The Mysterious Third Person

Cognitive modification.

Gu Jianlin hesitated for a moment and asked, "Which inheritance path does this ability belong to?"

Jing Ci shook his head and explained indifferently, "It is not an ability from an inheritance path. The Eye of Jormungandr is a winner-takes-all Mythic Armament; it only takes effect on those whose spirituality is weaker than mine."

Gu Jianlin thought, So that's how it is. He sighed, "It's actually a Mythic Armament too? That makes sense. If everyone on a single path had this ability, wouldn't they be able to do whatever they wanted?"

The most dangerous aspect of this ability was that it could subdue the enemy without a fight.

It could also accomplish many things that simple violence could not.

Assassination, instigation, subversion, infiltration, turning black into white—it was truly terrifying.

Of course, in the eyes of a lecher, it had even more uses...

"It's not as exaggerated as you think. Modifying cognition must also follow a logical chain. For example, you are seventeen this year, have never dated, and are certainly not married. If I were to forcibly modify your cognition to make you believe you have a wife and son, it wouldn't make sense logically, so it wouldn't take effect."

Jing Ci leaned against the windowsill, lowering his head to sip his hot latte. "Because you would fall into self-doubt. You haven't even reached the legal age, so how could you be married? Even if I forcibly found two actors to play along, you would have no memories of a wife or son. You would feel that everything was strange, which would lead to questioning."

"Unless I were willing to spend a long time slowly patching an entire logical chain, much like The Truman Show, making everything seamless. But the cost of that is too high."

He paused. "As for Lin Wanqiu, she doesn't have a deep connection with you. The parts I modified have no logical loopholes, and in reality, there won't be any flaws left for her to discover the truth."

Gu Jianlin suddenly understood, but this ability was still incredibly cool.

"Besides, it's not like I can do whatever I want."

Seeing the strange look in his eyes, Jing Ci corrected him, "For certain reasons, I cannot do things that corrupt my morality."

Gu Jianlin was stunned. "Why is that?"

"High-level Ascenders always encounter all sorts of strange promotion processes when they advance."

Jing Ci looked at him deeply. "If you don't die young, you will experience it sooner or later."

Just as Gu Jianlin was about to say something, he saw the other man's gaze fall onto his wrist.

"The Non-Existent Lock, the Soul-Pacifying Bell."

Jing Ci nodded. "Not bad. The last time these two Mythic Armaments appeared was over four thousand years ago. It is said they have always been kept by the Kirin Clan. It seems the rumors were true."

Gu Jianlin was shocked once again. He seriously suspected that the effects of these Mythic Armaments were a joke.

How could they be seen through so easily?

The principle of the Non-Existent Lock was not disappearance in an objective sense.

It was subjective neglect.

In essence, it erased one's so-called sense of presence.

For example, during the fight in the cafeteria, Joker and Gu Jianlin were brawling right there.

But others not covered by the barrier would subjectively ignore the existence of the two of them.

Yet now, the man before him could see through it at a glance.

Jing Ci seemed to notice his doubts and deliberately added, "You don't need to be nervous. The concealment effect of the Non-Existent Lock is very powerful; you can use it with confidence most of the time. It's just that today, the object it was masking wasn't you, which is why it left traces and was caught by Yan Wu."

"There are only a handful of people in this world who can see through the Non-Existent Lock, and those at that level couldn't be bothered to pay attention to you."

He put his hands in his pockets and smiled. "According to the teacher's rules, I can only help you this once at most. You are smart and know to hide the fact that you can undergo Divine Servitude. Under no circumstances can the Ether Association know about this. Do you understand?"

To be honest, Gu Jianlin felt a bit uneasy.

Because the other party had spoken clearly.

Divine Servitude.

But what he possessed was the ability to directly undergo Ancient God transformation.

There was a reason he felt he couldn't speak of it.

Because the Ether Association's attitude toward the Fallen was to exterminate them completely.

And whether it was Divine Servitude or Ancient God transformation, both seemed like a more perfect evolution based on distortion.

"Are you enemies of the Ether Association?"

Gu Jianlin suddenly asked.

He wasn't sure which camp the external help he had found belonged to.

"You're overthinking it."

Jing Ci replied, "They aren't quite qualified to be the teacher's enemies."

Gu Jianlin didn't know what to say.

An aura of arrogance washed over him.

Gu Jianlin never expected that the mysterious old man in the grocery store would have such a background.

"You mentioned rules earlier?"

He asked, feeling a bit lost. "What rules?"

Jing Ci shook his head. "You don't need to know that for now, because there won't be a next time anyway."

"Now that you have learned the teacher's things, you are an Evolutionist."

He suddenly emphasized, "Evolutionists can display the power of the Ancient God Race in a human body. However, once you are exposed, you will be mercilessly erased. No one will save you."

Gu Jianlin thought that what he was hiding was not just evolution.

It was the power of the Kirin Venerable.

"Why?"

He asked curiously.

"Why do you think the Ether Association exterminates the Fallen? Setting aside the fact that the Fallen are indeed dangerous, the biggest reason is that they feel the Fallen have defiled their faith."

Jing Ci raised his eyes, his pupils deep. "But in my opinion, their faith is a joke."

Gu Jianlin still wore a look of confusion.

"The reason ancient humans believed in gods was because they believed gods did not exist."

Jing Ci looked out the window, his voice calm. "Because they did not exist, God was absolutely fair."

Gu Jianlin carefully pondered the meaning of these words.

"And once a god is personified, it is no longer the god that humans need."

Jing Ci put down his coffee cup and said, "The reason is simple: why am I human, and you are a god?"

Hearing this, Gu Jianlin's heart skipped a beat.

"What the teacher taught you is the method to obtain the power of gods within a human body. Evolutionists will not be polluted; instead, they can use the power of the Ancient Gods to strengthen themselves. In other words, it is a controllable distortion, but this is absolutely forbidden in the Ether Association."

Jing Ci explained, "Because the Ether Association believes that Evolutionists are extremely dangerous and will one day betray the human camp. Even if an Evolutionist does not betray humanity, they will stand above them. You have already felt that power, haven't you?"

Gu Jianlin pondered for a moment. If it was a controllable distortion, it was indeed very powerful.

Joker was originally a Tier 2 Magician. Although he had no combat ability other than illusions, and his teleportation and paper-card blades were very limited, his power grew explosively after he distorted into a spider.

Gu Jianlin was Tier 0, but after unlocking the Kirin posture, he possessed overwhelming power—though unfortunately, only for a few seconds.

"In the current Ether Association, the Tribunal is the dominant force, and they are extremely wary of this power."

Jing Ci sneered, "The ridiculous thing is that they also want to obtain this method, whether to use it themselves or to seek a way to restrain it."

Gu Jianlin thought, So that's how it is.

"From ancient times to the present, the war between humans and gods has never stopped."

Jing Ci said, "The Ether Association, including all Ascender organizations on Earth, and even those Ascender families in the country, all have an ultimate goal: to prevent that lost civilization from returning."

"For instance, the Kirin Immortal Palace that is about to open. If that great existence in the Immortal Palace is not yet completely dead, they will spare no cost to kill it again."

He smiled. "So, when you obtain the power of an Ancient God in a human body, will others still think you are human?"

Gu Jianlin's ears were ringing.

The man's voice was gentle and calm, yet it exploded like thunder, creating surging waves in the night.

Just like the youth's current state of mind, it was a stormy sea.

So that was it.

So this was the stance of the Ascenders and the Ancient God Race.

But the problem was, the existence in the Immortal Palace now was not the Kirin Venerable.

It was himself.

The more Gu Jianlin thought about it, the more his back chilled, and his blood ran cold.

He could almost imagine the scene: the tomb door of the Kirin Immortal Palace being blown open, a large group of high-level Ascenders from the Ether Association rushing in, and unleashing all sorts of ultimate moves at him.

Undoubtedly, if that day truly came, he would surely die.

After all, the power belonging to the Kirin Venerable had not recovered at all.

Gu Jianlin himself was just a Tier 0 rookie.

Although things were not so serious that his life was in danger—after all, he wasn't actually sealed inside the Kirin Immortal Palace.

In reality, he was a member of the Ether Association. When the Immortal Palace truly opened, he would certainly hear the news.

In all likelihood, when the Kirin Immortal Palace opened, the members of the Ether Association would find that the tomb was empty.

But the problem now was, which camp did he actually belong to?

Human or Ancient God Race?

This was becoming like an undercover mission.

Gu Jianlin felt like a newborn lion cub that had fallen into a den of hyenas.

How absurd.

Fortunately, his secret had not been exposed.

No one knew about this yet.

As long as the Ether Association didn't know, he could keep hiding and use the other side's resources to develop himself.

Until he figured out what all of this was about.

And how the Kirin power came to be.

Thinking about it carefully, a mole hiding in the enemy camp and leveling up using their resources actually sounded quite exciting.

"May I ask," Gu Jianlin asked seriously, "to what extent can an Evolutionist evolve? Can they become a true Ancient God?"

Jing Ci shook his head. "Of course not. An Ancient God is an Ancient God, and a human is a human. No matter how much humans evolve, they cannot become Ancient Gods. There is an essential gap between the two. Most people are only equivalent to a Divine Servant at best."

Gu Jianlin fell silent. It seemed his situation was special; he wasn't a so-called Evolutionist, but something else entirely.

"Alright, I'm leaving. I'll leave this for you."

Jing Ci took a vial of reagent from his suit pocket and placed it on the edge of the table. "The side effects of evolution will cause your body and soul to wither completely, and your spirituality will not be able to recover on its own. If you are in a hurry to use the Soul-Pacifying Bell to view Joker's memories, inject this secret medicine. It will allow your body to recover quickly."

Gu Jianlin looked at the vial in silence and sighed softly.

Aside from the fact that he had inherited the power of the Kirin Venerable, the other party really knew everything.

It was as if every fart he let out was clearly known to the man.

"One more reminder."

Before leaving, Jing Ci suddenly said, "Although the Tribunal is trash, they won't blatantly send you to your death. In this operation to hunt Joker, after the fourteen action team specialists lost their combat capability, there was about thirty-five seconds of time—enough for someone to rush in and save you."

"That was the gap when the Non-Existent Lock's barrier took effect."

He put his hands in his pockets and smiled. "During that time, three people intended to rush into the barrier to save you, but for different reasons, they ultimately didn't act."

Gu Jianlin narrowed his eyes. "Three people?"

"One of them is a member of the Ether Association, codenamed Thunder. She is of the Sword Sect path and is the most talented young person in the Sword Sect in recent decades; even the teacher thinks highly of her. She was the emergency backup for this operation. The reason she didn't act in the end was that I modified her perception of time. As long as you can undergo Divine Servitude, Joker could not be your opponent."

Jing Ci smiled. "Another one is a descendant of the Lu Family. At the time, he had a borrowed Mythic Armament in his hand that could predict the future and divine fortune. He confirmed you were fine, so he didn't go to steal your credit."

Gu Jianlin thought, No wonder he appeared at the school, and had to disguise himself.

He really had put in the effort.

"Who was the third person?"

He couldn't quite figure it out.

"Classified," Jing Ci said. "It's only interesting if you find out for yourself."