The wide beast ears bobbed up and down with Inanna’s running, and Li Ang used the Armor of Wind to float. She turned around and said, "Could you turn into that form from before?"
Before? Oh, Dragon Transformation Promotion.
Li Ang adjusted his Magic Power, generating Dragon Horns and Silver Scales once more. In this state, besides his hands becoming more slender and resembling the Dragon Race, his legs also elongated and bent backward, gathering the Power of Dragon there, allowing him to have feet like the Dragon Race.
This way, even stepping on rocks, the Dragon Claw can grip crevices, exerting force from various angles, and the soft scales on the soles can increase friction, aiding him in moving steadily forward.
Although he could use the Armor of Wind, Inanna insisted on him doing this.
It seemed she wanted to see him running alongside her in the same form. Li Ang scratched his head.
The Earth Dragon God laughing in joy, at this moment, resembled a young and happy girl.
Behind them, Diao gritted his teeth, crouched and transformed into a tiger’s appearance, agilely leaping across the rocky ground to catch up with them.
"Ah, this place is—"
Inanna stopped in front of a stone pillar, her eyes glowing.
Li Ang looked up together with her, observing the stone pillar, which was white and coarse on the surface, and firmly rooted in the ground, clearly deeply embedded, surrounded by many sheet-like stone chips, as if peeled off from the pillar by external force.
"So nostalgic."
Inanna approached and embraced the stone pillar. In human form, she could only hug a small part of it. Adding the super buffer in front, her arm span was even shorter.
"What is it?"
"It’s a pillar I used for scratching itches."
"...So those stone chips were..."
"They are scales I ground off."
Li Ang reminded himself once again that she was a dragon, and the Six Dragons also had a young dragon stage, clearly. When this stony area became her home, she must have grown in size.
Given the thickness of this pillar, when she lived here, her body must have been about one-third the size she saw in the wilderness training ground, probably tens of meters long, twenty or thirty meters high.
Inanna smiled and again took Li Ang by the hand, moving forward. Along the way, stopping here and there, the environment where she lived as a young dragon was left behind.
There were mud pits for rolling, deep pits for digging rare ores and gemstones as snacks, and fields for planting tuber plants as food...
While walking and looking around, Li Ang brought up the previous topic with her again.
"Since the world’s shattering wasn’t caused by demons, why is the Bloody Red Land red?"
This was also a question that would link the two.
In numerous legends and stories of Nebis, the "Crimson Demon" has always existed.
Li Ang initially believed that this concept arose because, in the Sky Island World, the Bloody Red Land below represented death, thus spawning such stories.
Later, he noticed that the Crimson Demon appeared in the Wotam Sect’s Bible, stories published by guilds, and even the ancient tales of the Yunxiang Race.
The part from the guild was intentionally planted by the founder to spread knowledge so that if people ever encountered them, they could immediately recognize their identity.
During the Knight Resolution Council, the Speaker, Sisyphus, told Li Ang that the founders had explored the Bloody Red Land. There existed wind walls that only those of the Legendary Realm could cross. Nothing was on the ground—only an endless horizon, as the scarlet fog had dissolved spirit, matter, and magic power entirely.
When they returned to Nebis, they saw something, but that part of the data was destroyed.
Before, Sisyphus had listed "Beyond the Star Dome" as the third dimension besides matter and the Magic Power Dimension, speculating that what the guild founders, the Sword King and others, might have seen was the Fourth Dimension.
Now, Li Ang observed the dimensional structure related to spirituality in the Transcendent Realm. The Sanctuary of All Spirits should indeed be the real third dimension. Excluding "Beyond the Star Dome," which had little connection to the common world, the so-called Fourth Dimension might be the "Otherworld" that kept throwing black mud to attack Li Ang—the place he dubbed as the Eternal Prison.
The founders might have seen the entrance to the Eternal Prison when they returned, linking it with the Dark Abyss and the Tower of the Abyss. After all, the Tower of the Abyss had a teleportation gate leading to the Creation Wedge, which was hidden by the Primordial Beings.
Perhaps the Sword King and the others didn’t know this relationship, or perhaps they knew but hadn’t taken action yet. Nonetheless, they should have learned key information, which led to someone infiltrating the Holy City and destroying the data.
The founders remained vigilant against demons, but without unveiling the truth, public perception would remain that "the Crimson Demon came from the Bloody Red Land."
Faced with Li Ang’s question, Inanna said, "The crimson color is a manifestation of power; it itself comes from the Father God."
Does the crimson color come from Bahamut? Li Ang didn’t immediately say anything, waiting for further explanation from the Earth Dragon.
"The mist above Earth is a seal released by the Father God. It can block any power, whether magic or spirit, even material, which will slowly erode within it."
Li Ang nodded. This matched the records left by the guild.
"The scarlet mist itself doesn’t represent demons. The reason demons are red is simply because this power of Father God is constantly acting on Nebis, rejecting specific objects."
"Those rejected objects are the demons and their powers?" Li Ang realized the crux.
"Yes." Inanna sneakily glanced at Li Ang’s prosthetic hand.
She continued, "I sense that you have transformed compared to before; the spirits of this dimension are more focused on you now."
"Yes, I’ve recently learned something. In any case, the Spiritual Manipulation I’m mastering is closer to the power controlled by the Primordial Beings and demons." Li Ang summarized the update in his professional panel.
"Now, you might sense the essence of the ’curse.’"
The essence of the curse?
Li Ang hadn’t really had time to think about it. He initially assumed he would solve it when the professional inheritance was complete, reaching the center of the Sanctuary of All Spirits.
Moreover, in basic Spiritual Forger knowledge, there was no mention of curses, so he hadn’t thought much about it yet.
But combining years of experience and thinking about spiritual manipulation further—
He immediately entered a state of full perception of spirituality, looking at the position of the prosthetic hand, where the curse’s anchor point was.
Under the new power trend, even the Spiritual Horizon became more profound. Despite the abilities learned from the Divine Eye Helmet and Seer Pendant, they seemed rudimentary in the eyes of a Spiritual Forger like a novice’s clumsy skill level.
It’s no wonder that the Eye of God, aware of demon power, could so easily imprint the Spiritual Horizon on the Divine Eye Helmet to guide the Annihilation Knight’s manipulation.
Now, Li Ang saw the "curse."
"The curse, is itself a variant of spiritual casting art?" Li Ang couldn’t suppress his voice.
The thing that always troubled him—the moment to solve it was at hand.
However, upon closer inspection, he found the implementation of the curse very complex, even with some parts working in reverse; his current spiritual casting art wasn’t enough to remove it.
It was a bit regrettable, but before leaving the state of perception, he suddenly thought of something.
Since a Spiritual Forger can control spirits and spirituality, can the Spiritual Dimension, this dimension itself, be influenced by them?
He cast his perception far beyond the curse anchor point and suddenly saw layers of paint.
Only now could he see more clearly that it was the chaotic scene that an enormous amount of spirits, when gathered, could evoke—easily directing Magic Power to achieve incredible results.
The Land of Ten Thousand Spirits itself, and the illusions manifested by the multitude of spirits, were phenomena drawn from the paint in forms easily understood by ordinary people.
With the ability of a Spiritual Forger, one could see the paint stroke everything around where he stood, constructing this seemingly real environment. But when he tried to alter it, Li Ang felt suffocated, as if suddenly plunged into deep sea pressure.
The Spiritual Dimension itself was beyond his capacity to shake.
This evoked a hint of reverence in Li Ang, realizing how the Format of "Ten Thousand Spirits" surpassed his imagination. Perhaps this was Nebis’s embodiment, the will of an entire world. Or, "Ten Thousand Spirits" could be an aspect of the Creator.
No matter how revered the Primordial Beings were, regarded as deities by many races, wielding the spiritual casting art, facing the world’s true Creator, they were not sufficient to resist.
Li Ang lifted his head, exiting the inspiration state, wiping the fine sweat between the Silver Scales.
He didn’t say more, only telling Inanna about the curse situation.
The Earth Dragon thought for a moment, speaking softly:
"Spiritual casting art, the power of the eldest among the beings; it can construct worlds at the level approaching the method of the Creator, and conversely, it involves the irreversible disassembly of the world."

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