# Chapter 49: The Third Saint
Throughout the entire multiverse, among countless civilizations, races, nations, and federations, all intelligent life spread tales of this nightmare-inducing terror.
It was the chaos that walked through the void, the symbol of destruction, the wreckage of civilizations, the undead of heaven and earth, and the annihilation that ended all things.
Under their erosion, no existence could be spared. Stars would dim, light would dissipate, and even worlds would collapse and be assimilated.
And the golden-haired sword-bearer saw it—that distant scene from a thousand years ago.
The heavenly tentacles descending from the dark clouds, the chaotic touches descending from the cosmic void—these were colossal beings beyond human imagination, terrors that roamed between worlds and stars. The atmosphere trembled at their existence, heaven and earth swayed at their will.
And there was also an ordinary blade, raised in the rain.
It was neither a sword nor a knife. It was a beam formed by light, a blade condensed from order. It parted the falling rain, and a fierce silver light flickered between heaven and earth.
A weary swordsman held this blade of light high. His long hair fluttered in the wind and rain, his eyes fixed on the black tentacles writhing down from the sky like an inverted mountain range. His body stood proudly erect.
"Chaos."
A steady voice echoed through the rumbling thunder. The man spoke: "Withdraw."
Then, the blade swung, and light extended infinitely.
A brilliant flash flickered and vanished, yet it illuminated the sky. Countless silver lines spread in all directions along the blade's trajectory, cutting the entire world in two. The atmospheric tentacles, vast beyond mountains, were severed in an instant by this trajectory. The collapsing chaotic wind scattered the dark clouds in a moment, but was firmly bound in place by chains formed from the silver lines, condensed into a black sphere, and then dragged down to the earth.
The illusion ended. Brandon Chaos closed his eyes. He sighed at the suffering that gave birth to evil gods, comprehending the mysteries of the light's trajectory. The golden-haired swordsman clenched his fists, and within his body, power refined, restructured, and sublimated with unparalleled precision according to his will.
When he opened his eyes again, he had reached the Ultimate Realm.
"Congratulations."
Beside him, Joshua, who had dismissed the Dragon-Hunting Sword Lance and allowed the Divine Mechanism siblings to stand behind him, nodded slightly and smiled in congratulations: "You've also achieved the Ultimate Realm."
Although the golden-haired swordsman's lips curled up, seeing the fierce-looking warrior before him, he couldn't help but sigh: "Seeing a young man seven or eight years younger than me, who entered the Ultimate Realm before me, congratulating me on entering the Ultimate Realm... To be honest, my friend, I can't be happy about it at all."
Joshua shrugged slightly, skipping over the topic. He turned to look at the remnants of the evil god's fragment—a wisp of green smoke that still hadn't completely dissipated—and said: "You saw it too?"
Though not explicitly stated, the meaning was clear.
"Of course." Brandon nodded seriously. He opened his mouth to speak but hesitated for a moment before saying: "...I never thought before that the predecessors of evil gods could also be victims. Joshua, did you already know all of this?"
In the golden-haired swordsman's previous understanding, evil gods were supposed to be nameless evils wandering in the void, born without reason, destroying worlds and civilizations without reason, erasing all fruits of intelligent life. But now, he had learned a truth he had never considered before. For Brandon, this was indeed difficult to accept in a short time.
Joshua understood this as well, so he simply shook his head and said in a calm tone: "Brandon, the sorrow of the sorrowful has nothing to do with us. The Mycroft World is not yet strong enough to pity other worlds."
The warrior's words were straightforward, and the golden-haired swordsman was no fool. After sighing, Brandon clearly recognized this point.
But at this moment, the black-haired boy beside him tugged at the warrior's clothes. Joshua looked down at Lin, then followed his finger toward the corner of the sealed stone chamber.
Cobweb-like radiating cracks were silently expanding. The sacred runic patterns from the ancient era were spreading throughout the stone chamber at a steady, determined pace.
The warrior could see that with the destruction of the evil god's fragment, the entire ruin was collapsing. The sealed core, having lost its energy discharge channel, was rapidly self-destructing. Before long, this vast ruin beneath Mount Modess would completely collapse.
If it were ordinary people, they would be nervously rushing toward the exit. But since those currently inside the ruin were at least Gold-rank experts, neither Joshua nor Brandon was in a hurry. The warrior merely glanced at these cracks and said with some disinterest: "My battle with He Er La Si has tired me somewhat. Brandon, it's up to you."
And the golden-haired swordsman, who had just advanced to the Ultimate Realm and felt the entire world become clearer and more detailed, wanted to test the power of his current realm. He laughed heartily and agreed: "Leave it to me!"
Outside the sealed stone chamber, Verdani and the Gold-rank experts from the other seven major powers were waiting at the entrance of the obsidian door.
When Joshua had "opened the door," tearing down an entire door panel and entering, a resilient energy barrier had formed at the entrance of the obsidian door, isolating the inside from the outside. Although those outside could vaguely see flickering light inside, they couldn't perceive energy fluctuations or sounds.
None of the Gold-rank experts present were ordinary. Not to mention the elite spellcasters from the Seven Luminaries Council, the Sky-Piercing White Tower, and the Imperial Royal Mage Association, Caesar's Eye and the Fang Adventurer Squad were elite ruin exploration teams active in the Eastern Plains, with first-class reputations in the industry. The Sword Dragon Mercenary Corps and the Blue Shield Mercenary Corps were employed by a certain kingdom in the Western Mountain region, and their leaders ranked among the top Gold-rank experts on the entire continent.
Verdani herself was a top-tier war mage. She studied under the Ultimate-rank spellcaster Nostradamus, had access to numerous rare texts at home, and the Scaret family's wealth meant the purple-haired mage didn't need to budget research funds like other spellcasters but could indulge her research interests freely. Each of these people, individually, could defeat multiple ordinary Gold-rank experts and had their own unique reputations.
But even so, everyone was helpless against this energy barrier. Neither the Sky-Piercing White Tower's 'Demon-Piercing Cone,' specialized in breaking various seals and shields, nor the Western Mountain psychics' unique 'Exorcism Wave' could affect this thin, translucent energy layer. They could only watch as bursts of dazzling light, like battle aftershocks, erupted on the other side of the barrier, exchanging bewildered glances.
"Why can those two children go in, but we can't?!"
A large man wielding a giant hammer scratched his head in confusion. Looking at his already somewhat deformed weapon, he cursed: "Damn it, am I worse than two underage kids?"
He was referring to Ying and Lin, of course. Unlike the Gold-rank experts present, the Divine Mechanisms summoned by the warrior could even tear through spatial barriers, so an energy barrier naturally couldn't stop them.
After trying many times and finally confirming they were truly helpless, a mage from the Imperial Royal Mage Association put down his staff. He turned to the large man and shook his head, saying softly: "Children? They're not children... They are the weapon incarnations of the Count."
With that, he stopped his companion from continuing to try opening the energy barrier: "Forget it. Since the Count of the North has gone in, whatever is sealed inside will surely be ground to ashes."
This statement was quite convincing. Another Gold-rank expert from the Royal Mage Association thought for a moment, then also withdrew his staff, standing aside to wait for the battle inside the stone chamber to end.
Along the way, aside from the reliefs and the unique runic arrays of the ancient era, no one had found anything worth collecting or studying. Some Gold-rank experts had already believed Verdani's words, thinking that beneath Mount Modess was merely a containment ruin for dangerous items. After all, such things weren't uncommon. In the mountains of the Western Mountain region, many ancient ruins remained. Although most were normal ruins, some still sealed powerful demons or chaos monsters, causing many major disturbances when adventurer teams explored them.
"Damn it, I thought we'd have a big discovery!"
Led by the two Gold-rank spellcasters from the Royal Mage Association, the Gold-rank experts present gradually stopped their probing. A swordsman wearing animal hide armor, who seemed to have barbarian blood, spat out half a bloody tooth from his mouth and said hatefully: "I didn't expect the first large-scale ruin in the North to be a seal, with so many mad cultists. We've really taken a loss this time."
Due to the Plague Evil God cult's surprise attack, all the forces present had suffered varying degrees of losses. Although not many Gold-rank experts had fallen, the backbone Silver-rank combatants had suffered heavy casualties. The elite mage inspection teams from major powers and elite adventurer teams like Caesar's Eye were fine, but the Blue Shield Mercenary Corps and the Sword Dragon Mercenary Corps were nearly wiped out. The crude battle formations of these mercenaries couldn't withstand the impact of the Blasphemous Spider Demons and Abyss Giant Armors.
Just as the barbarian swordsman, who had suffered minor injuries, spat out his tooth, a loud crash suddenly erupted. Countless cracks spread in all directions like lightning, centered on the sealed stone chamber.
In an instant, sand and stones flew. Massive rocks mixed with steel fragments crashed down with rumbling sounds. The barbarian swordsman stared dumbfounded, looking up at the already crumbling stone ceiling and muttering: "No way? Is my tooth that powerful?"
Though joking verbally, the Gold-rank swordsman wasn't frightened by such things. With a flash of sword light, several falling boulders instantly turned to dust, scattered by his battle qi. The other Gold-rank experts also used their abilities to resist the collapsing Mount Modess and rushed toward the exit.
Gold-rank experts weren't afraid of landslides. Even if buried inside the mountain, they could dig a tunnel out. But no one liked being buried.
Verdani stood before the stone door. She didn't retreat with the other Gold-rank experts but stubbornly waited for her husband's return. The purple-haired mage knew that with Brandon and Joshua's strength, as long as no Legendary expert appeared, no one in this world could stop them working together. Yet Verdani still felt a vague unease, wanting to see the golden-haired swordsman appear before her eyes.
The next moment, her wish came true.
A cyan sword light surged upward like a mighty river. It struck through the energy barrier that over a dozen Gold-rank experts had spent a long time failing to breach, from bottom to top, piercing through Mount Modess and forming a passage leading directly to the outside.
Others caught in the sword light's path weren't harmed by this terrifying power. The precisely controlled energy flow perfectly avoided everyone, sweeping away all rubble and dust. Then, it lifted upward. A tremendous vibration sounded. When a Gold-rank expert looked up, he was shocked to find the cloudy sky of Moldova before him. Moonlight from the deep night fell through a massive gap in the clouds, precisely illuminating the split Mount Modess.
One sword split the mountain!
Still holding the image of the Third Saint dividing the world and severing the evil god's tentacles in his mind, Brandon unleashed his full power. With the Ultimate Essence of Technique's precise control, he cleaved the entire Mount Modess and the collapsing ruin in one stroke, creating a passage.
Following the golden-haired swordsman's footsteps out of the sealed stone chamber, Joshua didn't pay attention to Brandon embracing the purple-haired mage. Instead, he led Ying and Lin, slowly walking along the smooth stone path shaped by the sword light.
The warrior pondered the information he had learned from the illusion.
That weary man who called himself the Third Saint, though he had only spoken a few brief words, had revealed more information than Joshua had imagined.
First was the number of evil gods.
From the strongest evil god mentioned by Nolan, ranked number one, to the thirteenth, whose title hadn't been confirmed, the Mycroft Civilization of the Radiant Era had at least encountered thirteen different evil gods and fought against them.
Second was the Chaos Research Institute, which had been slow to arrive.
From the Third Saint's words, it could be known that on the Mycroft Continent at that time, there were organizations specifically researching chaos, even evil gods. Such organizations should have responded very quickly. But the fact that the Third Saint's seal had even been built into a large containment ruin by later generations before the Chaos Research Institute arrived showed that something must have gone wrong along the way. As a result, not even a fragment of an evil god had been properly preserved but was carelessly left in the North.
Finally, there was the Third Saint himself.
Thinking of this, Joshua unconsciously reached for his chest, where the Azure Orb had merged into his body.
A historical fragment from the system's appraisal appeared in his mind.
—Thousands of years ago, the Sage found the Azure Orb buried in the mountains at the depths of the bottomless abyss. He gifted it to the Third Saint, entrusting him with the mission to calm the tides of chaos and seal the entrance to the abyss. After the War of Loss, the Azure Orb disappeared from the world's sight, but the legacy of the Chaos Warden continued silently.
The Azure Orb and the Chaos Warden—this was precisely the legacy left by the Third Saint. Joshua himself could even be considered the current inheritor of the Third Saint.
"Coincidence?" the warrior asked himself inwardly.
But before he could continue pondering, Joshua suddenly felt a resonance reaction from the Azure Orb at his heart.
The warrior instinctively turned to look at the split sealed stone chamber and Brandon, but quickly realized the source of the resonance wasn't the golden-haired swordsman or the seal—it was before him.
Joshua turned back. He looked ahead, where pale blue spatial fluctuations were slowly spreading outward. A holy light passed through the rippling space-time.
An elderly white-haired man with a kind, benevolent face, holding a pure white scepter radiating warm light, appeared before Joshua.
"It's been a few days, Joshua." He spoke in a gentle tone: "You've grown even stronger."
The current Pope of the Church of the Seven Gods, Eagle, had arrived in the North.