"Mom made a good point..."
Lu Xin was momentarily taken aback by Mom's rhetorical question.
It seemed that was indeed the case.
Among all the beings he could think of who fit the characteristics of the Third Step, none could walk freely. Take Kid, for example. If she appeared in a populated area without making preparations, she would immediately trigger a disaster. Then there was the Queen of Happy Town. Even now, Lu Xin still did not know whether turning Happy Town into such a terrifying and bizarre place had been her intention or merely an accident.
If it had been unconscious, then it was simply too frightening.
She was even more terrifying than Kid.
And the cases he had learned about clearly demonstrated one thing.
The higher one climbed on the Steps, the more abnormal one might become.
"The important part comes later."
Mom looked at Lu Xin's enlightened expression with a smile and said gently, "Whether you can reach it isn't important."
"What matters is whether you can keep going."
"..."
Lu Xin pondered this, then slowly turned his attention to the explanation of the theory regarding the Fourth Step.
What entered his eyes suddenly became a mass of complicated formulas and obscure technical terms. Within them, Lu Xin saw theoretical models intertwined with countless factors, as well as keywords such as "the Abyss," "reality," and "the spiritual world." He kept flipping through the pages. Several pages later, he finally saw the key to the Fourth Step.
"Mental Lord."
"..."
It was Lu Xin's first time seeing those four words, yet they gave him an inexplicable sense of familiarity.
He instinctively tapped his skull.
He fell silent, as if pondering something. Yet judging by his expression, he also seemed to be simply spacing out.
After a long