There was likely not a single sorcerer who would fail to feel a thrill of excitement at the term "candidate God Lord."
God Lords were not merely magnificent beings standing above all living creatures; they were symbols of omnipotence. Not only were they immortal themselves, but they could also welcome mortals into the Kingdom of Heaven, granting eternal bliss and boundless pleasure.
They could pierce through Hell to resurrect life, and scrawl across mortal nations with wanton abandon.
The entire world was their playground, and the rise, fall, creation, and annihilation of all things hung upon their single thought.
The Witch excitedly clung to Yaxiu's arm, the Sword Princess's breath grew shallow and rapid with flushed cheeks, and even Weise silently clenched her fists. Only Yaxiu remained relatively calm—after all, becoming a God Lord likely wouldn't solve his problems. For instance, returning to Earth, or getting the Sword Princess to accept becoming divine empresses together with the Witch...
No, Yaxiu suddenly recalled that his transmigration seemed closely tied to the Four Pillar Cult. The Four Pillar Gods were probably at the God Lord level. Perhaps once he became a God Lord, he could uncover the secrets of transmigration. Even if he couldn't unravel it, he could still beat up the Four Pillar Gods to extract information.
At any rate, there was at least something to look forward to.
However, sorcerers were no fools. Delicious and sweet as this promised pie was, it only counted if one could actually eat it. Taking a deep breath, Weise asked, "What do we need to do?"
The Dream Demon raised a hand, and a massive three-dimensional projection suddenly appeared in midair within the hall. "This is the divine blueprint of the god Nightmare. Your task is to construct a virtual godhead according to the sorcery procedure."
Yaxiu and the others stared for a moment, each of them feeling dizzy. Diya exclaimed in surprise, "This sorcery procedure looks so much like the trial of the fifteenth stage!"
"Because the trial of the fifteenth stage in the Spectre legacy was screening for Truth Sorcerers."
The Dream Demon said, "Although any sorcerer can construct a godhead sorcery procedure, there is a failure rate in its assembly; the slightest mistake will cause the procedure to collapse. Below demigod, only Truth Sorcerers possess any possibility of successfully constructing a godhead procedure. Above demigod, if a sorcerer is not proficient in the truth faction, constructing a godhead is also extremely prone to failure."
Only then did Yaxiu and the others understand why the Dream Demon had chosen them as successors—because Weise was a Truth Sorcerer!
Who could have guessed that the truth faction was actually the key sorcery for creating gods? If this news got out, perhaps... well, perhaps nothing would happen after all, since the truth faction was one of the three esoteric sorceries; ordinary people couldn't even find the threshold to begin studying it.
Weise gazed at the procedure diagram and asked, "This godhead sorcery procedure requires many sorcery spirits to construct. Do you have sorcery spirits?"
"Because my original body previously attempted to construct the Nightmare godhead and failed, many materials have been preserved." The Dream Demon swept its hands, and the walls on both sides of the hall peeled back, revealing fluorescent crystal walls sealing sorcery spirits within. "However, because too much time has passed and they lacked nourishment, many sorcery spirits have starved to death."
"A Four-Wing Heart Sword!" Sonia tugged at Yaxiu's arm. Yaxiu looked over and indeed saw a Four-Wing Heart Sword sorcery spirit—his own Heart Sword was still only Two-Wing!
"Time Fortune, Heaven's Time, Time-Consuming, Multiplied Speed..." Diya focused first on the time sorcery spirits inside the crystal wall, murmuring, "There's even a Four-Wing Reverse Year!"
The Reverse Year series: One-Wing reversed one year, Two-Wing eight years, Three-Wing twenty-seven years, and Four-Wing sixty-four years!
Even the treasury of the Isu royal family didn't have a Four-Wing Reverse Year sorcery spirit!
It was worth noting that while Reverse Year sorcery spirits were the finest longevity-extending products, their use was subject to many particular rules. For example, they could not be stacked.
In other words, if you were ninety-nine years old, even if you had sixty-four One-Wing Reverse Years, you could only return to ninety-eight. But if you had a Four-Wing Reverse Year, you could return to the prime age of thirty-five!
Then could a sixty-three-year-old not use a Four-Wing Reverse Year? Under normal circumstances, they indeed couldn't, but Diya knew a time miracle, 'Everlasting Youth', which could finely adjust how many years you regressed. Any remaining years after the adjustment would then lock your age for that duration.
In the most extreme case, a twenty-five-year-old who obtained a Four-Wing Reverse Year could use Everlasting Youth to lock their twenty-five-year-old state for sixty-four years!
As one could imagine, anyone who obtained a Four-Wing Reverse Year would hoard it for personal use and never put it up for trade.
As for the other time sorcery spirits, they were basically all Four-Wing rank, and even the occasional Three-Wing time sorcery spirit was a rare treasure that made even Diya drool!
Even the treasury of an entire kingdom's royal family couldn't compare to the legacy left behind by a demigod angel!
Everyone paced back and forth around the crystal walls, utterly dazzled. Even if they gained nothing else, just being able to pick a few sorcery spirits here would be an unbelievable haul!
"Can we pick a sorcery spirit from here first as a deposit?" Yaxiu asked tentatively. "Of course, we won't choose any sorcery spirit needed for the godhead sorcery procedure—"
"No." The Dream Demon shook its head. "All sorcery spirits and materials may only be used to construct the sorcery procedure."
"But surely there are extras?" Sonia said. "Can't we pick from the leftovers?"
"No."
The Dream Demon repeated, "All sorcery spirits and materials may only be used to construct the sorcery procedure. You are not permitted to use them for private purposes."
The four exchanged glances, their eyes flickering as they realized something was off about the Dream Demon.
As Sanctuary Sorcerers who regularly interacted with other Sanctuaries, they naturally understood the average IQ and EQ of high-ranking sorcerers. Morons and fools could never overcome the trials of the Void Realm; scheming and calculating were practically carved into a sorcerer's soul, and speaking only seventy percent while keeping thirty percent guarded was their second nature.
Yet not only had the Dream Demon explained the Soul Godhead School in great detail despite it being irrelevant to the Virtual Godhead School, it had also mentioned the death of its original body without the slightest evasion or concealment. Faced with the four's requests, it refused flatly with zero leeway, offering not a shred of courtesy.
This was completely unlike the social competence of a demigod sorcerer. Coupled with its claim of being a devil derived from a sorcerer manual, everyone vaguely realized that it likely lacked the reasoning capacity of a normal person. It was more like an automated program executing commands: black was black, white was white, with no grasp of secrecy or tact.
A peculiar light shone in Weise's eyes as she asked, "If all gods are born from concepts, how did the very first gods appear?"
Dream Demon: "Concept aggregation phenomena. It is generally believed that as sorceries continue to advance, concepts will spontaneously aggregate various materials and undergo metamorphosis into gods, though this process often takes thousands or tens of thousands of years. If a sorcerer clearly knows the various materials required for a concept's aggregation and its metamorphosis ritual, they can use the Soul Godhead School to accelerate the gestation of a god."
Sonia caught on as well and asked, "Gods are unique. If the god corresponding to a concept already exists, does that mean it cannot be created?"
Dream Demon: "Correct. If the god already exists, no matter how many times you try, you cannot create the same god. However, a single concept can point to multiple different gods, and entirely unprecedented new gods can also be created. Nightmare is a god that has never existed before, so there is no need to worry about this."
Yaxiu asked, "What is the layer above Ruby Mountain? If one walks the Path of Origin, how do you get there?"
Dream Demon: "I cannot tell you, or you will be infected by secret poison. If you wish to walk the Path of Origin, you must find an angel on Ruby Mountain."
Diya watched them fire off questions one after another, only realizing after a moment what they were doing—they were taking advantage of the Dream Demon being a rigid machine to milk every drop of intelligence about demigod sorcerers from its mouth!
To this group of Sanctuary Sorcerers, the knowledge possessed by the Dream Demon was likely even more valuable than that wall of sorcery spirits! These were divine secrets that even Legendary Sorcerers craved; not asking as much as possible right now would be a massive loss!
"Colorless Dream!" Diya suddenly remembered. "Colorless Dream requires the Dream Entry sorcery spirit and the four materials of Wind, Flower, Snow, and Moon. Are there still Dream Entry sorcery spirits here?"
The Dream Demon shook its head. "Dream Entry sorcery spirits were natural sorcery spirits generated from the close fusion between the Dream Entry concept and the Kingdom of Heaven in Dreams before it shattered. After the Kingdom of Heaven in Dreams shattered, all Dream Entry sorcery spirits were annihilated along with it; none remain."
The four sighed. Without the Dream Entry sorcery spirit, it meant they could not take the Path of Origin to reach Ruby Mountain and could only honestly hone their sorcery factions...
"Wait," Yaxiu suddenly realized something. "After we create a god, won't its Gate of Truth open for us as well? Wouldn't we be able to bypass Ruby Mountain and directly reach the fifth layer of the Void Realm?"
But the Dream Demon shook its head. "That will not happen."
"Why?"
"To reach the fifth layer, one must find an angel on Ruby Mountain. If you have not found one, even if you create a god, you can only reach Ruby Mountain."
The four looked at each other in dismay—the orthodox advancement route of relying on sorcery attainment was only effective below Legendary. To break through the boundary between Legendary and demigod, one had to walk the Path of Origin and find an angel!
Thud.
Suddenly, a faint tremor swept through the golden hall.
"Another layer of seals has been broken," the Dream Demon said. "The reason Sanctuary Sorcerers cannot utilize sorcery spirits and sorcery power within the legacy is that the Spectre seal draws upon the might of the Kingdom of Heaven in Dreams. Once too many seals are broken, Sanctuary Sorcerers will regain their full combat strength and tear through the Spectre legacy from the inside."
"The Spectre legacy will not hold for long. You must act immediately."
With that, the Dream Demon pointed a finger, and a black shackle linked the four of them, fastening tightly around their necks!
"This is the divine miracle 'Same Bed, Different Dreams'," the Dream Demon said. "You are now in the state of 'Same Bed'. I will keep one person behind as a hostage. If I unleash 'Different Dreams' upon the hostage, even if you flee to reality, you will all fall into a nightmare curse, which will not end until the souls of your entire party are completely ground away by nightmares."
The expressions of Yaxiu and the others turned exceedingly grim, though they weren't particularly surprised—from the moment they were teleported here, they had mentally prepared themselves for dire straits.
How could a legacy left behind by an evil sorcerer like the Nightmare Angel carry no risk to their lives?
"The other three must gather the missing sorcery spirits and materials for the godhead sorcery procedure." The Dream Demon swiped a finger, and a checklist appeared before them: "A total of twenty-six sorcery spirits and two materials."
Sonia said anxiously, "Wind's Wound and Moon's Crystal? But those two materials have long since vanished!"
"Void Realm materials never vanish; they merely exist in another form," the Dream Demon said. "Both materials are spatial and mental materials. Most likely, the development of the space faction and mind faction caused these two materials to upgrade into sorcery spirits."
Seizing the opening, Weise asked, "What were the four materials—Wind's Wound, Flower's Murmur, Snow's Scatter, and Moon's Crystal—used for in the past? Were they only to feed Dream Entry sorcery spirits?"
"No, these four materials were mostly used by sorcerers themselves," the Dream Demon said. "By coming into contact with these materials, sorcerers would perceive the four processes of spatial formation, completeness, collapse, and void, thereby mastering the space faction to form a Sanctuary. However, the yield of these four materials was not high, so not all Three-Wing Sorcerers could enter the threshold of the space faction."
Yaxiu and the others came to a sudden realization.
Presumably, once the space faction developed to a certain degree, those four materials gradually integrated into the Distant Sky Realm, eventually forming the Forbidden Rite of Wind, Flower, Snow, and Moon Tuning.
In this regard, the modern era was indeed far more advanced than the past. In ancient times, a Sanctuary was a luxury for Three-Wing Sorcerers, whereas now a Sanctuary was standard equipment for Three-Wing Sorcerers—after all, without a Sanctuary, one would be crushed to dust by the Forbidden Rite of Wind, Flower, Snow, and Moon Tuning.
"Although the materials can no longer be found, sorcery spirits can serve as direct substitutes."
With a flick of its finger, the Dream Demon erased 'Wind's Wound and Moon's Crystal' from the list, replacing them with 'Four-Wing Wind-Formed Sorcery Spirit' and 'Four-Wing Moon Void Sorcery Spirit'.
Yet the expressions of Yaxiu and the others didn't improve in the slightest.
Staring at the long list of Four-Wing sorcery spirits, they asked in bewilderment, "This is the Distant Sky Realm, where only Three-Wing Sorcerers can go. Where are we supposed to find so many Four-Wing sorcery spirits?"
"Precisely because this is the Distant Sky Realm, it is possible for you to find these sorcery spirits," the Dream Demon said. "My original body mastered a divine miracle capable of creating whatever sorcery spirit was desired at will, regardless of species or number of wings."
Yaxiu and the others were dumbfounded—for real? Getting whatever you wanted?
Dream Demon: "Its name is Dream Come True."
Chapter 660