But I still can't bring myself to hate you

  Amon wept for the old madman, for his father, and for Duketown. He had already learned of the disaster and confirmed it in the information stored in Gaia's Eye. Nietzsche was dead, Father was dead, and even the mayor of Dastville was dead! Duketown was gone, no one survived the flood!

  When he heard the rumble of thunder and saw the dark clouds gathering in the east, Ah Meng knew that a storm was brewing. In his short fourteen years of life, he had never seen it rain in Duketown during the summer, nor had he ever seen such prolonged heavy downpours. As the thunder grew louder and more frequent, and the clouds churned and thickened, Ah Meng realized what was about to happen.

  He wanted to return to Duque town but it was too late for anything, as the lowlands of the plateau were also raining, flash floods overflowed the valley, and the rapids hit forming dangerous whirlpools, there was no road left, no wonder the old madman would let him go higher.

  Amon stood on the high slope, gazing out into the distance. All that could be seen below was a thick layer of clouds and flashes of lightning, in the direction of Du Ke Town. His eyes had always been filled with tears. The old madman had once said that the next piece of information from the Earth's Pupil would appear after the disaster arrived, but Amon had never been able to "read" it.

  Two days after the thunder, Amun vaguely heard a particularly shocking clap of thunder, and his heart felt like it had been inexplicably tightened. He suddenly sensed that the Earth's Pupil in his arms was calling to him. He immediately returned to the village and entered the quietest cave in the mountains, ordering everyone not to disturb him. Then he took out the Earth's Pupil and tried to stimulate the information within using his meditation powers. After that, he heard and saw the message left by the old madman.

  The old madman's hair and beard were still disheveled, as if he was standing in front of me talking.

  "Child, when you see this message left by the divine technique, I have just bid farewell to this life. You didn't mishear, I am already dead, and your father is no more. I died from the wrath of the gods because I wanted to fly into the sky to see the true face of the gods and unleash my strongest blow in life. All my life I wanted to unravel the secrets of the gods, but never saw a god, so naturally I wouldn't give up this last opportunity."

  No need to ask me why, I can tell you frankly that I'm fed up with living! You may think I've really gone mad, but I'm already 150 years old this year. The divine technique has made me very powerful, as if filled with energy, but all of these have lost their meaning to me. I know you have doubts in your heart, and now I can explain it to you.

  Are you wondering why I didn't wait for you to unravel the secrets of the gods, or even make myself a god? In fact, my days are numbered, and even if I could live long enough to see that day, it would be impossible for me. I took the wrong path from the very beginning, and Belle has already told me all this.

  You awakened the power of duality, passed the trial of dual desires, and became a first-class magician and warrior. After that, you also passed the trial of physical purification and became a second-class magician and warrior. These are all things I have witnessed with my own eyes, but you may not be aware that I myself can no longer repeat this path, perhaps you find it unbelievable.

  For years without practicing martial arts, my lifespan has far exceeded that of ordinary people. I still look robust, but the power in my blood has been gradually declining. In these hundreds of years, I have suffered countless injuries and unbearable pain that ordinary people cannot imagine. If I were to start all over again, I wouldn't even be able to pass the test of physical purity. Do you find it laughable? An 8th-level great magician like myself is actually inferior to you!

  If you've been walking the wrong path from the start, the farther you go, the higher your achievements, but it may be even harder to turn back. That's why I'm reminding you of this and also why I want you to find out where Bell is headed - as far as I know, he might have already found all the right paths to becoming a high-ranking magician and warrior. As for what he hasn't proven yet, that's up to you to figure out yourself.

  "You might ask me how I foresaw this disaster, but let's just keep it a secret forever. I've already told you everything, and that's the final reserve. As for Du Ke Town, its destruction may be what it deserved, people reaped what they sowed, and I'm one of them. My death is the price paid for everyone."

  The message said that Amun also received a piece of information, similar to what Galen saw in the temple but more detailed, about a series of tragic events that occurred in Duketown some time ago, including the origin of these tragedies. Amun couldn't help but cry out in his heart: "Old madman, you knew that disaster would strike, why didn't you save everyone? My father is dead, he was innocent!"

  The old madman seemed to have anticipated Ah Mon's question, and the information he left behind was accompanied by a loud laugh: "Ah Mon, do you want to ask me why I didn't save your father? Why didn't I save everyone?... Kid, I've already saved you and pointed out a path for you to become a god. Don't you feel grateful to me instead of resenting me?... I've gone through many such interrogations in my life, and I think the gods are no exception!"

  This remark left Amun speechless for a moment, then he burst into loud sobs like a child. No, it would be more accurate to say that he was indeed just a child.

  The old madman and the father ended their lives in madness and intoxication, to accompany the entire Du Ke Town to its grave. How can Ah Meng not be sad? At a young age, he had to face the hardships of life and death separation. The destruction of Du Ke Town means that he no longer has his hometown and relatives. Ah Meng feels abandoned by the whole world.

  Amon is not Gele, he did not see Nietzsche rush into the sky with his own eyes, nor does he know how this great flood occurred? Only knows that the old madman had predicted it. The old madman has some words that Amon can't understand, such as his claim to have died from the wrath of the gods, why he wants to rush up to the sky and strike the strongest blow against the gods, and which god he is facing. The old madman did not explain to Amon.

  Perhaps for Armon, explanations were useless; he had not yet reached the state where he could understand all this. The bewildered youth was too grief-stricken to think it through, and Armon, surrounded by overwhelming sorrow, could no longer focus his mind to maintain a meditative state, and the process of reading the divine technique information was interrupted.

  When he had cried enough and was tired of crying, he wiped away his tears. He remembered the message left by the old madman, which he hadn't finished reading earlier. So, he tried to calm down and reactivate the Earth's Pupil, but something unexpected happened.

  The old madman was not an all-knowing and all-powerful god, nor did he expect that Amun had already passed the test of "firm belief" when disaster struck, becoming a third-level magician. When Amun read the previous message halfway through, he interrupted it again using the Earth's Eye, naturally triggering the next divine technique information, so the old madman's previous message disappeared, and I don't know how many more sentences Amun didn't hear.

  Next, Amun read various mid-level divine technique secrets, not all of them, but only the parts that could be learned at level three. When he saw this content, Amun had to temporarily stop thinking about anything and focus on accepting the information, because this information would only appear once and then disappear. Only by passing the "firmness of faith" test, can one enter a state of concentrated attention where the soul is calm and not disturbed by distracting thoughts, and remember so many complex and profound contents at once.

  Third-level divine spellcasters excel in different divine spells, and the ability to use various divine spells also differs greatly, but the achievement standard reached by basic meditation is the same.

  At the end of this message, Lao Feng Zi left a note:

  "Child, when you read this, you already have three levels of achievement. I'm not sure if you've found out about Bell's whereabouts. From now on, everything depends on yourself. You have nothing to lose and no worries, the entire Tianxu continent is waiting for you to make your move."

  I have given you my token, the plaque with the emblem engraved on it. I haven't told you that I also gave it to Bell, who sealed information in the plaque for Xue Dingyuan to bring to me; it was also once Bell's token.

  I have traveled throughout the mainland for a hundred years, and many people have benefited from my kindness and vowed to repay me or my descendants. Bell was also an elder of the Egu Empire's Divine Technique Council and had guided the divine technique cultivation of many nobles and priests, and there were also those who had vowed to thank and repay him.

  When you encounter hardships while traveling on the mainland, perhaps you can find them to seek help, this is the last gift I left for you. But after so many years have passed, whether the oath of those years ago is still remembered, and whether it will really be followed, is difficult to say. You must be careful to protect yourself, a small magician's identity on the Tianxu continent is dangerous, and the test of interacting with people may be more difficult than the test of divine techniques.

  At the end of this message, a string of names or family introductions appeared. The first person was Goro, the chief priest of the Temple of Syr. The old man specifically instructed Amun that if he became a great magician in the future, he must go to see Goro. The message also introduced the Medanzo family and explained the background at the time. However, the old man did not know that Amun had already met Medanzo and even taught him divine techniques.

  ……

  At dusk, Amun finally came out of the cave, his eyes were still red and slightly swollen, with a deep sense of fatigue in his expression. At such a young age, he inexplicably gave people a sense of vicissitudes, as if he had grown up a lot overnight.

  Amon has been silent for days, today he burst into loud crying in the cave, the people living in the wild felt a little scared and inexplicable fear, some even speculated - is the heavy rain at the foot of the mountain the tears of the gods? Seeing Amon walk out of the cave unharmed, everyone finally breathed a sigh of relief.

  What surprised Lin Ke was that Ah Meng actually asked him for wine for the first time. Lin Ke immediately went to fetch the wine and filled the exquisite copper bottle sent by Ah Meng, sending it to Ah Meng's large grass house.

  Amon wasn't clear why he wanted to drink, maybe it was because he missed his drunkard father. However, that night he didn't even finish a few sips before losing the desire to drink, sitting there with the bottle in hand, deep in thought. The old madman said the entire Tianxu continent was waiting for him to make his move, but Amon felt like he had no home to return to, nowhere to go, and the future was a complete mess, with only one path laid out before him.

  If he doesn't want to be a "false god" in this primitive tribe forever, then the only way is to become a magician according to the old madman's wish and unlock the secrets of the gods. Even if he can't find out where Bell went, he can still repeat what Bell did back then. People living in the world always have to do something, Amun thought at this time.

  He stood up and lamented: "Old madman, you knew what would happen early on, was all of this arranged by you? You're too ruthless, yet I can't bring myself to hate you!"

  Since he didn't want to drink anymore, Ah Meng never wasted anything, it was an unconscious habit, and he poured the remaining half bottle of wine into Xue Dingxuan's grass nest. Xue Dingxuan had been squatting in the grass nest watching him, seeing Ah Meng bring the wine over, he flipped his body and pressed down on that bone to take a nap, seemingly uninterested in the wine of this cave-dwelling barbarian tribe.

  Since then, Amun has been serving this cat with good food and drink. Unconsciously, Xue Ding'e has become thinner and thinner, his body shape becoming slender and beautiful, his fur smooth and shiny, completely different from the fat and dirty lazy cat in Du Ke Town. The change that occurred was gradual and unnoticed, but Amun suddenly realized that this cat had changed too much as he looked at Xue Ding'e.

  What changed was not just a cat? The entire town of Duque was completely wiped out by the flood, and Armon was no longer the young man he was a few months ago!

  Xue Dingyuan has been following Amun all day, staring at him, is he afraid that he will think of something and get into trouble? Does it care about him too? In any case, this cat was the only young companion Amun had in Du Ke Town, and it would continue to accompany him on his journey. With an inexplicable emotion, Amun stretched out his hand and hugged Xue Dingyuan into his arms, stroking its back and saying softly: "Du Ke Town is gone, everyone is gone, now only you and I are left."

  Xue Dingyuan was startled by Amun's sudden movement, and he seemed very unwilling to be hugged and stroked like this. His sharp claws extended from the fleshy pads of his toes, raised his paws as if to scratch Amun's arm, but upon hearing his words, he didn't really scratch him, instead twisting back and forth with a very unhappy expression.

  Amon found the cat uncomfortable in his arms, let out a sigh and put it down again, then sat in the house to practice meditation. Only by letting his body and mind settle into a calm and undisturbed state could he temporarily forget the sorrows of the world.

  Amon can now cultivate some intermediate-level divine techniques. Apart from elemental divine techniques, he has always been most interested in spatial divine techniques and informational divine techniques, which are all related to the special divine stones left behind by Old Maniac. However, a third-level magician cannot yet cultivate these two divine techniques, so tonight he is cultivating detection divine technique.

  The foundation of these two magical techniques is the detection technique, especially the information technique, which is itself a branch of the detection technique that has been cultivated to a higher level. Amun had already gained some insight into the detection technique before, and it was easy for him to get started with the most basic "Puppet Eye Sensing".

  No need to look, no need to listen, everything around in the darkness is so clear. However, Amun suddenly opened his eyes and stood up, interrupting the newly grasped divine technique. "Puppet Eye Perception" is much clearer than what is normally seen and heard, which is a common sense for any divine technician.

  However, Ah Meng just now surprisingly discovered that there were "missing" two things in the house, Xue Dingyan in the grass nest and that strange bone, which did not exist at all in his puppet eye perception!

  **