Chapter 847: Chapter 847

[The reward for this task is: a randomly selected B-level item with a limited number of uses, or a B-level epiphany.]

[As you have reached a five-star overall rating in this task, with some ratings exceeding five stars and all ratings surpassing four and a half stars, congratulations on triggering the "Blazing Prosperity Luck Explosion Great Crit" achievement.]

[As this is your first time achieving a five-star overall rating, congratulations on unlocking the achievement ’Perfect Sovereign’.]

[Perfect Sovereign: When a player reaches a five-star overall rating, there is a chance to trigger a ’Fusion Refresh’. Upon a successful ’Fusion Refresh’, all reward options will be amalgamated and re-rolled for a higher-grade reward with mystical associations to the previous ones. If the ’Fusion Refresh’ fails, rewards will revert to the previous options.]

He Ao looked at the achievement—are there bugs in the system?

Clearly, the ’Perfect Sovereign’ achievement could only be gained with a five-star overall rating.

Therefore, He Ao had not triggered the achievement before the task was resolved.

But because of the ’Almost’ achievement, his overall rating was considered five stars during the task settlement.

So, in the system’s underlying logic, is his rating now considered five stars, allowing this achievement to emerge?

Does the boosted ’five-star’ rating, in some sense, equate to a real five-star rating?

While He Ao pondered this, the text in his field of view changed again.

[Because you perfectly obstructed the divine being’s scheme during the task, congratulations on earning the ’Defier of Gods’ achievement.]

[Defier of Gods: In the process of reward upgrade, it may trigger randomly, potentially refreshing items associated with ’Divine Beings’.]

A third achievement—judging by the number of achievements, this task is quite a ’bumper crop’.

The ’Defier of Gods’ achievement seems like an upgraded version of ’Silent Night Coffin Nail’, which was triggered because He Ao suppressed a higher being back into its coffin, whereas ’Defier of Gods’ seems to require the obstruction of divine plans.

By contrast, ’Silent Night Coffin Nail’ relates to the refresh of high positional grade items, which includes angels, those above angels, and divine beings, while ’Defier of Gods’ directly specifies the highest tier—divine beings.

However, the conditions to trigger ’Defier of Gods’ are much harder than ’Silent Night Coffin Nail’, as disrupting the plans of angels lying in coffins, trying to resurrect, is much more difficult than obstructing the plans of divine beings.

He Ao thought back on his experiences.

It doesn’t seem particularly difficult?

[Congratulations on triggering the ’Defier of Gods’ achievement effect.]

[Upgrading your reward.]

[Upgrade successful.]

The subtitles in his view slowly dissipated, transforming into new lines of text.

He Ao rubbed his hands together and looked at these newly presented reward options.

[Please choose one of the following three options:]

This is an invisible purple mask, with no openings and no discernible shape, yet it is the most favored mask of those in pursuit of perfection.

Legend has it that the one who wears this mask will become the most perfect individual in the world, and everyone will marvel at their beauty.

They can assume any identity, becoming the spouse of anyone, or easily be admired and followed, commanding like a king.

While wearing this mask, desire will accelerate with time, and greed and longing will become insatiable.

Upon donning the mask, there is a certain chance of losing one’s self-awareness and becoming the object of ’admiration’ that people fantasize about.

Those wearing the Witch’s Mask may attract the admiration of angels, but run the risk of completely turning into the person that angels ’imagine’.]

[2. Scarlet Radiance:

This is a feather-shaped conglomeration of blood-colored brilliance, its origins unknown to anyone, and no one desires to uncover from whence it came.

It cannot be contained by any item, and only the flesh and blood of living intelligent beings can possess it.

It consistently radiates a warm glow, drawing people to chase after it, whereby the holder of the feather will find it easier to gain the worship and trust of others.

Of course, what is most astonishing is its blood-filled radiance.

Legend has it that this feather can emit twisted light, penetrating all mundane objects of the world, and even capable of damaging angels.

The worship it receives often turns into a twisted desire for possession, while no object lesser than an angel can shield from the feather’s glow.

The holder of the feather, in order to preserve it, will be compelled to battle with those who seek to claim it.

Once the killing starts, it is difficult to cease until everything ends, the feather drifting in its radiance towards the next flesh-and-blood life.]

[3. Incomplete Truth Mechanism:

This is a disheveled-looking machine made of crystals, seeming to possess a display and input devices, yet at the same time not seemingly so, always shrouded in a peculiar grey glow.

Its back is engraved with its origin:

’Legend tells of a wizard in pursuit of truth, who sought to create a machine that could point to the truth, one that would provide answers to all truths pursued by mankind, allowing all who seek truth to find answers to their questions upon it.

The making of this machine stretched over long years, and at first, the wizard who made it was often seen, but as time passed, he appeared less and less before the public.

Until one day, the wizard’s friend pushed open the doors of the wizard’s abode, and saw the endless crystal construct.

The lure of truth drove the distant visitor mad, and so he posed his question to the truth machine...’

Anyone who holds the ’Incomplete Truth Mechanism’ may pose their own questions to the machine, but be warned, those who peek into the truth will also be peered at by the truth.

The ’Incomplete Truth Mechanism’ can answer many questions about the mystical world, including some about angels, but its answers may not necessarily lead the inquirer on the correct path.

Be aware, the machine claims it lacks all wisdom.

Be aware, the more questions asked, the greater the attraction for peeking, and the more you inquire about the knowledge of the Abyss, the Abyss inquires about you.]

Three extraordinary items all seem related to the Divine Beings that had ’interacted’ within He Ao’s Copy World.

The first is obviously connected to the Witch of Desire, with the fundamentally pure attributes always associated with the second-ranked sister: beauty, desire, never satisfied.

The second looks connected to the Eternal Light, whose attributes of ’worship’ and ’trust’ reminded He Ao of the Eternal Secret Teachings he encountered, but the sharp blood-colored brilliance also resembled the strength of the War God.

Eternal Light, plus a hint of War God.

The third is clearly related to a good friend, and according to He Ao’s experience, the connection is not like the previous two, merely ’related to the power attributes of a Divine Being.’

This ’Incomplete Truth Mechanism’ is very likely ’directly related’ to a good friend.

This item is probably a reward related to Divine Beings, spawned by the Defier of Gods.

In terms of Mysticism, ’truth’ seems to directly point to a good friend.

After all, the Forged Pages of Knowledge that He Ao previously handled were stolen from a good friend.

And those pages were later used by He Ao as a precision-guided tool.

And this ’Incomplete Truth Mechanism’ offers a similar effect, ’Peering into the Truth’—isn’t that just spying on a good friend?

Although from the descriptions of the three items, this ’Incomplete Truth Mechanism’ seems the most harmless, He Ao guessed it might actually be the most dangerous.

The Forged Pages of Knowledge, which asked three questions and were discovered by a good friend, suggest that this ’Incomplete Truth Mechanism,’ having been passed around so long, has caused the demise of who knows how many owners, posed countless questions, and yet still exists unharmed.

The construction of this object may not be so simple after all.

However, looking at the overall picture, the first two extraordinary items should both be of ’Fake Angelic Tier,’ the kind that can temporarily exhibit Angelic Tier strength.

And the ’Incomplete Truth Mechanism’ related to a good friend might have an even higher Positional Grade, although non-combat, it’s likely capable of actually touching the threshold of Angelic Tier.

The system was quite generous this time.

But He Ao did not immediately make a choice.

He was waiting for another prompt.

Almost as soon as he finished scanning the descriptions of these items, a new text box popped up.

"Congratulations on triggering the ’Perfect Sovereign’ achievement effect."

"Would you like to perform a ’fusion refresh’ on all rewards?"

Basically, every time a new achievement is obtained, whether it can be triggered later or not, it’s almost certain that it will be triggered this time.

Since the effect of the ’Perfect Sovereign’ achievement did not trigger during the reward upgrade, then there is a high probability that it triggers after the rewards appear.

After all, the effect of this achievement is optional after triggering, and it is related to the rewards that have already appeared.

It’s very likely that the system will list all the rewards and then trigger the achievement effect.

He Ao’s gaze swept over the three reward descriptions in front of him again, and then he chose ’Yes.’

Although the success rate is probabilistic, this fusion has a guarantee; if it fails, it could just revert to the current rewards.

And as He Ao made his choice, a new text frame emerged in his field of view.

"Performing ’fusion refresh’ for you."

"Extracting key elements from each reward."

"Checking element matching conditions."

"Attempting to fuse extracted element features."

"Re-attempting fusion match."

"Upgrading matched items for you based on key elements."

He Ao watched the subtitles in his field of view, realizing that it’s not just a single attempt.

It seemed that this ’fusion refresh’ actually took some key elements from the three rewards and tried to fuse them to find the item that best fit these key elements?

During his contemplation, a new subtitle had already popped up.

"Fusion match successful."

"Congratulations, you have obtained: Tablet of the Eye of Truth."

"Tablet of the Eye of Truth:

Wizards believe that the eyes of truth have always been with them, and indeed they have.

Some wizards saw eyes following behind them, they tried to tell their peers, but their peers thought they were crazy.

So they tried to capture the eyes behind them. They tried many methods but always failed.

Eventually, on the advice of a sage, they engraved the eyes that chased after them into a tablet.

They knew that the sage was one of their own, but they couldn’t find him among their people.

And after the tablet was carved, the eyes that followed them indeed disappeared.

They tried to show the eyes to other wizards, but the wizards still could not see the eyes on the tablet and thought they suffered some peculiar contamination.

Then they discovered that behind every wizard there was an eye.

Please note, but when you steal the power of truth, the eyes of truth may be watching you.

Please note, any act of peering into secrecy may invite unknown attention, and being observed is like being ensnared.

Please note, the Eye of Truth will metamorphose the thoughts of its possessor.

Please note, knowledge is a bridge, cognition is a connection.

Please note, those who chase the Eye of Truth seek not only the truth."

"Reward has been issued, please check."

This was the first time He Ao had seen the system give five consecutive ’please note’ messages.

He raised his hand and looked at his palm.

As the system’s words gradually faded, unlike the previous rewards, nothing appeared in his hand.

But within an extremely short time, he realized something.

He slowly turned his head.

Above and behind him, a huge eye filled with blood vessels was watching him.

The eye was set within an orange-gray stone tablet, carved into an inverted triangle.

The inverted eye within the triangle was the structure of the Eye of Truth.

But the common ’Eye of Truth’ for wizards is a closed eye.

The one in front of He Ao, however, was an open, fleshy eye.

And at the moment He Ao looked at this fleshy eye, endless contamination exploded in his mind.

The world unfurled in his vision like a twisted scroll at that instant.

Magnificent chants echoed in his mind, leading him toward the other shore of the ultimate truth.

Blood seeped from under his skin, but he remained unmoved; he reached out and grasped the tablet floating in the air with the embedded eye.

At that instant, even more violent contamination burst forth in his mind.

He lost all vision in an instant; his dark pupils lost their focus and the world turned pitch black, with only twists of line that seemed to have no thickness at all.

This was at least contamination of an Angelic Tier.

And the ’world’ seen in this contamination seemed somewhat like the ’Truth Vision’ seen by the Eye of Annihilation.

A thought flashed through his mind, and He Ao used his Divine Sense to immerse into the tablet via his palm.

Twisted lines unfurled in his mind; the tablet was not as ’simple’ as it appeared to be.

Countless intricate lines ebbed in He Ao’s mind.

The tablet itself was not genuinely ’carved’ on stone, but rather was outlined by a force condensed into material, forming an ’Array.’

And this vast array jointly formed a ’cage,’ imprisoning the fleshy ’eye’ within.

Under the ’vision’ of Divine Sense, the seemingly twisted and terrifying fleshy eye had no ’substance,’ as if it never existed.

Rather than being physical or energetic, the eye was more like a ’concept’ of a Higher Being.

And the ’Array’ constituting the tablet was the power to ’imprison’ and ’manifest’ the concept.

In that moment, He Ao instantly understood that the system’s recent item description was not outrightly narrating the origin of the ’Tablet of the Eye of Truth,’ but was an obscure ’allegory.’