Knowledge Pursues Its Chosen

"The embodiment of spirit and number,

The origin of all knowledge

Hidden Sage in the Wilderness...

As soon as Luther finished reciting the Honorific Name of the Hidden Sage, a mysterious aura descended. The evil gods were far more courteous than the True God. It would have been even better if they hadn't been so eager for the souls of their worshippers.

Luther heard a voice whispering in his ear.

At first, the sound was like mosquitoes buzzing around my ear. But soon, these mosquitoes began to swarm, and the sound they made was comparable to a roar. Countless sounds were mixed together, but each sound was crystal clear and intelligible.

These sounds carry knowledge.

You can gain some information simply by listening to any one of the sounds. However, when this knowledge accumulates in large quantities, as if it's condensed into a lump and stuffed into your head, the experience becomes unbearable.

Luther felt his mind being rapidly filled with knowledge and information. Suddenly, he looked at the back of his hand with a sense of urgency and saw that the eye pattern he had carved with a dagger, without eyelashes, had somehow come to life. The pattern formed by the scars moved on his skin, just like a real eyeball!

The eye moved Indifference until it noticed Luther's gaze, then stopped and stared directly into Luther's eyes.

"Boom!"

The instant their eyes met, blood immediately streamed from Luther's nose and eyes. He endured the pain and continued reciting the prayer while looking into his own eyes:

"Great Sage, revered teacher! I pray to you for strength;"

I pray that you will grant me the power to change the current situation;

"Grant me the power to save your innocent believers, the power to subdue your evil enemies..."

Luther essentially repeated what he had said to the Goddess to the Hidden Sage.

The eye without eyelashes stared at him without a trace of emotion, offering no response.

Just when Luther thought he was about to fail again, he saw the eye rapidly turn blood red. Then, a massive amount of knowledge appeared from the invisible void, rushing into Luther's head!

"Ah!"

Lu Ze cried out in pain and fell to his knees.

Information, countless pieces of information, burrowed into Luther's brain like living creatures seeking a place to reside, Greed occupying every cell. The Hidden Sage was like a fanatical yet generous mad teacher, directly and ruthlessly prying open the student's skull and pouring an excessive amount of knowledge into it!

Is any of this knowledge what Luther wants?

God knows.

"Crunch-"

This is the sound of Luther's fingernails digging into the floor.

He felt himself being overwhelmed, his Consciousness submerged in endless knowledge, like a small boat adrift on a Storm Sea, small and fragile. Knowledge Greed gnawed at his intellect, and terrible pain swept over him. His fingernails bled and grew calluses, and his ears stretched out like trumpets...

"Whoosh!"

Until the Phantom Tide arose, his cheat arrived, protecting his brain.

With the sound of the Tide, the previously unrestrained flow of knowledge suddenly halted, then slowed down. Although it was still pouring in in large quantities, causing him a splitting headache, it had reached a tolerable level. Luther could finally shift his attention to analyzing this information. He flipped through the documents, trying to find what he needed.

The black threads before his eyes slowly faded, leaving him with less and less time.

"Found it!"

Finally, Luther found what he needed in the knowledge bestowed by the Hidden Sage!

He did answer Luther's prayer, granting him the knowledge he requested. However, this knowledge was submerged in a massive amount of information, and most extraordinary individuals couldn't survive until the Ritual ended; they either relinquished their Consciousness to be transformed or lost control and became Monster.

That evil god is truly Distortion.

"Brush!"

Having acquired the knowledge, Luther dared not delay. He immediately picked up the dagger, pressed it against the back of his hand, gritted his teeth, and sliced off a layer of flesh, skin and all, from the pattern depicting the Indifference eyes!

"Clatter."

Bloodied flesh fell to the ground. Luther picked up a silver dagger and began carving Hermes Script and strange patterns onto the flesh. The power of the Hidden Sage flowed into the dagger until he made the final stroke. After a flash of black light, the flesh rapidly shrank, transforming into a flesh-colored talisman.

The talisman is about the size of a coin, and it is flexible and elastic when picked up.

This is one of the powers bestowed upon Luther by the Hidden Sage. Once activated and hitting an enemy, the target will come under the Hidden Sage's attention, hear his teachings, and be instilled with a vast amount of knowledge. For extraordinary individuals, this instillation is an absolute shock, enough to cause them to lose control.

Luther named this talisman "Sage's Enlightenment".

He picked up the talisman, thought for a moment, unsure where to hide it. After all, Ms. M was constantly monitoring him, and it wouldn't be good if it were accidentally discovered.

Suddenly, an idea struck him. He pressed the Human Skin Talisman onto the back of his hand, where a layer of Flesh had been shaved off. As the wound healed rapidly, the talisman was buried within the back of his hand. Now, it was hidden so well that it was impossible to find. The only problem was that he would have to hurt himself again to retrieve it.

After completing these tasks, the Hidden Sage's power had almost completely dissipated.

While the black threads were still attached, Luther quickly cleaned up the scene. Just as he finished, the last of the black threads wrapped around his head were slowly withdrawn behind the Chanis Gate.

The period of exemption from monitoring has ended.

Luther thought with some regret.

Just then, several strands of silk seemed to be cut off, floating out from the door and wrapping around his finger, turning into a black ring.

This is...

Looking at the ring, Luther's Spirituality intuition told him that as long as he used the ring, he could once again briefly block Ms. M's surveillance.

Is this another chance the Goddess is giving me?

You need to figure out when you want to use it.

Luther didn't plan to use the ring to ask the captain for help, because the Goddess's attitude was already very clear. Even if the captain sent a message to the Cathedral, they might not come to help, or even if they did, after killing M-Woman, Luther himself would be arrested, Judgement, and Purification.

All the other black threads retreated behind the Chanis Gate, and the black iron gate slowly closed.

Luther sat back in his chair, and out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that the previously suppressed blood energy was rising again, and the translucent eyes and ears were once again in his line of sight.

But now, seeing them again, Luther felt less worried and more confident.

Because he now has an extra trump card.