Cooperation

"Sequence 2 of the Dragon pathway, 'Observer'." Sasrir tossed this eyeball directly to Truman.

Truman caught it in his hand, examined it closely, and his mouth twitched. "Isn't this the Psychic Dragon that Medici and I hunted down back then?"

The spiritual imprint within the characteristic felt somewhat familiar.

At the time, he had even taken two drops of dragon blood to study the various abilities of that Psychic Dragon, so his intuition about it couldn't be wrong.

"Medici already gave you your share of the spoils; this is what Medici handed over to me," Sasrir said with a flat expression.

Medici was indeed loyal. It was rare for a natural Mythical Creature to be such a peculiar case...

"Fine!" Truman didn't dwell on it. The Robe of the Sage on his body shimmered with a faint light as he began to manipulate the Beyonder characteristic with his bare hands!

The Robe of the Sage had already integrated the "Master" characteristic, and "Master" was the Sequence 2 of the Artisan pathway!

Coupled with Truman's in-depth development of the Book of Dreams and his stronger control over Dream Phosphor, he was fully capable of handling this Beyonder characteristic.

Before long, the Beyonder characteristic in Truman's hand vanished, leaving only a slightly exaggerated Dragon Mask in his palm.

"Here!" Truman tossed the Dragon Mask to Hermes. "Once you put on this mask, you will possess the abilities of an 'Observer'. The side effect is that while using it, it generates a cold, insane virtual personality that likely carries a strong tendency toward self-destruction."

For other pathways, this virtual personality with a strong self-destructive tendency would be enough to deter anyone, but for the Dragon pathway—which mastered virtual personalities and was capable of "soothing" them—such a side effect was almost non-existent.

The virtual personality could even be utilized in a positive way.

"Thank you, Angel Sir! Thank you, Dark Angel," Hermes thanked them gratefully.

Currently, the Giant Race was in its prime, just like the Giant King, and it was extremely difficult to obtain characteristics from a Psychic Dragon.

"Hmph!" Sasrir nodded and walked away; he still needed to handle the vast, endless affairs of Heaven.

Truman took Hermes out of the church and wandered directly to the Dream Church in the largest city-state.

"Call me when Omebella and the others arrive." Truman walked into the depths of the church and merged into the statue.

His several statues had all been fashioned into private residences, allowing him to merge directly into them.

"Still missing something..." Truman took out the Book of Dreams and flipped to the fourth page.

The first three pages were the Heaven of Dreams, "Causality," and "Illusionary Dream." This was Truman's analysis of the strongest authority of the Book of Dreams: "Dream."

After all, the "Dream" authority was a bit too complex for him at his current level.

Compared to the authority of being Omniscient and Omnipotent, the things it encompassed covered almost every aspect; unless God Almighty were to be resurrected, no one could directly control it.

Even the designated Ancient Sun God still had to start from the five Divine Pathways, gradually approaching the control of the Chaos Sea and mastering the authority of being Omniscient and Omnipotent.

Truman's process of analyzing the Book of Dreams was equivalent to a True God looking down and dismantling their own authority, dispersing it from Sequence 1 down to Sequence 9.

For instance, the "Fooling" authority of the Fool was dismantled from the Seer pathway into abilities like "Grafting," "Wish," and "History."

Truman was currently engaged in this very work.

It was just that this "Dream" seemed somewhat complex. In his two previous attempts, he had dismantled the two most shallow and intuitive aspects.

But over these hundreds of years, Truman's analysis of the "Dream" authority had remained stuck on the third ability.

However, this third ability would also be an important transformation in his understanding of the "Dream" authority!

"I keep feeling like the Book of Dreams could be dismantled into several pathways!" Truman felt a headache coming on.

Among the Sefirah, only the "Key of Light" consisted of just one pathway.

In the absence of the Omniscient and Omnipotent authority, this work of near-reverse-creation of pathways was truly tedious and dull.

But this time, the dismantling and analysis of the Book of Dreams did not last long before the Giants came looking for him.

"Angel Sir, the Goddess of Harvest and the God of Dawn have arrived." Truman, inside the statue, heard Hermes's report and leaped out from within.

"It's been a long time, you two." Truman scrutinized the two Giants for a moment. Compared to him, these two had undergone significant changes.

The aura of madness on them had lessened, and their mental state was much better than when they last met.

This was likely due to the Acting Method.

Since the potion formulas had been given out, someone would eventually summarize the Acting Method.

The result of these Ancient God races implementing the Acting Method was that the tendency toward losing control had greatly diminished, and as a result, these Subordinate Gods would also become more powerful.

"It has been a long time." Omebella's expression remained unchanged, her gaze resting gently on Truman.

"Hmph!" Badheil hadn't made any progress; that was just great.

"Your Giant Race wants to cooperate with the secret cults of humanity?" Truman didn't want to engage in small talk with the Giants and asked directly.

"Humanity's secret cults? I think you mean your Dream Cult!" Badheil rumbled.

"Oh? It seems you haven't made zero progress; at least you've started growing a brain." Truman crossed his arms and squinted at him, his eyes filled with encouragement, as if waiting for him to provoke him.

"..." A flash of dawn appeared in Badheil's single eye, but he forcibly suppressed it.

This actually surprised Truman.

"We hope to cooperate with you," Omebella said softly. This "you" included more than just the human cults and Truman.

"Why? Give me a reason to provoke the Ancient Gods." Truman's expression showed no surprise; he had anticipated this long ago.

"We want the Phoenix, and you want the Elves and the Dragons." Omebella's words were earth-shattering!

Truman narrowed his eyes. This was his temple, so naturally, no information would leak out, but what gave the Giant King the confidence to say such a thing?

Was it just based on that half-guessed knowledge of adjacent pathways?

The sequences had been spreading for hundreds of years, and Demi-gods and Saints had been born within many races, so naturally, they had gained a certain understanding of adjacent pathway knowledge.

This could answer many of the Ancient Gods' doubts.

However, under Sasrir's deliberate arrangement, much of that knowledge was incomplete, and even understanding the knowledge regarding adjacent pathways was a struggle.

Of course, the Ancient Gods were mental patchwork monsters; it was also possible that their "gluttony" had flared up.

"We will deal with the Goddess of Misfortune ourselves; you're getting the better end of the deal," Badheil suddenly interjected.

You probably don't know that I am the Pontiff of Night... Truman's mouth twitched.

No! I directly manifested a projection of the Goddess in an Illusionary Dream to strike him last time...

Did he not realize my relationship with the Goddess, or was he... doing it on purpose?

This time, Truman really took a serious look at Badheil.

Perhaps... he really had grown a brain!