Among all the warrior monks at the small temple, Pan Ming was not initially the strongest. Far from possessing Legendary strength, he was, in fact, the weakest, likely only at a Silver-level.
Pan Ming was the last to join the temple and the youngest among them. So, when his final Senior Brother, unable to endure any longer, passed the Monk Divine Artifact—the "relay baton"—into his hands, the Senior Brother harbored little hope. He said, "Pan Ming, if you can't hold on either, just throw this thing somewhere in this country and let fate decide..."
At that moment, the two were in a remote corner of the All Nations Alliance. If the Prayer Beads were discarded there, they might indeed remain undiscovered for quite some time.
But Pan Ming shook his head firmly. "If we do that," he said, "wouldn't we just be shifting our own nation's suffering onto another?"
From a purely consequentialist perspective, the Eastern Ancient Kingdom had indeed been spared. But for the All Nations Alliance, this would be a completely undeserved catastrophe.
Wouldn't this be akin to a neighboring country suffering a nuclear meltdown and secretly dumping all its radioactive wastewater into the All Nations Alliance? Pan Ming refused to accept such an outcome.
His Senior Brother sighed. "Even if you refuse, how long can you hold out? This place is truly a suitable burial ground. Otherwise, if you collapse while carrying the Prayer Beads in a crowded area, the consequences would be far more severe."
Pan Ming replied resolutely, "Then I simply won't collapse! Until I find a Saint who can safely safeguard these Prayer Beads without being affected by them, I will persevere!"
His Senior Brother sighed again, finally placing the Prayer Beads in Pan Ming's hands. He died shortly after. As soon as Pan Ming became the Beads' bearer, a voice echoed in his mind, as if asking:
"Do you have any wishes? I can grant them all!"
"Do you desire power?"
"Do you crave boundless wealth?"
"Do you long for countless peerlessly beautiful companions, utterly devoted to you?"
These three desires—power, wealth, and devoted companions—represented the ultimate aspirations of most ordinary people, pursuits that consume their entire lives. However, before accepting the Prayer Beads, Pan Ming had already sworn a solemn vow:
He had blinded himself and abandoned all worldly desires.
He would abstain from women and possess not a single coin.
He would lose his sense of taste and be unable to smell any fragrance.
He no longer craved life, nor feared death—forsaking all desire for survival and extinguishing all dread of mortality.
Thus, after entombing his last Senior Brother, Pan Ming continued his journey alone.
A person's mental state can profoundly influence their physical health. Take, for instance, a patient with depression. Though their body may be free of any organic illness, the depression still causes gradual wasting away. In severe cases, death from depression itself isn't uncommon—and this isn't suicide, but genuine death from illness.
Conversely, when a person's mental state is excellent, their physical health tends to improve accordingly. There are even documented cases of cancer patients miraculously self-healing through sheer mental fortitude.
Though Pan Ming couldn't gain power through mere vows like a Paladin, having these principles ingrained in his heart still greatly accelerated his growth in strength.
In the Eastern Ancient Kingdom, there exists a similar concept: "Cultivating the Mind"!
And so, despite Pan Ming's detachment from the pursuit of power, his strength began to soar rapidly. He quickly ascended from Silver-level to Gold, then to Legendary, and even beyond Legendary!
As Pan Ming persisted longer and longer, the voice in his mind seemed to realize that simple temptation was ineffective. Consequently, it began to bombard him with meaningless murmurs, chaotic cacophonies, and utterly disordered noises.
The sensation was akin to someone incessantly banging drums and cymbals right next to your ear, 24 hours a day. Yet Pan Ming's ordeal was far worse. Even ordinary people might succumb to madness after enduring the Evil God's whispers for just a minute or two.
But Pan Ming gritted his teeth and persevered through sheer willpower. He was the last one left; if he faltered, the Prayer Beads would fall into the hands of the All Nations Alliance, bringing untold suffering to foreign lands. He could not allow himself to commit such a savage act.
Finally, after three years of traversing the entire All Nations Alliance without finding the Saint, Pan Ming left the region and journeyed to the Northern Territory. To this day, he remains the Monk from the Temple who has endured the longest.
After that, due to the scarcity of food in the Northern Territory, Pan Ming nearly collapsed from starvation before being discovered by Hysilens, who rescued him and brought him to the Northern Territory Empire.
From the moment Pan Ming first met Hysilens, he sensed a profound purity emanating from her. Humans were inherently complex beings, capable of smiling warmly one moment and erupting into violence the next—a common occurrence.
But Hysilens was different. The moment he "saw" her, Pan Ming felt as if he were gazing into a tranquil sea. He knew then that even if she wasn't the "Saint" he sought, she was certainly no ordinary "Mortal."
That's why, when on the brink of starvation, he offered to entrust the Prayer Beads to her. However, Hysilens declined.
After joining the Northern Territory Empire, Pan Ming met Her Majesty the Imperator, the majestic Empress; Dirk, his fellow Monk; Aria, the ever-helpful young woman; and others. Eventually, Pan Ming became convinced that Aria was almost certainly the "Saint" he had been searching for.
In other words, entrusting the Prayer Beads to Aria would essentially complete Pan Ming's mission, granting him release from his duty.
But... Aria was still so young, barely past her coming-of-age. Directly handing the artifact over to her felt inappropriate. He reasoned that since he could still endure for some time, he would hold onto them a while longer. He could always consider the transfer when he could no longer maintain his strength.
Having learned Cerydra's reasons for unifying the Northern Territory, Pan Ming essentially joined her cause as a "Guest Official," assisting her in her endeavors.
This arrangement allowed him to repay Cerydra's kindness, do good deeds, and remain close to Aria—a triple win!
Do what you can, help those you can.
This simple maxim was the guiding principle of Pan Ming's small temple, a principle he had steadfastly upheld and practiced throughout his life.
Perhaps it was precisely because of his countless acts of kindness that he could freely draw benefits from Cerydra's Authority—the world was repaying him in its own way.
Yet Pan Ming was remarkably selfless and undemanding. In the end, he only asked for the ability to stop his hair from growing. He could have gained so much more from Cerydra—greater power, for example. Cerydra had been genuinely puzzled: why wouldn't this guy take something he could get for free with just a word?
But little did she know, her offer was no different from the Prayer Beads' temptation back then.
If Pan Ming had been willing to compromise his principles for a mere bit of power, he wouldn't have lasted this long.
-
The perspective shifts back to the present. Pan Ming has actively invoked the power of the Prayer Beads, manifesting a pitch-black Buddha statue that radiates immense power. Theoretically, this force should directly affect anyone who beholds the statue, but thanks to Aria's Paladin Divine Artifact buff, all allied forces are completely immune to this "mental influence."
The only two affected were the Goat Demon from moments ago and the Demon Axe.
The Goat Demon is already dead, leaving only the Demon Axe, which erupts into maniacal laughter. "Hahahaha! What a marvelous treasure! I truly adore it! Now it's mine!"
The Monk Divine Artifact had been corrupted by an Outer God, while demons—especially Archdevils from the deepest layers of the Abyss—possessed a cosmic status equal to that of True Gods or Outer Gods.
This world's structure is truly bizarre. Ascending beyond its boundaries leads to the Pitch-Black Sea, while descending into the Bottomless Abyss reveals its truly infinite nature.
To illustrate: if Cerydra were to descend from this world to a certain depth and then return, she might not necessarily return to the same world. Instead, she could end up in another Material World entirely.
It felt as if, in her previous life, the Pitch-Black Sea stretching upward represented the "cosmos," while the Bottomless Abyss descending downward represented the "microcosm"—two entirely distinct realms.
Thus, demons, as beings of remarkably high status, should typically be immune to corruption by Outer Gods. However, their lack of intellect and straightforward, desire-driven thinking makes them vulnerable.
Thus, even though the Demon Axe was capable of resisting external influence, the moment the thought "I want it" appeared in its mind, it disregarded the reason behind its emergence and simply obeyed!
The Demon Axe rasped, "I didn't want to do this, didn't want to grant this request, but... I have no choice!"
After the Demon Axe uttered these words, the entire battlefield fell silent for a few seconds. Aria and Pan Ming both eyed the axe in Arthur's hand warily, while Arthur himself frowned deeply. "You bastard, what are you plotting?"
As time slowly ticked by—one minute, two minutes, three minutes—nothing happened. Instead, Hysilens finally arrived on the scene. Some of the ice on the ground had melted, and she leaped out of the water, immediately gagging and grimacing.
The water here was... disgustingly filthy!
Just as Hysilens, despite her love for water, would never swim in India's Ganges River, the water here felt just as disgusting, like the Ganges itself.
Hysilens hastily used her Authority to separate all the water clinging to her skin. As the droplets fell onto the ice, they hissed violently and released a nauseatingly foul-smelling bluish smoke.
Boom!
In the next moment, the ground beneath their feet began to sink. Visually, it was as if they were standing on quicksand, slowly sinking downward.
Though unsure of what was happening, Cipher, who had already been standing on the car roof, immediately sprang into action. Golden electric arcs crackled around her as she entered her Divine Speed State and darted onto the battlefield.
First, she grabbed Aria by the back of her collar, hoisted her onto her shoulder with one arm, and then seized Pan Ming with her other hand. She retreated swiftly, pulling them back to Cerydra's position near the car.
The entire sequence unfolded in an instant. But when Cipher turned back to rescue the second group, she found that Hysilens and Arthur had vanished!
From Hysilens' perspective, the 'quicksand' hadn't even covered her heels. Yet in the blink of an eye, she experienced a disorienting sensation like being tossed into a washing machine, and found herself instantly transported from the Northern Territory to an entirely new location.
Rather than 'quicksand', it was more like a visually striking 'teleportation magic' or 'summoning magic'. The target of the summon was none other than the Demon Axe and the surrounding area within a certain radius.
Tap~
Thud~
The former was the sound of Hysilens' high heels landing on the ground. Despite being violently tossed around like laundry, she regained her balance with astonishing speed and landed firmly. Of course, she couldn't help but mentally grumble, This teleportation is nothing compared to Tribios' Century Gate!
The latter sound was undoubtedly Arthur's head colliding with the ground as he crashed to the floor. He immediately scrambled to his feet and began retching violently.
"Ugh—!"
His reaction wasn't surprising; the ground here was utterly filthy and reeked of decay.
The entire surface was a sickly, algae-green, teeming with a dense carpet of multicolored mushrooms. Some were tiny, barely a few centimeters tall, yet they grew in such profusion, resembling weeds. Others were colossal, towering several meters high—some even reaching seven or eight meters, resembling colossal trees.
Hysilens frowned slightly, raising a hand to cover her nose and mouth. A thin, greenish mist permeated the air. Then she remembered she didn't actually need to breathe; after all, her true form was a mass of water.
But Arthur, beside her, was suffering terribly. One gasp of air was enough to escalate his dry heaving into full-blown vomiting.
The Demon Axe in Arthur's hand roared with laughter. "Hahaha! You're doomed! This is Abyss Layer Seventy-Nine—the Plague Lord's territory! That bastard really went all out, forcibly dragging you here himself!"