615 Speculation (1/2)

Seeing the familiar view, Lucien immediately recalled the identity of the sphinx mummy before him. It was exactly Finks, the King of Sphinxes that he encountered when he accomplished Rhine's task.

At that time, it was sealed inside a coffin, and it was executed by him with Pale Justice after his resurrection, falling into dormancy again. When he escaped through the gap of the World of Souls, he saw the shadow of its mausoleum, the bloodstained ball of light, and the weird red 'spider threads', which made him realize that it was actually sealed in the World of Souls.

Right now, its real self had been slain by the Sword of Truth through the projection. There was no need to worry about sealing him anymore, because beings which had completely died could not be sealed.

”Is this a projection? Sacrificing the wisdom to obtain the original strength? No wonder my 'Fateful Meteor' failed to destroy it.” Douglas said speculatively. 'Fateful Meteor' could destroy all the life-preserving preparations when it was imposed on the real self, but it could not destroy the real self through projections or clones.

Lucien said solemnly, ”Perhaps it's not only because it sacrificed its wisdom. I suspect that it was sealed in the World of Souls because somebody intended to extract the power in the light ball of its godhood. Right. It is Finks, the King of Sphinxes.”

”Finks, the legend who died ten thousand years ago?” Douglas was very familiar with ancient civilizations. Also, Finks' mausoleum still lied in the southern desert of the Gusta Empire today.

Fernando, on the other hand, grasped the key point in Lucien's words. ”The ball of godhood?”

Lucien nodded and described what he saw in Finks' mausoleum and the reflection of the World of Souls.

If it were a few years ago, they wouldn't have known what the weird ball that could not be touched or approached was, but right now, they had absolutely no doubt that it was a cluster of godhood.

After a brief silence, Douglas said solemnly, ”So to speak, Finks was possibly not really dead ten thousand years ago. It was actually captured by somebody of the World of Souls and sealed in a specific place to gather the ball of godhood. The projection to defend the Temple of Spirits was only a side effect.”

”Hehe. That explains why there were no fake gods in the main material world until the War of Dawn! I checked all the ancient records and discovered no fake gods at all! I was most curious about that. Since there were so many fake gods during the War of Dawn, it meant that the main material world had the conditions to gather the ball of godhood, but why are there so many fake gods in the alternate dimensions but none in the main material world? Because the World of Souls is behind everything.” Fernando sniffed.

Erica frowned. ”Are you suggesting that every legend or powerful creature who could possibly gather the ball of godhood was noticed by the World of Souls, and they died 'naturally' when they almost succeeded?”

”More or less. According to Evans' report, the mysterious existence of the World of Souls recovered a lot by absorbing the godhood of the same nature. Perhaps, the legends of the World of Souls captured the King of Sphinxes and transformed his godhood in order to awaken him.” Vicente said gloomily.

For a legend like Finks, although he would not collect godhood actively, the light of godhood would be naturally gathered in him after he was worshiped by all the tribes of sphinxes. Then, he caught the World of Souls' attention.

Also, since he was not really dead, the spontaneous power of faith would be gathered where he was sealed, making it impossible for future generations to become a 'god'. It should be the same case for 'Amboula', the Lord of Ocean worshiped by the Kuo-toans. Even though the emperor of the Kuo-toans was stronger than him, he could not sense any power of faith at all.

That was why no fake gods had ever appeared after the age of myths. It was not until the War of Dawn that a large group of people began to preach and collect faith.

After a brief conversation, the six legendary sorcerers had basically uncovered the scheme that lingered for tens of thousands of years.

The World of Souls had always been peeping at and threatening the main material world. It was definitely not harmless!

The exploration was much more valuable than anticipated!

”The ritual in the World of Souls is not bad at all. The King of Sphinxes slept for ten thousand years without decaying at all.” Klaus shook his head with a smile, dissolving the temporarily frozen atmosphere with a joke.

Lucien smiled. ”When you approach the end of your life, you can send an application to the legends of the World of Souls to be sealed. Then, thousands of years later, when your dream becomes reality, you can be woken up again and enjoy everything.”

”Huh, that's a great idea.” Klaus smiled. ”But I still have a long life that I can enjoy and many puppets that are waiting for me. I cannot be sealed in a gloomy mausoleum and defend the Temple of Spirits with a disgusting look.”

Taking a deep breath, Douglas pointed at the secret entrance up ahead, ”More terrible things may be waiting for us. We must be careful.”

The corpse of the King of Sphinxes stopped slithering. The swarm of black beetles lost the feelings of a mixture of life and death. They soon turned into grey mucus and melted into the black mud.

......

The pure black gate was decorated with the gloomy stripes. Emitting unusual coldness, it invoked awe in everybody who saw it.

The entrance was dozens of meters tall, as if it were designed for giants, but according to Adol's description, it was the smallest door in the group of palaces.

Many senior-rank spectres similar to Adol were floating. They were defending the pathway in puffy long robes.

Douglas frowned. ”The spiritual power is blocked in the Temple of Spirits. My magic eyes would be disconnected after they are sent in. It seems that we can only sneak in.”

”Perhaps, the Temple of Spirits is part of the projection of the mysterious existence of the World of Souls.” Vicente suddenly said.

”Very possible.” Fernando, unusually, agreed with Vicente.