Chapter 1927 - 1926: The Dangerous Path to Godhood

After unknown years had passed, when even the bards had forgotten his tale.

The wizard appeared once more in the cosmos.

Beside him emerged an enigmatic presence, who called himself ’the Dreamer’.

They began recruiting wizards in the cosmos, declaring a return to that Land of No Name.

Numerous wizards flocked to follow them, attracted by their cause.

Then one day, everyone vanished together.

When the wizard returned, he was alone and gravely injured.

The companion known as the Dreamer had disappeared, and the wizards who followed him had not returned either.

No one knew what he had encountered, nor knew what truly lay in that Land of No Name.

Some speculated that the Land of No Name might have been a lie from the beginning, just an excuse to lure wizards to their deaths.

But the wizard gave no answer.

He, bearing his injured body, journeyed to the Netherworld; someone saw him linger at the edge, seemingly communicating with the Grim Reaper, but ultimately leaving.

Then he ventured deeper into Hell to converse with the Lord of Hell.

It is said the Lord of Hell took a gemstone from his scepter and gifted it to him.

Afterward, he visited the Church of Eternal Light and received the Grace of Eternal Light.

When he reappeared in the cosmos, he was restored to his prime.

Then, he returned to the once hollow cosmic battlefield, which the Believers of Eternal Light had sealed completely.

No one knew what transpired afterward.

Only nearby people seemed to hear a mournful roar at a certain time.

Soon, dazzling light engulfed the entire void.

The Believers of Eternal Light rushed in to channel the power of Eternal Light.

It seemed that some saw the Nether River appearing in the sky, and a Demon King covered in flames traversing the void.

Some watching wizards also rushed in without delay, delving into the depths of the battlefield.

No one knew what precisely happened in that moment until much later, when a wizard revealed that the legendary wizard seemed to have died there.

Most of those who rushed in that day perished, but a few lucky ones managed to seize some items.

These items seemed to be fractures of the legendary wizard’s remnants.

No one found the Truth Reflection Mirror of legend, nor knew how many people managed to grab fragments of the legendary wizard’s remnants that night.

Years later, an old wizard inadvertently displayed an item in his hand.

He named this item ’Well Shadow’.

The news spread swiftly, followed by a grandiose war.

The old wizard died in the war, and the ’Well Shadow’ went missing as well.

No one knew the specific abilities of the Well Shadow, only through the few words of the old wizard, that the Well Shadow could reflect one’s innermost thoughts and answer one’s heart’s uncertainties.

Please be advised that Well Shadow may draw Truth’s attention at any time.

Please be advised that the answers from Well Shadow do not equate to the answers of Truth.

Please be advised that Hell’s power is only concealed, not vanished.

Please be advised, when confronting mysteries, your inner desires also bloom.

Please be advised that every inquiry has a price; death watches everyone.

Please be advised, the Nether River flows beneath the earth; touching it communicates directly with death.

Please be advised, brilliance brings light but also burns.

Please be advised, when you believe in Well Shadow, you also become cursed by Well Shadow.

Please be advised, knowledge is endless, but Heaven has its limits.]

He Ao glanced swiftly over the subsequent text.

No introduction to this item’s abilities, or are its abilities inherently simple?

[Reward has been issued, please check.]

In contemplation, He Ao felt his hand slightly sink.

A terrifying and twisted force began to converge in his palm.

The thick glaciers and snow quickly melted and evaporated in his field of view at a visible rate.

Boom—

The clouds of the firmament were instantly torn open, forming a huge gap, the clouds followed this twisted force surging and swirling, gradually coalescing into a massive vortex.

Even the space-time was torn into thin, elongated cracks at this moment.

His body quickly descended along with the evaporating glaciers.

He Ao immediately sensed the power of the Main World, gathering this power to suppress the expanding twisted force.

The surging power of rules enhanced He Ao’s perception.

Enabling him to focus his attention and observe his palm.

This was his first time observing the process of the system issuing rewards so meticulously, and also the first time he could see it so ’clearly’.

The underlying lines of the world spiraled around like a vortex in He Ao’s palm, and at the center of those lines, some item faintly appeared.

Then, just in an instant, when He Ao was yet to focus his attention, an item appeared above his palm.

He Ao raised his head and looked upward.

A colossal dry well mouth of over twenty meters in diameter stood there, surrounded by ancient gray stones forming a circle.

A gigantic spindle stood over the dry well, entwined with thick ropes, seemingly used for hoisting buckets to fetch water.

Yet this dry well only had the well mouth and lacked the well part; He Ao, looking upward from below, saw only a stone-bricked flat bottom.

It appeared like some film studio or amusement park’s dry well scenery.

As He Ao gazed at it, the dry well rapidly descended, shrinking in size during its fall, and soon became palm-sized, resting in He Ao’s hand.

The surging twisted force also quickly converged and vanished.

He Ao somewhat bewilderedly gazed at the dry well in his hand, which appeared just like a toy model, mundane and without the supernatural energy it had earlier.

Meanwhile, he gathered back the surrounding power of rules.

In that moment, he carefully observed the system issuing rewards ’action’, concluding that the observation was inconclusive.

There was no space-time channel, nor a power convergence.

The dry well seemed to emerge suddenly, appearing in He Ao’s view as if conjured out of thin air.

Of course, the ripples at the world’s underlying level were still present.

He Ao had an intuition, this might be a special ’transmission’ method, but with his current level of Mysticism, he couldn’t comprehend it.

Items with defined background stories are difficult to conjure from nowhere.

Recollecting his thoughts, He Ao glanced once more at the text in his field of view.

The background story of Well Shadow, like the previous Barrier Wood, narrated a legendary ancient wizard.

However, He Ao speculated that the era of Well Shadow should be even earlier than Barrier Wood.

The reason is simple: in the era corresponding to the Well Shadow wizard, the Lord of Hell had not yet been injured.

And the Lord of Hell was injured by the wizard incarnated as Barrier Wood.

He Ao speculates that shortly after, the Grim Reaper found an opportunity to seal the Lord of Hell.

Events that can harm a Divine Being are extremely rare, so it’s unlikely the Grim Reaper would miss the chance, allowing the Lord of Hell to naturally heal.

Thus, it was only natural for the injured Lord of Hell to be easily sealed.

Moreover, although the wizard corresponding to Well Shadow didn’t know what was said with the Grim Reaper, it was clear that the Grim Reaper didn’t send him to deal with the Lord of Hell.

At that time, the conflict between the Grim Reaper and the Lord of Hell might not have been so intense.

Therefore, the timeline likely is: Original era of Well Shadow — Lord of Hell attempts to steal power from the Netherworld — Original era of Barrier Wood (Lord of Hell gets injured) — Lord of Hell gets sealed.

Of course, it’s also possible that the original Well Shadow wasn’t as powerful as Barrier Wood’s original, unable to strike the Lord of Hell, so the Grim Reaper didn’t have him do it.

But He Ao’s intuition is that the original Well Shadow lived in a more ancient era, and most probably didn’t belong to the same era as the original Barrier Wood.

Each of them was a heroic figure of their era.

In fact, when He Ao saw the description of the last appearance of the original Well Shadow, a word naturally came to mind,

’Godhood.’

The original Well Shadow visited the Grim Reaper, Eternal Light, the Lord of Hell; these actions mirrored closely those of the original Barrier Wood.

He was attempting to gain the support of the Divine Beings.

The difference was that the original Barrier Wood forsook his original body and vanished.

While the original Well Shadow began his path to Godhood.

The final result was clear; he failed.

The system’s final description about the explosion and the intervention of the Divine Beings implies it was a process where the Divine Beings participated in dividing his legacy.

Even Well Shadow is only a small part of the residual body, the part that could be snatched by the wizard.

But the problem lies in why he failed?

From the external environment, he visited several mighty Divine Beings. Among them, Eternal Light and the Lord of Hell expressed clear support, with Eternal Light even sending people to guard him, which was enough to show this mighty Divine Being’s stance.

Though the Grim Reaper didn’t show explicit support, he didn’t seem to be an enemy either.

He must have arranged things with these Divine Beings, then dared to boldly advance in promotion.

The introduction doesn’t mention him visiting a good friend, but the beginning of the story is when ’Truth’ guided him to the remnants of the old wizard.

Moreover, the good friend had a fiery temper, and if there was overt hostility, it would have been expressed directly.

If the original Well Shadow offended the good friend, he wouldn’t dare to so openly seek promotion.

Therefore, from the perspective of the original Well Shadow, he should have settled all external relations and ensured they were stable before attempting ’Godhood.’

Then he exploded.

If the external relations were stable, then the failure in Godhood might be due to his internal issues? What did he not understand, leading to failure?

It can be seen that this process must be extremely dangerous and easily disturbed.

The original Barrier Wood also reached the step of Godhood and directly forsook his body that could challenge the Divine Beings, vanishing in the universe.

However, did the original Well Shadow really resolve all external environments?

He Ao’s gaze scanned the entire item description, finally falling on the second "please note": ’Well Shadow’s answer doesn’t equal Truth’s answer.’

This might suggest that Well Shadow is unstable and may make errors.

Or possibly point to another ’direction.’

The ’Truth’ that initially guided the original Well Shadow to seek the Land of No Name, to find the mirror.

Was it really ’Truth’?

Five Divine Beings appeared in the story, but in this Copy World, there is also a sixth Divine Being.

And that Divine Being loves masquerading as Truth.

Holy Master.

If the initial Truth communicating with the original Well Shadow was indeed impersonated by the Holy Master.

Then his view of the Holy Master’s identity and words wouldn’t be too suspicious.

At this point, the Holy Master might take advantage with some small ’maneuvers’, even burying some ’loopholes’ from the start.

Wait until the original Well Shadow grows, then at the most crucial moment, trigger these loopholes.

Then, he can easily destroy the original Well Shadow’s Godhood, obtaining what he desires from it.

It’s possible he was at the center of the storm at that moment, taking away the core items first.

If this conjecture is correct, then the Holy Master truly committed rampant evil.

Of course, this can only be He Ao’s speculation.

If Barrier Wood’s story tells He Ao that a mortal achieving Godhood is possible,

Then Well Shadow’s story reveals something else.

That is, the path to Godhood is extremely dangerous.

Even if you think you’re foolproof, you might still fail at the last moment.

However, this story also mentions another figure that interests He Ao.

’Dreamer.’

Actually, when seeing this name, He Ao felt a bit disoriented.

At this moment, the Talent Sequences of Dreamer are hovering in his Soul.

The original Well Shadow and Dreamer seem to be friends; they even spent some time together.

If above Usurper God, lies Divine Being, then as a Usurper God, was Dreamer also considering Godhood?

So he and the original Well Shadow came together, possibly helping each other, exchanging experiences.

But after the original Well Shadow and him visited the Land of No Name, he disappeared.

According to normal conjecture, Dreamer likely died in the Land of No Name, or was trapped there.

But He Ao knows Dreamer likely died at the hands of the Witch of Desire.

After all, his Talent Sequences were taken by the eldest sister, and his body turned into Winding Hill, sealed by the eldest sister.

And in Well Shadow’s item attributes, there is the keyword ’desire.’

That is to say, the eldest sister is also connected to Well Shadow’s promotion process.

Perhaps, it was the original Well Shadow who betrayed Dreamer, exchanged for the Witch of Desire’s support for his Godhood?

Of course, this is just speculation.

After all, the system only briefly mentioned it, and He Ao’s information was too limited for accurate conjecture.

But it can be seen, the path to Godhood is really difficult.

He Ao lowered his head, looking at the ’Dry Well’ in his hand.

His gaze followed the well opening downward.

The bottom, which should have been sealed, now revealed a deep well passage.

The passage was originally dry, but accompanied by He Ao’s gaze, faint ’waterflow’ appeared within the well.

A distant song slowly echoed in He Ao’s ears.