Although Selene suspected that the original owner had used a different, unknown Tantra to communicate with the Old God and make the exchange, and that she hadn’t found any notes left by the original owner when she’d read it before, but… what if? She took a few deep breaths, using meditation to relax her mind. Selene rubbed her temples, dispelling her confusion, then touched the cover of the 《Shedding of Skin》 and gently opened it.

A warm, smooth sensation came from her fingertips. Selene’s movements were gentle, as if she were caressing her lover’s face, as she touched the pulsating growths on the cover. The detailed text on the yellowed pages entered her eyes, wriggling like parasites that had found their host.

Selene’s pupils dilated slightly, her gaze lost in the words.

From her legs to her head, her skin was gradually covered in faint scales, like some kind of snake, revealing a strange blue-black color in the lamplight.

The scales stopped spreading when they reached her neck, and then they began to fall off, one by one, landing on the bed and floor, carrying a faint, metallic smell of blood.

After the scales fell off, the tips of Selene’s ears gradually became pointed and elongated. Her fingers became slender, her skin more delicate. Her hair color also faded somewhat, from dark black to the same gray-white as Richter’s. Her entire body shifted, becoming more similar to, yet also subtly different from, a human… If Louise had been there, she would have noticed that Selene’s appearance was now closer to that of an elf.

Selene was unaware of these changes.

She was no longer in her room. Instead, she saw a vast, magnificent landscape—trees stretching as far as the eye could see, but their color wasn’t a vibrant green, but a shimmering silver-white.

It was a snow-covered forest. A biting wind howled through the snow and ice. The swirling snow obscured the sky, leaving only a dim darkness.

Selene, looking at the scene before her, pondered.

—She didn’t think she’d been teleported. She should still be in her room. This scene was probably just an illusion.

Or… she had entered the dream world.

The fragments of the thoughts of all beings, the transit station for souls and consciousness.

The reason she came to this conclusion was that she could see the wind swirling the snow, the ice crystals on the canopy, but she didn’t feel the slightest chill despite being in this snowy world. This clearly wasn’t normal.

…If Tantras came from the dream world, then entering the dream world after reading a Tantra seemed normal… Louise had told her about something similar. Someone once read a Tantra that recorded the history of the ancient “Hewes” Dynasty, and was pulled into the dream world, witnessing the final prosperity, glory, and collapse of that ancient dynasty, seeing how the Punishing Strait descended from the heavens, dividing the continent and creating the current two human empires…

It was said that he lived for three hundred years in that dream. When he woke up, he became a leading scholar in the field of history, his authority second only to the immortals who had lived since the Fourth Era.

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Is this what’s happening to me? But what does this scene have to do with the “Shedding of Skin”?

Selene unconsciously reached out to touch her forehead, but as she did, she noticed something unusual—her hand was too small, the proportions were wrong, and there were small scratches on it.

This is a child’s hand! Am I a child in this dream?

After realizing the changes in her body, she noticed more details in the scene before her. She suddenly realized that she wasn’t standing on the ground, but floating in the air…

No, standing on something in the air!

She shifted her gaze, seeing more.

Beneath the snow-covered canopies of the forest, countless wooden, man-made structures were emerging. They were grand corridors, stretching out from the shadows and converging on an even more magnificent structure.

It was a temple floating in mid-air, its flying buttresses and the murals on its outer walls its most distinctive features. The upper half was a closed, square structure, with no windows or other openings, only doorways at the end of each wooden corridor. The lower half was a silver-white inverted pyramid, covered in dizzyingly complex patterns.

Floating corridors and temples, ancient wonders amidst a swirling snow.

“Whoa…”

Selene paused, letting out a sincere exclamation.

She was now standing on one of the wooden corridors. Perhaps because of her smaller size, the wonder and shock of this scene were even more pronounced.

A majestic mountain, seen from afar or from above, would also inspire awe in the viewer. But only when you stood at the foot of the mountain, looking up at its cloud-piercing peak, would you realize your own insignificance and feel the overwhelming sense of its untouchable heights.

Selene quickly regained her composure and walked towards the end of the corridor, preparing to enter the temple and explore. After all, this was a dream. Even if she died, she would only wake up in the real world. Taking this opportunity to gather more information was the correct choice.

She walked through the corridor, its walls covered in murals, and entered the temple unhindered.

The interior of the temple was just as impressive as its exterior. Hundreds of wooden pillars rose from the ground, like real trees growing towards the sky. Though their purpose was unclear, they were certainly magnificent… But besides that, there didn’t seem to be anything noteworthy.

Selene casually wandered around the temple, but couldn’t find any altars or statues, which should have been present. Besides the hundreds of pillars, the only noteworthy thing was a sunken floor in the center… But there weren’t any hidden doors or anything else of interest.

In a sense, this temple was “empty.”

…Why?

Was it truly empty, or were some things hidden, requiring certain conditions to appear?

Did she need to press a switch? Did she need to chant the names of the gods? Or…

Selene went to a pillar and tentatively pressed her hand against it.

Nothing happened.

She then chanted a few names she was familiar with—“Lord of Light and Heat,” “Creator of Mountains, Rivers, and Life,” “Primal Awakener,” “Infinite and Endless Observer,” “God of Storms on the River of Time,” “Protector of Spirits and Thoughts…”

All names of the deities.

Still nothing.

It couldn’t be that she had to chant “Lord of Sin and Knowledge, Source of Desire and Wisdom,” could it?

Selene stroked her chin, thinking to herself.

A second later, the large pillar next to her changed.

First came a deafening roar from within the pillar. Then, the bark on the surface of the pillar seemed to be burning, peeling off, revealing seven dark holes, from which a pale, dirty liquid flowed, leaving seven trails down the pillar.

As Selene watched, stunned, a series of twisted symbols and drawings appeared beneath the pillar, at eye level—

“We worship the Scholar of Sin—the long-abandoned God, the God of Death and Desire, who will ultimately replace the Glorious God of this world.”