Rustle rustle rustle …
Elvin held the pen that he had made with the "Revitalizing Aura" and was writing rapidly. The golden tip of the pen left lines of beautiful words and lines on the high-quality parchment.
It formed a complicated and precise array that looked like a work of art.
This was the "Garriott Bird Modification Art 3.0" that he was constantly modifying. The main body had been completed when he was promoted to an official wizard. Now, he only needed to make some small changes in the details to make it more perfect.
Elvin believed that after this transformation, the seabirds under his command would definitely usher in a qualitative change. Completing the transformation from a mortal creature to a demonized creature would no longer be a dream.
Suddenly.
The light in the captain's room dimmed, and the light of the hanging wind chimes seemed to be swallowed by something.
Then, an old man's gloomy voice suddenly came from the oil painting hanging on the wall.
"Little ~ brat ~, quickly find someone for this old man to eat, eat … Heh heh …
Otherwise, I'll eat you! Heh heh … "
Others might be shocked when they heard this, but …
Pa-
Elvin snapped his fingers in response.
The creepy sound became softer and softer, and finally, it was inaudible.
This was because a spiritual barrier had risen on its own, isolating the oil painting on the mysterious level from all connections with the outside world. The old man who did not understand the situation inside could neither see nor hear, let alone speak.
It was even worse than when he was at the bottom of the sea.
However, this also meant that it was some kind of signal.
The pen in his hand drew the last symbol on the paper. Elvin put away the "Bird Modification Art 3.0" and replaced it with an ordinary white paper. He also refilled a cup of black tea for himself.
Then, he looked up at the oil painting as if he was expecting something.
A minute later, the scene of the sunken ship in the oil painting gradually disappeared. A portrait of a middle-aged man with wavy hair wearing a noble suit from hundreds of years ago replaced it.
Elvin then removed the spiritual barrier, bowed slightly, and said with a smile,
"Good day, Sir Katarov!"
"Good day, Sir Baron!
Haha, the taste of freedom is still better, especially when I can have a noble audience when I'm experiencing freedom. It's really perfect.
In that case, do you have time to listen to my story now? "
The man in the painting spoke slowly. Although it was still the old man's voice, his tone was completely different, especially at the end of each sentence. This was the way the nobles used to speak in order to show that they were different from the others.
Hearing this, Elvin naturally wouldn't refuse, because he was waiting for "him".
"Of course, it's my honor!"
It had been a long time since this painting was fished out of the sea. After Kaka discovered that it had a consciousness, Elvin had a certain understanding of this painting and the consciousness living in it after several unsuccessful exchanges.
Or rather, he, it, they … could all represent the consciousness inside.
Elvin's initial guess was correct.
Hundreds of years ago, the fugitive sorcerer abandoned his severely injured body and hid in this famous painting, which was essentially a "cursed object", in the form of a soul.
His name used to be Simpson, and he was an official sorcerer belonging to the Black Sorcerer's School of Black Sorcerers.
He was proficient in Shadow Sorcery and Soul Sorcery. After using a "cursed object" to seal his soul, he had been struggling in the painting until now.
But after a long time, his life form had undergone an irreversible change. His soul had completely merged with this cursed oil painting, becoming an existence similar to the Devil Spirit in the painting.
This form of existence was similar to the legendary battleship "Ship Spirit" that Elvin knew. As long as this painting wasn't destroyed, theoretically, he wouldn't completely disappear.
This allowed him to rely on the soul essence of a Level Two Extraordinaire to survive hundreds of years of erosion.
But the price he paid was far more than that.
This painting was originally called "Katarov's Death Portrait." It was originally a self-portrait created by a noble painter named Katarov.
It was unknown what happened in the middle, but in the end, it became a "cursed object", causing its former owners to inexplicably "deify", and their souls were imprisoned in the painting and kept sinking.
The form shown on the oil painting was the scene of each victim's death.
When Black Sorcerer Simpson relied on his powerful soul strength that far surpassed any of the previous victims to occupy the cursed oil painting, he had no choice but to merge with the souls and consciousnesses of the past victims uncontrollably, until it was difficult to distinguish them.
In the end, what appeared in front of Elvin was a "Devil Spirit in the painting" with Simpson's personality as the main personality and the countless victims as secondary personalities.
A crazy old man, a learned noble artist, a rich merchant who valued wealth as much as his life, a clumsy thief … Elvin had recorded at least a dozen personalities, and by the looks of it, there were far more.
As for the people who were swallowed into the painting after Simpson, such as the unlucky Shilius soldier, they were truly eaten. They didn't even have the chance to split Simpson's soul and become an independent personality.
It didn't matter if they were at the bottom of the sea or after being fished up.
They would all go through internal discussions and come out at certain times. Whoever came out would be shown on the painting.
However, most of the time, it was the main personality of the old Black Sorcerer who came out. The second personality was the original owner of the painting, Sir Katarov.
Speaking of which, the crazy old man, who was an official Sorcerer, was obviously more valuable. The knowledge of the "Herringbone School" in his mind was very attractive to any supernatural.
Though Elvin couldn't be a part-time student, if he could obtain the shadow spells that belonged to Sorcerers, it would save him a lot of effort when it came to nurturing Kaka, the shadow lizard.
However, compared to dealing with a crazy but cunning old Sorcerer, Elvin was much more willing to chat with this learned noble artist.
Moreover, though the memories of the personalities weren't interconnected, after three hundred years of interaction, the interactions between the personalities were enough to complete the sharing of most of their memories.
At the very least, Katarov knew the memories of everyone after him in great detail.
Thus, this learned noble artist used his "personal" experiences that had never been recorded in history books to give Elvin a pleasant surprise.
Though it was somewhat high-end and might not be useful for the time being, its value was no less than any mystical knowledge.
Because it might hide a secret that could allow mortals to stand side by side with Gods!
"As we said last time, a long time ago, the Church of the Seven Gods was famous for being conservative, stubborn, and unreasonable. They used all kinds of dogmas and rules to firmly imprison the minds of the people.
This situation lasted for thousands of years, and people called it the "Dark Millennium."
Until five hundred years ago, when I lived in the era, the people finally stopped being obedient lambs and decided to break the dark era from the spiritual world.
It was a movement called the "Renaissance," and it was also a magnificent period that lasted for two centuries.
Indirectly, it caused the Turkat Dynasty, where I lived, to dominate the continent. In terms of ideology, art, and culture, it became a pilgrimage place for the whole continent. "
Although the words of this "ancient" obviously lacked reverence for the Seven Gods, Elvin just listened silently, and from time to time recorded the first-hand information of the conversation with "history" on paper.
Because of his dual identity as a noble and an artist, Elvin had enough vision and opportunities to understand the true appearance of that era, and it was also a treasure for him!
From his intermittent stories during this period of time, Elvin seemed to have grasped the context of the development of the world and the limits of the authority of the True Gods!
According to what he said, the records of the wizards, and Elvin's own deduction.
During the Dark Age, all supernatural powers other than the Church were suppressed. Adepts were no different from other supernatural beings. They were all struggling to survive in the cracks, barely managing to survive.
But when the "Renaissance" movement from the bottom to the top developed in full swing, and it was unanimously welcomed by most countries and people in the Old Continent, even forming a certain trend, the Church of the True Gods finally could not sit still.
With the huge accumulation of thousands of years of firmly ruling the world from both the body and the soul, they began to hunt down the Extraordinaries, especially the wizards among them, with the belief of killing.
Obviously, the wisdom of the gods had allowed them to see the changes in the future. After the shackles of thought were broken, what followed would be the blooming of a hundred flowers on the spiritual and material levels.
And the wizards with the most power, wisdom, creativity, and productivity would definitely be able to benefit the most from this torrent of social change, profoundly changing the material world.
It was even possible to use a movement from the bottom to the top to shake the rule of the True Gods of the Old Continent by making use of the people's disgust with the rule of the Dark Millennium Church.
Of course, this was not what any True God wanted to see!
But their calculations were not completely successful.
The largest-scale witch-killing movement in history was in full swing, and the Church's forces expelled, killed, and imprisoned most of the wizards. Just as the budding movement was about to be completely stifled by them …
Another thing happened that the True Gods did not expect.
While the Church was fighting with the wizards, a group of demigods in their own backyard sprung up like bamboo shoots after the rain due to the human's desire for the "Renaissance" and the liberation of the mind.
Some of them were directly born from the beliefs of the humans, and some were promoted from the peak Extraordinaries. The number of demigods that appeared in the short 200 years was even more than the past few thousand years.
One of the typical demigods was the "God of Opera" Purcell, whom Elvin was lucky enough to see with his own eyes!
Even if the trend was not led by the wizards, it slowly unfolded in another form that they were also unwilling to see, and it brought about a profound impact on the world.
From this, the True Gods also knew that even if they were high above, they were not the masters of this world, and they were not completely irreplaceable.
Although the will of the world did not have a complete self, it also had the instinct to seek advantages and avoid disadvantages. The original intention of all the world's rules must be conducive to the development and promotion of the world.
During this period, the trend of the world could be temporarily suppressed, but it could not stay in the era of ignorance forever.
Therefore, the gods had to compromise with the world itself.
Under the combined influence of internal and external, the religious reform of the Church of the Seven Gods began, and the Dark Millennium Church came to an end completely.
Then.
After another few hundred years, the decline of the various forces and the rise of the other side played games with each other, and slowly, there was the appearance of a balanced supernatural ecology.
After straightening out the sequence of events, Elvin also obtained one of the key points, a secret that even many superior powerhouses might not know.
That was something that even the True Gods had to give in to — the trend of the world!
"However, the Dark Millennium Church came to an end, and the liberation of the mind was the trend. Then, the start of the Age of Great Voyages, was it not? "
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