Mythology: Spiritual Ruler

Across the vast distance, across the emptiness between worlds, no one knows what happened in the world of Hermeneus.

On Mount Olympus, the king of the gods had long forgotten the human woman. Although he was still very young among the gods, compared to humans, Io was just an insignificant embellishment in his long life.

Now, with the alternation of seasons and the flow of time, he has focused all his attention on the earth and around Apollo who is about to arrive in Delphi.

Because Gaia is about to wake up, the throbbing feeling from the earth has become more and more intense. Only when Apollo and Aphrodite return to their positions before then can Zeus's royal ceremony be half built. At that time, he can initially have the power beyond the gods and have the confidence to fight against the mother earth on Mount Olympus.

In this case, the existence of Io has naturally been forgotten by him.

However, there is more than Olympus in the world, just as there is more than one new generation of human beings. When the God King's attention was focused on the present, in the north of the eastern continent, just around the time when Apollo approached the Delphi Plain, a true "burnt sacrifice" since the birth of mankind took place again.

Offering flesh and blood to the gods, and then the gods accepted it. Maybe it was destined, or maybe it was an accidental sight of fate. In short, just as Ryan had expected, Ander was eventually taught by the world what reality is, and was forced to recognize its true face. (See 3-36)

But fortunately, because of a thought difference in the past, although he had lost the best ending, there was still a slightly worse one.

…

Dozens of people gathered around the temporary platform made of earth and stones. They lit a fire, tied the captured wild wolf on the altar, and then stepped back slightly.

Under their gaze, the sturdy middle-aged man held a familiar dagger. He walked up to the altar step by step, and looked into the fierce eyes of the sacrifice.

"Puff--"

"Ah--"

The next moment, the sharp short knife mercilessly stabbed into the back of the jackal. Hot blood gushed out, causing the bound beast to howl in pain. Its limbs struggled desperately, but it was bound and had no ability to resist.

The field was quiet, and the birds seemed unwilling to approach here. Only the rustling sound of the wind blowing through the leaves, mixed with the breathing of the crowd, accompanied the wailing of the wild wolf.

"Shh--"

The second knife, expressionless, fast and accurate, Cologne cut off the wolf's left claw directly.

The wolf's claw fell to the ground with a snapping sound. Cologne bent down, picked up the bleeding limb, and threw it into the burning flames in front of him. Amid a crackling sound, he and the crowd watched it gradually turn into charcoal.

"Ah..."

The flames were burning, but the wounds on the sacrifice were still gushing blood. As the blood gradually drained away, the howling gradually weakened. On this temporary altar made of earth and stone, the fierce predator slowly lost its life.

But under the gaze of everyone, Cologne did not rush to the next step. He just continued to look into the desperate eyes of the wild wolf before it died.

The beast's eyes reflected Cologne's figure. Through the other's eyes, he seemed to feel the pain of pain.

No, not as if. Some invisible connection connected the two sides together. At this moment, Cologne felt the same as the sacrifice in front of him. Despair and weakness, the feeling of life gradually fading away, all of this was just like what happened to him. But he just moved the corners of his mouth, and there was no other reaction.

In the face of enough time, everything will be accustomed to, and so is pain. So Cologne just watched quietly until the sacrifice shed the last drop of blood and was tied stiffly on the rack.

"Puff--"

The last step, Cologne stretched out his hand. He dug out the eyes of the wolf corpse and placed them on a small silver plate. The stinging pain in his eyes did not move him. He just put the silver plate beside him and pushed hard at the wooden frame that tied the wolf corpse.

The wooden frame fell into the fire and was burned by the flames along with the wolf corpse. Thick smoke gradually burned, and in a place that ordinary people could not see, wisps of blood surged into the sky and sank into a mysterious place.

At the same time, a certain power that seemed to have been shrouding the crowd seemed to dissipate, and a sincere sense of relief struck everyone around.

"The sacrifice is completed... Before these eyes decay, we will not encounter any more "accidents."

Putting the silver plate on the altar, Cologne turned around and looked at the crowd surrounding him.

Many years have passed, and the number of these immigrants from the Bronze Age has decreased a lot. Needless to say, those who died, but those who are alive, are rarely intact.

In addition to the injuries from fighting with wild beasts, there are many very similar wounds on their bodies. But apart from that, they have no obvious signs of aging.

It seemed that some power helped them prolong their lives, but at the same time, it also brought them disaster.

"Sir Cologne, although the most basic 'blood sacrifice' has ended, but..."

Someone in the crowd whispered. He didn't finish his words, but Cologne immediately understood what he meant.

The basic sacrifice was just to protect oneself, but the more advanced burnt sacrifice could allow people to gain more. In fact, although Cologne hated something that should have died long ago, now they couldn't do without it.

Life and strength, two of the most desired things for mortals, they can get them easily by offering sacrifices. Moreover, decades later, the wilderness has become dangerous again, and they can't survive on this land by themselves.

"I know..."

After a moment of silence, Cologne said decisively:

"Then continue to prepare, the target is the herd we found before."

"Okay!"

Everyone responded in unison, and then went to work on their own part. This kind of hunting is not the first time, and people are already familiar with it.

Soon, Cologne was the only one left at the temporary altar.

"Huh——"

"It's a bit urgent..."

Turning around and looking at the altar behind him, although there has never been any substantial communication, Cologne has vaguely noticed that 'it' seems to have an increasing demand for sacrifices in recent days.

It's not that the 'appetite' has increased, but it seems that the method of physical training can 'break through'. It seems that recently, 'it' is also undergoing an alternative 'breakthrough'.

As for what will happen after this kind of "breakthrough", that is not something Cologne can know.

"But no matter what it is, it doesn't matter... This is not something I can change now."

The people scattered and set traps and baits, leaving him alone. The most fundamental reason is that everyone knows that this seemingly ordinary sacrifice is actually a kind of spiritual torture, and he should have enough time to rest.

However, Cologne did not react so much to this. It was just a little pain that the sacrifice had experienced. Maybe at the beginning, he would indeed wail and lose color, but in recent years he has become accustomed to it.

The human spirit is like this. Whenever you think you have reached the limit, you are actually far from the real limit. It's just that Cologne in the past never dared to believe that he could turn a blind eye to the pain of piercing the heart and digging out the eyes.

"Oh, it's really lucky... Can a good thought that comes up on a whim protect you until now?"

With a self-deprecating smile, sitting next to the burning fire, Cologne looked at the carbonized sacrifice in a daze. To be honest, he did regret it, but he didn't regret not being a good person, but he didn't know the true identity of the guest that night and then make the right decision.

He didn't think there was anything wrong with his choice, nor did he think that Ander's approach was really right. In this world, there are many kind people like Ander, but they are basically dead. Even the immortal gods, the former creators have already paid the price.

It is indeed the arrogance of wisdom that he taught humans to cheat, but he also stole fire for humans out of love for his creation. But humans can't escape death after all, and he himself was imprisoned forever.

Kindness did not bring them any benefits, and even brought them more disasters. Ander was an exception only because of his luck.

If that night, the god who unexpectedly came to the world had a thought, he changed his place and came to the city of bronze humans, then Ander would only be an ordinary mortal, and even worse than Cologne, who was a "craftsman" at the time.

At that time, perhaps his kindness would become his death warrant.

"So, this is the god, this is power."

Under the dim light of the fire, Cologne's face was hidden in the shadows, but in today's world, no one has heard of a god born after birth. The only possible exception is the object of sacrifice.

This is the helplessness of mortals... You may have many ideas, but your power is not enough to complete them.

Just like now, the only example of a mortal becoming a god is right next to him, but he can't do anything. Cologne can only watch the other party move forward, watching the other party become more and more like a real 'god'.

"...It's time to do my thing"

After a long time, Cologne stood up from the ground and disappeared into the dense forest. In the original place, only the crackling sound of the burning fire shadow was left, which lasted for a long time.

······

Sasha——

In the gap between the spirit world and the real world, in a temporary space composed of the power of faith, the sound of friction kept ringing.

The outside world was offering sacrifices, and in this temporary small space that was opened not long ago, its owner was naturally not idle. He is the "god" here, and the object of sacrifice is naturally him. Although the territory he, the "god", currently owns is only a narrow space of more than ten meters in radius, this does not prevent him from accepting the power brought by the sacrifice.

So when the sacrifice was killed in a specific way, wisps of red mist floated into it along the invisible connection. They spread around, dyeing the space red, and in the center, the mist condensed to the extreme, faintly constructing the image of a "person".

The figure seemed to be "breathing", and between breathing in and out, the red mist was swallowed and exhaled, and some mysterious transformation occurred. The mist became a little thinner, but the existence of the human figure underwent some changes in this process, and he became a little more "real" in silence.

After a long time, the red mist dissipated, and the dark tone returned to the space. Only in the center was there a figure emitting silver light all over his body. Without the cover of the red mist, the original image of the figure was finally revealed, but if you look closely, you can still see a few dark red spots on his body.

Unlike the previous red fog, these scars were like a thorn in the flesh, and they did not move at all under the impact of the silver light, and even had a tendency to merge with it.

"Huh - so this is the warning Mr. Ryan left in the puppet... Never use it unless you reach the realm of [Legend]. It's not that you can't use it, but because for mortals, 'faith' is 'toxic'."

A hoarse voice came out, or rather, it was not a sound made by the flesh, but some kind of spiritual fluctuation. Ender opened his eyes and looked at this narrow space. A trace of tyranny flashed across his mind, but he quickly suppressed it.

He had tried his best to stay away from faith, just like the fear and awe from the bronze humans, which he did not absorb at the beginning, but stored.

Even now, they were only used by Ender to build this small illusory space, hanging on the vast spiritual world, serving as his temporary field of activity.

But some things are irreversible. When he was killed as someone who had not yet set foot in the extraordinary realm, some choices were destined to be irreversible. When Ender woke up from the pain of being killed and the short-term revenge, he realized a problem - he couldn't go on like this.

The puppet saved his soul, but it would not provide him with further nourishment. Directly absorbing faith is a way to death. Even with the help of the puppet, Anderben has to advance to [Legend] before he can access this power. And he can't even grow in an alternative way like other spiritual beings, because the puppet saved him and locked him. Before completely "accommodating" the things inside, Ander can't go anywhere. Even this temporary space can't be too far away from the puppet.

Faced with this desperate situation, Ander had to start saving himself after a period of depression. Fortunately, when he existed in this special spiritual form, with the help of some special perspectives of the puppet, he gradually discovered a special phenomenon. For living beings, the soul and the body are binary opposites, interdependent, mutually transformed, and can also influence each other.

They are all part of [life]. Although they are divided into two, there are still some mysterious connections between the two. The former can draw strength from the latter, and the latter will also be subtly influenced by the former. This is why the body needs to eat, but the soul does not, because the soul may be illusory, but it can make the material flesh and blood become nutrients to nourish it to think and be active.

Ander didn't know that in fact, as early as the last era, the Lord of Darkness was the first to discover this wonderful connection. He even thought that this was the way for the spirit world to use souls as seeds to harvest the power of the world. Later, he also relied on this connection between [life] and [life] to gradually mix the power of darkness into the souls of the Silver Generation. At this moment, this discovery only gave Ander another hope, a way to advance to [Legend] even in the current state of the spirit body, and then accommodate the puppet.

But this kind of "shortcut" in a certain sense brought him some troubles.

"Sure enough, since there is such a mysterious connection between the body and the soul, the soul can't really have no effect on the body... Even if I have tried my best to choose low-intelligence beasts, their emotions before death still affect me."

Feeling the violent emotions that surged from time to time in his heart, Ander smiled bitterly but didn't know what to say. He suggested that the Bronze Immigrants sacrifice in the same way as he died, and asked the sacrificer to share the feelings of the sacrifice before death. Although there was some revenge in it, in fact, he was just using this method to reduce the influence of the blood in the sacrifice on him.

But in any case, no matter how little influence, it is still an influence. Without the immortal essence of the gods, it is extremely rare for Ander to remain rational when he is only at the fourth level to contact this level of power.

"But soon, in a while, I will become a [Legend]... At that time, according to the information left in the puppet, as long as there is enough faith, I can use it to build a 'country', and become a container of authority with me, and then ascend to the depths of the spiritual world and become an immortal god."

Taking a deep breath, Ander shook his head slightly. He didn't know what the future would be like. Now he could only choose to close his eyes and meditate.

This was his only way to fight the influence of emotions in the blood. Although it could only alleviate it, it was indeed very effective.

"But I don't know... Is Mr. Ryan there too?"

No one could answer him. He was still the only one in the empty small space. Now, Ander only hopes to take that step as soon as possible before he is completely lost in this emotion. In fact, he has already felt that he is far more indifferent and ruthless than before.

However, even he himself did not notice that if it was the original him, he might have stopped when he first discovered that this kind of sacrifice would affect his spirit. After all, relying on the puppet is also another kind of eternal life.

But now, when there is the first time, he is eager for the next time, holding a fluke mentality, thinking that this influence can be avoided.

As for whether it can be avoided... only time can give the answer.

······

"Another piece of the puzzle."

The fifth level of the spiritual world is as chaotic as the sea.

When Ander looked at the bronze survivors in his small space, Ryan was naturally looking at him at a higher place than him.

It's just different from what Ander thought. This "teacher" who had taught him for a while never recognized this student. As Ryan himself said, when he handed the puppet to Ander, the fate of both parties had ended.

Whether Ander can make it to the end is not important. What is important is that he has verified many of Ryan's conjectures with practice.

He is just a test subject. Of course, being selected for this experiment is an opportunity that countless mortals in the world dream of. And now, although the other party failed to grasp the opportunity well, he completed the experiment well from another angle.

He confirmed Ryan's idea from two aspects in turn. Even if this illusory belief space is just a prototype, through it, Ryan can already prove that there is nothing wrong with his approach.

Use faith to form a kingdom, and use it to replace mortals to carry the godhood, so that they can obtain this false "qualification". This is not a real ascension to the gods, because once the faith is lost, the mortals who become gods will lose everything. It is so easy, but so subject to external things. But in any case, its existence can not only arouse the desire of mortals to become gods, but also effectively use their hands to perfect the structure of the fifth spiritual world.

Maybe it's still a little early, but it doesn't matter. The matter of Io gave Ryan a vague premonition that perhaps in the future, he would not have too much energy to focus on the mortal world. Therefore, it is not a bad idea to do some things in advance.

So...

"Come--"

With Ryan's clear shout, a corner of the [Slate of Civilization] in a hall came in response.

It fell in front of Ryan, floating up and down, but Ryan just stretched out his hand and shook it in front of it.

The next moment, many lights and shadows jumped out of it. There were ships and chess pieces that Ander had seen before, as well as looms and livestock that he had never seen, but were closely related to civilization. They were quietly bred with the development of mankind as early as the last era, when the Golden Man King obtained knowledge from the slate in the Severaz Temple. And now, they are already qualified seeds.

These "seeds" gathered in front of Ryan, forming another clay tablet that looked like a replica in front of the [Slate of Civilization] that had become a little more illusory. However, for the real gods, its existence seems a bit "empty".

Its power flows on the surface, but its inner is not so substantial.

"Unlike the code, every part of you must grow alone and then return to you in the end... As for this part, since it can change the fate of mortals, let's call it [Fate Tablet]."

Holding the clay tablet, Ryan threw it lightly. The next moment, the clay tablet crossed the space and landed somewhere in the fifth spiritual world.

The palace was born in the void, the clay tablet fell in the middle, and then thousands of streams of light radiated from it one by one. They passed through the five layers of time and space barriers and fell into the vast world according to the connection of fate.

The godhead is the most dazzling crystal stone, and the kingdom of God is the star in the sky. At this moment, from the perspective of the mortal world, the stars fell like rain again above the extreme sky. But this time, it did not bring disaster, but a different kind of vitality.

"Another starfall... The last time was the golden age, as if it foreshadowed their end, so what will happen this time?"

Looking at the beautiful scenery he created, Ryan smiled without saying a word. At this moment, he seemed to see something vaguely.

But that is all in the future. As for the current situation, these "stars" falling from the sky...

Unlike before, this time, as many stars fall as they will rise. The era of mythology is not just about Olympus.