Shepherd

Late at night, the waxing gibbous moon nearly sank into the earth again. The horizon was already faintly white.

The pendulum of the clock in Iver's room swung rhythmically, the hands pointing to 4:20 AM.

And he was still sitting in his wheelchair like a statue, motionless as he flipped through the Shepherd's Secret Covenant.

Two streaks of bizarre, purplish-red blood tears constantly streamed from the corners of Iver's eyes, who sat blankly at the desk as if his soul had been lost, dripping onto the pages. They were immediately absorbed into the book.

Iver stared intently at the secrets within the book.

The skin on his face flushed crimson, and the blood vessels on his forehead and forearms bulged visibly. The blood vessels, which should have been blue, revealed deep purple spiderweb patterns.

Despite it being winter, Iver's room was still warm. But with Iver's deep and heavy breathing, pale white, hot mist constantly escaped his mouth. Occasionally, when he coughed in a low voice, sparks would burst out.

It wasn't until dawn, when the birds outside began to chirp, that Iver seemed to wake from a dream.

His eyes became clear again, and the purplepatterns slowly receded.

At this moment, he had unknowingly flipped to the end of this thin, black leather booklet. The knowledge was deeply engraved in Iver's memory, and he could clearly recall it the moment he closed his eyes. The words even seemed to shimmer.

"...So it's something like this."

Iver's expression was solemn as he murmured in a low voice.

This black grimoire described a mysterious art called "Shepherding."

It was a mysterious art that existed more than a thousand years ago—before the concept of "profession" even existed.

At that time, almost all transcendents walked on multiple Paths simultaneously. Because at that time, the transcendent common sense of "minimizing the number of Paths one delves into simultaneously as much as possible" had not yet been summarized.

Walking on multiple Paths at the same time not only easily drove people mad and made it difficult to advance on each Path, but it was also very detrimental to inheritance. In that environment, the mysterious arts developed and mastered by each transcendent with all their life's energy had to be passed on to successors who were completely consistent with their personality, hobbies, and essence.

Therefore, in ancient times, transcendents were a very small minority in human society. And their transcendent powers were not strong enough.

Because there was no inheritance system, almost all transcendents did not pass beyond three generations. And the depth to which each person could advance on the Path by relying solely on their own exploration was very limited.

It was not until around the fourth or fifth century that the concept of "profession" gradually emerged. Transcendents purified and radicalized their personalities through various cultivation methods, eliminating the Paths they did not intend to set foot on. At the same time, they were wary of their personality essence being polluted, and while maintaining their original intentions, they tried to lean towards the safe paths that their predecessors had already explored.

The guidelines of the Nine Great Paths are actually very vague. Their boundaries overlap each other, and they are constantly changing.

For example, the Path of "Beauty" related to art is the most obvious change. Almost every few hundred years, people's understanding of "beauty" changes. Many arts that were previously considered to be inferior become "ancient trends" after decades or hundreds of years.

But if they are unguided transcendents, they can easily go astray.

Because all psychologically healthy ordinary people must simultaneously conform to the guidelines of multiple Paths.

For example, wild Dedication Path transcendents may also be able to figure out the Illumination Spell. But if they do not know that the core guideline of the Dedication Path is "altruism," they can easily embark on the path of "using their healing abilities to seize the right to speak." For example, becoming the leader of a small sect.

Then it is easy to unknowingly embark on the Path of Authority.

Similarly, the Equilibrium Path, which pursues knowledge and science and analyzes all things to dispel mystery, will embark on the Path of Wisdom if it is too obsessed with truth, or if it considers itself intelligent and talented, surpassing ordinary people.

If one is too obsessed with becoming a Pope or Bishop, yearning for promotion within the church system, then one has already embarked on the Path of Transcendence.

It would be fine if one were walking on two Paths at the same time. But everyone's mental and physical energy is limited, and humans are forgetful.

If one completely forgets their original intention and becomes a completely different person from their original self... then the power that originally came from the Dedication Path will also weaken and eventually disappear.

The most important inheritance of a so-called "profession" is the "bottom line of the Path." Even if the scope of a Path is vague, its core must be clear. Therefore, one should not test the boundaries of the Path, but only adhere to the most core principles and use only the safest part of its power. In this way, one can obtain relatively pure Path power.

Even if a Priest craves advancement, or seeks wealth, power, or pleasure through it, as long as they remember that the most core principle of the Dedication Path is "altruism," they will not lose their Priest class level.

With the "profession" system in place, transcendent knowledge can be formally inherited. Since then and up to now, transcendents have generally become stronger and stronger.

But this does not mean that ancient mystical arts are weak.

In the pre-profession era, almost every mystical art was a legacy left by the strong of that time.

For example, the Shepherd's Secret Covenant that Iver obtained was a mystical art engraved from the memories of a man called "Shepherd."

This technique requires adaptability to both the Dedication Path and the Path of Transcendence, and requires these two Paths to be kept as balanced as possible—only when the depth of the two Paths is consistent can the "Art of Shepherding" be used.

When Iver's Priest class advances, he will not be able to use it temporarily until he advances as a Demon Scholar.

And this mystical art is simply a dark art—

Its basic principle is "nourishing the formless with the tangible, and nourishing the tangible with the formless."

Overall, it describes a mystical art that can make anyone stronger...

After opening this book, Iver fell into a hallucination. From the words, he vaguely saw a black-robed man wearing a hood, feeding weak demons with his own flesh and blood.

He did not sign a contract with the demons, but simply lured them to follow him with flesh and blood. It was like raising pets, or herding cattle and sheep. These weak demons were raised by him and became more and more powerful.

He also became emaciated and covered in scars.

After that, Iver saw someone kneeling in front of this black-robed man, begging for something.

And the man used a special technique to infuse the formless power of the demon into the petitioner. In a burst of fire, it caused a drastic change in them and gave them power.

So the petitioner became the man's follower. He killed many people, offering them as sacrifices to more and more demons. And after he became weak, he was ruthlessly thrown to a new batch of demons as blood food.

Repeatedly used in this way, the demons gradually became stronger and their numbers gradually increased. After that, he used the same secret method to inject these demons into the bodies of other followers who craved power.

In this way, he obtained an evil legion composed of demon possessors.

The legion collected various secret treasures and seized various wealth for him. The increasingly thin man began to cultivate more and more Phantom Demons. At this time, it was no longer just demons who followed him. Even light-attribute Phantom Demons appeared by his side.

They were all raised by the man from a young age. Without signing a contract, they were willing to accept the man's dispatch and share a portion of their power with others.

Under the black-robed man's operation, the followers around him became more and more numerous, and they became stronger and stronger.

Like a snowball, they formed a terrifying force in a short period of time and attracted encirclement and suppression from all sides.

Finally, when besieged by the allied forces, he sacrificed those followers who followed him as food, and fed the powerful Phantom Demons with the Art of Shepherding.

Anyone who had accepted his Shepherding was powerless to resist the forced sacrifice of the Art of Shepherding.

They were used as food to summon even more powerful Phantom Demons.

Iver saw it clearly in the illusion.

Although it was just a silhouette, it was undoubtedly the "Fallen Angel" who descended and was defeated in version 3.0! The black-robed man's plan went wrong at the last moment—he tried to use the Art of Shepherding to inject the Fallen Angel's power into his own body.

—But he didn't expect that the Art of Shepherding suddenly failed at this time.

He himself could not properly accommodate the Fallen Angel's power. He missed the best opportunity.

Without using the Art of Shepherding that could extract the essence of Phantom Demons without harming their nature, his actions became stealing the essence of Phantom Demons—the enraged Fallen Angel severely injured him in retaliation, and he was subsequently killed by the assassins of the Allied Forces.

The evil legacy of the man known as the "Shepherd" was thus severed.

"...Because he deviated from the Dedication Path when he tried to inject the power he seized into himself."

Iver sighed.

He really didn't choose the wrong name.

Using humans as sacrifices to feed Phantom Demons, and then extracting power from the Phantom Demons, or directly sacrificing the entire Phantom Demon to feed humans.

Just like a true Shepherd.

Using the ubiquitous grass to graze cattle and sheep, and then obtaining milk and meat from the cattle and sheep.

That grass is mortals.

The cattle and sheep are Phantom Demons.

Such a vile analogy.

—If the endless grass is not regarded as the cost, "Shepherding" cattle and sheep is naturally a secret art created from nothing.