One-Eyed Monster

Protecting a secret is not an easy task. Secrets are always conspicuous; everyone who gets a whiff yearns to unearth them. The more desperately a secret is guarded, the more energetically these Excavators strive, because the harder something is to unearth, the more valuable it becomes.

The Yowein Continent was originally like a murky sphere, a vast, bewildering expanse. Within this haze, those who managed to discern patterns and uncover secrets naturally became the strong.

To secure their positions, these strong individuals devised every possible method to guard the patterns and secrets they had found. To protect these secrets, they stopped at nothing, employing intimidation, threats, temptation, and deception—resorting to any extreme.

However, the murkiness did not conceal only a single powerhouse; there were many. The struggles among them caused fractures to appear in the secrets already unearthed. Through these cracks, the weak saw shortcuts to power, while the strong saw opportunities to become even stronger.

Through these fissures, the once-murky world descended into even greater chaos. To acquire more of the continent's secrets, the powerhouses bit and snapped at each other like rabid dogs, fighting incessantly.

The Scholar profession emerged from such conditions. Born amidst this chaos and murkiness, Scholars, with their discerning eyes, offered a simpler path to the powerhouses engaged in life-and-death struggles.

Initially, Scholars merely recorded major events in their unique way, much like keeping a meticulous log, documenting every detail of what transpired.

Later, Scholars discovered that all events, to some extent, contained similar Symbols. These Symbols bore a striking resemblance to one another.

So, these Scholars excerpted these similar Symbols again, dedicating their days to studying them, often to the point of becoming lost in deep abstraction.

The Scholars' diligent research yielded its due reward: the secrets that powerhouses had intended to hide were revealed to all through these Symbols. These Symbols enabled the originally weak to instantly grasp the knack, transforming themselves into powerhouses by adhering to them.

Thus, the first group of powerhouses who acquired secrets without relying on inheritance emerged on the Yowein Continent.

This is how knowledge changes destiny. The Symbols, unintentionally brought to light by Scholars, allowed a group of restless, frail youths to find a way to defeat powerhouses. Gradually, shortcuts appeared on the path to uncovering secrets.

The advent of shortcuts flustered the established powerhouses. The things they had painstakingly concealed were stripped bare by these Scholars, quickly losing their mystique. Through rises and falls, grand expansions and contractions, power on the Yowein Continent shifted between the strong and the weak over many cycles of Reincarnation. Yet, one thing remained constant: these powerhouses always wanted to conceal the secrets they possessed.

By recording these Symbols, Scholars gradually learned an overwhelming number of secrets—so many that they became engrossed by them. This engrossment, in turn, made them slowly lose the impulse to use these secrets. For Scholars, discovering secrets was more exhilarating than using them. They felt that shortcuts, being their own creations, were not worth treading. The paths they yearned to explore were the unknown ones, realms yet undiscovered by others.

This sentiment fostered an innate arrogance and sense of superiority within Scholars. Thus, to this day, Scholars possess an inherent sense of superiority, often looking down on other professions.

Scholars continually forged ahead, discovering an increasing number of secrets. As they released more and more shortcuts into the world, the Yowein Continent once again plunged into chaos.

Too many powerhouses emerged, and senseless conflicts followed. These battles, however, failed to bring any order, as opposing forces were equally matched, with neither able to conquer the other. This contrasted sharply with previous eras when only a few powerhouses held secrets. Back then, powerhouses were rare, and one who knew a secret could always suppress other restless Excavators. This suppression lasted until another Excavator unearthed a different secret and replaced the existing powerhouse. Although the replacement of powerhouses often brought great disaster in those times, at least some semblance of order was maintained, preventing an all-out free-for-all with various rules and demands proliferating wildly.

Scholars excelled at discovering patterns and secrets. As the gap between the strong and the weak narrowed, Scholars observed the continent descending into extreme chaos, with evenly matched battles erupting everywhere. These conflicts brought even greater disasters upon the entire continent: greenery vanished, rivers ran dry, and the starved carcasses of animals littered the land…

This grim situation reminded Scholars that a shortcut, once known by too many, becomes a common road, and that the continent's order required even stronger powerhouses to maintain it.

Therefore, these stronger powerhouses needed to comprehend more numerous and profound secrets, and these secrets had to be known only to them…

However, Scholars had previously released far too many shortcuts—so many that even they could no longer clearly discern which ones could allow a person to ascend to power instantly and which ones might lead to a loss of drive…

But Scholars, after all, were Scholars. After several rounds of excerpting and organizing, they managed to thoroughly understand the intricate connections and developments of all the various shortcuts.

As the saying goes: the more one sees, the more one knows, and the closer one comes to danger.

Scholars discovered that many shortcuts would lead to disaster, so they had to find a way to conceal these dangers.

Once Scholars decided to hide these shortcuts, the shortcuts themselves were imbued with a new purpose. Those hidden by Scholars gained a new name: Seals.

The sealed secrets once again created distance and clear boundaries among powerhouses.

Powerhouses who discovered these Seals instantly stood out from the rest. Soon, they once again regained control of the chaotic world. After a new order was formed, these powerhouses felt that the Scholars' method of concealment was unreliable. Sealed secrets could still be tirelessly unearthed by persistent Excavators. Once unearthed, their own status as powerhouses could be challenged anew. For stability and prosperity, this world could not tolerate undisciplined individuals, and certainly not Excavators—all Excavators should go to Hell…

The powerhouses lamented this, yet they simultaneously continued to use every extreme measure to guard these sealed secrets. To them, the longer they could guard these secrets, the longer they could maintain order.

For the sake of long-lasting order, powerhouses spared no effort, racking their brains to protect the secrets they held.

And so, the powerhouses gave rise to another new profession. Compared to the Scholar profession, this one sounded far more imposing.

This profession was the Soul Guardian.

Every secret should be consigned to a grave; only thus could the existing order be preserved.

The appearance of Soul Guardians cast previously dormant places in a new light. After all, these Soul Guardians existed to protect the sealed secrets…