CHAPTER 1500: CHAPTER 1500: THE THIRD DIVINE BEING?

[3. Sky Curtain

The stars in the world have not changed in hundreds of years.

Even the study of astrology has disappeared.

When something exists for ten years, it’s a novelty. For a hundred years, it’s a historical story. For a thousand years, it becomes common knowledge.

The years go by, the sun and moon rise and fall.

People have long forgotten the true appearance of the sky and the trajectory of the stars.

They only know that the stars in the sky are always the same, only know that it is the unreachable sky, the untouchable firmament.

The sun and moon above, the stars among them.

The curtain that shrouds the world has never changed.

No one knows where it came from, and no one knows why it appeared.

Those who questioned it died, those who doubted it died, those who pondered it died; everyone naturally accepted it all.

Just like apples fall to the ground and people grow old and die.

Thus, the curtain of the firmament truly became the firmament.

The illusory stars truly became the stars.

People on earth no longer hope to leave the earth.

The Sky Curtain can weave illusory truth, but this truth is hard to resist questioning. Only the passage of time can make inertia and tradition the barriers of truth.

Please note, the more basic the truth that is woven, the more easily questioned, the less able to withstand questioning, and the more it can attract the attention of Great Beings.

Please note, when everyone believes that false truth is the truth, then false truth will also possess the nature of truth, but it is not the truth itself; mixing falsehood with truth will anger the truth.

Please note, the curtain that blinds the sky is difficult to deceive the human heart, but those who possess it are often deceived themselves; when the human heart is completely blinded, the roles of the controller and the controlled will switch.

Sky Curtain?!

He Ao gazed blankly at this item description.

Is this thing related to this Copy World? Related to whom?

The Hell Lord, or the elder sister?

Neither seems likely?

If forced to say, it has a bit in common with the Hell Lord’s concealment.

But the Hell Lord’s concealment is pure and crude, directly erasing existence.

Whereas this, seems more like deception.

So, is there another master?!

Is there another Higher Being better or more proficient at hiding, involved in this event?

What is it doing? What is its purpose?

No, that’s not right, it shouldn’t be this event?

Though the Hell Lord is sneaky, and probably not in a good state, its ability and standing are there, and based on the system’s description, it should be an old god, not so easily deceived.

If that Divine Being were to participate in the event, the Hell Lord would definitely notice.

Is it a Divine Being existing in the dungeon world itself?

But why didn’t it appear before? If it were in the dungeon world, it should have at least glanced during the earlier friendly melee, right?

No, that’s not right either, system rewards are calculated based on the involved High-level power.

Which means, in this event, this Higher Being must have been involved to some degree.

Hmm, but the Hell Lord showed no reaction.

Either the Hell Lord’s state is indeed too poor, its sensitivity weakened, and it didn’t notice the other party.

Or the timing of participation was unexpected by the Hell Lord.

Perhaps it didn’t anticipate He Ao summoning the elder sister to clear the field.

Wait, what if this Higher Being wasn’t originally in the dungeon world but tagged along with the elder sister for a ride?

But at the time, He Ao didn’t see any other Higher Beings besides the elder sister.

Hidden in some place? Didn’t notice?

An adept deceiver of a Higher Being sneaked into the dungeon world with the elder sister?

Then its target is the elder sister.

If it’s for the elder sister, it doesn’t need to act.

The best method is to observe quietly, waiting for the time.

However, its power undoubtedly participated in the event to a certain depth, so much so that the system issued rewards related to it.

Why would a Higher Being unaffiliated with the event suddenly join in, even at the risk of influencing or offending another Divine Being?

The elder sister clearing the field, is because of its good relationship with me, willing to clear the field at its own expense.

Then this Higher Being, could it be, also on good terms with me?

At this thought, He Ao suddenly paused, lifted his head, and deeply gazed at the ’Sky Curtain’ introduction.

So, its true target is, himself?

A card unfolded once more within He Ao’s field of view.

He gazed at that serene card.

Previously, his focus was on the suspected Hell Lord’s yellow light, the suspected elder sister’s purple light.

Because in his understanding, only these two Divine Beings were involved in the event.

But this time, he expanded his gaze to the entire backdrop of the card, looking at the greyish color seemingly like a pure night scene background.

Grey is also a color.

It is just so pale, so unnoticeable, that it seems to be the background.

He Ao’s gaze glanced aside, at the description line of the Sky Curtain, which unfolded right in front of the character card.

’Thus, the curtain of the firmament truly became the firmament.’

False truth, if unchallenged, will become true truth.

If He Ao did not notice, this card would only have ’yellow’ and ’purple’ radiances.

At this moment, He Ao suddenly recalled his earlier suspicion.

’Night Peeping’ seemed to have merged with the portion of power from the Hell Lord mastered by Di Man.

At first, He Ao didn’t understand why this power would merge, it was beyond his understanding of Mysticism, and beyond his ability and knowledge.

But now, he seems to have some ’thoughts’.

He Ao stared at the grey background on the character card; could his fusion of these powers be related to this grey?

What if the owner of this grey power helped him fuse with the Divine Power, but why would it assist?

To give trouble to the elder sister or the Hell Lord? Does it hold grudges against them?

Or perhaps...

He Ao gazed at the card, feeling the chill on his back.

It’s ’actively’ ’helping’ He Ao create character cards.

It might not be aware of the existence of character cards, but it likely found, a person who should have died, still active.

So it didn’t let the elder sister and the Hell Lord completely ’kill’ Paxiu, and even managed to transfer Hell Lord’s power from Di Man to ’Paxiu’, maintaining its state stability and allowing ’Paxiu’ the possibility of ’resurrection’.

It’s ’baiting’, and He Ao is the fish.

Next, it just needs to wait quietly for He Ao to use this ’Character Card’.

If that’s really the case, does the elder sister know?

Since it has stopped the elder sister, she would more or less have some sense of it.

So, is the elder sister unable to deal with this Higher Being skilled in deception, or is she also harboring a ’fishing’ thought?

What the elder sister wants to catch may not just be He Ao, but also perhaps this Higher Being.

However, the Higher Beings who can know He Ao’s character and can still awaken after Divine destruction are not many.

After all, He Ao only recently started exchanging Character Cards involving Higher power.

This means that this Higher Being is likely related to a Character Card he has already exchanged.

And the Character Cards concerning Divine-level Higher Beings he has currently exchanged are only three: Nell’s [Arrogant Person], Pete’s [Saint], and Cito’s [Dream Phantom].

[Arrogant Person] involves War God, but when He Ao exchanged it, he was very weak; if something were to happen, it should have happened earlier. Of course, it doesn’t rule out the possibility that this old coin has been observing He Ao and is only now taking action.

And Pete’s [Saint] comes from Life Goddess and is directly linked to a place similar to Life Goddess Divine Country extension. If this Higher Being is related to ’Saint’, then it can only have been placed by Life Goddess.

Based on multiple cooperation foundations, He Ao is not inclined to believe Life Goddess would do such a thing, but it can’t be entirely ruled out.

While as for [Dream Phantom], it’s precisely the Character Card He Ao used this time in a dungeon world, and when the elder sister opened the door, she directly opened from the space where ’Dream Phantom’ was located to the real world.

If that hidden Higher Being’s power has always been within Dream Phantom, then it would be easy to follow the elder sister out.

Why it appeared together with the elder sister can also be explained.

But the problem is, when the ’Dream Phantom’ Character Card was formed, only the elder sister was present to clean up the place.

When did this Higher Being’s power mix into it?

No, it’s not right, the ’core’ forming the Dream Phantom doesn’t only have the elder sister’s power.

There’s also the ’Winding Hill’, a place suspected to be related to Super Memory Path Higher Being.

Suspected to be the burial place of a ’Usurper God’.

The Witch of Desire had set Divine Punishment at Winding Hill, endlessly whipping at Winding Hill’s core.

But the truth of Winding Hill is: its core has long been gone from inside Winding Hill, leaving an empty shell.

Previously, He Ao thought this empty shell might be intentionally left by the elder sister, used for fishing.

But now, combining the insights, maybe the elder sister also doesn’t clearly understand the specific status of the whole Winding Hill?

So, the core of Winding Hill is very likely taken by another Higher Being.

And that Higher Being’s power hasn’t completely left Winding Hill, still utilizing Winding Hill for ’fishing’.

If that’s the case, is the Higher Being who took away the core of Winding Hill the same one helping to create the [Night Peeping] Character Card this time?

He Ao gazes at the gray background, gazing at the ’Sky Curtain’ about the ’Truth’ text.

Could it be a good friend?

But a good friend always acts openly and directly, says they will kill you and they do, fights when they say they will, descends whenever without any hesitation.

Unlike this sneaky one, mainly to deceive.

Moreover, the text described by ’Sky Curtain’ is ’fake truth’, true truth doesn’t need to disguise itself as truth.

The gray brilliance doesn’t seem to be limited to the power of a good friend.

He Ao gazes at the night-like grayish background, gazing at the name on the Character Card, [Night Peeping].

No mistake was made in naming it.

A small card, gathering two old coins and an irritably shady elder sister.

There really is something here.

Gathering his thoughts, closing the Character Card, He Ao gazes once more at the description of the Sky Curtain.

So actually, sometimes exploring the mechanism of the system is quite useful.

If He Ao hadn’t explored the regularity of rewards corresponding to Higher power, then he wouldn’t have discovered the existence of this hidden Higher Being, nor know the exact title of the Lord of Hell.

Then when he uses the [Night Peeping] card, these old coins would give him a big surprise.

Consuming him won’t even leave bones.

The more it involves Higher Being, the more mysterious and elusive the manifested power becomes.

Besides, why has the recently appearing one been increasingly careful?

Looking at it this way, good friends truly are moral exemplars, warm-hearted and chivalrous, always covering travel expenses to help out, doing things cleanly and decisively.

Though the elder sister is also good, she has been a bit shady lately, in personality inferior to good friends.

It’s really challenging for a god to keep true to oneself.

Rarely does one find a kindred spirit in life.

He Ao reflects inwardly and shakes his head, as his gaze sweeps past the introduction on the ’Sky Curtain’.

Sometimes, crisis also represents opportunity.

If this third Higher Being is truly the one who stole Winding Hill’s core.

Then, the next promotion step for Super Memory might be found.

He Ao vaguely has a premonition that Winding Hill’s core will be very important to him.

Gathering his thoughts, He Ao watches as the subtitles in his view gradually change.

[Congratulations, you have triggered the ’Immortal Song’ effect]

[Please select one or more rewards for concept attribute-related fusion upgrade. If you opt not to choose, it’ll be seen as relinquishing the upgrade, returning to reward selection interface.]

He Ao gazes at those new subtitles.

He’s not surprised ’Immortal Song’ would trigger; typically gaining an achievement for a dungeon world will inevitably trigger this achievement.

But he didn’t expect the achievement effect not to have automatic autocast and even has the option to ’relinquish upgrade’.

This reminds him of the achievement’s description, which seems to have a sentence like ’using this upgrade might involve deeper unknown beings.’

The essence of this mysticism world is equivalent exchange, the stronger the power, the higher the cost.

Even for system-rewarded items, strong Extraordinary Items often mean greater costs and watchful eyes, as He Ao has already gotten used to.

But this time, the system actually specifically provided an upgrade annotation. It seems the stuff upgraded from this achievement is truly dangerous.

This suggests that the upgraded reward will become stronger, and simultaneously, the danger it brings will also be greater.

These three rewards have all more or less touched upon Divine Beings already. If upgraded further, then fearfully the gaze it brings would be exceptionally dreadful.

Hence, the system provided options to relinquish or choose several upgrades.

The fewer materials for fusion upgrade, perhaps the fewer Higher Beings involved, thus smaller crisis.

Though that’s the way it’s said.

Hmm...

He Ao gazes at the selection interface in his sight, with his current state, adding more doesn’t seem to affect too much.

Then—

[You have chosen to fuse upgrade ’Ideal Mask’, ’Hell Sceptre’, ’Sky Curtain’.]

[Upgrading reward for you, please wait...]

The system’s subtitles got stuck there, seeming to fall into waiting.

He Ao quietly gazes at all this; it seems like the system’s first time taking so long to upgrade.