[…]

[Teleportation successful!]

[The powerful wandering soul awakens within the Library…]

Lin Xun stood there in a daze for a long time before finally coming back to himself.

The final act of Omniscient True Knowledge becoming the Book Containing Illusion, drawing all the living beings of the entire world into the book, and creating a new world within the blank pages was simply too shocking.

He had always been working toward the goal of exterminating the star gods and killing the Abyss Child, all to prevent the revival of the Abyss and the radiant stars and to seek out a chance for Salvation.

Yet that had been his goal, not Omniscient True Knowledge’s goal, which was why the final ending had completely exceeded his expectations.

From the description of the last fragment of the final event, it could be understood that the real world of the Omniscience chapter had already been filled with endless Disorder, becoming a devastated apocalyptic wasteland.

Omniscient True Knowledge seemed able to achieve coexistence with Disorder by becoming an existence like the Book Containing Illusion.

He even seemed able to transfer the Disorder within the newborn world of the book, that is, the Disorder already carried in the souls of all living beings, into the real world, thereby allowing the world inside the book to continue enduring.

So the method Omniscience had analyzed for coexisting with Disorder was to become an existence similar to The Book of Salvation.

Omniscience’s goal had always been to become an existence like The Book of Salvation and coexist with Disorder. It was just that although He knew this method was feasible, He had always lacked the single most crucial key.

And the hidden power within Lin Xun called Chaos Authority was that most crucial key.

“How does this suddenly feel a bit like fatalism? If the one who entered the Omniscience chapter had not been me, but some other Apostle, what would the final result have been?”

Actually, from the original final event, Triune World-Destroying God, one could already see the direction of the later plot.

The Source of the Apocalypse in this chapter had always been Omniscient True Knowledge, not the radiant stars and the Abyss.

That also meant that without interference from an Apostle, the triune World-Destroying God was fated to be Omniscient True Knowledge. There was no way for the Abyss and the radiant stars to win the war of consciousness against Omniscient True Knowledge.

Lin Xun speculated that if the final event of Triune World-Destroying God had only been triggered in Chapter Eight or Chapter Nine, Omniscient True Knowledge still would have become the dominant consciousness of the triune god.

It was just that at that time, the moment He became the triune god, He would be completely swallowed by Disorder and would then destroy the world.

If it had been another Apostle, without Chaos Authority, and they had triggered the final event of Triune World-Destroying God ahead of time, then they would have gained a sliver of a Salvation opportunity.

Omniscient True Knowledge, who was destined to become the dominant consciousness, because of the slight amount of Disorder tolerance brought to Him by the Abyss and the radiant stars, would have been able to hold out longer and buy a certain amount of time for Salvation in the later chapters.

The Salvation content of the later chapters would then have been to free Omniscient True Knowledge, this World-Destroying God, from Disorder, or to eliminate this World-Destroying God, and so on.

Without question, both of the above Salvation methods were extremely difficult, so difficult as to be almost impossible. But thinking carefully, that also seemed quite in line with the difficulty of Hell Difficulty Chapter Nine.

Letting his thoughts wander, Lin Xun seemed to find a relatively simpler method of Salvation, which would be for the Apostle to bring Omniscient True Knowledge across the endless starry sky into the real world and let Omniscient True Knowledge truly come into contact with The Book of Salvation. Perhaps then He could coexist with Disorder.

It was just that the infernal game would most likely not allow such a thing, and the risk of doing so was far too great. If Omniscient True Knowledge were to become completely eroded by Disorder in the real world, the consequences were unthinkable.

At this moment, Lin Xun still had many questions in his heart.

For example, after the final event’s name had been rewritten into Book of Illusory Knowledge That Endures in Seclusion, that phrase endures in seclusion was undoubtedly a key phrase. What the Book of Knowledge was avoiding, was it the Disorder of the real world, or something else?

And whether the so-called illusion of the Book Containing Illusion implied that the beautiful world inside the book was merely an Illusory Knowledge created by Omniscient True Knowledge, where the beauty was all false, and only the souls and consciousnesses of living beings were real.

Lin Xun could not help but think of the hypothesis called brain in a vat.

If Omniscient True Knowledge had imitated The Book of Salvation and transformed Himself into the Book Containing Illusion, then what kind of existence was The Book of Salvation itself?

Whether Lin Xun, the Apostles, and the people living in the real world were also brains in a vat, living in nutrient fluid, receiving all information, all memories, and all sensations as simulated data, all fictional existences just like Illusory Knowledge.

And whether the true real world had long since been filled with Disorder and become a devastated wasteland.

Just like how the Apostles passed through countless chapter worlds, simulating and rehearsing routes of Salvation within them.

Was the existence of reality itself also a kind of simulated rehearsal? A rehearsal for the ultimate, and also the correct, route of Salvation…

At that thought, the more he thought about it, the more terrifying it felt. His scalp tingled.

And then there was his own Chaos Authority…

Lin Xun opened the Apostle Panel and once again carefully examined the description text of the authority, chewing over it word by word.

[Soul authority – Chaos Authority +7: Your soul possesses an unprecedented unique authority. It cannot be defined, cannot be observed, cannot be described, and presents an initial superimposed state in which chaos, disorder, confusion, and all things may be transformed.]

[When you define it, under your observation, within your description, chaos will become fixed. You will be able to command all Shells, you will be able to become any soul, you will be able to control all dominions!]

At first glance, the grandeur of this authority was undoubtedly off the charts, but when examined carefully, it instead gave rise to an ominous feeling in one’s heart.

“My soul presents a state of chaos, disorder, and confusion… no matter how I look at this, it does not seem like a good thing.”

Anything tied to Disorder being a good thing would be a miracle!

[…]

[Upon seeing the Librarian beneath the gigantic The Book of Salvation, you can no longer suppress the doubts in your heart and step forward to seek answers from the Administrator.]

[The Librarian glances sideways at you and says, Apostle, you have overstepped your bounds again…]

[You have not yet truly obtained immortal grade power, so you do not have the authority to obtain more truth or intelligence from him.]

Lin Xun froze.

“What kind of nonsense is this? My little dragonkin is already an Eternal True God-level existence, and I’ve even obtained soul authority. How am I still not immortal?”

Lin Xun opened the Shell Slots and selected the little dragonkin’s Shell Panel to inspect it.

In the Shell Quality column, it displayed the following…

[Shell Quality: eternal+ grade -> mythic+ grade]

Even the series of bloodline skills that had originally been eternal+ grade had, at some unknown point, fallen back to mythic+ grade.

Only the skill called Ancient Dragon Bloodline still remained at eternal+ grade.

[Ancient Dragon Bloodline (eternal+ grade skill): A pure and great bloodline originating from the six ancient dragon progenitors, possessing countless possibilities for advancement…]

[By using this skill, you can command any dragon whose grade realm is lower than your own, and you can devour the bloodline power of any dragon to raise this Shell’s Shell Quality and skill quality.]

Lin Xun’s heart jolted. His ominous premonition grew stronger and stronger, and he hurriedly opened the Executor’s Shell Panel to inspect it.

The scene he had expected, where the Executor would advance into immortal because he had obtained authority, did not appear. Even the Executor was still mythic+ grade.

“Damn it! Infernal game, you’re messing with me again?”

[The Librarian continued unhurriedly, The strength of power is the product of Shell and soul working together. If only the Shell is powerful while the soul is too weak, then truly great power cannot be brought forth.]

[You indeed upgraded the soul talent Thousand Faces, Ten Thousand Forms to +7 and turned it into Adaptation Authority, but just like the Flesh Authority you obtained, that authority power is still only in its initial stage.]

[Only when you continue acquiring Divinity and raise Adaptation Authority to +10 can it be considered the true making of immortal.]

Lin Xun: ???

“My soul authority is clearly Chaos Authority. What kind of thing is Adaptation Authority?”

“Did the Administrator get it wrong?”

Lin Xun had just been about to refute him, but suddenly realized something was off and hurriedly suppressed that impulse.

Because he remembered the description of Chaos Authority, your soul possesses an unprecedented unique authority. It cannot be defined, cannot be observed, cannot be described!

“Cannot be observed… which means the Librarian most likely didn’t say the wrong thing. It’s that he can’t observe my authority?”

This line of thought immediately made Lin Xun shut his mouth, cutting off the idea of correcting the Administrator.

[The Librarian continued, As for the final event Triune World-Destroying God, considering that you obtained a Salvation opportunity, it isn’t impossible to reveal to you a small amount of plot interpretation.]

[Because of the integration of the Abyss and the radiant stars, Omniscient True Knowledge became the Triune World-Destroying God. But because you triggered the final event ahead of time, Omniscient True Knowledge had not yet been completely eroded by Disorder.]

[So you can still continue entering the later chapters of the World of Omniscience, and you still have a certain amount of time to save that world…]

Lin Xun already felt that something was very wrong. This feeling even made him a little afraid.

He had ultimately rewritten the original final event, and not followed the predetermined final event, Triune World-Destroying God.

Yet the Librarian’s words and cognition seemed still stuck within the predetermined final event…

It was as if, in the Administrator’s mind, Lin Xun had not rewritten the final event at all, but had instead simply continued pushing the plot along the original predetermined event until awakening the triune god dominated by Omniscience.

[You stay calm and put on a sincere appearance, thanking the Administrator…]

[…]

Lin Xun did not even settle the chapter interpretation rating before exiting the game and putting down his phone.

All kinds of thoughts surged up together in his mind.

He repeatedly murmured the description of Chaos Authority.

“It cannot be defined, cannot be observed, cannot be described, and presents an initial superimposed state in which chaos, disorder, confusion…”

“Chaos, disorder, confusion…”

“Disorder, confusion… Why does it feel like I’m an evil god?!”

The sudden absurd thought made Lin Xun’s scalp tingle.

He hurriedly shook his head, trying to throw away that ridiculous idea.

But once that thought appeared, the more he tried to reject it, the more it lingered in his mind.

He took a deep breath and wanted to get up and go wash his face in the bathroom to calm himself down.

But the moment he stood up, he saw that on the sofa, at some unknown point, there was now an ancient-looking thick book.

It was a strange book completely out of place with the surrounding space. Around it, everything was hazy and blurred, making one unable to see it clearly.

And on the black cover of the book was clearly depicted a giant eye!

“Holy shit…”

Lin Xun stood there stunned for a while, unable to speak for a long time.

He had once, in Chapter Four of the World of Omniscience, obtained a Book Containing Illusion called Grand Scholar Rona’s Bathing Recording.

At that time, he had purely out of curiosity, or for academic research or something like that, manifested the Book Containing Illusion into reality to examine and browse it. It was absolutely not because of any strange motive.

This thick book that had suddenly appeared was extremely similar to the Book Containing Illusion he had manifested back then. Aside from the cover no longer showing a beautiful and intellectual female Scholar, the rest could be said to be almost exactly the same.

This Book Containing Illusion was thicker than the one he had seen before, and even more hazy and unreal.

“This book… could it actually be that book?”

Lin Xun immediately froze in place, unsure whether he should step forward and touch the book, and equally unsure whether he should open it and examine its contents.

The Snow Woman shikigami carried a plate of freshly cut fruit into the living room. Seeing that her master had already finished cultivating and was now standing blankly, staring at an empty sofa, she walked over.

She placed the fruit plate on the coffee table, then plopped herself down on the sofa, leaning to one side in a seductive posture and saying in a deliberately flirtatious tone, “Dragonborn Lord, would you like to enjoy the fruit first, or enjoy me first?”

At the moment, she wore a blue outer coat and a white sweater underneath, because she had heard from Nurarihyon that this was exactly the outfit worn by something called Widowed Snow Woman Yukino in the study materials on Dragonborn Lord’s computer.

“Dragonborn Lord should really like this style, right…” the Snow Woman shikigami thought to herself.

Unexpectedly, Dragonborn Lord just stared blankly for a moment, then drove her out of the living room.

The Snow Woman was left questioning her whole life, muttering to herself in secret, “Nurarihyon definitely lied to me. Why is it that when Lady Nine-Tailed Fox wears shrine maiden robes and acts like some trash fox it works, but when it’s my turn it doesn’t…”

After thinking it over for a long time, Lin Xun finally decided to step forward and touch the book.

This Book Containing Illusion that had suddenly appeared in reality seemed visible only to him personally.

Just now, when the Snow Woman had plopped herself down onto the Book Containing Illusion, it had been as though she sat on a phantom, completely unable to perceive its existence.

Lin Xun stepped forward. His fingertip touched the book’s cover, and a solid physical sensation came from it.

The expected prompt of ‘You have obtained XXX’ did not appear in his field of vision, and no unusual phenomenon occurred either.

He opened the book to the first page, and the scene depicted there felt strangely familiar… 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Inside a Temple of Knowledge formed of pure white characters, an old man with a kind and benevolent face quietly stood there, waiting.

Lin Xun carefully rubbed the page, closely feeling the texture of the paper.

But then the person in the picture suddenly moved!

The old man in the pure white robe, with a mysterious character inscribed on his chest, emerged from the page and appeared in the real world, standing alive right before his eyes!

The Servant of Knowledge, with a hazy and unreal body, wore a long-lost gentle smile on his face and softly said, “Child favored by the true Lord, we meet again…”

That familiar yet unfamiliar aged voice entered his ears, but Lin Xun just stood there frozen, unable to recover for a long time.