Don froze for a moment, then silently took a step back under Owen's death stare.
"Ah, well, I just remembered I still have some things to do, talk to you later~"
Owen was almost driven to laughter by anger. "Tsk, I'm telling you, now you know what you've done."
He reached out and grabbed the back of the neck of his own younger brother who was about to flee, lifting him up: "Now, explain to me, bit by bit, what exactly happened?"
"And those two earthquakes, you caused them, didn't you? Speak up, let's have a proper chat."
Don: "...?"
Wasn't this guy's brain always not working properly? Why is he so sharp at this moment? But this kind of emotional expression, is it still the influence of the Dark Side of the Universe? Did this power amplify Owen's emotions in this regard?
But he's a demigod! A demigod!
Is it proper to lift him up like this? Is it proper?! Huh?!
[Host, it's because you're not tall enough~]
'...You talk too much.'
Looking at his older brother, Don finally mumbled vaguely: "Well, it's a long story."
"Then make it short."
"It can't be explained in just a sentence or two..."
"Then specifically describe what you did."
Don finally gave up resistance: "Can you put me down first?"
[Host, just turn him into a marionette and be done with it? Don't you need marionettes?]
Don glanced at his own system and replied quietly, "I think you're stirring up trouble."
Being stupid is one thing, but having a bad heart can't be cured.
Hmm, what would happen if I stuff you directly into the system warehouse next time the sun floats up?
Worth looking forward to.
System: [??]
[Host~ I didn't say anything~]
Let the living system die a little.
Hibernation, shutdown.
Owen put him down, and Don picked and chose what to tell, but he hid most of the content related to his own secrets, magnified the role of the Theater With Curtains That Never Draw here, and especially emphasized that Eraser Angel.
Owen's facial expressions were quite spectacular.
"The '0' level Sealed Artifact of the Church of the Evernight Goddess, this is quite dangerous, and has a certain connection with the Hornacis Mountain Range. If you're caught and erased by Him, you'll be transported to a small town."
Taking advantage of this opportunity, Don also gave Owen some inside information about the Church of the Evernight Goddess.
After all, both he and Owen didn't seem to be anything good in the eyes of the Church of the Evernight Goddess. Moreover, Owen, who walked the Death pathway and was a direct bloodline of Death Salinger, was more likely to become a thorn in the side of the Church of the Evernight Goddess.
If Owen was erased, he would probably have to find a way to enter the main peak of the Hornacis Mountain Range early, well, provided the person was still alive and hadn't been hung up by the Bonesaw Fish as a marionette.
"However, after advancing to Sequence 4 Bizarro Sorcerer, I can exchange positions with marionettes equipped with 'Bionic Modules' at any time. As long as that small town hasn't been 'spirited away' along with the Euclidean space, allowing the spirit threads to partially ascend dimensions to penetrate the mysterious blockade, as long as I maintain the connection of spirit threads, even if I go there, the danger won't be too great."
Owen looked at Don, who had a thoughtful expression, raised his hand and patted him directly on the back.
"Alright, be more careful next time."
Seeing Don frown again with a 'are you brain-fried' expression, Owen smiled helplessly.
He knew Don was stubborn about certain things. Like this time, even though he could have immediately fled and no one would have blamed him, he still took the risk and went up.
Owen was very clear that the Theater of Perpetual Performance, a Sequence 2 Sealed Artifact, how could it possibly allow a Beyonder who was still only Sequence 5 to command it at will? Angel-level Sealed Artifacts, each use must inevitably carry enormous risks.
Since the other party didn't plan to say, he wouldn't press further.
"I think your brain really should be thrown into the Underworld to be washed. The one who let people talk was you, and now the one with a 'really can't do anything about you' attitude is also you."
What a problem.
Don muttered under his breath, but Owen changed the topic, "I plan to collect auxiliary materials for Sequence 4."
"You've completed digestion?" Don was somewhat surprised to hear this. "You just advanced not long ago, how did you complete the digestion of the Gatekeeper potion so quickly?"
"Better safe than sorry. Also, that suit of armor should be usable as the required potion for advancement." Owen shrugged.
In fact, when their father gave Owen the Beyonder characteristic of the Undying earlier, it was also for this purpose.
"That problem isn't too big." Don said quite casually.
Not to mention going to their father to crush the mystical item, with the system and the Theater of Perpetual Performance at hand, crushing a Sequence 4 Beyonder characteristic wasn't a problem.
"As for the advancement ritual..."
Rituals are all conducted to resist the madness and loss of control carried by the potions themselves, just like the advancement ritual for Sequence 4 of the Seer pathway. What he needs to resist is the mental split of the Bizarro Sorcerer, making every spirit worm acknowledge that he is the main body, and all marionettes are just puppets in his hands, not masters.
If he's not careful, once the ritual effect is insufficient to offset this kind of hierarchical transformation and the resulting loss of control, he would immediately turn into countless spirit worms, mentally split, devouring his body and becoming a monster.
And the advancement of the Undying needs to resist two points.
First is 'death' itself. The biggest characteristic of the Undying is that they continuously die and are reborn again.
This is also one of the few Sequences that possesses the beyonder power of 'resurrection from death' at the Saint level.
But this also makes the Undying potion have enormous hidden dangers. Living people who drink it will immediately be assimilated by the power of the Undying. As for the dead... ah, what potion do the dead need to drink?
To resist this influence, during the advancement process, Beyonders of the Death pathway must maintain the boundary between life and death, neither being truly alive nor truly dead.
Roughly what could be called the living slightly dead.
The second point is the need to resist the disappearance of memories.
The Undying have long lifespans, and memory is something that continuously accumulates with the passage of time. Forgetting again and again, then remembering again and again, this kind of mental split will make the Beyonder taking the potion forget all memories in an instant. If they can't remember before the potion completely transforms their body, it will similarly bring about loss of control.
These two points are what the Undying Sequence needs to overcome, so the advancement ritual for the Undying is to 'be at the critical point between life and death, when memories fade to the extreme but are remembered in an instant, under the huge contrast produced by the collision of these two extreme states, take the potion.'
Under normal circumstances, these two completely opposite extreme states are difficult to achieve, but there's a type of spirit world creature in the spirit world called 'Banshee', which can create an effect similar to 'feigned death'. As long as you catch one, next you only need to overcome the memory problem.
But for most Death pathway Sequence 5 advancing to Sequence 4 Beyonders, both are equally difficult.
The former is because the spirit world is vast, Banshees are rare, dangerous, and difficult to detect. Once they encounter a threat of death, they will immediately leave their original location; the latter is because without the help of high-sequence Beyonders from pathways like the Spectator pathway, it's very difficult to immediately recover memories after forgetting everything. This is quite difficult, and once unable to recall, it's equivalent to ritual failure. The most tragic outcome is becoming a half-dead monster with an empty head.
"So I need to find a Banshee," Owen said, "or something with similar beyonder abilities."
Using the Theater Core's miracle might work, this shouldn't exceed the Theater Core's status, and can be responded to with a miracle.
Or go directly to their father, he should also have a way.
Don pondered the Sequence 4 advancement ritual and felt he could handle it after thinking for a while.
Regarding memories, he could use the Manipulator Beyonder characteristic in the Solar Scepter for manipulation, the problem shouldn't be big.
"I'll keep an eye out for you... Oh, right, I plan to take that Witch away."
Don slightly changed the topic.
That Witch had killed quite a few people. Even if they deserved it, once a Witch who was already close to losing control completely fell into madness here, death would be her only outcome.
"Taking her away is good too." Owen said, "The environment here isn't suitable for her."
"So considerate of others~" Don teased.
Owen's mouth twitched again, suppressing the urge to hit someone. He glanced at his younger brother, then walked outside.
The conversation was over. After Owen walked into the group of officers, Don dispelled the illusion and re-entered the Euclidean space.
There were no demigods here. The high-level members of the Church of the Evernight Goddess and the Church of the Lord of Storms were probably still dealing with the aftermath of the Dark Side of the Universe's divine descent, and couldn't spare time. As long as that Eraser didn't pass by, here, as a demigod who had already advanced in the Seer pathway and possessed Euclidean space, Don could be said to be like a fish in water.
Returning to the inn he had previously rented, looking at the clean and tidy bed, Don first went to the washroom to clean up properly, then lay on the comfortable bed rolling around, and finally began to count the gains from this trip.
[New Mission have been updated.]
[Main Mission One: Advance to Sequence 3, Scholar of Yore.]
[Main Mission Two: Recover the Sequence 1 Beyonder characteristics and Uniqueness of the 'Hermit' and 'Perfecter' pathways.]
[Mission status has been updated.]
[Main Mission One: Advance to Sequence 4, Bizarro Sorcerer.]
[Mission Status: Completed.]
[Mission: 'Role-playing of the Marionettist']
[Mission Status: Completed.]
[Mission: Gaze from the Abyss.]
[Mission Status: Completed.]
Three tasks completed one by one. With the completion of the main task and role-playing task, Don gained a large amount of knowledge fragments, appraisal attempts, and craftsman attempts.
After advancing to Bizarro Sorcerer, the system warehouse's limit also increased, directly from Sequence 6's ten slots, Sequence 5's twenty slots, to Sequence 4's forty slots.
Obviously, after entering the demigod level, the system warehouse's limit would also increase accordingly.
Similarly, after advancing to demigod, a new forging template appeared in the 'Craftsman' module.
['Bionic Marionette' Module Forging]
[By consuming spirit worms, or Beyonder characteristics of the Hermit pathway, or Beyonder characteristics of the Savant pathway, you can independently forge brand new 'Bionic Marionette' modules! But please note, marionettes should focus on quality not quantity. Too many marionettes sometimes might end up fighting each other, you know?]
"This is quite interesting."
After opening the forging module, as long as he could afford the spirit worm consumption, according to this meaning, he could completely scatter marionettes to every corner of this world?
Imagine then, ah, this one is my marionette, ah, that one is also my marionette.
This one and that one, one here and one there, the enemy's friend is my marionette, the enemy's enemy is also my marionette... hmm, this is quite fitting for a Bizarro Sorcerer.
Don looked at the last reward.
[Mission: Gaze from the Abyss.]
[The Dark Side of the Universe, desperately trying to escape from a certain state, has been quietly dormant for a long time. This time, He has finally found a perfect method...]
[When the eyes gazing into the abyss also show the shadow of the abyss, when the sun is no more, when plants wither, when spirituality becomes extinct, when all things fall into the land of corruption, that hand symbolizing the most filthy and depraved existence will personally push open the doorway of the Abyss!]
This was the mission the system issued when Don fought with the Dark Side of the Universe's divine descent.
Similar to the previous 'Theater With Curtains That Never Draw' mission, both were extremely dangerous, involving top-tier powers of Sequence 2 and above.
Like that task, after completing this task, the system opened a new module.
A module called [Repair Culture Dish].
[Still worried about your marionettes not being high enough level? Still troubled by having nowhere to place your Beyonder characteristics? Still developed deep feelings for marionettes you've used for a long time, but had to give up because their level was too low? Still worried about certain odors from the marionettes themselves? No problem! This module provides comprehensive after-sales service for your marionettes!]
[Our motto is, no cavities!]
[Dear Customer, you can spend a certain amount of Knowledge Fragments to maintain, repair, or advance your marionettes~]
What the hell with no cavities.
Don's eye twitched as he read this. After roughly browsing through this new module, his heart stirred slightly.
"The essence of marionettes is dead people. Even if potions are forcibly infused, they will only combine with the marionette itself to form strange humanoid Sealed Artifacts."
"That is to say, from the moment a Beyonder is made into a marionette, the marionette's sequence level is already fixed. Even if my level improves, the marionette's own level won't improve with it. I can only enhance my own strength by replacing marionettes."
This module seems useful, but also seems useless.
"First, since I have the corresponding Beyonder characteristic, why not directly make it into a mystical item instead of improving the marionette's sequence? Second, if I want better marionettes, I can just directly replace them. Why go through such a roundabout way?"
Compared to the Bionic Marionette module, which provides essential improvements for Marionettists, this module seems somewhat redundant, only useful for cleaning and repairing marionettes?
Speaking of cleaning marionettes...
"System, can pollution and such also be cleaned away?"
Don suddenly asked.
[Yes, host.]
The system quickly flipped through the user manual and replied to the host's question.
So that means after he makes marionettes bear pollution, he can wash them and still use them?
Speaking of which, Worm of Time should also count as a type of pollution, right? Can marionettes parasitized by Worm of Time be cleaned by stuffing them in there?
Don immediately thought of this point.
(End of Chapter)