This is a world where Beyonder and mystery intertwine, where the Creator, pillars, Outer Deity, and ancient gods dance together...
The Third Epoch.
The Age of Calamity.
A terrifying war of gods erupted.
Darkness and lightning enveloped the entire sky, the Sun fell, and corruption and hatred swept across the land. This Calamity spread from the East Sonia Sea to the East Continent. Ninety-nine percent of living beings along the way perished, the ocean transformed into a forbidden zone, and the land became like the Abyss.
The betrayer eagerly crowned himself.
Only to ascend the divine throne.
He who fell from heaven to earth, died burdened with all sins, his eyes losing their divine light, gradually consumed by madness.
Under the shroud of Death's shadow, before the Nightmare formed by eternal night, the Creator of all, the Omnipotent and Omniscient God, this "God of the Sun" who transcended deities, this "quasi-God Almighty," seemed to sense a certain gaze.
He saw a stretch of gray mist.
He saw a gaze from above the Spirit World.
"Lord of the Mysteries?"
This murmur, like a dream, seemed to hold some confusion. He felt as if time and space had undergone some sort of disorder. When He tried to investigate further, the golden divine blood in his chest flowed dry, and He was submerged by endless Darkness.
The God of the Sun fell.
The Age of Radiance ended, and the Age of Calamity began.
The old order was shattered, the world ultimately descended into chaos, peace was always fleeting, and strife never truly departed...
No Scholar of Yore, when tracing this history, would consider how many innocents died during this period, as if, before the fall of the God of the Sun, the significance of those who were buried with him was merely that.
The ascetics who believed in the God of the Sun followed their Sun, so who would care about a weak elf that fell under the Storm?
...
"Cough! Cough, cough!"
With indescribable pain, Xia Ran clutched his broken chest in a daze. He gasped almost instinctively, inhaling a large amount of seawater directly, and was caught off guard, choking, which led to more violent coughing. By the time he realized he could breathe freely underwater, he didn't know how much seawater he had already drunk.
If the seawater hadn't flowed out through the hole in his stomach, it might have taken him even longer to regain consciousness.
"Am I Xia Ran? Xia Buran? Xia Ai'er?"
"I had one foot in the grave and they still pulled me back?"
"The world of Lord of the Mysteries?"
Many memories surfaced in Xia Ran's mind.
In the Lord of the Mysteries worldview, Earth has 22 divine Pathways, and there are also some Outer Deity Pathways in the Cosmos. Each divine Pathway has a complete ladder of ascension from Sequence 9 to Sequence 0.
Sequence 4 steps into the realm of demigods, and Sequence 2 is known as an angel, referred to as a subsidiary god in ancient times.
Sequence 0 is a true deity.
A Sequence 1 Archangel controls a Uniqueness, which symbolizes divine authority. If they collect three Beyonder characteristics of Sequence 1, then they are qualified to become Sequence 0.
Above Sequence, there are Outer Deity.
In addition to mastering the corresponding divine Pathway, one must also integrate a Sefirah that represents certain symbols of the universe.
The closest to an Outer Deity on Earth was the Ancient Sun God.
He inherited the legacy of God Almighty, one of the three pillars, and was connected to the Sefirah Chaos Sea from birth.
He eliminated the ancient gods of the Second Epoch, recovering and mastering the five authorities of Sun, Storm, White Towern, Visionary, and Hanged Man.
He was the closest existence to an Outer Deity on Earth, and also the last potential candidate to become the second generation God Almighty.
But the first generation God Almighty didn't die completely, so the second generation heir was tragic.
The Ancient Sun God fell.
Storm, Sun, and White Towern gained new masters.
As Xia Ran recalled this information, his bruised and cold body gradually warmed, and the blood that had long drained from his severely damaged body surged forth again with the beating of his heart.
He twitched the corner of his mouth and gave a thumbs-up to the gradually thinning gray mist beside him.
"Celestial Worthy is awesome."
God Almighty didn't die completely, and another pillar-level Outer Deity, the Celestial Worthy (Lord of the Mysteries), evidently didn't die completely either, leaving behind contingencies.
"So I'm not reincarnated, but transmigrated?"
"Damn it, it's fine that I'm the second one, and I'll endure not starting as an angel, but couldn't you have precisely placed me on one of the Celestial Worthy's three Pathways?"
"If it's not the Celestial Worthy's Pathway, how can I use the Celestial Worthy's Sefirah? How can I go to the gray fog space?"
After Xia Ran sorted out his thoughts, his nose tingled, and remembering he was in the sea, he gave up the idea of feigning a snort.
In his previous life, Xia Ran had a happy family. Even after transmigrating to an orphanage, Xia Ran didn't care much. He even rebelliously named himself Xia Buran, planning to use his first life's experience to prepare early and avoid internal competition.
Then the Earth exploded!
Xia Buran became Xia Ai'er, an innocent bystander caught in the crossfire.
A Sequence 5 elf singer of the Storm pathway, who tragically died in the face of the Calamity.
"Did you do justice to my efforts of skipping grades and advancing in school?"
"I only guarded the reservoir for a few days!"
"My hard-earned fish!!!"
Xia Ai'er thought of the custom-made fishing rod set he had spent a fortune on, and how his wonderful laid-back life had once again fallen apart. He lost control of his emotions, so angry that his hair stood on end.
"So you're here to mock me?"
"I didn't die, I'm truly sorry."
He looked at the floating corpses and vengeful spirits that lingered at the bottom of the sea, affected by the power of the war of gods. These undead, sensing the aura of a living being, gradually gathered around him.
"Do you all want to be my experience points?"
Xia Ai'er smiled. The combat experience from the elf's spiritual body fragments told him that these were all trash.
A translucent, illusory layer of scales covered his body. His left hand manipulated the surrounding water currents to slow down the movement of these undead creatures, while his right hand condensed a bolt of lightning.
Even though it was his first time facing such a situation, there was no fear at all. Perhaps influenced by the elf, Xia Ai'er was incredibly exhilarated right now!
"Fishing with explosives?"
The corner of his mouth curved slightly. His right palm, covered in illusionary scales, hurled the lightning from its center. The lightning, manipulated, exploded before it even hit its target, scattering into small snakes that spread along the surrounding seawater, looking exactly like a silvery electric net from a distance.
These lightning bolts were quite effective against the undead. The floating corpses and vengeful spirits that were netted quickly turned into ashes.
Xia Ai'er sensed the changes in the water flow, confirming that both the quantity and quality were within his manageable range. He waved his fingers as if playing a musical instrument, killing the attracted Monsters nearby and familiarizing himself with the Beyonder abilities mastered by the elf singer.
The elf's memories and perception of ocean currents allowed Xia Ai'er to roughly determine his current sea area.
East of the South Continent, southeast of the Sonia Sea, near the southern part of the Forsaken Land of the Gods.
This location was already far from the center of the battle. The original Xia Ai'er probably never imagined that even though he was active in such a remote sea area, going to the most perilous environment, he would still be affected by the war of gods?
Such a battle, capable of destroying a continent, even the current gods have probably never seen a second one.
After clearing out these undead creatures, which were less affected by the war of gods and generally not strong, Xia Ai'er's gaze turned faintly to three directions.
The nearest East Continent.
The slightly more distant South Continent.
The furthest North Continent.
He couldn't go to any of them.
The East Continent was already a dead land; the impact there was far more severe than in the sea.
Even if at this point, the true god of the Hanged Man Pathway, the True Creator, might be active on the North Continent, land is not like the ocean. Even encountering a mad demigod-level creature would put Xia Ai'er in great danger.
The South Continent, or perhaps at this time, Death had not yet fully gained control, but the Death of the Ancient Sun God would definitely help the God of the Undead complete his promotion ritual to become Death. It was just as dangerous there.
The North Continent, this was the most dangerous.
An elf had once produced an ancient god who wielded the authority of Storm.
Elves of the Storm pathway, in the eyes of the new Lord of Storms, were remnants of the previous dynasty!
The option of seeking out other elves was also not viable.
Although Xia Ai'er believed in the Celestial Worthy's technique, this placement should have combined the characteristics of the Seer, Marauder, and Apprentice Pathways.
Even an angel of the Fate Pathway might not be able to detect a problem, but even if he found other elves, what then?
Was he supposed to wait to be hunted down by the Storm Church?
"Then, only one answer remains."
Xia Ai'er looked at the gray mist around him, which had been slow to dissipate. Without much hesitation or thought, he called out a name.
"Arrodes!"