Thin frost accumulated in the corners of the glass window, exuding waves of cold, as the bright sunlight pierced through it, falling on Bologue and bringing a sense of warmth.
Once winter arrived, Bologue started to enjoy the afternoon warmth; the indoor air began to heat up, making him feel as if he was sitting by a warm stove.
Glancing at the glaring sunlight, Bologue felt grateful for the rarity of such good weather in Oubos, but at the sa ti, he found the sunlight too bright, almost discomforting.
The room was imnsely bright, making it hard to read the words on the pages, and especially over the past few months, Bologue had grown accustod to the darkness of the Great Rift, unintentionally developing habits akin to a mouse.
Pulling the curtain halfway closed, the indoor light dimd, and Bologue’s sore eyes felt much better. He returned to his desk and continued writing his diary.
"Since the reality fragntation event, the peaceful days have lasted even longer than I imagined. It can be said that after the event, the Order Bureau has not encountered anything that can be called a crisis, not even the Special Operations Group."
In the midst of busy work, this was a rare holiday, and as always, Bologue kept recording his daily life.
"After a period of calm, I was appointed by Lebius; currently, I’ve been working in the Great Rift for three months. I was prepared for this peculiar place, but truly diving in, I found it more complex than I had imagined."
From the living room ca the noise of song, Palr was sitting on the sofa with an electric guitar, learning from the books. Since the reality fragntation, Palr had gradually invaded the living room, until it beca part of his bedroom, covered with posters and filled with his collections on the bookshelves, except the signed part Ewen once gave him.
Once everything settled, Palr returned to the Wind Source Highlands, bringing along those precious gifts; he claid he placed the books in the Wind Cellar. Bologue thought Fuen would reject Palr, since the Wind Cellar was sacred to the Clarks family, but Fuen was very willing to store them for Palr...after all, Fuen was also a reader of Ewen’s.
Is it appropriate to say, "Like father, like son"?
Bologue put down the pen, glanced at the calendar, and marveled at how quickly ti had passed.
"Another year is coming to an end."
The brief calm in life made Bologue’s sense of ti blur, and when he awoke from laborious work, the Vow Festival was near.
Experiencing another Vow Festival, Bologue realized he had been out of prison for three years, ti had raced by terrifyingly fast, as if the past was just yesterday.
"During this period, it’s not been all about endless hunting of demons."
Bologue continued in the book, though often his writing seed more like letters than records, as if soday in the future soone would open this diary and read Bologue’s letter to her.
"My mastery of Ether has beco increasingly refined. After months of weight training, the Ethereal Skill that was once unfamiliar is now completely fluently utilized."
The deeper he delved into the Extraordinary World, the more Bologue realized his insignificance, which intensified his longing for power. In the hunting of demons, most of the ti he hadn’t used Secret Energy, relying solely on pure Ether.
After hundreds of repeated attempts, Bologue gradually mastered the Ethereal Concealnt technique, a skill with Ether, allowing him to perfectly suppress his Ether response if needed, almost as if he didn’t exist, becoming a true ghostly Evil Spirit.
Besides progress in Ethereal Skill, Bologue also gradually deciphered the advancent ceremony regarding Negative Power Users in communication with the Sublimation Furnace Core.
With the developnt of Alchemy Matrix Technology, Tier advancent ceremonies in each generation continue to innovate and change, and Bologue happens to beco the Pioneer of this new revolution.
Thinking of this, Bologue picked up another sowhat heavy book, without a title, the cover rely a simple wrapping, resembling a personal compilation of notes and manuscripts.
This was from Mamo Pine, the initial leader of the Sublimation Furnace Core, now the master of the Scholars’ Hall.
"Ethereal Realm..."
Bologue flipped open the notes, reading the writings; apart from refining his Ether mastery, the rest of Bologue’s ti was spent studying the knowledge in this book.
This reminded Bologue of his ti at the Teda Alchemy Workshop, when he similarly read various books, trying to explore the mysteries of Alchemy during intervals of patrolling the Great Rift.
Regrettably, Bologue truly lacks talent in this aspect; just the various complex effects of the Secret Initiation school and the mutual influence of tal transformations already gave him reading obstacles, let alone those profound knowledge.
Bologue’s knowledge reserve in Alchemy and Secret Source Science was limited to the most basic "Golden Thesis," making him an outsider in the eyes of Alchemists, but for a Field Staff, he was quite knowledgeable.
Unless necessary, few Field Staff would spend ti learning those obscure and difficult knowledge.
Mamo said this note was very important, and only Bologue himself had the right to understand the knowledge within. According to him, it’s part of the revolution, and as a Pioneer, Bologue needed to know this knowledge.
Initially, Bologue didn’t take it seriously, just thinking it’s necessary Extraordinary knowledge before advancing as a Negative Power User. But as the research deepened, he realized what these Scholars discovered.
In Mamo’s notes, he proposed a concept nad "Ethereal Realm," distinct from the Absolute Reality material world where humans reside, it’s a phantasmal, higher dinsion, where the sacred Secret Sources are located within the Ethereal Realm.
Bologue recalled what he saw and heard during his lost monts; in that eerie, void world, there arose fierce white storms and strange shadows black as mountains, along with those hollow shells frozen in place.
Perhaps that was the so-called Ethereal Realm, and everything Bologue saw were certain peculiar visions.
Thus, Bologue readily accepted the hypothesis of the Ethereal Realm and agreed on the possibility of Secret Sources existing within. After all, losing oneself has always been due to overly close proximity to Secret Sources, resulting in loss of self. Bologue began to suspect that the fierce white storm was a manifestation or projection of Secret Sources in the Ethereal Realm.
Then what are those nurous dark, strange shadows?
Bologue couldn’t figure it out, apart from work, he only contemplated these matters; after brief pondering, he ceased fixating and started considering another question, one that he might obtain an answer to.
"After humans die, where did our souls go?"
Bologue softly repeated this question; earlier he did not know, only hoping for the existence of the so-called Celestial Kingdom, but now Mamo proposed another hypothesis, believing that after death, all human souls would return to the Ethereal Realm, into the embrace of the Secret Sources.
After all, the soul, to so extent, is a extrely pure Ether.
Upon reading this, Bologue had his doubts, but then recalled the primal substance.
Humans originally had no soul, the so-called soul is a peculiar existence gradually derived from imrsion in Ether.
Upon first reading all this, Bologue felt an electric, muscle-spasming sense of sudden tension throughout his body, for which he took out another note.
This was Bologue’s own note; under Ewen’s influence, he started showing so flair of a writer or poet, deliberately solemnly writing a line on the note.
"Origin Manual."
This was Bologue’s note, also a book he wrote, a piece of...drawer literature.
He was well aware of his immature writing style and sparse knowledge reserve; the book was rely to satisfy himself, and to experience the thrill of writing.
In Mamo’s note only wrote speculation about the Ethereal Realm, subsequent information about Ether tides and primal substances wasn’t included due to tiliness, so Bologue reorganized according to his note into this "Origin Manual."
Bologue started from scratch with the complicated and chaotic world origin, looking at the first line on the book page.
"From a certain mont in the past years, the source of Ether, Secret Source descended upon this world..."
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