When the plot-skips players into the game world

As the garbled text in front of Aiwass gradually dissipated, the constantly flickering entry finally calmed down and settled back:

[Amber Mother (Gold): Amber once perished in the Dream of Yore and was born in the Future.]

That "Future" flickered a few more times, changed to "Present," and finally became "Near Future."

And Aiwass clearly felt a vibrant pulse coming from his right eye—just like a vein throbbing, his eyeball violently twitched, akin to the feeling of overusing an eye.

He couldn't help but cover his right eye.

And at the instant his right eye shut, the stagnant world resumed its course.

In a flash, Adil turned into flying ashes and vanished.

Along with the falling rain of fire in the sky, the ignited houses, the enormous dark red fireball resembling a second sun, and the whirlwinds of flame around it all disappeared in an instant.

As if a divine miracle had descended... the cloudless sky turned to a clear azure blue again.

At that moment, Aiwass felt his right eye no longer aching and no longer twitching peculiarly.

He turned back to gaze at the stained-glass wall on the outer layer of the Holy Temple, slowly moving his hand away from his right eye.

Aiwass's left eye remained as blue as usual—this was the color of his eyes when Aiwass had not activated Path resonance. But his right eye had turned into a dull yellow without a pupil, like a bright piece of amber shining under sunlight, exuding a golden radiance.

—This is the true form of the Amber Egg.

Aiwass had a realization in his heart, a time emerged in his mind... as if someone near death could sense their time of death. He could clearly sense the time of "ending."

Only fifteen days.

Half a month...

Today is June 24th.

This means that by July 7th, Amber will hatch from Aiwass's pupil.

This brought some new thoughts to Aiwass.

The reason he came to the Parthian Ancient Country this time, besides accepting an invitation from the Benevolent Lords of Holy Spring City, was also because he needed to capture an Earth Attribute Great Beast. This was also his final Great Sin Beast—as long as Aiwass captured this Great Beast and used a Celestial Marshal Shard to break through, he could obtain his own second-tier career.

Even though he was aware of the price the Serpent Celestial Marshal had paid and the suffering he had endured, this did not mean Aiwass would present his neck for the slaughter.

To drag the Serpent Celestial Marshal down using the second Ring of Ouroboros ritual, Aiwass must gain sufficient power—the best path for a power surge is through attaining a third-tier career post-second career transition.

It might not even require ascending to the Seventh Power Level—primarily depending on how quickly Aiwass can gather six Celestial Marshal Shards. The delay wasn't entirely due to not maxing out his level... Aiwass could use free experience to maximize his level directly. The reason he didn't do this was that he wanted to be a bit greedy.

—Achieve a third-tier career from the Sixth Power Level!

In theory, this is entirely feasible.

The classic balanced third-tier career of the Path of Devotion, "Lion of Sakyamuni," is at level fifty, equivalent to the Sixth Power Level career transition... In fact, most careers start transitioning from the Sixth Power Level. However, since the release of the Master of Beasts career was relatively late in the version, the required level was higher—this was a conspiracy to lure players into purchasing direct-level-up scrolls.

Training directly to level sixty is too long; with the version level capped at seventy, the direct-level-up scroll could directly ascend to sixty, just enough to transition to Master of Beasts.

Currently, Aiwass's desired career transition is no longer the Master of Beasts originally provided by the Serpent Celestial Marshal on the historical track, but a new career unique to Aiwass himself, centered around Lucifer's Wings.

Aiwass has obtained the powers of the Fallen Celestial Marshal and the Blood Celestial Marshal, and the Flame Celestial Marshal required for the Defiant Flame Butterfly has also descended.

And due to Adil's demise...

Although Aiwass did not stand on the side of the Red Hand Gang, this conflict inadvertently fulfilled a condition—it would cause the Silver-Crowned Dragon to fall to the earth as a result.

—Is there any Celestial Marshal Shard stronger than the Crown Lord?

Not to mention, the Crown Lord and the Wild Hunt Helquinn are both Knights battling the Giants, and Arthur once engaged in dragon-slaying, and he is a Dragon himself; Helquinn's wife is a bona fide Dragon, so their compatibility should be quite good.

In this manner, what Aiwass actually lacked was only the Light Attribute and Earth Attribute Celestial Marshal Shards, along with an Earth Attribute Great Beast itself.

Although this strategy is greedy, it's more stable.

It is now the end of June, and the Serpent Celestial Marshal will devour Aiwass on August 8th.

Aiwass only has two months left to prepare—considering the promotion rituals can only occur mid-month or at the end of the month, Aiwass must complete two promotions of two Paths during the next three promotion rituals, which is essentially impossible. Furthermore, the pressure is too great; not even one mistake can happen, and there must be once-promoted two careers.

But could he first promote one of them? That's also not doable... because Aiwass isn't sure if the Dwarves can handle the Flame Celestial Marshal by themselves. If not, he would have to go save the day... So Aiwass's path balance becomes very important.

If he promotes the Path of Transcendence prematurely, leading to Path imbalance, most of his Mana would be sealed due to this imbalance. Thus, he must wait until after the Flame Celestial Marshal is defeated to perform the promotion ritual—after that, how the Celestial Marshals fall doesn't matter.

Based on this line of thinking, Aiwass's strategy is to... try to promote once and gain at least one third transition career.

If possible, he'd like to attempt a vacancy ritual.

The previous joint promotion with Aleister gave Aiwass a taste of the benefits. He can take up two positions alone and perform the vacancy ritual, which would allow two paths to promote simultaneously with one success. If not, he can use the last two promotion rituals to promote himself evenly to the Sixth Power Level of Path balance... This requires that Aiwass must deal with the Flame Celestial Marshal by July 15th.

Another requirement is that he must complete the first Ring of Ouroboros ritual before August 8th—though this isn't difficult. As the Serpent Father is about to complete the Transcendence of Amber's achievement, people will become increasingly restless and frenzied. As long as someone successfully summons a Celestial Marshal, others will naturally follow...

Aiwass just hopes those who summon the Celestial Marshals can handle them on their own, so he doesn't have to intervene in every scenario.

Aside from the three Celestial Marshals that have descended, plus the Silver-Crowned Dragon and Abyssal Celestial Envoy, only the Celestial Marshals of Beauty, Wisdom, Balance, and Adaptation of the four paths remain. Fortunately, candidates are almost all confirmed—

And if by August they haven't successfully descended, then Aiwass... will have to personally conduct the Ring of Ouroboros ritual.