Chapter 275
Everything before Ye Bai exceeded her past understanding. In this moment, she felt the boundary between reality and the game shrink to its utmost limit. The power of time allowed her to vaguely sense the essence of this passage.
To traverse this passage, she naturally had to choose the correct historical trajectory. If she chose wrong, it would be like failing to find the wall of answers in a maze of knowledge, trapped in the wrong history with no way out.
Ye Bai initially wanted to take out the paper figure from her scroll to confirm once more, but she realized that in her current state, the only choice she had was to select a path.
So, she took a step forward and chose one of the diverging paths.
In the next moment, the sea was overturned, and the deep ocean was swept away by an unknown force, taking with it the Kraken and various marine creatures to a place filled with heat and the stench of sulfur.
In a fleeting glance, Ye Bai seemed to see a vague figure on the surface of the sea.
Was that... the God King?
Time began to flow before Ye Bai, and the scene before her changed. She looked up and saw the familiar yet strange Sky City—a colossal ancient dragon city still floating in the sky.
The Sky City appeared eerily quiet, with only two or three dragon shadows faintly circling around.
Ye Bai turned her head, sensing something, and then saw in the distance a long line of human soldiers approaching. At the forefront was a powerful awakened being of the bloodline of light, clad in heavy armor, his face obscured by a helmet, and behind him was a massive sword seemingly made of light.
So, humans had once waged war against the ancient dragons... but why did the dragon population seem so sparse at this time? Could it be due to the Great Annihilation?
With a sigh, Ye Bai stepped into the fate of the Sky City’s fall.
Time jumped again, and Ye Bai, along with Ottofis, arrived in a vast, lush forest. The sky was illuminated by flames, and hellish creatures poured forth from the gates of the underworld as war erupted.
After Ainolucia shot an arrow at the hellish demon, a historical fork appeared.
This was the answer she already knew. Ye Bai stepped into the branch where the queen constructed the Emerald Dream. In a swirl of dreamlike light and shadow, she seemed to see that figure from the deep sea passing by once more.
...
As she traversed through scenes of history, Ye Bai could not clearly discern whether what she experienced was an illusion or the true passage of time. She sensed that it was not as real as her ability of Time Rewind, yet it carried a certain application of the rules of time.
Finally, in the latest historical scene she reached, Ye Bai sensed an unusual wave emanating from the remaining branch of the Tree of Life in her hand.
Before her was a familiar square adorned with a throne statue, but the surroundings were no longer the chaotic structures of the knowledge maze; instead, they were normal remnants of walls.
At the same time, a vague, ethereal song drifted from afar:
"The king's conquest never ceases, the king's curse never fades, the king's true name no one can utter..."
Chapter 189
Ye Bai looked around, but in this ruin, she could not see a single soul, unsure of where the ethereal song was coming from.
However, the moment she heard the lyrics, she recalled her second visit to the divine realm, searching for cultists entering the underworld. When she found signs of life among a cluster of ramshackle huts, she encountered an old man.
In his madness, he had shouted a garbled song, and it turned out that what lay before her was the complete content.
Conquest, curse, true name... was the king in the song referring to the God King?
The king's curse never fades—did it mean the God King unleashed a curse, or did he fall victim to one?
Both interpretations seemed plausible, as the hellish demon could be confirmed through the memory of the elven queen, having been sealed by the God King after invading the Emerald Forest, with the accompanying cursed chains that Ye Bai had witnessed firsthand.
The latter interpretation also aligned perfectly with the paper figure, who bore a curse and had the singular goal of unlocking the God King's treasure vault.
He was far too knowledgeable about the entire quest line of the God King's treasure vault; every process lacked the sense of 'breaking' through, instead resembling a carefully laid trap. This was evident from the elven queen's reaction; if one truly intended to invade the treasure vault, the situation should resemble that of the Lich King.
Yet, there remained numerous contradictions regarding the details of the God King's legacy. For instance, the most critical point was that this song about the God King could still circulate in the divine realm—after all, the elven queen had stated that the God King had encountered the Great Annihilation, which theoretically meant that this song, like the empty throne ahead, should not have been preserved.
However, these answers would be revealed once Ye Bai entered the treasure vault.
In the next moment, the branch of the Tree of Life, now just a twig, flew out of her hand, heading toward the center of the square. Before the throne, a familiar portal emerged from the void, its entrance swirling with chaotic distortion, leaving its interior and destination a mystery.
This was the same portal that had appeared when the passage opened before, but now it was no longer out of reach; it truly existed within this space.
It turned out that the treasure vault was not hidden within the royal city of reality but required traversing the corridor of history to arrive at this past royal city to truly enter.
As the 'key' flew out, Ye Bai felt a sense of release wash over her. An indistinct, invisible path began to form ahead, and she sensed that she was no longer confined to merely choosing history; she could now move freely within this space of the past.
"This is it!"
Just as she pulled the scroll from her backpack, Ye Bai heard the paper figure's voice, unable to contain its excitement.
"Ah!"
Even Ottofis, standing beside her, turned his gaze toward the portal ahead and let out a cry, urgently tugging at Ye Bai's cloak, signaling her to enter.
This scene surprised Ye Bai. All along, she had thought the God King's treasure vault was the paper figure's top priority, and Ottofis had shown no particular interest. She hadn't expected it to care about this matter as well.
Reflecting on their initial encounters with Ottofis and the paper figure, it seemed they shared some unspoken understanding...
Thoughts swirled in her mind, but the reality of the Lich King, who would undoubtedly pursue them, loomed large. Ye Bai wasted no time; with a sense of inexplicable tension as if answers were about to be revealed, she dashed toward the treasure vault's door.
In these final moments, one couldn't help but worry that something unexpected might happen.
And indeed, something unexpected did occur.
Just as Ye Bai was within five meters of the mysterious portal...
Light.
An endless brilliance erupted before Ye Bai, flooding her vision.
Accompanied by a hum, the once complete world before her was suddenly torn apart by the intense light, like a canvas ripped asunder.
...
From the initial mutation of the tribes to the subsequent impact on various factions, a full-scale war began to sweep across the divine realm, weaving an epic filled with war and destruction.
At this historical moment, within the highest governing mansion of the Gawa Duchy, the governor Rory, who had been seated at his desk reviewing strategic maps, suddenly trembled.
This man, recognized as the strongest awakened being of the bloodline of light among humans, felt his deep brown eyes shift suddenly, two clusters of pale flames flickering within his pupils.
In the next moment, his aura underwent a drastic transformation, becoming ominous and filled with resentment, accompanied by an inescapable scent of decay.
"Heh, the corridor of history... As a witness to history, once I enter here, I will be confined to the 'me' of the past. Is this your backup plan?"
Rory's lips twitched as he spoke, his voice sounding somewhat unnatural, as if he were struggling to control it, gradually shifting from stiffness to fluidity.
Then, the face of the man who would later be revered in human history as Saint Governor Rory turned sharply, gazing at the massive sword hanging on the side wall.
The sword appeared heavy and imposing, devoid of excessive ornamentation, yet it evoked numerous associations—supreme, sacred, purifying, judgment...
At the overlapping point of the giant sword, a figure clad in radiant armor floated, none other than Kodos, who had been brought into the passage by the Lich King.
"Ancestor..."
Kodos suddenly realized who stood before him as he felt the gaze of the man behind the desk upon him.
Table of Contents
