Realizing the hand squeezing her foot had stopped, Barbara glanced down at Eros, only to find him wearing a dazed expression, clearly lost in a state of shock.
After a moment's thought, Barbara exerted strength in her calf, hoping to seize this opportunity to pull her foot back from Eros's grasp. However, the moment she moved, she startled Eros, snapping him out of his trance. He instinctively tightened his grip.
Thus, Barbara's attempt to reclaim her small foot ended in failure.
After a long while, having successfully suppressed the surging emotions in his heart, Eros voiced a doubt lingering in his mind:
"Then where did this Divine Pathway come from? Did the original warlocks know from the very beginning how to concoct potions or how to arrange ritual arrays to assist their promotion?"
"How could that be! This was discovered through trial and error over generations. Back then, every Sequence even had many different names, but the Master found it too troublesome and simply unified them."
"The names of the various Sequences used in this world today were actually given by the Master and have been used ever since."
As she spoke, Barbara’s small face was filled with pride.
Good grief! So the Sequence names currently in use were actually given by my own ancestor?
But why isn't this recorded in our family's ancient texts? Logically, such a glorious achievement should be written about extensively.
Could it be because the Gods of the Church tampered with history? But no, Barbara isn't in my soul space right now.
"If history had been tampered with, Barbara shouldn't remember it now," Eros thought.
As if reading his mind, Barbara explained:
"Very few people know this. Aside from the Master, only those few Traitors and us Divine Artifacts know."
"They might want to erase this fact, but perhaps because that 'Stupid Book' knows it, they are unable to wipe these memories from history."
"Knowledge already known by that Stupid Book is not like the Authority that has fallen into their hands—it cannot be manipulated at their whim."
So that’s it! Ariana’s power feels almost like a bug. As long as she stays hidden, even the power of history cannot find her.
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It was like trying to delete a folder, but the computer keeps prompting that a program within the folder is running, so you cannot delete it. You open the folder to find the running program, only to see that the folder is completely empty.
Shaking his head with a chuckle, Eros asked his final question:
"Why is this path to godhood called the Path of Profanity?"
After a moment of thought, Barbara began her explanation:
"Because originally, there was only one God in the world—the One in the deep sea. Becoming a God requires Authority, and due to the Law of Spiritual Convergence, almost all Authority fell into the body of the One in the deep sea."
"Therefore, to become a God, one must steal Authority from His body. Is such an act not 'profane'? That is why it is called the Path of Profanity."
"Fortunately, He was slumbering in the deep sea back then. Stealing Authority from Him was difficult, but not impossible."
"Take that Traitor from the Church of Reincarnation, for example; He only managed to steal half of the Soul Authority. The remaining half is still in the hands of the One in the deep sea."
"Originally, He could have completed the Soul Authority through repeated thefts, but unfortunately, someone—I don't know who—woke Him up."
"Since then, if a Saint wants to become a God, they have to wait for the day He gets bored and spits out a fragment of Authority."
"Then," she arranged her thoughts, "they search the whole world for identical Authority fragments, gathering them bit by bit until they reach the minimum requirement for godhood—which is 30% of a complete Authority."
"This is also why the New Gods since the Third Epoch started are generally weaker; the Authority they wield is incomplete."
"Just like that 'Weird Thing' in your hand that controls one ten-thousandth of the Soul Authority—He probably just tossed it out because He was bored and had nothing else to do."
"It’s also lucky that this Weird Thing was born near a fragment of the Master’s Divine Kingdom and was shrouded by its power, before later falling into your hands and being covered by the Authority of Secrecy."
"Otherwise, that Traitor from the Church of Reincarnation would have definitely noticed."
Eros’s mouth twitched slightly. This was a bit too abstract. What others used to become Gods was treated by that "Tentacle Elder" like a pebble used for skipping stones—tossing a bit out whenever He felt bored.
With that thought, Eros projected a wisp of his consciousness into his soul space, looking up and down at the idle tentacle. The tentacle seemed to sense something; it turned the eyeball perched on its tip and blinked its large eye at Eros.
They stared at each other for a long time until Eros finally gave in. Ever since he stopped fearing this tentacle, he often felt that the fellow was a bit of a blockhead. Especially after learning about His "deeds," he felt more and more that He was just a simpleton.
In the outside world, Barbara patted Eros’s other shoulder and said in her crisp, pleasant voice:
"Alright! Now we should go to the Spirit Realm to catch a Weird Thing."
As she spoke, her small, jade-like hand directly grabbed at the night sky in front of her, pulling down a deep, pitch-black tunnel.
With a push of her small feet, she broke free from Eros’s palm and floated into the air above his shoulder.
Eros had just withdrawn his consciousness from the soul space when he felt a surge of immense force from his shoulder. His entire body was hoisted up and flown toward the deep, black tunnel ahead.