Chapter 139: Existence Is Everything, Everything Is for Existence

Lando Estate.

Silvia was teaching her daughter and student combat techniques. She had once been the head of the Church of Nature’s surgical strike unit in Palis, making her an excellent teacher.

The surgical strike unit was meant to make precise attacks like performing a surgery. All members were elites fighting on the frontline. Every branch of the Church of Nature had one such unit.

The one in Londan had become an empty shell after the Darkness Knight’s attack, suffering from a manpower shortage. Although it was firmly under Silvia’s control, it had fallen far in its combat power, not even enough to endure one strike from the Darkness Knight.

Anyhow, due to Silvia’s unique bloodline, all the combat techniques she knew, she learned by fighting enemies. When she talked about close combat, she referred to not only melee techniques, but also the use of bloodline, mana, and faith magic.

Outside of Veronica, who also had dragon blood, and Wayne, who had an unusual life essence, everyone else would have to have a death wish to learn and apply her techniques in a real fight.

That was what she wanted!

When it was Wayne’s turn, Silvia didn’t immediately start with the combat lesson, but instead taught Wayne how to cultivate his Silver Cross first. The four components of the Silver Cross came from dissecting and reassembling the hexagram, so only a mage who had completed the balance of their hexagram could do it. Wayne had gone through the process. Now, he had to combine earth, fire, water, and wind to create the life part of the Silver Cross.

“Silver Cross, god, life, void, self...”

“You know how important life essence is, so I won’t waste time going into that. Dividing god from void and self comes with risks, and only after you’ve merged elements into the life component will the risks be minimized. Hence, we’ll get to void and self later.”

Silvia taught her students by going through each step one at a time for steady progress; she hoped that Veronica and Wayne would learn from her example and focus on building a stable foundation rather than seeking quick progress. Otherwise, if they pursued power blindly rather than improving upon themselves, they would sooner or later become dark mages.

“You’ve achieved balance. Merging the elements involves getting close to nature. Control your thoughts and empty your mind. Allow nature to guide the earth, fire, water, and wind in you.”

Silvia unfurled a canvas paper and drew a complex magic circle. “It’s difficult to get close to nature. Even a Gold-rank mage would struggle to get any response. During cultivation, we have to enhance our senses with magic circles...”

“But at the same time, our thoughts will be incredibly active, vying for control with nature and greatly disrupting the merging of life essence.”

Silvia went into great detail about every part of the process so that even a newbie who had never learned basic magic would be able to understand. Wayne nodded along. With the hexagram becoming one entity, void and self will inevitably influence the process of combining elements into life essence. Thus, the two components had to be isolated from the life essence in the meantime.

Without outside support, one’s life essence couldn’t evolve. A mage had to get close to nature to learn how earth, fire, water, and wind coexisted harmoniously.

It was impossible to interact with nature—or at least that was what common sense dictated in the world of magic. While training, magic circles were required for the enhancement of senses to better commune with nature. That, however, would also make one’s thoughts more active than usual, increasing the difficulty of the merging of life.

In Wayne’s understanding, it was like someone with an empty head having an easier time. The more one thought, the more difficult it would be to hear the voices of nature. Actually, he had been trying the same thing for a long time. Communicating with nature had always been a minor goal of his.

Silvia smiled. “Try it first. Your first time will certainly fail, but it’ll be an experience you can learn from.”

Failure wasn’t bad, but giving up was. She believed her student wouldn’t give up easily. He would hear the voices of nature in a month or two. Then he would be able to merge earth, fire, water, and wind with its help. That was already a high expectation, but she believed her student could do it.

Veronica huffed. The process had taken her half a year. She hoped that Wayne would quickly catch up, or it would be boring to spar with him.

“Okay. I’ll give it a try.”

Wayne nodded, sitting cross-legged in the center of the magic circle. He could do it standing up, but he insisted that this posture could better put him in the mood for cultivation.

As he injected his mana, the magic circle lit up with light blue, and his figure became hazy.

“Stop watching him. I’ll continue with your fighting lesson.” Silvia patted Veronica on the shoulder and led her away so that they wouldn’t disturb Wayne.

Meanwhile, Wayne emptied his head and conversed with nature as soon as he sat down. It felt like falling upward into the clouds to look up at the vast, esoteric starry universe. Every breath was so quiet that he could hear his heartbeat, and his every exhale slowly became part of the universe above.

Vitality spread through every part of his body, dispersing his negative emotions and all other thoughts. He felt lighter and lighter until he was one with the universe. His existence vanished, but became omnipresent at the same time.

He had learned to do this a long time ago and could hear the voices of nature without the help of magic circles, but those times, the voices were unintelligible and faint; he had only known that nature was a real talker.

This time, with the magic circle enhancing his senses, he heard clearly the breathing of wind, the serenity of water, the heartbeats of earth, and the vitality fire injected into the world as it weaved all the voices together like a conductor, composing the symphony of nature. It was the rhythm of life!

Wayne glowed with brown-yellow, golden red, indigo, and cyan. The lights slowly converged in tandem with the rhythm of life.

∑(Ő_Ő)ŐoŐ;)

Not far from him, Silvia and Veronica stopped moving at the same time, turning to Wayne and gulping in shock.

Veronica’s mouth fell open into an O like she was seeing a ghost. “Mother, he seems to have su—”

“Hush. Don’t interrupt him.”

Silvia’s eyes lit up. What remarkable talent from someone with the original bloodline. As expected of God’s child. Even nature favored him.

What? Whose mother are you?

Veronica pouted. Her mouth gradually opened again as she watched Wayne. Not only had he established communication with nature at once, but he was also progressing smoothly through the merging of his life essence. At this rate, he would complete the stage in a minute.

Why would the scum have a pure mind? Was nature blind? Did he write the diary to mess with her?

Veronica started questioning everything she knew about life. What she had done in a year, the scum only needed one minute to complete. There were around five hundred thousand minutes in a year, which would mean the scum was five hundred thousand better than her.

She imagined a future where the scum threw a punch at her, and she could do nothing but roll around on the ground and whine like Vera. No, it was absolutely not happening!

She sucked in a breath. There was no time to be shocked. She had to use every second of her time to become stronger.

“Mother, let’s start...”

“Hush!”

Veronica pressed a hand to her chest. It hurt so much that it felt like she had been shot in the heart.

A minute later, Wayne exhaled a thick breath and slowly opened his eyes, saying uncertainly, “Master, I think I succeeded?”

“Yes, you succeeded.” Silvia went up to squeeze his shoulder with a look of excitement. “A regular mage will need three minutes to finish the process. The fact that you did it in one proves your genius. But don’t get too ahead of yourself. You’re only two minutes faster than average.”

Veronica’s mouth twitched. She hoped that her mother would control her expression before spouting lies, and if she didn’t have a talent for lying, she only had to read a few entries of the scum’s diary.

Wayne’s mouth twitched as well. It was so obviously false that even Veronica wouldn’t fall for the lie. Still, he said with a serious expression, “So I’m only two minutes faster than average. Thank you for your reminder, or I’ll for sure get ahead of myself.”

𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

“It’s best that you think that way.” Realizing that her excitement might have given her away, Silvia cleared her throat with her fist pressed to her mouth and changed the subject. Well, she became even more excited after giving up her act.

“Sit down and don’t move. Let me check.”

“I wanna check too!”

Wayne raised his hands as two blondes leaned into him with excitement glinting in their eyes, as if they wanted to dissect him.

After a moment, the green light in Silvia’s eyes dimmed. She patted away the delicate hand Veronica was pinching Wayne’s face with. “Stop messing around. And don’t tell a soul about Wayne. If anyone asks, just tell them that I forcefully increased his rank through a special method. Understand?”

Veronica nodded, swearing to tell no one, not even Vera or Kristen.

“Wayne, you’re too extraordinary...”

Silvia looked at her naive student and felt a great pressure weighing her down. She was worried that she would fail Wayne as a master, and that another church might steal him away. The possibility was great. After all, she had stolen him from the Church of Moonlight. It could happen again.

“I understand, Master. I’ve been keeping a low profile.”

“It’s not that simple. Given your talent, you won’t be able to remain unknown for long.”

Based on Silvia’s original plan, her student would become a Silver-rank mage before the deadline for applying to become Nature’s Anointed One or Holy Maiden, meeting the minimum requirement before making an impressive debut as the most extraordinary candidate.

Now it seemed that she had overthought it. Why would he apply to be a candidate when the goddess already had Her eyes on him? To ensure that her student wouldn’t be stolen, Silvia decided to quickly teach him faith magic, turning his mana green and marking it as the Goddess of Nature’s so that no one could take him.

“Still, it won’t work...”

Even after he was marked by the Goddess of Nature, the other two churches of the Life Alliance would be able to do the same. During the Silver rank, he would be learning Life Magic, which would require the faith magics of Sun and Moonlight.

And then there was the damn Free Mage Alliance!

Silvia frowned with concern. Seizing the opportunity, Veronica reached out to poke Wayne in the face like she was curious about a rare species. In retaliation, Wayne pinched her back.

When Silvia broke out of her reverie, her student and daughter were pinching each other’s faces. Neither was willing to let go first.

I’m still here!

Rolling her eyes, she separated the two with a wave of her hand. “Wayne, the hexagram in your body hasn’t changed because you haven’t separated god from void and self. The process will challenge—right, it’s not gonna challenge you. You can just do it.”

...What do you mean ‘just do it’? Is this how you teach?

“Your life essence is already set. Take time to stabilize it and try to capture the four elements to strengthen it. Given your elemental affinity, it won’t be difficult.”

It might be his imagination, but he had a feeling that his master had gotten a little dejected, losing some of her motivation. The same was true of Veronica, but she was too tsundere to admit it.

Veronica wasn’t sure what to feel. She wanted the best for Wayne, but not for him to become better than her. She bet everything on him getting stumped when dividing void and self. Otherwise, she really would become another Vera.

From now on, she would spend every moment she wasn’t reading his diary on training.

***

Suburban Londan.

The setting sun poured golden light onto the dense layers of forests. Breezes rustled the trees and branches, making it seem like the golden light was dancing amid the canopies.

This was private property. Near the mountains and creeks was a two-story mansion. There was no car drive leading in since the owner disliked visitors. In the dark space created through thoughts at the heart of the mansion, a statue hovered quietly, depicting a half-human, half-millipede being. It was the Thousand-Eyed Demon, a demon from hell.

The demon’s descent failed, losing him a great amount of thoughts and parts of his soul. He thus became the latest joke in hell. His allies cackled so hard that their faces twisted. After that, they all offered him ‘help’.

You’re so seriously injured that the other demons will sooner or later take your territory from you. Don’t worry. We’ll keep parts of it for you. Once you’ve recovered, we’ll return your land to you.

Let go if you know what’s good for you. Do you think your buddies will cheat you? Just give it here!

Putting aside the Thousand-Eyed Demon’s predicament in hell, he retained two collections of thoughts after his failed descent to the mortal realm. One was sealed by the Church of Heavenly Father in the sacred tome of the Golden Law, under the watch of angels. The other was taken by a free mage after a deal was made, becoming the statue.

It would seem like the Thousand-Eyed Demon was imprisoned and humiliated so badly that death would be preferable, but rather than panicking, he was even a little pleased with himself.

Existence is everything. Everything is for existence.

Existence is the truth!

While his thoughts had been sealed, it didn’t mean that he could never leave. Since the free mage had chosen to work with him, he would be able to exploit the mage’s desires to make him into his puppet.

Demons were experts in doing business.

A figure entered from the edge of the dark space. The white-bearded old man wore a mage robe and a triangular hat, holding a wooden staff.

Obed!

He had a long name. Ignoring his many middle names, he could be simply referred to as Obed

Windsor

!

As a member of the royal family, Obed didn’t originally have Windsor as his surname. For the longest time, he had been using his own family name, but twenty years ago, the royal family opted to use the same surname. That was when he adopted Windsor as his last name.

As for his old one, Obed had a complicated background, coming from one of the fourteen Tulip Families.

“Finally. I thought you wouldn’t seek me out until later,” the statue of the Thousand-Eyed Demon said with a chuckle.

The laugh made Obed frown. He huffed, “Don’t take this the wrong way. I keep you to study hell, not to enter a deal with you.”

“That’s what everyone says in the beginning.” The Thousand-Eyed Demon sounded pleased with himself. “You’re a smart man, unlike those two fools who have ambitions but not the courage to pursue those ambitions. You needn’t hide your desires. Just tell me, what do you want?”

“I want your territory in hell!”

Obed’s bold claim stunned the Thousand-Eyed Demon for a moment. Then he recovered and broke out laughing. “So that’s it. You don’t want to enter the Divine Realm of a goddess and find it beneath yourself to serve one of them. That’s why you’re unwilling to leave the Chosen Land. Good. That’s very much in line with your pursuit of freedom.”

Obed didn’t say anything. He did have such a thought. He had been serving the royal family like a dog his whole life; he didn’t intend to keep doing that, not even if his new master was a god!

“I don’t know where you get your information, but you’re on the right track. Yes, hell corresponds to heaven and is considered a Divine Realm. However, the seven demon lords split the supreme power. Until they determine a victor between them, there will be no...”

“God!”

The Thousand-Eyed Demon smirked. Prideful human, that hubris would be his to exploit.

I’ll be back!

“Kekekeke—”