Chapter 1022

Three people followed the spirits to the next location, only to see several soldiers' souls whispering.

"Have you heard? The strategists of King Oulipang are drafting a plan; they seem to be preparing a total attack on Aohema."

"With our current forces? This is utter madness..."

"This is a long-term strategy. For now, the top priority is still completing the… 【project】 for the God King."

——

Qin Dynasty Bright Moon.

"You bastard! Complete bastard!"

Tianming slammed his fist hard onto the small table beside him, producing a muffled "thud"; he gritted his teeth in rage, wishing he could punch Oulipang's king in the face—though he didn't even know what the king looked like.

"How can he do this? So cheaply sacrificing his people's lives—why doesn't he go himself? Someone who hides in the back and expects his subjects to die for him—does he even deserve to be called the king of Xuanfengcheng?!"

"Hmm… I guess he's probably afraid of death, just like other kings," Duanmu Rong said, sitting beside the medicine cauldron, her palm fan pausing slightly. "From ancient times to now, from emperors and generals down to peddlers, how many have longed for immortality? Although King Oulipang holds supreme power, seeing that he will still age and cannot escape death, he must have grown fearful. She hopes to steal the God King's power through the project on the God King, making herself like Aglaea."

Saying this, Duanmu Rong's tone carried a faint sorrow: "Poor commoners, for the emperor's private desire, rush forward one after another to die—indeed, indeed… it's the same everywhere."

"Fortunately he already died at Wandi's hands, so no further disaster was caused," Gai Nie said in a low voice. "But there is one point worth noting: how long ago did the end of the Golden War occur? Wandi looks only in his twenties, and Kaines, who has survived from the Golden War era, appears merely a middle-aged woman—could the war not have been that long ago?"

"Probably just a dozen years or so?" Tianming also felt strange: "Wandi is a Golden Descendant, not a demigod—how could he possibly live that long?"

"No, the Golden Descendants carry divine blood in their veins; it's hard to say whether Aglaea and Tibao's longevity secret comes from the fire seed or from the Golden Descendants' lineage." Gai Nie lowered his head thoughtfully. "If it's the latter… then Wandi, Bai'e, and Xiadie are likely already several hundred years old, not younger than the long-lived species of the Immortal Ark."

——

Xiadie raised her head to look at the markings on the wall, feeling somewhat incredulous: "The plan to attack Aohema already had a prototype in such ancient times?"

Star: "The instigator has probably long since turned to ash."

"Indeed so."

"... Lord Gnaeus?"

Gnaeus carefully examined the two before him: "I have long noticed that you do not belong to this place… no, you are out of sync with this era. Is it Eronis? No… even it does not possess such mighty divine power."

"You guessed right… cough… Lord Gnaeus—we indeed do not belong to this era," Xiadie admitted frankly. "One day in the distant future, the maddened Nicadoli will drive our companions and homeland to desperation. We have come here… to seek a way to prevent the apocalypse."

"... Will its madness persist for thousands of years? The destruction human folly can wreak is immeasurable. In the end, it turns out our goals are exactly the same."

Three people followed the spirits' guidance to the next location, only to see a soul resembling a priestess clasping her hands together, praying devoutly.

"Courage. Honor. Resilience. Sacrifice. Divide its divinity into five parts… yet one part remains missing."

"O God King… where have you cast away your reason? We will keep searching. We will surely find it…"

The soul faded away mid-sentence, replaced by Xiadie's violent coughing.

"... Cough, cough cough, cough!" Prolonged soul-guiding left her face pale; she supported her forehead, barely holding herself up, "Cough… guiding souls caught between life and death is truly agonizing… If only there were no death in this world. Then they wouldn't have to wander here… and I wouldn't have to endure this torment."

——

Offering blessings for a beautiful world.

"Huh? Want a world without death?" Aqua laughed "ha" and spread her hands. "That's just a matter of finding an apothecary, but if we truly let 【Abundance】 take root in Wanfaros, surely everyone would later be unhappy. In the end, we might even summon the hunting flying stars, which would scatter the entire planet into smoke."

"That's just Miss Xiadie talking nonsense." Kazuma turned his gaze toward another figure in the sky—Gnaeus—since he began using the Eronis prayers, Kazuma has focused on him: "Don't you find this person a bit odd? This guy dresses just like Wandi."

"Indeed, he's got a fine build."

"Hey hey, stupid god, what exactly are you focusing on?" Kazuma rolled his eyes in exasperation, "I mean his understanding of Titans. He knows the Conflict Titans inside out, and even understands Eronis well—his tone of snarky critique toward Eronis… is just as natural as my teasing you."

"Hey! Kazuma, what do you mean?!" Aqua grabbed his collar.

"Kazuma's meaning—could he be thinking that Gnaeus is a Golden Descendant?" Dakness speculated, "... perhaps an even earlier predecessor than Wandi? After all, Xuanfengcheng's history is so long, it's not strange that a few heroes who knew the Titans' secrets have appeared."

"Hmm, if he's a fellow Golden Descendant, then our goal this time is clear—we just need to locate the Titan's 【Reason】 component; its weakness should then become apparent."

Megumin also breathed a sigh of relief for Xiadie; if she kept aimlessly guiding souls in her memories, the problem would likely arise even earlier than with the Conflict Titans… Xiadie seems to have reached her physical limit.

"After wandering around in those memories for so long, we finally have a decent lead."

——

"... No need to keep listening to the dead's voices; we already have enough information. The people of Xuanfengcheng have tampered with Nicadoli's souls—we only need to find the site of their desecration." Gnaeus encouraged, "Don't collapse—we haven't reached the end yet."

After sending the spirits before her to the underworld, Xiadie also regained her composure. Gnaeus sensed the aura coming from the road ahead and sharply warned: "The place where souls are poured and cut… we are very close. During the rites, likely no one has ever walked here alive—do not let up."