Chapter 333: Is Transcendence the Abyss?

Wu Chang had not seen solidified light wheels for the first time.

Previously, in the Quiet Town instance, the Grand Mother Superior had picked up the light wheel condensed by Count Jaemine and placed it on her own head.

That light wheel had contained the divine power the Grand Mother Superior had smuggled into the Wasteland Realm—the Sacred Scar. This time, he did not know what it concealed.

He carried the light wheel and teleported back to Briver Town, arriving beside Eileen, who rested in the Eternal Light Cathedral.

"Young Lady Eileen, I've sent the Grand Mother Superior home. Are you feeling better now?"

Eileen fidgeted uncomfortably with the armor plates on her body and said with a hint of resignation:

"There's still some of her divine power lingering inside the Pure Armor. My strength is exhausted—I need more time to recover before I can shed it."

Wu Chang rested his chin in his hand and watched Eileen in silence.

The Grand Mother Superior had tampered with the Pure Armor's abilities when lending it to Eileen—should she issue an order, she could seize control of the armor and turn what was meant to protect the wearer into ropes binding them.

The Pure Armor was light armor; its protection relied primarily on its abilities, not the durability of its plates. To preserve flexibility, joints and muscle areas requiring wide flexion were wrapped in white silk lining.

Under the Grand Mother Superior's control, these snug silk linings tightened around Eileen's body, making it difficult for her to bend or move.

As the silk linings constricted Eileen, they carved her body's contours with startling clarity.

When the Grand Mother Superior lent Eileen the Pure Armor, it had already been damaged by the Deep Sea Lord's assault, giving Eileen now the allure of a defeated Valkyrie.

Merely looking at the scene, this Pure Armor was anything but pure.

Under Wu Chang's gaze, Eileen, already uncomfortable, felt even more uneasy.

Her face flushed slightly as she said:

"I don't need your help. Leave me alone. I'll be fine by myself."

Wu Chang spoke solemnly: "That won't do. When a deity is weakened, a knight must remain by their side, never leaving their side."

Eileen blushed and lightly pushed Wu Chang's shoulder. "No need. The entire cathedral has fused with the Pillar of the Divine Realm. No one can enter without my permission."

Wu Chang frowned. "Really can't I stay?"

Eileen shook her head. "No."

"Fine." Wu Chang sighed and made as if to leave.

Just as he stood, he suddenly remembered something and pulled the light wheel left by the Grand Mother Superior from his chest.

"Almost forgot this. The Grand Mother Superior left this as a gift for you. Wearing it might help."

Eileen glanced at it once and understood what the light wheel represented. She reached out and took it—upon contact, the dim light wheel flared back to life.

First, it glowed with Bai Guang representing the Grand Mother Superior, then gradually shifted to gold under Eileen's influence.

The assimilated light wheel merged with the one above Eileen's head.

Immediately, golden holy flames ignited along the surface of Eileen's halo, and the uncontrolled Pure Armor on her body ceased its constriction, retracting into her.

Wu Chang sighed. He'd rather liked the sight of the bound defeated Valkyrie.

While Eileen wasn't looking, he concealed his regret and leaned closer to ask:

"Young Lady Eileen, what ability did the light wheel leave behind?"

Eileen sensed the changes within her divinity and replied after a moment: "The Undying Holy Flame and the Pure Armor are both inside."

Wu Chang raised an eyebrow. He'd assumed, like the Sacred Scar, only one ability had been released—but now two had surfaced.

"So they're your abilities now?"

Eileen shook her head slightly.

"They're only embryonic forms of power—call them seeds of ability. I cannot activate them yet."

"Once I master the Archangel's abilities and begin gradually attuning to Order, I should be able to control them and use their power to ascend to a Mid-tier Deity."

To reclaim her dignity in the Quiet Town, the Grand Mother Superior had clearly invested heavily, smuggling two abilities usable only by Mid-tier Deities into the Wasteland Realm.

Too bad she failed to regain face—and lost everything else besides.

Yet in this world, gain always comes with loss.

The Grand Mother Superior lost her divine projection and two manifested abilities, but Eileen gained much.

Come to think of it, all of Eileen's powers originated from the Grand Mother Superior.

The precious esoteric materials composing her body came from offerings given to the Grand Mother Superior by her faithful; her magical mastery came from the Grand Mother Superior's personal training; the Sacred Scar that made her a deity was bestowed by the Grand Mother Superior herself.

The bottleneck from Angel to Archangel was broken only through the Grand Mother Superior's guidance and design; now, she had even prepared the very means for Eileen's ascent to Mid-tier Deity.

Wu Chang clicked his tongue and teased:

"Praise the Grand Mother Superior. I hope next time we meet, she brings some new abilities we've never seen."

After absorbing the Grand Mother Superior's legacy, Wu Chang and Eileen remained on Briver Island for another week.

With the empowerment of the Planar Core and the Pillar of the Divine Realm, a week restored two-tenths of Eileen's divine power. Though still far from full recovery, she could now roam freely within the Quiet Town dimension as long as she avoided the Deep Sea Lord.

During these days of rest, Eileen often heard faint, distant prayers. She responded several times—and each time she did, the Miracle Tree at the entrance of the Eternal Light Cathedral grew dozens of meters taller.

Yesterday, a foreign merchant ship docked requesting supplies. The captain claimed he had just returned from the capital of the Orgre Kingdom.

According to him, the Orgre Kingdom was now in chaos: several days ago, at dusk, all statues of the Grand Mother Superior in every temple shattered simultaneously. Since then, no matter how fervently the faithful prayed, the Grand Mother Superior no longer responded.

This plunged the entire Orgre Kingdom into despair, as they believed they had been abandoned by their deity, turning Orgre into a God-Forsaken Land.

The faithful's fury turned directly against the Church and the Kingdom, suspecting they had offended the deity and brought down this calamity.

With the manipulation of schemers, the capital of the Orgre Kingdom nearly erupted into rebellion.

Had the Pope not received a response from the Holy Maiden during prayer—had the Holy Maiden not manifested a miracle to quell the faithful's rage—the situation would have spiraled beyond control.

From the captain's timeline, the moment the statues shattered matched precisely the moment the Grand Mother Superior departed.

The instant he heard this, Wu Chang knew: he and Eileen must visit the capital of the Orgre Kingdom.

The Grand Mother Superior's legacy to Eileen contained not only the seeds of two abilities, but seemingly other valuable things as well.

For instance—the entire Orgre State Church.

Wu Chang and Eileen first traveled to the port next to Briver and boarded a ship bound for the capital of the Orgre Kingdom.

The ship sailed for ten days; during this time, Wu Chang gained a basic understanding of the instance plane through conversations with passengers and kingdom newspapers received at every port call.

In the fourth layer of the Abyss, whether a realm resides in which layer of the Abyss, and whether it meets the standard for realm elevation, hinges most critically on the degree of popularization of extraordinary abilities within the realm.

An individual's high combat power does not cause a realm to elevate.

For instance, in the Quiet Town instance, whether it's Count Jemaine, Archbishop Gilman, who mastered both Light and Space magic to Master level, or the Supreme Mother who smuggled herself down through the Sacred Scar.

Even if they unleashed their full power, all possessed A-rank instance strength, yet this did not affect Quiet Town's status as a C-rank instance, far from achieving realm elevation.

The reason lay in the lack of popularization of extraordinary abilities.

In the Augre Kingdom, whether mysticism, alchemy, or magic, all were held exclusively by the highest nobility; the vast majority of commoners never encountered magic in daily life.

Quiet Town became a C-rank instance only because Count Jemaine inflicted most townsfolk with a merfolk curse, thereby increasing the popularization of mysticism.

If the region circle were located in the capital of the Augre Kingdom, the popularization of extraordinary abilities there could not even sustain an E-rank instance.

But the awakening of the Lord of the Deep shattered the status quo of the Quiet Town realm.

With the return of the Lost Continent and the Deep Sea races, the realm immediately began to elevate; after the Lord of the Deep died, the realm's elevation halted, yet it did not revert to its original state, but remained in the State of the Pillar of Reality.

Under the State of the Pillar of Reality, research into mysticism in the Augre Kingdom exploded; during the ten-day sea voyage, nearly every port call revealed a major breakthrough in Augre's mysticism.

Clearly, this was no coincidence—it was more like the Lord of the Deep had raised the realm's upper limit, and the realm, to match the Pillar of Reality's rank, was urgently pushing the popularization of extraordinary abilities.

In a moment of absent-mindedness, Wu Chang suddenly understood why the Abyss was called the Abyss.

Once a realm begins to become extraordinary, the extraordinary only expands, never contracts; even if all elements triggering elevation vanish, the realm will still find ways to restore itself to its elevated state to fill the void.

Is the process of becoming extraordinary not the very process of falling into the Abyss? Once fallen, one descends deeper and deeper, unable to rise upward.

Even the Bureau's records mention that realms have only ever elevated from the Wasteland Realm to the Rational Realm—never have we heard of a Rational Realm realm regressing to the Wasteland Realm.

Does the extraordinary truly represent evolution?

When he linked the extraordinary transformation of realms with falling into the Abyss, his heart suddenly lurched.

He recalled that as World instances drew near, the number of wild extraordinary beings in reality gradually increased, and the four major organizations' control over public opinion weakened, even beginning to turn a blind eye.

Many people had already begun to know about and promote extraordinary beings.

Isn't this exactly the popularization of the extraordinary?

If this continues, will reality sink into the Abyss? Or, within the countless realms of the former Abyss Game, did any of them once belong to realms chosen by the Abyss Game?

Had the four major organizations previously suppressed the existence of the extraordinary precisely to prevent this scenario?

Wu Chang shuddered, sensing that if he dug deeper, he would touch upon secrets he was not yet ready to confront.

He shook his head, casting aside his chaotic thoughts, stepped out of the cabin, and onto the deck to feel the wind, calming his turbulent mind.

He gazed into the distance; a faint black line was visible at the horizon's end.

That was their destination—the Augre Royal Port.

As the ship docked, Wu Chang and Ailin blended into the crowd and entered Wang Cheng.

The two had no need to worry about life in Wang Cheng; though in other realms Wu Chang always led Ailin, in Augre, Ailin was a true native of Wang Cheng.

Ever since the Artificial Deity Project failed and she was crowned Saintess, she had preached in every street and alley of Wang Cheng.

According to Ailin, Wu Chang could mark any point on the map, and she could lead him there blindfolded.

With Ailin guiding them, the two quickly found a suitable inn and places to gather information.

Their purpose was reconnaissance—to verify whether the captain's claims were true—and they would decide how to harvest the kingdom's faith based on the Augre Kingdom's public sentiment.

If their faith in the Supreme Mother was unshakable, Wu Chang had no qualms about transforming his True Self into a thousand-meter sea giant, smashing every ship in the Augre Royal Port, then being driven away by Ailin descending from the sky.

At that point, the Augre Kingdom would have no choice but to believe; if they refused, as soon as Ailin left, he would return and smash again.

Even Dagan alone had thrown the Augre Kingdom into chaos—if he was forced to act, no ship would ever sail from Augre again.

Religion works this way: to highlight the greatness of the Lord, there must always be a great villain for Him to confront.

No one was better suited to be that villain than Wu Chang.

They stayed in Wang Cheng for four days; during this time, Ailin took Wu Chang to every place she loved and told him many amusing stories from her life in the city.

Thanks to the Church, though her soul was incomplete, Ailin, free of negative emotions, remembered every moment in Wang Cheng as positive and beautiful.

When recalling past events, she couldn't help smiling; she knew every corner of the city—even passing a street vendor, Ailin remembered how each time she preached there, the vendor would give her an iris flower.

During their sightseeing, they also gathered intelligence on the Augre Kingdom.

Wu Chang had arrived expecting the worst, but the intelligence he received exceeded his expectations.

The continuous breakthroughs in mysticism and alchemy had not caused the Augre Kingdom to question the legitimacy of the divine; instead, the vast majority of citizens felt fear toward this rapid progress.

The waters of extraordinary popularization ran too deep—they knew they could not control them.

Many believers even pessimistically believed this was a sign of divine abandonment, a prelude to humanity's self-destruction.

The Augre Kingdom had not shaken off the divine—it needed faith more than ever to stabilize its people.

If so, Ailin and Wu Chang had no need to conceal themselves.

On the night they confirmed the situation, Ailin transmitted a divine decree through the newly built Saintess statues across Wang Cheng.

The decree was delivered at night; by midnight, the Church's name had changed.

The next morning, the former Augre Supreme Mother Cathedral had become the Eternal Light Saintess Cathedral.

When Ailin descended with her four wings onto the Saintess Cathedral's square, everyone present knelt before her in worship.

No speech was needed; Ailin only had to say, "I have returned," and the people of Wang Cheng shouted their willingness to die for the Saintess.

It seemed exaggerated, but upon reflection, it made perfect sense.

Shortly after arriving on the island, she had made the Briver Islanders awaken, understand good and evil, and firmly believe in the Saintess.

Wang Cheng was her birthplace; her deeds here were ten or a hundred times greater than on Briver Island—it would be strange if she lacked such prestige.

In terms of influence, even the Supreme Mother herself descending would not surpass Ailin, who had walked every street and alley, personally blessing and preaching to the people since childhood.

Wu Chang, watching the entire scene, couldn't help sneering; had he known Ailin had such terrifying influence among the people, why bother gathering intelligence at all?

No—he didn't know, but how could Ailin possibly not know her own power?

He looked at Ailin, just meeting her mischievous, triumphant smile.

Tsk, if you wanted a date with me, just say it outright—do you think I'd refuse?

With this scene in the square, no one in the Orgre Kingdom could stop the Orgre State Religion from transforming into the Yongguang Sect.

Especially since the Holy Maiden herself came from the Orgre State Religion, her succession of the Holy Mother's faith transitioned with perfect smoothness—even the most devoted followers of the Grand Holy Mother could not reject faith in Ailin.

For ordinary citizens and nobles, changing faith was easy; the real problem came from the former state religion's high-ranking officials who knew Ailin's true nature.

But solving it was simple.

Before officially announcing the sect's name change, Wu Chang found the Pope of the State Religion, held up four fingers, and made a throat-slitting gesture toward him.

Without a single word, the Pope understood Wu Chang's meaning.

The next day, the sect's alchemical workshop exploded due to an operational accident, killing six Mingdazhu Sect members, five Mingzhu Sect members, and over a dozen of the most elite alchemical masters.

The Pope expressed deep condolences for the deceased and ordered stricter safety rituals and standardized procedures for all future alchemical experiments.

Wu Chang was extremely satisfied with the Pope's actions—those who could play with religious elites were clever.

Resolving the State Religion side was easy; the King's side was even easier.

When Wu Chang laid Dagang's corpse before the King and claimed he had killed Dagang under Ailin's blessing, the King immediately declared the Yongguang Sect the new state religion of Orgre and tried to arrange a marriage between his second daughter and Wu Chang.

Before Wu Chang even saw what the legendary most beautiful Second Princess looked like, he refused the match under Ailin's urging.

The four forces—the King, the nobles, the church, and the people—coalesced into one, making the Yongguang Sect's spread in Orgre faster than in Gao Mu.

Three days later, the Miracle Tree, having gained faith across the entire Orgre Kingdom, transformed into a Pillar of the Divine Realm on Brifer Island, fully connecting it to the Divine Realm, when Wu Chang's vision popped up a notification.

"Player has become Wasteland Realm -86951's Controller; Wasteland Realm -86951 has become the Player's private realm."

"Detected: Player has acquired temporary administrative authority over the Wasteland Realm; temporary administrative authority upgraded. Player may extend the Divine Realm into reality and enter the private realm directly through the Divine Realm in reality, bypassing the Crimson Courtyard."

With the fourth Present-Day Pillar merging into the Divine Realm, Wu Chang's temporary administrative authority over the Wasteland Realm increased further.

The new ability granted by the authority reminded him of the elevator from the Administration leading underground, when he first entered the Crimson Wave Space.

The Administration's method of linking the Abyss Game to reality had genuinely shocked him, leaving him awed by the Four Organizations' capabilities.

He never expected he could now achieve what he once thought impossible—even surpass what the Four Organizations had done.

Before leaving the Quiet Town Realm, Wu Chang saw the reluctance in Ailin's eyes and said:

"Once we return, I'll open a passage from my home to Wang Cheng. If you want, you can live here permanently."

The outside realms were novel to Ailin, but every corner of Orgre Wang Cheng held beautiful memories for her—only here was she truly at ease.

Ailin was moved, whispering softly: "Live here again?"

After a brief hesitation, she shook her head and smiled: "No need. As my former home, I'll just visit occasionally."

Wu Chang asked knowingly: "Former home? Young Lady Ailin, then where is your current home?"

Ailin wrinkled her nose, her cheeks slightly flushed: "Guess."

Ailin's Pillar of the Divine Realm grew at the center of the realm, and the entire realm now became her Divine Realm.

She brought Wu Chang back to Brifer Island, bid a simple farewell to the islanders, and then Wu Chang stood before the Pillar of the Divine Realm, choosing his next destination.

The Present-Day Pillars were complete; Ailin's bottleneck had been broken. It was time to return to reality.

He scratched his head—about merging the underground shelter into the Divine Realm—he'd wait a couple of days, scout the situation first, then figure out a solution.

(End of Chapter)