Iver's Previous Life Name

After saying hello, Chunbai left.

Because the upcoming ceremony wasn't really suitable for her to observe from the sidelines. But as she left, she mentioned that this was the most powerful and oldest Cardinal Bishop in the Theocracy, and that Iver could completely trust him.

Cyril Cardinal sat upright in the very center of the Ritual Array, without moving an inch.

But he manipulated the materialized wind and water, removing all of Iver's clothes and piling them in a corner of the room.

Under his control, the Ritual Array in the room changed rapidly. Like a sophisticated machine, the internal gears rotated, driving the system to operate... The Ritual Array painted with paint moved freely on the ground, and about a quarter of them combined to form new Ritual Array, which were then integrated into the old system.

Seeing that Iver was staring intently at him, Cyril Cardinal laughed heartily, "Want to learn?"

"Unfortunately, I cannot teach you—because this is not divine magic, nor is it Advanced Divine Arts. It is a mysterious technique that a friend from the Primordial Era taught me during my travels. It is called the ' Wind Queen's Secret Canon,' a tantra of the three paths of wisdom, transcendence, and adaptation, passed down from the legendary Primordial Ritual Master Wind Queen. Even if you understand the Primordial Language, you do not have a suitable adaptation."

Cyril Cardinal was very friendly to Iver.

Clearly, his Path of Transcendence level is far higher than Iver's. This allows him to see Iver's Path of Transcendence level, thus revealing that Iver is also a Ritual Master.

But Iver soon realized that Cyril Cardinal's kindness towards him far exceeded what one would expect from a stranger who had only met him once or twice.

"... Is it divination?"

"A portion, I suppose."

Cyril Cardinal nodded cheerfully and said, "I see that you will solve the difficulties facing the Theocracy; and another part is because I see that you are Demon Scholar, yet you have not been tainted by the sin of Heavenly Sin —that is, one will be tainted by using one's own kind as ritual material."

"Not all ritualists are like me, having studied Advanced Divine Arts before beginning their ritual studies. It is because I studied Advanced Divine Arts that I know the secret of the Sin of the Heavenly Sin, and thus I am able to avoid the trap set by the Fallen Angel."

"And you, who are unaware of these things and have been facing crises and oppression, have been able to go against 'interests' and choose 'morality' to embark on the right path."

Cyril Cardinal praised, "As Transcender, one must have the resolve to defy fate at all costs. Yet, in such circumstances, one can still control oneself from overstepping boundaries. This shows that you are a born hero, a saint sent from heaven. Morality that remains as new as ever after being tested is certainly superior to morality that is protected to perfection."

But Iver found himself in an awkward position.

Well... he actually knew about the sin of Heavenly Sin, so he certainly didn't praise it as much as Cyril Cardinal did.

However, he couldn't explain it, so he could only nod in agreement.

"It may take a long time for someone to complete Advanced Divine Arts. But the study of Advanced Divine Arts has not yet begun this year, so I still have plenty of time... I will perform your first ritual for you."

As Cyril Cardinal spoke, the wind in the air gently pressed the undressed Iver to the ground.

The black runes that formed the Ritual Array moved like living things onto Iver's body. With a slight, tingling sensation, like the gentle bite of ants, Iver himself was assimilated into the array.

They moved and formed characters, piecing together prayers that linked to the ring on Iver's chest, creating nine long chains of runes. Then, inside the ring on Iver's chest, Elven Language runes began to rapidly emerge and weave into text.

It looked like a black sun, or a kaleidoscope splitting open from the center of the chest.

Nine chants echoed simultaneously in the air—whistles composed of the sound of the wind. The wind whistled sharply through some decorations on the wall, and these sounds were reshaped into words.

—And throughout the entire process, Cyril Cardinal did not use any ritual materials.

No need to draw arrays, no need to chant, no need to wait, no need for materials... To be able to do this must be a characteristic of some kind of Gold Level Path Trait. It may even be multiple.

So the Theocracy was hiding such a great ritual master! He looked as if he would die at any moment—the traces of treeification and amber had spread to his face. His entire being was divided in two, yet it maintained a strange balance. As long as this balance continued, he would never die.

Iver's vision gradually darkened.

Suddenly, a rapid cell phone ring woke him up.

That was the Digimon evolution theme from his childhood—he would wake up to this rousing music every day, if he could set an alarm clock.

But usually he doesn't set an alarm.

Today was a special day, so he set ten alarms, one every minute.

If ten alarms fail to wake him, his roommate will wake him up loudly.

... Wait, what alarm clock? Iver suddenly opened his eyes.

In an instant, I felt a strange and absurd sense of unfamiliarity.

A soft bed, a cell phone ringing its alarm clock beside the pillow. There was no keyboard or mouse plugged into his laptop, nor his Bluetooth noise-canceling headphones, beside the bed.

The leftover fried chicken from last night, and the half-finished milk tea.

In a daze, he reached out to grab his hair, but only managed to grasp a few short strands. The slight pain caused his mind to freeze for a moment.

While he was still in a daze, the Evolutionary Song had already ended.

A minute later, the stirring evolutionary melody began again.

But Iver stared blankly at his phone, momentarily forgetting how to turn it off.

When the alarm clock rang for the third time, an angry voice suddenly came from outside:

"Ai Shiping, are you out of your mind?! You want to evolve into the Ultimate Form?!"

Who is that?

Iver stared blankly outside, feeling a strange sense of familiarity.

... And who is Ai Shiping? Just then, the alarm clock suddenly began to ring extremely slowly and distorted.

Time seemed to slow down and freeze infinitely, and the whole world was tinted with a hazy, yellowish filter. It looked like an old photograph.

"—You can't remember, right?"

Another voice slowly emerged.

At that moment, the gaming chair next to Iver's bed slowly turned back.

At some point, a faceless man dressed in a black suit sat down on it.

Where the head should be, there was only a silver-black sphere shimmering with iridescent light.

He was sitting with his legs crossed, his equally dazzling and jet-black hands resting on his knees with their fingers interlaced.

"I say it's been a long time since we last met, because we've met before; I say it's the first time we've met, because it's truly the first time we've met; I say I've heard so much about you... because I've known of your existence for a long time."

It was a deep and magnetic voice.

Although he couldn't see the other person's expression, Iver felt that the other person seemed to be smiling.

In his dream, his brain was so stiff that it was difficult to function, so Iver just stared blankly at the other person as he spoke.

... is the Lord of Scales and Feathers.

Iver suddenly remembered the other person's identity.

Meanwhile, the Lord of Scales and Feathers continued to speak slowly, "You come from another world, right... that is your greatest secret."

"You haven't told anyone this secret. Neither Isabel nor Yulia. Because in your memory, this world is just a game... and you are not ' Iver Moriarty '."

"—But is that really the case?"

The Lord of Scales and Feathers slowly rose and stepped onto the ground.

As His black shoes touched the ground, the surrounding dreamscape suddenly melted and shattered.

The cramped apartment melted away in an instant, becoming a pitch-black river. And beneath him lay a gigantic scale... the scale of the "Kunpeng".

The distant sky displayed an incredible purplish-red spiderweb-like pattern.

Within each crack, there is a sky of completely different colors. There are several suns and moons moving in the sky at the same time—at least seven or eight suns and five or six moons.

It's like a television playing different images, or like surveillance footage showing different times of the day.

Each fragment reflects a sky from a completely different time.

"Assassins lurking in the shadows, Hunter adapted to the jungle, Physician who can concoct medicines and poisons, astrologers and prophets who can foresee the future... what do these professions have in common?"

The Lord of Scales and Feathers turned around, raising his hands high as if embracing the sky.

He said, word by word, "This is one of the Nine Great Source Rivers of the Dream Realm, the River of Survival."

"It is not shameful for people to make changes in order to survive. The weak need to adapt to the environment, to nature, to the strong, and to fate... while the strong can naturally change the environment, transform nature, manipulate the weak, and reverse fate. Therefore, I call it the Path of Adaptation. Adapting oneself, or making others adapt."

As he spoke, the Lord of Scales and Feathers turned around.

He reached out and Iver had fallen to the ground, up with great force.

"Now let's talk about you, Iver. I'll only say one thing..."

"—Do you remember what your parents' names were in your Previous Life? Do you remember what your screenwriter roommate's name was?"

"Why is it Ouroboros Ring all you remember is about Ouroboros Ring? Why is even that memory so vague and fragmented? And most importantly... before today, do you remember what your name was in your ' Previous Life '?"

These last words suddenly resounded in Iver's mind like a thunderclap.

His pupils suddenly contracted and then dilated.

In that instant, Iver realized what was happening.

But before he could answer, the Lord of Scales and Feathers spoke up, "You are an outcast, Iver."

"You are not Ai Shiping, nor are you that time traveler... You are not surnamed Ai, nor are you from Earth. You have been a person of this world from the very beginning. You are the old self abandoned by Him, the Previous Life memories severed by Him. But in a sense, you are more like the original person than he is... my old friend."

"You are what they call the ' Sacred Entity '... and you are indeed a fragment of the Celestial Bureau."

"—You are the remnant of [Reincarnation]."