Guard Against Fire, Theft, and...?

Not only that, but such a leap in the form of one's existence was tantamount to suicide for a human mind. A summer insect could not comprehend ice; a mortal could not speak of gods. In older terms, one had to cultivate both mind and body.

Never mind ascending from human to god in an instant with an ordinary person's mind. Even if someone simply became Homelander one day, he would do all sorts of things he had never previously imagined.

The blind could not understand color, and the deaf could not know sound. They could still barely communicate with humans who possessed all five senses, sharing the same culture and moral standards. But what if the change were greater? Great enough to... draw a line between oneself and one's former kind?

Like humans looking at ancient apes, or ancient apes looking at humans, these were entirely different species. If an ancient ape's mind suddenly became human, he might want to taste monkey brains. And what would be wrong with that?

Perhaps, after abandoning humanity's narrow thinking, a nonhuman mind would instead represent a higher level of advancement. When that future version of me looked back at who I am now, those so-called feelings and attachments would seem no different from the uncivilized ways of primitive animals that modern humans scorned. Everything would become perfectly natural.

"But I won't allow that to happen." An understanding dawned on Lin Chuan:

"That kind of advancement means nothing to me. I must preserve my personality, values, feelings, and attachments, and keep future advancements from eroding them. My spiritual imprint is already like that of a born Great Old One. External corruption and possession mean nothing to me. My only enemy is myself, gradually changing over the long years."

After sorting all this out, Lin Chuan finally had time to look around. Ever since he had opened his eyes in his true body, space had come into existence here, subsequently giving rise to distinctions of near and far, above and below. Yet the void remained empty and silent.

He remembered the various peculiarities when he had performed the ritual earlier: the stagnant air, the tugging sensation, and the layered calls that surged like ocean tides...

Weren't those all copied from the Chaos Sea's and Sefirah Castle's "login effects"?

"As the symbol of 'Nothingness,' I probably can't be affected by any external force. That means my true body unconsciously adopted this method of communication." Lin Chuan considered this. "In that case, when Klein first entered Sefirah Castle, he could create a 'custom room' with just that tiny bit of authority and connection. I should be able to do it too, right?"

With a shift of thought, Lin Chuan decided to copy Little Zhou's idea first.

Wait, how could this count as copying? In this timeline, there are still five whole epochs before Zhou Mingrui logs into Sefirah Castle and conjures up that setting! Clearly, I came first, didn't I?

Let me think... a temple, a long table, and plenty of high-backed chairs carved with ancient patterns, full of mystery.

Come to think of it, why did Little Zhou love showing off in front of people so much? Even transmigrating didn't make him forget that habit. No, perhaps transmigrating was precisely what made him let himself go completely.

As his thoughts took shape, layers of gray fog appeared around Lin Chuan. Towering stone pillars rose from the ground, supporting a vast, majestic dome overhead. The entire structure was magnificent, grand, and ancient, like the royal hall of giants from legend.

Directly beneath the dome, amid the gathered gray fog, a Bronze Long Table appeared. Ten high-backed chairs stood on either side, with identical seats at its head and foot. Brilliant lights glittered on the chair backs, their deep crimson glow subdued, outlining strange constellations that did not correspond to reality.

Lin Chuan felt a wave of relief. Although the sight of himself alone in the void had been quite atmospheric, having his feet on solid ground really did feel more comfortable. Treating himself as a human being-that truly was sound wisdom.

He noticed that all these furnishings were exquisitely detailed, far beyond anything he could have imagined out of thin air. It seemed more as though the Sefirah had automatically generated a setting that met his requirements and satisfied him.

He just wondered whether the result Klein eventually "crafted" would be identical to this. Perhaps they were all drawing on the same database? The Spirit World, for example, or somewhere else?

He tried touching the gray fog around him. As expected, it was merely a foggy environment that looked similar, not the actual Historical Void.

Lin Chuan tried dismissing the setting again, and everything around him dissipated. Then he tried several places that existed in reality: the Himalayas, the Pacific Ocean, Antarctica... Everything was incredibly lifelike, and he had a wonderful time playing around.

He even tried manifesting the lunar surface. As the scenery changed, he found himself near a desolate crater.

"So this moon isn't the 'Moon' of later ages." Lin Chuan understood.

That made sense. The Oldest One had not yet awakened, and the Celestial Worthy and God Almighty had not split off yet. The Mother Goddess would not come to Earth until, at the very least, the Oldest One had converged upon twenty-two Pathways and torn out the Brood Hive. The moon right now was merely an ordinary satellite, perfectly clean.

After he had played... rather, after he had experimented enough, Lin Chuan temporarily fixed the setting here as his bedroom from before his transmigration.

However, no matter how he changed the setting, this unnamed Sefirah remained an endless void beyond it, just like the gray fog above Sefirah Castle. Although the concept of space now existed, he still could not make the void outside the setting disappear completely.

At this thought, Lin Chuan suddenly realized he had overlooked something.

After transmigrating, converging, and becoming the Sefirah's will, he naturally could not have stayed inside it waiting forever, or advanced by committing suicide. He would certainly have tried to find a way out. Given the unique nature of his own Sefirah, it might have been possible to find a way to accommodate other Pathways. Even without those reasons, he still needed a normal life and social interaction, or he would go mad from being cooped up.

From the look of things, he had probably used a method similar to Sefirah Castle's deployment of survivors from the old era, placing his primary consciousness into his current body. No wonder the first thing he had seen after transmigrating was the ceiling when he woke up. Apparently, the body's original owner had taken pills and died in his sleep.

But why had he previously taken it for granted that he had transmigrated directly, body and soul? Surely he had not deleted that memory himself? That made absolutely no sense. What's more, his connection to the Sefirah-his own true body-had actually been that weak before.

He had sent signals for five whole years before finally making contact. Even when he had arrived here just a short while ago, he had not immediately realized where his true body actually was.

Lin Chuan sensed something was wrong, but could not figure out exactly why. After racking his brains for a while, he still had no clue...

?...yawa siht flesym gnirewol m'I ekil leef I od yhW

Holy fucking shit, Celestial Worthy of Heaven and Earth for Blessings! When did I get hit with blind stupidity?!