FALLEN ORACLE

**Chapter 10: Light and Flame (4)**

Chen Yi returned to his own form and opened his spellbook once more. He took a deep breath—only the fifth spell remained.After the previous four attempts, he knew that this last spell was also a transmutation spell, but different from the others.As he channeled mana, he thought to himself that he might even turn into some kind of monster.The moment he completed the spell, the living room suddenly radiated light from his body.Then, to his astonishment, he saw in the mirror that he no longer had a physical body—or rather, his body had turned into light and flame.Chen Yi instinctively touched himself. He felt no heat, no light—just a strange sensation similar to human skin.It seemed this transmutation spell was only a visual disguise. It couldn't truly turn a person into plasma or electromagnetic waves.Enveloped in light and flame, Chen Yi could still vaguely make out a human silhouette, but there was no way to tell it was a human."Isn't this what a god looks like?" Chen Yi exclaimed.He remembered what Carl had said after his first Divine Communion—that the god he saw was made of fire and light.And now Chen Yi, a mortal, had taken on the exact same form as a god.The meaning of the goddess teaching him this spell was clear: the so-called gods might not actually be made of light and flame. Anyone who mastered this transmutation spell could easily disguise themselves as one.Because his own Divine Communion was so unusual, Chen Yi had considered various possibilities.One possibility was that his goddess Tiya was actually a mortal—just an exceptionally powerful mage.She was not the same race as the "gods from the upper realm" that most people believed in.But this spell—which could transform a body into light and flame—almost completely overturned that hypothesis.Only one conclusion remained: gods actually looked just like mortals. They used this transmutation spell during Divine Communion to disguise themselves, making themselves seem more mysterious.---Chen Yi reverted to his original appearance and sat blankly on the living room sofa, staring at his reflection in the floor mirror.The information from this Divine Communion was overwhelming. He had to sort through what he had learned.He recalled all the unnatural details from his very first communion, gradually stripping away emotion and letting pure reason spread like a vast net, connecting every seemingly crucial clue.Without a doubt, the goddess Tiya's appearance was exceptionally beautiful—even he, who wasn't particularly interested in women, couldn't help but be drawn to her.And she was a prisoner. Common sense said prisoners had no rights.From the crude jokes made by the white-robed men after his first communion, these apparent jailers clearly had improper thoughts about the goddess.But judging from her clothing and the distribution of wounds each time, whether she had been imprisoned for a long or short time, she did not appear to have been violated.Even the white-robed jailers didn't dare make any unwanted physical contact—they only made boring verbal jokes.This was highly abnormal!Clearly, these white-robed men weren't unwilling—they were unable. Given the goddess's condition, the only explanation was that someone had explicitly f*******n them from doing so.The goddess was subjected to many torments. Why would s****l a***e be the only thing f*******n?The only answer was male possessiveness.The most likely scenario was that the person who had imprisoned the goddess—someone of high status—considered her his mate and strictly forbade others from having their way with her.But did that high-status person ever come to the prison himself to do as he pleased?Chen Yi thought not. If he only saw the goddess as an object of desire, he probably wouldn't care so much about her purity after using her.Clearly, this powerful man was not driven by l**t. And to say he felt pure love for the goddess was obviously nonsense.No one could bear to see their beloved suffer such t*****e, especially when they had the power to stop it.Not desire. Not love.Then it could only be—bloodline.Suppose they imprisoned Tiya for some purpose. One of those purposes was likely her extraordinary magical talent.If that talent could be inherited, her bloodline was extremely important.The high-status man wanted her to be the mother of his children. And he didn't want the mother of his children to have her bloodline tainted by others before bearing his offspring.That was the only explanation that fit social common sense.Inheritance? Bloodline?Chen Yi thought: why would gods care about such things? They had immortal lives.Unless...Unless they were no different from mortals—their lifespans fleeting. Then they would care just as much about their descendants' bloodline and legacy.Where did the claim that gods were immortal come from?Apart from Church p********a, records of Divine Communion showed that some gods who had communed with mortals centuries ago were still "diligently" teaching humans today.But what did that prove?If "gods" had been using transmutation magic to disguise themselves all along, then the "god" from centuries ago and the "god" now might not be the same person—they might just share the same name.Similarly, the statue of the Great God Yan Yan in the academy square: the Yan Yan who descended five hundred years later was not the same person who had ascended five hundred years earlier.So, as long as the statue was carved to resemble the later Yan Yan, there was no issue of "disrespecting the gods."Beings with mortal bodies and mortal lifespans—could they still be called gods?—"Those who live on that red planet are not gods. Just a group of mortals with more powerful magic."—"Goddess Tiya, thank you."Chen Yi recorded this final conclusion in his spellbook.The only reason he still called Tiya "goddess" was a word he had learned from Headmaster Morin—"divinity."Chen Yi now understood that even mortals could possess divinity.