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Rashina had no time to care about the elderly woman, because the moment the light from the temple in the sun fell, all the extraordinary beings who had reached Sequence Seven, regardless of nationality, age, gender, or status, received a piece of knowledge.

— Transformation Ritual.

To be precise, it is the "universal conversion ritual" based on the Hanging Temple, rather than the "conversion ritual of the Sulph school".

If one can dive to a depth of 3,000 meters in the deep sea and voluntarily be influenced by the Upside-Down Temple, complete a ritual, and pay for the Temple's knowledge, memories, or spirituality, one can complete the two-way transformation between human and spiritual beings under the protection of the Temple's power.

As the transformation rituals spread among the extraordinary, the Upside-Down Temple could use them as an anchor point to continue rising.

In the end, even those at Sequence Nine will be able to undergo the conversion ceremony under the protection of the temple.

And this is the path that Tia has taken, leading to Sequence One.

Final chapter dedicated to the new era

After perfecting the stable and safe transformation ritual and integrating it into her Hermes aura, Tia was already at Sequence Two.

Then came the elusive Sequence One, which was what Tia had asked Rashina about.

Rashina's answer to the question of Sequence One knowledge must be "knowledge without any threshold," and there is only one type of Sequence One knowledge in each era.

Now that Tia thinks about it, she feels a little uneasy.

indeed so.

After Dongya's death, the world order did indeed show signs of entering a "year of balance" represented by alchemy.

And coincidentally, her transformation ritual was completed at this time. Because of the completion of the transformation ritual, she defeated Dongya, and Dongya's death was closely related to the Year of Balance in the new era.

However, at the same time, it was precisely because Dongya set up the star map projection ceremony on the Great Ice Plain that Avina was attracted, and the deep-sea turbulence and spirit riots that the giants called "the blood and bones of the seven gods" and "the sign of the new era" appeared, that Tia came to the Great Ice Plain.

It's hard to say whether the knowledge of Sequence 1 propelled the arrival of the new era, or whether the new era brought the knowledge of Sequence 1.

However, these entanglements of fate are within the scope of the prophets' concerns. Tia doesn't care about fate itself, but only whether the prophets care about fate or not.

After Bernice, Merlin, and others went to the Great Icefield and captured and brought the prophets of the Great Icefield to justice, the two sides divided the destiny star map left behind by the prophets of the Great Icefield in half.

There are a total of eight star charts. Four star charts for Aquarius, Leo, Scorpio, and Taurus belong to Ansu, and the remaining four star charts belong to the Empire.

Iris Flower was purely there to fix the match; she had no part in it at all.

After dealing with the prophets on the Great Icefield, Tia stayed in Westerburg for more than ten days, mainly to treat Avina and perform the conversion ritual.

Avina's case is rather special; she is neither a spirit nor a human, but rather a soul fused with a destiny star map projected into the deep sea.

Tia couldn't understand the structure of the Destiny Star Chart. After scratching her head for a few days, she simply sculpted an alchemical puppet for Avina first, and would work on Vera and study the Main Path's incarnation when she returned to Anzu.

Do this a few more times.

Vera will have to go to the Land of the Seven Seas to play tricks again in a while...

Avina had no objection; she felt it made no difference whether she was a spirit or a human.

...........

To return to Anzu from the Great Icefield, you still need to go through the Imperial Coldwater Port.

Rashina remained in the Great Icefield to collect data and conduct research. Of course, Tia felt it was more likely that Rashina didn't want to return to Anzu and deal with those idiotic nobles...

Tia, Anne, Vera, and Avina, who followed Tia around like a parasite, along with Ms. Bernice and many other anti-smuggling bureau agents, returned to Newport.

Eleanor was forced to return to Iris with Marne; she had no choice but to go back, otherwise it would become a diplomatic incident...

As they approached Newport, Bernice found Tia on the deck and asked, "Sulph, regarding your temple, I suggest you keep it a secret for now."

"If it spreads too widely, it may create a lot of cults. Cults are not a threat, but cults and some superstitious beliefs may lift your sanctuary directly to the surface, which will cause some trouble."

The girl thought for a moment and said, "Keeping it a secret is of course the best. After all, I'm not thinking about becoming a true god on earth right now."

A true god among men!

This sounds pretty good, with Eleanor as her saint and Anne as her pope.

As for Vera? Well, that could be written in the church scriptures. Vera is the favorite mount and pet of the Hanged Rebellious God.

However, this will inevitably cause a lot of trouble, because faith is a complicated thing in itself.

When Anne heard Tia say this, she still felt there was a hidden danger: "But now that Tia has spread the conversion ceremony, especially since the temple will rise to several hundred meters in the future, there will definitely be superstition and worship. This is hard to avoid, after all, some nobles can reach that depth by taking drugs."

Tia said, "Therefore, it's better to guide than to block."

"Huh?"

"I'll just periodically project the temple into the deep sea or into the lair of some big cult. They want to see the witch, right? Now they can see her to their heart's content, and I can also feed those spirits next to the temple."

"Is this...is this okay?"

Anne felt it was a bit too much of a waste, and it might not even be useful.

Tia didn't seem to mind.

Lord Ye loved dragons, but he was terrified of them.

Ms. Bernice's eyelids twitched, feeling somewhat that Peter had misjudged her; this didn't seem like an affinity for the Holy Grail, but rather an affinity for an unsheathed blade.

"They made their own choice—no matter who they are or what they do, there are many things you can escape, but there's one thing you can't escape: bearing the consequences of your choices. Only those who are willing to continue fighting after recognizing the cruelty of the consequences can perhaps persevere under the Sanctuary's targeting."

The wind was blowing hard on the deck. Tia adjusted her fur cloak—a red cloak with white trim, made of white mink fur, which felt warm and cozy against her skin. The length was just right, falling from her shoulders to below her knees, and it was embroidered with intricate patterns.

It was the very same one that Anne had given to Tia.

Tia has always been well preserved.

Upon hearing this, Annie pondered, "But, someone like that probably wouldn't become a cult member, would he?"

"Some will, some won't. Isn't Brother Lundl quite clear-headed?"

"Well......"

Annie suddenly felt a little embarrassed.

She had almost forgotten that there was a cult member in her family. One thing at a time, Lundell's misdeeds cannot be erased. It wasn't just Tia who thought so; even Anne believed her brother's actions were extremely heinous.

But because of family ties, she couldn't say much.

Tia replied, "But in any case, I am always willing to acknowledge and even help those who are brave enough to face the cruelty and setbacks of fate. I think you feel the same way, Annie."

"That seems to be the case. Is the church doing the same thing?"

"That's exactly what the church does. They just do it more extensively and better. Fate is always unpredictable, but it's always better to have some security, at least to have more confidence and more opportunities when facing the uncertainties of fate. It takes some courage to be an atheist in this world."

Anne chuckled and said, "You could also be an atheist who goes to church on weekends to mooch bread and milk."

"Yes! That's the church's love. So I still hope the church can do better."

"After all, we live in an age of wisdom and an age of foolishness. An age of faith and an age of doubt, a season of light and a season of darkness. Our future holds everything and our future holds nothing. We are going to heaven and we are going straight to hell."

Avina appeared out of nowhere, touched Tia's forehead, and asked in surprise, "Tia, did you write this? How come it's so well written?"

Tia sent Avina's hand, too lazy to pay attention to her illiterate sister, and said, "I don't have such good writing skills. This was written by Charles Dickens."

Avina looked completely bewildered; she felt the address was rather unfriendly. "Who?"

"Friday!"

"Huh? You called me?"

Avina instinctively replied. Annie chuckled a few times, then covered her mouth and laughed before going back to the cabin to wake the fast-sleeping Vera.

Tia, holding onto the railing on the deck, waved towards the ocean and said, "Whoever wrote it—I'm now giving it to the new era."

(End of the book)