For Its Use

Ember could not change Yin Ming's belief that the mind and self were supreme.

Nor could Yin Ming shake Norman Martin's resolve to turn fire into flame.

Anyone who had reached Middle Rank through their own cultivation, rather than being an artificial Ancient God, possessed convictions that could no longer be shaken.

Yet their ideals did not conflict.

Yin Ming wanted to reach High Rank quickly and put his many complex theories into practice. To do that, he needed a vast foundation of knowledge.

That meant founding a school or a people. Its members could be Demons, Twisted Treants, or humans from the Source Plane.

With a crash, the heavy city gates fell. The capital of Landon Duchy had been breached.

With no extraordinary beings intervening, the war, already in its final stages, would soon be over.

Smoke rose across the sky and horns wailed. The invading kingdom's remaining knights swept forward without pausing in the city streets, charging straight for the glittering royal palace.

Some fought over gold and jewels. Some abducted beautiful women. Some killed for sport, while others screamed in agony. The scenes were horrifying.

But they did little to move wizards who pursued truth.

They knew their own ends might be even worse, and they had accepted that possibility.

Whether mortals died of old age or were killed for such absurd reasons made little difference. Either way, they had created nothing of value.

Slaughter!

Death!

Screams!

Flight!

Another feast for the Demons!!

Yin Ming's Yin Spirit released Divine Sense from his Sea of Consciousness. Everything within dozens of miles flashed into his mind.

Suddenly!

His attention fixed on the library in Landon Royal Palace.

Amid the chaos in the palace, an unremarkable old man with disheveled hair and a professor's gray robe had risked