Shepherd Tantra

Chapter 1332 Ritual Time Limit: Ten Thousand Years
In the realm where dreams and reality overlap, Aiwass gradually regained his consciousness.

Even Aiwass didn't know exactly how long he had been asleep. When Aiwass awoke again, he felt a familiar burning sensation.

……What's this?
When Aiwass opened his eyes again, he saw a sun.

It was a huge, incredibly hot sun.

It was even larger than the sun Aiwass had seen in the ruins of the Tower of Babel—if the sun under normal circumstances is about the size of an egg yolk, then this sun was even larger than a goose egg or an orange.

Under its scorching heat, Aiwass felt an unusual discomfort on his skin... because the body he was currently using was exceptionally weak, and there wasn't even a mana pool inside him!
Without magic power, Aiwass is almost unable to use any extraordinary skills, including the Illusion Card.

After Aiwass reached the fourth level, he rarely experienced this kind of maladjustment to the environment anymore.

Now, in this mortal body, Aiwass felt an extreme weakness.

If I had to describe it, it would be like being wrapped in plastic wrap from head to toe and then roasted under the sun. After you sweat, the sweat is sealed inside by the plastic wrap, and the evaporating heat prevents the body heat from escaping, creating an indescribable and intense feeling of suffocation.

However, there was nowhere around to escape the sunlight.

Looking around, all that could be seen was an endless wasteland.

Huge, jagged rocks.

There was no trace of civilization—no paved roads, no rising smoke, and no human voices. There wasn't even a single tree around; as far as the eye could see, there was only open wilderness.

Aiwas didn't even know where he was going...

...No, he couldn't even walk.

As Aiwas tried to move forward, he realized where the unease he felt came from.

The body he is now in is not human, but a scaly creature.

His scales were dry and discolored from lack of water. He had two legs and a tail—more like a bipedal lizard, crocodile, or giant salamander than a snake or fish.

As a creature with scales, he couldn't even survive under such intense sunlight.

This body yearns for the ocean so much... Only by returning to the sea can it possibly survive.

...So my task now is to find the sea?
Aiwas struggled to move his exhausted body, which had traveled an unknown distance, and continued forward.

He didn't know which way was right, so he could only trust the "front" he was in when he landed, which was the direction his body was originally heading.

—Just keep moving forward.

And at this time.

Suddenly, a voice reached Aiwass's ears.

"Oh, right... is there something I forgot to tell you?"

That irritating coldness and indifference came from the voice of the Celestials.

"For example, the limited time for this ceremony..."

At this point, the Celestial Division paused with a malicious intent.

"—That's 3.8 million days. But the good news is... the ratio to reality is 10,000 to 1. In other words, in the worst-case scenario, you only need to stay here for a little over a year before you can leave."

Aiwass did not speak.

Because of his remaining strength, he had no room to retaliate. He could only concentrate on trudging forward through the wilderness.

Meanwhile, the astronaut seemed to be flipping through a book, reciting the host's introduction to the ceremony in a very professional manner.

"You will play a role in this story... and complete your own mission. Hmm, of course, there are no points. Because all missions are necessary."

"This ritual is an absence ritual, which allows for mutual killing—but unfortunately, no one is with you. So you can't kill anyone."

"The difficulty of this ritual is 'beyond reality'. Any damage suffered during the ritual will be immediately reflected in your real body. This means that even if you don't die during the ritual, you may already be dead in reality. However, you don't really need to worry about this... after all, you are relatively resilient."

"I will construct the dreamscape for this ceremony. I will also be responsible for all task and role assignments, as well as the details of point allocation and deduction. I will do my utmost to maintain the unfairness of the ceremony and will bear absolutely no responsibility for its security—"

As Huan Tiansi introduced the situation, he said in a sinister tone.

This is a blatant declaration—I will definitely make you die here.

But when he heard his almost threatening voice, Aiwass not only didn't get nervous, but his lips curled up slightly and his eyes brightened.

—Like a detective who has already found the culprit's weakness. Seeing that Aiwass did not react, Huan Tiansi snorted coldly: "Then, the ceremony begins."

After his voice faded away, Aiwass neither heard any background information nor saw any main quest.

Clearly, his introductory storyline is not over yet.

Since there's nothing we can do anyway, we can only keep moving forward.

Aiwas didn't know how far he had gone.

During this torture-like journey, he felt his skin completely dry and cracked. The scales rubbed against each other, drawing blood, which was then dried in the blink of an eye, forming battle marks on his body.

Aiwas's consciousness gradually faded.

He felt a ringing in his ears, and the whole world fell into an eerie silence. It was as if he had lost his hearing, and even his sight was about to disappear. The only good thing was that the wasteland before him was not a desert. The changing jagged rocks reminded Aiwass that he was still moving forward and had not stopped in one place.

But Aiwass was really about to collapse.

At this moment, a certain self-doubt inevitably arose in his mind.

—Could it be that we took the wrong path from the very beginning?

Could it be that from the very beginning, this was the exact opposite path... and I just turned 180 degrees because I was a little dizzy when I woke up?

If you're going in the wrong direction, all your efforts will be in vain.

Perhaps this instance doesn't even involve the part "outside the boundary." If you continue forward, the scene will just keep repeating... Yes, after all, the instance space itself can't be very large. Some instance spaces even consist of just a hotel.

And if I really have gone down the wrong path...

So turning back now might still be in time!
If I use all my strength, I should be able to get back to the starting point before my stamina is almost completely exhausted. If that direction is correct, and I move a little further forward…

Aiwas stopped in his tracks.

His Adam's apple bobbed up and down.

He let out a faint laugh in a rough voice that only he could hear.

"So that's how it is... Is this the Whisper of the Void?"

In that instant, all the distracting thoughts and mutterings in Aiwass's mind vanished without a trace.

There's no use hiding.

—I've got you.

Aiwas infused the words into the depths of his own heart with unparalleled clarity.

And just then.

A voice, carrying with it a cool, refreshing sensation, suddenly descended upon Aiwass.

"You child...why did you walk so far alone?"

The voice that came from the sky was a gentle language that Aiwas had never heard before.

The amazing thing is that, although I had never heard of it before, I understood what the other person meant the moment I heard it.

Aiwass looked up.

In that instant, he seemed to see a savior—

It was a giant snake with purplish-red scales all over its body and a dragon's head.

Apart from its scales, its entire body is covered with feathers that change from light green to dark blue, and its tail has fluffy, magnificent blue-purple tail feathers like a phoenix or a peacock.

Two brightly colored, deep blue wings spread wide, and two huge, long, pure gold feathers draped down like a holy cloak... its posture was like "proof of friendship".

—The moment Aiwass saw Him, he knew His identity.

He is the father of the serpent.

He is the common father of both the scaled and the winged.

(End of this chapter)