FALLEN ORACLE

**Chapter 1: Born Toward Death (1)**

Faced with a world of constant change, humans are not the sole carriers of memory. Rather, it is memory that makes a person a continuous existence.It is the only tool people have to fight against time.After reading this passage in his spellbook, Chen Yi silently put the "Memory" ring on his left middle finger.From then on, this ring, together with "Destiny," would be the light that dispelled his confusion and the unknown.The memories inherited from Lisa, along with the results of his forgotten investigations from the past year, answered many of Chen Yi's earlier questions.The most important part concerned that dark cyan stone.This stone had two uses. The first was to extract some kind of resource from the target. The upper realm primarily used it for that purpose during Divine Communion.The second was to enhance psionic spells. During the triennial Rongqi Rite, the Church priests who presided over the ceremony used the Great God Yan Yan statue—embedded with this stone—and psionic magic to alter the memories of everyone on the continent.In that transparent prison cell, the forces represented by the white-robed men who had imprisoned the goddess also used the dark cyan stone to extract Tiya's resources once a month.But Tiya, while suffering the excruciating pain of the light's irradiation, turned the tables and used the same stone to enhance her own psionic magic, secretly communing with Chen Yi.Thus, the purpose of this mysterious stone had been confirmed through multiple lines of evidence. It was now beyond doubt.Another fact about Divine Communion mentioned in Lisa's old spellbook was enough to send chills down Chen Yi's spine.During Divine Communion, the upper realm not only extracted resources from the target but also used psionic magic to pry into the target's memories. If they found any indication that the target might know the truth, they would eliminate them without mercy.Lisa's sacrifice had already proven this.Only now did Chen Yi fully understand the goddess Tiya's careful message during their first communion: keep it secret.Looking back, there had been several times in the past few months when, facing danger, he had wanted to break his promise to the goddess and use high-level magic in front of others.His reason for wanting to openly use high-level magic was mainly his trust in Mendes and the others. He believed that if it came down to it, his brothers would never betray him.But the brutal truth was that it wasn't under Mendes's control at all.As long as they participated in Divine Communion, the upper realm would, from their memories, learn that an intermediate trainee named Chen Yi had mastered magic beyond his level. They would then likely trace it back to the goddess Tiya.If that happened, both he and the goddess would likely be killed as cruelly as Lisa.At this thought, Chen Yi felt a wave of belated fear. If not for luck, he might have died without even knowing how.Fortunately, of the only two people who knew he could cast high-level magic—Wizard Yudian and Headmaster Morin—one had been killed by his own hand, and the other had ascended to the upper realm.Neither would ever undergo Divine Communion again, so neither could leak the secret.This also answered another question that had puzzled Chen Yi: the death of Carl's father's subordinate, Wizard Leo.The Duke had said Leo was utterly loyal. Would such a man have voluntarily reported the discovery of staves in the mine to his god?Given the new information, Leo's memories were completely transparent to the so-called "Great God Helu." Even if Leo said nothing, the upper realm would know everything.If that was the case, Helu likely didn't teach Yudian the counter-spell out of kindness.Since they could easily access their communion partners' memories, Helu would have known that Yudian had recently been studying the war from three hundred years ago. With a tiny hint, Yudian could deduce what was happening in the Central Plains.Everything that smug wizard knew was merely what the upper realm *wanted* him to know.In a sense, those who experienced Divine Communion were like Chen Yi and Tiya.But in the latter pair, the "god" made no attempt to hide her intentions. Chen Yi willingly followed her hints and made his own choices through his own will—unlike Yudian, who became a manipulated tool.Clearly, as in the previous thousand years, the recent war in the Central Plains had also been instigated behind the scenes by the upper realm.They cleverly gave the side most likely to start a war the feeling that the time was ripe, while using subtle hints to convey their own intentions. Afterwards, they could distance themselves, maintaining the image of exalted gods who do not meddle in mortal affairs.This scheme fooled not only the Duchy and the Kingdom through Yudian, but also Chen Yi himself at the time.What benefit did the upper realm gain by secretly manipulating the state of the continent to this extent? Chen Yi did not yet know. What he did know was that since Lisa's death, there could be no end between him and the "gods" of the upper realm except mutual annihilation.---Chen Yi put away his spellbook and the Forgetfulness staff, re-covered the hole he had dug, and carefully concealed the traces of disturbed soil. He stood up, leaned his head against the top of Lisa's gravestone, and said softly, "Your vision—I will make it happen."When he left the cemetery, his state of mind was completely different from when he had arrived. With the help of Lisa's memories and his own past self, how could he say he was fighting alone?Besides, the situation was far better than it had been a year ago. He now had a steadfast and powerful ally—the goddess Tiya.Chen Yi resolved: whether to repay his debt or to take revenge, his first priority now was to rescue the goddess.---Returning to the academy, Chen Yi quietly began his plan.Over the next two months, he rarely went to the library. Instead, while learning new spells from Tiya during Divine Communion, he secretly trained in Huck's villa, constantly honing his strength and waiting for the right moment.One day, while studying his transmutation spells in front of the villa's mirror, he happened to transform into Mary again—and suddenly noticed something he had overlooked the first time.This woman named Mary had a folder tucked under her arm. Chen Yi had originally thought it was just an accessory added by the transmutation spell to mimic her appearance.But what if there was something inside that folder?