He Ao gazed at the card in front of him. This time, the painting on the card depicted an elderly man, floating in a void, his eyes tightly shut. He appeared peaceful, with a crystal pocket watch hanging on his chest, his hands placed in front of him, seemingly in deep sleep. Beneath his aged skin, a faint milky light undulated, resembling delicate blood vessels circulating within his body, ultimately connecting to the crystal pocket watch on his chest. At the same time, a faint green glow twined around his body, mutating into some sort of twisted and bizarre Array. These Arrays spread out from the old man’s body, then slowly condensed into pitch-black chains adorned with jade-like patterns, partly wrapped in front of the old man, traversing the entire painting, and partly extending backwards, reaching into the void. Behind these chains, in the deep background of the old man, in the upper left corner of the painting, a hand made of starlight faintly extended from the void, reaching towards the location of the old man. As He Ao looked closely, he could vaguely discern some extremely fine gray-white Thunder circulating near this hand. He Ao looked again at the name of this card. His gaze focused on the chains wrapped around the body of the old man, which seemed to be the source of the card’s name. He stared at those dark chains, at the jade-like patterns that adorned them. Those patterns were so clear, carrying a timeless implication that seemingly compelled one to look more closely. In that moment, He Ao realized something; he opened his palm and traced along the patterns on the chain in his palm. He had barely sketched a few lines when he seemed to hear a faint murmur. He immediately stopped his movements. As the impressions on his palm gradually faded, the voices in his mind also slowly receded. This voice bore a resemblance to the ravings he felt when in contact with the Abyssal Prisoner; likely, it was a ’voice’ from the Abyss. He returned his gaze to those jade patterns on the chains; clearly, these were not merely simple patterns. They seemed like a special kind of Array, or some kind of solidified, naturally-formed patterns. Merely tracing them seemed to invoke some slight power from the Abyss. Had these patterns not been on a character card but in some painting in the real world, perhaps merely a glance could corrupt one with the Abyss. Having gone through so many Copy Worlds, He Ao was no longer the mysticism novice he had once been. He watched these patterns, and vaguely, he felt as if he had touched upon the essence of mysticism. However, the mysticism knowledge he currently possessed seemed insufficient to fully unlock the key points; if he had the chance to meet a master of Mysticism, he might ask for guidance. He shifted his gaze from those lines and swept across the card face again. Most elements on this card had clear indications. The blank void should indeed represent the Abyss, so close to a breach in the Abyss; in the end, Linen’s body must have been directly drawn into it. The starlight hand should represent the power of the Mysterious Shadow, and the gray-white Thunder wrapped beside the hand was clearly the handiwork of a good friend. It looked like the Mysterious Shadow had also entered into the Abyss, while the good friend had also managed to infiltrate his power. And his good friend followed, perhaps not just because of his "deep friendship" with He Ao; the good friend himself might also have some interest in the Abyss. When he first descended, He Ao found that while searching for himself, he also ’deconstructed’ some of the power of the Abyss slightly. In fact, if the good friend hadn’t engaged in such ’deconstruction’ at that time, the Mysterious Shadow wouldn’t have such a strong reaction. However, being a Divine Being labeled with Truth, seeing an interesting high-level power without trying to deconstruct and observe it, doesn’t seem to fit the good friend’s ’designation’. This possible scenario is also one of the reasons that influenced He Ao’s final decision to summon his good friend. Of course, within this card, there exist divine beings beyond just the good friend and the Mysterious Shadow. He Ao’s gaze swept over the white glow under the elderly skin depicted on the card. This is the power of the Life Goddess. This body was engulfed by the Abyss, but it left behind an intact corpse, rather than, as in several previous Copies, just a vague illusion, most likely due to the influence of the power of the Life Goddess. What He Ao and the Life Goddess negotiated was actually quite simple; He Ao asked the Life Goddess to lend him an Angel Tier power, enabling him to have the strength to kill the Abyssal Prisoner at the last moment. As a reward, the Angel Tier corpse left by the Abyssal Prisoner would belong to the Life Goddess. This deal seems a bit too opportunistic, as he doesn’t put anything forth initially, borrows the power first, and then pays the reward. However, due to the ’cooperative basis’ of the previous Fountain of Youth event and some other ’important factors,’ the Life Goddess ultimately agreed to his request. And this important factor influencing the Life Goddess’ decision was simple—it was the ’Saint’ Character Card. He Ao had previously read the Life Canon; in the Life Goddess Church, a believer who becomes a Saint essentially becomes the spokesperson of the Goddess on Earth, the closest ’mortal’ to the Goddess. The Life Canon even dedicated a volume specifically to discuss Saints, whose status within the Church is even higher than that of the ’Pope’. From various indications, Saints should have some special connection with the Life Goddess. Of course, most of the content in the so-called Life Canon is written by frenzied believers and may not necessarily reflect the true relationship with reality. But He Ao has another ’reference’. That is the [Arrogant Person]card, which, like the [Saint]card, has the same standing on the Exchange Star; this means that in the system’s view, these two cards are of the same level. And the relationship between Nell and the War God, in a sense, could it also be something like a ’Saint’ and a ’Divine Being’? Of course, Nell as this ’Saint’ might be even ’closer’ to the War God, with even greater ambitions, so they can’t be strictly compared. However, with this reference, He Ao realized an issue. Nell ’borrowing’ power from the War God caused very low depletion, then what about the ’Life Goddess’ bestowing power upon a ’Saint’? Or rather, why would a Divine Being create such a thing as ’Saints’? Considering Pete’s situation, his Saint body was clearly specially reconstructed by the Life Goddess with great effort. He Ao surmised that besides setting a model for believers to follow, the Saint body reconstructed by Divine Power might itself be a kind of ’ritual’ focal point. The existence of Saints allows Divine Beings to deploy power more cost-effectively, enabling Divine Beings to extend their reach further afield. And in fact, He Ao’s speculation was correct, which was the root reason why the trade with the Life Goddess succeeded. Pete’s Saint body, although no longer visible, since it vanished in the Copy World, is likely still in some form of ’subspace’ near the Copy World. The Life Goddess is unlikely to spend the effort—and possibly extra power—at a location countless space-times away from the Copy World, to specifically construct a body for Pete. And since it was in the Copy World, the cost of deriving power from Pete through the connection established by He Ao in Yilan City was not high. And because of the special connection with Pete, the Life Goddess bestowed powers upon Pete at a low cost too. In this way, the result is that the Life Goddess only needs to bestow a very minor amount of power to receive an entire Angelic body as a reward. For the Life Goddess, this is a much greater gain compared to a normal Sacrifice. Even if He Ao issued Her a blank check, expecting high returns, She would be more willing to give it a try. Of course, only He Ao could do such an operation of treating a Saint as a relay station and negotiate with Divine Beings under the wrath of corruption. An ordinary Transcendent would probably go mad before even getting the Life Goddess’s attention. However, from the current situation of the "Whispering Lock" card, the Life Goddess seems to have given some extra ’reward.’ Those surges of Life Force have largely ensured the integrity of Linen’s body, even sustaining his life signs. Of course, this Life Force alone is not enough to sustain the card, and it might not even support Linen’s body in the Abyss for an extended period. The real core that makes up this card is the ’chains’ that intertwine. These chains extend from the twisted green Arrays, which look somewhat like the enhancement powers Levi left to He Ao at the end, but are fundamentally different. The extent of their distortion feels like the power of an ’Abyssal Prisoner.’ When He Ao left the Copy World, the last scene he saw was the Life Goddess ’absorbing’ the body of the Abyssal Prisoner. But the Life Goddess only took away the ’body’ of the Abyssal Prisoner, or rather, the Life Force contained within the body of the Abyssal Prisoner. The Divine Power and Angel Designation shattered in that final strike were untouched by the Life Goddess. This could be because She noticed the power of the Mysterious Shadow entwined on those fragments of power and designation, realizing it was a hot potato. However, according to the Life Canon, the Life Goddess herself seems uninterested in anything other than Life. As Roger said, the Life Goddess is very ’gentle,’ with no aggressiveness, ’usually just draining people dry.’ The consequence of the Life Goddess not taking those designation fragments means that they, along with Linen, were absorbed into the Abyss. There, some of these designation fragments ’fused’ with Linen’s body. The intermediary of their fusion was likely that ’golden Longsword,’ or rather, the power left to He Ao by Wills. Powers of the Abyss seem naturally capable of devouring each other; He Ao’s sword also absorbed Scott’s spear. The strong devour the weak, the stable devour the unstable. Had the Abyssal Prisoner still been alive, perhaps he would have devoured He Ao’s sword, but he died leaving only the fragments of designation. Then these designation fragments ultimately fused with the sword, and following the sword’s link to He Ao, fused with Linen’s body. From this perspective, the part of the power the Life Goddess left to sustain life might not just be an extra ’payment,’ but an ’investment.’ This Life Force likely formed some sort of ’strong’ entity in the Abyss with Linen’s body, and under the residual power of Levi, centered around Levi’s body, it fused with the fragments of Abyssal Prisoner’s designation. Thus, the final Character Card formed still maintained Linen’s complete human body without completely mutating into a twisted Abyssal life. Of course, so far, these things have only formed Linen’s body figures on the back of the Arrays in the illustration. And the ’chains’ extended from that Array embedded with dense patterns have already exceeded the power scope of the fragments of Abyssal Prisoner’s designation. Clearly, it was something new. It was a ’new thing’ that Linen’s body encountered after falling into the Abyss. The designation of an Angel, the power of Divine Beings, attracted something deeper from the Abyss. The Mysterious Shadow stirring in the Abyss may also have played some ’roles’ in this. And this new thing eventually merged with those fragments of designation and Linen’s body, forming the main force of this Character Card. Based on the fact that He Ao merely traced the patterns to invoke the power of the Abyss, this new thing must have deep connections with the Abyss. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why the Mysterious Shadow seeks to control the Abyssal Prisoner. Levi was the bait to fish for the Abyssal Prisoner, but the Abyssal Prisoner might not have just been the bait for fishing other beings. However, it seems that although He set the trap, it was He Ao who ended up catching the fish. He Ao gazed at the card. [Do you wish to pay 11 Exchange Stars to exchange for ’Whispering Lock’? (Your current available Exchange Stars: 0)] This is the most expensive Character Card He Ao has ever seen. The 7 Exchange Star Character Cards, "Arrogant Person" and "Saint" are probably at the Incomplete Angel tier, or say, capable of exerting an Angel’s power temporarily. The 9 Exchange Star Character Cards, "Dream Phantom" and "Eternal Obsession" should correspond to a true Angel tier. And 11 stars, perhaps means, Angel... above? A tier above Angel also implies troubles beyond those an Angel can bring. Given this card’s relation with the Abyss, using it might mean facing fierce onslaught from the Mysterious Shadow. Hmm, changing the perspective, does it mean this card could summon a Divine Being to aid anytime? Shifting his gaze from the "Whispering Lock," He Ao scanned over all the Character Cards. [Primeval Flame], [King of Nightfall], [Arrogant Person], and [Saint]—he had exchanged all these four cards, corresponding to ’Joey,’ ’Vian,’ ’Nell,’ and ’Pete.’ [King of Nightfall] used this copy showing cooldown, [Saint] he exchanged for this copy but didn’t use, just routed the power through it, so there’s no cooldown displayed. Up next Jess’s [Sea-Deep Glimmer], Cito’s [Dream Phantom], and Yiluo’s [Eternal Obsession] were all unexchanged. [Sea-Deep Glimmer] being the cheapest at five Exchange Stars, the remaining two require nine each. Adding the most expensive [Whispering Lock], a total of eight Character Cards. This represents his ’accumulations’ from the successive Copy Worlds. Ultimately, He Ao withdrew his gaze, the interface of Character Cards slowly faded from his field of view. A row of text began to appear in his visual field. [Calculating Main Mission Evaluation...] [Main Mission Evaluation: ★★★★★] [Congratulations on completing the Main Mission] [About to calculate other mission evaluations, please wait...]