Then along the way it was all kinds of "happy coincidences"; as if walking through an empty city, he hacked his way straight to the Imperial Palace’s intelligence unit.

If not for the Mage Tower’s tower-spirit monitoring the intelligence archive room in all directions at the last moment, they wouldn’t even have discovered his tracks.

This incident caused a huge uproar in the Imperial Palace at the time.

No one had expected that a perfectly ordinary professional could slip past so many people’s attention and head straight into the most core unit.

It wasn’t like no one had ever thought of using this talent of his before.

But he was born with a certain curiosity toward some things, and time and again committed unforgivable crimes.

In the end, the central authorities, having reached their limit, directly announced he was to be executed.

Yet he still managed to find a sliver of life.

That was to infiltrate the Golden Land and search for relevant intelligence.

If he could successfully bring out suitable intel, he’d still have a chance to be sent to the Lawless Land to live out the rest of his days.

—At least that was much better than being killed outright.

He used to think that way.

But now he no longer dared to harbor such thoughts.

Being hunted by a legendary fairy, he was running for his life.

He used one escape-type psychic ability after another stored in the Mind Web, only managing to buy himself time.

He could be sure he had stumbled onto a massive secret of the fairies.

"I can live, I really can live."

He was overjoyed; his will to survive had been pushed to the limit.

The fairy on the other side had no idea how much classified information he had overheard.

So there actually weren’t only mad dogs among the fairies; there was a small number that still retained their sanity?

The fairies actually believed they needed to leave the Golden Land to go fight against the Seven Great Disasters?

There was something among the fairies that made those still-sane fairies utterly unable to fight back against its power?

He had even heard every last word of intel like "consumables" and "Elven Melody."

Good grief.

He was really something.

Although there had always been rumors outside that you’d occasionally see a fairy who still retained their sanity, this was the first time he had actually seen one.

And he could be sure these fairies had no idea their minds had already been twisted.

But he could be sure that there was something wrong with their consciousness.

They only looked normal—what differed was the direction their minds had been warped.

Any fairy who stepped out of the Golden Land would go insane on the spot, then unconditionally attack all living beings other than flowers, plants, and trees.

They were so terrifying that if they saw a cockroach, they’d slice it into three pieces horizontally and vertically.

You could say their mental state was hardly any better than the demons of the Bottomless Abyss.

Yet even so, they still firmly believed they were going to stop the Seven Great Disasters.

Add to that the "Golden Ship" saying they couldn’t resist some existence...

He could be sure that whatever caused the Golden Land’s mutation was probably closely tied to that existence.

Feeling the fairy behind him getting closer and closer, he felt sheer misery in his heart.

He had the intel—so how was he supposed to get it out?

With the enemy’s pursuit speed, if he slowed even half a beat, he’d probably die on the spot.

Dead dead dead.

Is anyone going to save me?

At this moment.

The surrounding air suddenly detonated.

A thunderous boom rang out.

The legendary fairy who had almost caught up to him was instantly blown away by the shockwave.

"Haha, blow that bastard up!"

A mad voice rang out.

He saw a death-row inmate who’d been thrown in here with him, face full of arrogance, launching an attack on the enemy.

He knew that man.

Calling that guy a Soul Mage was too generous—he was more of an "engineer."

Back in his own country, that guy had caused over a dozen large-scale explosions in a row.

And it wasn’t even that he deliberately set off bombs; it was that anything he made had an extremely small chance of exploding.

Heaven help us—would you believe that a wristwatch that was basically just mechanical parts plus a button battery could blow its own watch crystal to bits?

This man could pull it off.

Later, because the chain reactions caused by his explosions were far too explosive, he was finally sent in and ended up in the same prison as him.

In the past, he’d been terrified of having anything to do with this explosion maniac.

But seeing him casually toss something and blast a legendary fairy into the sky...

He suddenly felt his little life might be saved.

Seizing that instant, he quickly freed a hand to contact the Soldier Realm.

"Up top, I’ve got something urgent to report."

Flustered and panicked, he spilled everything he had seen, without the slightest intention of slowing his pace.

But that Fairy King was too powerful.

The bomb maniac only held him up for a short while before he was right back on their heels.

Obviously.

The other side had realized he knew too much and wanted to cut the grass and pull up the roots.

The next moment, a heavenly voice came through his earpiece.

"Intel received. Get ready. We’ll inject more power through the Mind Web to amplify it further."

The next second, he felt a subtle power spreading through his heart.

Power surged up.

"Protect your life. The Third Oath has been activated."

Then the other side stopped talking.

"The Third Oath... so this is the third oath of the Mind? This is... freaking awesome!"

How many people in this world were better at staying alive than him?

With the blessing of the Third Oath on top of that, all at once he felt his thoughts gush forth like a spring.

All sorts of self-protection psychic abilities he’d never quite figured out before stacked layer upon layer on his own body.

For a moment, he really did claw his way out of death and carve out a path to survival.

And cases like this weren’t happening only on his end.

...

Location: Soldier Realm

Olivia was using a communication crystal with Louis, discussing the intel they had obtained this time:

"Looks like attacking on two fronts—the value these death-row inmates have created is greater than we imagined."

"These people causing trouble right under a bunch of powerhouses’ noses—how many of them could possibly be simple?"

Louis said blandly.

In fact, if you stripped away their habit of sowing chaos, each and every one of this crowd could be considered a genius in the eyes of ordinary folk.

It was just that their development paths were different.

Especially among the last few batches of death-row inmates sent in, some had actually managed to withstand the fairies’ encirclement and scrape by with their lives.

Though they were in terrible shape, at least they’d kept their lives.

All you could say was: this world is big, and there’s nothing you won’t see.

Since these people had survived, Louis would keep his promise and give them a way out.

As long as they behaved and stayed put in the Lawless Land, it wouldn’t be much different from being locked up in prison for life.

Olivia pouted and said:

"The intel from the Golden Land is a tiny bit shocking. I think we need to seek out certain people—or certain elves—to understand what happened back then."

Louis knew the elves she was talking about definitely weren’t those fairies of the Golden Land.

But the far more widely known long-ears who had inaugurated the Elf Era.

He said, "That guy who can ’lose his way’ to any place he wants to go—the intel he got is crucial.

Other places have also been sending in intel one after another.

Including, but not limited to, the long-ears taking away the Golden Land’s supreme treasure, leaving the fairies unable to suppress some terrifying power.

And the God of Growth and Forest falling into slumber, only waking for very short periods to assign missions to the fairies."

Olivia nodded.

That intel was clearly problematic.

Never mind how the fairies understood things.

Just talking about the God of Growth and Forest... that guy was already dead as dead could be; there was nothing more to say.

The ones who inherited the God of Growth and Forest’s power were the later Elf pantheon.

Back when they first achieved godhood, they relied on the lingering echoes of the God of Growth and Forest.

And in the Hall of All Gods, everything related to this deity—even the very source of faith—had been cut off.

You could say he was absolutely dead without even the tiniest trace remaining.

Even the Eternal Fierce Sun had left behind more than he did.

But that being the case, what exactly was the "god" slumbering in the Golden Land? That became a mystery.

"Louis, could it be a Divine Aberration?"

"A Divine Aberration is indeed powerful, but the god of the Golden Land is ultimately not the Dark Night Goddess."

Louis didn’t believe that one in the Golden Land was a Divine Aberration.

Reason being, the Dark Night Goddess’s Divine Aberration was strong, and other Divine Aberrations being strong was not even in the same league.

The God of Growth and Forest was indeed formidable.

But compared to that Goddess, there was a gap of ninety thousand miles; anything hatched from that god would only be even further behind.

How could something like that be qualified to be called one of the Seven Great Disasters?

Take a look at what level the Cosmic Serpent is at before you say that, okay?