At last, Lin Tuo had completely unraveled the mystery of Ether's decline, and matters were drawing to a close.
Behind him, the cheers of the reborn sorcerers gradually faded.
Through his true body, Lin Tuo also detected the "scouts" riding flying beasts, making their way from the royal capital toward the ruins.
"There's still aftermath to deal with." With a soft sigh, Lin Tuo began to contemplate the finishing touches.
The "Nightmare" was dead, and the corrupted Holy City had been destroyed. Yet this did not mean the Church as an institution had been eradicated.
Scattered across the continent were still countless churches, large and small, and countless priests who kept its branches functioning. More profoundly, there remained the faith deeply ingrained in people's hearts.
These, Lin Tuo did not intend to erase. As an inseparable part of human society, the sudden disappearance of faith could very well trigger chaos on an even larger scale.
Especially once news of the Holy City's destruction spread—would he himself be branded a "demon"?
After much thought, Lin Tuo sighed again, muttering quietly:"I'll have to let my true body make an appearance, to calm things down."
With a thought, his figure vanished once more, and his main consciousness returned to his true body.
This shift immediately made the sorcerers tense.
And when the officials from the royal capital finally arrived on their flying beasts, gazed upon the wasteland, and took in the ruins, their unease only deepened.
It was then that thousands of sorcerers, as well as the royal scouts who had just arrived, their faces still filled with shock, all heard it at once—
A voice, distant yet overwhelming, echoing from the farthest reaches of the heavens. Majestic, without emotion:
"The Northern Church was tainted by a demon, bringing calamity upon the world. Today, it has been purged. Let all living beings of this realm take heed."
The voice descended from the lofty firmament and spread across the entire world with effortless ease.
In that moment, across both Northern and Southern Continents, countless beings raised their heads, stunned, gazing at the sky and feeling an indescribable awe, each with their own expression.
Whether it was the hidden sorcerers lurking in the shadows of distant corners of the land…
Or the clergy within untouched churches and monasteries…
Or the tens of millions of ordinary people, and even magical beasts with traces of sentience—
All, upon hearing the voice, had the same word surface unbidden in their minds:
God.
The thousands of sorcerers among the ruins, and the knights from the royal capital, finally understood. They realized that the terrible force that had descended earlier came from none other than a god.
And that mysterious mighty figure—perhaps—was an angel sent by the divine.
All doubts and confusions were suddenly explained.
Click-clack.
On the virtual panel's running log, a new line of text was typed out:
[World Evolution Log, Year 3653 of the Primordial Era: Spiritual creature slain, Northern Church headquarters destroyed… After three thousand years, humanity has once again heard the voice of the gods.]
At the Lishan Martial Hall, within the study.
After Lin Tuo finished speaking those words, he rose, stepped out of the "isolation field," and cast a glance at the new entry on the running log. The heavy stone in his heart finally dropped.
By masquerading once again as a deity and delivering a true "divine oracle," he should have solved the aftermath.
Of course, minor contradictions and inconsistencies would inevitably remain, but Lin Tuo had neither the energy nor the patience to carefully appease every faction.
"As long as the general direction is stable, the rest of the conflicts among the people can be left to themselves—and to time."
Exhaling softly, Lin Tuo lowered his gaze to the sand table, fixing on the faint bluish-white vapor slowly dispersing across the ruins of the Holy City after the Nightmare's death.
That vapor was the Ether dissipating from a slain spiritual creature.
Naturally, Lin Tuo would not let it go to waste. He immediately activated the "Qi-Devouring Method," drawing most of it into himself, though he did leave some behind to nourish the sorcerers and restore their strength.
Even so, this intake still brought him about two thousand points.
Glancing at his reserves, Lin Tuo noted his total Ether had now reached three thousand points.
Not a fruitless endeavor, then.
The price, however, was that the downward arrow marking Ether density had darkened further, teetering dangerously close to the "meager" grade.
"Well… a little waste is acceptable. With the Nightmare crisis resolved, recovery will come soon enough."
Still, Lin Tuo refrained from immediately triggering "time acceleration."
First, he wanted to observe the aftermath a bit longer—caution never hurt.
Second, the many books he had collected from the Kingdom of Drey were still lying on that nameless deserted island. They would take time to sort. If he hastily accelerated time, they would likely rot away quickly.
But that wasn't urgent.
Far more important was gaining clarity on the "Spirit Realm."
Chirp, chirp…
Drawing his eyes away from the sand table, Lin Tuo glanced out the window.
The waning moon hung high in the sky.
Unlike the evening scene within the sandbox, in reality, it was already past 9:40 at night, nearing ten o'clock.
Before venturing into the sandbox to deal with the Church, Lin Tuo had dined with Huaxi. Now, as he pushed open the window, the chirping of insects drifted from the corners of the martial hall's training yard.
The courtyard lay bathed in clarity and silence.
"At this hour, Huaxi should be in her room, meditating in cultivation."
Murmuring softly, Lin Tuo poured himself a cup of tea, then sat back down at his desk. Summoning the virtual panel, his gaze fell on the earlier "reminder."
"Read Spirit Realm information," he willed silently.
[Relevant information transmitted.]
The Evolution Sandbox responded instantly, and a stream of phantom information poured into Lin Tuo's mind. After a minute or two, he opened his eyes again, a faint glimmer of insight flickering within them.
At last, he had gained a deeper understanding of the so-called "Spirit Realm."
Previously, his only knowledge of it came from the sandbox's definition of Ether.
Simply put, Ether was an energy that flowed from the "Spirit Realm" into the "Material Realm."
The Material Realm referred to Earth—the world he lived in—and the observable universe composed of "matter."
In contrast, the "Spirit Realm" was more abstract, indescribable, shrouded in mystery and the unknown. It seemed to lack a clear entrance, yet was omnipresent.
Even the unlocked information did not provide precise descriptions—whether because it was truly incomprehensible, or because his permissions were insufficient, he could not say.
Still, it was not without revelations.
From Lin Tuo's understanding, the Spirit Realm seemed to overlap with the Material Realm.
Thus, in theory, any place could serve as an entrance. The presence of intelligent life caused Ether to precipitate from the unseen Spirit Realm into the world.
Conversely, as the number of intelligent beings in the Material Realm decreased, Ether would quietly flow back into the Spirit Realm, vanishing once more.
The Spirit Realm also housed creatures of its own—but their forms were incomprehensible to humans. In most cases, the two realms remained separate and uninvolved. Yet exceptions existed.
For instance, certain beings born in the Material Realm might, by an infinitesimal chance and some unknown cause, form a connection to the Spirit Realm, gaining revelations—or supernatural powers.
Or, over long spans of time, Spirit Realm creatures might, by accident, cross into the Material Realm.
Just like the "Nightmare."
"According to the sandbox, Spirit Realm creatures exist in a state similar to souls, making it difficult for them to directly affect the Material Realm. To fully unleash their power, they often need to attach themselves to some entity."
"In Sandbox No. 2, the Nightmare eventually chose to possess the Pope, in order to strike at me."
Sitting at his desk, Lin Tuo finally resolved some of his lingering doubts.
As for the "Sealed Talisman" in Sandbox No. 1, it was somewhat different from the Nightmare.
"According to the information, besides Ether, the Spirit Realm is also suffused with a force called 'Spirituality.' This is the essence of Spirit Realm creatures…
Spirituality cannot exist independently. Thus, once it accidentally enters the Material Realm, it must attach to a host… The Talisman was a piece of jade, corrupted by Spirituality, and so became a supernatural object."
"Likewise, those mutants on the wastelands who were born with powers—they too were carrying attached Spirituality."
In short—
Whether man or stone, once touched by Spirituality, one would naturally acquire some supernatural ability.
"Spirituality appears to be hereditary, though it dilutes over time… That would explain why the sorcerers' power has waned."
At the same time, Spirit Realm creatures were naturally driven to devour "Spirituality" and absorb Ether to strengthen themselves.
Thus, when the Nightmare stumbled into Sandbox No. 2 and sensed the faint traces of Spirituality within the sorcerers, it instinctively sought to consume them.
Its intense interest in Lin Tuo's avatar likely stemmed from the vast Ether he held within him—far beyond that of any other practitioner.
(End of Chapter)