After the Lord of the Abyss Awakens - Chapter 39.1

On the other side, in the imperial palace of the Great Oedipus Empire.

Sword Saint Ferrol had been angry for a whole day, his face extremely gloomy. He had prepared well and was about to take down the Aust Empire, but midway through, the otherworld god suddenly gave up destroying the Aust Empire, allowing it to survive, which also led to their trip being in vain. They could only stare blankly at the territory of the Aust Empire.

Wasn’t this thing funny? Yes!

But who could have thought that the otherworld god would suddenly turn back? I was waiting for Him to get angry and slaughter the Aust Empire, why did He stop halfway and leave just like that?

Ferrol was shaking with anger, his brows furrowed tightly.

The terrifying low pressure around him also caused the attendants beside him to not dare speak at all.

How could they accept that the cooked duck had inexplicably run away?

Moreover, if this had been a covert operation, perhaps it wouldn’t have been too embarrassing. The problem was that they were certain the Aust Empire would definitely perish, so they didn’t bother to conceal their military movements, openly playing their cards to intimidate other countries with the same goal.

However, the development of events exceeded their expectations. According to multiple investigations, everything pointed to — a mysterious person had persuaded the otherworld god to retreat, saving the Aust Empire.

In the past few days, there had been a young man in black who killed apostles and shattered divine pillars, but the Aust Empire side didn’t know his identity.

When the otherworld god descended, many people witnessed that black-clad youth dealing with the monstrous divine pillar, indicating that he was not the person who persuaded the otherworld god to retreat.

In this series of events, two mysterious people appeared in total. The former was at least seen by people, while they knew nothing about the latter, only knowing the vague characteristics mentioned by the otherworld god — black hair and black eyes.

There were actually quite a few people with these characteristics. As the relationship between humans and the abyss grew closer, many humans were influenced by the power of the abyss, their physical characteristics becoming darker, especially the contractors of the Abyss Lords.

In their great empire alone, there were over a thousand people with these characteristics. If they broadened the color values a bit, it could even reach about ten thousand people.

“Who exactly intervened halfway? For what purpose did they intervene? Who is he really?”

Ferrol was completely baffled, unable to figure it out no matter how long he thought.

But rather than pondering who this person might be, there might be something more important. That is — this person possessed the strength to persuade the otherworld god to retreat, so at what level should this person’s strength be?

Sword Saint Ferrol’s eyes suddenly darkened as he fell into deep thought.

Living beings were hierarchical, dividing their levels by different levels of strength. Generally speaking, they could be divided into seven or eight tiers.

Below the seventh tier were ordinary people, or ordinary people who knew a little bit of supernatural power.

The seventh tier was for ordinary people who had just stepped onto the path of the supernatural, corresponding to human levels 1-10. These people usually accounted for five percent of the national population. If they had a confirmed profession, the corresponding professional title was usually “apprentice” plus the profession name.

The sixth tier was for ordinary people who had gradually mastered supernatural methods, corresponding to human levels 10-30. These people usually accounted for three percent of the national population. The corresponding professional title still carried “apprentice”.

The fifth tier was for extraordinary beings who had officially stepped onto the path of the supernatural, corresponding to levels 30-50. These people usually accounted for one percent of the national population. Humans below the fourth tier could only use power, but after level 30, people’s supernatural power could be integrated, transforming their bodies, temperament, and souls. The corresponding professional title was generally the profession itself. For example, a swordsman was just called a swordsman.

The fourth tier was for extraordinary beings who gradually had a system, corresponding to levels 50-70. These people were relatively few in number and were generally the backbone of a country. They could obtain high-level status such as nobility in most countries.

The third tier was for extraordinary beings who had a self-consistent system, corresponding to levels 70-90. These people were the focus of national cultivation or friendly relations, and were few in number.

The second tier was for extraordinary beings who had stepped into the divine realm, corresponding to levels 90-100. People in this range were all talents that countries strived to compete for, strategic weapons, extremely few in number.

This range also corresponded to most gods. After level 95, humans could possess the power to battle gods.

At level 98, humans could deal with most gods. At level 99, they could make the gods take notice. At level 100, they could make the gods take them seriously and not dare to provoke them lightly.

It was extremely difficult for humans to level up and reach level 100, but reaching level 100 meant you had the strength to fight against the original series of gods, and could even kill gods at this level.

The powerful beings in the current world, including subspace, were basically around the second tier.

According to the classification of the Continental Human Alliance, the God of Light, God of Darkness, and other original series gods were the top-level existences of the second tier.

The initial assessment of the otherworld god numbered 007 was also in the second tier. Based on His performance and power of authority so far, the research institute’s judgment was that otherworld god numbered 007 possessed strength comparable to the God of Light and God of Darkness, and might even be above Them.

Since that mysterious person from the Aust Empire could persuade the otherworld god, it meant that his strength was at least at the ceiling of the second tier.

Because gods would not listen to beings weaker than themselves.

So… Ferrol thought of this, his face changed, cold sweat pouring down, as he muttered to himself. “That person is at least a level 99 being.”

How shocking was this possibility? There were only 12 known living level 99 humans. Only 3 max level humans.

That mysterious person was at least level 99, which meant he was one of the dozen or so in the top echelon. Such a person was a country unto himself, no one dared to offend him lightly, let alone investigate carelessly, otherwise it would bring about the destruction of their country.

“…”

Ferrol gritted his teeth, feeling extremely frustrated about this.

If the Aust Empire had such a person protecting them, then not just him, a Sword Saint, but even if the entire Great Oedipus Empire joined forces, they might not be able to defeat the opponent.

Where did the Aust Empire get such a powerful backer? Did they deserve it?

Ferrol was extremely angry, smashing the table beside him with one palm, leaking killing intent, his pressure terrifying.

The attendants sensed something was wrong, their pupils trembling, knowing Ferrol was angry and might take it out on them, so they hurriedly said, “Your Excellency Ferrol, the other party may not be the Aust Empire’s backer, perhaps they just casually helped out. Moreover, if they were truly the Aust Empire’s backer, being so powerful, how could they only help halfway, letting the Aust Empire be so miserable?”

These words hit upon Ferrol’s wishes.

Hearing this, Ferrol’s brows slightly relaxed as he said, “Indeed, this possibility exists.”

Their intervention was less for the Aust Empire and more for the innocent 40 million people. They overthought it if they believed the Aust Empire had another backer.

“Enough.” Ferrol said indifferently. “Let’s put aside the Aust Empire for now, it seems they won’t be destroyed anytime soon. And there’s not entirely bad news in this series of events, at least Hero Luo Jie is truly dead.”

The attendant shuddered and pressed his lips together, not daring to speak.

“Oh, and one more thing, I almost forgot, tomorrow is the human strength ranking again?”

Ferrol finally stopped fixating on the Aust Empire.

The attendant inwardly breathed a sigh of relief and replied, “Yes, the priests of the God of Ranking announced the re-ranking time three days ago, which is tomorrow at 12 noon sharp.”

Ferrol appeared unconcerned about the ranking on the surface, but inwardly he cared deeply. As the youngest Sword Saint in the West, reaching level 91 at just 32 years old, his training speed shocked the world. Some had said he would be the strongest Sword Saint in history.

He was confident in himself. He had not only survived the Era of Heroes but wanted to surpass the heroes, especially the one called the strongest hero, Wang Chang’er.

He could do it because he was a once-in-a-millennium sword genius!

The attendant saw Ferrol’s expression change several times in a short period and didn’t know what to say.

Sword Saint Ferrol’s position in the rankings was 72nd, which was already very high considering his age.

Who above the 72nd rank wasn’t a monster?

Honestly, the attendant didn’t think there would be much change in this year’s rankings. The top 100 list hadn’t changed for several years, at most there were just a few position shifts.

Ferrol’s strength had increased, so he should rise to 71st place this year, right?

On another note.

The Continental Human Alliance had held several meetings in the past two days, calling in stronger and stronger experts. It was said that even the 11th-ranked human had been summoned.

Some said it was to discuss how to deal with the Aust Empire, others said it wasn’t just about the Aust Empire, but bigger and deeper issues concerning the future direction of the Continental Human Alliance.

On this day, many people used teleportation arrays to sneak into the Aust Empire to mourn Hero Luo Jie.

Of course, some people didn’t believe Luo Jie was dead. Some went to investigate, while others ignored it, believing that Hero Luo Jie had faked his death to retire quietly, wondering why they should pay respects to someone who wasn’t even dead.

Speaking of which, Luo Jie was secretly investigating in the Aust Empire when he turned to see crowds of people mourning him, blocking the entrance to the Hero Memorial Hall. He had a feeling of… “Oh no, now I have to ‘die’ no matter what.”

He was in too deep now.

But as long as he didn’t do sit-ups, it would be fine.

Luo Jie thought irresponsibly, “I’m sorry for making the children sad, but as a hero who has saved the world so many times, can everyone forgive me for this little scheme in the end?”

Luo Jie was free, but he was still somewhat indecisive in his heart. After all, you can’t just let go of a world you’ve protected with your life for so many years.

Take it slow. Luo Jie had become detached from many things and no longer cared as much. He had lived enough in this life and achieved most of his ideals. The only remaining wish was…

Luo Jie stopped by the roadside, listening to the street noise, countless pedestrians passing by. Having survived a great calamity, he cherished the people before him even more. As time passed, countless memories flashed by. He had thought finding Brother Xiu would be enough, but now he had an even greater ambition.

He wanted all seven heroes to reunite. He wanted the other five to know that Brother Xiu was still alive.

Luo Jie lowered his eyes, thinking that human greed truly had no end.

As he was immersed in his memories, people around him started talking about the Continental Strength Rankings.

“Ah, if you hadn’t mentioned it, I would have forgotten. It’s tomorrow noon, right? Where can we see it again?”

“Do you have a magic broadcast machine?”

“No, isn’t that thing very expensive?”

“Then just go outside and listen. Some taverns will connect to the God of Ranking’s channel for live broadcast. It won’t be fresh once the imperial officials compile the complete rankings.”

Luo Jie listened to their conversation, thinking that the God of Ranking would probably rank him based on his lowest state due to his “unstable strength”.

After Wang Chang’er and Ye Qingyi disappeared, he had once been ranked first, but of course not anymore.

Luo Jie shook his head and continued his investigation.

Priest Xilin was a person who became more mysterious the more one investigated. He and his Church of Dawn appeared virtuous and kind at first glance, but once you dug deeper, it was full of skeletons, devouring people without spitting out bones.

He had originally thought the Freedom Alliance was the most troublesome secret society today, but now it seemed there were greater powers at play, and for true perversion, one had to look at the Church of Dawn.

Luo Jie secretly infiltrated the underground branch of the Church of Dawn in the Aust Empire. He was shocked again and again by what he saw, feeling utterly disgusted.

Finally, he stopped in front of an altar and whispered, “No wonder they know that devouring divine infants can absorb divine status and successfully upgrade. So it turns out…”

Luo Jie was enraged to the extreme, but his tone became calm. Even though he had retired, he was determined to completely eradicate the Church of Dawn spread throughout the world.

“A bunch of beasts.”

Meanwhile, in the Great Empire of Oedipus.

“Are you the owner of this bookstore? You look so young! And you’re a magician too? That’s great, I love magicians!”

As soon as the bookstore opened, passersby came in out of curiosity.

Xiu Si had never run a bookstore before, but he understood the basic principles. Selling things, of course, meant being friendly to customers. It was best to be like a salesperson, recommending products based on the customer’s needs, and books were a type of product.

But unfortunately, he was very out of touch with the times and didn’t know much about current bestsellers or popular authors. If it weren’t for the fact that current human writing and language hadn’t changed much from before, he might not even be able to read or communicate normally.

“Please feel free to look around.”

Xiu Si played the all-purpose “feel free” card, which indeed worked well. The few passersby who came in really did just browse around.

The bookstore’s location was quite good, with many magicians coming and going. The Magician’s Association of the Great Empire of Oedipus was just a 500-meter walk away, which was very convenient.

After setting up the bookstore, Xiu Si had just sat down when he noticed from the corner of his eye that the little white bird had come out and was standing on a parchment book. Its claws scratched at the book pages, its bean-sized eyes filled with confusion.

It seemed to want to read the book but was struggling to turn the pages. The gray cat nearby showed no interest in helping.

“Come here,” Xiu Si suddenly said.

The little white bird heard this and immediately turned its head, then flapped its wings and flew to the front of Xiu Si, landing on the table and looking up.

Xiu Si took back the parchment book it wanted to read, opened a page, and said, “You want to read this, right?”

The little white bird nodded vigorously, turned its head to see the book open, and jumped happily. Then it really started to read, as if it could understand what was written.

The child had only been born a few days ago and could already read. Xiu Si felt a bit dazed, thinking that apart from Agares and Inpos, few of his children liked to read. Today, he finally had another scholarly one.

Loving to learn is a good thing.

But when he looked closely, he realized that this book was about the glorious history of the God of Light battling the God of Darkness, written by a follower of the God of Light.

“This…”

Xiu Si fell silent, wondering if his child was really studying.

Despite this, he continued to turn pages for Paldr until the little black bird couldn’t resist coming out to lure the little white bird away.

Inpos’s assessment of his little siblings’ various antics was that they were just kids fooling around.

Meanwhile, Xiu Si started reading an intermediate magic book. He repeatedly traced the magic arrays from it onto paper to increase his memory and understanding of magical structures.

Even if one’s level and magic power increase, it’s useless if you don’t know how to use it.

The only spells he could remember now were a few: Basic Magic Gathering, Basic Fireball, and Basic Light Orb.

The abilities of these three spells were self-explanatory. Basic Magic Gathering referred to condensing magic power and then releasing it, not involving nature transformation or magic element manipulation.

The magical structure was very simple, involving only one layer of transformation. He only needed to draw it a few dozen times to understand and memorize it.