On this spring evening, as the clouds dispersed, the azure sky revealed itself.
A rainbow stretched across the Sacred Plain, and amidst the ruins of the city and the colossal finger mark, countless wizards embraced, weeping with joy.
For them, everything that had happened was filled with dramatic twists. They had long abandoned the hope of survival, yet against all expectations, they had truly lived.
More than that—the Church, so overwhelmingly powerful that it weighed upon the heart of the entire continent, had been utterly destroyed.
And the one who changed all of their fates was a mysterious stranger, a mighty figure who had nothing to do with them before.
At that thought, countless grateful, curious, and reverent gazes turned toward the silhouette floating above the Holy City.
But at this moment, Lin Tuo's mood was far from light.
"Hu…"
Relying on his true body, floating in midair, Lin Tuo frowned as he stared at the pile of black ash below. He looked for a long time before finally letting out a slow breath, confirming that the thing was truly dead.
The power of the laser cannon hadn't disappointed him. Of course, much of that was because the defenses of the massive Pope were weaker than he had expected.
Earlier, Lin Tuo had worried that the cannon's heat might not inflict significant harm. But now…
"It was just for show… nothing but an embroidered pillow."
With a mocking thought, Lin Tuo's gaze shifted toward the city below. The once-glorious Holy Capital was now reduced to ruins—collapsed buildings, cracked ground, and countless corpses buried within.
A scene of utter apocalypse.
He fell silent for a moment before pulling his gaze back, directing his body to descend beside the mound of black ash.
On closer inspection, the "corpse" of the colossal Pope was unusual. There was no massive mountain of flesh left behind.
Instead, almost everything had turned to some kind of carbonized ash. It seemed that upon death, the being had shrunk back to its normal size. Even the enormous "crown" and "scepter" had reverted to ordinary scale.
Around the remains, dense amounts of Ether—"mana," in this world's terms—lingered and gathered.
"Did this thing release all that upon death?" Lin Tuo was surprised. After all, when he had crushed the entire knightly army earlier, the Ether that scattered wasn't nearly so plentiful.
Suddenly, Lin Tuo's eyes lit up. As the cold wind dispersed the ashes, a glowing, semi-transparent cluster of strange energy emerged, faintly shimmering with pale light.
It looked like the "death drop" of the colossal Pope.
Lin Tuo studied it carefully, confirming again and again that there was no trace of danger. Then, cautiously, he reached out to touch it.
In that instant, his retinal display flared to life again without warning, presenting a familiar line of text:
[Special item detected. Parse?]
"This is…" Lin Tuo's heart stirred. The scene wasn't unfamiliar.
Back in Sandbox No. 1, inside the West Continent Laboratory, when he had touched the "Secret Seal," the Sandbox had triggered the same hidden function.
"So it's true… the thing behind this crisis is similar to the Seal."
Feeling the soft, unreal texture of the energy, Lin Tuo willed the command in his heart:
"Parse."
A progress bar appeared on the panel—slightly slower this time—but swiftly filled.
[Parsing complete]
At once, a flood of data streamed into Lin Tuo's mind:
Attribute: Source of Spirituality (extraordinary item; drop from a Spirit World lifeform upon death. Likely remnants of a supernatural entity that entered the material world alongside Ether.)
Grade: Medium
State: Intact, untainted
Ability: When absorbed, allows consumption of Ether to create a localized virtual dreamscape, pulling targets' consciousness into it to exert influence. (All except the user will suffer severely reduced mental defenses once inside…)
Negative Effect: Causes mental strain during use, leading to fatigue and drowsiness. Can be relieved through sleep. Recommended to control usage time according to personal limits.
Attachment: Memory Fragments (a portion of memory separated from the source by the Sandbox. Readable, no side effects. Will auto-delete after ten hours.)
[Beep—Host has encountered two Spirit World items. Requirements met to unlock Spirit World-related information. Please review at an appropriate time.]
Lin Tuo shut his eyes briefly, skimming through the report in his mind. When he finished, another notification popped up.
"Unlocking Spirit World information?" He raised a brow. By now, he was slowly uncovering some of the Sandbox's rules.
Take the Mall, for example. Its items weren't static—they changed according to the Ether points he possessed.
Before reaching 100 points, the Mall never listed "Tongue of Babel."
Before surpassing 1000 points and creating a sandbox, there was no "Create Domain" option.
In other words, if the Sandbox was truly a system, then many of its features were hidden until the proper conditions were met.
This new message seemed to belong to those "hidden rules."
"Only after I've touched at least two Spirit World items does this unlock? A kind of safeguard?"
He pondered deeply.
He recalled that the Secret Seal's report had already mentioned its power stemming from "spirituality." And now, this "Source of Spirituality" explicitly declared it as the "death drop of a Spirit World lifeform."
Both linked directly to the mysterious "Spirit World."
And Lin Tuo had long known that Ether itself originated from there. Yet until now, no matter how he probed, the Sandbox's answers about the Spirit World were extremely limited.
To the point where he remained largely ignorant of it.
He hadn't expected to finally unlock this information.
But instead of diving into it right away, Lin Tuo restrained himself, focusing back on the report of the "Source of Spirituality."
According to it, this cluster carried a special supernatural ability.
It looked… very interesting.
And compared to the Secret Seal, its side effects were far lighter.
More importantly—it could actually be absorbed!
If the Secret Seal was a severely damaged consumable with unbearable drawbacks, then this energy was more like a free "skill" falling from the sky.
Tempting indeed.
Still, he held back, deciding to wait until he returned outside the Sandbox and better understood the Spirit World before making a choice.
"…But these memory fragments, those I can read now."
If his guess was right, they came from the very "Spirit World creature" that had possessed the Pope's body.
From them, he might piece together the full story.
"Open attachment."
At that command, flashes of images poured into his mind.
They were presented in first-person view, disjointed and fragmented, likely damaged memories.
Since they played directly in his consciousness, it took less than a minute for him to finish.
Combining what he knew with what he saw, he managed to reconstruct the rough sequence of events.
In short:
The true culprit was a Spirit World creature called the Nightmare.
Over a year ago, it crossed from the Spirit World into the Northern Continent. At first, it wandered aimlessly. Then, to its delight, it discovered this world teemed with "delicious food"—namely, the gifted wizards, as well as many cultivators who, though inferior, could still serve as sustenance.
Driven by instinct, it attempted to hunt. But as a Spirit World being, its influence on the material world was limited.
So after some observation, it traveled to the Holy City of Hayeks, where it used its dream-weaving and mind-corrupting powers to try and control the Pope and the church's leadership.
At first, it failed—especially since the old Pope himself was an extraordinary powerhouse, his will strong and hard to bend. The first attempt at corruption collapsed.
Yet it wasn't fruitless. The Nightmare, keen at reading hearts, quickly sensed the Pope's deepest weakness: his desperate fear of death. His lifespan was nearly at its end. Not even the continent's strongest man could escape mortality.
So, the Nightmare disguised itself as a god, offering "eternal life" in exchange for cooperation.
Though the Pope saw its demonic nature, he couldn't resist the temptation of immortality.
Once that crack opened in his will, the rest was easy.
The Nightmare persuaded the Pope to secretly feed it captured wizards, in exchange for more "life." Transaction by transaction, the Pope became increasingly corrupted.
Eventually, his will collapsed entirely, his mind consumed. The hunting of wizards escalated into the infamous "Edict of Inquisition."
From there, using the Pope's authority, the Nightmare gradually corrupted many church leaders and seized control of the entire Templar Order.
And the rest of the story… was everything Lin Tuo had just witnessed.
"Hu…" He exhaled slowly. The fragments shattered and dissolved at once, leaving behind nothing but a heavy sigh.
"A tale of a man in power, step by step corrupted by a demon's temptation." Lin Tuo gave a bitter smile, summing it up.
The most absurd part, however, was this: according to the Nightmare's memories, it never even had the power to grant immortality.
The extra "lifespan" the Pope and the clergy believed they had gained was nothing but an illusion spun by the Nightmare.
And yet, for that lie, they had sacrificed the lives of tens of thousands of innocent wizards.
His cloak whipped in the cold wind.
"What a sorrowful story," Lin Tuo thought.
(End of Chapter)