The more they oppose, the more it shows that I am doing the right thing

The last rays of twilight slowly faded away at the end of the horizon, a leaden night sky blanketed with thick mists, and cold-toned stars cascaded down in layers, the night of Heaven grand and austere, yet stunning.

Gazing downward from the highest step, the bustling capital of the Seven Gods came into view.

The bustling Magic Levitating Trains shuttled past the closely arranged ancient buildings, soaring along the contours of the starry river, straight into the clouds. The streets were flourishing and lively, and with the coming of nightfall, one after another Lamp of the Seven Gods was lit.

But all the earthly bustle had nothing to do with Merlin.

He found it only noisy.

The God of Law, the Faceless One, the one with pure white pupils, the youngest demigod, His Excellency Merlin Andre, had always enjoyed smooth sailing in his life.

Merlin Andre's life had never encountered a mountain to climb, an opponent worth battling, nor a problem that perplexed him,

until a few years ago when his teacher retired.

Thus, the seat responsible for guarding Heaven's Gate within the Radiant Holy See was handed to him.

Whenever his teacher was mentioned, the Holy Light in Merlin's eyes was quite dim; he could never quite get over his teacher's retirement. Stay connected via empire

The rotational stewardship of Heaven's Gate was seen as a high honor to the outside world.

On his first day at work, Merlin took his job seriously, diligently resolving the invading Angel Envoys with the fastest speed—he did, of course, want to finish work early.

But he soon regretted it.

Just because he was too efficient and quick, single-handedly resolving the Angel Envoy legions, the other old-timers from the Church didn't bother to show up anymore!

All the work was left to him.

It was said Merlin was in charge of days one, three, and five, yet he had not had a day off in a whole year.

This time, he had managed to schedule three days off, but in the very last moment of his vacation...

An Su Moningsta, this rookie, made his appearance.

Merlin glared at the boy next to him, once again regretting why he had hosted that foolish event and why he had proposed such an idiotic test.

An Su was still intently scrutinizing those three thousand Magic Circuits,

Advanced knowledge forcefully entered his clear yet naive eyes, aggressively cramming into the kid's little head, the high concentration of knowledge clashing with his low-concentration brain fluid, causing the kid to bleed from every orifice as the blood spurted out recklessly.

Merlin couldn't really let the kid die here.

And so he had to go to the trouble of preserving his soul.

If it had ended there, it would have been fine, but Merlin saw that the rookie even had a smile at the corner of his mouth.

A very innocent smile.

Merlin could feel that An Su was truly joyful from his heart; that smile was pure and sunny.

Was this rookie a masochist...Nôv(el)B\\jnn

Merlin didn't yet know that this seasoned soul player had trained to derive pleasure from pain.

Whether it was being tortured or torturing another, he could be quite happy, and when the two could happen at the same time, An Su's smile became even more radiant.

"..." Merlin felt he had really seen it all.

He didn't believe An Su could keep it up; the tearing of a soul is a pain more dreadful than the death of the body, and with time, that pain only intensifies.

Moreover, this perseverance was pointless.

An Su himself surely understood.

A Third Order saint could not replicate a divine Demigod level magic.

It was absolutely impossible.

Merlin had successfully copied his master's "Judgment of Light" and created Demigod magic, but by that time, his Rank was already that of a saint.

Continuing this would only be a meaningless waste of both parties' time.

Merlin could only wait; after all, he had a total of three days off.

He very much regretted proposing that stupid test, but since he had proposed it himself, he had no choice but to abide by it.

Merlin felt that the reason An Su was persevering was only because of the rashness of young blood, recklessly driven by a moment's fervor.

After suffering the pain a dozen or so more times, that fervor would slowly dissipate.

Thinking this, he felt a lot more relaxed.

With things as they were, it was time to eat.

After he finished eating, the young man should have given up.

Behind the flower garden was a vegetable patch, idly planted by Merlin during his guard duty out of boredom. Merlin set up a temporary Array to protect the soul and then slipped out to the backyard to pick some vegetables, leaving An Su alone in his place.

An Su's eyes were bloodshot; he clenched his teeth tightly, staring fixedly at the thirty thousand Magic Circuits in front of him.

Indeed, he couldn't replicate a divine level magic right now.

But to plagiarize, he didn't need to copy it all.

The plan had been set; just copying one Magic Circuit would suffice.

But which one to copy specifically became a new problem.

He needed to read as many Magic Circuits as possible to find a direction.

An Su could now endure reading for one minute; if he exceeded this time, he had to divert his gaze to rest, otherwise, he would faint on the spot.

However, An Su's tolerance for divine level Magic Circuits was gradually improving; he could only last ten seconds at the start, but now he had improved to one minute.

As his consciousness was battered and torn by knowledge and then forcibly repaired by Merlin, An Su felt his soul's resilience steadily increase.

Maybe that was the greatest gain.

Of course, the corresponding price was—it really hurt.

Time and again he fainted, and time and again he awoke, with time silently slipping by.

When His Excellency Merlin had finished his lunch, An Su was still reading the Magic Circuits. He had already gone through nearly a thousand, but the vast knowledge was beyond his soul's capacity to remember, leaving only a rough outline in his memory.