"This bar is really damn noisy."

In the corner booth, the Witch shut the private room door with clear disgust, then turned to look at the other companions of the disciples. "Why aren’t we meeting at [True Name]? Why do we have to come here?"

[True Name] was the name of another bar, the one run by the Syndicate’s Professor, and usually served as the Syndicate members’ gathering place.

"Teacher went on a trip,"

Tai Hao said succinctly, "He won’t be back for a while. The bar’s closed."

The Witch lifted an eyebrow. "Out again? Where’d he go?"

"Heaven knows."

Tai Hao spread his palms. "I can’t get in touch with him."

Their teacher had completely vanished, yet none of the Syndicate members present looked worried in the slightest.

Only they themselves knew just how strange the Professor was.

Before the killing-game even started, the Professor had already begun operating, traveling around the world to find children to cultivate,

teaching them knowledge and skills, taking them on all sorts of bizarre missions—for example, silently destroying a certain dam in the United States;

hacking into the Japan Islands banking system to clean out the dirty money of a criminal syndicate;

heading into the Central Asia turmoil area, slipping into danger zones under the patrols of armed militants to protect and rescue precious cultural relics;

These missions had almost nothing to do with each other, but the Syndicate’s disciples had been trained early on into qualified candidates, moving like fish in water on the path to becoming players.

The Professor’s outward appearance and inner temperament both seemed to be that of an utterly ordinary middle-aged man,

but his movements were ghostly and unpredictable. He seemed to have foreseen the arrival of the killing-game long in advance, laying out pieces ahead of time and secretly executing some plan.

Even now,

after all the Syndicate members had obtained what could be called powerful Transcendent strength, they still maintained a baseless worship and trust in the Professor, even though they had no idea what his concrete plan was.

"Tsk, that old geezer’s already that age and still plays missing every damn day."

The Witch curled her lip and looked at Tai Hao. "So, what’s the deal calling all of us here this time?"

"There’s something to announce."

Tai Hao nodded and looked toward Amber.

The latter cleared her throat and said slowly, "You probably don’t know, but in the script mission I just finished, the time flow rate was the same as in the real world.

In that script, I ran into Su Ni Sheng in a residual-shadow state."

Amber recounted the experience from her previous script mission in detail.

Her Chinese wasn’t very good, and she skimmed over a lot of descriptions in a single sentence,

but fortunately everyone present was a first- or second-tier player, able to use her words to imagine how dangerous the scenes had been.

Their expressions grew increasingly serious, and once Amber finished her account, the room fell silent.

The Witch’s brows knitted together as she said slowly, "So you’re saying that after Li Ang went through that script mission with you, fighting what was likely Su Ni Sheng’s Deity projection,

he got teleported back to the real world, barely took any time to rest or recover, then went and flattened the Special Affairs Bureau Mobile Detachment, challenged the Vermilion Bird, and won?"

"Should be like that."

Amber nodded. "The fight with Su Ni Sheng’s phantasmal shadow was brutal. I’d used up almost all my trump cards; even summoning Black Sail didn’t manage to deal True Damage to her.

Hoenhem, Li Ang and the others,

their condition after finishing the script mission definitely wouldn’t have been much better than mine."

"..."

Hearing this, Tai Hao frowned slightly and turned to look at the silent Lose Control. "What do you think—roughly what tier is Li Ang’s true strength at?"

Lose Control closed his eyes and pondered for a while, then slowly opened them. His voice was deep and steady. "Judging solely from the strength shown on the video,

if he stays in normal mode and I don’t use my trump cards, my win rate against him is about eighty-twenty.

If I unseal my Divine Power, seventy-thirty.

If I completely undo the restraints and transform into a Deadwood Titan..."

Lose Control fell silent for a moment, then under his companions’ curious gazes, shook his head. "Hard to say.

Zhongli Mieming and Wang Buliuxing didn’t manage to force out more of his stuff,

and the combat style of the Phantom Vermilion Bird is completely incomparable with mine.

If we really want to calculate each other’s win probabilities,

we’ll have to go one-on-one for real."

"Hiss—"

Wang Hu, also a Syndicate disciple, clicked his tongue. "Even you aren’t confident you can definitely beat him?"

"There’s no such thing as a guaranteed win in battle."

Lose Control calmly shook his head. "Time, location, individual conditions, mood, intel, external factors... every single one can affect the outcome.

’Win rate’ is more accurately the probability that each side wins, across countless fights, given our current stage and current state.

Judging from the performance in the video, I might hold a slight edge,

but a combat recording is just a recording. He still has plenty of trump cards he hasn’t shown.

So, hard to say."

Having said that, Lose Control turned to Amber and asked calmly, "What about you?

If you fused with Raging Fire again, would you be confident you could defeat the Deadwood Titan or the Phantom Vermilion Bird?"

"Uh..."

Amber and Raging Fire exchanged a glance, and saw uncertainty in each other’s eyes.

After thinking for a bit, Amber said hesitantly, "It’d be tough.

You all know how difficult it is nowadays to try to climb the God Sealing Staircase again,

yet Li Ang not only climbed it, he’s already advanced into the Demigod sequence,

which proves he’s stockpiled enough Divine Power and that he has a massive number of believers of unknown identity.

Under those circumstances,

his Divine Power recovery speed is definitely far faster than those foxes, ghosts, and demons we previously investigated whose Power of Faith has long since been cut off and whose names no one recites anymore.

Even if Black Sail in its complete form might be able to pierce the Deadwood Titan’s defenses, in terms of endurance, we may not be able to gain the upper hand.

In a straight-up duel, we’d probably lose on attrition."

"I see..."

Tai Hao frowned and pondered for a while, then sighed. "Forget it.

Since Li Ang has already chosen to climb the God Sealing Staircase and, by the looks of it, is doing quite well, I won’t keep it from you all anymore.

Perch, tell everyone about your recent discovery."

"Huh?"

Everyone’s gaze turned toward Perch, who was hiding in a corner—the eleventh-ranked among the Syndicate disciples, wearing an anime T-shirt and looking like a regular otaku.

Under the looks from his senior brothers and sisters, Perch gave an awkward smile, resignedly stood up from his seat, and clapped his hands. "Uh... it’s not really some super important discovery.

Some time ago, didn’t the Ajanta Stone Caves in Maharashtra, Central India, exhibit some abnormal phenomena?

Some tourists found that the Buddha statue in the Sibi King Life Chart in the caves had shown a smile,

and that very day, the European Heavy Industry Group sent people over, joined up with local Indian Transcendent organizations, and completely sealed off the Ajanta Stone Caves.

Because the assignment Teacher gave me earlier was to research the God Sealing Staircase,

"So I put in some work, infiltrated Maharashtra with Stonemason, slipped through the European Heavy Industry Group’s layers of blockade, and got first‑hand intel."

Perch exchanged a glance with Stonemason. The latter nodded, took a projection device out of his suit pocket.

He powered it on and cast the image onto the wall of the bar’s private room, which was covered in thick sound‑insulation and sound‑absorbing material.

The viewpoint was steady with no shaking; it should have been shot by a drone.

Perch and Stonemason maintained an invisible state, passed through the fully armed European Heavy Industry Group employees’ cordon,

and arrived near the Ajanta Caves.

The Ajanta Caves are built into the middle section of a sheer cliff, integrated with the cliff itself.

The European Heavy Industry Group had completely cleared the surrounding forest that blocked the line of sight, laid concrete roads, and built a temporary base.

Looking around, you could see large numbers of researchers in protective suits at the foot of the mountain of Ajanta Caves, calibrating instruments.

Not far away around them, engineering crews were setting up turret defenses, gun barrels all aimed squarely at the caves themselves.

All European Heavy Industry Group personnel were wearing noise‑canceling headphones and semi‑transparent full‑face protective masks.

"Hm?"

The Witch noticed an anomaly in the image and hesitated. "This is..."

In the projected footage, one of the Ajanta caves was emitting a hazy, gentle glow,

and all around there sounded a sacred Buddhist chant, as intoxicating as celestial music.

"’Around the monastery, stone walls are carved and chiseled, depicting the Tathāgata’s deeds in past lives when he cultivated the Bodhisattva path in the causal stages. The auspicious signs of attaining the holy fruit, the numinous workings of entering extinction—great and small, nothing is omitted, all are exhaustively engraved. Outside the monastery gate, to the south, north, left, and right, there is a stone elephant on each side. According to local lore: these elephants sometimes roar loudly, and the earth quakes.’

This passage is from Xuanzang’s Great Tang Records on the Western Regions, describing the Asheroga Blue of the Maharat kingdom.

Asheroga Blue is very likely the Ajanta Caves."

Perch said in a low voice, "The divine radiance and Buddhist sound you’re seeing now

are precisely the marks of the Buddha Country within the Ajanta Caves, which is slowly awakening."

"Buddha Country..."

The Witch furrowed her brows. She had done some general research into Eastern mysticism and knew that so‑called Buddha Country, Buddhist Soil, were extremely complex things.

Just the "soil" alone can be divided into five types: impure, impure‑pure, pure‑impure, mixed, and pure.

And Buddhist soils in which Buddhas dwell, depending on different explanations of the Buddha‑body, are further classified into two, three, five, and other schemes.

But since wherever the Buddha resides is itself Buddhist Soil, imagining a Buddha Country as analogous to the "God’s Kingdom" concept of Western mysticism is basically fine.

"Stonemason and I infiltrated inside and found that the European Heavy Industry Group has essentially turned the Ajanta Caves into a real‑world mystic realm that can be continuously excavated and explored.

Kind of like a low‑budget version of the Demon Prison."

Perch explained, "Players of the European Heavy Industry Group enter the Ajanta Caves, pass through barriers constantly emitting Buddha‑light, and step into the Buddha Country that is slowly awakening,

from which they steal all kinds of treasures.

And they keep using various methods,

trying to suppress, interfere with, or even completely control the master of the Buddha Country—a Buddha who is still asleep and has not yet awakened.

There are too many people from the European Heavy Industry Group; Stonemason and I only dared shoot casually from the periphery and didn’t dare go deep into the Buddha Country to properly explore.

However, judging from the resources they’ve plundered from the Buddha Country,

the master of that Buddha Country should be, according to legend, a King of Depilatory city on ancient India’s Jambudweepa Continent, more than two thousand years before the Common Era,

namely that Sibi King who cut his flesh to feed the eagle."

Perch’s expression grew solemn. "In legend, Sibi King ruled eighty‑four thousand vassal states and sixty thousand mountains and rivers, was benevolent and kind, and was tested by Di Shitian and Viśvakarman Heaven. He cut his own flesh to feed an eagle, gained the recognition of all the heavens’ gods and Buddhas, and became a Buddha on the spot.

Of course, all that is just myth.

His true identity should be a powerful Transcendent of some specific but now untraceable era.

Powerful enough to leave behind a portion of his own origin, feigning death to evade the inspection of the killing‑field game,

and at the right moment, reboot the Buddha Country and resurrect himself once more."

Perch paused, then said with a grave expression, "I remember my teacher told me a long time ago, that once you choose the Deity path, you gain power utterly beyond the reach of the mundane,

but you also become a Prisoner, eking out a living, no longer in control of yourself.

It wasn’t until I saw the Buddha Country in the Ajanta Caves that I understood what that meant.

Hasn’t the outside world always been puzzled, wondering where all those Transcendents of ages past have gone?

In my view, they’re all already dead, dead under the increasingly harsh trials of the killing‑field game.

Whenever a cycle of Spiritual Energy revival draws to a close, its difficulty suddenly spikes, enough to wipe out ninety‑nine percent of players of that cycle.

The killing‑field game will not allow truly transcendent Immortal Species, let alone Forever Species, to appear within its jurisdiction.

As long as you become a player, you are bound to die; there is no way to live beyond the average lifespan of a mortal.

And for powerful Transcendents in ancient times, the only way to avoid death was to amass the Power of Faith, abandon their own will, and become a Deity.

That way, even if their true body dies in the killing‑field game,

they can rely on mortals continually passing down their deeds, spreading their stories, remembering their "concept," to sustain their existence.

In the hope that when the tides of Spiritual Energy surge again and God’s Kingdom revives,

they will awaken once more."

Perch slowly exhaled a turbid breath and said quietly, "In the myths, Sibi King is only an ordinary mortal who accidentally ascends to Buddhahood.

If even he can form a Buddha Country and live on into the modern era, what about those other gods, Buddhas, and Immortals who haven’t been completely buried by the river of history?

If right now is exactly the long‑awaited Dawn for the dead gods and Buddhas,

then once they wake, with what attitude will they face us modern people?"

Perch’s question made the atmosphere in the private room sink into a heavy silence.

The Witch cradled Meow Meow Head, rubbing its furry chin, lost in thought,

while Wang Hu and LAN both looked grim.

"Perch, this... theory of Deity revival of yours,"

Wang Hu looked at Perch and asked seriously, "do you have more to back it up?"

"A little."

Perch nodded. "You’re thinking of having me pass this information on to Superhuman Organizations in various regions so they can be on guard?"

"Yeah."

Wang Hu slowly nodded. "If those Deities really do awaken, then whether for Transcendent institutions or ordinary people,

or for us modern players, it’s not good news."

"My guess is that even if those Superhuman Organizations find out, it probably won’t change anything."

Perch gave a wry smile. "In mystical terms, as long as a Deity is using the Power of Faith formed from the wishes of all beings, it is inevitably influenced and interfered with by those wishes, 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

and cannot do things that go against the wishes of the masses or violate its own divine office.

In a certain sense, it has lost its free will as an independent individual.

Which is to say, once Superhuman Organizations receive news of Deity revival,

their top‑priority option will most likely be to leverage the wishes of all beings

to influence and interfere with the Deities.

Just like the European Heavy Industry Group: when they discovered a Sibi King slowly waking, the first thing they thought of wasn’t annihilation,

but exploitation, restraint, and control.

No one can bear the wrath of a Deity, but neither can anyone resist the temptation to enslave one."