The mountaintop.
Gu Qingshan stood on a rock, quietly watching the void ahead.
Twelve spell mirrors hovered in the void, showing scenes from every corner of the world.
Whether good or evil, everyone had to undergo the so-called "Holy Baptism" at birth and join the ranks of the Fallen.
Whether they were newborn or dead, all were subject to the Fallen Codex.
Whether building or destroying, everything had to be done according to the rules of the Fallen.
Everyone had to obey the will of the Fallen.
Anyone who defied the Church's arrangements was a heretic. Not only would the whole world revile them, they would be sent straight to the gallows.
Gu Qingshan watched for a while, then couldn't help shaking his head.
Destroying this world would be easy. But most of its people were innocent. They had simply been shaped by their surroundings from birth, until they gradually and imperceptibly fell into the same patterns of life as everyone else.
What could possibly change all this?
Gu Qingshan fell into deep thought.
A short while later.
He silently recited an incantation.
He vanished from the mountaintop and appeared a thousand miles away, inside the Fallen Holy Church.
No one could see him.
He made his way deep into the Church's grand library, tried several incantations, and finally gained permission to enter.
He began studying the spellbooks inside.
Day passed, and night fell.
Three days and three nights went by.
Gu Qingshan finally finished reading every book.
From those books, he learned the extent of the world's highest powers.
—That level of power was nothing special, really.
"The Fallen grants people a measure of aid in exchange for their faith, but... it doesn't dare let civilization develop to its fullest..."
Gu Qingshan muttered to himself.
If civilization were allowed