FALLEN ORACLE

**Chapter 4: About the Goddess (2)**

Evidence suggested that Tiya had begun her long, hidden criminal career as young as twelve years old.Some psychologists noted that, given the timing, the attempted harassment incident was likely the trigger for her antisocial personality and the beginning of her psychological descent into deviance.The crimes Tiya manipulated others into committing included, but were not limited to, theft, robbery, murder, s****l assault (in all gender combinations), arson, bombings, terrorist attacks, and so on.As she grew older, her crimes became more frequent and more severe.Thanks to her profound magical skill, she often did not need to be at the crime scene itself; she could orchestrate everything through psionic magic from afar.This major event caused an uproar in the upper realm. Tiya's actions went far beyond what could be described as mere "malicious mischief."In Celestial culture, manipulating another person's memory was considered the most heinous of crimes—even crueller than destroying someone's physical body.(Reading this, Chen Yi could not suppress a cold sneer: *"What a fascinating cultural atmosphere."*)Thus, if Tiya's crimes were proven true, there was no need to debate her sentencing—only to impose the harshest possible punishment.Though some citizens did not believe Tiya could have done such things, many more saw in this incident the "reversal" they had long been waiting for.Most mediocre people refused to believe—did not want to believe—that anyone could embody all the beautiful qualities of appearance, talent, and virtue in one person.Moreover, the federal government's earlier over‑promotion made Tiya's former perfect image seem like a bubble ready to burst at the slightest touch.Soon, her former public image became part of conspiracy theories."Insiders" emerged, claiming that Tiya's academic achievements were fraudulent.They said she had maintained improper relationships with several male professors during her time at the academy, plagiarised their research, and thus made herself a "genius."Other "insiders" pointed out that Tiya's beauty was entirely the result of her extraordinary psionic magic and transmutation magic.That face even an angel would envy, and that figure even a demon would l**t after, were also elaborate lies she had woven.It was just that until now, no one else had the skill to see through her transmutation magic. Her true appearance must be utterly plain—or even as ugly as her soul.Though these claims paid no heed to the chicken‑and‑egg problem—how she could have faked both beauty and academic success without underlying talent—and conveniently ignored the fact that her twin brother Jeff had been a handsome gentleman beloved by countless women, that did not stop the rumours from spreading rapidly.While the public was busy debating these contradictory and gap‑ridden stories, Tiya herself had already been "legally and justly" sent to prison.As for whether she was truly guilty, or what her life in prison was like, gradually no one cared. Everyone had their own lives to live; who had the leisure to worry endlessly about the fate of someone entirely unrelated to them?Since the government itself had publicly admitted that its earlier praise of Tiya had been a serious mistake, then surely she was guilty – and that was what they wanted to believe.Chen Yi, of course, dismissed these absurd claims as rubbish. He was certain that Tiya had been unjustly imprisoned because she had offended the federal government over matters concerning the lower realm.What had she done that was so momentous that the government was willing to admit a mistake to the public in order to silence its own manufactured idol?Moreover, the available materials only mentioned that Tiya had been sentenced to life imprisonment; where she was finally incarcerated was conspicuously omitted.Chen Yi knew that the truth of this matter was not to be found in ordinary books. He would need to obtain more secretive documents.---After studying several books on gemstones, Chen Yi learned that the transparent stone used to store mana was called a "mana stone," widely used in all aspects of Celestial life.Unlike a staff's magic core, the Celestial Race could freely extract mana from these stones to cast any spell they had mastered.From this and other "common knowledge of the upper realm," Chen Yi reached a startling conclusion:The way the Celestial Race channeled mana was completely different from his own race – they could not draw mana from the Magic Net.As a compensation, their bodies naturally generated a certain amount of mana over time, and they could only use the mana within their own bodies.This was the fundamental reason why the seemingly irrational economic system – using mana as one form of currency – could exist and function.A Celestial could not obtain mana from the environment, so the mana they could call upon was extremely limited.If a Celestial used their internal mana to buy an item, they might be unable to use magic or purchase other things for some time, until their mana regenerated.And everyone knew that time was the real hard currency.This also explained why the ambient mana here was so dense: no one drew from it.In contrast, Chen Yi's Fallen Race constitution made him a "billionaire" who could literally withdraw money from thin air.By this calculation, the casting process for the Celestial Race was also different. They did not draw mana from space and convert it into spells directed at a target. Instead, they converted mana drawn from within themselves or from mana stones.This fundamental difference meant that the seemingly similar Celestial and Fallen races had not gone to war merely because they lived on different planets.Perhaps the true cause of the war three thousand years ago was that they were, in fact, entirely different species.If their methods of mana manipulation were so different, how could the Celestial Race teach spells to the Fallen Race through Divine Communion? Chen Yi could not work out the answer. He could only understand that the two races had different ways of drawing mana, but the subsequent processes shared some similarities.Though the principle might be constant, magic was, after all, the law of chaos. Even the people of the upper realm did not fully understand the principles behind the Divine Communion spell and the Arcane Tongue; they simply knew how to use them.---As for the dark cyan stone hidden inside the statue of the Great God Yan Yan and appearing during Divine Communion, Chen Yi also found relevant information. They were called "Heaven‑rank Stones." Even in the upper realm, they were extremely rare.The specific uses of Heaven‑rank Stones were not described, but the laws of the Suss Federation clearly stipulated: private possession of Heaven‑rank Stones was strictly f*******n, and any violation was a serious crime.