Old Death, New Life

As the ceremony progressed, the surrounding air began to become psychedelic.

The faint fragrance can make your heart race and your face turn red.

Everything around became more colorful, vibrant and beautiful. Colors, light and shadow, smells, and aromas all became dazzling and captivating.

It's like the real world you're tired of seeing suddenly transforming into a beautiful painting; or like being transformed by Alchemy Potion that produces hallucinations, seeing the whole world as a more fantastical dream.

Walls spread outwards, colors spread outwards.

The intersection of countless illusions gathered in mid-air and transformed into an incomparably dazzling and colorful butterfly.

He seemed to be here, yet also not. It was as if it were merely an illusion, but everyone present could see it. At the same time, it was constantly changing—the patterns on the butterfly wings kept collapsing and reforming, and each reformation caused a change in the entire world around them.

Your request—

The voice of the Butterfly Angel came through.

That was a beautiful and light-sounding girl's voice.

"Offering the blood of the Ouroboros— "

Meg said solemnly, "I pray for the privilege of autonomously performing the sacred ritual of 'molting'!"

[promise--]

Butterfly Angel agreed.

I grant you the right to ' Moulting Rebirth'—

The next moment, the butterfly illusion shattered in mid-air, transforming into countless pink scales, or perhaps countless wings.

The purple liquid on the ground evaporated and dissipated... The entire space transitioned from purple to pink, creating a dreamlike atmosphere.

As the purple smoke evaporated and dissipated, Meg was already encased in the cocoon. Two vein-like structures were connected to the infinity symbol, one drawing out a silvery-white illusory liquid and the other an orange-red liquid, spinning rapidly and merging together within the ritual groove.

Meg couldn't help but scream in agony from the intense pain of her body disintegrating.

The scream was so terrifying that Lily and Isabel, who were watching the ceremony from the sidelines, couldn't help but squeeze each other's palms.

Iver stood solemnly before the Ritual Circle, carefully observing each step of the ceremony.

He wasn't actually too panicked... Despite Meg's pitiful screams, the hardest part was over. All he had to do now was hold on, avoid the pain that caused him to end the ceremony prematurely, or have it interrupted by someone else.

The agonizing screams lasted for a full twenty minutes, until the two colored liquids in the groove completely mixed and transformed into a new, viscous liquid. It became like mercury, or like silver-white nail polish with glitter and powder.

They were then injected into another pupal shell.

—It was an egg of ascension constructed from the power of the Ring Angel, slowly absorbing the silvery-white liquid until its purple shell completely turned silvery-white. Then it fell silent.

"... Is it over?"

Isabel waited a long time before asking in a low voice.

Iver breathed a sigh of relief, turned around and shook his head slightly. "Not yet... but it's basically a success."

—Meg did indeed pull through.

The boost to her willpower from bathing in dragon blood meant she didn't even cry. She simply screamed loudly to complete her most painful first transformation.

This basically means you've successfully changed jobs.

Molting is the authority of the Butterfly Angel, but He does not wish for "infinite molting".

Instead, like an insect transforming into a butterfly, they completely change their body, race, and appearance through Moulting Ritual.

During the pupa stage, most of the insect's internal organs dissolve into pupal fluid, turning into a rich broth. This excludes the "adult components" that are present at birth but not used. The Moulting Ritual originates from this phenomenon.

But for Butterfly Angel, all He did was collect payment and then help others complete their Moulting Rebirth.

In other words, it's a pay-per-use system. And it will get more and more expensive because the Butterfly Angel doesn't like fickle people.

The Moulting Warlock uses the "Moulting Ritual" as a tool to achieve continuous evolution—the power of this profession comes from the self-devouring, eternally cyclical Ouroboros, also known as the Ring Angel.

To allow mortals to molt indefinitely, the Ring Angel had to pay a price to the Butterfly Angel, effectively "buying out" the Moulting Ritual for Meg. From then on, she wouldn't need to pay the Butterfly Angel any further assistance with molting.

Because the concepts of abandoning the past, self-devouring, and infinite evolution are inherently compatible with the Ring Angel, this would not only please Him, but also mean that there is a chance to become His apostle in the future—as long as Meg's "Moulting Warlock" level is higher than her Path of Authority profession, then her soul belongs to the Ring Angel rather than the Silver Crowned Dragon.

This can be considered a form of initial investment.

If the Butterfly Angel is dead, then the Metamorphosis Ceremony only needs to be presided over by the Ring Angel. At that time, the Ring Angel can complete the job change in batches—after all, the power of molting is not his, but a powerless authority that has died and is not yet controlled by New Angel.

But now He needs to pay an extra fee— Iver doesn't even know if He would approve of Meg or find the deal worthwhile. This is the possibility that the ritual might fail.

Fortunately, He eventually agreed to the deal.

Of course, it could also be because this was the first order, and He felt that this kind of transaction had some merit... so He decided to hold a grand opening sale, even at a loss, to gain publicity.

The three of them waited there until the sun had completely risen above the horizon. Finally, the two eggshells, one in front of the mirror and one behind it, shattered simultaneously.

First a crack appeared, then it suddenly split open—

The eggshell in front of the mirror was broken, and only some blood-stained clothes were left inside.

Immediately afterwards, the eggshell behind the mirror shattered.

The next moment, Isabel suddenly opened her eyes wide.

The Reversing to Youth Ritual was a success! But the Meg who emerged wasn't even human—

She had two silver-white dragon horns like ram's horns, her skin was covered with silver scales, and she had a dragon tail. Her hair had turned silver-white, just like the color of the Silver Crowned Dragon. Her pupils were an elegant dark green, and even her facial features were completely different from before.

Although she once slew Green Dragon, she has now transformed into a white dragon resembling the Silver Crowned Dragon. Only the color of her eyes reveals traces of being bathed in the blood of the Green Dragon.

—There's only a small problem.

That is, Meg looked to be only eight or nine years old at that moment. She even looked much younger than Yulia.

"It seems the ceremony was a success."

Ms. Meg was not dressed, but she acted openly, without any concealment or shame.

She glanced down at her body, then walked around to the mirror and admired herself for a while. Finally, she looked up at the three of them, grinning, "Wow, you guys have gotten so tall. Looks like I've gone back to my childhood—damn it, go back to my childhood. I wasn't this cute as a kid."

The newborn half-dragon girl spoke in a tender voice.

It felt completely out of place with her casual yet domineering tone of voice.

Isabel rushed over and took off her coat to put it on little Meg.

She knelt down and helped her button up her clothes. Meg just smiled and watched her, reaching out to touch her hair and then pinching her earlobe.

"Good boy, thank you."

The young girl with dragon horns spoke softly.

She then turned to Iver and said, "I won't thank you enough, little Fox. I'll remember this great favor—you saved my life and even made me young again."

"Such a young and vibrant body... Ha, those who turn to the Twilight Path would regret it for the rest of their lives if they knew."

"Don't forget... you can't be complacent. Once you start to transform, you have to keep going through the next transformation."

"Oh, I will. Don't talk about such unpleasant things—"

Little Meg waved her chubby hand dismissively and said, "If I really fail, you don't have to worry about me. You've already helped me a lot, and I'm very grateful to you."

She didn't care at all about the requirement in the contract that "evolution cannot be stopped," since she didn't dislike change anyway.

If it can evolve, it will evolve; if it can't evolve, it will just sit there.

After all, for her, living another year is a bonus. Not to mention living with such a young and vibrant body.

She stood there for a while, then suddenly strode towards the door.

Isabel quickly ran over to stop her. "Where are you going?"

"Go and have Sofia take a look."

Meg grinned and said in a clear voice, "She must be so envious."

"Go change your clothes first."

Isabel insisted, "You can wear my clothes from when I was little—"

"Tsk." Little Meg clicked her tongue.

"Also, you can't drink alcohol right now."

"—That won't do, that's the only thing I won't do," Meg immediately protested. "I want to turn back the clock so I can do whatever I want without worrying about my body."

"But, Ms. Meg ..."

"Okay, okay, leave me alone!"

Meg's majestic voice rang out, as awe-inspiring as the roar of a dragon.

Isabel Time Stop, her face turning pale as the more powerful Word of Power she had used before came to a halt.

But when little Meg reached the door, she suddenly stopped.

Iver went over to comfort Isabel, then walked over with a smile, "What's wrong, Ms. Meg? Can't you reach the handrail?"

Upon hearing this, Meg rolled her eyes at Iver.

"I'm just thinking... I can no longer be called ' Meg '. Even if I continue to be called Meg, no one will think I'm the Meg I used to be. From this perspective, ' Meg ' is dead in society."

Little Meg pondered, "The old is dead, the new is alive... what should I be called?"

She thought about it for a while, then gave up. "Never mind, I haven't thought about this kind of thing in a long time."

"Little Fox, you're still young—help me think of a name."

"I?"

Iver somewhat surprised.

"The ritual you performed for me gave me this body. It is perfectly reasonable for you to give me a name."

Meg crossed her arms and nodded happily.

... But now that you've brought it up, I really can't think of any good names.

However, resurrection, the old dying and being reborn, the desire to live, and a powerful will...

Iver recalled a short story by Edgar Allan Poe.

"How about you call yourself Ligeia?"

"That's what Iver asked."

"Then let's call her Ligeia Danai. Danai is my maiden name before marriage—"

The newborn Ligeia smiled and said, "Nice to meet you all."

"—From now on, I am Ligeia."

Update complete!