Super Righteous Player
Chapter 1102 - 160 ’Stone Father’ Pericles

Chapter 1102: Chapter 160 ’Stone Father’ Pericles

That was the story personally told to Annan by Yawen when Annan found him.

The purpose was to warn Annan that the "Ascension Ritual" was not absolute.

At that time, the Stonemason, who was still a mortal and an ordinary bishop under Yawen, had silently surpassed Yawen in terms of sculpting skills.

Back then, he was called "Pericles." He was born in the Thousand-Faced Phantom Tower and decided to embark on the path of art at nearly thirty years old.

But the art industry... truly requires innate talent.

The moment "Pericles" decided to pursue the path of sculpting, the Book of Truth "Soul in Stone" started to appear in the human world.

Pericles himself was naturally chosen by the Book of Truth as well.

That Book of Truth and the ritual to manifest the "Fragments of Truth" was actually a form of artistic competition—it was a duel over a specific theme, during which both sides would simultaneously create sculptures or buildings.

The outcome of their duel would then incubate the Fragments of Truth and determine its ownership and whereabouts.

Although Stonemason was completely unknown at that time... he was deeply immersed in art and truly had talent.

— Twenty years later, when "Soul in Stone" fully manifested, Pericles’ level of sculpting had even surpassed Yawen.

He had become one of Yawen’s bishops more than a decade ago.

It was just because he was not lacking money or power. Thus, he had no intention of further promotions... He didn’t exhibit his sculptural works, but instead became a renowned "architect."

It seemed that Pericles was almost certain to succeed.

But that was not the case.

During Pericles’ time, there was another person who was not very good at sculpting, but was very strong in PVP. Among all the candidates, he was not the weakest, but he was below average.

His skill level was rather poor.

But he was really strong in combat.

Using the pretext of a "duel," he would agree on the theme of the sculpture with his opponent, and kill them before they completed their creation—even if they were Transcendents of Gold rank, he could forcefully kill them.

Then he would bring the corpse in front of himself, use his own finished product to challenge the opponent’s unfinished work, and complete the ritual in this unilateral victorious manner.

Pericles had no knowledge of this.

He didn’t even realize that he had surpassed Yawen or that he had been chosen by the Book of Truth.

He was devoted to the sculpting industry, too lazy to improve his power, and had no time to collect the Book of Truth...

Thus, although he was also a Transcendent, he had just reached the Silver rank.

And his competitor encountered an obstacle at this time:

Although he had already collected eight pages of the Book of Truth, which was already enough to complete the ascension; his last opponent didn’t even reach the Gold rank, and couldn’t be considered his enemy.

Another issue was that, although "Pericles" was not well-known, he was famous for having numerous works. Almost any thematic duel, he already had existing works... so preemptively killing the opponent wasn’t reliable.

Therefore, after much thought, Pericles’ rival decided that dueling with Pericles was unsafe and risky.

He decided not to duel with Pericles, but instead to directly ascend.

But among the five conditions for the Ascension Ritual, other than the "Crown of the Supreme", he had already met all other conditions.

Only then did he realize... that the one who held the "Crown of King of Architecture and Sculpture" was none other than Pericles!

What should he do then?

—In the end, he decided to directly kill Pericles.

Not to initiate a "duel ritual."

But to directly kill him!

Just like how the last-ranked stupid student gets diarrhea, and the second-to-last automatically becomes the lowest ranked... as long as he killed the first-ranked, he would meet the requirements to summon the Charioteer.

—Because he had already killed those ranked second to sixth before.

But he didn’t know... Yawen had long set his sights on him.

Although he was also one of Yawen’s bishops, even a cardinal bishop of Yawen.

But his method of not trying to improve his own level, and instead using this way of "preventing the original first-ranked from taking the exam"... truly enraged Yawen.

Perhaps other True Gods besides Mr. Radiance wouldn’t bother with this matter.

But Yawen was different. This old dove was known for his quirky nature.

It seemed like an internal strife within their own ranks, but Yawen still took action.

Yawen didn’t kill the man by the same method.

He only preserved Stonemason’s soul. And decided that when the other party started the Ascension Ritual, he would secretly transform the already deceased Stonemason into an Angel Envoy.

"This is actually Yawen’s final forgiveness towards that person.

Because within this period, he no longer had any opponents.

He could easily perform rites and ascend—before that, he had plenty of time to improve himself.

All his enemies were already dead.

And the dead do not improve themselves.

Even if his talents were lacking, but with others motionless and he alone surviving in the world... under these circumstances, he was bound to become the true ’number one in the world’.

He didn’t even have to surpass the sculpting level of Pericles, who was stronger than Yawen. As long as he could surpass the architecture level slightly inferior to that of Pericles, he would receive a ’Crown of the Supreme’.

After all, the ’Crown of the Supreme’ is only for mortals.

It’s not actually hard to obtain.

—But that person didn’t.

The day after killing Pericles, he hurriedly held an ascension ceremony.

And as he boarded the Charioteer without hesitation and entered the realm of light, Yawen sneered and resurrected Pericles into an Angel Envoy.

This caused a big problem.

Because Pericles was resurrected, that opponent automatically lost the Crown of the Supreme. Unaware of his disqualification, he was directly burned by the Springs of Light Realm into soul dispersal.

The almost completely formed Book of Truth, due to the failure of the ritual, shattered once again.

But as an Angel Envoy, Pericles naturally didn’t have any Elemental Power—he was merely Silver.

However, Yawen immediately took Pericles to The Holy Nation, borrowed some Philosopher’s Stones from the Sage Father, and personally escorted Pericles to the gates of the realm of light.

Pericles already had an unactivated page from the Fragments of Truth within him... Relying on this page, he entered the realm of light and successfully transcended into godhood.

Which means... If a Saint inherits the sacred bones and obtains The True Philosopher’s Stone, then by adhering to a True God as a guide, one can directly enter the realm of light; or like Elle who already became an Angel Envoy, although her Elemental Power has not yet awakened, but with the Book of Truth... can also skip the stage of accumulating Elemental Power and direct transcend into godhood.

Annan also quickly realized that.

Among the five conditions for the ascension ceremony.

The ’Four Wheels in Motion’ are the sources of the gods’ infinite power and eternal life; ’The Work of Creation’ and the ’Crown of the Supreme’ are the fundamental requirements that allow entrance to the realm of light and use the Springs of Light Realm to reshape the divine body.

And the ’Prototype of Truth’ serves as the invitation to knock on the doors of the realm of light. During ascension, it automatically selects two pages to become divine duties.

This aim is to prevent ’overlap of divine duties’, ’multiple gods controlling the same duty’—thus avoiding divine wars to the greatest extent... which is why gods, after completing ascension, can’t obtain the complete abilities of the Book of Truth.

Because that was just a key. It is to prevent someone from not using the Charioteer and running to the realm of light themselves—to verify that the person truly qualifies to become a god.

As for the last ’Perfect Essence of Elements,’ it’s the least important matter. Since the current automatically operating Charioteer has no backup energy, this is the fare travelers must personally pay for the ascension to the realm of light...

Here, the second and third conditions are actually the mandatory ones—without meeting these two conditions, one absolutely cannot become a god.

Even if transported directly to the realm of light by the Charioteer, using the Book of Truth or sacred bones to knock the door open, one still can’t obtain the divine body and authority.

Missing the ’Four Wheels of Motion,’ one cannot become a god—only becoming a god with a lifespan and not so strong.

Lacking the ’Prototype of Truth,’ the biggest problem is even if transported to the place, they can’t enter. Then just a fake key is needed... for example, the sacred bones can actually suffice.

And the ’Perfect Essence of Elements,’ can be directly substituted with the Philosopher’s Stone.

In fact, ascension didn’t have such precise requirements originally; the Charioteer could flexibly deliver the talents precisely to the heavenly realm.

But after the death of the Charioteer... to prevent any bugs in the world, he used his last energy to lock down the ascension rituals and switched the Charioteer to automatic mode.

That is to say, all conditions must be satisfied for the Charioteer to appear, to conserve energy to the greatest extent.

The reason why Annan’s ritual is the most troublesome... it’s because this isn’t a simple matter of ’meeting conditions then sending him to the realm of light’ but rather directly transferring the control of the ’Charioteer’ itself.

—Annan needed to send himself to the realm of light!

And as long as Annan ascends into the realm of light and regains the authority...

His six hundred Angel Envoys, as long players satisfy the conditions of ’The Work of Creation’ and the ’Crown of the Supreme’, Annan can bypass other requirements and directly promote them as lesser gods!

There’s absolutely no need for awakening Elemental Power!

Following this train of thought, Annan contemplated for a while.

Then he was shocked to realize a fact.

If that’s really the case...

It’s likely that the first player to become a god would be...

"—Husky!?"