Chapter 893 - 433: Transcendent Realm (2)
After walking for a while, he began to talk about other matters.
"The child Diao, she’s extraordinary."
"It’s apparent."
She’s not much older than Zoe, but with the profession of the Three-System Ancient Witch, she can even integrate her own Secret Technique.
Li Ang looked at Diao’s robe, filled with richly meaningful patterns, and said to the Great Witch Priest, "She’s excellently inherited the ways of your three major professions."
"However," the Great Witch Priest shifted his tone, "without being able to control spirituality, she’ll never touch the true path."
The cultivators of the Land of Ten Thousand Spirits, led by the Great Witch Priest, hold witchcraft in high regard.
"She can become the step for you to ascend the truth, which is also the best choice recognized by Ten Thousand Spirits. Far more beneficial to this world than achieving something in ancient casting."
It seems the elder hasn’t abandoned that idea.
"Let me try entering the Transcendent State myself first," Li Ang said.
The three walked along the village path, venturing into more remote areas, soon deviating from the inhabited zone, until even the high altar of the priest was obscured by various plants of the wetland, only the top part was visible.
And ahead, various statues began to appear.
The proportions of these figures were exactly like those of real people, with various postures, lacking artistic sense, more like snapshots capturing a moment of those depicted.
Their clothing greatly differed from the witch priests, who seemed like ancient tribes settled here for thousands of years with unchanged technology and lifestyle, while these statues appeared much more "advanced" in comparison.
Most wore magic robes, a few in light armor, the heaviest being thin chain mail, suggesting they were primarily casters rather than warriors.
But regardless of the attire, the styles were closer to modern compared to the witch priests, some robe designs could even be seen in the magic robe shops in Thousand Tower City.
Seeing these scattered figures, one could see the destination of this journey.
The Great Witch Priest continued introducing Diao from various angles along the way, making Li Ang feel as if he were facing a parent selling their own child.
Though awkward, he also heard many mentions of the so-called "will of Ten Thousand Spirits."
Spirits themselves have no will; they are components parallel to matter and magic power that make up the world.
Only when spirits gather sufficiently, generating a certain tendency to form spirituality, and the material they inhabit starts changing towards this tendency, can they be imagined by people to have a will that might not truly exist.
When spirituality becomes complex enough, the material it inhabits develops consciousness, even wisdom, and can be said to have will.
"Ten Thousand Spirits," according to Li Ang’s earliest understanding, was merely a primitive religious thought. Later, when he came here, they seemed spoken of like souls with thoughts.
Later, he felt it was more like a concept, akin to "world consciousness," but not entirely equivalent.
During this visit to the Land of Ten Thousand Spirits, the clearer whispers seemed to corroborate this point.
Actually, this is reasonable; the world constructs itself from a triangle of matter, magic power, and spirits, with Ten Thousand Spirits being just one-third.
However, due to the complex nature needed for spirituality to possess wisdom and thinking capacity, if the world were to think, its decisions would certainly rely on spirits rather than the other two.
Thus, the Spiritual Manipulators are so special, perhaps Li Ang realized this subconsciously long ago, giving up thoughts on other professions to focus on witchcraft.
And the system brought me here to complete the inheritance...
Li Ang checked the system panel, the task line information had updated, with "Arrive at the Sanctuary of All Spirits" goal achieved, and the next step called "Follow the Steps of the Great Witch Priest."
This inheritance points to the profession called "Spiritual Forger," and just now, those voices also mentioned this term.
A Spiritual Forger, as the name implies, is one who forges spirits or uses spirits to forge something, capable of...
Li Ang snapped out of his thoughts under the gaze of the High Priest; they had already arrived, and the High Priest stood in the center of the field.
Surrounding the area of the field, seemingly carved from a whole giant stone with sides over a hundred meters long, were various facilities in the style of ancient witchcraft, such as stone pools holding unknown liquids and animal skins writing curse runes... Most importantly, there was a shelf made from a hollowed-out giant tree displaying ancient scrolls.
The ancient scrolls within the shelf housed the secret ancient witchcraft and the world’s most complete curse arts.
Similarly, the entire field had many sculptures.
They sat or stood, though with gray-white appearances, their expressions and movements were no different from the living, as if preserved here by time itself.
The Great Witch Priest had previously introduced to Li Ang, these sculptures were the earliest witchcraft casters.
The witch priests received their inheritance, learning how to survive in such a land through them.
However, the Ancient Witch Tribe was not alien; some witchcraft casters emerged from among them, otherwise, they couldn’t access the spirit power.
Behind the Great Witch Priest was a stone gate.
Li Ang’s last trial halted in front of it.
The elder pointed with his bone staff, beckoning Li Ang to come before the gate.
As he walked, he recalled the past events.
The earliest trials were simpler, progressing from shallow to deep, from learning curse runes and curse art to realizing some spiritual manipulation, and finally, a deeper dialogue with spirits.
Without these studies, he couldn’t have obtained the Secret Technique "Tumult of Ten Thousand Spirits."
This naming was also because it originated from the Sanctuary of All Spirits, but thinking on it now, the name of this Secret Technique is somewhat grandiose. Using magic power to interfere with the spirituality of an area, compared to the essence of the world involving Ten Thousand Spirits, is not of the same tier concept.