Chapter 3: Celestial Worthy
The surrounding scenery was a murky gray, the soil a reddish-brown as though soaked in blood.
A towering mountain pierced the sky at the center of Ning Lu's vision, ringed by concentric rings of collapsed houses—grand yet savagely beautiful.
There was no ordinary sky; the place was dim, as dark as a starlit night.
When Ning Lu looked up, thick gray-white fog blanketed the heavens, as though a heavy layer of clouds had congealed overhead.
"This is Cordu Village outside the dream… Did that 'countdown' dump me straight here?"
Spotting the sprinting figure in the distance and the emblematic ruins around him, Ning Lu recognized where he was; his temples throbbed.
Before transmigrating, as a devoted reader of Lord of the Mysteries and casual follower of Circle of Inevitability, he knew exactly what this place was.
It was the special wasteland—formed by multiple powers—where Circle of Inevitability's protagonist "Lumian Lee" was left after the Fool Klein sealed the Outer Deity angel inside him: a ruin tainted by evil gods.
In the opening chapters of Circle of Inevitability, Lumian believed this wasteland was his dream, while the Cordu Village where his sister lived was "reality," but the opposite was true; this heavily polluted land was the real world.
For outsider Ning Lu, arriving here after the countdown ended was a disastrous outcome; just imagining how many mighty beings were watching made his scalp tingle.
But Ning Lu quickly steadied himself:
"Since no priest has appeared in front of me, I must first find out fast whether this body is a brand-new one or the previous Amon clone…"
He mused inwardly and looked down at his current form.
The good news: he still inhabited Amon's clone, wearing the black robe left by its predecessor, no monocle on his face.
Only now faint gray mist shuttled through him, rendering his body semi-transparent, like a phantom spirit shrouded in fog.
"My condition hasn't changed; the tear I cut in the robe is still there… just gray-mist energy leaking out…"
"Basically, when the countdown hit zero, my real body was brought here too—no need to worry about accidents back there."
I don't sense any evil-god contamination—none at all."
"…Well, with all my knowledge of Outer Deities and matters beyond the Sequences, the fact I haven't exploded on the spot shows my Transmigrator status gifted me a golden finger…"
"The countdown on my hand has reset? Does that mean when it hits zero again I'll return to the Lord of the Mysteries world?"
On his first day in that world, the timer on his hand had read "[168:00:00]" and was ticking down.
As he analyzed this, he suddenly felt a prickle—something was watching him.
He snapped to alert, quelled his racing thoughts, and held his breath to listen.
In this perilous world, no matter how special you were, caution was mandatory.
After all, the exploits of famous figures like Master Luo and Emperor Luo were enough to keep Ning Lu careful… Strange, why are all these madmen surnamed Luo?
While musing, he monitored his surroundings; suddenly he felt faint vibrations within the gray mist cloaking him.
As the fog drifted again, he caught a chaotic murmur like the one he'd heard during transmigration.
Ning Lu hesitated, then—suppressing his surging emotions—asked calmly:
"Who's there?"
Amid the ruins, the gray-white mist rolled on as ever; all around was hushed, broken only by the occasional footfalls of something human-shaped prowling nearby.
Ning Lu stood motionless, certain that someone was watching him.
After a moment, a soft laugh sounded beside his ear:
"You're not entirely stupid, it seems—yet, like the fellow I sealed inside the lamp, you've lost everything; only your will remains."
"Hmm, you're not worried about your future?"
So someone really was there! But this voice… Ning Lu brooded; it carried an inexplicable smugness that felt eerily familiar, hinting at a rather far-fetched possibility.
He knew his transmigration was tied to this gray mist.
And the voice had just mentioned a "lamp"… Settling his mind, he spoke as calmly as he could.
"Celestial Worthy of Heaven and Earth for Blessings?"
Before arriving, he had dreamed repeatedly of the gray mist—Sefirah Castle—and to him this was the only logical answer.
Sure enough, after those words, the voice paused two seconds, then returned:
"Correct. Well guessed."
The voice betrayed no surprise, yet Ning Lu felt puzzled—if his crossing truly related to the Celestial Worthy, how could his thoughts remain unread?"
He had only been gambling that someone was observing—perhaps Amon's elder, Amon's father, or the half of the Ancient Sun God he vaguely recalled paying heed to this place.
I once held access to Sefirah Castle; now the Celestial Worthy's will is awake, yet He can't affect me… The Ω symbol on his hand grew warm, and a daring idea flashed through his mind.
Without replying, he swiftly took four backward steps, murmuring at each one:
"Blessed be the Immortal of Heaven and Earth;"
"Blessed be the Lord of Heaven and Earth;"
"Blessed be the venerable blazing black and yellow;"
"...blessed be the Celestial Worthy of Heaven and Earth for Blessings."
As the final words left his lips, the gray mist around him ballooned and swallowed him whole.
The formerly chuckling voice froze, for the first time showing astonishment—how did this man know those four honorifics?
Ning Lu opened his eyes to find broken cocoons drifting about him; farther off, vague mist writhed continuously.
Amid the cocoons stood a solitary figure.
He wore an old robe, black outside and yellow within, oddly paired beneath it with a Zhongshan suit in the style of the early Republic era—as though two ages had been stitched together.
His frame was slender, his face veiled by white radiance that revealed only a gaunt outline.
Where eyes should be, two starry glints formed pupils, while a pair of gold-rimmed black Pince-nez rested on the light-woven bridge of his nose.
Seeing Ning Lu appear, the figure recovered from brief surprise and softly clapped his hands.
"Clever. I admit, you're far brighter than the lamp god."
"Still so calm after ending up like this—are you that confident you can break my seal?"
Let me give you a taste of true Transmigrator shock… Ning Lu quipped inwardly, recalling his pre-crossing view of the Celestial Worthy—the Lord of the Mysteries:
A quintessential evil god: cruel, mad, sly, yet proud, delighting in toying with lives for amusement—one personality of this universe's Original Creator.
But after the Circle of Inevitability ended, he had added a new label to that image.
An Outer Deity–level Seer Pathway sequence 8.
"You're right."
Ning Lu said placidly to the Celestial Worthy of Heaven and Earth for Blessings:
"Who would fear an Outer Deity–level Clown?"