Only God

Priest George spoke softly,

"There, far from here, away from this center of hatred, I know, in that place, the heathen Scripture Institute is allowed to exist, where True Believers have a harmonious relationship with those heathens when they do not discuss faith."

Eden slowly recovered, his heart clenched tightly, and after a while, he said in gratitude,

"Thank you, Priest George."

"It's getting late, will you stay here, or..."

"I think I'll head to the inn."

"Very well, may you be blessed."

"And may you also be blessed."

Saying this, the two stood up, and Priest George led Eden out of the church through a side door, watching lastly as Eden departed.

Eden walked toward the direction of the inn, occasionally looking back at the church that was becoming increasingly distant. Speaking of which, he hadn't even visited the main hall of the church all day.

But there was no need to see it now; perhaps it was no different from his own era.

Eden took a deep breath, frowning at the streets around him.

Not heathens slaughtering True Believers, then True Believers slaughtering heathens...

He wondered, how exactly could he change this future?

"...The utility of fear."

Eden murmured to himself.

Naturally, he thought of fear and the power that fear brought to people.

..........

Eden stroked the tooth of an Oronix Dragon.

He had rented a room in a local inn and was contemplating what to do next.

The city had banned all heathen books, and the few remaining heathens here suffered discrimination and persecution. It was quite difficult for him to find other Pagan Scriptures here.

"I can't just sit idly; maybe I should go to another heathen city?"

According to his previous two experiences, each time he stayed in the future had extended; the first time was less than half a day, the second was about seven days, and this time, it was certainly no shorter than seven days, but it should not be as long as a month.

This period was enough for him to travel to other heathen cities or towns, which, according to Priest George, were not far from here.

"However, since I've managed to acquire the most challenging Oronix Dragon tooth, perhaps it's time for an Ascension Ceremony."

Eden tossed the Oronix Dragon tooth in his hand.

Although he still didn't know the Ancient Language of the Third Rank Holy Chorus, with so many Oronix Dragon teeth, he could attempt an Ascension Ceremony, gathering experience for later ascensions back home.

After all, success was a win, and failure wasn't a loss; from what he knew, the Ascension Ceremony from Second to Third Rank, even if failed, had minor side effects.

Eden took out a carving knife, drew a ritual circle on the floor, and then handled all the Ascension materials according to the ritual's requirements. He ground the Oronix Dragon teeth into powder, mixed them with clovers from near the church, placed a robin's feathers around the ritual circle.

Since he didn't have seawater from the regions where Unihorns lived, Eden substituted it with consecrated clean water, pouring it into the mixture of teeth powder and clovers to concoct a potion, then standing at the center of the ritual circle, he swallowed it and entered the Spiritual Cultivation State.

Eden knew that this Ascension Ceremony was quite rudimentary, and its probability of success was very low, so he didn't hold much hope—just trying it out.

His soul seemed to slowly detach from his body, the ritual circle beneath his feet began to emit bursts of light, his limbs growing sluggish and numb, as if they no longer belonged to him—the manifestation of his soul leaving his flesh.

His consciousness slowly ascended, following the winds of the Spirit Realm, entering somewhere. For some reason, Eden suddenly felt that the Spirit Realm's winds were much more turbulent than before.

Slowly, he entered a kind of ethereal state, his mind gradually becoming blank, nothing left. When Eden opened his eyes, he was surrounded by vast starry skies, endless twinkling stars, their radiance different from before—twisted, rotating, interweaving, and lifelessly still.

Eden looked up at the starry sky and realized that although the stars were brightly colored, the further their light shone, the more it faded into a sinister pale shade.

He had never seen such a phenomenon in his many visits to the Celestial Kingdom.

The pale color sent a slight shiver down his spine, as if it triggered the primal fear of life itself.

As his soul continued to ascend, once Eden had stabilized himself somewhere, he immediately looked around.

Then, he was stunned by the scene before him.

"This place is..."

Logically, he should have arrived at the Sea of Souls where the fairies congregated.

It was supposed to be a boundless Cloud Sea floating in the Celestial Kingdom, heralded as a place most similar to Heaven...

The clouds beneath his feet were shattered, not contiguous but ragged like sparse deserted islands in the sea, a bizarre stench that didn't belong wafted through the air, half-collapsed fairy structures surrounded him, stones and debris littered across, burnt ashes floated around, as if the place had undergone a destructive purging, tiny ink spots drifted in the mid-air, which on closer inspection, appeared to be the remnants of fairy corpses.

Eden was stunned by the scene before him.

His hands trembled, overwhelmed with horror, he could clearly see the scenery of the Sea of Souls, whereas in the distant past, every time he had entered the Sea of Souls, all he saw was extremely blurred.

"What... happened here?"

Eden asked with a trembling voice.

He lifted his foot, attempting to move forward across the Sea of Souls.

The shattered Sea of Souls, a scene like destruction had descended, all these gave Eden a profound shock, waves of information flooded his mind, yet he couldn't find the answers to his questions, he could only keep moving forward.

Everywhere was in ruins.

The architectures were bizarrely shaped, the clouds under his feet disjointed, Eden drifted forward through this space, like a scholar excavating ancient tombs, scrutinizing the horrifying scenes.

All objects were in disarray and floating, countless things lost in the vast cosmos, the closer he walked towards the deeper areas, the more intense the rotten smell piercing into his soul, within which a repulsive rainwater fishy smell permeated.

Eden continued moving forward, his fear mounting.

"What on earth happened here..."

His murmurs floated in the vast expanse of stars, unanswered by anyone.

Eden looked up and saw a large, half-collapsed building in the center.

"Is that... the Great Library of the fairies?"

Eden had heard some fantastic tales—within the Sea of Souls, the fairies had a Great Library that amassed an immense majority of worldly knowledge, whether in astronomy, geography, or humanities and ethics, including unimaginable secrets, one of the places where the Fairy Queen often frequented.

He quickened his pace towards the Great Library.

When Eden reached the Great Library, looking around again, he realized that it was the most intact structure in the entire Sea of Souls.

The dark door reflected a black imprint, Eden looked closely—his shadow was not what he saw but rather remnants of a fairy, like ashes glued there after being burnt by a fierce flame, eerie and terrifying.

Eden pushed open the door, its creaking sound, like wood breaking, walking inside, the Great Library exuded an eerie silence, a silence not absolute, as if in the profound darkness, heaps of worms were nibbling and pecking at rotting corpses.

Countless books floated in mid-air.

Eden was desperate to understand what had happened here.

He hurriedly moved deeper into the library.

In the darkness, right behind where he had just passed,

a pair of eerie blue eyes watched the direction he was leaving.