Lin Moyu’s voice rang out like a heavenly lody. Shiling leapt ten ters into the air, his excitent verging on madness.
"Wonderful! Wonderful! You’re not mute after all!"
"After all these years, soone who can actually talk! This is incredible!"
"Do you have any idea what it’s been like for ? I was going insane!"
"Those guys ca wave after wave, but every single one was useless, completely worthless. None of them made it this far."
"I wanted to help, but I couldn’t."
"Finally, your age has produced soone competent!"
Lin Moyu caught on to a key phrase, “You said ‘your age’?”
Shiling nodded, “Yeah. Our age was destroyed.”
Lin Moyu pressed further, “Why was it destroyed?”
Shiling imdiately shook his head, “Can’t say. Can’t say.”
In his eyes, Lin Moyu caught a flicker of fear.
Whatever could annihilate an entire age… must be sothing truly terrifying.
“Why can’t you say?” Lin Moyu persisted.
Shiling’s voice dropped to a murmur, “Can’t say. Don’t dare say. Must not say. Besides… you’re not qualified to know.”
They locked eyes. Despite his erratic manner, Shiling was deadly serious.
After a few seconds of silence, Lin Moyu realized he wouldn’t get anything more by pressing directly.
If direct questions didn’t work, he’d have to gather information another way.
Sure enough, once he shifted the topic, Shiling began to talk endlessly, as if a dam had burst.
Lin Moyu spoke little, just enough to keep the flow going, while mostly listening.
He didn’t know how many years Shiling had gone without speaking to anyone, but given that he had lived from an entirely different age, it must have been thousands of years.
Shiling spoke without pause, almost obsessively.
Yet whenever Lin Moyu steered the conversation toward certain subjects, Shiling clamd up completely.
No matter how he probed, the other party refused to speak, as if bound by so unseen force.
From his scattered ramblings, Lin Moyu managed to piece together a few crucial words: disaster, descent, destruction.
From what he gathered, the previous age hadn’t perished due to internal collapse. It had been wiped out by a great disaster.
But what that disaster truly was, Shiling would not reveal.
Beyond that, Lin Moyu also learned the nature of this dungeon: it was a relic from that lost age, created to test the worthy and reward those who proved themselves.
According to Shiling, reaching the ninth level only ant one was barely qualified.
Only those who passed the tenth level and obtained the complete Talent Divine Stone were truly recognized as worthy.
Even in ancient tis, such individuals would have been considered geniuses.
As for Lin Moyu? He would have been counted among true prodigies—the pillars of an era.
Shilling spoke in a low voice, “The people of your age are too weak. I can’t imagine how miserable you’ll be when the great disaster descends.”
“Still… at least there’s finally soone decent. You’re not bad.”
“Too weak?” Lin Moyu asked calmly, “Then what would you call strong?”
Shiling replied, “In our ti, the hierarchy was like this: Transcendent God-level served as commanders, half-step Transcendent God-level as generals, and high-tier God-level as soldiers…”
Lin Moyu was speechless. Transcendent God-level as commanders?
In his world, there wasn’t even a single being of that level. His own goal was simply to beco one.
He had believed that reaching Transcendent God-level ant unrivaled power.
But clearly, in Shiling’s eyes, even that was far from enough.
Shiling waved his hand dismissively, “Don’t dwell on it. Focus on what’s in front of you. So truths can only be understood once your strength reaches the proper level.”
“For now, it’s pointless. You can’t even touch the Blueluster Flower.”
Lin Moyu’s expression hardened, “You an the Blueluster Flower is the final test?”
Shiling chuckled, “Didn’t you notice? You can’t touch anything here except that flower.”
“The blue fla burning on it is the Bewitching Blue Fire. It acts directly on the soul and has a bewitching effect on it.”
“No matter how cautious you are, you’ll still be affected. But if your soul is sharp enough, you’ll eventually awaken.”
Lin Moyu asked, “And if you didn’t wake up?”
Shiling laughed heartily, “Then things would’ve gotten interesting! Your soul would be burned. Of course, you wouldn’t die—at least, I wouldn’t let you. But your soul would be damaged”
“Once your soul was damaged, you’d be ruined for life. It wouldn’t prevent you from reaching God-level, but you could forget about reaching Transcendent God-level.”
Lin Moyu’s heart trembled. He hadn’t realized how close he had co to losing the qualification to reach Transcendent God-level.
This final trial was impossible to guard against.
A faint chill crept into his heart, “Then what’s my reward for passing the final trial?”
Shiling blinked, montarily stunned, “What did you say?”
“I an, every level cos with a reward, right? I cleared the last one. Shouldn’t I get sothing too?”
By now, Lin Moyu had grown accustod to negotiating, always ready to strike a deal.
Shiling clapped his hands, “You’ve got a point. But I can’t give you a Skill Divine Stone. Those are already in short supply.”
“As for other things, your strength isn’t enough. Even if I gave them to you, you couldn’t handle them.”
“Low-grade items like Talent Divine Stones? Giving those to you would just embarrass .”
Lin Moyu thought to himself, “Then just give the Talent Divine Stones. I don’t mind.”
After a brief pause, Shiling suddenly slapped his forehead. “Fine, I’ll give you this instead.”
He reached out and plucked a single petal from the Blueluster Flower. The petal still burned with the Blueluster Fire, its blue light dancing enchantingly in the air.
Shiling handed it to Lin Moyu, “It can help raise the upper limit of your soul’s power. It’ll be of great benefit to you in the future.”
Lin Moyu hesitated, “Didn’t you say it would burn my soul?”
“That was the whole Blueluster Flower. This is just one petal. Of course, it’ll still hurt. The Blueluster Fire isn’t easy to endure.”
“But if you can withstand it, the benefits will be trendous. Don’t you want to beco a Transcendent God-level powerhouse?”
Lin Moyu nodded, “I do…”
Shiling twirled the petal in his fingers, the blue fire harmless in his grasp.
“Then that settles it!” He declared, “Without an extrely powerful soul, it’s almost impossible to reach the Transcendent God-level. And even if you do, you’ll never stand among the strongest.”
“Don’t think becoming a Transcendent God-level powerhouse is the end. The difference between Transcendent God-level powerhouses is vast.”
Lin Moyu understood his aning and chose to trust him. There was no reason for Shiling to harm him.
Seeing Lin Moyu’s resolve, Shiling flicked the Blueluster Petal toward him.
Boom!
A pillar of blue fire erupted into the sky, painting the entire garden an eerie, shimring blue.
Agonizing pain tore through Lin Moyu’s body as the flas engulfed him. Since his birth—even counting his previous life before transmigration—he had never experienced such agony.
“So this is what pain in the soul feels like? But why does my whole body burn?”
Shiling laughed heartlessly nearby. Watching Lin Moyu consud by blue fire, his laughter only grew louder.
“Hurts, doesn’t it? Good! Burning your soul is supposed to hurt.”
“But trust —no pain, no gain. If you want to grow stronger, you have to suffer a little.”
“Are you wondering why your whole body’s burning when it’s your soul that’s on fire?”
“Have you even looked back since you entered the garden? Go on, take a look. You’ll understand.”
With what little awareness remained, Lin Moyu suddenly realized that ever since stepping into the garden, he’d been captivated by everything inside, and had never once looked back.
When he finally did, he saw another him standing in the pavilion.
That version of him was frozen in place, as was his undead army.
Only then did Lin Moyu understand that only his soul had entered the garden. His physical body remained outside.
Shiling chuckled, “Now you get it? This place is called the Soul Garden. Only souls can enter.”
“That’s why your whole body is on fire.”
“No worries, just hang in there. It’s only a little pain. Endure it, for your future!”
Lin Moyu wanted to curse.
What kind of twisted comfort was that?
What did this guy an by a little pain? It hurt so much he thought he might die.
The agony tore through his very soul, yet he couldn’t even faint. All he could do was grit his teeth and endure.
But beneath the unrelenting blaze of the Blueluster Fire, Lin Moyu could feel it. His soul was strengthening, becoming denser, more substantial.
Shiling giggled again, “Told you so! Your soul’s getting stronger. Pain and joy—two sides of the sa coin!”
Just then, Lin Moyu’s physical body in the pavilion erupted with a surge of black mist. It was his murderous aura.
The Domain Divine Stone burst free from his body and shot straight into the garden.
Shiling’s eyes widened in shock, “A Domain Divine Stone!”
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