Chapter 4134: Whisper - Vanity

"What exactly are you?"

Xia De asked in the lake water. The human skin, knowing it couldn't escape, stared into Xia De's eyes:

"I am the first human skin peeled off by the 【Dusk Creator】 himself. Let me go, and I can tell you the secrets of the Ancient Gods. I can even tell you the secrets of the ancestors, tell you what happened at the beginning of creation, tell you where the ancestors and the Ancient Gods came from.

I have witnessed their stories, and I have seen with my own eyes what this world looked like in the beginning. Let me go, and you can get those most ancient secrets from me. With my individual power, I can at most be considered a Keeper-level relic; you can keep that building."

Xia De shook his head:

"I really want to know those stories, but in my opinion, choosing a suitable time to chat about these things at a round table for afternoon tea with an existence I trust is much more secure than knowing the so-called 'truth' from your mouth."

He raised the long sword in his hand, crimson moonlight wrapped around the blade of the silver sword, and in that layer of moonlight, there was also the violet light silently given by Miss Doll:

"Moonlight Slash!"

Not seeking a one-hit kill, only hoping to temporarily seal it. Xia De's entire body turned into crimson moonlight with a violet halo at the bottom of the lake, and the arc-shaped sword mark rushed toward the human skin that was recovering.

And the latter did not dodge, but opened its arms to welcome the attack:

"Are you willing to become one with me?"

The moonlight sliced through that layer of fragile human skin, but then the ruptured skin-object came into contact with Xia De's body.

Thus, the Outsider "saw" a very short story. That was a long, long time ago. In the newly born world, there were both ancestors and the figures of the children created by the Ancient Gods.

Everyone needed to coexist in that world at the beginning of creation to rebuild civilization. Most lives knew what a great responsibility this was, and were thus full of ambition, but some people still had other ideas.

She was a child born to the ancestors. She didn't know where her ancestors came from, but she envied the beautiful appearance and powerful talents of the newborn races created by the Ancient Gods. She wasn't jealous; she just simply longed to obtain such an appearance, wanted to obtain everyone's attention, and wanted to become the most unique individual in the story.

Thus, the sin in the bottom of her heart contributed to true evil. She launched an attack on the first children of the Ancient Gods that she thought was hidden, and the god who cast his gaze on this newborn world also looked at her.

She was the first vain one; she was the evil thought manifested by human nature before the birth of civilization.

She committed an unforgivable mistake, so to punish her, the Ancient God destroyed her body and peeled off her outer skin. Subsequently, the god's believers carved her sins on her skin and sealed her somewhere in that newborn world, thereby warning others not to be tainted by such sins.

And at some point a long, long time later, when the seeds of civilization had long since grown into towering trees, reckless explorers accidentally touched the seal and released it. The skin then wrapped around the explorer and walked toward its own tribe again, and subsequently, a mysterious building that could give people beautiful appearances appeared.

The 【Skin-Object Hall】 was born from this. The pain experienced personally was summarized as "the Skinner's craft," and the vain thing born from the ancient era thus brewed into the poisonous wine named "【Skin-Object Hall】."

This story involved a very, very distant past. Xia De looked at this story as if through a layer of frosted glass, so he couldn't know too much background information; he just roughly knew where that layer of skin originated.

Although it was ancient, it was not powerful. After escaping the seal, it experienced many things, established the 【Skin-Object Hall】 in the mid-to-late First Era, and became a relic in the early Second Era.

Xia De knew very clearly that this was not his own story, but when the story was about to end, he still felt that his perspective on the story became the first-person perspective.

That layer of skin almost completely wrapped him in it at the bottom of the artificial lake, but fortunately, Miss Doll on his shoulder was not regarded as part of Xia De, so she was not attacked by that layer of skin:

"Don't be misled by other people's stories. Remember who you are. Now, say your name."

Even Miss Doll couldn't peel off that layer of skin, but her voice entered Xia De's ear. The Outsider didn't completely confuse the story with reality; he knew what he had to do—

"Xia De Su Lun Hamilton—Life Fire Form!"

Firelight lit up in his palm, which then ignited his entire body, and the human skin that was merging with Xia De's skin was thus ignited.

It realized the fatal crisis, but dots of crimson firelight had already appeared on the surface of that layer of skin, and then the area of the skin being ignited became larger and larger, until Xia De and the skin-object were all ignited by the twisted spark of life.

Doing this certainly carried risks. This meant that his own life force was tainted by the "twisted spark of life." Even though the "Spark Source Brand" had the ability to make Xia De immune to influence, he wasn't sure if the brand would still be effective once his body was converted into a spark.

But fortunately, after the flesh and blood were converted into the fire of life, the power of the Primordial Fire immediately sensed the world's disaster, thereby separating it from Xia De's own spark of life.

And taking this opportunity, the Spark Source frantically extracted the fire of life contained in the skin-object, which contained powerful whisper elements. That layer of skin still wanted to resist, but its form of existence had changed because of Xia De's Curio, and it was losing power bit by bit.

The life force of the skin was absorbed by the Spark Source, and the things contained in it other than life force permeated into Xia De's soul along with the ancient story recorded at the beginning of the Mythological Era.

Muffled bell sounds and sharp whistle sounds rang out at the bottom of the lake. Amidst the rotation of the life ring, black-iron-colored whisper element spiritual light flew out from the flaming human figure, gradually dyeing the life ring black.

"Her" voice was still clear even in the water:

【Outsider, you have felt a "Whisper."】

【Pursuing surface brilliance, praise, and false decency, yet not knowing that one's own inner self is the most important. Thus its appearance became its everything, thus its appearance carried this most ancient story and sin.】

On the rapidly rotating life ring, the black-iron spiritual light, next to 【Life】, engraved the third spirit rune of the tenth ring for Xia De, which was also the second whisper spirit rune of the tenth ring.

【Outsider, you have engraved the black-iron whisper spirit rune - Vanity.】

【You have obtained the Curio - Humility of the Vessel: After wrapping an item with leather material, hide the element intensity of the item. Corresponds to the 【Vanity】 spirit rune.】

【Outsider, you have devoured the sin of 【Skin】: Spirit Resistance ↑, Physical Strength ↑, Dark Resistance ↑, Soul Strength ↑. Sin-related power has been comprehensively improved.】

The explanation of the brand-new Curio was quite simple, but the effect was very useful. The biggest problem with carrying relics in daily life was that it was easy for other ring-mages to detect whisper elements at close range, but with this Curio, Xia De only needed to prepare some leather pockets to safely carry relics into those sensitive occasions.

"Vanity" was of course not Xia De's own sin, but because the way he obtained the sin this time was by absorbing the original sin on that human skin, Xia De didn't need to prepare a ritual, and the power of "Vanity" directly merged into the "Great Sin Chain."

As for the sin of "Skin," Xia De thought this was probably part of the "Great Sin Brand," after all, he had sensed that power before.

He originally thought he would obtain some kind of materialized metal piece or stone tablet fragment, but as the life ring slowly disappeared in the water, and he changed back to his flesh-and-blood form under Miss Feilian's worried gaze, he didn't obtain anything else other than holding a piece of human skin in his hand.

"Why is there no feeling at all when devouring external power this time?"

As for that human skin, it was probably the true body of the "Hall Master." Although Xia De won, he knew very well that he didn't have the ability to completely annihilate it, and even because of its antiquity and the characteristic that relics could not be easily damaged, even the Primordial Fire in its current state couldn't burn it out.

"I'll handle it."

Violet light bloomed in Miss Doll's hand, the power of the human skin was temporarily sealed by Miss Feilian, and Xia De didn't dare to let the "Spark Source" continue to absorb the "spark of life" contained within it.

The Spark Source had absorbed too much life energy from this thing in a short period of time and had already shown signs of instability. This was not that normal Spark Source; Xia De was very worried that it would go out of control.

However, this could also be considered as completing the containment of the "Hall Master." If it hadn't tried to seize Xia De's body just now, this containment process probably wouldn't have been so smooth.

"But the Great Sin Brand..."

"I said before that the Great Sin Brand had already shattered."

A familiar hoarse voice came from the darkness at the bottom of the lake. The voice was very light and very pleasant.

Xia De looked around. The residue after the demon-man's death had disappeared, and the power that permeated from the demon-man's body was also nowhere to be found.

He was suspended in the water, his feet not touching the bottom of the lake, and the hoarse voice came from all directions, as if the owner of the voice was swimming around Xia De:

"Once shattered, it cannot be pieced back together. The Great Sin Brand is passed down in the form of original sin. The piece of meat I gave you back then was sin, and it was part of the brand; the power you absorbed from that skin was sin, and it was also part of the brand. It seems that the power of the brand is really very suitable for you."

The sound of swimming was very close to Xia De, but Xia De couldn't see any figure. Miss Doll said nothing at this moment, just quietly observing the surroundings.

"However, if you can really obtain sin from more individuals who have obtained fragments of the 'Great Sin Brand,' perhaps you can really piece together some extraordinary power in the end."

The invisible existence laughed happily, and it asked again:

"Can you tell me? You tore up the contract between me and the hall, and threw yourself into the water. Although this was to deal with the demon-man and the relic at the same time, aren't you worried that I would make a move against you in the water?"

Xia De continued to observe the surroundings:

"Compared to making a move against me, shouldn't you be doing something else now, like entering the hall to find your own skin-object?"

The mermaid, who was nowhere to be seen, continued to laugh:

"Is there a possibility—that while you were dealing with that skin and absorbing sin, I had already gotten my own skin? Without the contract that restricted me, can that place still be considered an obstacle for me?" ===== CHAPTER 4135 =====