The Wizard's Pursuit of Truth

SPLAT!

The glass wall was spattered with a bloody, mud-like substance that had spewed from the tentacle-mouthed orifices of the Evil God’s Heart. The reaction was extremely violent, especially when Wang Ya began to continuously dissect and analyze the fragments of Gendas’s consciousness to observe their internal state.

It seemed to be some kind of instinctive defense mechanism, but these were ultimately just fragments of consciousness—and ones that had already expended most of their Spiritual Power.

An excited smile touched the corners of Wang Ya’s lips. ’Interesting. Consciousness fragments enveloped by Dream Foam can actually affect the Evil God’s Heart itself. The Eye of Truth’s preliminary analysis confirmed that this is indeed an Evil God Origin. What’s the difference between this and a Wizard? What is the true nature of an Evil God?’

Is it faith?

Or is it something else entirely?

Wang Ya first ruled out the idea of faith. The Gendas Evil God didn’t seem to need the Mental Power generated by human belief; for gods who did, losing their followers would cause their power to diminish.

Back in the Maya Kingdom, it had directly parasitized and transformed those humans, thereby allowing it to absorb their flesh, as well as their Spirit Souls.

The mind is born from will. When enough people gather, even the combined Mental Power of ordinary individuals can produce an Extraordinary effect.

What one thinks by day, one dreams by night... Within the system of Dream Wizards, there were research records on this subject. If a person was obsessed with something during the day, the dream they fell into at night would be related to it.

Usually, these were pleasant dreams or illusions, though nightmares were also common.

An ordinary person couldn’t manifest the subject of their illusions because their individual Mental Power was too weak.

If hundreds of millions of mortals were to share a common faith, pray for the same thing, or attest to something’s existence, it was truly possible for that thing to be born into reality.

’This path isn’t a balance between the illusory and the real. It possesses only the illusory, not the real... The Gendas Evil God doesn’t follow this path either. It relies on its Evil God Origin, herding mortals by eroding them one by one, fattening them up before devouring them.’

Wang Ya thought of the young woman, Ras, as well as the first mortal he had encountered in that caravan who had been infested by a Gundas’ Dog.

He had mostly forgotten the man’s name, but Wang Ya clearly remembered how the Gundas’ Dog inside him had grown massively in size after killing the enemy its host wanted dead.

It could also stir up the host’s negative emotions and malicious thoughts... Both negative and positive emotions were related to consciousness and thought, so naturally, they could also stir the Spirit Soul.

As this continued, the host would become increasingly frenzied, ultimately allowing the parasitic Gundas’ Dog to flourish.

This was not without a price. Just as there is a limit to the number of neurons in the human brain, for a mortal, this method of enhancement was wringing out the potential of their soul and spirit.

The final result could only be that from the inside out, even their soul would be completely drained, becoming nourishment for the Gundas’ Dog.

This was the truth of the Gendas Evil God’s "herding"—all its hosts were its lambs, its food.

Wang Ya felt he was gradually grasping something. It was a special feeling, an epiphany, but when he tried to think about it carefully, something was still missing.

A phrase from the Taoist School terminology of his past life inexplicably surfaced in his mind.

’To cultivate only the spirit and not the body is to become a yin spirit of ten thousand tribulations, unable to achieve sainthood.’

’The physical body, the soul, and Spiritual Power... the essence of what creates the Extraordinary...’ Wang Ya’s eyes grew brighter and brighter, as if the path that had always been blurry was gradually coming into focus, and the hidden truth was unfurling before him.

The illusory and the real that the Gusai Wizard spoke of.

The illusory and the real that existed within the Evil God Origin.

The various kinds of Extraordinary Knowledge and theoretical experiences the Illusory Dream Wizard had once spoken of.

The profound understanding gained from poring over the vast Extraordinary Knowledge in the Land of Inheritance, and the contents of countless books recorded by the Eye of Truth... Wang Ya’s mouth fell slightly agape. His expression was stunned, and his body remained motionless as his aura surged and radiated outward with his roiling Extraordinary Spiritual Power.

All the scattered objects in the study began to float into the air.

Along with this change, Particle Energy began to fluctuate.

In Wang Ya’s mind, images of his repeated studies, his numerous manuscripts, and his successive failures in researching the Gundas’ Dog surfaced once more.

The separation of properties of the Gendas Flesh, the fusion experiments, the variable tests... Harak’s process of devouring, the splattering black sludge, the writhing tentacles...

All of it, every last bit, converged at this very moment.

Deep blue ripples spread across his pupils. Amidst the fragmented light, a massive stream of data appeared, scrolling up and down.

He seemed to have grasped the future.

...

「Antuun Clan Land」

Kaze Antuun held the Black Sun Badge in his hand. He was gripping it so tightly that the badge left a clear imprint on his palm. The excited smile on his face was proof of his current mood.

This was an expression that no Wizard in the entire Antuun Clan had ever seen on him.

He walked out of his study and looked at the withered flowers and plants lining the corridor, finding them to have even more charm than when they were alive and vibrant.

An autumn wind rustled the fallen leaves. Kaze Antuun waved the sleeve of his black robe, and the gust of wind he created swept the maple leaves aside. He pushed open a door and entered, surprising the two people who had been notified to wait for him inside.

The towering Hades glanced at his much shorter father before looking away and rising from his chair.

Zack Antuun had also become much more mature and composed than before. Although his frame wasn’t as burly as Hades’s, he stood straight and tall, reaching a height of nearly six feet.

Kaze Antuun sat down in a chair and placed the Black Sun Badge on the table, keeping one hand pressed on it. "The precise location of the Black Sun Ruins has been deciphered. This time, I’m almost certain it’s the real location of the ruins."

The two brothers exchanged a look, and they could both see surprise and a hint of confusion in each other’s eyes.

The Black Sun Badge was something the Antuun Clan had long pursued.

Whether it was the main branch, a side branch, or even the other Level 3 Wizard Apprentices and Extreme Wizard Apprentices in the clan, all were qualified to know the inside story.

And yet, after their father reacquired the Black Sun Badge, he hadn’t revealed this information.

Only a few of the old Wizards from the main branch knew the situation.

He hadn’t even used the power of the clan’s side branches to search for the ruin’s location, relying only on his closest confidants within the main branch.

Even Zack Antuun had been forced to create large numbers of Puppet Wizards to explore ruins, honing his Puppetry Witchcraft to a masterful level in the process.

"Starting with the Celestial Wings Wizard City incident ten years ago, and with all the consequences that followed, the Wizard Family Alliance is no longer as pure as it once was."

Kaze Antuun didn’t explain his reasons, instead changing the subject.

Zack and Hades knew a little about the situation.

It was related to the wanted Berkeley Clan.

Ten years had passed, but remnants of the Berkeley Clan still existed. The head of the clan at the time, Beta Berkeley, had committed numerous atrocities, murdering many Wizards in the Dark Land.

They were now hidden even deeper, supposedly receiving resource support from an external Wizard Influence and lying low within the borders of the Dark Land.

They could even conceal their own tracks, rendering the divinations of the Sea Wizards largely ineffective.

The price for this was also enormous, no less than the resources required to cultivate one or two Extreme Wizard Apprentices.

Once the remnants of the Berkeley Clan made a move and used a certain amount of Particle Energy, they would be immediately detected by the Dark Land.

What awaited them would be a swift strike from the elite of the Law Enforcement Wizards—the Dark Hand.

"Ten years ago, there were the Ten Great Wizard Clans. Ten years later, there are the Nine Great Wizard Clans... Power and status are still seized by the fist, not by so-called unwritten rules."

Kaze Antuun sneered, then brought the topic back to the Black Sun Badge.

"So many years of research have finally yielded some results. The Black Sun Badge should be considered a key—a key that can open the Black Sun Ruins, and at the same time, a map that records the ruins’ location."

"Zack, Hades, the location recorded for the Black Sun Ruins this time is extremely unusual. It’s not in the Land of Mountains and Seas—or rather, it’s on the border between the Land of Mountains and Seas and the Land of Slaughter."

"As for how to explore the Black Sun Ruins, we still need to find the owner of the other half of this Black Sun Badge and discuss the specifics."