Southwest outskirts of Tivian, on a forest road at night. Controlling the corpse marionette of the coachman, Dorothy urgently halts the carriage. As the hooves of the horses gradually stop and the wheels come to a halt, Dorothy opens the carriage door, steps out with a gas lamp in hand, and quickly moves off the main road onto the muddy ground beside it. Standing on the soft, muddy soil, Dorothy doesn’t pause. She scans her surroundings with a few quick glances and, under the light of her lamp, picks up a branch from the roadside. Holding the branch in her hand, she begins to draw on the ground. Following the knowledge from the Advancement Stele in her mind, Dorothy swiftly starts drawing a ritual array on the ground. Thanks to the powerful information processing and control abilities of a Revelation-path Beyonder, her drawing is incredibly fast and precise. In just a few seconds, she completes an extremely neat array, one that would normally require various tools to achieve. The array is imbued with the meaning of Revelation. At the center of the array is a large, wide-open eye, surrounded by five smaller symbols representing other spiritualities. Neat curves and mysterious runes connect these six symbols, forming a cohesive whole. This is Dorothy’s advancement array for becoming an Arcane Professor. After finishing the array, Dorothy tosses the branch aside and opens her right hand to examine the six emblems she’s holding. She places these emblems on the corresponding spiritual symbols around the array. After placing the five emblems of other spiritualities, Dorothy places the final Revelation emblem she folded herself at the center of the array, on the large eye. With this, Dorothy’s ritual preparation is complete. The next step is to prepare the spirituality. According to Dorothy’s current spiritual reserves, she is still short of 5 points of Shadow and 1 point of Lantern to meet the advancement requirements. Fortunately, she had just reviewed a batch of materials in Barrett’s basement, which contained plenty of items imbued with cognitive poison. First, there was the 524-year-old copy of "The Legend of Arthur", which tells the stories of Arthur, the Sword in the Stone, the Lady of the Lake, the bloodthirsty monster Anglo, the Eight-Eyed Witch, and more. It involves Shadow, Chalice, and Stone spiritualities, with varying amounts. From this, Dorothy extracted 4 Shadow, 3 Chalice, 2 Stone, and 2 Revelation, totaling 11 points of spirituality. Next was Barrett’s own research summary, "The Influence of the Radiance Church on Pritt’s Traditional Culture", which discusses how the Radiance Church has shaped Pritt’s culture and beliefs over a thousand years. It also mentions the "Wind King’s Rebellion", a local uprising against the Radiance Church’s influence. From this, Dorothy extracted 3 Lantern, 2 Shadow, 1 Stone, and 2 Revelation, totaling 8 points of spirituality. Finally, there was a shield emblem from the Wind King’s Rebellion period, painted by the Traditionalists. It depicted four knights who were likely attendants of the Mirror Moon Goddess. Since the knights’ spiritualities covered a wide range, Dorothy extracted all spiritualities except Lantern: 4 Shadow, 1 Stone, 1 Chalice, 1 Silence, and 2 Revelation, totaling 9 points. Combined with Dorothy’s existing spiritual reserves, her current spirituality is as follows: - 14 Chalice - 20 Stone - 15 Shadow - 12 Lantern - 24 Silence - 30 Revelation These reserves fully meet the advancement requirements. After extracting the spirituality, Dorothy immediately begins her ritual. She adjusts her small cotton dress, closes her eyes, and kneels before the Revelation emblem at the center of the array. Calming her mind, she begins to silently recite the incantation in her heart. “To know the boundless path… To know the limitless sea… I have walked halfway… Having glimpsed the myriad principles… Perceiving the six forms…” “Through the thick fog and obstacles… I beseech the Great Divine to disperse the clouds, so I may behold the true path…” Kneeling at the center of the mysterious array, Dorothy silently recites the incantation required for advancement. As the words echo in her heart, the six holy symbols on the simple array begin to emit faint glows of various colors. The advancement ritual, passed down from the Star Numerology Scriptorium and lost for thousands of years, is now being reenacted on this desolate patch of land in the outskirts. After finishing the incantation in her heart, Dorothy receives a prayer she sent to herself, asking for guidance in her advancement ritual. Without hesitation, she agrees, and an invisible wind seems to sweep through the ritual site. As the wind passes, Dorothy feels her thoughts suddenly expand explosively. Her mind feels as if it’s about to burst, and her consciousness is fragmented into countless pieces, each containing memories of Dorothy or the person who transmigrated… In this explosive mental experience, Dorothy’s consciousness cannot focus. She feels as if she’s recalling all her memories and pondering all her questions. Time seems to stretch endlessly, and after what feels like an eternity of chaotic thoughts, her scattered mind begins to reassemble, and her fragmented consciousness starts to reform. During this process, Dorothy vaguely sees five enormous, blurry shadows in the distance. These shadows flash past her surroundings and then suddenly disappear. After the shadows vanish, Dorothy’s fragmented consciousness finally returns to wholeness. She opens her eyes abruptly, bends over, clutches her head, and begins to gasp for breath. “Huff… huff… huff… That… hurt… This advancement… really gets more intense each time…” Clutching her forehead, Dorothy endures the lingering pain in her head and murmurs to herself. Each of her advancements feels like a storm on the mental level, and each time it gets more intense. This time, advancing to White Ash rank, Dorothy felt as if her head was about to explode. For a moment, she thought the ritual had failed and she was going to die. But fortunately, the ritual didn’t fail. It was almost successful. Now, Dorothy can be considered a White Ash-rank Beyonder. If it were any other path advancing to White Ash, the ritual would be complete at this point. But Dorothy is a pure Revelation-path practitioner, so she still has one final step. “Huff… huff… The rank advancement is complete. Now it’s time to choose the next auxiliary spirituality.” Dorothy thinks to herself. As for her second spirituality—the second branch she can simulate—she had already considered this question long ago and arrived at an answer. When she was at the Black Earth rank, Dorothy realized her biggest weakness was her lack of combat ability. She excelled at operating from behind the scenes but often struggled in direct confrontations. If her plans went awry and she found herself in danger, she would be in extreme trouble—just like now. So, long ago, Dorothy had the idea of improving her direct combat ability and self-preservation skills. Among the three remaining branches in the Revelation path, only one could significantly enhance her combat prowess: the Stone-auxiliary Elementalist, specifically the Thunder Summoner! Dorothy had witnessed the combat abilities of the Holy Knights from the church and the Squad Captains from the Serenity Bureau. She understood that paths that directly convert spirituality into elemental attacks are undoubtedly among the top-tier in terms of direct combat power. Coincidentally, she now has 20 points of Stone, with ample spiritual reserves, making the Thunder Summoner a suitable choice. Without further thought, Dorothy, kneeling in the array, closes her eyes again and chooses the Thunder Summoner as her second simulated branch. As the Stone holy symbol belonging to the Stone Prince glows faintly once more, Dorothy opens her eyes. Now, her crimson eyes hold an unprecedented depth. At this moment, her advancement ritual is finally complete. She has successfully advanced to become a White Ash-rank Beyonder—the Arcane Professor. With the ritual complete, Dorothy stands up from the array. After brushing the dirt off her small cotton dress, she turns her gaze toward the distance—the direction from which the enemy is approaching. “Three kilometers away… Good. If handled properly, I might not need to reveal my appearance…” Gazing at the distant sky, Dorothy murmurs to herself. For now, she doesn’t have time to examine the specific changes brought by her advancement. She needs to use her new abilities to deal with the incoming enemy. Without hesitation, Dorothy takes out her magic box, adjusts its entrance to the maximum size, and places it on the ground. Then, she activates her ability, controlling the corpse marionettes inside the box. Soon, Edrick, dressed in a gray trench coat, climbs out of the box under Dorothy’s control and stands before her. Dorothy positions Edrick in front of her and, after a quick inspection, has him pull out a revolver from under his coat. Dorothy doesn’t have Edrick aim the revolver at the distant enemy. Instead, she has him raise it and press the barrel against his own temple, assuming a posture of suicide. “Let’s see what this new ability can do…” Murmuring to herself, Dorothy gives a slight flick of her hand, causing Edrick to pull the trigger. Bang! With a loud gunshot, the bullet bursts from the barrel and pierces directly through Edrick’s temple. The bullet tears through one side of his skull, shredding his brain as it spins, before exiting through the other side of his skull, carrying bits of brain matter with it. As his skull shatters and brain matter sprays out, Edrick staggers a few steps after shooting himself and then collapses heavily to the ground. Watching Edrick fall, Dorothy remains silent. Through the spiritual thread connecting her to Edrick, she channels the Chalice and Revelation spirituality within her body and activates her Beyonder ability. Under this ability, the two bullet holes in Edrick’s head begin to heal at a visible rate. His brain, which had been turned to mush, also starts to rapidly regenerate. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂 … Above a field in the southwest outskirts of Tivian. Under the dark night sky, an old man with wings on his back flies at high speed. Following the guidance of the spiritual thread, the Priest of Fangs continues his pursuit of his prey. He has already flown most of the distance and will soon reach his destination, where he will finally meet the mastermind behind the scenes. The Priest of Fangs can sense that his target is frantically fleeing in the opposite direction, but the target’s speed is far inferior to his own. Faced with this situation, the Priest of Fangs has already imagined the look of terror on his target’s face, the desperate struggle to escape, and the hopelessness of being unable to break free. As a high-ranking member of the Eight-Spired Nest, he enjoys such despair and fear. “If your fear tastes sweet to me, I might spare your life and turn you into my torture slave.” The Priest of Fangs thinks to himself. As he gets closer to his target, he can’t wait to savor the fear of the overconfident mastermind. Just then, the Priest of Fangs senses that the target has suddenly stopped moving and is now stationary. This makes him think that the target has given up on escaping. “Realizing you can’t escape, so you’ve chosen to accept your fate? Those who willingly compromise and give up… their blood and fear don’t taste very good…” Muttering softly, the Priest of Fangs continues to fly swiftly toward his target. Although the target’s decision to stop fleeing disappoints him slightly, he is still curious about the flavor of their fear. As the Priest of Fangs continues flying, he suddenly hears a faint gunshot in the distance. The direction of the gunshot aligns with the direction of his pursuit, so it’s likely that his target fired it. However, since the sound is so faint, the shot must have been fired from quite a distance—it couldn’t have been aimed at him. Combined with the target’s sudden decision to stop fleeing, the Priest of Fangs assumes that the mastermind, realizing escape is impossible, has chosen to commit suicide on the spot. Given the Eight-Spired Nest’s notorious reputation for torture, many of their enemies choose to kill themselves to avoid the painful punishments that await them. Thus, the Priest of Fangs believes the gunshot is the sound of the target taking their own life. “A bullet for yourself? Hmph… in a way, that’s wise.” After hearing the gunshot, the Priest of Fangs thinks to himself. But before he can ponder further, something unexpected happens. “Ahhh!!!” Without warning, an intense, searing pain erupts in the Priest of Fangs’s skull. Suddenly, his eyes turn blood-red, and he feels as if his head has been pierced. No—not just as if! It has been pierced! Two large holes burst open in the Priest of Fangs’s head, from his left temple to his right temple, as if something high-speed and spinning had passed through his brain. The bones on both sides of his skull are instantly perforated, and his brain is shredded into pulp. Under the invisible kinetic force, the blood and brain matter in his head are mixed together and sprayed out through the hole in his right temple. It’s as if the faint gunshot from afar had struck his own head. With his skull pierced, the Priest of Fangs lets out a cry of pain, loses control in mid-air, and plummets to the ground, crashing heavily. … Three kilometers away, on a muddy roadside. Dorothy, sensing the situation through the spiritual thread, murmurs to herself. “Even after getting shot in the head, he’s not dead… Is this the vitality of a Red Completion-rank Beyonder? No, this guy is just a derivative, not the original. It’s only natural he didn’t die from this. I wonder if the original would survive such a hit?” Dorothy says this as she reflects on how she just brought down the Priest of Fangs using her new ability, gained after her advancement to White Ash rank. The Threadweaver Shaman, a White Ash-rank Beyonder path with Revelation as the primary spirituality and Chalice as the auxiliary, possesses the Damage Transfer ability. Dorothy can use her spiritual threads to transfer various types of damage. Any target connected by Dorothy’s spiritual threads can have damage inflicted upon them within a certain time frame. Dorothy can then use the threads to transfer that damage to another target connected by the threads. Earlier, Dorothy used this ability to transfer the fatal gunshot wound from Edrick’s head to the Priest of Fangs. After all, the old man had been holding onto the spiritual thread to track her after absorbing the corpse marionette. “Even a hole in the head didn’t kill him. This is troublesome. It seems we’ll have to step up our efforts, Mr. Edrick.” With her hands behind her back, Dorothy smiles as she speaks. At this moment, Edrick, now fully recovered, stands up beside her, brushes the dirt off his clothes, and says solemnly. “Bring it on, miss.” ======================= (T/N: I’m kinda disappointed… I though I could finally read Dorothy shouting Fus-Ro-Dah 🙁)