After the Lord of the Abyss Awakens - Chapter 96.1

“He- how are They alike meow?”

The silver cat couldn’t help but grab Xiu Si’s sleeve, eyes full of urgency.

Xiu Si held its paw, looking into its eyes, and said, “The temperament? Just feel like some of their looks are similar.”

All three cats were shocked – they could have just straightforwardly asked their father all along. However, their father rarely mentioned this person before.

Xiu Si noticed their confusion and nodded. “Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve told you about this.”

But to tell this story, he had to go back to when he first started playing the game.

He was a beta tester back then, playing at night whenever he had time. Then one night, he felt very sleepy, but thinking about having to work on Monday, he didn’t want to go to bed properly, so he played past midnight.

Late at night, he still didn’t want to sleep, made himself a cup of tea, took a few sips, and continued playing.

Around one o’clock, he became drowsy, feeling his thoughts clouded by mist, his eyelids as heavy as thousand pounds, completely unable to lift them.

Then, he fell asleep at his computer desk.

It was a light sleep, his consciousness like marine life stranded on a beach, half-asleep half-awake, dazed and confused, sometimes feeling like he was in the deep sea, sometimes floating in space, various images intersecting, flashing through bizarre and mottled scenes.

If he had to describe it, it felt exactly like motion sickness, except the main dizziness was in his brain, in the depths of his consciousness. As for his stomach… he could barely feel it, so naturally he wasn’t nauseous.

He didn’t know how long it lasted, it seemed like just a few minutes, or perhaps a few months. His consciousness suddenly lit up like fire, and gradually he could see things – blurry indoor scenes, with the sound of people discussing in his ears.

He swayed, trying hard to steady himself. When he looked carefully again, he found his surroundings had completely changed – he had arrived at what seemed to be a religious building.

A magnificent and solemn hall, gorgeous stained glass windows, and countless people in white robes below.

The scene was grand, voices thunderous.

His appearance seemed to bring them immense joy, almost everyone was excited and thrilled.

He just looked at them carefully once, and they couldn’t help but burst into cheers, shouting in a language he couldn’t understand at the time. The volume was deafening, echoing throughout the venue, as if it could shake one’s soul.

To be honest, he was scared by them at that time – he had never been so confused before.

Later he learned that they were shouting words like “hero”, “savior”, “hope of humanity” and so on. He was the first summoned hero to awaken, so they were both excited and amazed, as if they saw hope for humanity’s rise.

At that time, it was the 18th Human Sage who stopped them.

He was attracted by that calm voice and turned his head towards the source. Then, what entered his vision was a white-robed old man about sixty years old, with golden hair and blue eyes, face full of wrinkles, and solemn eyes revealing an awe-inspiring dignity that commanded the whole venue.

Later he learned that person was called Freeman Slindorf, a prominent figure in the human kingdom.

Thinking of this, Xiu Si looked back into Beelzebub’s eyes and explained to the children.

“There were actually two Human Sages at that time. One was the 18th Sage Freeman, who proposed cooperating with the gods to launch the hero summoning magic. The one who actually launched the hero summoning magic was the 19th Sage, the person I said who was similar to Priest Xilin.”

The silver cat was shocked and asked eagerly, “Who was he meow!”

Xiu Si said directly. “Arnold Paz.”

The three cats immediately perked up their ears. At the same time, the orange cat broadcasted this conversation in real-time to Amon, Botis, and Inpos.

Beelzebub was incredibly shocked inside – He had been investigating the 18th Sage Freeman, but unexpectedly, the key figure turned out to be the 19th Sage.

Xiu Si slowly said, “At that time Arnold was only sixteen years old, barely considered an adult in the other world. But at such a young age, he possessed incredibly powerful magic, said to be innate. Just in terms of sheer magnitude, his magic power was definitely at the level of gods.”

The silver cat thought back and realized it knew almost nothing about this person’s history, as it had basically all been erased.

Talk about hiding something in plain sight – this was buried way too deep!

“Come to think of it, he should have been humanity’s strongest at that time, as only he could launch the extremely complex hero summoning magic.”

Xiu Si continued to recall, “Even though he was only sixteen.”

The orange cat couldn’t help but ask, “Did Father know him meow? How did you meet him meow? What was your relationship with him meow?”

It asked many questions at once.

Xiu Si answered them one by one, “Yes, I met him several times. He was one of the otherworlders I was quite familiar with. When we first arrived in the other world, we weren’t familiar with many things. He was the one who received us initially. Like a tour guide, he introduced us to various aspects of the other world. He was very friendly, spoke thoughtfully, and even Uncle Ming Jie, who was quite picky, couldn’t find any fault with him.”

Xiu Si recalled Arnold’s image, slowly closing his hand that was resting on the table into a circle, then grasped it, truly forming a simple human figure.

All three cats present widened their eyes. The three demons in the Aust Empire Library also watched intently.

In Xiu Si’s hand, the human figure wore a white robe that hugged his body. He was tall and slender with light golden long hair braided at the back reaching his waist. His features were delicate, making for a beautiful face. A particularly distinctive feature was the mole at the corner of his right eye. Being only sixteen years old, his appearance had a certain immaturity. At first glance, there was an androgynous quality about him. His temperament was gentle, even somewhat timid, with an inexplicable feminine fragility.

However, he indeed looked about sixteen, with a hint of naive foolishness in his eyes.

If you said this guy was the mastermind who caused them so much trouble, they would find it truly hard to believe.

This guy looked like even their weakest member, Aelioge, could knock him down with one punch.

After seeing the figure, their thoughts were all – “That’s it?”

You little brat, this demon will devour you alive!

The silver cat ground its teeth in anger, looking at Xiu Si, waiting for his continued narration.

Looking at the figure, Xiu Si’s memories slowly resurfaced, saying, “My relationship with him… was like brothers? He was in the hero group at that time, and called me Brother Xiu.”

How shameless! The silver cat stomped its feet in anger, thinking how dare that guy call father Brother Xiu? Does he deserve to? Come here if you dare, I’ll kill kill kill!

Immersed in his memories, Xiu Si didn’t notice the silver cat’s anger and continued, “When we first arrived in the other world, there was much we didn’t understand. The 18th Sage Freeman assigned him to accompany us, both to protect us and for his own experience.”

“Hmm, he wasn’t the 19th Sage then, that came later, if I remember correctly.”

The silver cat sharpened its claws, trying not to show its anger too obviously, and continued asking, “Was there anything special about him? Or anything that particularly impressed Father meow?”

Xiu Si continued recalling, “Arnold was powerful yet humble, his personality… honestly was somewhat timid. Despite having such powerful magic and no need to fear any human, he was polite to everyone, especially to Great Sage Freeman.”

Father’s words increasingly shocked the demons. Timid? That perverted mastermind?

This kind of person later became the mastermind? Or was it just a coincidence that he “looked similar to Priest Xilin”?

The three cats exchanged glances, all seeing the disbelief in each other’s eyes.

The orange cat continued asking, “Did he say anything strange to Father meow?”

“Strange things?”

Xiu Si fell silent for a moment, pondering what could be considered “strange”, then slowly said, “Nothing particularly special, just that he seemed under a lot of pressure, often couldn’t sleep at night, was plagued by nightmares, and sometimes would tell me his troubles, like not wanting to return to the human country, not wanting to return to the Sage Tower, Teacher Freeman being very strict… things like that.”

It sounded like the standard troubles of a sixteen-year-old genius.

The three cats couldn’t detect anything special.

Xiu Si put down the figure in his hand, his eyes suddenly darkening, saying, “Later he still returned to the Sage Tower. What happened after that, I’m not clear about, because I fell into the abyss.”

Something must have happened at that time!

The silver cat asked, “Did he say anything during your last meeting?”

Xiu Si fell silent, his gaze lowered, “At that time, he remained silent, seeming very pained, like he wanted to tell me something, but Freeman came and took him away. The last time I saw him was when Freeman led him away by the hand.”

Xiu Si had a deep impression of this and continued, “He turned back to look at me once, his eyes full of complex emotions. I didn’t know what it meant then, and now… I still don’t really understand what it meant.”

“Maybe he was asking me for help, but I couldn’t do anything. If I were Wang Chang’er, perhaps I would have had some say in the matter, but I wasn’t. I couldn’t stop him from returning to the Sage Tower, couldn’t stop him from becoming the next generation’s sage.”

The three cats were shocked, almost unable to process it.

That guy couldn’t have placed his hopes on Father, could he? But what did it have to do with Father? Father was just unfortunately summoned to this world, and the one who summoned him was Arnold himself. What right did he have to have any expectations of Father! Father was already extremely merciful not to beat him for three days and nights!

Afterward, though Xiu Si searched through more memories, he couldn’t recall anything else.

There were some fragmentary memories remaining, though their accuracy wasn’t guaranteed, after all, the brain tends to embellish things.

Xiu Si: “In daily life, my interactions with him mainly involved sharing things about the Blue Star. He seemed very curious about Blue Star, always asking me many questions. At that time, your other six uncles and aunts hated everything related to the sages and ignored him. Only I would talk to him. He was quite interested in Blue Star’s anime, novels, and games. I shared anime like ‘K’ with him too. Hmm… he seemed very surprised then, stayed stunned for a long time, don’t know what he was thinking. Sometimes he would suddenly become quiet, like a different person, but I didn’t find it strange.”

The three cats widened their eyes, feeling that the information Father revealed must be the complete truth! It came without any effort – Arnold was extremely suspicious, he must be the mastermind!

Xiu Si suddenly fell silent, his gaze turning toward the history bookshelf, “Come to think of it, there’s almost no historical record about him. That kingdom’s human sages ended at the twentieth generation. The 18th Sage Freeman died in the war of gods, the 19th is unknown, the 20th died in human internal conflicts. Later the kingdom fell, humans became scattered, and it took a long time before they united and rebuilt their nation.”

Most history books recorded that the hero summoning magic was initiated by Sage Freeman in conjunction with the gods.

But in reality, Freeman himself didn’t have such powerful magic. The one who actually activated the magic was Arnold.

The planner and the executor were different people.

Later, when they learned they couldn’t reactivate the magic to send them back, Arnold apologized to them for a long time, saying it was his fault and he would definitely find that coordinate again.

However, now over eight thousand years have passed, the past buried in dust, weathered and faded. Arnold’s promise was naturally long buried too – you can’t expect a dead person to fulfill their promise.

Xiu Si couldn’t help feeling emotional. Looking at the three cats, he finally asked the key question, “Why are you asking about all this?”

The silver cat was startled. “Just- just curious meow!”

The orange cat was very frank. “Curious about Father’s past meow!”

“Is that so.”

Xiu Si seemed to think of something but didn’t say it. He then asked them, “Is there anything else you want to know? Ask more while Father still has time?”

It was nine in the morning, there was still a long day ahead.

They then asked all sorts of questions back and forth. As they chatted, several hours passed. Only when they noticed Father was getting a bit tired did they finally stop, leaving Cele to guard Father while they urgently convened a round table meeting with five demons in the library.

Regarding the suddenly obtained large amount of information about the suspected mastermind, the five demons each digested it internally, with different thoughts.

After a few seconds, Amon pointed out the biggest doubt, “If that ‘Arnold’ is the mastermind, he definitely wasn’t just the identity of ‘Arnold’.”

Beelzebub nodded. “I think so too. I have a hypothesis – the ‘Arnold’ that Father knew was just an ordinary human at the time, but as he lived on, his [Memory] awakened, his [Authority] awakened, causing him to become Him. His true nature resurfaced, ambition revealed, and ultimately targeted Father first.”

“I think so too,” Botis agreed with Beelzebub’s statement, “He was probably an earlier consciousness, ‘Arnold’ was just one life among His many lives, or perhaps a vessel.”

Beleth recorded their words one by one like a meeting secretary, looking up and saying, “Well, it seems we’ve made significant progress, but we still don’t know exactly what kind of existence He is.”

The air fell silent again. Although it seemed they had obtained much more information, progress was still so slow.

It was truly frustrating for the demons.

Suddenly, Inpos frowned, saying angrily, “This human Arnold, Father was so friendly to him, yet he targeted Father first, it’s really despicable!”

“What right did he have to call Father brother? What did Father do to deserve being repeatedly hurt by him?”

The honest demon Inpos couldn’t contain his anger and slammed his fist on the round table.

If this round table hadn’t been forged by Celerios with magical protection, it would have shattered by now.

The four demons all looked at Inpos, showing no intention of stopping him.

Inpos’s point of anger was very reasonable.

Simply put, what did Father do to be targeted by Him? Father was so kind to Him, like taking care of a younger brother, never did anything wrong to Him. Only a sick person would obsess over Father like this.

Or was it that after His [Consciousness] awakened, He cut off all emotions and love, completely changing? Did He target Father because He thought Father was the most likely person to discover His abnormality?

Hmph, whatever the reason, He deserves death. They must capture Him and tear Him to pieces.

Beelzebub stroked his chin, thinking of something crucial, “What about the Primordial God of Humans? What is He in all this? What role does He play?”

Amon glanced at Beelzebub, “According to Father, back then the Primordial God of Humans was fighting external enemies, rarely in the human country, barely met with Father, had almost no contact, and had distant relationships with other heroes too.”

Beelzebub pressed further. “Then what was the relationship between the Human Sages and the Primordial God of Humans?”

Beleth knew this and explained, “At that time, Human Sage was a title for the wisest humans, selected by the human king and honored by the Primordial God of Humans with His blessing. Every generation of Human Sages was an important force in protecting human civilization, having close ties with the Primordial God of Humans, serving as His right hand.”

Beelzebub’s brows were furrowed so deeply they formed a “川” character.

They thought some more. It seemed all this information centered around one thing.

—[Humans]

Or rather, the human race.