Chapter 83

Rushing toward them, it seemed there was infinite light.

But the brilliance contained within that intense light was truly too dazzling and too bright; Ji Jue couldn't see anything clearly. From the moment he could feel, all he could sense was the unique aura originating from the Supreme Good · Gate of Eternity.

So pure, containing no flaws at all.

It was as if he had leaped into the torrent of time, letting it take him to an unknown, distant past.

Until the infinite light dissipated from before his eyes.

A breeze blew from afar.

The sound of bells echoed over the square, birds were startled, took flight, landed, and curiously lowered their eyes from the branches to look at the visitor who didn't belong here.

Ji Jue looked around blankly, only to find that he seemed to have returned to the ground once again.

But the ground clearly wasn't like this; the ruins were gone, the collapsed high-rises had vanished without a trace, and only buildings that were slightly mottled stood on the street.

Pedestrians were like weaving fabric, chatting and laughing as they passed through him, leaving only faint ripples.

In the distance, the bells of the sanctuary echoed, as if celebrating.

"What is... this?"

Ji Jue reached out his hands blankly, subconsciously wanting to touch the things around him, but his palms passed through them without any obstruction, leaving only water-like ripples.

"Did we travel through time?" He couldn't suppress his suspicion, and at the same time, he was the first to deny such a thought.

This was not the real world; it was more like a reflection in time, so incomplete... If one observed carefully, some flower pots on the side of the road were constantly flickering, the flowers changing, their colors hard to fix.

The drooping branches of the willow trees were also constantly twitching, unable to fix their form.

The faces of the pedestrians were mostly blurry, hard to see clearly, and their voices were so distant. In many more places, the buildings and scenery didn't even have color, and even their positions were constantly changing.

At the end of the firmament, that solemn tower that rose into the clouds was so glorious and shining—but fissures were constantly emerging and blooming on it, and at the same time, it was rapidly recovering.

Just like a game full of bugs.

"What exactly is this?"

"Fragments of time, reflections of the past, nothing more."

The Prophet gazed at everything before her: "This is the event that Mercury collected... the achievement the workshop has completed over so many years—

—the appearance of her hometown before it was destroyed."

[Holy shit!!]

In Ji Jue's arms, the Ghostwork Sphere shook violently, as if it had finally come online: [I understand, I finally fucking understand why Mercury, that dog, would do such thankless work, spreading her workshop to the entire scope of the Rift Realm!]

This was the most difficult problem to understand for a Heavenly Craftsman.

Controlling the Rift Realm, manipulating everything.

It sounds truly exaggerated and terrifying.

But in reality, it has absolutely no cost-effectiveness.

To achieve the same effect, there are countless secret rituals in the Heavenly Origin lineage, and even several Rift Realms could be pieced together.

If you want wind, you get wind; if you want rain, you get rain.

The workshop could completely regulate from the center; there was no need to rack her brains to transform the entire Rift Realm into a part of the workshop. The extravagance of this massive project was simply an astronomical figure.

Even if Mercury were crazy, she wouldn't be unable to solve a math problem.

Moreover, a workshop isn't better the bigger it is. Ensuring the alchemy effect to the greatest extent is the first thing the workshop must ensure, not the range of influence.

With Mercury's ability, if the radiation range of the workshop could be reduced by half, no, even a third, it wouldn't have fallen to its current state of being out of control.

[It's not that Mercury wanted the workshop to cover the Rift Realm, it should be the other way around; she needed this Rift Realm to become her own workshop.]

The Ghostwork Sphere suddenly realized: [The entire Rift Realm has been transformed by her into a work with the workshop as the core, a collector specifically built for the Supreme Good · Gate of Eternity!

Spending so many blessings and materials, using dozens or hundreds of years, just to complete the collection of time!]

Just like in remote areas of Yacheng or small gathering points outside the city where there is poor signal, some people will set up huge pot lids to receive signals.

The entire Rift Realm has been transformed by Mercury into an unprecedentedly huge receiver!

Such an exaggerated scale, even a sage would go bankrupt, or even borrow endlessly...

Over a long period of time, it has existed independently outside the present world, floating among the stars, endlessly chasing the sun, trying to capture those dissipated pasts in the darkness.

Day after day, year after year.

For four hundred years, it has been constantly collecting relevant time, tirelessly piecing together and repeating, trying to trace back the past.

Everything on the ground is just a manifestation of this achievement.

The records and events contained in this deep well are the treasure she truly wants to obtain!

"What exactly does she want to do?"

Ji Jue walked among those past records and couldn't help but ask again.

"Haven't you already seen it?"

The Prophet gazed at the old time and sighed softly: "It's just wanting to return to the old days, nothing more."

Wanting to take back everything from the past.

Wanting to take back her homeland, her loved ones, and their future, from death and the predetermined ending... from the disaster she herself caused!

The town that cycles endlessly day after day, the Heavenly Origin giant tower that constantly collapses above the firmament.

And everything that cannot be repaired...

Finally, before Ji Jue's eyes, among those countless events, what appeared was a fleeting phantom.

That lonely figure wandering among the ruins.

Using her own hands to dig with all her might, moving away the rubble, what she saw were only piles of bones.

She bent down, holding that half-blood-stained wedding dress, shedding tears silently.

Www?ttkдn?￠O

No wailing can be heard.

This is the price Mercury has met.

In an instant, it was as if lightning flashed through his brain, and everything he saw before entering the Rift Realm, those ancient histories and pasts, finally seemed to be connected together.

"The disaster that appeared in the town was caused by Mercury, right?!" Ji Jue turned his head suddenly and asked: "Was it because of the collapse of the Heavenly Origin Tower?"

Boom!

That scene of heaven and earth collapsing appeared again from the reflection of time.

Right amidst the wailing of the tower breaking, the natural disaster appeared again from the firmament, earth fire spread, swallowing everything.

The wailing and crying sounds echoed in the wind.

Swallowing everything.

Everything belonging to the blessing of Heavenly Origin dissipated, leaving only infinite mutation. The prosperity and glory established because of this passed away with the wind, and what remained was only that broken appearance that seemed to be eternally engraved in time.

Heavenly Origin lost its position!

"Executing the Lord of Eternity, cutting off the Heavenly Origin Tower, breaking the world that had been stagnant and rotten for thousands of years, ending all the karmic sins accumulated by the Eternal Empire—the wish that had been passed down for 1,200 years was completed in the hands of the Mohists, and Mercury was the crucial key."

The Prophet said: "The blade of change that cut off Heavenly Origin was precisely sharpened and reproduced by her... but what about the price? What was the price?"

She said, "The price was losing everything."

Just as everything presented before their eyes.

At the moment the Heavenly Origin Tower shattered, all participants would receive the backlash when order collapsed—regardless of the original intention, from the beginning of the fall of the Eternal Empire, infinite disasters spread across the land.

This was the evil fruit she created with her own hands.

She knew she would lose everything; she should have understood long ago.

But she loved too much, and there was too much she couldn't let go of.

Even if she sought help from the sage of ether, forever erasing her original name and modifying her past history. But fate is not something that can be fooled so easily.

She thought that after the empire fell, she could retire and return to her hometown. But after everything ended, she had nowhere to go but the ruins.

Everything she cherished was completely annihilated with the overturning of the empire.

First the natural disaster, then the earthquake, followed by the distortion caused by losing Heavenly Origin, and the military calamity stirred up in the chaos... everything she cared about was completely destroyed in just seven days.

Daughter, brother, sister, mother, friends... even every ordinary person who could recognize her name was all destroyed by the disaster.

Only the lonely sage remained, wandering in the ruins and deserts, receiving honor and curses.

"How ironic, she ended the rule of the Eternal Empire with her own hands, hoping to create an ideal kingdom, but instead created disasters and endless poison...

And because of this, she became the first cursed person in history to survive a disaster."

The Prophet looked around at the fake yesterday before her and sighed: "Even if she exhausted the rest of her life for this, racking her brains, wanting to return everything to before the disaster happened, wanting to take back what was lost.

But what is lost is lost, and even if it's fake, it cannot return.

What remains is only this fake dream and the agonizing cycle that can never stop."

In the brief silence, Ji Jue was stunned for a long time: "Can't it be done?"

"It can't be done."

The Prophet answered, categorically.

Thus, Ji Jue was silent.

As if frozen, he stared blankly into the air, as if he could hear the whistle of a train going away in his ears, along with the elusive and distant singing.

How could it not be done?

Clearly the sage is transcendent above the world, clearly the embers have infinite creation!

This world is truly too vast and too gorgeous.

The Twelve Supreme Goods, the Nine Great Evil Fools, the Federation, the Empire, the Central Land, the Anquan Bureau, the Wild Gathering, the Ring of Taiyi... so many blessings, so many abilities, and so many powers he couldn't reach.

He once, no, until now, still held fantasies.

Perhaps when he becomes strong enough in the future and has enough power, he can retrieve everything he lost, and even—prevent that disaster from happening.

¤ttkΛn¤￠O

"I thought there would be a chance."

He muttered to himself, not knowing who he should say it to.

"She thought so too, and what you see is the outcome." The Prophet sneered, "People cannot change their past, nor can they choose why they are achieved...

What is gone will eventually be gone, no matter how unwilling, no matter how many regrets.

That's why the present is more precious than the future."

She was cold at first, unable to suppress her contempt, but in the end, she couldn't help but pause, just sighing: "Why should a puppet like me, who cannot even control her own life, teach you such a principle, Ji Jue?"

"Who knows?"

Ji Jue whispered softly, talking to himself: "Who would be willing?"

When facing fate, is it to bow down submissively, endure in silence, or resist beyond one's own strength?

What was placed before him was the miserable outcome left by the pioneer.