Secret: The undead do not die in the fire

"He is indeed crazy."

The True Creator gazed at the distant sky dyed red by the "First Fire", and his eyes beneath the veil of shadows seemed to hold a hint of mockery.

Adam always thought that He was crazy because He inherited the negative personality and extreme emotions before death of the 'ancient sun god'. In Adam's eyes, this was the fallen human nature, and madness was inevitable.

And this is indeed the case. The mumblings heard by the believers of the Aurora Society are the best proof of this.

The true Creator had long ago realized the nature of his madness, but His consciousness had always been clear. So He knew that his madness was only temporary, and that when divinity and humanity merged into one, madness would become a thing of the past.

However, yin cannot grow alone, and yang cannot grow alone.

Since He, who was only human, had gone mad, how could Adam, who was only divine, be an exception?

Adam was a madman from birth, just like Amon.

They are all pure divine creatures, born with only divinity.

In order to maintain his "self" and fight against the original will, Amon chose to split himself into countless clones, and use these clones to form his "anchor". This approach is unique in the world.

Whether it was Pales Zoroast or the ancestors of Jacob's family, they were all angels of Sequence 1 of the Thief's Path, but none of them could form an anchor point in a 'maverick' way like Amon.

It’s not because they don’t know the benefits of doing so, but because they are very clear about the disadvantages of doing so!
Indeed, using clones can indeed form an effective and stable anchor point, so that you don't have to worry about your anchor point being attacked by the enemy, because as long as the original body is still alive, you can create countless clones.

However, while the anchor point is stable, it also causes another consequence, which is that they can no longer distinguish between virtual and reality.

In theory, every angel and god needs to use the anchor of faith to fight against divinity in order to find and stabilize their own humanity.

Whether it is 'divinity' or 'faith', its essence is a kind of pollution!
If we use Freud's theory of personality structure to describe it, then "human nature" is the "self", and "divinity" and "faith" are both "superego" - "divinity" comes from the "superego" of the Creator, and "faith" comes from the "superego" of believers in the image of the perfect god.

If any one side becomes too powerful, it will lead to the deviation of "human nature", the "ego" will be believed by the "superego", and from then on the "I" will no longer be me.

Therefore, neither "divinity" nor "faith" can come into direct contact with "humanity". Only when the two "superegos" confront and offset each other can "humanity" maintain its "self".

Therefore, for most beings, their 'divinity', 'faith' and 'humanity' exist simultaneously but are unrelated and distinct from each other. Only in this way can the 'self' be prevented from being polluted by the 'superego'.

But Amon's approach is completely different!

To Him, 'divinity' is still the 'superego' that needs to be fought against.

However, the "faith" no longer comes from the believers, but from their own clones, that is, from a part of their "self". This approach seems to make sense, because as long as Amon's understanding of himself is deep enough and his clones have the same understanding, he can maintain his "self" more firmly than others.

But in fact, what Amon did was to forcibly blend the originally distinct "faith" and "self" together - the function of "faith" was no longer to fight against divinity, but only existed to shape the "self"!
But in this way, 'divinity' will lose its restraints, and as time goes by, in the increasingly confused self-cognition, it will gradually merge with 'faith' and 'self'. From then on, the two spirits are completely sewn together and are inseparable!

In other words, 'madness' is almost the inevitable end for Amon.

The same thing happened with Adam, he only grew mad slowly over time.

After Adam was replaced by the divinity of the 'ancient sun god' and became the 'Adam' of today, this madness became more and more obvious.

Adam considered himself the embodiment of divinity and the symbol of perfection, and believed that He, who represented absolute rationality, was more suitable to be the dominant consciousness than the real Creator. However, this was precisely the manifestation of Adam's madness!

But now, Adam's madness has made him dissatisfied with the status quo, and he has begun to instigate the 'First Fire' to forcibly destroy the barrier set up by the 'Lord of Mysteries', trying to let the sealed source essence return.

Before the end of the world comes, the sealed source will be released in advance.

This approach can’t be said to be good or bad, but it is definitely crazy!
Adam knew that he was unable to recover the authority of other paths, nor could he control the Chaos Sea. At the same time, he did not want to merge with the True Creator so quickly, which would lead to the loss of his "self". Therefore, Adam's path had come to an end. The dual-path True God was his limit, and his strength would only stagnate from then on.

If you release the source material at this time, the only way to gain profit is through other means.

Because among all the source substances, only the 'Chaos Sea' and Adam share the same source, and the 'Chaos Sea' is in the hands of the true creator. If Adam wants to forcibly accommodate other 'source substances', loss of control is inevitable.

But unlike Adam, these essences have completely different meanings to other beings. Once they obtain the corresponding essences, they truly have a ticket to be promoted to the Old Ones. As long as they pay enough, it is not impossible to be promoted to the Old Ones before the end of the world!
But in the final analysis, the release of these source substances is only to help others. What benefit can it bring to Adam?
It is true that once the 'Lord of Steam' and the 'Original Witch' obtain the source material, they will have the opportunity to be promoted to the Old Ones, and both of them are Adam's staunch allies and will definitely stand on His side, but so what?
It is impossible for Adam to control all the released source substances. The 'Lord of Steam' and the 'Original Witch' can certainly use the 'Wilderness of Knowledge' and the 'City of Disaster' to advance to the Old Days, but the Goddess of Night, the Mother Goddess of the Earth and even the Black Emperor also have the same chance!
Calculating this way, the best case scenario is two against three, and Adam is still at a disadvantage.

unless--

"The Shadow World?"

The eyes behind the shadow curtain flickered slightly. Adam had cooperated with the big snake from the abyss more than once, and the other party just represented the 'Abyss' path. Although the uniqueness of the 'Bound' path adjacent to the 'Abyss' was in the hands of the ember, the big snake would never be able to be promoted to the Old One in this lifetime.

But this does not prevent the big snake from controlling the source energy or even devouring it.

And in this case, the only remaining source is the Key of Light...

The shadow curtain that was about to expand to the entire God-forsaken Land suddenly paused, and the true creator stopped his original action.

He originally wanted to stop the 'First Fire', but now it seems that this is unlikely.

The True Creator cast his gaze towards Ouroboros, his eyes full of meaning.

Among all the twenty-two paths, 'Mother' and 'Moon' are the most special, because these two paths do not come directly from the Creator, but from the Fallen Mother Goddess. The same is true for 'Mother's Nest', one of the nine source substances. It was once a part of the source substance owned by the Fallen Mother Goddess, but was torn and attracted by the resurrection of the Creator, and then landed in this world.

Of course, since the source essence has the ability to complete itself, even though the source essence of the 'Fallen Mother Goddess' was once incomplete, it has now been completed. She is still a genuine Old One, and the separated 'Mother Nest' can also create an Old One. The two are now on an equal footing.

So once the Earth Mother Goddess becomes the Old One, she even hopes to compete with the Fallen Mother Goddess for the power of the Pillar symbol. As for the Fallen Mother Goddess, in order to get back the Pillar symbol, She must also reintegrate the Mother Nest, which is why She covets this world.

But if we put aside the 'Main Nest' and the corresponding 'Mother' and 'Moon' pathways, as well as the 'Source Castle' and 'Chaos Sea' corresponding pillar pathways, the most special of the remaining six source substances is undoubtedly the 'Key of Light'.

Other source substances correspond to at least two paths, and only by accommodating all two paths can one become the Old One.

But the 'Key of Light' is different, it only has one corresponding path, the 'Wheel of Fortune'.

This means that as long as someone can become Sequence 0 on the Wheel of Fortune path, they can directly receive the Key of Light and become an Old One!

At the side of the True Creator, the Angel of Destiny Ouroboros happened to possess the Beyonder Characteristics of two Sequence 1s in the Wheel of Destiny pathway. As long as He could successfully hunt another Mercury Snake, He would have the opportunity to be promoted to Sequence 0 and then become a true Old One!

At this point, Ouroboros' path will be easier to follow than that of any other being.

Of course, the prerequisite is that He can obtain the Key of Light.

In order to obtain the Key of Light, the seal set by the 'Lord of Mysteries' must be broken.

Based on this prerequisite, the true creator naturally had no reason to stop the First Fire.

There is no doubt that all this was obviously within Adam's calculations.

Adam knew the true Creator very well, and the true Creator also knew Adam.

After all, no matter what, they were once the same person.

While the True Creator was hesitating, the situation of the gray fog became increasingly grim.

The 'grey fog' burned by the first fire became thinner and thinner, and cracks appeared on the surface one after another. These cracks were just scattered 'scratches' at first, but as time went on, more and more cracks spread across the surface of the grey fog, as dense as a spider web.

The gray fog was like a mirror at this time, unable to bear the weight and constantly collapsing under the pressure of the cracks, as if it would completely shatter at any time.

And beneath the gray fog, there are also "small hills" rising one after another, just like in a fish tank sealed with plastic, there are small fish eager to breathe trying to break free from the shackles of the plastic.

Boo!
Finally, a 'little fish' pierced the 'plastic' seal.

A large hole appeared on the surface of the gray fog, and the sound of splashing water came out, as if the water of the Milky Way was pouring out.

The True Creator looked intently. In the hole, a dark, colorless, unreal stream of water with a strong breath of eternal silence was flowing out. Although it was a long distance away, the True Creator seemed to see death, eternal sleep, His end, His end...

Although the "river water" tilted down, it did not fall to the ground. Instead, it suddenly disappeared in the air and flowed into the depths of the spiritual world.

That is not a real river, but the River of Eternal Darkness, one of the nine source elements.

The river water is not real river water, but an abstract concept and symbol.

The real Creator was not surprised that the 'River of Everlasting Darkness' escaped, because although the 'Lord of Mysteries' was powerful, he was not the Creator after all.

As time goes by, the seal of the Western Continent is gradually weakening.

Those source substances either instinctively or consciously used the uniqueness and high-sequence Beyonder characteristics within their own symbolic range to indirectly erode them and affect the outside world. Among them, the first to infiltrate power was the 'Eternal Dark River', which formed a tributary in the outside world through Gray Carrie as early as the Second Epoch.

In the Fourth Epoch, more source substances began to appear in the northern and southern continents and the five sea islands, such as the City of Disaster and the Shadow World...

Of course, the rank of these source substances is too high, and they are far from being able to be activated like the 'Hidden Sage'. Their instincts are more due to the tendency of 'aggregation' rather than the birth of their own self-awareness.

Now, once it is freed with the help of external forces, the source substance will go to the area where the power once penetrated due to "aggregation" and merge with its branches.

The River of Everdarkness was the first, followed by the 'Mother Nest', the 'Wild Lands of Knowledge'...

The True Creator watched all this quietly, because He knew that this was just the beginning, and even if He wanted to stop it now, it was too late.

He watched quietly as source essences one after another broke through the shackles of the gray fog and gained freedom.

He neither tried to stop nor to snatch them away—the status of these essences was higher than His, and unless He forcibly used the power of the Chaos Sea, it would be impossible to stop these essences. And if He used the Chaos Sea to intercept the essences, the price would be that these essences would most likely be swallowed up by the Chaos Sea. The True Creator did not want to bear such a price, so He did not intend to do anything.

At the same time, although the gray fog instinctively filled the gaps and prevented the source substances from escaping, it was ultimately of no avail.

Because by the time those gaps are filled, the source essence will have already escaped, like a bird flying into the sky or a fish entering the sea, and will no longer be bound.

Eventually, the gray fog barrier returned to normal.

But it is not as thick as before, but much thinner.

The True Creator could even vaguely see the scene on the other side through the gray fog in some areas from a great distance - on the other side, a large number of people were standing at the edge of the gray fog, looking at the dead world on the other side of the gray fog with either worry or excitement.

Above the sky, the 'First Fire' has disappeared, but the sky is still bright, and the 'Sun' is also hanging high in the sky.

Because when the 'First Fire' ignited the gray fog, the 'darkness' and 'lightning' that enveloped the world were also ignited.

When the gray fog becomes extremely thin in the continuous burning, the 'darkness' and 'lightning' have long been burned to ashes, and the bright sunshine shines on this land shrouded in darkness for thousands of years. Perhaps in a few years, the Forsaken Land of God will return to the 'Eastern Continent'!
This is an unexpected surprise.