abnabooks Chapter 409 - 329: Selling to Two Parties, The Second Covenant Between Man and Deity
Chapter 409 - 329: Selling to Two Parties, The Second Covenant Between Man and Deity
Chapter 409: Chapter 329: Selling to Two Parties, The Second Covenant Between Man and Deity
Indeed, he was nearly overwhelmed by the violent ocean of knowledge, yet it was only by a hair’s breadth.
If Byron had ascended to only a common Half-Night Devil, he would have likely spiraled into uncontrollable madness due to this abrupt incident.
But as a higher-ranked Prince of Night Demons, he relied on his stronger, more adaptable Life Essence and Anchoring to tenaciously withstand the first wave of the sudden tide of babbling.
Since the surprise attack was ineffective, the subsequent onslaught of furious knowledge naturally posed even less of a problem for him.
"SQUEAK SQUEAK SQUEAK... wild beasts will encounter wolves, wild goats will call out to their mates... copulate, reproduce..."
"Monsters of the night must reside there, seeking places for rest... COOING COOING COOING..."
"I will sanctify every newborn for illness; should it be a boy, on the eighth day after birth, and if it’s a girl, then after twenty days..."
Waves of chaotic knowledge and scriptures swarmed in, but ultimately, they could not inundate Byron.
If Lilith’s knowledge were a massive tsunami, then Ghouls and Insect-men were like land animals that would be submerged by a single wave.
Half-Night Devils, being closer to her origin, were like amphibians; they were similarly unable to withstand the deep-sea might and could only endure briefly.
As for the Prince of Night Demons, he was akin to a great shark, perfectly matching her power and knowledge—a natural "dear son."
He didn’t even need to pay homage to a "foster father."
When the tsunami came, he could simply hide underwater, for he would never drown.
After a brief adjustment, Byron found himself even more in his element.
Roaming the ocean of knowledge, he could effortlessly access various forms of Black Sorcery drifting from her.
What was likely chaotic and maddening babbling to others, to his ears, automatically filtered out irrelevant information, extracting only genuinely useful knowledge.
Not only were there known and unknown contents from *Bloody Mary’s Gourmet Cookbook* and the *Book of Giant Insects*, but there was also a third Forbidden Book he had never encountered before: *Blood Source Pilgrimage*!
Using the Blood of Metamorphosis and the blood of various animals, he could achieve diverse physical transformations through injections, even artificially creating a variety of powerful beastmen.
It could be used on himself or others.
*Blood of the Slug* used for healing, *Blood of the Aries* for creating goat-headed beings, *Blood Altar Flesh Jar* for cloning oneself...
Even *Tiny Humans in Bottles*, a technique for cultivating independent life forms from male reproductive cells...
It was an eye-opener.
But Byron didn’t immerse himself in this fantastical and bizarre forbidden knowledge.
Because through the "umbilical cord" extending from the Blood Moon, he had glimpsed the true face of that uninvited guest.
—Mother of Creation, Lilith.
In the center of the sky, amidst blood-red radiance as distinct as tapeworms or spider threads, an Indescribable being ebbed and flowed in the water.
Like the Old Gods he had once seen, she also possessed a colossal form far surpassing that of a Sea Monster.
Overall, she resembled a disproportionately misshapen ant queen. The lower half was a plump, translucent belly, while the upper half had a pair of blood-colored bat wings folded, covering her nude female form.
Being half-human, half-beast was the norm for Old Gods.
However, what truly terrified Byron was her face, which could be described as "unnaturally beautiful."
HISS—! She’s already this complete?
He had already formed a hypothesis from the revived Chǐ God:
When those Bizarre Old Gods regain their human heads and animal bodies, it signifies that they have initially achieved a balance between Divinity and Beastliness. They will gradually regain reason, regain conscious awareness, and achieve the miracle of Resurrection.
Now looking at Lilith before him, she had already regained a perfect human upper body, with only her left eye and the left side of her forehead still covered with a layer of exoskeleton resembling a bee’s.
This meant her recovery of consciousness was frighteningly near.
Ten years? Or twenty? Byron wasn’t quite sure.
If he were still one of the Short-lived Species with only a few decades of life, he certainly wouldn’t consider the distant future.
But having transformed into a Long-lived Species, he was destined to witness this great, unknown change during his lifetime.
How could he not feel a sense of dread?
The corpses of Old Gods are, at best, knowledge extraction mechanisms. As long as one doesn’t defy the corresponding taboos and doom oneself, they won’t make a move. But once they awaken, the consequences for us Black Witches who have stolen their power—especially for me, a Prince of Night Demons—would be somewhat unpredictable.
Byron felt that relying solely on the rank of Prince of Night Demons to withstand her babbling was not secure enough.
Moreover, the ocean current cycle that brought the Old God’s corpse past Shampoo Island was well known to all members of the Bloodthirsty Cult.
There were still a full six days before her next scheduled appearance; logically, she shouldn’t have arrived this early.
Byron didn’t think much before he immediately drew a conclusion:
Someone’s playing tricks!
He never hesitated to assume the worst in others.
On the high seas, there’s no fertile ground for "morality" to exist; it has no binding power, and nobody condemns a victor.
It’s nothing out of the ordinary to harm others for one’s own gain.
Given the current situation of constantly listening to Lilith’s broadcast, coupled with the contract requiring him to share any knowledge he acquired, it wasn’t hard to guess the intentions of the "Book of Giant Insects" faction:
They sold him out, this ally, in exchange for the next piece of knowledge.
Luckily, before Byron attempted to spy on Lilith, he had made preparations for the worst-case scenario and had a trump card ready.
At the thought, the First-Class Sacred Relic, the Faustian Contract, emerged in his Spiritual World.
Without any hesitation, he activated its second ability, the Covenant of Man and God, towards Lilith, who had already floated to the other side of the fissure:
"The long poem *Faust*, a successful model of humanity striving for power from gods or the Church, earned the right to contract with supreme beings.
The contract’s owner can wager their own being to form a covenant with certain extraordinary entities, using the world itself as a medium, automatically generating a fair contract.
Just like the Faust of old, one end of the covenant was the Creator, the other, the Devil. Hence, the limit for the Covenant of Man and God is two.
Note: Due to the effect of the ’Three Musketeers’ trait, the contract limit is increased by one."
"Currently, one Covenant of Man and God exists: its present owner, Byron Tudor, has a contract with the Old God, Greedy Worm Mammon:
Silvergold Island must adhere to the objective cyclical laws of the Periodical Cicada, appearing in the Material World only during prime-numbered years.
When a Lamplighter with a free soul is stationed on the island, only Low Sequence cicada kin are allowed to pass through Second Grade fissures, and Middle Sequence kin may not enter the Material World.
Furthermore, the cicada people’s activities must not extend beyond the range of Silvergold Island.
In exchange, the island’s owner must use his renown to attract other humans to the island, adhering to a series of rules such as ’Equal Exchange’ and ’weight limit,’ to provide Mammon with sustenance.
If either party breaches the contract, they will face repercussions at the level of the rules."
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!...
Then, the luminescence of the Silver Law streaked through the sky, connecting Byron and the slumbering Lilith.
According to the established rules, a fair contract was automatically generated:
"As long as the Prince of Night Demons, Byron, still possesses a free soul, the Mother of Creation, Lilith, cannot harm his safety in any form.
And should he lose control in the future, she will have the right to harvest his soul and body."
CLICK!
A silver lock clicked shut, and a second hefty contract chain immediately appeared within Byron’s Spirituality.
The first chain, formed with Greedy Worm Mammon, suddenly tensed in the Spiritual World as if sensing a rival’s presence.
It began to vie with the second chain.
The great pirate Flint’s theory was correct. As long as Byron himself was sufficiently alluring and sold his soul multiple times (as mentioned in Chapter 249), it would induce a power struggle between two or even multiple parties.
The spiritual burden, far from increasing, actually lightened considerably all at once.
Even the pace of his bloodline metamorphosis suddenly doubled.
Byron nodded in satisfaction.
Not bad, not bad. You guys fight it out yourselves. In the future, I’ll feed the winner. There’s one more ’Covenant of Man and God’ slot left; obviously, it belongs to none other than the Slumbering God Kraken. When the time comes, if you can destroy each other, I’ll have to ready my knife and fork to thank Nature for its gift.
As the two forces now held each other in check, the murmurs in his ears grew clearer.
Byron’s spirit jolted. He had finally heard clearly the prerequisites for the third bloodline ascension ritual, the Crimson Holy Grail:
"The ascender must be born from ruling and exploiting classes (regardless of generation); the hands of thirteen loyal servants; the bones of six relatives (deceased no more than three years prior); the love of a beloved person (unrequited love is invalid)..."
Though it was only a fragmented version, it still allowed him to see the other effects of the Blood of Immortality besides eternal life.
—It could offset all costs required by bloodline ascension rituals, as well as any ensuing side effects!
In other words, with enough Blood of Immortality as a catalyst, any other path’s bloodline ascension ritual could be perfectly achieved.
At least for bloodline ascension, this was the true Panacea!
Byron’s eyes lit up as never before.
I understand now. I know why the Church decided to cooperate with the York Family and the Bloodthirsty Cult.
Thus, the decryption of "Secret: The Shadow Behind the War of the Red and White Roses, Influence 31" finally reached one hundred percent!