Shepherd Tantra

Chapter 1311 The Age of Fire Should Be Extinguished with Water

What Aiwas had to do was very simple.

That is to relieve the pressure of sin and obtain the authority of the Abyss Heaven Division from it.

And decompressing the information in the state of sin and thorns... ignoring the scale, isn't this exactly what the Candle Master used to do?

This is a feat akin to “recreating the world”.

Aiwass flew into the air, murmuring softly, the dark golden light in his eyes shining brightly: "Flame can burn away the sin thorns, causing the sealed information to evaporate... Thus, the age of the First Men ended with flames, and our age began with flames."

Behind him, pure white wings gradually unfurled, making him look like a god.

This is why the Candle, symbolizing the First Flame, can relieve the thorns of sin; while the Taboo, symbolizing the sea, possesses the world-destroying power to transform all things into thorns of sin.

But that was not complete destruction.

Instead, it is "to remember"—

"Now I finally understand... why the Candle Master emphasized that the sinful thorns buried beneath the Parthian Desert must be preserved."

Aiwass raised his head and slowly said, "Because of worry."

Lily was taken aback when she heard this.

Because in Lily's opinion, Aiwass's words were very strange.

It didn't seem like he was talking to Lily; it was more like he was talking to himself... or perhaps, he was speaking to someone who was watching this way but he couldn't see them.

"When the Candlelight initially made this decision, the world was just beginning. The material world had just been formed, and there was not much life on this earth. It was perfectly normal for Him to look at the desolate world and worry about the return of the Twilight Seeds..."

"What if the Twilight Species return? What if they decompress all the embers of the old era, and before they develop enough to preserve themselves for refuge, if the Twilight Species strikes again... wouldn't that mean that the dormant pre-civilization has been completely destroyed by itself?"
"That's why the Candle Master doesn't approve of releasing all the sins and thorns. If the world is destroyed again... whether by human error or natural disaster, then after everything turns to nothingness, at least that tiny spark can still exist in this world."

"After a very long time... perhaps a new 'candlelight master' will come to this world again, bringing new fire and light."

"After that, the flames of civilization gradually ignited from the ground, and one race after another rose up. Society developed to its peak, only to be suddenly destroyed; the world fell into an eternal cycle, and the long night had arrived..."

"—Now, the long night is about to end."

As he spoke, sin thorns slowly grew on Aiwass's body.

Black thorns sprouted from his entire body—he gradually coalesced back into the form of the thorn giant he had been before. And Aiwas's voice, growing lower and more muffled, came from within the thorns he was wrapped in: "And the so-called 'taboos' are those ancient technologies that have been corrupted by nothingness. This, of course, includes the mysterious art of transforming people into thorns."

Although the Sin Beast can control and devour the Sin Thorns, it cannot "create" them.

Previously, when Aiwas transformed his adoptive father's sins into Sin Thorns and absorbed them into part of his own power, he subconsciously thought that this was one of the Sin Beast's abilities.

But looking back now...

—The attribute panel of the Sin Beast does not include the creation of Sin Thorns!
On the contrary, the Enlighteners... their souls will transform themselves into sin thorns, and they can grow white flowers and bear the fruit of sin thorns.

The profession of the Illuminator originates from the legacy of the ancient elves—a legacy now lost. The ancient elves' knowledge was inherited from the Second Tower of Babel, where the Geometry Division resided—the very ancient mechanism through which winged mages researched the technologies of their ancestors!

Why did the lineage of the Enlighteners break down?
Why did the second-generation Winged King ultimately obtain the Celestial Fragment of "Sin and Punishment"?

What did the snake use to bewitch Lucifer onto the path of transcendence?

There is only one answer—

"If you add the principle of creation to an unforgivable sin... that is taboo."

The Sin Thorn can ignore the power of other paths and dismantle all path power; the power of the Sin Thorn can transform others into Sin Thorns, regardless of their energy level; the Sin Thorn stores a certain kind of information that can be preserved for an extremely long time...

—And doesn't this kind of power also exist in this era?

That is the signature ability of the Forbidden Path, Star Ice!

"The age of sin-eating must end now!" Aiwas said, raising his left hand high: "If the age of fire is to be destroyed, it should be extinguished with water—"

A tiny, pure white flame appeared, and then the sin thorns that had spread along his body began to burn.

In the blink of an eye, he transformed into a giant engulfed in flames.

As Aiwas burned, a continuous stream of power was released from the burning thorns of sin. Surging magical energy condensed in the void—the smoke did not dissipate but instead transformed into a dark cloud of smoke, enveloping the fire giant.

—That was the power of the Great Abyss that Aiwas had previously transformed into the Sin Thorn, thus serving as the skeleton for Aiwas's resurrection!
The mysteriously disappeared fragment of the Heavenly Division that originally belonged to the Heavenly Division exists in Aiwas's body in this way!
As Aiwas consumed by fire, he clearly felt his divinity gradually diminishing. His once ruthless and indifferent pupils slowly regained some humanity, regaining a glimmer of life.

Or rather... Aiwass released a portion of his divinity that did not originally belong to him.

"...Why are you doing this to yourself?"

A faint sigh echoed in Aiwas's ear: "Wouldn't it be better to use this power to fight against nothingness?"

That was almost exactly the same voice as Aiwas.

This is the remaining consciousness of the Great Abyss—not His soul, but the memory of the brief conversation between the Great Abyss and Aiwass when the Great Abyss died!
This was the parting gift that Oobuchi gave to Aiwas!

Da Yuan hid his own fragment of the Celestial Bureau within Aiwas's body, preparing a life-saving contingency plan for Aiwas. It was as if he were entrusting his most precious possession to his successor when he retired from the game.

Aiwass just smiled and said, "Keeping it as a hidden backup energy source... is bad luck."

As he spoke, a white mollusk, resembling a pearl oyster, slowly condensed from Aiwas's raised left hand.

[Celestial Fragments - Fragments of the Abyss and Forbidden Realms]

[—The laws of the abyss and forbidden realms, remnants of the power of the Abyss Celestials. Used properly, one may have the chance to become a Celestial of the Abyss or a Forbidden Celestial.]

"So, you want to use them to save these fools?"

The remaining consciousness of the Great Abyss was half pity and half disgust: "I left you the authority of the Heavenly Court... to save your life."

"With its power, if you fail... at least this world will be completely frozen into Star Ice..."

It lacks the capacity for complete thought; it only possesses instinctive reactions.

Aiwas, who shared some of Da Yuan's memories, naturally knew why Da Yuan hated the Parthians so much.

—Because the benevolent deity's sacrifices over the years are, in a sense, a sealing ritual.

The essence of the Great Abyss is also a part of Ai Shiping, so how could He possibly crave any blood sacrifice?

The art of sacrifice originates from the forbidden principles inherited by the Great Abyss. It is the reason for the Great Abyss's birth, and also the source of its bestial and demonic nature. The constant sacrifices He receives mean His existence is constantly being acknowledged, thus making it impossible for true humanity to ever arise…

It's like feeding a huge, ferocious beast with blood.

It may seem like you're taming it, but you're also cultivating its wildness.

They could have easily offered sacrifices in a clean way—for example, through voluntary offerings. But they did not use these "clean sacrifices," precisely because the good gods' loyalty to the deep was mixed with malice.

They do not wish for a real, conscious God to exist above them, just as they do not wish for a Parthian king to exist above them.

To Yuan Tiansi, these benevolent rulers were like traitors constantly feeding him drugs, while the common people who knew nothing but still worshipped and hated him were the fools who were bewitched by these people.

Their actions are essentially aimed at constantly delaying the resurrection of Yuan Tiansi.

Not only was Shanzhu imprisoned in this generational fate by Dayuan, but Dayuan was also imprisoned by Shanzhu and his people in a state of half-sleep and half-awake chaos!
Perhaps that's why, in the original timeline... Yuan Tiansi angrily destroyed the entire Anxi.

Aiwas did not respond to Yuan Tiansi's words.

He simply smiled silently, letting countless burning sinful thorns, like tentacles, forcefully pry open the clam shell and pierce into it—

(End of this chapter)