Chapter 532: The Curtain Rises

Ace’s mind sank into meditation. Source Power poured down from the top of his head drop by drop. The thirteen Epic Star Noble Phantasms blessed him intermittently, slowly sanctifying his physical body.

This was an indescribable change. Soul sanctification allowed Ace’s spirit to be immortal, but his physical body was not yet imperishable. This change was the process of the physical body becoming imperishable.

As long as the sanctification of the body and soul was completed, and body and soul harmonized as one, he would be a genuine Level 4 existence, worthy of being called immortal. From then on, others could only respectfully refer to Him with a capital “He.”

Time flew by rapidly. Ten years had passed in the blink of an eye. During the time Ace was hidden away, a mysterious scroll named the Holy Scripture: Book of Prophecy appeared in St. Klan Cathedral.

Empress Yamila personally guarded it, but it vanished into thin air one day. Fragments of the Book of Prophecy gradually appeared on the continent. Many people found trajectories of fate relying on isolated words and phrases from it, obtaining huge benefits. This triggered even greater disputes.

The trajectories of fate gradually converged. Some wizards descending from the Kaya World also obtained these fragments, and their expressions were very strange.

“I have to play the Lich King?”

An underground city in the Crypt World was named Misha City. Witte, who obtained a physical body in this world but transformed himself into a lich, established a huge biological computer laboratory here.

His strength had reached the peak of Level 2, achieving Golden Wizard. Unlike other wizards, Witte didn’t really like delving into elements and mechanics; he devoted himself entirely to biological research, hoping to find the mysteries of life.

Just as he was absorbed in research, the chubby Bruce found him. Bruce also looked helpless. He awkwardly handed a dilapidated parchment fragment to Witte and said: “This is fate, an established fate task!”

Victor seemed to recall something. He took the parchment, looked at it, and mocked: “Fate?”

Upon receiving this parchment that looked like it was about to turn into fragments, his body suddenly stiffened. A pop-up window appeared in front of him. The appearance of this long-unseen panel startled Witte. He looked at the pop-up carefully.

[Established Fate: Lord Firelinker has drawn the catalogue of fate. Are you willing to be a protagonist on this stage? If willing, you will become a member of this world’s fate line, competing step by step for the position of the final villain. This task is a Main Task. Once completed, the resources obtained will be enough for you to advance to Level 3.]

As a skeleton, Witte clearly had no heartbeat, but at this moment he felt his heart seemingly skip a beat in a daze. He was tempted. He concentrated his mind on the [Yes] option, and the panel in front of him changed.

A brand new Main Task appeared. Witte read the task for a while, then looked at Bruce and said: “Truly interesting. Lord Ace has prepared a stage play in this world, and we are all actors.”

Bruce said somewhat helplessly: “That’s true, but this is an effective way to obtain power and resources. Are you doing it?”

Victor laughed jie jie, suddenly becoming gloomy and terrifying, completely devoid of the appearance of a scholar lich. His voice echoed here: “Such an interesting stage play, and with a large amount of resources to be obtained, why not?”

He flew to the top of Misha City, his voice echoing: “I am the Lich King, head of all undead. I am the Scourge!”

The chubby Bruce looked at Witte, who had already started role-playing, left with a wry smile, muttering: “Another one gone mad, another one gone mad.”

Countless wizards received various tasks. The prelude of fate in this world was about to open. Ace was very greedy this time; he specified many details in detail, using the panels on the dreamwalkers to advance the plot.

If this time truly succeeded, all participants would obtain resources beyond imagination. Inside the Bernada Imperial Palace, Augustus had gradually grown up. Imperial Tutor “Prophet” Bayen was teaching him mathematics. The actors were taking the stage one after another.

In the Underworld, Ace’s body emitted a pure golden luster. Except for his feet, his entire body had been sanctified. The pure golden luster gradually seeped into his feet. The sanctification of the feet was very difficult, more than ten times harder than the previous parts.

Ace opened his eyes and whispered: “No wonder in mythology, some Demi-gods’ feet are their biggest weakness, actually dying of pain after being hit in the heel by a Noble Phantasm. If I didn’t possess the resources of the entire world, I’m afraid I could only leave some part as an unsanctified weakness.”

In the Kaya World, many Demi-gods had fatal weaknesses. Most were the feet, some were shoulders or hearts—all sorts of strange things.

Ace didn’t understand in the past, but now he realized that it turned out to be caused by insufficient resources during sanctification.

He naturally didn’t lack resources. He moved the pool of Source Power accumulated above his head to his feet, directly soaking them in the Source Power to accelerate the sanctification process.

If seen by a Demi-god in the Kaya World, who knows how pitiful they would feel. For example, Ronamus; his achievement of Demi-god relied entirely on the trial of the Goddess of Love and Desire, plus the Power of Authority of the Elegant State of Medimus as resources. He had never even touched the Power of Great Source.

Although the Power of Great Source of a Level 2 World couldn’t compare with the Power of Great Source of a Level 4 World, it was still Source Power nonetheless, the energy with the highest mystery and quality in a world.

That pool of Source Power shrank at a speed visible to the naked eye. Ace’s feet also gradually took on a golden hue, constantly generating inward. Finally, only a fist-sized amount of Source Power remained, and his feet finally completed sanctification.

The sanctification of both soul and physical body allowed Ace’s state to reach its peak. He hovered in the air of the Underworld, adjusting the state of his body and soul, the two gradually reaching a unified resonance.

The path to Level 4: When the soul and physical body are completely sanctified, the soul and physical body merge into one from then on, no longer distinguishing between each other. This state of pure sanctification is also the most powerful Level 4 state.

It is both material and informational; the two merge into one.

Ace opened his eyes, feeling his power. All his spells had reached the Sixth Ring, all being Epic Spells, and his Noble Phantasms had also become Eternal Epic. After completing the body and soul of a Demi-god and finally merging them into one, the power of all his Noble Phantasms and spells increased several times.

“It’s a pity that resources are insufficient now. The stage play of fate has just begun. Although this kind of endogenous fate can give birth to a large amount of Source Power and Power of Fate, it also takes a very long time and needs to be perfected constantly.

“Without resources, it’s impossible to deduce Seventh Ring Spells (Demi-god Level Spells), let alone turn all my Noble Phantasms into Demigod Artifacts. There aren’t even enough resources for the substantialization of the mental imagery world.”

Ace hung that fist-sized Source Power on the Magic Net as a blessing for the characters on this stage, letting them continue according to the act.

After the unified empire appeared, Yamila did not carry out drastic reforms. This was an empire, but not an empire with complete top-down rule; it was more like a federation with a common sovereign.

The empire directly controlled the central continent and the eastern coast, moving and enfeoffing the eastern princes to the western mountainous regions. The entire west was dotted with numerous small countries. A Snowy Region Restraining Governor was established in the north, and the Southern Alliance still maintained semi-independence.

Localities maintained public security forces, while the imperial army was stationed in various places to ensure the empire was a federation and not a confederation.

This form of rule was also designed by Ace. He believed that an absolutely unified authoritarian power would inevitably consume a large amount of manpower and material resources in rule and governance. Conversely, relative decentralization, giving regions far from the capital a certain degree of autonomy, would bloom more vitality.

The entire Bernard Empire promoted faith while also encouraging magic. Faith solved the conversion and identity of the lower-class ordinary residents, while magic allowed those with aptitude to stand out, gradually turning this world into a true world of magic.

Because of the diverse political systems, various forms of rule were also born. Under the empire’s rule, subordinate countries were allowed to freely change their political systems, as long as they still recognized the empire as one body, paid taxes to the empire, and didn’t establish armies privately.

As for magic or wizards, they also gradually diverted to the Imperial Capital and the Southern Alliance.

Fewer people in this world had magical aptitude. Even with a population of nearly one hundred million on the entire continent, after screening school-age boys and girls layer by layer, the number of people obtained with magical aptitude was only seventy or eighty thousand. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say it was one in a thousand.

Most dreamwalkers didn’t have to be like this. Even if the bodies they descended into had no magical aptitude, as long as they advanced to a Level 1 Life through the Path of Blood Energy and Heart Fire, their own power would gradually awaken.

Even adding all the Dreamwalkers descending from the Kaya World, the magical population of the entire world was only a hundred thousand. Looking at the statistical data, Bayen walked into the Astrological High Tower.

This was the headquarters of the imperial faction wizards, and Bayen was the supreme leader here.

The body he descended into was a strong, tall, old barbarian. Unlike the body in the Kaya World, this descended body had a very long and supple white beard. Bayen cherished it very much, even specially preparing a bag to hold the beard.

He went directly into the top floor of the Astrological High Tower. Here was a model of this world. Every time Bayen came here, he found it unbelievable.

Although Ace called this world the “Holy Light – Blue Blood World,” wizards like Bayen preferred to call it the “Bernard World” because this was where wizards jointly established the Bernard Empire.

“The structure of the world is too strange. Although the basic operation still follows the three laws of mechanics and the law of universal gravitation, if we delve deeper, the continent of this world should form a sphere.

“The sky dome is like an inverted bowl, the stars hang in the sky, and the sun and moon rise in the east and set in the west. It’s too strange, too strange. There must be something I overlooked. Could it be that Celestial Realm and the Underworld?”

He pondered and hypothesized while also having many doubts. What exists must be rational; what exists should be explainable. Since the sky is round and the earth is flat, then the Celestial Realm and the Underworld might be part of the explanation.

“It’s a pity the Holy Light hasn’t been expelled yet, so I can’t go to the Celestial Realm. After completing Lord Ace’s stage play this time, I’ll go to the Underworld first to have a look.”

Although he really wanted to go, Bayen really couldn’t leave. His role in this act was the Prophet, the mentor of the protagonist Augustus. This act might give him the resources to advance to Level 3.

But this didn’t come out of nowhere. Bayen had already competed and eliminated more than fifty coveters. He was different from that guy Witte; very few people descended and transformed themselves into liches. Witte was too blessed by nature.

Bayen reaching this step relied entirely on his own strength and wisdom. This also involved competing for character authority fragments. He spent a great price to obtain all this and could not afford to lose.

…

In the Crypt World, ever since Witte obtained his fate role from Bruce, he acted rapidly. He began to expand rapidly in the Crypt World. According to Bruce’s description, many other wizards obtained tasks similar to Bruce’s. They were either provoking the ambitions of native powerhouses or distributing tasks to Dreampwalkers. In short, he couldn’t wait any longer.

Witte had already transformed the whole city into undead. The blue soul fire connected into one piece, and the white dry bones carried a miserable light. Nearly a hundred thousand dry bones threw themselves slowly and firmly at another underground city.

Witte stood on the bone wyvern he transformed, looking down.

This wyvern was also a Level 2 existence. Although it looked somewhat like a dragon, it was fundamentally completely different from a dragon. It was just a creation where Witte stitched together a winged lizard monster and turned it into an undead.

Even so, it completely imitated a dragon and could even perform negative energy breath. It was one of the few Level 2 undead in Witte’s hands.

He heard there was a powerful Blue Blood in another city and hoped to transform them into a useful Skeleton Knight.

…

Just as Victor began to conquer the Crypt World, in another part of the crypt, Bruce walked here panting heavily.

Groups of knights were exercising. They looked obviously different from the Knights of Virtue; each one looked like they bore deep hatred and bitter resentment.

Not surprisingly, Bruce was surrounded tightly by the knights. His strength was not bad, and his fire magic operated smoothly; more than twenty knights actually couldn’t get close.

“All stop!”

A cold voice came. A young girl flew over from the air. The knights seemed very afraid of the young girl and stopped resentfully.

The young girl landed slowly and said to Bruce: “You are the recently rumored Instigator, Bruce, right?”

Bruce scratched his head somewhat awkwardly, then thought of his role and said seriously: “I am for justice. This world needs purification.”

The young girl burst out laughing and said: “I haven’t discovered you have this comedic talent before. I underestimated you back in the magic school. This way, please.”

Bruce’s eyes rolled. Could it be an old classmate? Then this task has a bit more chance of winning.

He tried to get close, looking left and right, and whispered to the young girl: “I wonder how I should address you, classmate? I don’t want to be like this either, it’s just the role; I have no choice. I wonder how your relationship with the Abyssal Knight is? Could you put in a good word for me?”

The young girl gave him a half-smile and said coldly: “I am not your classmate. My name is Olli.”

Bruce felt as if struck by lightning, suddenly remembering that he once had a beautiful teacher indeed named Olli. He heard she was also the lover of the Abyssal Knight. In this way, he also had some certainty about the task.

Bruce hurriedly corrected his attitude, apologized seriously, and said: “So it’s Teacher. I’m really sorry. I have always benefited a lot from the logic you taught…”

Olli interrupted and said: “Logic was taught by Big Hat Logan, not me. We’re here. Just tell Arno directly whatever you have.”

Only then did Bruce realize that he had unknowingly entered a hall. A seemingly somewhat thin and weak teenager was holding an extremely exaggerated giant rock exercising. Could this be Abyssal Knight Arno?

Bruce fell into deep doubt, but bowed respectfully on the surface and was about to speak.

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