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Hundreds of judges, wielding golden chains, surrounded the emperor's palace, intent on bringing the web of fate down to dust.

——!

Just as Dongya was about to break free from the spell, she suddenly saw the Supreme Master standing beside Catherine in the Emperor's palace.

Merlin's voice drifted softly into my ears from the distant palace.

"Bahram, you escaped last time, and you want to run again this time?"

Chapter 540 I Must Rise

The moment Merlin's voice reached her ears, Dongya plummeted from mid-air, and the web of fate spanning thousands of miles of sky trembled violently.

A series of violent tremors resounded in the air, instantly dispersing gray-white air currents. The dense clouds in the sky were all scattered and disappeared, and even the mountain peaks were smoothly cut open.

The entire sky was filled with a grayish-white mist, except for the direction of Westerburg in the east, where a sun was setting. Seven rays of sunlight enveloped it.

And within the sun, Furnessa Bonaparte, or rather Eleanor Mohn, is slowly sinking.

Then, six pale arms emerged from the web, like the divine hands of fate plucking the strings of a harp, pulling at the golden chains that bound the web of fate.

It's simple: just pull hard and stretch.

At the other end of the hundreds of golden chains, the judges in the Emperor's Palace of Eternal Night Castle suddenly changed their expressions, being pulled forward by Dongya's Hand of Fate, and cracks spread densely across the chains.

But this is actually of no use.

As long as Merlin is there, she will have no chance of crossing the Eternal Night Fortress to attack the Ansu people's fiefdom anytime soon!

"Windstone! Merlin! You must stop me?! If this continues, the entire Nighthold will be destroyed by your hand!"

“Bahram, you’re always so stubborn—I don’t need to defeat you at all. The fact that you’re so anxious as the sun rises over Ansu means you’re going to lose, doesn’t it? All I need to do is stall you here for a few minutes.”

Merlin said calmly, “Besides, you are a smart man, a prophet, and a fanatic—all saints are fanatics. So I know one thing very well: you will not admit defeat, and therefore you will never destroy this place to deliberately provoke me.”

“Bahram! This is your weakness. My voice will surely penetrate you, persecute you, destroy you, shatter your soul and body, and prevent you from advancing here.”

Each syllable fell without the slightest hint of mockery or arrogance, simply uttered in a calm and even manner.

The web of fate, already being pulled downwards by the judges' golden chains, suddenly plummeted hundreds of meters. As Merlin's voice fell, the six pale hands of fate cracked and nearly shattered.

A crunching sound came from Dongya's mouth, and before she knew it, a drop of colorless, odorless blood, as pure as water, appeared at the corner of her mouth.

This blood had no characteristics that could be called "blood." The moment it dripped into the air, it transformed into spirituality and vanished without a trace.

Dongya's attention was not on her injuries at all. She watched the sun rise in the east, while the six Hands of Fate were still struggling to break free from the Inquisitor and Merlin's hold.

But no matter how hard they tried, it was all in vain.

Because of the spirit riots that attacked the frontier outposts, the Empire sent a large number of Inquisition Judges to Nighthold in order to open up the northern frontier.

Merlin's power had recovered even better than she had imagined! Much of the curse on his body had been repaired, allowing him to easily keep her outside the Empire's borders!

As for Westerburg in the East—

Like the afterglow of the setting sun, the seven-crowned sun is slowly sinking into the earth, breaking through the barrier between the deep sea and the material world, and entering the deep sea.

Dongya's urgent sense of urgency exploded instantly.

What followed was a long-awaited peace.

.............

.............

The deep sea, above the Sanctuary of Wisdom.

The threads of fate descended from the material world, landing in a corner of the deep sea, right before Tia's eyes.

Dongya took a deep breath to calm herself and looked at Tia Surf in front of her.

Looking at the Palace of Wisdom not far below, Tia asked curiously, "Why didn't you put the nightmare directly into the Palace of Wisdom? Maybe it could have trapped me for a while."

Dongya paused for a moment, then said, "The Nightmare Collapse and Decomposition will affect the stability of the Sanctuary. I also need to use the Wisdom Palace to activate the Warp Slingshot Ritual."

"But now that I think about it, I didn't lose when I trapped you in a nightmare, but the moment you arrived at the Great Icefield."

Tia shook her head and said, "Neither, Bahram—from the day Avina left Newport, the day I embarked on the path of the extraordinary, you lost."

Dongya remained silent.

Fate is so unpredictable. Even the great prophet who controlled fate was tricked into losing everything by simply owing wages to an outsourced worker.

As Tia watched the sun set in the deep sea, she knew that Eleanor was already deep-sea diving, and that she was probably being protected by someone like Ms. Bernice, otherwise the spiritual fluctuations wouldn't be so strong.

This means that Dongya's plan has completely failed.

But this great prophet showed no hysteria or fell into aimless killing.

Dongya calmly asked, "What exactly do you intend to do with the Sanctuary?"

"Transformation Ritual - I want to put this ritual in the sanctuary to modify the transcendental standards for humans or spirits, so that all transcendents can complete the transformation ritual between spirit and human through the sanctuary."

"...That's incredibly audacious. I understand now. I'm going to commit suicide next."

Tia was somewhat surprised, "Suicide?"

Dongya smiled and said, "If I were still alive, would either you or the Empire feel at ease knowing that the Palace of Wisdom could continue to exist?"

"I'm too lazy to lie to you. There are still many good sparks in the Palace of Wisdom, which I deliberately left behind. The knowledge of creating destiny star charts in the Palace of Wisdom is in them. The history of my projecting destiny star charts is now being witnessed by the deep sea. Perhaps it will be decades, or hundreds, or even thousands of years, before someone comes along who will be able to glimpse my nightmare, witness this history, and then embark on the path of the prophet once again."

"My death will surely contribute to the formation of the Destiny Chart, while if I choose to live on and submit to fate, the Destiny Chart may go completely bankrupt."

That's true.

A Sequence 2 demonic prophet severely injured Merlin and attempted to change the world. If he were still alive, the Empire would definitely spare no effort to launch a direct war against the Celestials.

Not only the Empire, but also Iris, Ansu, and the Seven Seas will take advantage of the situation.

When Dongya died at the hands of the various kingdoms.

Saints from all over the world will join forces to seal off all information about Dongya and the Star Chart of Destiny to prevent a repeat of the same mistakes, just as the saints created the Ascension Ceremony eight hundred years ago to prevent the downfall of the empire.

In this situation, only one of Dongya's or Destiny Star Chart's careers can be preserved.

Dongya sat in the chair and explained, “I am the core of the Destiny Star Chart projection ritual. Once I die, the current Destiny Star Chart will no longer be able to be projected into the deep sea, and will only exist as a transcendent object in the material world. Avina’s problem will be solved. As for the future—the future is their business. If they also become enemies with you, an otherworldly being, I can only wish them good luck.”

Tia smiled and said, "Aren't you afraid I'll kill them all first?"

“No—you won’t, Sulph. Just as I won’t kill Elvira to anger you, you won’t kill those young people either.”

“I understand you don’t dare kill Vera. After all, if you actually did, I would escalate my hatred from you alone to the entirety of your destiny chart enterprise. You don’t dare gamble.”

"So, how dare you be so confident in making this bet that I will never eliminate you beforehand?"

Dongya let out a long sigh of relief, her mind settling into a state of extreme calm. In an almost relaxed and resigned tone, she spoke slowly and deliberately:

"For you are a saint of progress. You are a saint of ascension. You will ascend, and you must ascend."

Chapter 541 The Name of Tia Sulph

There is no light in the deep sea.

Only at the diving depths, hundreds of meters above sea level, when the gaze breaks through the barrier between the deep sea and the material world, can one glimpse the light of the material world.

This is why most deep-sea spirits are accustomed to environments without light.

But at this moment, the deep ocean was torn open, and a radiant sun was slowly sinking as Eleanor descended.

They descended from 10,000 meters to 70,000 meters, finally arriving at the upside-down temple.

The Hanged Man in the Temple now has four clear faces: a man on the front, an eagle on the back, a lion on the left, and a camel and a bull on the right.

As Eleanor descended, filling the seven books one by one, the living creatures on all four sides became faintly visible, and the Hanged Man took on the appearance of Tia.

After Dongya chose to end her life, she left not even a trace of her soul behind, letting the chaotic deep sea and fate play tricks on her, drifting away to eternal silence.

After witnessing the death of the great prophet, Tia gradually sank back into the upside-down temple, feeling somewhat emotional.

It can only be said that those who can ascend to sainthood may lack morality, but they will definitely not lack intelligence.

Unless something like Avina happens again, she really won't do anything to Tonya's successors.

If it weren't for Avina, Tia might not have interfered much with Dongya's actions on the Great Ice Plains.

Simply because she was a philosopher of the sublimation school, a saint of progress and ascension.

The very act of hindering those who seek the Way is contrary to her beliefs and thoughts, and she would not voluntarily do such a thing.

So if the Wisdom Palace hadn't been so corrupt back then, with layers of outsourcing and embezzlement of Ivy's money—a matter that now seems trivial—Dongya wouldn't have clashed with Tia on the Great Ice Plains.

It was precisely her confrontation with Tia that led to the forced interruption of the Empire's attempt to annex the North, resulting in Merlin being seriously injured and most of the hundreds of Inquisitors being lost.

In the end, Dongya chose to end her own life to continue the grand plan of the Destiny Star Chart, which made it impossible for the Empire to gain the support of the nations in its annexation of Tianfang, which had lost its northern and eastern parts.

This created a peculiar balance among the nations. Since their strengths were roughly equal, none of them wanted anyone to suddenly become stronger and unify the continent. As a result, minor conflicts occurred frequently, but major conflicts were avoided.

And this is precisely the characteristic of the alchemy of the sacred number 7.

The year of balance, which the prophets feared, arrived, propelled by the prophets themselves.

The events are intricately linked yet unpredictable, like an absurd joke.

Time comes and the world has the same force, and it is not free to transport heroes.

Tia understood somewhat why this great prophet was so determined to project the star map of destiny into the layer of truth.

However, there is no longer any time to mourn Dongya. After the secret text was embedded in the temple, the temple began to rise.

Rumble!

Rumble!

The spirits surrounding the temple were all trembling with excitement. They trembled because they saw the Hermesian aura emanating from the temple, and they were excited because the temple was rising.

The crimson doe cried out joyfully a few times, and took the lead in hanging the four shimmering white ropes of the temple around its neck, pulling the temple ever upward, ever upward.

The seven secret manuals correspond to an ascent of 70,000 meters.

Deep sea 73000m, 63000m, 53000m...

Finally, it reached 20,000 meters, then 10,000 meters, and rose all the way to 3,000 meters. Although it was still impossible to build the Sanctuary into a chain of jewel islands like Ms. Vona had done, it was already possible to influence the material world very easily.

This is how it appears from the deep sea.

But if we compare the sea to a mirror, what is upward is downward, what is upside down is upright, what is a witch is holy, and what is like a demon is angel.

They are complementary, and their front and back are interchangeable.

Above the Great Icefield, Nighthold, Westerburg, the outposts, and the numerous barbarian camps in the tundra were all clearly visible.

A blazing sun shone brightly over the icy plains, while a colossal red deer, capable of shattering mountains, led the way, descending like a chariot, radiating light.

At the very center of the sun, there was a structure that seemed to come from heaven, and a figure was inside it, with various colors of light emanating from all four sides.

This is not a projection, but merely a public mystical illusion that appears as the inverted temple rapidly rises tens of thousands of meters, under the spiritual blessing of Tia.

The purpose was to announce his arrival and Dongya's defeat.

The first to discover the temple rapidly approaching the surface of the deep sea were the prophets of the Arctic region of the Great Icefield.

The prophets are besieging Vera, but several high-ranking prophets of Sequence 3 and Sequence 4 have discovered the death of Dongya and quickly split into two factions.

One faction of prophets insisted on continuing to reclaim the Star Chart of Destiny, but soon the Eye Demon Undying Lord and the multi-headed serpent Palam began attacking the Taurus and Capricorn camps, leaving them preoccupied with their own problems.

The other group of prophets decided to abandon the star chart and prepare to retreat westward from the western coast of the Great Icefield.

Although opinions differ, neither side is interested in Vera, this prickly character, so Vera is safe.

As the Upside-Down Temple rose, Vera quickly established a connection with it using her limited Holy Blood. Tia then used a transformation ritual to spiritualize Vera and pulled her into the temple to recuperate her soul.

On the other side...

The judges in the Eternal Night Fortress looked up, but before they could see for long, doctors and priests arrived. After providing basic first aid, they carried the injured judges, who had fallen unconscious from the excessive curse, to the hospital.

On the contrary, because it was too bright outside, the noise of the superhumans fighting outside subsided, and the citizens curiously opened the windows on the second floor of their houses, and in an instant, the light pierced their eyes.

Before I could even see what was glowing in the sky, tears started streaming down my face.

Like a miracle—

In the Westerburg Valley, Anne finally breathed a sigh of relief. After contacting Vera a few more times and confirming that Vera was safe, she arranged a deep-sea diving ceremony and headed to the deep sea to meet Tia.

After escorting Eleanor to the deep sea, Bernice surfaced back into the material world, her expression slightly complicated.