What appeared before Lu Yu's eyes was a silver, eerie key.
The teeth of the key were overgrown with mysterious silver vines, as though they had sprouted straight out of thin air, sinking into the void and rippling outward in circles of purple waves.
The handle, however, was curved—like the inverted hook of an umbrella. At its center, countless runes converged to form a nebula-like open eye, wriggling and gazing around as if it were alive!
Yet no matter how it looked, it never dared to peek toward the thousand-handed silhouette shrouded in endless chaos. It seemed that even a single glance would be taboo.
Even though an eerie eye had grown on the key, Lu Yu still recognized it…
This was the Silver Key he had bought in his previous life—also known as the Stairway to Ascension, the Key to Truth, and various other names.
The orphanage he grew up in had allocated most of its funds to caring for the younger children, so the facilities were, frankly, quite basic.
The biggest source of entertainment was the collection of fairy tale and mythology books the director had gathered. Among them, Lu Yu's favorites were the vast and sacred mythic tales—but what fascinated him weren't the lofty gods on high. It was the bizarre, powerful monsters and divine artifacts.
After becoming an adult and earning his own money, Lu Yu developed a hobby of collecting all sorts of strange and exotic items and figurines.
The Silver Key was one he had picked up at a roadside stall. The vendor claimed it was the legendary key that could open the Gate of Truth and grant the secrets of becoming a god—for just 9,999 yuan, it could be his.
Lu Yu didn't buy the sales pitch. He simply thought the key looked cool as hell, haggled the price down to 99 yuan, and took it home.
He even ordered a related mythology book online to read up on this obscure legend.
But before the package could even arrive…
He transmigrated.
"I remember waving this key around in the air back then. Could that have actually opened the Gate of Truth?"
Lu Yu pondered. The appearance of the Silver Key proved it was indeed the culprit behind his transmigration. But… he hadn't seen any so-called secrets of godhood!
Was this some kind of group-buy scam? Did he need to rope in tens of thousands of people to "chop the price" or something?
As he was lost in thought, the Silver Key trembled slightly. A stream of information poured into his mind. After sorting through it, he finally understood the full sequence of events.
The 99-yuan Silver Key he bought in his previous life was the genuine article.
It really had opened the legendary Gate of Truth—the one said to hold the mysteries of ascension—and he had stepped inside.
However, as a mere mortal, his body simply could not contain the vast, mysterious high-dimensional knowledge. In the end, it resulted in a rather explosive parting of ways.
Bang!
His head literally exploded.
Yet his soul did not perish. Instead, it arrived in this beast-taming world, carrying the Silver Key—and whatever he had managed to take from beyond the gate—with him.
At this realization, Lu Yu noticed that his original talent, [Eye of Truth], had been replaced by a new one.
[Lord of the Gate (Incomplete): As the bearer of the Key to Truth, you gain Truth's Eye (Incomplete), allowing you to see the information and weaknesses of all things—at the cost of consuming your own spiritual power.
All your actions conform to Truth, receiving the blessing of the Gate of Truth. Your proficiency in crafting transcendent equipment, potions, secret foods, divination, and similar talents is greatly enhanced, with an additional 50% success rate bonus.
When crafting potions, delicacies, or secret foods of Good quality or higher, additional effects will manifest. The higher the quality, the stronger the effect. Furthermore, any transcendent side effects are reduced to only 1% of the original magnitude.
(Quality tiers: Ordinary, Good, Excellent, Perfect, Supreme)
After binding with the Silver Key, the spiritual power consumption for using [Truth's Eye] was reduced to just one-tenth of before, and the scope expanded from pet beasts to all things in existence.
And this… was merely the effect in its incomplete state!
If he could complete it, the talent would evolve into a fragment of the authority of omniscience. Nothing in the world would hold secrets from him any longer.
And the end of omniscience… is omnipotence!
Ascending the long stairway to godhood.
As for why it remained incomplete, Lu Yu vaguely sensed it was connected to his transmigration. However, the memories of what happened after entering the Gate of Truth involved too much high-dimensional information and were temporarily sealed.
They would only unlock gradually once his strength grew sufficient.
Aside from Truth's Eye, the auxiliary effects were terrifying in their own right: all supporting profession talents received a massive boost, plus that flat 50% extra success rate.
This was an additive bonus on top of his base success chance, applying to every transcendent supporting profession.
With this kind of buff, it was as if Lu Yu's supporting profession aptitudes had been maxed out.
For example, when he prepared food to feed pet beasts, as long as Truth's Eye judged the quality as Good or higher, all sorts of special effects would appear:
Attribute boosts, skill proficiency increases, accelerated learning buffs, and more.
By continuously feeding them, he could stack infinite buffs—or even raw attributes—onto his pet beasts, rocketing their growth like a rocket launch.
The side-effect reduction was practically a cheat. Divination of the future usually carried backlash; others might have to pay with a hundred years of lifespan—Lu Yu only needed one. The same applied to curses, forbidden spells, and so on.
Maximum gain for minimal cost.
In other words, Lu Yu, now in possession of the Key to Truth, had become a part of Truth itself.
When he tried to check what items he had brought out from beyond the gate earlier, he found nothing. But as his thoughts shifted, the chaotic currents before him condensed into lines of text.
[Prompt: Contract your first pet beast]
[Unlocked: Secret Food Heritage]
[Description: With mystery as the flame, devour the forbidden.]
This wasn't some typical "system." It felt more like the Key to Truth presenting tasks in a form he could easily understand, guiding him toward greater power. Besides the heritage itself, it seemed there were also some remnants from his past life still waiting.
"It's about time I contracted my first pet beast!"