If we take a more rigorous approach, Simon actually possesses two treasures.
One is his index finger, a precious artifact capable of manipulating mechanical constructs and even transforming parts of his flesh into machinery.
The other is the Hand of Precision, which he essentially uses as his right forearm. When Alka first acquired the Hand of Precision, it was a sacred artifact of the Church of the Holy Machine.
Only through a ritual performed by the Church of the Holy Machine could it be transformed into a treasure wielded only by its members.
While it's unknown what communication Simon and the Church had, at least after arriving on the Twin Islands, the Hand of Precision remained under Simon's control.
The Church didn't take it back, apparently tacitly granting Simon the use of the artifact.
Overall, however, even after upgrading this artifact to a treasure, it wouldn't bring Simon much real benefit.
This artifact is essentially a supplementary artifact, not a fully realized treasure.
If Alka and the others had previously struggled to understand the fundamental difference between a holy artifact and a treasure, they could now clearly explain the difference. The difference between a holy artifact and a treasure lies in the fact that one is an object embodied by the true essence of divinity.
The other, after being imbued with divine power and profoundly imbued with it, barely reaches the level of a treasure.
This barely reaches the level of a treasure primarily in terms of its ability. Under certain circumstances, it can elevate a small number of individuals to the level of a Toucher.
Generally speaking, it still relies on divine power.
According to their understanding, such Touchers must be believers of the gods.
So, if one were to insist, Simon could be considered to have mastered one and a half treasures.
But he was a member of the Church of the Holy Machine, and a mechanic, a profession unique to the Church.
Both treasures could bring him powerful blessings.
When Alka handed him the galaxy, he held out his own hand.
He took the ring in his metal palm.
He looked at his hands, thought for a moment, and put it on his left.
His entire left hand had been severed at the root, relying entirely on a metal replacement constructed from the treasure's index finger.
His right hand, starting from the forearm, had also been severed, and he used a precision hand to replace both his forearm and right hand.
The treasure's index finger also replaced the precision hand's index finger.
So, after much deliberation, he placed the ring on the mechanical finger of his left hand.
In front of everyone's gaze, the ring was firmly fixed on his left hand.
As it was placed on his finger, several threads of magical power spread from the mechanical arm and then flowed into the ring, which was flowing with the galaxy.
The galaxy emanated a faint starlight.
But at that moment...
With the sound of shattering parts,
Simon's entire left arm instantly transformed into shattered metal parts, falling to the floor. Even the precision hand and index finger on his right hand were shattered, one by one, and landed on the deck.
In an instant, Simon's left arm was completely missing, with only the upper arm of his right arm remaining in a crippled state.
Looking at this scene, Simon shrugged optimistically, saying somewhat helplessly, "It seems this treasure is clearly not suitable for me."
Arkha squatted awkwardly and picked up the ring from the broken parts.
Then he picked up the treasure's index finger and precision hand, aligning them on Simon's right arm.
Without the interference of the galaxy, the precision hand instantly connected, connecting with the index finger. Instantly, the mechanical parts on the ground flew into the air, and the broken joint connecting to the left arm quickly spread downwards.
The brand new left arm was reconstructed.
"Looks like I'll have to take care of it for now," Alka said, putting the ring back on his finger.
Another reason he didn't want to wear the Galaxy on his hand was because he couldn't use the Dreamcatcher's most important ability.
That was the ability to double in dreams.
Although he rarely used this ability in battle now, it was undoubtedly a very useful one.
It could reveal the enemy's abilities on his behalf during the current battle.
Especially now that most of the enemies Alka encountered possessed treasures. Who knew if they possessed some powerful treasure? Without understanding the enemy's abilities at first sight, it could easily cause heavy casualties.
However, with the Galaxy blocking the use of the other two treasures, this would be difficult to achieve.
Since that wasn't going to work, Alka stopped thinking about it and turned to Jason, asking, "How's the situation around here lately?"
Hearing this, Jason shrugged helplessly and said, "What else can we do? Those cultists are disgusting to the core.
Every day, new cultists and pirates are killed, but they never tire of it.
From the information I've gathered from Gilliana, they're probably harassing us to hide their true purpose. They're planning something big."
"Big event? Any clues?" Alka asked, frowning.
Lately, while sleeping in dreams, he's been experiencing unpleasant sensations.
As he's fully become a Dream King within his dreams, he won't ignore any of his feelings.
Those are all premonitions brought about by the unknown.
Dreams are always closely related to the future, divination, and premonition.
After all, this is a purely spiritual world.
Even though Alka, the King of Dreams, didn't specifically seek such power, he could still sense the chill when danger struck.
Of course, Shadow Robe had told him this.
Having served a king before, Shadow Robe could answer most of Alka's questions.
As long as they didn't involve reality.
In Shadow Robe's words, he'd been to reality only a handful of times in his life.
The stronger one becomes, the harder it is to cross the threshold and enter reality.
"We're getting some clues. Through their methods and the Great Gardener's divination, they suggest it might be related to the descent into the abyss."
"Descent into the abyss? Could they be trying to drag this place directly into the abyss? Simply devour this entire area, once and for all?" Simon immediately connected the dots upon hearing this.
After all, they now knew the mastermind was the powerful abyssal demon, the Devouring Mouth.
The ultimate goal of all the demons' actions is to drag a world, or a region of a world, into the abyss.
Jason shook his head. "Unlikely. There's still a month left until the Flower Fairies revive.
The entire Land of Spirits is teeming with patrols, conducting a relentless search, especially around the Land of Fragrance."
As the location where the Flower Fairies apparently revived, the Land of Fragrance is naturally the most vulnerable to problems.
So, it's now practically impenetrable, with three layers of defense inside and outside.
It's an outrageous level of security.
But for the Flower People, this isn't enough.
However, Alka knows exactly where the true resurrection will be found.
It's in the dream world of the Land of Fragrance.
The enormous Dream Sky Flower has completely retracted.
It was even larger than before, emitting a faint divine light within the dream.
For this reason, Alka deliberately moved his mirror realm to their current location.
To better protect the dreamland where the Flower Fairy had revived.
This also resulted in the Land of All Spirits being in much better condition than they had imagined, becoming more stable.
Therefore, being dragged into the abyss would be exceedingly difficult.
At the very least, they had to eliminate the Flower Fairy and then destroy his realm.
They also had to ensure that the Holy Mother wouldn't intervene in the final, most critical moment.
This was the advantage of Alka's mirror realm.
It could move freely within the dreamland, and its concealment was extremely high.
At this moment, Alka looked at the map in his hand.
The symbol of a dagger piercing a skull on the map suddenly began to move.
Seeing this, Alka frowned and sat down on a nearby chair, staring intently at the map.
On the map, Kalutor was moving incredibly quickly, practically teleporting across vast distances.
He soon arrived at the Land of All Spirits.
He headed almost straight for the Land of Fragrant Aroma.
Alka kept a close eye on his movements.
Until Kalutor, who had been teleporting, came to a stop.
He was on the outskirts of the Land of Fragrant Aroma, with a village nearby.
"Jason, send a message to Gilliana and the others. There might be trouble in Thorn Village!"
With that, Alka waved to the others and quickly ran outside.
The others grabbed their belongings and immediately followed.
The moment they emerged, the blue bird in Jason's hand was already flying towards the Land of Fragrant Aroma. Alka sat on the Swallow, looking at the map in his hand. Kaluto's position no longer teleported in long bursts, but slowly began to approach the village marker on the map.
The Swallow had already started, rapidly heading towards the village.
They had been to this village many times before.
It had been plagued by many disasters.
During the previous demon cleansing, it had been attacked by demons several times.
Recently, during the cultist infestation, it had been frequently attacked and looted by pirates.
It was also a key base for patrol soldiers, and most of them would rest there at certain times.
During this tense period, it was no exception.
"What happened there?" Sofia asked, steering the Swallow at a rapid speed.
No one asked Alka how he knew. But as long as Alka had read the map, they paid little attention to the information he'd gathered.
"You can assume I've marked Kalutor's presence and sensed his presence close to us, appearing in the direction of Thorn Village."
Hearing this, everyone nodded.
After all, Alka would occasionally reveal Kalutor's location.
So that was the reason.
Elsewhere, the bird, formed by Jason's message, quickly flew into the military camp.
Soon, Gilliana, Rekayalati, and the others, along with a small group of elite soldiers, were seen leaving the Land of Fragrance.
Following the direction Alka and the others had pointed, Alka and the others soon sighted Thorn Village in the distance.
Simon, soaring in the sky, quickly noticed something was amiss.
"There's a fight going on in the village."
"Send your aircraft over to provide support," Alka shouted.
Then Simon, controlling a dozen patrol craft, began to fly rapidly forward.
Everyone quickly caught up.
A crystal dragon glided through the sky. Jason's hand flicked out a rope, which was grabbed by Urulius in the sky and dragged swiftly onto her back.
Pororo, Julia, and Matresa also jumped off the boat and swam swiftly along the water.
Seeing this, Sofia and Alka, two streaks of light, one yellow and one blue, arced past.
Juanlu silently took the helm and followed at the rear.
"One by one, two by two, their speed is incredible."
"It's okay, we're still here," the puppet girls' voices soothed from behind.
Then they saw Team One disappear into the shadows, and Team Nine fluttered their wings and flew away.
"Well, they're a little different."
Alka, transformed into a meteor, watched as Sofia passed him and plummeted into the enemy's ranks. From mid-air, he observed the enemy's formation.
It was clear that the attacking force consisted mostly of pirates. These pirates, weapons in disarray, began wreaking havoc throughout the village.
The remaining guards were clearly insufficient, and Alka had already spotted figures in blood-red robes.
Also, numerous cult groups dressed in black and tattered robes were scattered about.
Judging from the abilities they employed, it was clear they didn't worship a single evil deity.
This was a well-organized and planned attack.
And it was a large-scale attack, involving a large number of individuals and considerable strength.
Clearly, their attack was intended to achieve some important objective.
As Alka fell, he wondered which of the red-robed figures was Kalutto. After a moment's thought, he zeroed in on the tall figure wielding a massive machete and furiously attacking the guards.
He seemed to be a pirate, and in Alka's eyes, his strength had reached the middle of the fourth stage.
As the meteors fell from the sky, the pirate seemed to sense something and looked up.
When he saw a blue meteor, his eyes widened. He instantly raised his long sword, facing upwards, to block it.
A vast amount of grayish-white energy radiated outward from the long sword, forming a magical shield.
"Bang!"
The power of the powerful meteor was clearly not so easily blocked.
With a resounding roar,
the shield shattered, and the entire long sword broke right through.
The broken blade fragments pierced the sturdy man's body.
The meteor shattered, blue light gathering in the iron fist, slamming heavily into the burly man's body.
The burly man flew straight out.
His entire body shrank in mid-air as he plunged into the pirate group behind him.
He instantly reduced the pirates and several cultists standing behind him to a bloody mist.
Judging from the burly man's condition, it was clear he was doomed.
Alka suddenly charged into the battlefield, shocking everyone around him with his absolute dominance.
"Roar!"
A roar echoed from the sky.
Before anyone could raise their heads, a rainbow of light descended upon them. Crystal-like objects instantly appeared on the water and on the enemies, enveloping and freezing them.
A group of statues, with strange postures and expressions of panic and fear, appeared before them.
Blades transformed from blood-red robes flew towards them.
The blue starlight vanished from Alka's body, and a thin mirror appeared before him.
A sharp sound punctured the mirror, but it was no longer as fragile as before and blocked the attack.
A figure in a red robe removed its hood.
Gazing at Kalutor's expression, Alka asked curiously, "You were running away before, but now you dare to face me?"
Alka had expected him to flee the moment he saw her, and was ready to see
Whoever escaped would be pursued.
Unexpectedly, Kalutor stepped forward.
He heard Alka's laughter.
Crimson lines crept up his cheeks, and then a leathery skin, like flesh and blood, appeared on his body.
His eyes also turned orange-yellow.
Giant demonic horns protruded from his forehead and began to grow upward.
His strength began to rise rapidly in front of Alka.
"I'm different now than I was before."
His voice suddenly became hoarse and dull.
Looking at the demonized Kalutor, Alka frowned.
In his eyes, Kalutor's energy suddenly surged, tinged with a large amount of blood-red.
He looked different from the demons they had killed before. He looked more like a mid-level, high-level demon Alka had encountered before.
Judging by the level of his energy increase, Kaluto seemed to be nearly reaching the fifth stage.
Compared to the previous time he'd been beaten and forced to flee, this was a dramatic improvement.
At that moment, a breeze flashed by, and a massive, broken blade slashed towards Alka.
A flash of yellow suddenly appeared, wrapped in long, silver legs, and kicked the burly man in the head.
Rending his sneak attack ineffective.
The attacker was the pirate from earlier, who had been clearly dead just moments before, now somehow standing again.
The corners of his mouth were covered in blood, along with bits of flesh.
Behind him lay several mutilated corpses.
"His treasure seems to be devouring, absorbing!" Simon, in the sky, suddenly exclaimed.
His hidden presence in the sky, observing the entire battle, revealed the reason for the burly man's resurgence.