Chapter 152: Capturing Divinity

A few days later, adventurers noticed a mist appearing in the western part of the Moonlight Forest. Anyone who approached the mist would lose their direction and unknowingly return to where they started.
Considering that the local lord was a powerful mage, the mist might have been created by mages to protect their secrets. This strange phenomenon piqued the curiosity of many adventurers. However, after several attempts to investigate it with no results, the matter gradually faded into obscurity.
Donald and his teacher, Maelthor, were both pleased with the effect of the magical lock.
The old mage had been spending time in the elven town of Starlight Village, studying its intricate magic arrays.
The elven town had a beautiful environment and abundant natural energy. As a form of magic, natural energy was one of the most suitable for human absorption; it could also nourish the body and boost vitality. Even without the magical lock, the silver mage would likely enjoy staying here!
While his teacher focused on studying the magical lock in search of a breakthrough to reach the gold rank, Donald, who had been driven away, was not idle. He was using the Book of Truth to study another treasure obtained from the ruins—the strange wolf-shaped statue.
The Book of Truth had concluded that the statue was an idol of that evil god, and it was likely that the god’s true form was a giant wolf.
The physical form and divinity of this ancient deity had been sealed, and its soul had been worn away, leaving only a trace of divinity remaining in the statue.
However, the statue’s special material could conceal the fluctuations of divinity, which was why no one else noticed anything unusual and it fell into Donald’s hands.
Divinity was the foundation of a soul. As long as even a trace of divinity remained, and if enough power could be absorbed, a fallen deity could be revived. Of course, some of the lost memories might not be restored, and what revived would not be the original deity.
Without the absorption and erosion by the magic arrays in the magical lock, over the course of ten days, the Book of Truth detected signs of activity in the original divinity within the statue.
Upon learning this, Donald feared that the evil god’s divinity might regain strength and change the situation. He immediately prepared to carry out the plan he had set earlier using the Book of Truth.
Donald’s plan… was to use the Book of Truth to steal a faint trace of divinity from the idol and transform himself into a being of divinity.
This plan… was top-secret, known only to Donald himself, not even his teacher Maelthor.

If he told the teacher, Donald knew the teacher would surely stop him, because only those who had reached the legendary realm—powerful beings—had the ability to absorb divinity. Others, even gold-rank strongmen, would be unable to integrate divinity, resulting in soul damage or even being consumed by it and destroyed. At that point, that fragment of divinity would revive within them, while the original owner would completely disappear.

Thus, it was undoubtedly a wildly insane act of self-destruction for Donald, who appeared to be only at the bronze rank, to carry out such a plan. The old mage, who cared deeply for his only disciple, would naturally not agree. Yet Donald couldn’t reveal the secrets of the Book of Truth, so he could only act in secret, keeping his teacher in the dark for now.

Carrying the ancient deity statue, Donald instructed William not to let anyone disturb him, then went alone into the basement of the manor villa. After sitting in the basement, which had been converted into a cultivation room, and calming his mind, Donald summoned the Book of Truth and said, “Book of Truth, let’s begin now!”

Before his words faded, a golden glow of the Book of Truth appeared before Donald. A divine light lifted the statue of the monstrous wolf placed there, and at the same time, a layer of golden light enveloped the entire basement.

This was a barrier created by the Book of Truth to prevent other remnants of this evil deity in the world from sensing anything when it touched the original divinity within the statue.

Since deities are, to some extent, immortal, who knows what other remnants of divinity or divine artifacts might still exist outside, aside from the sealed body and divinity of this evil deity? Even a great archmage lord couldn’t find them all.

It was better to be cautious to avoid attracting further trouble. After all, even a fragment of a true god with only one ten-thousandth of its original power was beyond the strength of those below the gold rank.

Under the pull of the divine light emitted by the Book of Truth, the divinity seemed to sense danger. The statue of the monstrous wolf trembled, as if trying to break free from the control of the divine light. But compared to a mere statue of divinity, the Book of Truth was a true high-grade divine artifact. Though it had only returned to the level of a sub-divine artifact, didn’t a divinity without a source of power remain at its mercy?

Soon, a brilliant light of ice blue wrapped in gold emerged from the surface of the statue, drawn by the divine light, floating above it as it tried to escape its restraint.

“Is this divinity? I never expected it to be so beautiful!”

Donald stared at that miraculous light, countless scenes appearing in his pupils as he murmured to himself. At that moment, the light from the Book of Truth suddenly changed, and Donald snapped back to his senses, drenched in cold sweat with his clothes soaked through. “What a close call! If it weren’t for the Book of Truth’s warning, I would have been lost in it! True divinity is indeed beyond the reach of ordinary people!” After this frightening experience, Donald became much more cautious. Instead of continuing to gaze at that divine light, he ordered the Book of Truth to proceed immediately. The divine light emitted by the book changed instantly—two beams converged and slowly separated out an extremely tiny thread from the core of the divine light. This primordial divinity was only as thick as a little finger, and the thread extracted by the Book of Truth was one-thousandth of that light, even finer than a hair. It resembled a thin filament just emerged from a silkworm. Without the golden-blue glow flickering, it would be nearly impossible for an ordinary person to detect it in a natural environment. “It’s starting!” Donald said nervously. After extracting this thread of divinity, the Book of Truth released its restraint, and the divine light rushed into the statue like a lightning serpent, disappearing without a trace. Meanwhile, the virtual image of the Book of Truth emitted divine light, guiding that faint thread of divinity toward Donald’s head. By then, Donald had already immersed his mind in his subconscious space using the meditation techniques taught by his teacher, making it impossible for him to see what was happening outside. Soon, under the pressure from the virtual image of the Book of Truth, the thread of divinity was forced into Donald’s body. However, once inside his physical body, the divinity seemed stimulated and began to wander through various tissues and organs. At the same time, the divine light emitted by the Book of Truth filled Donald’s entire body, creating a seamless barrier of light that gradually reduced the space and enclosed the thread of divinity. Soon, the divinity could only move within a tiny area in the center of his brain, then was confined to a mysterious region there—so small as a grain of rice, located between the two cerebral hemispheres. If Donald could have seen this, he would have realized that this mysterious region was precisely the pineal gland, which scientists on Earth had long tried to study in his past life.

This wisp of divinity was trapped in a confined space, curled up into a ball. After pulsing a few times, it suddenly sensed fluctuations indicating another exit. Instantly, a flash of light appeared, and then it vanished from Donald’s mind, entering another mysterious space.

In this consciousness space, akin to a chaotic void, Donald stood before the pillar of soul light, waiting for his guest to arrive. The Book of Truth could only protect him from being eroded or harmed by divine forces; as for how to absorb and integrate this wisp of divinity, that depended entirely on him.

The pillar of soul light, already as large as a tree, grew even larger, standing like a towering column in the empty consciousness space. The various stars on it lit up a bit more than when he first saw it, indicating that Donald’s spellcasting abilities were now much stronger than when he had just been promoted to Bronze rank.

Suddenly, the entire space trembled as if struck by an earthquake. Then, a tiny crack appeared in the sky, and a thread-like beam of light rushed in through that crack.

Although this wisp of divinity was well-behaved under the control of the Book of Truth and unable to struggle, once it entered Donald’s consciousness space, it fled like lightning. Its speed was too fast to track with the naked eye.

But Donald in this space wasn’t his true body at all—he was a soul projection composed of his mental will, and since he was in his own consciousness space, he had the advantage of home ground. So even without using his eyes, he could sense the movement of that divinity, no matter how fast it moved.

Seeing that the wisp of divinity had entered, Donald stepped forward immediately. His soul projection transformed into a mountain-like giant, spreading its arms wide to grab at the constantly moving light.

Though the wisp of divinity was extremely fast, it couldn’t escape such a large-scale pursuit from Donald. Yet it showed no fear and crashed headfirst into Donald’s giant hand, punching a small hole through it.

Although it was a soul projection, any damage it suffered was reflected in his consciousness, so he could still feel pain. Seizing this opportunity, the wisp of divinity pierced Donald again and again, constantly inflicting wounds on him.

“Damn it! Come again!”

Realizing this approach wasn’t working, Donald knew that if his soul projection was shattered, his soul and core would suffer severe damage. So he immediately changed tactics, shrinking his size to that of a hummingbird, only the size of a fingernail but with a long, thin beak.

The hummingbird darted toward the light at a speed comparable to that of sound. Of course, a real hummingbird couldn’t maintain such speed, but this was Donald’s world of consciousness—anything he could imagine was essentially possible.
“How will you run this time?”
Several times, the hummingbird in Donald’s guise, though agile and fast, still fell short compared to the divine being that was merely a beam of light. Yet Donald, standing there, could sense all changes in this world in advance. Each time, he blocked the path where the divine light appeared and then lunged at it like catching an insect.
But Donald underestimated the strength of the divine being; he failed to cause any damage to it and instead broke his own long beak.
So he had to change tactics, shifting through several forms, yet still found no way to deal with the divine light.
Donald had no choice but to temporarily abandon his attempt to capture the divine being, revert to his human form, and return to the pillar of light to think carefully.
As the light kept wandering through the world of consciousness, occasionally turning back to tease Donald with an air of arrogance, Donald suddenly had an idea—a very feasible solution.