Book 3: Chapter 329: Past History

Silver gauze, clear eyes beneath the curtain, the young Meleranke walked into the crowd. She emanated a pure aura completely different from her surroundings, then waved her hand. An invisible water vessel poured forth, silver mist washing over everything around her, purifying and clearing the plague.

At first, Meleranke found methods to suppress the plague and save the afflicted, but her power alone was far from enough. So she taught these secret methods and skills to those she rescued, enabling them to save even more people.

Just like that, without anyone realizing it, a group of like-minded members had gathered around her. These people imitated Meleranke's actions, wearing white robes and light gauze, performing the secret arts of plague purification, crafting the pure holy water that suppressed the plague, and then giving it to the people along their way.

In that era, surviving safely in a world steeped in plague was an extreme luxury. Whether out of fear of the plague or gratitude to this holy woman, more and more people followed behind their procession. That way, even if they contracted the plague, they could quickly be saved.

Afterward, the number of people gathering around Meleranke grew and grew, and how to manage them became a matter that had to be addressed.

It was also from that time that the early form of the "Silver Radiance Church" was born. It consisted of healing insights, precautions, and rules for living that Meleranke personally compiled.

In a world where order had already collapsed, many children could not even read a single character. The first book or literacy course they encountered originated from the books Meleranke compiled.

As the years passed one by one, Meleranke led her people from south to north, from east to west, traversing countless nations, and the "Silver Radiance Church" continued to develop and grow stronger.

After decades of struggle, organizing defense lines to isolate the plague and teaching the purification secret arts to eradicate it, the Silver Radiance Church had become a massive organization spread across the Fourth Continent. The white, holy churches could be seen in every major city.

They were the finest hospitals, schools, and relief institutions in their locales, the spiritual support of countless people. The physicians and apothecaries who emerged from them were beyond counting.

Those evil, aberrant organizations of the past, hags, monsters, black wizards, black witches, all had been crushed by the Silver Radiance Church, able to only hide away in remote mountains and distant lands.

After the "Mad Crow Riot" was ended, Meleranke did not stop there. She had already come to know the source of the plague. As long as the Shadow World's erosion of the surface continued, similar plagues would inevitably erupt again sooner or later.

So she began organizing people to explore the Shadow World, and for the first time established a stable stronghold within it. That was a nail the human world drove into the Shadow World, gazing deep into that dim and pitch-black realm for the first time.

In that era, nearly all the Hours favored her, believing she was qualified to assume the position of the "Luminous Moon" Hour, inherit the status of the "Silver Moon Dragon," and become the protector of the human race.

But that course of events was still interrupted.

Qualified to become an "Hour" but ultimately not yet an Hour. The "Golden Honey Dynasty" that ruled the entire Fifth Continent was mighty beyond measure. Behind them stood the Hour who wielded the "Insect Moth" Path for support, and they could simultaneously influence the "Verdant Nectar" and "Scorching Sun" Paths.

In order to obtain the "Luminous Moon" Hour position, to let "Insect Moth" enjoy the radiance of both "Scorching Sun" and "Luminous Moon," and to rule both reality and dreams, the "Golden Honey Dynasty" launched a grand and unparalleled expedition.

Knights riding giant yellow wasps crossed the cloudsea. Massive ships towed by countless bees slowly set sail from the Fifth Continent. Like hive motherships, they led legions in descent.

The Fourth Continent fell into fierce war. The elites of the Silver Radiance Church, under the assault of the "Golden Honey Dynasty's" vast legions, were worn down to nothing, able to only retreat step by step into the Shadow World. It was not until the very end, when the Silver Radiance Saint Meleranke perished, that this campaign finally came to a close.

Afterward, the "Golden Honey Dynasty" propped up the "Moon Parliament" to relentlessly hunt down the surviving members of the "Silver Radiance Church," and step by step erased history, eliminating Meleranke's influence over the "Luminous Moon" Path. The secret methods and skills once created by the "Silver Radiance Church" all vanished into the dust of history, unknown to anyone.

Just like that, the "Luminous Moon" Hour position gradually fell to candidates prepared by the "Golden Honey Dynasty." But unfortunately, that person did not possess accomplishments as magnificent as Meleranke's, and it was very difficult to inherit as effortlessly as Meleranke had.

The lingering prestige left behind by the "Silver Moon Dragon" still remained, deterring existences approaching the "Luminous Moon" position. In order to break through such an obstacle, at the instigation of the Hour Dynasty, faction members of the "Moon Parliament" specialized in the secret methods of the "Ink Dream" Path, attempting to use the "Moon in Water" reflection reversal secret art to replace the "Moon Under Heaven," scheming to seize the low-hanging "Luminous Moon" position.

And that secret method was likewise learned by the "Long-Lived" of the "Nightmare" Path, the Fantastical White Rabbit, who at the most critical moment seized the opportunity to intrude and usurped the fruit.

Facing this, the "Golden Honey Dynasty" and the backing "Insect Moth," "Luminous Moon," "Scorching Sun" Paths behind it fell into a towering rage, attempting to attack the "Fantastical White Rabbit" and drag it down from the still-unstable Luminous Moon position.

Unfortunately, at that time, a more important matter occurred.

One of the Seven Law Dragons long thought dead, the "Blazing Sun Dragon," was reborn through fire and once again ascended into the heavens. This was because, after the "Dawn Wind Eagle" who wielded the "Scorching Sun" passed away, the "Scorching Sun" position had been left empty.

At that time, because the "Scorching Sun" position was vacant, the "Golden Honey Dynasty" as the triple Aspect of "Insect Moth, Scorching Sun, Verdant Nectar" could only indirectly influence the "Scorching Sun" Path and advance its control.

But once the "Scorching Sun" Path had a true wielder, that situation would inevitably become untenable. Moreover, "Scorching Sun" was far more important than "Luminous Moon."

As this era's most prosperous dynasty, the "Golden Honey Dynasty" and its "Sun Dynasty" alias did not lack confidence in opposing the "Corona Dragon," which had once been the sun that illuminated the scorching world. They based themselves on the moon itself.

But "Scorching Sun" was more important than "Luminous Moon." It was the core of the "Hour Dynasty's" prosperity and could not be abandoned. So the crusade against the "Fantastical White Rabbit" was temporarily set aside.

Thus, as this era's most prosperous dynasty, and not limited to names and star-path sages by the Dao discussion ground, the "Endless Path Sect" could freely maneuver and manipulate.

They had tested this secret method once more and began preparing [Degradation Ritual: Eclipse of the White Sun] (Scorching Sun, Distortion, Nightmare).

Even though the "Fantastical White Rabbit" had seized the fruit, such an act also proved this ritual's secret method was feasible. Then the entire "Golden Honey Dynasty" went into full operation.

However, the course of events far exceeded the "Golden Honey Dynasty's" imagination. The "Blazing Sun Dragon" approached the "Scorching Sun" apex at astonishing speed. Before the "Golden Honey Dynasty" could even prepare the ritual, he had already grasped the "Scorching Sun" Hour position.

Afterward, he changed his title to "Corona Dragon," formally obtaining control of the "Scorching Sun" Path. Countless radiances all returned to his body, and the reborn "Corona Dragon," as the only surviving Hour among dragonkind, naturally gained control over the "Dragon Eye" Path.

The Seven Law Dragons left this world many legacies. After they departed and concealed themselves one after another, the True Dragons had once lost blessings and protection. But when the "Corona Dragon" ascended into the heavens once more, he naturally became the leader of all True Dragons. The powerful "Dragon Eye" Aspect likewise bestowed its protection upon him.

At that point, even if the "Golden Honey Dynasty" had finished preparing the degradation rituals across the continent, they were powerless to contend against him.

After the ritual failed, the Golden Honey Dynasty was destroyed by the heavenly fire and wrathful flames descended by the "Corona Dragon." The entire continent transformed into a sea of fire under the bombardment, countless living beings reduced to ash, and that era lost the lives under the sect in an instant among the eveless Star Dao Society. The Inner Domain of yang by this

The "Insect Moth" Aspect, once restored to glory, weakened once more and became a lower-tier Aspect among the many Aspect Paths. The Hour who wielded the "Insect Moth" Path, the "Blissful Bee Queen," also became incomparably frail. Before long, she fell and perished.

The excessively tyrannical actions and the slaying of an Hour made all factions once again recall the might of the dragons, and the terror of the Seven Dragons Epoch when the Seven Law Dragons ruled the world.

Afterward, the "Cataclysmic War" against dragonkind erupted. The major races forged countless divine weapons and sharp blades to counter dragons, hunted the surviving True Dragons, and it continued for hundreds of years, until the end of the Eighth Epoch and the arrival of the Ninth Epoch, the Covenant Epoch.