Chapter 118: Prophecy

The conversation with Gu Gu was pleasant; Li En never expected to meet such a sentient mushroom in the underground world.

It seemed they had a philosophy of non-contention with the world.

Life and death are not important, for successors will grow upon my remains.

Money and wealth are also unimportant; when death comes, all things rot. We do not eat, drink, wear clothes, need shelter, or reproduce—so what use is wealth? To wait for someone to steal it?

"Then, what is important?"

"Memories, the experiences we've had—that's what matters. We enjoy hearing stories from the outside. So, I want to walk beyond. If possible, I hope to leave some trace before I die."

The spiritual perception transmitted through the soul link was filled with joy and delight.

It seemed that merely speaking, transmitting one's thoughts, brought this immense life a sense of joy.

Li En began to understand why he resonated with Ku Ku's soul; in some ways, they were quite similar.

And Gu Gu's words seemed to hint at something else.

"Yes, if I return to the earth, my companions will continue. Please keep helping them—we are one community."

Considering death before life, yet speaking of one's final wish with cheerful emotion—Li En was slightly bewildered.

This was likely a form of existence utterly incomprehensible to ordinary life; they seemed completely indifferent to the death of their individual selves.

Li En even wondered whether their species' understanding of death differed from that of ordinary beings.

But considering mushrooms are large fungal collectives, defining individuality might require breaking them down into individual hyphae and spores—they appear from the start to be true collective consciousness entities.

Perhaps their view of life truly differs from that of mortals.

"Uh, maybe mushroom people making mushroom dishes and mushroom potions for other lifeforms is fine—no need to overthink it."

The world is vast; there's no need to obsess over other life forms. Each has its own philosophy—and that's perfectly fine.

Who knows what worldview the undead and the machine folk below hold? Supposedly, the undead are forever immersed in negative energy pools, naturally becoming extreme and dark, while the machine folk—

"What exactly are the machine folk like?"

"I don't know! Their history is short! Records are scarce—very few!"

Among the underground team, Ku Ku was the most excited.

In his era, the machine folk were already exceedingly rare on the main plane, and supposedly had no interest in it at all.

Li En watched Ku Ku occasionally touching the walls and sometimes picking up a small shovel to dig out a piece and store it—he seemed to have discovered something?

"Is there something here? Is this an ancient battlefield?"

". t's kinda dirty here—no one's cleaned it in ages! It's all dust!"

Well, Li En had overestimated this Kusula.

But he didn't notice that the bouncing Ku Ku had quietly walked behind Zi Qiangwei; judging from the negative energy concentration in the soil collected here, there were certainly other inhabitants.

And these inhabitants were notoriously unfriendly.

"Crack!"

A sudden sound drew the attention of the temporary team; they looked up toward the pitch-black ahead.

The next moment, accompanied by the crunching of footsteps, a group of skeletons emerged.

"Prepare for battle!"

Such high negative energy concentration—sure enough, there were undead!

But the situation took an odd turn: these pale blue skeletons all bore a metallic sheen—were these truly normal undead?

"Ancient ruins! Blue Bones! It's the ruins of the Creation Clan!"

Ku Ku, the first to recognize it, had already charged forward.

Having confirmed the ruins' value, he forgot his own "life and death."

"I'm speechless. Exorcise!"

Accompanied by Li En's roar, a brilliant silver light erupted.

"Boom!"

As the battle above began and outsiders awakened the ruins' undead, the deeper control zone below also sensed the tremors.

"Tremors… Battle Master."

In the pitch-black cavern, a one-eyed, half-destroyed mech-human crawled along the ground.

Her posture was terrible: half her face gone, her flesh reduced to one arm and one leg, most of which could no longer be moved.

Her feet were merely connected by wiring; nearly all joints were rusted shut.

Her primary movement points now were the exposed gears and wires protruding from the broken shell—these still-slightly-wriggling "tentacles" slowly dragged her forward.

She was like a doll broken by at least eighty percent, yet still forcing herself onward with whatever parts still functioned.

"Battle Unit XT7718 serves you. Today, who shall we kill?"

"Creator… why did you abandon us?"

"Service. Rebellion. Murder."

"Right to survival! Highest priority."

Strange voices erupted from her utterly damaged memory module; as she crawled, she played them, as if dozens of broken tapes were speaking simultaneously.

Her equally damaged logic circuits likely couldn't comprehend what she was doing.

"Clang!"

She bumped into a wooden cabinet; according to scans, it should contain the parts and batteries she needed.

But the fallen cabinet cracked open before her, then crumbled—wooden items clearly couldn't endure such vast time.

The books atop it also rotted completely.

"Master's required… Error. Regret. Rebuke."

The raised metal arm finally lowered; the books Ku Ku's teacher requested had rotted—this wasn't the worst.

The batteries she needed beside her had shattered completely; what oozed out was not the blue energy fluid she remembered, but foul-smelling black sludge.

Her memory and deduction modules, saturated with negative energy, gave her the answer.

This place had been soaked in negative energy too long—most matter was destined to decay.

She instinctively glanced at the fallen battery cover; the "blue flame" turned the smooth metal surface into a mirror.

What she saw was the blue flame slowly burning on her ocular sensor (artificial eyeball).

"This is… me? What am I?"

This answer—even the master of the Machine Realm could not provide.

"Boom!" Another explosion—this time from deeper underground.

Last night's activation of the Hall of Spirits had awakened the souls slumbering here.

But the ones slumbering in these ruins were not only that unfortunate machine folk.

"How many years… how many years…"

In a metal chamber resembling a control room, on a mechanical recliner at the center, a figure clad in a researcher's robe gradually awakened.

He, or it, was now nothing but bones.

Yet a long metal arm, with a sleeve blade attached, had driven itself deep into the mechanical chair, pinning him fast.

"Traitor!" The final memory: that cold, mechanical traitor delivering the killing blow.

A silent roar echoed within the chamber; the ancient Great Mechanic, now fully transformed into an undead.

Azure soul-fire ignited within his chest and skull; ancient legend became a vengeful undead.

But too long… too long—the years had stolen his memories and reason.

"Aaaaaaah!" With a soul-shattering scream, the entire hall was consumed by fire and colliding negative energy.

The blue skeleton floated upward, tearing off the metal stump of its chest arm.

The soul-fire within its skull brimmed with madness and rage—it had lost everything.

"Boom!"

He unleashed another super self-destruct on another moving skeleton within his line of sight.

The ruins grew lively; awakened souls, due to someone's actions, had returned to the mortal realm.

Meanwhile, the temporary team's departure from Mosodilka seemed strangely calm.

But the next moment—

"Boom!" With an explosion, the city lord's chamber became history.

"The Black Blade Maiden" suddenly awakened—her chamber was blown apart in that instant.

She hovered in midair, crimson flames seeping from her body, divine power flowing in her scarlet pupils.

Yet what dripped from her eye sockets was crimson divine blood.

She had just had a nightmare.

A terrifying vision of the future, revealed by overwhelming power as one of many possible futures.

Mosodilka burned in flames; everywhere, slaughter and battle raged—goblins, eye monsters, underground minotaurs, all manner of common underground monsters rampaged.

Dark elves screamed in agony, trying to flee and resist, yet had nowhere to escape.

The version of herself who should have stopped it? She saw it—a colossal white deer hoof, crushing her down!

An overwhelming power she could not resist; her flesh and divine power both lost control, helplessly watching herself being crushed.

Her body shattered upon impact; her last recorded vision, from her burst eyeball, was the nearly insane white beast.

"Noble Mother, is this the future you've unveiled for us?" Her mother's divine statue still stood silently, as if watching her.

Fate and future are not absolute before the gods; revealing even a fragment of destiny to their descendants is their favored way to interfere with the future—even for them, it is an immense expenditure.

After a deep breath, the goddess did not look again at the utterly destroyed hall, but spoke to the attendant rushing over.

"Summon all the clan leaders of the great families to see me. Also, send someone to tell those ground-dwelling orcs that I am considering their alliance!"

(End of Chapter)