The Sage was a renowned powerhouse from ancient times, a master of multiple transcendent systems: mages, warlocks, and rituals.
Legend has it that the Sage was the founder of the modern mage path and played a vital role in many other transcendent systems.
One could talk about this titan's deeds for three days and nights without ever finishing.
Among his many feats, the Sages Stealing the Chess Piece incident stands out.
Back then, the path of transcendence was incomplete, making advancement difficult and cultivation arduous.
This led many transcendents with insufficient talent or hopeless prospects to easily stray onto evil paths, wreaking havoc upon the common people.
Among these, the ritual system—which had almost no barrier to entry—became the go-to path for evil cultivators across the myriad worlds.
What to do if advancement seemed hopeless?
Set up a ritual. Cover one or more countries, or even an entire civilization. Through war, plague, famine, and various other means, harvest lives and sacrifice souls to obtain a massive amount of ritual power to break through one's realm.
What to do if one came from humble beginnings with no background and equipment inferior to those from powerful clans?
Set up another ritual. Adjust the scale and the population covered in real-time according to one's needs. Likewise, consume the lives of ordinary creatures in exchange for a powerful piece of equipment.
In short, it had become a form of path dependency. Whenever an unsolvable problem arose, people turned to rituals to resolve it.
For a time, this plunged the myriad worlds into significant chaos.
Although the major transcendent civilizations banned these inhumane rituals, transcendents could simply extend their reach toward civilizations or worlds where transcendence had not yet appeared.
At that time, many powerful mythic-tier powerhouses even shepherded dozens of worlds without transcendence simultaneously, viewing them all as reserve fodder for their rituals.
It wasn't until a certain event occurred that this situation slowly came to an end.
That event was the Sages Stealing the Chess Piece incident.
The name "Sage" was not self-given, but an honored title bestowed upon him by the transcendents of the myriad worlds.
This alone revealed the Sage's way of life.
He wanted to prosper and help others do the same, and he couldn't stand to see others suffer.
The Sage actively promoted the transcendent paths he had improved, smoothing the way for countless transcendents and erasing many of the bottlenecks that had previously existed.
Consequently, the Sage held those who walked evil paths in high contempt—especially those who sacrificed ordinary creatures through rituals to achieve advancement.
Thus, the Sage set his sights on a notoriously evil ritualist of that era who was one rank lower than him, at the mythic-tier.
However, the Sage did not simply strike and kill the evil ritualist. Instead, he employed a method that exceeded everyone's expectations.
When that evil ritualist prepared to harvest multiple worlds devoid of transcendent power through a ritual, the Sage made his move.
The Sage actually usurped the evil ritualist's position as the ritual's architect. He seized the ritual power during the ritual settlement and returned it all to the suffering worlds, catalyzing their own transcendence.
What shocked the myriad worlds the most was how the Sage somehow turned the original architect, the evil ritualist, into a component of the ritual itself. During the ritual settlement, the Sage killed the ritualist, pushing the settlement's rewards to an even higher level.
The result of this incident was the creation of multiple transcendent worlds and the intimidation of the entire transcendent community of that time.
All evil ritualists became restless and fearful, terrified that their own rituals might be tampered with by the Sage.
What should have been a joyous day of ritual settlement became a tragic anniversary of their death.
This wicked trend was gradually suppressed.
Unfortunately, the Sage never disclosed his method of usurping another's ritual. According to the Sage, the method was not easy, and to prevent a surge in ritual theft, he did not intend to make it public.
Therefore, the world only knew that the Sage could steal someone else's ritual, but they had no idea how it was actually done.
In the knowledge Thor had uploaded, there were no relevant records either, which was why Chen Xu had asked.
Unfortunately, Thor shook its head.
“The Sage is a true titan. Although I call myself a great astral behemoth, that only happened after I created a special world. How could I possibly come into contact with someone of the Sage's level?
“If I could have established a connection with the Sage, I wouldn't have needed to risk setting up a ritual and creating a special world just to advance.
“With one turn of the Sage's brilliant mind, he might have solved my advancement problem for me. I wouldn't have had to put in so much effort and provoke two unique-tier enemies.”
Unlike Thor's self-proclaimed title, the Sage was a genuine titan, a being revered by all in the myriad worlds.
Chen Xu felt a bit helpless. If Thor didn't know the inside story, then the only place in the myriad worlds that might still have records of it was the Truth Library.
The Truth Library was a neutral faction co-founded by the Sage and several other ancient worthies.
It never interfered in the turmoils and passing years of the myriad worlds.
It only silently observed, recorded, and documented the development of the myriad worlds and the trends of transcendence from behind the scenes.
It was like a special recorder floating in the void, silently recording the entirety of the myriad worlds.
Aside from this faction that claimed to be absolutely neutral, there was no other place in the myriad worlds associated with the Sage.
After all, the Sage was a figure from ancient times. Logically, a unique-tier Dao Lord should not have vanished so completely.
But legend had it that while the Sage and his disciples were conducting a certain research project, they triggered a massive catastrophe with extremely severe consequences.
To atone for his mistake, the Sage sacrificed his own life to neutralize the impact of the catastrophe.
No one knew if this story was true, but since then, all traces and news of the Sage had indeed vanished.
“The Truth Library... that place isn't easy to enter.”
Given that the Truth Library had existed as a neutral faction for so long, its strength was easily imaginable.
From ancient times to the present, those who dared to claim neutrality were invariably powerful enough to look down upon everything.
For the weak to speak of neutrality was nothing more than deceiving oneself.
Fortunately, the Truth Library would occasionally open to the outside world—specifically, for ten years at a time at regular intervals.
During those periods, regardless of your identity or realm, you could enter and browse the vast sea of books within.
The next opening was scheduled for three years from now.
Chen Xu had learned of this through the Mage Tower Forum on the Undead Network, which had been created by the two artifact spirits, Yan Ruyu and Huangjinwu.
Some transcendents had compared Chen Xu's mage tower to the Truth Library.
This had naturally triggered a heated debate, becoming a trending topic for a time.
As a seasoned net-surfer, Chen Xu had been on the front lines of watching the drama unfold and had grasped the details immediately.
The Truth Library thus entered Chen Xu's field of vision.
“One more thing for the to-do list.”
In three years, he would have to make a trip to the Truth Library to see if he could uncover the secrets of the past.
Of course, he could also try the method Thor suggested—using a ritual to defeat a ritual was not out of the question.
To surpass a war that Hell had waged for so many years would be difficult in terms of scale, so he would have to focus on the intensity and the magnitude of the results.
“Bone Guard One!”
Chen Xu suddenly looked toward the Bone Thicket, addressing his chief general.
“My Lord.”
Bone Guard One knelt on one knee, just as he always had.
“Lead your legion, in my name, and bring an end to those demons!”
“Bone Guard One obeys your command.”
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