"Is this the beginning of everything?"
Richard looked at the final scene of the scroll and murmured softly.
The three great civilizations gave up their chance of survival, thoroughly nailing the future of the Civilization Devourer.
The flames dissipated, and the molten gold runes on the Miracle Furnace seemed to come alive, floating out from the furnace and merging into Richard’s spirit space.
At the same time, a spark leapt from the furnace, transforming into the phantom of a Furnace Man Leader before Richard.
[My heir whom I have never met, I know you already understand that terrifying future, so I offer you a choice.
If you continue to hold the furnace, you will follow the future to that self-destructive end.
But if you think you lack the resolve, then abandon this furnace and choose a new master for it.
This is not cowardice, but wisdom.]
Looking at the Furnace Man Leader, a trace of mocking smile flashed across Richard’s face.
"Abandon? Let someone else control my destiny!?"
Richard looked at the phantom formed by the furnace fire, his eyes fierce as a furious lion.
"This is my destiny! The destiny I choose!"
Richard’s response seemed to traverse a million years and reached the ears of the Furnace Man Leader.
The illusion formed by the furnace fire showed a slight smile, as if saying, "I didn’t choose the wrong person."
[Since this is the case, then my heir whom I have never met, may the furnace fire illuminate your path forward, may the obstacles on that road be burned away by the furnace fire, and may you return to the furnace fire at the end of the road.]
The next moment, the phantom shattered, and countless pieces of information surged into Richard’s brain.
It was the inheritance of the Furnace Man, an ancient past where countless souls of the Furnace Men turned into furnace fire within the Supreme Furnace.
Their memories, their heritage, all were inherited by the furnace fire.
At the same time, the furnace fire mark appeared on Richard’s forehead. Under the effect of the inheritance, the form of this mark changed, seeming to establish a connection with something.
After a long time, Richard awoke from the inheritance.
He covered his head, which felt like it was splitting, and took a deep breath.
"Phew, there’s quite a lot to this thing, isn’t there?"
The inheritance of the furnace fire was extremely complicated, as if that Furnace Man Leader stuffed even the children’s textbooks and their storybooks into the inheritance.
Even without encountering the Spark Base, the knowledge in this heritage would have been enough to advance the Wizard’s technology by an era.
But now, the most useful part of this inheritance is only the portion related to Dominator and dimension technology—but there weren’t many technologies related to the Dominator level in the Spark Base. Either they were polluted or simply not included, so Richard didn’t obtain many.
And with this inheritance, Richard is not lacking in High Tier level technology.
"However, why were the Furnace Men so anxious back then?"
Richard stroked his chin, and images from the Furnace Fire Scroll flashed through his mind.
Although sealing the Civilization Devourer indeed consumed considerable power of the Civilization Alliance, after the victory, the remaining power of the Civilization Alliance was certainly not enough to cause extinction.
At least the remaining power of the Furnace Men would not be extinct.
Although Richard had no doubts about the moral character of the previous civilization, choosing extinction of the civilization to forge weapons to slay the Civilization Devourer for later generations when survival was possible.
This doesn’t seem logical at all.
Did the Furnace Man Leader never consider continuing the expansion of civilization?
Even with the constraints of the Destiny Contract, Richard believes that a civilization at the level of the Furnace Man would have ways to delay or even lift them.
If all else failed, nurturing a succession civilization would be better than letting the civilization develop on its own.
But the Furnace Men didn’t do that.
Although the time is uncertain, they chose self-sacrifice to forge the furnace after the war instead of raising a successor civilization.
"What is hidden within this?" A cold gleam flashed in Richard’s eyes.
"Could there be a problem with the inheritance?"
Facing the Civilization Devourer, one can’t judge by the mindset of a regular being. It is not just a physical entity. According to its Anti-Meme ability, it likely also has some abilities or traits of Curse Creatures.
Perhaps the reason the Furnace Men didn’t leave a successor civilization relates to its abilities.
"Hopefully, it’s not the worst option," Richard muttered to himself.
The worst option would be that the technology of the three great civilizations was polluted by the Civilization Devourer, and the civilization receiving the inheritance would provide power to the Civilization Devourer.
If so, their technological advancement would surely slow down.
Otherwise, the stronger they become, the stronger the Civilization Devourer would become.
Shaking off the chaotic thoughts in his mind, Richard focused on the furnace fire mark on his forehead.
With the activation of the inheritance, the furnace fire mark is no longer a simple mark.
By injecting the Power of Dimension into the furnace fire mark, Richard can clearly perceive a connection.
In the depths of the Endless Dimension, there is a dimension closely connected to the furnace fire mark.
If nothing goes wrong, this dimension should be the Furnace Man Dimension.
Richard gazed at the sky, as if his eyes could penetrate layers of veil and see the Furnace Man Dimension hidden in the Endless Dimension.
"A weakened dimension... perfect to use as nourishment."
"Congratulations, Miracle, I didn’t expect you to form a prototype so quickly."
The Shape-shifting School headquarters, the Plastic Energy Crown looked at the arriving Richard, a smile full of congratulations on his face.
Richard waved his hand, "Spent an Illusion Rule Seed and took ten years, Crown Throne, don’t mock me."
With the promotion completed, it’s only natural for Richard to greet the Shaping Energy Crown.
After all, he can be considered a Truth Wizard cultivated by the Shaping Energy Crown, sort of like half a mentor-student relationship.
"What is your ritual?" The Shaping Energy Crown took a seat opposite Richard and asked casually.
"If you need the council’s cooperation, feel free to speak up, no one will secretly trip you, at least not in this era of war."
Richard nodded with a smile and replied, "For this ritual, I do need the council’s help, especially from the Soul Crown and Curse Crown."
"Oh?" A flicker of interest flashed across the Shaping Energy Crown’s face.
"What is your ritual?"
The Shaping Energy Crown raised an eyebrow, then seemed to realize something and asked Richard, "What is your answer?"
"Possibility built upon impossibility," Richard said softly.
"Possibility built upon impossibility... that’s not easy."
The Shaping Energy Crown looked at Richard, growing more curious about Richard’s ritual.
"What is your miracle?"
Richard smiled faintly, casually offering his answer.
A miracle is a possibility built upon impossibility, and in this fantastical world, not much is truly impossible.
And resurrection falls into this category.
The Undead School has many witchcraft methods to revive the dead, and with a fresh enough corpse, the resurrected undead might be indistinguishable from their former selves.
However, this is not true resurrection.
The undead are merely fragments of the deceased soul pieced together; they may look the same as before, but their essence has changed.
They are new beings born from the deceased soul, merely possessing the deceased’s memories by chance.
At the World Master’s stage, World Masters have richer resurrection methods.
Even if they’re knocked soul-scattered on the battlefield, as long as a sliver of the soul escapes and activates the resurrection method, the World Master can reappear in the world.
But this doesn’t count as resurrection either, merely as not being completely dead and saved.
What Richard seeks is true resurrection in the literal sense. He wants to be utterly dead and then awaken from the grave.
But how is that possible?
"What do you plan to do? What do you need the council to do?"
The Shaping Energy Crown looked at Richard, eager to hear how Richard plans to achieve this miracle.
"I need the Soul Crown to assist in sequencing the soul structure, and then create a completely isolated space from the outside world."
A flicker of astonishment appeared on the Shaping Energy Crown’s face.
Richard nodded, "That’s all. Theoretically, if my soul dissipates in a sufficiently intricately designed sealed space, then with enough luck, my soul might reassemble with the same structure and return."
The Shaping Energy Crown frowned slightly, entrusting the ceremony’s success to luck isn’t a good idea.
Richard smiled slightly, "So I need the Curse Crown; the Curse Crown can make me sufficiently lucky."
For the Curse Crown, enhancing luck isn’t difficult.
He can even manipulate destiny, and so-called luck to him is just a lump of clay that can be molded at will.
"But the risk is still extremely high." The Shaping Energy Crown’s voice was somewhat low.
"I think you’d better choose another ritual."
Richard lightly shook his head, "Crown, risks are unavoidable. Besides this, do you have any other miraculous options you can handle?"
The Shaping Energy Crown remained silent; his mind was racing, trying to find a more feasible plan.
Yet after pondering over it, he found that what Richard mentioned was the only viable plan.
"Why did you set such a problem for yourself?" The Shaping Energy Crown’s voice was somewhat irritated.
Richard laughed heartily, "Crown, aren’t our problems all equally crazy?"
Even though after forming the dimensional prototype, Wizards are no longer restricted in acquiring rules.
Yet, the more rules, the greater the potential for conflict between them.
And the rules needed to create a world have already exceeded the calculation limit of a Sixth Circle Wizard.
If there’s any manipulable possibility in Richard’s ritual, then the Shaping Energy Crown back then was purely gambling on luck.
He couldn’t predict if the collision of those rules would lead to his soul and dimensional prototype together being annihilated.
But he bet it wouldn’t.
The Path of Truth is the answer to the ultimate question, and naturally contains the possibility of answering incorrectly.
Richard answered what a miracle is, and now he has to prove that the miracle he spoke of indeed exists.
If he dies, it means he was wrong.
If wrong, one has to accept the penalty.