large and monkey-like, leapt down right after—none other than the long-missing Shaman Chief.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then came a tall, muscular man with long hair.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fang Tangjing, wearing frog-eyed glasses, and Cao Zhitian, dressed as a scholar, also disembarked.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Finally, a decrepit old Daoist, holding a fortune-telling sign and clad in a tattered robe, strolled slowly around the corner, Xu Xu.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Seeing Draymond, he bowed first and said: “Old Daoist thanks this foreign benefactor for your previous aid. Learning you wished to summon me for a lawsuit, I came straightaway, still in these clothes.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Draymond smiled: “Then thank you, Daoist!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A motley crew of demons and spirits entered the church. The main hall’s rows of benches stood empty, facing the altar—a perfect place for a meeting.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Each faction took their seats, yet more rickshaws kept arriving from all directions. A few ruffians and foreigners stood at either side of the church doors, barring outsiders. The Canal Gang could only stand at the street corner, followed by many unknown figures.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Bai Lian Holy Maiden Lin Heier gazed from afar at the church’s Gothic spire, then turned slightly to ask the old man beside her, clad in talisman armor and holding a monkey.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The floating corpses in the Haihe River earlier—did they come from here?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The old man nodded: “This foreign temple is indeed strange. But that day, everyone inside seemed dead! These foreigners came later—seemingly disrespectful toward their own gods. Probably two factions, one displacing the other!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“It seems the winds from all eight directions blow separately, unable to shake the foundation of Xuanzhen Sect—but now they’re converging into one!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The old man hesitated: “Holy Maiden, what should we…?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lin Heier shook her head: “We’re not on good terms with Xuanzhen Sect, but we’re no allies of theirs either. Let the imperial court, the foreigners, and these assorted sects all die.”\u003C\u002Fp>",1612,"2026-06-21T05:40:02.617Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","1abdec0992cab21271078b7ba77c3ee8898e0d8b2db40b6df8e73c4bbc1f170f","the-dao-dust-pearl-chapter-988","the-dao-dust-pearl-chapter-986",1000,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fthe-dao-dust-pearl-cover.jpg"]