Is there a Nature Spirit with Authority within the skull? Such a bizarre thing really can’t be measured by common sense.
Byron hadn’t expected that as he read its secrets, it was also attempting to read his, even identifying through its agricultural Authority that he wasn’t the real Charlotte.
Since he had activated the Storm Sigil Ring, he had never encountered anything .
Although it was only a vague perception of knowledge related to his own Authority, it was still astonishing.
No wonder it was a treasure born from all the agricultural knowledge of a civilization.
"Sorry, I can’t give you my brain, but from now on, your head belongs to me."
Byron didn’t plan to waste words with it, stepping forward to remove it from the altar.
From the memories of the dancer Charlotte, he knew this thing had no offensive powers itself. It had to rely on those bounteous Attendants to act as its hands and feet.
Now that "she" had taken on the task of guarding it, and no one else was around, he could naturally do as he pleased with it.
But the next words from the Crystal Skull made him pause, and he couldn’t help but listen closely:
"Wait! Do you yearn for the sublimation of Life Essence?
Do you want to know the composition of Spirituality? Do you want to understand why forbidden knowledge has such strange side effects?
Do you want to know how to touch the domain of... ’God’?! This is the taboo of taboos, knowledge your Lord will never reveal to you.
At that moment, the Crystal Skull was like a Devil that saw straight into one’s heart, seductively persuasive.
There were hardly any Transcendents in the world who could resist such a temptation.
Without waiting for Byron to speak, it started to sing another poem, just as it had sung "On Man" to a group of Pioneers before:
"The creator sees man as an undecided being and has assigned them a middle place in the world.
’We have placed you at the world’s center so that you can more easily observe everything in the world.
We made you neither divine nor earthly, neither mortal nor Immortal.
Thus you, with freedom and honor, can shape yourself in whatever form you prefer, as if you are your own maker and molder.
You can degenerate into bestiality, or be reborn into divinity...’"
Although metaphorical and cryptic, Byron, with his extensive Extraordinary Knowledge, quickly grasped the poem’s meaning.
He even felt an unprecedented sense of enlightenment.
He instantly understood some of the fundamental logic behind the functioning of the entire Supernatural World.
That is to say, humans, or rather the Spirituality of humans, are actually a composite of Beastliness and Divinity. Humans can become ’beasts,’ or they can become ’Gods.’ The forbidden knowledge prevalent overseas is ’Beastliness,’ while the Old Continent’s Silver Law is ’Divinity.’ Cursed Objects are ’Beastliness,’ Sacred Relics are ’Divinity’; things outside the Sequence are ’Beastliness,’ things within the Sequence are ’Divinity’... and so on, they all reflect this dichotomy. To put it in terms modern people can understand more easily, Beastliness represents the ’id’ of desires and primal drives. Divinity, on the other hand, represents the ’superego’ of morality and collective guidance. But both the ’id’ and ’superego’ are tyrants vying for control of the mind. The former is a slave to the body, while the latter is in cahoots with human society. The most typical manifestation is that forbidden knowledge rooted in ’Beastliness’ all have various strange side effects: Gluttony, laziness, odd habits, and more. Furthermore, many of the Fallen Ones have become Evil Spirits or Bizarres. Whereas the Ladder of Glory rooted in ’Divinity,’ despite being stable and safe without any side effects, is rigid and predictable from the very beginning. If one is forever trapped by the rules of the Church and the creator, they will only reach the secular peak of the Kingly Title, doomed to not achieve transcendence. Both are too extreme if taken to their fullest, neither the right path! Do not add entities unnecessarily. The entire Transcendent System seems to have been completely unified by this theory.
At this thought, Byron’s eyes brightened like never before, as if he’d seen through the eye sockets of the Crystal Skull to the Truth.
Of course, it was more likely also the Truth that could be deemed Profane by the Heresy Tribunal and lead to his death.
Had he not had knowledge of both the Old Continent and the Bantaan Archipelago, he wouldn’t have possessed such an extraordinary perspective.
It might also be because it had drunk too much of their brain matter.
Byron had not expected to gain such a high level of Extraordinary Knowledge just after arriving at the Bantaan Archipelago, feeling bright prospects for his Transcendent path.
He couldn’t help but confirm his conjecture with it:
"Are you suggesting that the most correct path for a Transcendent is actually to continuously touch the Silver Law, stabilizing one’s own Anchor. Then to delve deeply into forbidden knowledge, to craft the ’Sails’ for breaking out of the safe zone and braving the waves. Only with both stillness and motion can one’s ship sail fast and steady, eventually reaching the domain of God, becoming an Immortal being. Is that what you mean?"
In the expectant gaze fixed upon it, the Crystal Skull’s jaw moved, yet it offered no further answer to his question, and instead proclaimed in a chilly tone:
"What I mean is, you... cannot escape!"
Although it was a skull devoid of any flesh, Byron could clearly sense the mockery on its face.
The entire floor of the secret chamber began to heave violently as skull heads made from shattered bone emerged from underneath.
Just like those bounteous Attendants, each head harbored a plant’s roots, writhing and clawing.
Like a tide, the skulls surged towards Byron with a loud CLATTER, CLATTER, CLATTER.
The small chamber seemed, in an instant, to transform into a "Skull Spider" lair.
Meanwhile, hurried footsteps echoed from the entrance of the passage behind Byron.
There was still some time before the others would crash in, but if Byron chose to flee at this moment, he would undoubtedly run headlong into them.
It seemed the Crystal Skull had, by some method unknown, notified the most closely connected Famine Hunters to come to the rescue.
The Famine Hunters had then used the Parrot Conch to call for the Sun Crown Priests.
"To gain knowledge, one must pay a price. No more struggling; your brain must be very delicious! Let me eat! Let me eat!"
But there was not a trace of panic on Byron’s face. Instead, he glanced at the countdown in the log and, smiling at the Crystal Skull now guarded by the "Skull Spiders," said:
"The three minutes are up. The one who cannot escape is you."
The psychological disguise technique on his body was lifted, and his eyes burst with a brilliant azure spiritual Radiance.
In this Second Order Promotion Ceremony, he had evidently chosen the Pirate route.
Hoisting the banner of "forcible plunder over hard cultivation," he completed the looting of three group targets.
If the value of the loot taken in one go was immense, he could achieve immediate promotion.
The sign of a successful plunder was the complete acquisition of the target’s property rights—sell, discard, destroy...—without anyone able to stop it, for at least three minutes.
This equates to the state of: "Scream all you want, but your screams are futile, falling on deaf ears."
The recent conversation appeared to be Byron being misled and passively waiting due to the opponent’s verbal enchantment.
In reality, he had long known that according to the previously determined location, the other two could not possibly return within three minutes.
Why not take freely offered high-end Extraordinary Knowledge?
While listening to the lecture, his Second Order Promotion Ceremony had already quietly begun.
As the great web of the Silver Law manifested and descended instantly in the Spiritual World, a new anchor chain in Byron’s Spirituality latched firmly onto its second layer. The Extraordinary Power of a Second Order Storm Knight then infused into his body.
A gust of wind suddenly whipped up within the chamber, blowing away the skulls that had just reached his side.
If Byron had chosen the Knight route, his core ability would have been the symbol of dominion, Breath of All Things:
"Your Spirituality will resonate with the frequency of all things, enabling you to understand the emotions of any living being and to grasp the vulnerabilities of inanimate objects. With a mere stick, you could easily slice through stone, steel, or even the intangible and insubstantial wind."
However, the core ability of the Pirate route he had selected, "Child of the Storm," was no less impressive:
"As the Child of the Storm, the winds of the world shall bless you.
First, you will master the Secret Art of the wind. This allows you to effortlessly shape vast amounts of wind into the form of a Battle Axe, to be used as a tremendously powerful thrown weapon.
Second, gravity will no longer constrain you.
Once you activate this ability, you can use the wind to nullify your body’s and your close-fitting equipment’s weight. Not only will this allow you to leave no trace in the snow or walk on water, but you can also rise like a leaf on the wind, leveraging the sword-gusts of your adversaries. Combined with the Storm Sword Technique, its Might is amplified!"
In the principles of swordsmanship, among hands, torso, legs, and footwork, the hands move fastest while footwork is slowest.
All stances and Sword Moves in Storm Sword Technique are designed to shorten these four durations.
With the blessing of "Child of the Storm," footwork could become as swift as the hands!
His swordsmanship skills leaped forward instantaneously.
Byron extended his hand, and the Crystal Skull, once again exposed on the altar, was immediately swept into his pouch by the raging wind.
A thunderous boom reverberated.
The Famine Hunters and Sun Crown Priests, who had just stepped into the passage, were also blown away by his storm Battle Axe.
Then, a figure dashed like the wind toward the two Second Order Transcendents who were vulnerable with their guard down.
Today, I’m taking on two at once!