Shepherd Tantra

Chapter 925: The Man Who Integrates into the Sun
"Do you know who I am?"

Adolf asked suddenly.

"… Your Excellency Adolf von Menzel," Count Leipzig tried to force out a friendly smile, "Of course I know who you are…"

Although he still didn't know whether Hong Xiang was dead or not... but when he tried to call for help, the empty echo coming from deep in his blood gave him a not-so-good answer.

——Even if Hong Xiang was not dead, all contact with them had been cut off.

For him, this is no different from death.

But Adolf's gaze towards him became increasingly cold.

Suddenly, Adolf asked, "I heard that you have a special understanding of art?"

"...Ah, yes."

When this question was mentioned, Count Leipzig became more alert.

Even the originally timid and cautious voice became much louder: "I carved the other 'me' into an immortal work of art - you are interested in my work? Haha... I mean, after all, you are a well-known artist in the entire star, and I am very happy to receive your praise."

"How do you do it?"

Adolf asked softly.

"I feed my flesh and blood to others," Count Leipzig said solemnly, "With the love that accumulates over the years, when they eat enough of me, they gradually become another me. And on this basis, each body has its own characteristics, which is a different life experience from mine... Those slight differences become the skeleton of art.

“I discover the bright spot in everyone and find the source of their immortality. And then add the ingredients - my fiery, sticky and deadly love.

"I let them come with me to the realm of endlessness... because my heart longs to become eternal, too!"

"...That's it."

Adolf sighed.

He asked one final question: "Who taught you this?"

“I learned it on my own.”

Count Leipzig had a confident smile on his face: "That comes from the bottom of my heart..."

"--wrong."

Adolf interrupted Count Leipzig and said, "That's what I taught you."

"……what?"

Count Leipzig was stunned for a moment.

At that moment, his eyes suddenly widened.

It was like being struck by thunder in the brain, and the memories that were "preserved" in the past were suddenly unsealed.

That was his memory of studying art with Adolf——

"I can't surpass you, Sensei!"

The noisy boy yelled, "Ever since I saw your paintings, they have been lingering in my mind! No matter how much I paint, the shadows of those paintings are always in that painting..."

"That is to say," the young man hidden in the shadows said gently, "you feel that I have become a bondage to you...right?"

"I never said that."

The boy muttered, "But it's true - to be honest, I'm right! I want to paint my own paintings, not paintings in the style of Menzel! But the more I learn from here, the more I will lose my true self..."

"So what do you want to gain?"

The young man asked patiently: "What is your style?"

"My hot, sticky, deadly love!"

The boy stood up without hesitation and sang loudly: "Never-ending love - unlike your stillness, I want to create moving art - art that never stops!"

Looking at his shining eyes, the young man was dazed for a moment.

He stared in amazement at the confident and brilliant young man, whose resolute face was now as pale as a stone statue.

“…Ah, that’s true.”

The young man was silent for a long time, then lowered his hands dejectedly.

His drooping face sank into the shadows. "You and I are not of the same ilk, Finn. You are not of the Way of Twilight... but you are right, I may not be suited to teach."

As he said this, he reached out and gently touched the boy's head:

"—Then you are free."

The dim power penetrated into his brain and slowly seeped out from his eyes. The memory was "saved" deep inside, along with every painting of Adolf he had ever seen. The influence of Adolf was gradually erased, leaving only the purest, already formed skilled techniques and talent.

Finn Heinrich opened his eyes slightly.

That is……

——He once believed that he was a genius.

"Did I do you any harm, Finn?"

Adolf said softly: "Those 'artworks' of yours are you and yet not you.

"That incomplete self...is it the real you?
“Is the life that extends from your incomplete self your life?”

Adolf recalled the scene when he met Count Leipzig again. At that time, he was standing in the vast snow, and saw the elegant and aristocratic Son of the Moon bowing to him with an evil smile.

He looked at the other person coldly.

But the other party was so arrogant as if he had never seen him.

"——I come with the goodwill and regards of my master, my respected father, my blood of blood, Mr. Franz Pomponazzi."

So said Count Leipzig.

At that moment, Adolf knew... Finn was already dead.

At this moment, he was not talking to Count Leipzig. Instead, he was speaking softly to the thin and handsome young man in the past: "Maybe it's my fault. I didn't teach you well. The evil you did was also my share... This is my sin.

"I thought about it, what else can I do in the end? Why not teach you this last lesson?"

Adolf reached out and tore off his left arm.

But even so, no blood spurted out from the empty cuffs.

He then hurled his left arm out like a hatchet.

When it touched the body of Count Leipzig, it was like a drop of blood sinking into water.

Count Leipzig's body suddenly shattered into blood.

But they did not scatter on the ground, but condensed into a pure white canvas in the void.

"Pain. Love. Peace. Joy. Sadness. Anger... Human emotions have colors. The human soul is the best palette, and human memory is the best paint."

Adolf whispered, "This is what I taught you, but you only seem to remember the colors of pain and love."

As he spoke, he stretched out his right hand and pressed it on his forehead.

He pulled out a wisp of green memory and threw it lightly into the air.

That symbolizes the past. It is the whole of his personality.

Just like Count Leipzig lost a piece of his memory and was no longer completely the same Finn as before...

"Since you are so obsessed with 'body' art, so obsessed with eternity and never ending..."

As he spoke, Adolf drew out another ray of deep blue soul and slammed it onto the previous memory, mixing the colors together.

This symbolizes the "future" - he originally had the opportunity to become an apostle.

"——Then let us complete this final art together."

He said that.

I want to give Aiwass a final gift as a thank you.

As the last painting in life, a work of art that engraves one's entire life...

——How can I not crush my own soul to create this immortal thing?
He heard the conversation between Aiwass and the teacher.

For the future "Yao Tian Si"... using mundane things as gifts is too mediocre.

"Throw your body into the sun..."

Adolf whispered, reaching out and taking out his still beating heart.

He crushed it into a handful, turning it into a dark red viscous paint, which he dropped into the paint tray.

This is life, it represents the "now".

Memories, soul and life - he shattered everything of himself, leaving nothing behind.

Although Hengwo gave up herself ten times, she still retained her "self" in the end.

Adolf chose to give up completely.

Go beyond the limit of "1" and enter the realm of "0".

From then on, his life entered the final countdown.

Aiwass said to the teacher...the path with the holy number of eleven may have the power to cause miracles.

Beauty, the sacred number two, and dusk, the sacred number nine, added together... make exactly eleven.

The zeroth path is also the tenth path.

——Finn’s “love” and the “nothingness” he reached after abandoning everything are also eleven.

If his artwork could help Aiwass' ascension even a little, it would be like adding fuel to the sun's fire.

...It's really amazing when you think about it this way.

This thought suddenly popped up in Adolf's mind.

My childhood wish... I still have a chance to realize it...

Melted in the fire of the sun—

——Transformed into a momentary light, or an eternal fire.

(End of this chapter)