When the plot-skips players into the game world

Aiwass remained silent for a long while before slowly closing the diary.

Yulia gave a little gasp. "You...you're not going to read anymore?"

There was a note of surprise in her voice, and perhaps a hint of joy, but also a touch of regret.

"No more reading," he said.

Turning to her, Aiwass revealed a warm smile, "Because I've come to understand the source of your fear, and I know where your heart is coming from."

"Is it that you don't want to read anymore, or... there's no need to read anymore?"

"Neither. It's just that I won't read it this time."

Aiwass corrected her, "Peeling back the heart you've hidden to understand your past is one thing; flipping through your secrets and peeking into your thoughts... those are two different matters."

"You want me to read your diary because of the fear and palpitations it causes you. Your emotions are too complex right now... and I don't want to take advantage of someone vulnerable."

Aiwass said with a smile, "I want to see you give me your full attention, earnestly... and tell me all your secrets. Tell me in person, not through this half-true, half-false diary."

Upon hearing this, Yulia's cheeks instantly turned red.

The same old saying—no proper person writes in a diary.

Can the words within a diary truly count as one's innermost thoughts?

Not to mention, the "Du Lac Family Diaries" are essentially wills in nature. The curse and curse poison may be chronic or acute. Slow-acting might take months before death ensues, while quick-acting could leave no time for rescue, leading to instantaneous death.

Under such circumstances, it's extremely difficult to leave a stable will behind. That's why the original prince chose to have everyone leave behind diaries. After his death, others would read them and understand his thoughts and what he wanted to accomplish.

And by reading the diaries and sharing secrets together, it helped unify the royal family against a common enemy. They could understand each other, stand on common ground, and were less likely to fight amongst themselves.

The prince was probably Queen Sofia's eldest son. Being the first to realize this, he truly was suited to be the king.

But in such a situation, naturally, there wouldn't be many deep secrets in the diaries.

Like with Kraya's husband, Philip's father, his diary showed traces of restrained emotions.

However, they all took one thing for granted and made a mistake.

Indeed, the act of writing a diary is also a process of venting fear and expressing unease. But there's an issue here... if the diary is bound to be read by others, then the negative emotions contained within would inevitably be conveyed to the next person through the text.

In a closed system, this cycle would repeat. Negative emotions accumulating in the text would keep piling up, growing ever larger.

Hatred, confusion, fear, anger, the desire to escape, sadness...

By the time it reached this generation, Yulia couldn't bear it anymore.

It was not her fault. The pressure she was under was simply too great.

Unlike doctors who might conceal the truth from terminally ill patients, what the Du Lac Family did was quite the opposite; everyone kept saying "I'm going to die," "You're going to die."

Then, they would witness one after another die, until the rooms in the Hall of Silver and Tin emptied out one by one.

It was like a ward for the seriously ill, conducive to depression.

The only one who seemed to have realized this was probably the last person quoted in Yulia's diary.

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His words carried power, likely belonging to a genuine and time-honored knight. He understood what he needed to do, so he chose to comfort the others—he did not vent his fears and suffering in his diary, but instead, he gave others the strength to live on.

This type of knight, recognized by the Silver-Crowned Dragon, would surely become an apostle after death.

This was quite rare.

Even if the royalty of Avalon were descendants of Lancelot, who once collaborated with the Silver-Crowned Dragon, not all of them could become knights of the Crown Lord. Because the Silver-Crowned Dragon is quite picky.

After all, this world does not have the concept of reincarnation; it usually respects the natural cycle. But death is not an absolute termination.

The soul of mortals is born with the flesh, a gift from the world; and after death, the soul will enter into one of nine different rivers according to its affinity, flowing into the domains of the Nine Pillar Gods.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

The Pillar Gods and Celestial Marshals can use their power to temporarily intercept and preserve someone's soul, or allocate a portion of their essence and power to elevate the other party as an Angel Envoy. If they do not do so, then at the end of the river, the soul will merge back into the world, forming a great cycle. Enjoy new chapters from empire

The souls most often intercepted belong to the Path of Adaptation, Path of Love, and Path of Dusk.

Upon the death of those from the Path of Adaptation, their souls transform into all manner of bizarre beasts within the domain of the Lord of Scalefeather, slaying and devouring each other in an endless forest and wilderness to evolve until they are strong enough to be taken by a Pillar God or Celestial Marshal and turned into their apostles.

For those on the Path of Love, after death, they will enter different domains according to varying desires. Those who relish combat, violence, and barbarism will join the shadow domain to fight others, dying and being reborn to continue the battle; whereas, those who favor sensuality and gluttony will enter the Domain of Flesh to indulge in ceaseless and decadent feasts.

They will either completely lose themselves to their desires or master them fully and be chosen by Celestial Marshals as their envoys.

As for the Eternal Self, the Pillar God of the Path of Love—Eternal Self does not dance with others; He only forever dances in sorrow with His reflection in His abode in the moon. He has the fewest apostles of all the Pillar Gods.

Those from the Path of Dusk after death will turn into amber after amber in the Forest of Amber. Their past, memories, life, and souls will all be perfectly preserved by the amber, even though it's utterly meaningless.

Apart from these three paths that work on an "automatic filtering mechanism," the other Pillar Gods and Celestial Marshals will carefully select. After all, creating an apostle requires dividing some of their own strength; only those souls they particularly like will be picked—typically, after the Pillar God has chosen, then it's the turn of the Celestial Marshal of that path, and once all the Celestial Marshals are done picking, the remaining souls will be reclaimed by the world.

The Silver-Crowned Dragon is a very picky Pillar God, even more so than the Candle Master. Only souls of high quality—loyal, upright, brave, honest, reliable, tolerant, and glorious—will be chosen by Him to become His knights. However, He treats His own apostles the best; if an apostle is attacked by another Pillar God or a Celestial Marshal's envoy in the Dream Realm, the Crown Lord will wage an unrelenting war upon the aggressor.

The knights of the Crown Lord remain quite active.

The knights will train, read, and sing in palaces at the foot of the sunny Crystal Mountain Range; they will race and joust across the boundless Emerald Prairie. Occasionally, they will bear witness to oaths in the Material Realm or punish oath breakers. Sometimes they take short trips as mortals, traveling the world and performing acts of bravery.

Knight envoys usually do not appear in temples, unless it is to send a warning against a tyrant—the Crown Lord's knights will protect all rulers, preserving their bloodlines, and also guard the mortal rulers of the Material Realm from being arbitrarily attacked or controlled by other envoys from the Dream Realm, thus maintaining harmony and separation between the two realms.

Joining them in guarding the balance of both realms are the envoys of the Hourglass.

But as for tyrants, knights withdraw their protection. One of the reasons is that the domain of "Tyrant" belongs to Bear Celestial Marshal.

Meanwhile, the Crown Lord watches silently over the entire world from a mountaintop perpetually blasted by snowstorms, exactly what He watches Aiwass doesn't know. Other than this and selecting knights, He barely intervenes in anything... relying solely on His knights to act on His behalf. Just like King Arthur once sent the Knights of the Round Table on adventures.

It was for this reason that Aiwass felt puzzled and anxious when, as a mere mortal, he found himself suddenly under the gaze of the Silver-Crowned Dragon.

"—Why are you looking at me?"

If it had been the Hourglass, he certainly wouldn't have panicked.

The Hourglass is the Pillar God with the closest connection to the Material Realm, so amiable that He can even bargain with mortals who have not embarked on the Transcendent path. If someone calls upon Him, even if the ritual is wrong, He and His envoys will likely respond. The ritual to exorcise Phantom Demons and banish them back to the Dream Realm is powered by the Hourglass.

If Aiwass were to die, he might be taken by the Serpent Father or by the Candle Master; Isabel might now be overlooked by the Gemini Mirror, and if Sherlock grows a bit more, the Great Sage might take an interest, but likely not right now.

Bishop Mathers has somewhat strayed from the Path of Dedication, and Yulia is still a rookie.

Of all of Aiwass's friends... the only one who might catch the eye of a Pillar God is none other than the distinguished Guardian himself. Given George's character, strength, and accomplishments, he would certainly become a knight of the Silver-Crowned Dragon after death. The fact is indeed such, and that is why Aiwass calls him "Saint George," because he ascended to become an apostle after his death.

"—Rounded up, I'm essentially befriending an apostle."

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