"You are destined for greatness," the transparent man earnestly praised.

"Don't waste time. I know the task comes first, but the people who come after may not feel the same way.

What they intend to do is not up to me.

At least for now, this is my domain.

If you know how to dissolve the curse, you'd better hurry.

All grievances, right and wrong—let's wait until the curse is broken to discuss them."

Wen Yan also spoke earnestly.

Now the transparent man had no choice but to believe, realizing that the portal was already open. If Wen Yan troubled him now, it would be impossible to know how to close the portal from him.

It's better to break the curse first, and once that's done, seeing Wen Yan's attitude now, the transparent man felt it was no big deal to tell Wen Yan some things.

His goal wasn't to open this portal.

Opening the portal was merely a core step in the curse resolution.

The transparent man landed on the ground, glanced at Wen Yan again. Wen Yan gestured for him to proceed and then sat down, ready to enjoy the show.

Fight? Once he saw the hints, realizing several groups of people were pulling against each other for thousands of years due to information asymmetry despite having the same goals, he sincerely wanted to help the transparent man fulfill his wish.

The transparent man knew his own "advancement" path, so let him take care of it.

If he didn't misunderstand, what the transparent man was doing was merely fulfilling his obsession through completing steps.

And these steps might not even need to be real; as long as the transparent man believed it was real, the steps would be considered completed.

Wen Yan quietly waited.

The transparent man spread his arms, gradually discarding all distractions, focusing solely on executing the next step.

As for what lay behind the opened portal, he no longer cared.

He closed his eyes, invisible ripples spread from here, expanding outward.

These ripples flowed through the newly opened portal, spreading through the entrance to this simulated domain.

Inside the Ye Clan village, black energy began to seep from everyone and everything, continuously gathering toward the center.

The ripples continued to spread, throughout the Divine Land, depositing in various places, where people with the same ancestors as those in the village began exhibiting traces of black energy.

The vast black energy gathered in the western Xiao Xiang County, entering one tunnel entrance after another.

At the center where the transparent man stood, within a thirty-kilometer radius, all tunnels along this irregular circular track were actually entrances and exits to this simulated domain.

This was to ensure that when Brother Ye returns, regardless of the tunnel he passes through, he could enter this simulated domain.

At this moment, black energy from all directions poured into these tunnels and converged on the transparent man.

In Virtue City, strands of black energy lifted from Big Sister Ye, who was completely oblivious, drifting into the Blue Abyss.

In the dream world, Grandma sat in the courtyard, sipping the iced tea offered by Chen Qimo, feeling a bit out of place, and set the cup down, sensing something, gazed at the sky, smiling and shaking her head.

On a mountain peak on the rim of Mount Li, a scholar puppet stood with one hand holding a black scroll, the other hand resting on his back, gazing at the black energy sweeping across the sky.

There was a hint of confusion in his eyes.

"That portal wasn't opened, so why is this happening?"

The situation unfolded in a way he never imagined, utterly baffling him.

Meanwhile, Wen Yan contemplated, recalling how while traversing the Nether Path, the scattered black energy far exceeded any he'd seen before.

He messaged Feng Wei to open a temporary junction nearby.

He feared that the sole fixed Big Intersection suppressed too much, preventing the black energy from the Nether Path from emerging.

That black energy was the accumulated sacrifice of generations of Ye Clan members, who took the curse's power with them through death during its outbreaks.

After their passing, that cursed power was taken to the Nether Path as well.

After Feng Wei opened a temporary small junction, Tong Si pulled him aside to avoid the torrents of black energy, invisible to ordinary people, that spouted like floods from that tiny junction, continuously flowing into the simulated domain.

Less than two minutes later, Wen Yan watched as the black energy streamed across the sky like a flood, incessantly falling upon the transparent man.

The transparent man's expression grew ever more serene, and his eyes reflected a kind of liberation he was about to attain.

For half an hour, as the sky filled with black energy fully absorbed into the transparent man's body, and no new black energy appeared, the transparent man could proceed to the next step.

Wen Yan's smile faded; at the very least, he recognized the steadfastness of the transparent man as something to learn from.

The man's existence was itself an irreconcilable contradiction, a significant risk.

Wen Yan couldn't afford mercy, yet he felt that for this final step, joking around wasn't appropriate - it was a moment to bid farewell to the transparent man.

At this point, Wen Yan noticed that the hints had altered once again.

The second temporary ability changed.

"Obsession.

When you choose to help others resolve obsessions and have successfully resolved such an obsession before, you can use your power to summon the Sword of Obsession."

Wen Yan switched to the second temporary ability.

This ability evolved according to his current understanding and philosophy, creating a temporary ability most aligned with his ability and current thought process.

The transparent man completed the penultimate step, only one last step remained to fulfill the program to resolve obsession.

Though as the black energy fully enveloped him, the transparent man started undergoing other transformations.

For the first time, he was whole.

Once whole, he began to understand who he actually was.

Then, he became dazed...