“More than twenty years…”

Lin Xun remembered that the Servant of Knowledge had once told him that from the current seventh chapter back to the fourth chapter, a full twenty five years had already passed.

If Master Coleman had not lied, then when he entered the World of Omniscience at the time node of the fourth chapter, the Great Prophet should already have discovered him and had Coleman wait here for him.

It was just that this prophecy sounded a bit eerie. Was the Great Prophet really so certain that he would return to the World of Omniscience again?

[You ask Coleman what it is waiting here for you to do, and what else the Great Prophet’s prophecy mentioned.]

[Coleman calms its excitement, lets out a long sigh, and slowly tells you everything.]

[From the first time in childhood that it came into contact with refined copper devices, it was captured by these adorable little things.]

[After becoming an apprentice device artisan, it displayed a talent for device craft far beyond that of ordinary people.]

[At that time it realized that this was destiny, an arrangement of fate.]

[With these adorable things as its companions, it would never again be interested in any other matter in this life. Improving its device manufacturing technique was its only belief.]

[And indeed this was the case. It immersed itself in device manufacture day and night. In its whole life it never took a wife and never had children.]

[After more than one hundred years of tempering, its device manufacturing level had already approached the pinnacle of the craft of its predecessors.]

[It was not well versed in magic, nor did it possess a strong physical body. Relying only on a frail human frame to build refined copper devices, it could still produce all kinds of wondrous effects.]

[The refined copper devices it made could even produce effects on the lofty demigods above and exert influence on them.]

[But the device craft inherited from the predecessors had no path forward beyond this point.]

[None of the techniques of any previous generation could break through the enormous barrier between god and mortal.]

[In everyone’s understanding, this was the limit of device craft. Devices made by mortals could not possibly shake a god.]

[It suddenly realized that the true Lord had bestowed such outstanding talent upon it precisely to grant it a sacred mission.]

[The mission was to surpass its predecessors in device manufacturing, break through that supposedly unbreakable limit, and create refined copper devices that could have an effect on gods.]

[The huge power gap between gods and demigods, when reflected in the grades and effects of refined copper devices, was even more like a towering mountain whose summit could not be seen even when one gazed up at it.]

[And as the one chosen by the true Lord, it was destined to climb to the peak, surpass its predecessors, become a truly legendary master, and complete the mission entrusted to it by the true Lord.]

[That night, it dreamed that it entered a magnificent temple built from countless tiny characters. A kindly elder spoke to it, saying, go, pursue your faith and your dream, that is the mission given to you by the true Lord.]

[When it awoke, its emotions were surging and it secretly clenched its fist and made up its mind.]

[With such faith as its support, its device manufacturing skill advanced by leaps and bounds, continuously refreshing its own limits.]

[Yet no matter how high its skill rose, that could not change the fact that it was a weak human. Device craft had no end, but its life was already nearing its end.]

[It did not fear death. What it feared was that before dying it would still be unable to break past the limit of its predecessors, still be unable to change people’s fixed idea that the greatest possible potential and effect of refined copper devices stopped here.]

[What it feared was that, at the instant of death, when it fused into the sea of endless knowledge and threw itself into the embrace of the true Lord Omniscient True Knowledge, it would have failed to complete the mission with which it was born, and would have shamed the true Lord’s favor.]

[But a fragile body of flesh and blood simply could not support it in climbing to the summit. The limit of human lifespan had become the greatest barrier to its further improvement in craft.]

[It did not have the talent to become a powerful Scholar, nor could it rely on the washing of endless knowledge over its body to raise the limit of its lifespan.]

[It discarded its overburdened heart, cast off its body that was growing older and weaker by the day, and remade itself into this neither human nor ghost appearance, only hoping to delay the arrival of death and complete the mission granted by the true Lord before its life reached its end.]

[Yet even after falling to this twisted form, even if it could prolong its wretched life somewhat, it still could not break through that huge chasm between gods and mortals.]

[The craft of the predecessors had come to a halt here, not because the predecessors’ ability was lacking, but because it really did seem that this was already the limit of refined copper devices.]

[It could not accept this despairing truth. Its lifelong faith seemed to collapse and crumble in that moment.]

[It felt that it itself was a joke. Relying only on a mission imagined from nothing, relying only on an utterly absurd dream, it had spent its entire life chasing something that did not exist at all.]

[It looked back on its life and asked what it had actually done.]

[It had merely walked again the road already trodden by its predecessors, and in the end, standing at the end of the road, it saw that there was no towering mountain waiting for it to climb at all, only a cliff of utter despair.]

[What was even more ridiculous was that the predecessors had long ago set up signboards at the very start of the road and told it everything, yet it still thought highly of itself, styled itself the chosen of the true Lord, and tried to surpass the predecessors.]

[Everyone said it was a legendary master who had surpassed those who came before, but only it itself knew that it was nothing at all.]

[Busy and diligent all its life, in the end, it had accomplished nothing.]

[Coleman spoke to this point with tears streaming down its aged face. Although you could not understand its pursuit of craft, you could still feel the despair and powerlessness when its lifelong faith collapsed.]

[Coleman used its huge refined copper arm to wipe away the tears on its head and continued. Just when it had given itself up, drinking day after day and waiting for death to come, the Great Prophet came to find it.]

[The Direct Vision Great Prophet told it that it had not yet completed the mission given by the true Lord. How could it waste precious time here, muddleheadedly waiting for death?]

[It froze in place, hardly daring to believe its own ears.]

[The Direct Vision Great Prophet seemed to know what it was thinking in its heart and repeated that sentence again, clearly telling it that…]

[The dream from many years ago had not been a dream. It had been the call of the true Lord. It had truly seen the great true Lord, and the true Lord had granted it a sacred mission.]

[The Direct Vision Great Prophet used divine power to extend its life and also told it a prophecy.]

[The Direct Vision Great Prophet prophesied that as long as it quietly waited in the workshop, it would, in the years to come, encounter the envoy sent down by the true Lord.]

[That would be its best chance to complete its sacred mission.]

[Not only that, the arrival of the True God’s Envoy would likewise be the best opportunity for this world.]

[No one would ever doubt the Great Prophet’s prophecies. They were the supreme incarnations of the great true Lord in the human realm. Their prophecies had never been inaccurate. Their prophecies were destined to become facts that would happen in the future.]