No Killing, Only Stealing

Zhou Yao stared at the information on the panel, his eyes filled with shock.

The first half of the description of the Great Sage Thief Fate was the Journey to the West plot he knew well, but the latter half far exceeded Zhou Yao's expectations.

"Great Sage Heavenly Rank? Those who steal the Great Dao are called sages?" he murmured, his voice echoing through the empty room.

Zhou Yao carefully savored the information within, growing increasingly aware that although this world's Lost Mythology shared common ground with the myths he had known in his previous life, there were fundamental differences on certain levels.

The entire Mythic Era seemed to have been split in two. The Mythic Era before the loss corresponded to Zhou Yao's memories, while the Lost Mythic Age seemed to have led the original myths toward another ending unfamiliar to him.

He stood and slowly paced around the room, continuously recalling the many myths and legends from his previous life.

"According to the records in the textbooks, human civilization had lost several thousand years of its civilizational history, along with the myths that ran through the entirety of human civilization."

"Only when Lost Mythology returned and transformed into the Celestial Circuit Realm, once more shrouding the mortal world, did human civilization regain order and establish the Human Federation to govern the world. That was three hundred years ago."

Zhou Yao stopped and looked toward the pitch-black sky beyond the window, his gaze deep and distant.

"Even the Federation authorities know very little about Lost Mythology and the history of civilization. They can only continue excavating it from the Celestial Circuit Realm."

"But the Celestial Circuit Realm is fraught with danger. A single misstep can trigger a Mythic Invasion, so uncovering myths is no easy task."

"What's more, among many independent Celestial Circuit Realms, the mythic information unearthed often contradicts itself, causing the Federation immense trouble."

"Compared to them, I possess information from before the Mythic Loss. That gives me a slight advantage."

"If I can combine it with the panel's information and learn more about Lost Mythology, it will surely be of immense help on the future path of a Mythic Walker. After all, the essence of a Mythic Walker is to excavate Lost Mythology."

A broad road lay before him, and even Zhou Yao couldn't help but feel his emotions surge.

After a brief moment of thought, Zhou Yao temporarily suppressed his turbulent emotions.

Things like Lost Mythology and the Great Sage Heavenly Rank were still far too distant for Zhou Yao. Just a single rat hair from the Yellow Wind Great Sage could possess the level of a False God Ember. Contacting such high-level information too early might not be a good thing for him. He could explore the secrets of Lost Mythology after his cultivation had achieved something.

"For now, I should focus on deciphering the progress of the Great Sage Thief Fate. Raising my strength as quickly as possible is what matters." Zhou Yao refocused, combining the information from the Fate's description with the earlier scene of fighting the Ghost Soldier.

He closed his eyes, and the image of the Yellow Wind Little Sage seizing the steel trident surfaced in his mind. In that instant, something seemed to flash through his heart.

"The key to deciphering the Fate seems to lie in the word 'thief.'

"The Yellow Wind Great Sage's origin came from stealing oil, and before his death, he realized that those who steal the Great Dao are called sages. Since the Yellow Wind Little Sage's Fate is tied to the Yellow Wind Great Sage, committing acts of theft may be a way of confirming the Fate itself.

"Just now, instinctively stealing that Ghost Soldier's Steel Trident during battle caused the Fate's deciphering progress to change." Zhou Yao opened his eyes, a trace of enlightenment flashing through them.

"But since the Fate is called 'Great Sage, Great Thief,' simple theft only corresponds to the latter two words. How should the words 'Great Sage' be interpreted? Do I really have to directly steal the Great Dao of heaven and earth?"

The Yellow Wind Little Sage had only just entered the Scavenger rank. Forget stealing the Great Dao of heaven and earth—it could, at most, steal a little Mythic Material.

Zhou Yao frowned deeply and began pacing back and forth through the room again, his footsteps producing faint sounds against the floor.

Far away in the Yin Mountain Realm, having temporarily lost Zhou Yao's active control, the Yellow Wind Little Sage curled into a golden ball of fur and hid within a concealed crevice.

Its breathing was steady and slow, its amber eyes half-open and half-closed. The wind and sand around it had also grown quiet, while the greater part of the mana drained from its body steadily recovered.

Then, a faint yin wind blew past, and a cold, sinister aura gradually rose. A nearly transparent Yin Ghost passed through the cracks in the rocks, as though emerging from underground into the Yellow Wind Little Sage's hiding place.

The Yin Ghost's body was illusory, its features indistinct. Only a pair of hollow eye sockets glimmered with dim light.

Zhou Yao's consciousness stirred in alarm. He was just about to sink into his awareness and control the Yellow Wind Little Sage to drive the ghost away when the furball seemed to trigger some kind of stress response.

It abruptly opened its eyes. Wind and sand suddenly rose around it, and vigilance flashed through its amber gaze.

"Squeak!!!"

A piercing rat cry rang out. A violent gale, accompanied by a vast amount of wind and sand, erupted from the crevice like a fountain. The raging sandstorm instantly filled the cramped space.

Amid the sky-filling wind and sand, a palm-sized yellow-furred mouse carried a large steel trident on its shoulder, while its other tiny paw clutched a glittering fragment as it fled into the distance at high speed.

Its movements were incomparably swift. Almost the moment the wind and sand erupted, it had already rushed out of the crevice.

From Zhou Yao's perspective, he could clearly see the Yin Ghost being struck by wind and sand laden with mana. The grains of sand pierced through its soul like blades slicing through tofu.

Its fragile soul body was riddled with holes in an instant, countless tiny cracks spreading across its entire form. Any casual blow could tear it apart completely.

The Yin Ghost let out a soundless wail, its form trembling violently as fragments continuously flaked from the surface of its soul body.

Yet even when faced with the dying and fragile Yin Ghost, the Yellow Wind Little Sage merely scooped up the Soul Shard Fragments scattered from its shattered body. The fragments glimmered faintly in its paw, after which it used the wind and sand to flee rapidly outside rather than directly striking to destroy the Yin Ghost.

Its figure flickered in and out of sight amid the wind and sand, and in the blink of an eye, it had already traveled far from that crevice.

Zhou Yao's eyes flickered as he merely watched it all without intervening. Leaning against the back of his chair, he lightly tapped the armrest with his fingers, his mind rapidly considering everything that had just happened.

"Just now, the Yellow Wind Little Sage hadn't been consciously controlled by me. It was an almost biological instinctive reaction. It didn't fight the ghost, only cared about stealing benefits. That was exactly the same as when it faced the Ghost Soldier earlier."

"At first, I thought the fear and reluctance to fight displayed by the Yellow Wind Little Sage incarnation came from rodent instincts. But now it seems I was completely wrong."

A sharp light flashed through Zhou Yao's eyes as inspiration continuously surged through his mind.

"The Yellow Wind Little Sage is merely an incarnation shaped from the Yellow Wind Great Sage's rat hair. It isn't truly a member of the rat race, so how could it possess rodent instincts?"

"The root of it all should lie in the Great Sage Thief Fate. It is the Fate that has influenced the Yellow Wind Little Sage's instincts!"

Zhou Yao suddenly stood and looked again at the Yellow Wind Little Sage's panel. The words gradually became clear before his eyes, each one seeming to contain some profound meaning.

"'Great Thief' should mean stealing everything."

"And 'Great Sage' should originally mean not harming sentient beings, not killing a single person!"

"Only by killing none and stealing only can one be a Great Sage, Great Thief!"