Chapter 7: The Eve of Destruction

Under Vivian's narration, Xia Zhi's understanding of the Fairy Guo Du unfolded like a scroll gradually unfurling, slowly sketching out a basic outline.

Upon first hearing the name "Fairy Guo Du," people might naturally associate it with a fairy-tale realm, comparing them side by side, conjuring images of towering castles, quiet forests, and pastoral scenes.

As if it were a place full of wondrous magic, a tranquil land undisturbed by turmoil.

But in reality—

Reality was not so beautiful.

According to the girl's account, fairies were pure creatures, almost devoid of the concepts of good and evil as people usually understood them. In the world of fairies, every individual bore their own unique mission or obsession, and their existence was for the pursuit of these "purposes."

This meant that in the eyes of fairies, apart from their innate "Providence," nothing else mattered, nor would it be valued.

It sounded like nothing much, and might even evoke images of carefree, worry-free little sprites.

However, Xia Zhi still simply distilled the core points from Vivian's narration—that fairies were self-centered, lacked reverence for rules, and were unbound by any moral code.

If that were the case, then it was not hard to understand that the situation in the Fairy Guo Du was dire, and diplomatic relations among the various clans were in an extremely poor state.

—Then, what about Vivian's situation?

—And what about those fairies of the Rain Clan?

Did they follow the same rules?

Xia Zhi glanced at the girl across the table with interest, pondered for a moment, and asked again: "Regarding the overall territory of the Fairy Guo Du... just how large is it?"

"This question, I cannot give a definite answer for the time being; the land of the Fairy Guo Du is constantly expanding..." Vivian pondered for a moment before responding, "Because fairies, after their lives end, do not truly perish, but instead become part of nature, such as soil, trees, rocks, and other substances."

She continued to explain: "At first, this land was actually so small as to be almost negligible. With generation after generation of fairies piling up, their bodies merging into nature, accumulating into mountains, over the vicissitudes of time, it gradually evolved into today's Britain Island..."

"Huh?! Wait?! Britain?!" Xia Zhi keenly caught a key word.

As for the fairies' death setting, it should have been very important information, but at this moment, compared with this name, its importance seemed to be cast aside in an instant, temporarily tossed aside to cool.

"Yes, what's wrong?"

The girl tilted her head slightly, her golden pigtails swaying gently on both sides in front of her, showing a puzzled expression.

A bit cute...

No no no, he quickly pulled his attention back, refocusing on the question just now: "You mean, this place is actually—Britain Island?"

"Yes." The girl said calmly.

"..."

"..."

Was it the Britain he knew?

Xia Zhi already had a premonition in his heart. He recalled the place name "Onyx" he had heard before, originally thinking it was just an insignificant coincidence, but now it seemed there might be deeper connections and truths hidden within.

Indeed a parallel world?

He speculated silently in his heart, numerous thoughts surging like a tide.

"Is this also Earth? I mean this place—not talking about this Fairy Guo Du, nor this Britain Island, but this entire world beneath our feet..." He wanted to confirm further.

This person was asking questions again in succession.

Vivian looked deeply at him, responding in a calm tone: "You mean the planet beneath our feet? Indeed, it has such a name."

—As expected!!

"Then... outside of Britain, are there other territories or kingdoms?" Xia Zhi quickly thought, racking his brains, "Like France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and so on? Outside Europe there is also Asia, and also America?"

He even imagined that those distant lands might not be ruled by humans, but instead governed by other fairy tribes of various forms, or even more fantastical phantasmal species.

Indeed, Xia Zhi was now subconsciously making various associations in his mind, constructing a grand picture of this parallel world.

Since it was considered based on the premise of a parallel world, it was not hard to speculate that this world must have similar foundations, such as possessing the same planet, bearing the same territory, with continents and regions reappearing like mirror images.

However, it was precisely on this seemingly identical foundation that astonishing unique differences arose, and these differences precisely constituted the deviation value of the parallel world.

Imagine, in this parallel world, the Britain in his own cognition had already been replaced by the mysterious Fairy Guo Du, becoming a region where fairies lived. Then by extension, perhaps other geographical boundaries and countries had also undergone similar fantastical changes?

Whether it was each continent, country, or region...

These regions were no longer the familiar faces he knew, but were dominated by phantasmal species of myriad forms, shaping unique customs and historical contexts...

Seen this way, this parallel world was as if wearing an Earth-like shell, but its internal historical trajectory and development process were entirely different; it could be said to be a fantastical variation.

"No."

Vivian gazed at him, speaking softly, her gentle words penetrating his racing thoughts.

"..."

"..."

"Huh?"

"There are none of the things you speak of; outside the borders of Britain Island is merely an endless blank..." The girl stated the reality concisely.

Xia Zhi slightly furrowed his brow, a thought flashing through his mind instantly: Could it be that the fairy tribe had only been breeding and living on Britain Island for a long time, never crossing the ocean to explore unknown lands and worlds?

However, this guess had not fully formed before he quickly overturned it himself.

After all, this group of fairies obviously possessed extraordinary magical power, and moreover, from earlier conversations with Vivian, it could be determined that fairies had some grasp of concepts like Earth and planet.

Therefore, such a possibility could be ruled out.

"An endless blank?"

"Yes, an endless blank; the entire surface world has become the Sea of Nothingness." Vivian showed no impatience, patiently confirming.

"Has become..."

Xia Zhi raised an eyebrow, catching the key word again: "Can it be understood that previously, it was not actually a blank, but that something happened, causing it to become like this?"

"Yes." The girl's gaze rested on him for an instant, then moved away.

She did not hide it, saying seriously: "However, regarding this secret, I cannot tell you for now."

"Oh, I understand, I understand..." Xia Zhi nodded in realization; this probably involved core corporate secrets, and unless he made up his mind to buy shares and become one of their own, otherwise, no matter how simple the other party was, they wouldn't just tell him directly.

"It's your turn to ask..." He spread his hands, indicating it should be the girl's turn to ask questions.

"……"

"……"

A moment of silence.

Vivian frowned slightly, thinking carefully for a moment, but for a time she actually didn't know what she should ask. During the exchange just now, she had already asked about most of the things she wanted to understand.

The main thing is this person indeed doesn't have many secrets; setting aside time's favor toward him, apart from that, he seems to be just an ordinary person——

At least right now he indeed is an ordinary person.

After pondering slightly for a while, Vivian was just about to open her mouth to say something, when she suddenly stopped again, turning her gaze toward the direction of the door.

Not long after, a knocking sound came from outside.

"Princess Meng, the Queen Consort requests your presence."

A soft, glutinous voice then rang out, sounding like the voice of a little girl.

"Alright, I understand, I'll go right away." Vivian responded while looking toward the opposite side of the table.

"Go on, go on, I'll wait here..." Xia Zhi waved his hand, making a farewell gesture, "Don't worry, I won't wander around."

"……"

The girl pursed her lips, suddenly feeling this person would definitely wander around.

Vivian temporarily left, and the room instantly became empty and hollow; Xia Zhi casually scanned the surroundings, examining the environment. To be honest, although this room was warm and cozy, it didn't have much of a girl's boudoir feel.

One couldn't even see any girly style.

Very concise.

Very clean.

Neat and tidy, orderly and systematic.

Basically it was just this kind of appearance; he pinched his chin and thought for a bit, the tidiness level of a room can reflect a person's degree of attention to detail, and their way of handling things; different tidiness levels reflect different abilities and personality traits.

Recalling that psychological knowledge which he had studied but was also somewhat distant, he judged that Vivian should be the type of person who is organized, self-disciplined, and efficient, highly attentive to details, and demanding of an orderly environment.

That's why the room is so neat and orderly, every item has a fixed place.

Looking at it this way, the "mission" she bears as a fairy is probably also extraordinary, so her demands on herself must be very high.

Of course, it's not necessarily exactly like this either; after all, who knows what a fairy's psychology is like? He's just making a tentative assessment, and won't really treat this conclusion as fact; the specifics still require personal observation.

Standing up and walking to the window, he looked at the sky outside for a while; the twilight sky curtain was still so magnificent.

That World Tree named "Meng" stood towering at the end of the horizon, as if a giant canopy, supporting the entire firmament.

Xia Zhi took out his phone again and glanced at it; the time displayed was already approaching 3 PM.

Xia Zhi sighed lightly; he had already perceived the problem earlier, because that twilight sky color had never changed, and he was somewhat worried whether his own time bug had infected this world after he came over here.

Fortunately Vivian explained it clearly in time; the Fairy Guo Du originally only has twilight and night.

Moreover Onyx where the Rain Clan lives, because it's located at the northernmost end of Britain, not only is it more barren compared to other places, but most of the year it's raining, the weather is always very gloomy.

Twilight sky color like this is instead very rare weather.

Most of the time, one can actually only see a gray, overcast sky.

From a certain extent, this Fairy Guo Du really does possess many elements of a fairy tale kingdom; a world where even daytime is forever covered by twilight.

It's just that……

Very dangerous, extremely dangerous; from my brief observations and Vivian's words, this flavor has already been faintly revealed.

Now Vivian has been summoned by that Queen Consort, which further proves this point, because that is absolutely the remnant waves from the Library earlier…… the threats from other clans are actually so great, it's simply chaos within chaos.

Wanting to survive in this vicious place, I'm afraid it won't be easy.

But fortunately, I seem to have inexplicably gained a passive; it seems only Vivian can see my existence and hear my voice.

If this passive is strong enough, and the effect stable enough, then my safety counts as having a basic guarantee, and I don't need to worry too much.

Standing by the window, thinking seriously for a good while, sorting out the current clues as much as possible, and summarizing his own status quo, Xia Zhi leisurely returned to the table and sat down, casually placing his phone on the table.

The next moment, as if falling into water——

The phone directly disappeared.

"……"

"……"

Xia Zhi stared at that spot on the table for a good while, then leaned back and lowered his head to observe for a while; this table was clearly a solid wood table, the whole thing carved from a single piece of wood, the bottom was also solid.

Why would the phone fall into it?

And where did it fall to?

He reached out and casually fished around, then his pupils contracted slightly, because his palm directly sank into the table, plunging in from the surface, and in the blink of an eye more than half his palm was swallowed.

The cross-section displayed was very flat.

As if the table was an exquisite holographic phantom, or perhaps his palm was an exquisite holographic phantom, fundamentally without physical existence.

He stood up in puzzlement, glanced at the chair he had just been sitting on, tentatively reached out to touch it, and then…… his palm passed through again.

Immediately after, as if because his thoughts had changed, he discovered the floor under his feet also seemed to become unreal; he was like a victim who had accidentally stumbled into a swamp, his body beginning to sink.

…………

…………

Time: Unknown.

Location: A desolate Britain.

A silver-haired figure, like a queen, walked upon this land, silently watching the desolate, dead-silent earth, subconsciously tightening her grip on the staff in her hand.

After being summoned out, she quickly discovered what place this was.

Britain.

The Britain she deeply loved.

Long, long ago, it had already been destroyed by the Great Calamity; no matter what had once existed upon it, everything had turned to ash, not even wreckage remaining.

How could she accept it! How could she possibly accept it!!

Her finger joints turned white from the force of her grip, yet beneath her feet she seemed to have stepped on something; the silver-haired figure cast her gaze down, and amid the thick dust covering the ground — like snowflakes, yet also like ash — a wind suddenly blew, revealing an electronic device that should not have existed, its pitch-black screen exposed.

Gazing at that pitch-black screen, the queen-like figure smiled.

She had found a suitable medium.

Thanks to that fellow who was completely without vigilance, after summoning her out he simply went straight to sleep without a care.

As long as she could use tonight's time to analyze Chaldea's Spirit Particle Transfer Technology, she would be able to return to this world's past and entrust all intelligence to the "her" of this world.

Her beloved Britain... would absolutely not perish!

(Chapter End)