Once bitten, wary for a thousand years 4K

Plenty of wood had been added to the fireplace, and it crackled nonstop. The firelight shone on Old Neil, yet he could not feel the slightest warmth.

Lin Chuan sighed helplessly. Rather than say anything more about it to Old Neil, he abruptly changed the subject:

"Old Neil, where did you learn Life Alchemy and the Resurrection Ritual?"

Lost in despair, Old Neil answered as though muttering to himself, "I heard them."

"Yes, his voice was right beside my ear, explaining the details of the rituals over and over. It was practically a gift from a God..."

"Whose voice?" Lin Chuan asked softly, something inscrutable in his tone.

"Him?" Old Neil's eyes widened, like a drowning man finally breaking the surface, or a dreamer jolting awake from a nightmare.

Just yesterday, he had still been listening to that exquisitely intricate ritual knowledge. Yet now, when he tried to recall the name of that being, his mind went blank.

"He's... he's..." Old Neil desperately searched his memories until his voice abruptly caught. Only after a dozen seconds did he speak again, bewildered and terrified. "He's the Hidden Sage..."

"Heh." Lin Chuan smiled faintly in satisfaction, his gaze passing over Old Neil's shoulder to meet the illusory eyes behind him, which had already come alive.

"Do you understand now?"

Old Neil had no time to answer. He noticed that Lin Chuan was not looking at him. No, it seemed this being had been looking behind him from the very beginning.

What was behind him? That sensation of being watched... apparently, there was no need to wonder anymore.

Old Neil felt as though he had plunged into an ice cellar! In that instant, he finally sensed the chaotic, maddening corruption that had suddenly appeared inside him.

There was no doubt about it. He was about to lose control! Old Neil could already feel the muscles on both sides of his face slowly splitting, the flesh within condensing as though it were about to form two pairs of eyeballs.

Those cold, merciless, nearly transparent eyes, devoid of eyelashes, stared fixedly at him while searching the room for something. Despair swallowed him whole in an instant.

But before the Hidden Sage could find what he was looking for, Lin Chuan kindly gave him a hand. Why trouble yourself with searching? Those black eyes held a smile as he deliberately met the gaze.

He saw it.

Behind those illusory eyes was a connected strand of "light" invisible to the vast majority of Beyonders.

The light had no physical substance, seemingly composed of vast, tangled streams of information. In its illusory form, it "saw" Lin Chuan.

He saw him too.

It was an utterly ordinary human. No, wait. He did not seem to be human. Was that a Spirit Body?

No, he did not seem to be a Spirit Body either. There appeared to be nothing here at all.

It was like an Empty Folder disguised with wrapping paper labeled "one human Spirit Body inside."

The Hidden Sage instinctively tried to unravel the information contained within that "Empty Folder." He kept feeling that the scene before him was somewhat familiar.

His curiosity and thirst for knowledge made him desperately want to analyze this blank information. The feeling was familiar. He was certain he had seen this before, or knew what it was.

Yet the Hidden Sage genuinely did not know what was happening. It was simply too strange. The connection must have been too weak, and the power he had invested insufficient.

He only needed to devote a little more attention... yes, these were merely minor issues. He did not think they were beyond him.

"Huh?"

"?gninnur llits I ma t'nera yhw ,em nees ydaerla s'eh ,em erofeb 'knalb' sihT" :noisufnoc fo rekcilf a tlef egaS neddiH ehT

Buzz.

Those eyes, once wooden and now lively, suddenly shuddered violently.

It was no longer that cold, merciless, godlike gaze. It was an extremely human shock, bordering on terror.

In the space of an instant, one of the eyes vanished outright, and the other dissolved into nothingness in the next.

Like a soap bubble being punctured, the illusory eyes representing the Hidden Sage's gaze disappeared without a trace.

But he had fled even earlier, before the eyes disappeared.

He escaped through his connection to the Spirit World, even severing his knowledge connections with every Beyonder of the Mystery Pryer Pathway. His retreat was utterly decisive.

How did Lin Chuan know the Hidden Sage had cut off the knowledge he was pouring into the Beyonders of his Pathway?

Because he had been about to follow that connection and offer a friendly greeting to his dear brother and close friend, whom he had never met.

Lin Chuan counted as an awakened Sefirah, while the Hidden Sage was the awakened Hermit Uniqueness. How did that not make them family?

Even if it did not, the Hidden Sage had only gained the chance to awaken after the Mother Goddess of Depravity corrupted the Knowledge Moor.

In other words, he could absolutely be considered the Mother Goddess's child. Did that not make him Lin Chuan's dear brother?

Lin Chuan refused to believe that, during those ten thousand years wandering the Starry Sky, he would have seen the Mother Goddess of Depravity-or even the Mother Goddess before the Oldest One awakened-and not gone over to call her "Mom."

"Ah." Lin Chuan sighed regretfully. "Why run so fast...?"

Was the Hidden Sage really this cautious? Fleeing was one thing, but disconnecting himself from the network and shutting himself away? That was nothing like his style.

And that expression, that shock bordering on terror... tsk. Why did he seem like a bird terrified by the mere twang of a bowstring?

A setback right out of the gate. Did he really have no talent for fishing? Should he ask Amanises for some pointers?

Lin Chuan had already done his utmost to hide his status and information. He had figured that if the Hidden Sage tried projecting a little more power over, he could simply intercept it as a first-meeting gift.

Or he could follow the mystical connection straight to the source, visit his home, and ask for some Mystery Pryer Pathway characteristics to sample.

Amon had eaten most of his own Pathway's characteristics, while Lin Chuan had gone even further, collecting all the Uniquenesses and characteristics of his own Pathway.

However pathetic the Hidden Sage might be, surely he had a few characteristics? Lin Chuan was not greedy. One serving of Knowledge Emperor would leave him perfectly satisfied.

If he really found the Hidden Sage's "home," it would be worth it even if the Gods and Great Old Ones inside and outside the barrier immediately discovered someone was sneaking ahead.

"Running so decisively... how bizarre. Since when were evil gods so timid...?" Lin Chuan muttered.

By now, Old Neil's mind had gone completely blank.

You were a Beyonder of the Mystery Pryer Pathway, but after decades of accomplishing nothing, you were still only Sequence 9.

In your youth, your knowledge had been insufficient, and your attempt to heal your beloved fiancée with ritual magic had failed at the final hurdle.

You had pursued knowledge for over twenty years, solely to perform the forbidden rituals of Life Alchemy and Perfect Resurrection beyond your Sequence.

But just as you were filled with hope, watching the day of your beloved's return draw ever closer, you came home after a busy day of overtime and discovered someone in your house.

No, that person was actually a Spirit Body, apparently of a very high Sequence. And the moment he saw you, he said:

I need your human transmutation ritual.

Then he told you that your preparations to resurrect your beloved were doomed to fail, that you had unknowingly been corrupted by the Hidden Sage, and that you could only end up becoming a monster.

You could even sense the Hidden Sage, the secret existence who had single-handedly turned the Moses Ascetic Order into an evil cult, standing behind you and watching you with his eyelashless eyes.

Then he took one look at the being opposite you, and then? There was no "then."

So, what did you think this fantastical experience meant?

A. Recalling your spirited younger days, you realized you truly were someone special, drawing two Gods to appear for your sake.

B. One day, after coming home from work, you happened to see the evil god of your Pathway, the Hidden Sage, who then happened to be frightened away by another god standing opposite you.

C. You had actually drawn your own blood so many times to prepare the large quantity of fresh blood from living humans required for Life Alchemy that you had become anemic. Your recent overtime had exhausted you into a stupor, and everything above was a hallucination.

Surely it had to be C?

Yet as the Hidden Sage withdrew, the noisy, maddening whispers beside Old Neil's ears vanished instantly, and his Spirituality, which had nearly collapsed, stabilized again.

Lin Chuan glanced casually at him. Old Neil's condition went from worse than it had ever been to better than it had ever been.

He could be certain now. This could not be a hallucination. But his heart rose into his throat.

What was he thinking?

The existence before him was probably a true god who still walked the world in the present Fifth Epoch!

The Seven Gods had long since ceased appearing in the world, and this being clearly matched none of them. Most likely, he was another evil... secret existence.

Old Neil frantically recalled the Gods worshipped by those secret organizations and sects.

The Aurora Order's True Creator? The appearance did not match. The Demoness Sect... that was even more absurd.

The Aurora Order? The Secret Order? The Blood Sanctify Sect? The Numinous Episcopate? The School of Life, the Rose School, the Iron and Blood Cross Order, the Psychology Alchemists, the Dawn of Elements...

None of them matched. For those known to worship Gods, the appearance was wrong, while those without a corresponding God did not need to be considered.

But one thing was certain: he was unquestionably a God who surpassed the Hidden Sage, perhaps even rivaling the Seven Gods!

Why, then, would an existence like this need a Sequence 9 like him to conduct Life Alchemy?

Why would a God need a mortal's ritual to create a body? Were Gods not supposed to have imperishable bodies?

He dared not think about it, much less speculate.

Old Neil could only trust his instincts: this indescribable existence held an almost miraculous gentleness and goodwill toward him and Shaliste.

If nothing else, this youthful appearance with an elven face was certainly not his true form.

This exalted being had probably been suppressing his essence beneath a mortal guise from beginning to end, simply to prevent Old Neil from going mad at the sight of a God.

"Thank you for your salvation, Your Excellency..." Old Neil's voice trembled slightly as he stooped into a deep bow.

Lin Chuan calmly accepted the bow. He had earned it.

He continued, "Now that the corruption is cleared, let's get on with it. I need you to perform the Life Alchemy ritual."

"Yes, I understand."

Old Neil answered solemnly and respectfully, and that had nothing to do with the other party's identity.

After all, no matter what, he had saved Old Neil's life and prevented the tragedy that would otherwise have occurred. Naturally, Old Neil was grateful.

But Old Neil was also a little hesitant. "However... Your Excellency, that knowledge did come from the Hidden Sage."

He furrowed his brow and explained his concern:

"Although his corruption cannot affect you, I'm worried the ritual he provided may itself contain a trap. If it fails, it might desecrate your body."

"That's fine."

Lin Chuan waved a hand. "The Hidden Sage may be a nasty piece of work, but there's nothing wrong with the knowledge itself. The ritual steps and materials he taught you are genuine. You can use them as they are."

"In fact, all the knowledge he pours into people is true and reliable. The only unreliable part is the Hidden Sage himself."

At that thought, Lin Chuan remarked casually, "If the current God of Steam and Machinery had successfully become the Hermit back then, he would probably have made a good teacher."

Uh... Lin Chuan suddenly hesitated. Would Stiano really have been a good teacher if he had become the Hermit?

For some reason, he kept feeling that the fellow was rather unreliable. Forget it. Stereotypes were no good.

Old Neil pretended he had not heard those last few remarks and instead asked Lin Chuan:

"I've already prepared most of the materials for the Life Alchemy ritual. It's just..."

The final missing material was "a large quantity of fresh blood from living humans." He had originally planned to draw his own blood and preserve it with ritual magic. After saving it for a few months, he would have enough.

But he had only been drawing blood for about a month, leaving him at least two-thirds short of the "large quantity" required by the ritual.

His Excellency before him certainly seemed friendly and easygoing, but who could be sure when it came to Gods?

What if he thought nothing of it and told Old Neil to find a few random people to sacrifice as ritual materials?

Lin Chuan was speechless. How could he fail to understand what Old Neil had left unsaid? He simply thought Lin Chuan was an evil god, after all, and was hesitating.

I wonder, if I kept silent, or really asked him to kill someone, would Old Neil do it?

For no apparent reason, that thought flashed through Lin Chuan's mind. He immediately cast it aside, forgetting he had ever had it.

He gestured for Old Neil to stop, then spoke in a complicated tone:

"All right, stop letting your imagination run wild. I keep getting the feeling you're selling me short."

Old Neil did not understand what it meant to "look at someone as a flattened shape," but obediently stopped thinking.

Lin Chuan sighed and asked, "What do you think I am? Don't worry about offending me. Just say it."

"...You are a God, of course," Old Neil answered.

Lin Chuan suspected he had put on a little too much of an act earlier and had not been approachable enough, leading Old Neil to develop

such a profound misunderstanding of him.

Damn it, Klein must have taught me this. As usual, he picked someone at random to take the blame and entered it in his ledger.

Lin Chuan felt like explaining, but also found the whole thing rather tiresome.

Even if he insisted on telling Old Neil that he merely wanted to help, and that the Life Alchemy ritual was incidental, probably no one would believe him.

In the end, he only said calmly:

"I just need a body. Even if you're missing materials or there's a problem with the procedure, it won't matter."

Lin Chuan glanced at Old Neil again and finally could not help adding:

"...I only came because I happened to know you had Life Alchemy materials ready, and I didn't want to possess some random person."

Old Neil barely took it in, breaking into a cold sweat instead. Before he could speak, he saw Lin Chuan look at the pitch-black night outside the window, stretch, and offer one final remark:

"It's very late now. You're too tired. Go get some sleep first."

(Posting a screenshot of my writing speed. If nobody curses me out over this chapter, I'll write everything in one pass from now on.)

(That might let me update a little faster.)