As the silver moon flying ship set sail, delivering reinforcements to the Blackrock Alliance and other large oases, a figure was speeding through the dense gray fog in the desolate ruins of the Crimson Waste, leaving a trail of dissipating afterimages.
The Crimson Waste, like most major domains in the dimensional realm, had a dead land and a somber sky, with gray fog surging like tides, painting a scene unchanged for a millennium.
Yet, there were differences.
When the light from artifacts like the Lantern pushed back the dense fog, awakened ones could vaguely glimpse the slanted, orange-yellow light illuminating the horizon, much like a setting sun. This sunset scene, too, remained constant for a thousand years, fixed to the horizon like a backdrop.
Beneath the gray fog, the land was littered with countless wind-dried remnants of ancient structures, weathered for millennia.
Occasionally, one could see massive broken pillars dozens of meters high, or the corner of a collapsed palace dome, suggesting that a long, long time ago, an ancient and powerful civilization had stood here.
However, the oasis dwellers living in this domain understood that this ancient and powerful civilization was likely just a legend. Despite the ruins covering their domain, they had unearthed few relics. Every year, people embarked on treasure hunts with high hopes, only to return disappointed.
Why these structures had persisted through millennia, or even longer, was a mystery in the Crimson Waste domain.
Yun Ji did not know, nor did she ever consider it, just as the natural order of water flowing downhill or the inevitable presence of gray fog.
She merely cast a fleeting glance around, then manipulated the flowing water to envelop her body, transforming into a streak of light blue light as she sped onward.
She wore armor and a battle skirt, her long hair tied back neatly, and on her middle finger, a ring was emitting a conspicuous, vibrant blue glow.
—The Ring of Luminescence.
This was a more potent mist-dispelling artifact than the Bright Light Lantern or the Bright Light Ring.
It was a gift from Commander Xitina before her departure.
With the Ring of Luminescence, Yun Ji possessed a mist-dispelling range of several hundred meters. Traveling alone, at her normal pace, she would encounter few powerful spectral threats.
Alone, she was in a desperate hurry. She should have taken one to two months to cover this distance, but now, she had compressed it into mere days.
"A slight injury, it doesn't affect me much."
"Almost there, almost there."
Her figure blazed past, often plunging into the gray fog before the Ring of Luminescence could fully dispel it.
The vast gray fog brushed against her cheeks, peeling away layer by layer before her eyes.
Yun Ji journeyed on, and on, shaking off or eliminating the spectral entities that blocked her path. After an unknown amount of time, the gray fog ahead gradually thinned. A flicker of golden light flashed in Yun Ji's eyes as she gazed intently into the distance.
Within the gray fog, the edges of a grand oasis began to appear, revealing verdant greenery. However, there were more gray-black behemoths trampling over this greenery.
Rumble—
The city walls, etched with the Myriad Wood Tendril defensive array, had already been breached by the calamity-level spectral entities, leaving a massive gaping hole about two to three hundred meters long.
Through this breach, a gray tide poured in relentlessly.
Behind it lay buildings with green roofs and white walls. Many towering trees, dozens or even hundreds of meters tall, were visible, with some structures built around them.
The roots of these buildings intertwined like earth dragons, possessing extreme hardness and resilience. The strongmen of the Silent Night Garden used these structures and tree roots to construct one defensive line after another.
However, with the city walls, inscribed with an epic-level array, already breached, how could these minor defenses possibly hold back the mutated and intensified spectral tide?
A six-star calamity-level spectral entity, the 'Eyeless Flesh Mountain', was at the forefront of the tide.
This calamity-level entity, three to four hundred meters tall, was, as its name suggested, a moving mountain of flesh, as if piled from countless scraps. Between the scraps, countless eyeballs blinked open, darting around and staring at its surroundings.
Ghastly and terrifying.
Its body was also covered in countless pockmarked wounds, yet flesh buds were growing from them, healing at a visible rate.
Although this speed was not as exaggerated as that outside the Burning Flame Oasis, it was still incredibly fast, to the point of despair for the strongmen of the Silent Night Garden.
"The Eyeless Flesh Mountain already had tenacious vitality. Now, with such rapid recovery, we... we have no chance of killing it!"
"If Princess Yun Ji and the others were still here!"
Just moments ago, three Six-Awakened and several Five-Awakened individuals from the Silent Night Garden had joined forces, unleashing a thunderous assault that annihilated one of the calamity-level spectral entities. However, the remaining Eyeless Flesh Mountain was impossible to kill; their burst damage was insufficient!
Furthermore, with the Eyeless Flesh Mountain leading the charge, crushing line after line of defense, more spectral entities surged into the oasis and scattered.
Now, the entire oasis was ablaze with beacon fires, spectral entities were increasing in number, and the strongmen of the Silent Night Garden were sustaining injuries.
The scales had tipped completely, and they had no retreat, having walked into a desperate situation.
"Hey, hey, what's the point of this fearless perseverance of yours?"
"If you just ask, our Sunset Kingdom can save you from this inferno at any time. Afterward, our two families can remain as close as kin. What's not to like?"
Amidst a host of anxious, dejected, and desperate warriors, there was a discordant figure. He spread a pair of red energy wings and hovered hundreds of meters in the air, looking down on his surroundings with a smile playing on his lips.
As he said, it was not impossible to ask for help, form a marriage alliance, and then pay some price for the Sunset Kingdom's support.
After all, if the oasis were destroyed, nothing would remain.
"Grand Elder..."
Many warriors showed signs of wavering, their gazes turning towards the figure standing at the very front, confronting the Eyeless Flesh Mountain.
He was an elder, with snow-white hair and beard, leaning on a scepter entwined with spiraling tendrils. His hand gripped the scepter tightly, veins bulging like green worms. The ancient, weathered face could no longer suppress his rage.
Others might not understand, but he, who had lived through the era of the Silent Night Village and knew many secrets, understood perfectly!
The Sunset Kingdom had long discovered the great secret they possessed. The so-called marriage alliance was merely a means to annex their Silent Night Garden, to obtain the immense wealth left behind from the previous era!
The Sunset Kingdom had been coveting them for a long time!
They could have simply taken it by force!
As for why they didn't, the Grand Elder knew it clearly—for the sake of their reputation. Annexing a major oasis force without cause would damage the Sunset Kingdom's standing within the super oasis circle.
But it would only be a slight damage.
Other overlords from outer domains might disapprove, but they would never step forward to defend them.
The Grand Elder sighed, his heart filled with anger.
Even when facing the divine faction, their Silent Night Village could escape with a sliver of hope, yet they were to fall at the hands of fellow humans, the Sunset Kingdom.
But no matter how angry he was, a sense of powerlessness gradually grew in his heart.
They... had no choice.
Watching the spectral tide gradually advance and ravage the oasis, the Grand Elder's wrinkled face contorted. He finally sighed with resignation, turned to the envoy from the Sunset Kingdom, and opened his mouth as if all his strength had drained away.
"Grand Elder..."
A voice echoed from the edge of the sky. The Grand Elder looked up blankly into the distance, spotting the familiar figure clad in armor. A flicker of light ignited in his cloudy eyes, and his somber expression brightened slightly.
It was Yun Ji!
Besides the Grand Elder, many other strongmen of the Silent Night Garden also saw Yun Ji's arrival, their faces filled with excitement.
"Princess Yun Ji is back!"
"They actually traversed the Intermediary Realm, meaning..."
The Silent Night Garden had only six Six-Awakened individuals in total, but three of them were trapped outside, which was one of the reasons why their defense against the spectral tide had been so arduous.
Now, with the return of Princess Yun Ji and the others, hope had emerged.
Even though the pressure was still immense, there was a possibility of holding them off.
The envoy from the Sunset Kingdom, who also witnessed this scene, frowned, his smile gradually fading from his face.
"However, even with the addition of a few more strongmen, it won't be easy for the Silent Night Garden to avert this disaster, especially since their city walls have sustained widespread damage."
With this thought, a mocking smile reappeared on the envoy's face.
He fixed his gaze on Yun Ji, preparing to assess the strength of this young Six-Awakened individual.
Yun Ji made her move!
The sky seemed to grow gloomier. Clouds converged, transforming in an instant into streams that swirled around her. Azure water surged with a "whoosh," expanding several times in volume as it turned. In the blink of an eye, a mighty river cascaded from the heavens.
It was as if the sky had split open with a hundred-meter-long maw, its other end connected to the sea.
Waves poured out incessantly, crashing onto the earth and then spreading outwards. The surging flood quickly swept away the smaller spectral entities and rapidly covered the waists and heads of the giant figures until they were completely submerged. Even the calamity-level spectral entity, the Eyeless Flesh Mountain, was half-drowned by the towering waves, with only a small peak exposed above the water.
The waves continued to pour out, spreading outwards, forming colossal waves a hundred to two hundred meters high, engulfing everything in their path.
At this moment, the giant maw in the sky finally closed, and the azure waves ceased to pour forth.
Yun Ji, standing in the sky, slightly crouched, her hands pressed down as if on the surface of the sea. Then, she began to stir her hands clockwise, as if kneading the entire ocean like a dough.
"Turn!"
Instantly, the outward-spreading waves began to change direction, gradually forming a giant vortex that shredded the spectral entities caught within it.
The azure vortex continuously contracted, like dough being stretched into thick noodles.
The vortex then transformed into a sea tornado!
The sea tornado squeezed, sliced, and shredded the dark figures, finally drawing these dismembered limbs to a distant point before dropping them heavily.
Boom—!
The earth trembled violently. Yun Ji manipulated the water waves to surge outwards. Looking inside the city walls, only shallow puddles remained. All the spectral entities were annihilated by her strike, leaving not a single one. Only on the periphery, where she had intentionally avoided affecting others, and at the very center, the enormous flesh mountain, remained.
The flesh mountain was also covered in wounds from the shredding, but they were not fatal, healing by more than half within a few breaths.
Yun Ji glanced at it and clapped her hands together again, sending out a torrent of water.
This time, what she unleashed was not a towering wave, but sharp water blades, their sides as smooth and reflective as mirrors. She controlled these hundreds-of-meters-long water blades and slashed them down heavily upon the Eyeless Flesh Mountain.
Following this, she conjured a second, a third, and a fourth blade, each one striking without pause. These colossal water blade torrents, which should have consumed all her strength and been reserved for life-or-death battles, were wielded with effortless ease, as if they were routine, ordinary attacks.
She unleashed more than a dozen giant blades until the Eyeless Flesh Mountain was utterly annihilated, unable to recover, before she stopped.
This was the might of a Mythic!
Yun Ji also felt a sense of awe. She considered herself to be among the weakest in the Mythic realm, having only recently advanced with few techniques and weaker talent than others. Yet, she was still tens, even hundreds of times stronger than her Six-Awakened self.
Looking around, people stared as if they had seen a ghost.
"You—you—are you a Mythic?!"
The envoy from the Sunset Kingdom stumbled back several steps, swallowing with difficulty, disbelief flooding his eyes.
How difficult was it to achieve Mythic Awakening? Even if a hundred Six-Awakened individuals tried their luck, it was rare for one to advance to Mythic. Furthermore, the envoy recalled that Princess Yun Ji was merely a young Six-Awakened, not even considered a powerhouse among her peers, with ordinary talent and limited accumulation. How had she suddenly become a Mythic?
This was not mysterious!
He cried out internally.
The Grand Elder and others of the Silent Night Garden felt the same.
But for them, it was a transition from hell to heaven, a blessed change. The Grand Elder recovered first. Suppressing his shock and confusion, the first thing he did was escort the envoy from the Sunset Kingdom away.
Only after the battle had completely concluded did the Grand Elder open his mouth, his voice a mixture of shock, confusion, and apprehension, asking,
"Yun Ji, girl, you... have you truly become a Mythic?"
"Grand Elder Grandpa, I have indeed become a Mythic."
She recounted her experiences, saying what she could.
Earlier, her third uncle had failed his Mythic Awakening. In despair, she had received the favor of a great existence. This was what Commander Xitina had instructed her before her return, to temporarily avoid direct contact with the Burning Flame Chamber of Commerce.
Of course, Yun Ji also knew that she did not belong to the Burning Flame Chamber of Commerce, but was directly affiliated with a higher organization—the Hearth.
A great, noble, mysterious, and ancient organization that spanned the entire dimensional realm.
Although some content was omitted, she felt that this statement was entirely correct. She had indeed received the favor of a great mentor; otherwise, how could she have been reborn in despair?
With this thought, Yun Ji conceived an idea, and the more she considered it, the more she felt she should act on it.
"I've decided to establish the faith of this great existence in our Silent Night Garden."
"Establish... faith?"
The elders exchanged glances.
The Silent Night Village had once had faith, believing in a great and ancient being, the "Lord of Myriad Tendrils." But that was in the past. Now, their Silent Night Garden had no faith, nor did they want any.
The Third Elder said, "Yun Ji, girl, faith is something that requires careful consideration."
The Second Elder also added, "That ancient being abandoned us back then, and we understood that humans must rely on themselves."
Yun Ji shook her head.
"But this time, my advancement to Mythic, and my ability to return to the oasis so quickly, were all thanks to that existence's favor. Without him, I wouldn't be who I am today, and perhaps the oasis wouldn't even..."
"There is a distinct difference between ancient beings!"
She was resolute.
She was merely a junior, but she was also a noble Mythic. In a major oasis like the Silent Night Garden, a Mythic was heaven, earth, and everything.
Ultimately, the Grand Elder sided with her and made the decision.
Believe!
...
To the Grand Elder's surprise, when the statue of faith was cast, he discovered that it bore no prominent features, no special symbols, and most importantly, it did not even have a name inscribed!
"He is sublime and hidden."
"Faith is simply a trivial act of what I can do."
Standing before this statue, with its indistinct face, whose gender was even difficult to discern, Yun Ji knelt slowly, her legs together. She closed her eyes as if in prayer.
Even though the face was blurred and the name could not be inscribed, it did not prevent her from establishing a stable channel of faith through the ritual.
Even doing so, she still felt that the power she received was too easily obtained.
Praise to my mentor.
The maiden prayed...
...
...
Fang You awoke from his cultivation, a faint, indescribable sense of mystery pervading his mind. He seemed to hear faint voices, but they were indistinct, and he could not discern them even with all his might.
"Auditory hallucinations? Ramblings?"
"But that's not right. My pollution level is still 0%."
"And ramblings tend to make people restless. These faint voices don't. If I don't want to hear them, I can just..."
With a single thought, he shielded the sounds. When he reopened them, faint voices drifted from the void.
He could switch them on and off at will, yet he still couldn't make out the words.
This is...
Searching his mind, Fang You found the corresponding information.
"Faith. This means a believer is praying, and the object of prayer is... me?"
How did a young man from Blue Star become an object of faith?
In the materials gifted by the Hidden Kill Pavilion, there were similar descriptions. Fang You retrieved and browsed them, and he roughly understood.
Faith was a system of divine cultivation, and it still existed today. Many super oases secretly worshipped ancient beings, offering them resources and faith.
However, times had changed. It was now the Era of Mystery.
Compared to the faith system, with its various flaws, the mystery system was more inclusive and possessed greater power.
"Of course, there are still strong individuals attempting to walk the path of faith, but breaking through on this path is not easy, its weaknesses are obvious, and it's easily targeted by the divine faction. Therefore, super oases mostly offer worship in secret."
"The entities most in need of faith power are likely those ancient beings awakening from slumber and desperately needing to recover."
Glancing towards Yun Ji, Fang You understood what was happening.
He couldn't help but laugh and cry.
His mentor, Fang, was still a young man in his twenties, not an ancient being who had existed for eons. He didn't need any faith power.
"After all, it's Yun Ji's good intentions, and it won't harm her in any way. I'll let her have her way."
Gazing at the praying girl, Fang You stroked his chin, thinking it was a novel experience, even if it was useless.
Wait, it might not be useless.
A lightning flash seemed to illuminate his mind, dispelling the dimness. Fang You extended his divine sense, gazing afar at the myriad lights of human dwellings, and entered the state of 'Belief Collection.'
In this state, he could see countless beliefs and emotions, both strong and weak. Strong ones burned like raging fires, while weak ones were like candles in the wind, about to extinguish at any moment.
And under his manipulation, these beliefs transformed into specks of starlight, rising like Kongming lanterns, forming brilliant nebulae in the night sky.
These were all basic operations.
But now, in addition to these belief sparks resembling Kongming lanterns, he also saw clusters of bright milky-white light.
Compared to the belief sparks, these light clusters were few in number but much larger. They floated from a distant point, gathering around Fang You.
He took one or two to test. Instantly, the milky-white light cluster burned in his palm, transforming into surging Hearth belief power, which flowed into his body, enhancing his physical form.
"There's a visible physical enhancement, and this is just a few clusters of faith light."
"Clearly, compared to the fragile and mixed beliefs of most people, this pure faith can ignite a more vigorous and brilliant flame."
"And..."
Faith light could only be used immediately upon acquisition. On Blue Star, Fang You could easily gather global belief. But once he left Blue Star, he would be in trouble. At most, he could gather the beliefs of those with contractual connections—destiny apostles and sub-apostles.
Faith light, unlike belief from sub-apostles, could be gathered from distant outer realms, and it could be stored!
These faith powers gathered around him would not dissipate like faith light.
Over time, immense faith power could accumulate!
"It seems this time, our mentor Fang has received an epic-level enhancement."
"However, faith power is ultimately external. It's still best to steadfastly walk the path of mystery and ascend to a high position to be qualified to contend with the divine faction."
He glanced again at the faith light drifting from afar, and Fang You's mood became cheerful.
In the Silent Night Garden, Yun Ji ended her daily girl's prayer, her mood also very pleasant.