Selina jerked her hands, and the tiny barbs on the metal wires pierced directly into her synthetic skin. Intense pain traveled through her sensors to her brain, making her whole body stiffen.
Her system was still rebooting, and the basic system lacked the function to actively shut down her sensors.
Moreover, the strength she could currently use was insufficient to break free from the Electromagnetic Handcuffs and the metal wires wrapped around her by He Ao, so she temporarily gave up on the idea.
She had now realized that He Ao really did not seem to intend to kill her.
He seemed like a villain with principles.
And those principles were obeying the law.
Selina always felt that either she or the world had to be wrong.
But she had no time to dwell on that. Watching He Ao begin arranging the ritual items, she prepared to make one more attempt. "Yezuola..."
"Anything not prohibited by law is permitted."
This time, He Ao did not even raise his head before directly cutting her off.
"..."
Selina discovered that she could not argue with him.
The other party looked like a rational madman, but his logic seemed far more rigorous than hers.
Sensing that Selina had fallen silent, He Ao let out a sigh of relief.
She talked too much. If she kept talking, He Ao would have to consider using a tentacle to plug her mouth.
When Job and the others had arranged the ritual items earlier, their placement had not actually been very precise. They were not professionals at all, and directly conducting the summoning like that had an extremely high chance of failure.
That was also one of the reasons He Ao had stepped in and interrupted them.
For a crucial step related to completing the mission, it was better to do it himself.
Around the Ritual Array, He Ao drew a complete Heptagram Pattern. He then placed an old elementary school textbook, a workbook, a fountain pen, a damaged schoolbag, a dried-up ink bottle, fragments of a human skull, and the joints of human finger bones at the seven points of the Heptagram in clockwise order.
In this world, the occult meaning of the Heptagram was the pursuit of knowledge and the exploration of the unknown.
Of the seven items He Ao had arranged, the textbook, workbook, fountain pen, schoolbag, and ink bottle represented a "student"; the skull fragments represented "wisdom and thought"; and the finger bones represented "writing and recording." Together, these seven items represented a "seeker of knowledge."
In occult symbolism, arranging them clockwise represented positivity and devotion. Arranging them counterclockwise represented negativity and betrayal.
This was a ritual for communicating with the God of Knowledge. The occult meaning constructed by the entire ritual could be summarized as: a devout seeker of knowledge.
This was the God of Knowledge's favorite image and the one most likely to draw its gaze. If they had arranged the items randomly like Job and his subordinates had just done, not only might they fail to attract the God of Knowledge's attention, they might even draw the notice of other, more insane and brutal Evil Gods.
As all the items were properly arranged, a faint pure-white radiance lit up within the Ritual Array once more. The Ritual Array that had long been drawn inside the Heptagram was the summoning array. It had already absorbed a sufficient amount of sacrifices and would provide flesh, blood, and power for the descent of the God of Knowledge Sub-body.
He Ao watched the array light up, stepped back a little, and casually moved the Metal Box near the ritual behind him.
The summoning ritual he had arranged seemed to greatly please the God of Knowledge. Before long, he sensed a deep and majestic gaze cast upon him from beyond the endless void.
Along with that gaze came endless knowledge.
This knowledge was like water rushing into a shriveled balloon, flooding into his brain in an instant. It was twisted and mad, constantly battering his thoughts. In that instant, his brain consumed enormous amounts of energy processing the overwhelming information, heating up until wisps of smoke rose from his head.
Yet at the same time, he did not feel any discomfort from his brain nearly burning out from overclocking. Instead, a comfortable joy rose sincerely from the depths of his heart. This joy carried intense obsession and delight, and he could not help muttering,
"I love studying. Studying makes me happy."
"All Things Will Decay, Only Truth is Infinite."
A solemn and benevolent voice, like the tolling of a great bell, rang out in He Ao's mind.
"All Things Will Decay, Only Truth is Infinite."
Then came the chanting and prayers of countless people, and He Ao's thoughts seemed drawn in by their voices, gradually merging into them.
After summoning the God of Knowledge Sub-body, the priest would gain the opportunity to merge into the body of the God of Knowledge. He would thereby gain Eternal Life.
Selina stared blankly at He Ao's enormous body, at his smoking head, his tightly shut eyes, and his muttered words of "I love studying."
The scene looked somewhat absurd, but Selina could not laugh at all.
Because the radiance of that enormous Ritual Array was growing brighter and brighter, and the gaze cast across the void was becoming increasingly distinct.
Some mad knowledge had even begun pouring into her mind along with that gaze.
At that moment, she no longer cared about the pain. Twisting her body, she hopped about in an attempt to destroy the still-glowing Ritual Array.
He Ao had easily interrupted the ritual Job and the others were conducting just now. There had to be a way to interrupt this array as well. Perhaps disrupting the placement of the sacrifices would do it.
But before she had taken more than a few hops, a huge tentacle reached over, wrapped around her again, and hung her behind him.
"Yezuola! Wake up! This Evil God is obviously trying to devour you!"
She struggled desperately, ignoring the intense pain of the metal wires slicing across her skin as she tried to break free from He Ao's restraints.
Though she did not know much, the Federal Bureau of Investigation's introductory materials recorded cases involving the summoning rituals of Evil God Subordinates. A normal summoning would absolutely not affect the summoner. There was only one kind of ritual that affected the summoner—the summoner was one of the ritual's sacrifices.
Yet He Ao seemed completely unable to hear her cries. He merely lowered his head and muttered like an idiot.
The ritual continued to take effect.
Within that pure-white radiance, the phantom image of an enormous, heavy book gradually emerged, roughly two meters wide and three meters long. The book floated in the center.
Streams of pure-white radiance poured into its body, while an endless, vast, and profound aura emanated from it.
It seemed to be the collection of all knowledge, the embodiment of the world's Truth.
As the pure-white radiance poured into it, the phantom of the book rapidly solidified.
And as it gradually became more solid, a concave arc slowly appeared on the book's cover.
Selina's reboot progress bar had reached 80%. In just over ten minutes, she would be able to regain her strength.
But clearly, the book phantom was solidifying faster than she could recover.
Time passed bit by bit. The book had nearly become tangible, and the shape of that arc grew clearer and clearer—it was a tightly closed eye.
Selina watched in despair as the Evil God Subordinate solidified. Once it truly descended, she could not think of any way to escape from here.
She did not even dare imagine how much damage this Evil God Subordinate could cause, or how many innocent people would die at its hands.
Just as she fell into despair, a crisp sound rang out in He Ao's mind.
Ding—
Mission complete
In that instant, He Ao, who seemed to have lost his mind and become immersed in prayer, suddenly opened his eyes.
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