Secret: The undead do not die in the fire

In the waters of the Rorsted Archipelago, inside the captain's cabin of the 'Mirai'.

Cattleya opened her eyes from meditation, her purple eyes filled with deep worry and suspicion.

As a secret organization that acts in a very high profile, everyone knows that the people in the Aurora Society are all crazy. But this madness is not because of their nature, but because the path they take is the path of "secret prayer".

Any Beyonder on the path of the Secret Prayer will sense the existence of some mysterious and terrifying beings. Once they are promoted to the Sequence 8 Listener, they can directly hear the whispers from the True Creator and be further contaminated by them.

It is precisely because of the influence of "True Creation" that most of the extraordinary people on this path will have distorted cognitive perspectives and are prone to losing control.

Therefore, for the official extraordinary people, any extraordinary person from the "Secret Prayer" path is a potential criminal. They are treated completely differently from other wild extraordinary people - once they are discovered, they will definitely be captured by the official extraordinary people or even eliminated on the spot.

Compared with the extraordinary people of the 'Secret Prayer' path, the 'Secret Peer' path is better, but only 'some'.

Just like the extraordinary people on the path of ‘Secret Prayers’ can hear the whispers of ‘True Creation’, the extraordinary people on the path of ‘Secret Peers’ will also inevitably be affected by the high-sequence existence of the ‘Secret Peers’ path, the ‘Hidden Sage’.

The oldest existing secret organization, the Moss Ascetic Order, has mastered the path of "secret peepers".

Originally, the Moss Trappists believed in an impersonal deity, the 'Hidden Sage'.

This is described as a deity, but is closer to an idea, a natural law. For example, everything is a number, and the hidden sage is the embodiment of the number. For example, knowledge is supreme, and the hidden sage is knowledge itself. Therefore, the early Moss Ascetic Order was a very respected organization and had good relations with all major churches.

But one day, the god worshipped by the Moss Ascetic Order, the Hidden Sage, came to life!

He became a personified evil god!

From that day on, just like the 'True Creator' who liked to instill nonsense into his believers, the activated 'Hidden Sage' was also keen on instilling 'knowledge' into the extraordinary people of the 'Mysterious Peepers' path.

But for most extraordinary people, this "knowledge" is more like poison, a poison called pollution.

Emperor Roselle once said that it is not us who are chasing knowledge, but knowledge that is chasing us. The Hidden Sage is knowledge itself. He is chasing us, chasing every member of the Moss Ascetic Order. When a lot of knowledge is poured in, but it is impossible to digest and master it quickly, there are only two situations: either let go of the mental defense line and accept the transformation of the Hidden Sage, or support it with perseverance. If you can't hold on, you will lose control.

As long as they are Beyonders of the Mystery Peer path, no one can escape the dilemma of being chased by knowledge. No matter if they are Sequence 9 Mystery Peer or Sequence 5 Astrologer, no Beyonder of the Mystery Peer path can avoid the fate of being chased by knowledge.

Even Cattleya, who had been promoted to Sequence 4 Mystic and was already a demigod, was not immune to this.

She was once tortured by the pursuit of knowledge by the Hidden Sage and was almost out of control. It was Mr. Fool who saved her.

Now that she has become a demigod, she has been able to initially resist the knowledge imparted by the 'Hidden Sage'. This resistance does not mean that she simply rejects the knowledge. Even though she has become a demigod, it is difficult for her to reject the 'gift' of a god. Instead, it means that she has been able to initially 'accommodate' and 'understand' this knowledge, so that this knowledge no longer becomes 'poison'.

As long as she doesn't actively ask the Hidden Sage for knowledge, the knowledge that is passively pursued will not have much impact on her.

But no matter what, the pursuit of knowledge will never stop. Only when she goes above the gray fog will these "knowledge" temporarily stop chasing her because of the obstruction of Mr. Fool's kingdom of God.

But now, the situation has suddenly changed.

Because since last week, Cattleya could no longer sense the pursuit of knowledge.

The 'Hidden Sage' who was keen on imparting knowledge to all 'Mystery Peeps' and Extraordinary People suddenly stopped imparting knowledge to them, as if he had suddenly disappeared without a trace in an instant.

Cattleya didn't understand what this change meant, and she wasn't even sure if it was a good thing.

Although the Hidden Sage stopped instilling knowledge into her, it could protect her from the risk of losing control and she no longer had to spend a lot of energy every day to digest the knowledge as before, lest the accumulation of 'knowledge' would become a poison that would make her lose control.

But Cattleya always had a bad feeling. To her, this was more like the calm before the storm. The temporary disappearance of the Hidden Sage did not necessarily mean liberation, but more likely a precursor to destruction!

As an 'animated' god, the essence of the 'Hidden Sage' was influenced by the original 'Moss Ascetic Order', which means that knowledge is passed on to people. As long as the 'Hidden Sage' is alive, he will not stop instilling knowledge into the extraordinary people of the 'Peeping Secrets' path.

As for the situation like now, the Hidden Sage suddenly disappeared and no longer pursued the Mysterious Peepers. There were only two possibilities:
Either the Hidden Sage has fallen, so He can no longer chase others.

But a god cannot fall silently. When he falls, his power will be poured out to the whole world without reservation, and everyone will feel it, especially the extraordinary people on the same path.

But Cattleya didn't have a similar feeling, so the only possibility was the second one -

The 'Hidden Sage' is trying to reach a higher level, so He temporarily stops chasing others!
Cattleya knew very well that the Hidden Sage was not a true god. He was closer to the unique Angel King, such as Adam and Amon. If he wanted to reach a higher level, he would have to take the throne of the true God!

"The Hidden Sage is about to be promoted to Sequence 0!"

A crazy idea popped up in Cattleya's mind, and fear surged into her heart uncontrollably.

The Hidden Sage of the Angel King alone almost made her lose control. What if He became a true God of Sequence 0? Moreover, the Hidden Sage had existed for thousands of years, and there had been no signs of His promotion in the past thousands of years. Why did He choose to be promoted now?

what does this mean?
Cattleya didn't dare to think about it any further. She immediately recited the name of The Fool and told that great being her guess.
-
Above the gray fog, Klein was somewhat surprised as he listened to the prayer of the Hermit:
"The Hidden Sage wants to become a god?"

He was absolutely certain that the 'Hidden Sage' was not a true God!

Because more than a hundred years ago, Emperor Roselle took the Path of the Perfector, but because the top Path of the Perfector, Sequence 0, had been occupied by the God of Steam and Machinery, he had to switch to the adjacent path, the Hermit Path, and was promoted to Sequence 1, the Emperor of Knowledge.

But because Roselle was not sure about hunting the Hidden Sage, and because he was contaminated when he went to the moon, he had to take the risk and choose to switch to the Black Emperor path. So at that time, Roselle had one Sequence 1 'Knowledge Emperor' extraordinary characteristic, three Sequence 1 'Prince of Order Killing' extraordinary characteristics, and the uniqueness of the 'Black Emperor' path.

And because Emperor Roselle eventually fell in the White Maple Palace, these extraordinary characteristics will most likely end up in the hands of the Steam Church and the Eternal Sun Church - in theory.

Any adjacent pathways are beneficial to mid- and low-sequence Beyonders because they can switch freely between adjacent pathways.

But for those beings at the vertices of adjacent paths, there is only one kind of relationship between them, and that is a fight to the death!
This is the case with the Goddess of Night and the God of War, as well as the Lord of Storms, the Eternal Sun, the God of Knowledge and Wisdom, Adam, and True Creation. So there is no doubt that the 'Lord of Steam' and the 'Hidden Sage', who are adjacent to each other, will not be an exception.

Well, if the Sequence 1 'Knowledge Emperor''s Beyonder Characteristics were in the hands of the Steam Church, then the 'Lord of Steam' would definitely not give this Beyonder Characteristics to the 'Hidden Sage', as this would be a blatant act of aiding the enemy.

The Hidden Sage, who has not yet become a god, has already caused the Lord of Steam a lot of trouble. What will happen if the Hidden Sage becomes a true God of Sequence 0?

Therefore, before this, the Hidden Sage would at most be an Angel King with uniqueness and two copies of the 'Knowledge Emperor' Extraordinary Characteristics. As long as He cannot obtain the last copy of the 'Knowledge Emperor' Extraordinary Characteristics, He is doomed to never become a God!

And if the last copy of the 'Knowledge Emperor' extraordinary characteristic is in the hands of the Steam Church, the Lord of Steam will try to accommodate this last extraordinary characteristic even at the risk of losing control, rather than giving it to the Hidden Sage.

Even if the Lord of Steam holds the idea of ​​"playing the long game" and places the "Knowledge Emperor" extraordinary characteristic in the Steam Church to lure the "Hidden Sage" to snatch it, this will inevitably cause a huge commotion, and it is impossible that there will be no reaction at all.

But the problem is, since the Hidden Sage is preparing to become a god, it means that He must have obtained the last extraordinary characteristic of the Knowledge Emperor.

So where did His extraordinary characteristics come from?

After unravelling all the information, Klein quickly found the answer -

"The Twilight Hermits, Adam!"

Klein took a deep breath. He should have thought of this earlier.

After Roselle's death, his extraordinary characteristics should theoretically be obtained by the Church of the Eternal Sun and the Church of Steam. After all, the one who is close to the water gets the moon first.

But the case of George III shows that this is not the case.

The three copies of the "Prince of Order" extraordinary characteristics and the uniqueness of the "Black Emperor" obtained by "George III" were obviously provided by the Twilight Hermits, by Adam. This is enough to show that the Twilight Hermits also had a hand in Roselle's fall. At least they took Roselle's extraordinary characteristics at the last minute.

And since even the uniqueness of the Black Emperor's path is in the hands of the Dusk Hermits, the Beyonder characteristics of the 'Knowledge Emperor' are naturally no exception.

This also explains where the Hidden Sage got the last Sequence 1 Beyonder characteristic—it was given by Adam.

Since Adam has started to act again, it means that He has now become a god. Only by becoming a true God of Sequence 0 can He start a new round of planning without any worries.

And the 'Hidden Sage' may be the key to his new round of planning.

As the incarnation of "Yuan Tai", Adam is not isolated among the gods, but at least he is a lonely man.

Needless to say, the Eternal Blazing Sun, the Lord of Storms, and the God of Knowledge and Wisdom have a life-and-death relationship with Adam. The relationship between the Goddess of Night and the Mother Goddess of Earth and Adam is far from harmonious. Even the God of War, even though He started the war with the help of Adam, can only be regarded as mutual use at best, not a firm ally.

Even 'Zhenzao', who is also the incarnation of 'Yuanta', is not friendly to Adam - their fusion is inevitable, but neither side will give up the dominance after the fusion, and 'Zhenzao' has the support of Yujin, so Adam's chances of winning are slim.

So even though Adam had become a god, he was not in a hurry to find the 'true creation' to merge with, but was trying to cultivate allies of his own.

And there is no doubt that the 'Hidden Sage' is the most suitable candidate.

Firstly, the Hidden Sage was only one step away from reaching Sequence 0, and Adam could definitely help him get there.

Secondly, the 'Hidden Sage' is also a solitary person, and the alliance between them will be very close.

Of course, it is also possible that all this was Adam's plan.

His purpose of training the Hidden Sage may be to allow Amon to replace him in the Hidden Sage's deification ceremony.

But no matter what, the purpose of cultivating allies remains unchanged.

Although Klein felt that whether Amon was more reliable than the Hidden Sage was highly debatable, Adam clearly had his own plans.

And if it was the latter, then Klein would have to make plans early.

After all, if Amon became a god before him, the other party would most likely come to seize Sefirah Castle.

Although there are embers in Sefirah Castle, it is absolutely safe.

But Adam would have anticipated this and led the embers away in advance. This was not difficult, after all, Adam also had the "First Fire".

By then, Klein could only rely on his own strength to defend Sefirah Castle.

Therefore, it was necessary to advance to Sequence 0 before Amon.

"The perfection of Utopia is almost complete, and I will be able to advance to Sequence 1 soon."

"Next, we just need to wait for the completion of the Record of the Holy Words. With the cooperation of a certain Orthodox Church, the Sequence 0 ritual will not be a problem."

“In contrast, whether it is the Hidden Sage who wants to become a god or Amon who wants to become a god, the prerequisite is that the Hidden Sage must first prepare for His godhood ceremony. But from the current situation, the Hidden Sage should still be digesting the Knowledge Emperor’s extraordinary characteristics.”

"Even if Adam and Amon are helping to prepare for the ceremony, it will take a long time."

"So, at least for now, there is still plenty of time."