“4th April. I just returned from Countess Wawrinka’s masquerade party when I suddenly felt an emptiness in my heart.
“One woman, one woman, one woman after another. The monotonous and mechanical movements, the indistinguishable smell of perfume, and the warmth from the entanglement of their limbs; all these in exchange for a few seconds of pleasure, followed by endless boredom, disgust, emptiness, and numbness.
“What pleasure is there in such a life? Is the meaning of life to just do this every single day?
“I can’t go on like this. I have to get out of this sorry state.
“Also, I need to remind myself that I shouldn’t habitually write Arabic numerals.”
He looked down at the second entry of the diary.
“4th April, Countess Wawrinka invited me to a private salon, and she told me that Ma’am Julia would be there, too.
“Ha, will this conservative blonde girl who had come to Loen because of her marriage participate as well?
“I really look forward to it!
“I’ve been imagining her in bed for a long time. I hope her husband, Viscount Dellien, doesn’t mine.”
“14th April. I’ve been attending too many events recently, and the flesh is weak even though the spirit is willing…
“But that’s nothing!
“Although I’m still young, I should be careful about the risk of retrograding. Temperance! Temperance!
“The Archaeologist Sequence has improved my physique and effectively enhanced a certain degree of my powers. However, this isn’t its area of expertise, but just something that comes with it.
“As I continue raising my Sequence, the changes from the previous potions will also intensify. This is my motivation.
“Apparently, Apothecaries can concoct medicine that lack side effects. Perhaps, I should ask a few of them.
“Also, I really have to control myself. Unrestrained behavior will only lead to continuous increases in the threshold, and the degree of satisfaction wouldn’t be like how it would normally be.
“After calming down and thinking about it carefully, there are many things that can be done. Humans are always like this, bound by desire, unable to see what’s of value. Why did I transmigrate over here? What secrets lie hidden in the depths of the stars above my head? Where did the original consciousness come from, and if self-cognition purely comes from one’s consciousness, then who was I before I had the identity of Huang Tao? Who does the essential part belong to…”
To him, the diary of Emperor Roselle was both a book of knowledge and a collection of jokes.
With this thought, Klein turned to the next page of the diary.
“2nd October, Zaratul came to visit me again.
“Now that I’ve become a demigod, he wishes that I can honor a promise. He wishes to steal that dangerous Sealed Artifact from the Church.
“That is a Grade 1 Sealed Artifact, the Antigonus family’s notebook from the Fourth Epoch!”
At this point, Klein’s pupils contracted uncontrollably.
All of these thoughts flashed through Klein’s mind, causing his heart to feel abnormally heavy.
He didn’t assume that the Antigonus notebook that he had encountered was closely related to Roselle, because the theory he always had had stemmed from the law of convergence of Beyonder characteristics, and that some of the details that followed were in line with similar logic.
Steadying his emotions, Klein went on to read the subsequent diary pages.
“Heh, I’ll have to do it depending on the situation. If it’s easy to steal and there’s no risk of exposure, I’ll try to do it. Otherwise, I’ll pretend as though none of this ever happened.
“It doesn’t matter even if Zaratul were to expose me. With my present identity, status, Sequence, and influence, as long as I’m willing to repent, the Church won’t do anything to me.”
The other two diary pages recorded Roselle’s train of thought towards constructing his plans to steal the notebook, but none of them seemed likely to succeed. However, Klein knew that Roselle eventually obtained the notebook and handed it over to the head of the Secret Order, Zaratul.
After a moment’s thought, Klein turned the page.
“10th December. I once again attended that ancient and secret gathering.
“At the gathering, I discovered that they were unanimous in being extremely hostile to the Solomon Empire of the Fourth Epoch.
“I raised the question which Mr. Hermes quickly answered. In the Fourth Epoch, the ally and supporter of the Solomon Empire was the True Creator.
“This is very real.
“I resisted the urge to ask what exactly our organization had done in the history of the Fourth Epoch, but as I left the palace and returned from my dreams, I found that Mr. Hermes’s route this time coincided with mine to a certain extent.
“This ancient man who lived since the Cataclysm definitely knew more. I build up a rapport with him and earnestly asked him the question—is that why the organization hates the True Creator? Is it solely because ‘He’ had used the Creator’s holy name in ‘His’ name?
“Mr. Hermes chuckled and said that they weren’t such superficial creatures.
“He asked me in return if I knew what the actual abilities of the Shepherd were.
“‘Of course’ was my answer.
“He asked again in a profoundly meaningful manner, ‘Who do you think would be most likely to develop in the direction of being omniscient and omnipotent among all the present gods?’
“This… The first thought that came to me was the Shepherd pathway which could engage in Devouring and Grazing, so as to control the souls and characteristics of other Beyonders.
“So that’s the reason…”
Towards Hermes, the oldest master of mysticism, Klein’s answer came close to Roselle’s.
As a Beyonder’s Sequence was raised, the saints and angels of the Shepherd pathway were able to engage in the Grazing of more souls, gaining more and more Beyonder powers. In the end, if the True Creator had finished Grazing the other twenty-one Beyonder pathways, he would be, to some extent, the omnipotent and omniscient Creator.
This diary page recorded the actions Roselle took after he consumed the Savant potion. He read a lot, studied a lot, tamped down on his foundation very firmly, and increased the scope and depth of his knowledge to a whole new level.
In this period of time, he had almost no entertainment. Learning was his greatest form of entertainment.
In one of the diary entries, he wrote: “… When a person knows with certainty how much he will gain after putting in the effort, and is able to directly tell how much he gains, then he will certainly work as hard as I am now.”
During the entire process, the majestic palace was completely silent. Be it Justice or The Moon, they were both considering what to trade and communicate later on.
It was the first time that The Hermit Cattleya had encountered such a situation, but she didn’t feel uneasy or uncomfortable at all. Instead, she carefully analyzed the information that the scene revealed.
At this point in time, Klein had roughly finished reading the new piece of information regarding ancient gods.
In the Second Epoch, in those dark years, every ancient god had a “god” attached to them, just like the Dragon of Imagination Ankewelt and “His” child, the Dragon of Nightmare, Alzuhod.
