NOVPUBIn the ruins of the Dead City church, as the blue door appeared once more, six figures and a coffin were pushed out.
“So, if you can’t solve the answer within a certain time, you get kicked out…” Ashe chuckled wryly. “No wonder no one dies in there.”
Beyond the Fog Wall, there was indeed another Fog Wall.
However, unlike the first Fog Wall, upon seeing the golden ‘Link of Truth’ on the second Fog Wall, only one question arose in their minds: “What is the greatest factor influencing the Demi-God to initiate the divine era?”
None of them, including Igor, could think beyond this, and after ten minutes of intense pondering, they were all expelled.
Clearly, they didn’t possess the key intelligence needed to deduce the second Truth. As the saying goes, even a master chef can’t prepare a feast without ingredients, and L’Hôpital’s Rule requires at least elementary mathematical knowledge to deduce. To unravel the second Truth, Ashe and his group needed to know historical knowledge related to the divine era.
Yet, in the wasteland, only tales of the Fire Cat Divine Era, Bluebird Divine Era, and Gray Fox Divine Era’s glory were passed down, never mentioning how these Demi-Gods initiated the divine era.
Now, they were all at a loss-the only way to escape the Dead City might lie beyond the Fog Wall, but without sufficient intelligence, they couldn’t deduce anything, unable to break the ‘Link of Truth’!
They tried to enter the blue door again, only to find it displayed “You are not qualified,” meaning they couldn’t re-enter this hidden Sanctuary within the spatial crevice until they deduced the second Truth.
“Thinking about it, this is quite strange.”
Ashe watched the blue door vanish and said, “Why would Gray Fox sorcerers build such a hidden Sanctuary in the highest-level time crevice?”
“It is indeed strange,” Igor mused. “And inside, they set up ‘Link of Truth’ related to the essence of the world, as if they knew we would come and left information specifically for us.”
“Why didn’t the Gray Fox sorcerers just leave the information directly? Why go through all this trouble?” Chikara complained. “They should be dragged out and punished.”
Everyone ignored the orc’s comment, likely because they secretly agreed.
At this moment, Gwen seemed to recall something and tugged at Igor’s sleeve. Though annoyed, Igor bent down to listen.
After a moment of contemplation, the Con Artist nodded. “That could be possible.”
“Hmm?”
“Isn’t it said that over two hundred years ago, a ‘cataclysm’ occurred, wiping out all adults, destroying most fantasy creations, leaving only children, and thus entering the wasteland era?” Igor explained to the group. “If the ‘cataclysm’ happened suddenly, there must have been people in the Dead City.”
Ashe immediately realized, “If the ‘cataclysm’ was a sudden disaster, the people in the Dead City would have triggered the ‘Sanctuary,’ entering the highest-level time crevice!”
“But the ‘Sanctuary’ only affects the Dead City area, and they couldn’t leave the Dead City, while the ‘cataclysm’ affected the entire Senlo Kingdom, leaving them no escape.”
Igor nodded. “There must have been sorcerers in the Dead City, possibly even sanctuary sorcerers and legendary sorcerers. They created a hidden Sanctuary and, like us, pondered where the ‘cataclysm’ came from, what it was, and how to solve it…”
“They ultimately didn’t escape the ‘cataclysm,’ but those ‘Link of Truth’ are likely the answers they left behind.”
Chikara scratched his head. “But even if we break the ‘Link of Truth,’ it’s useless. We need to solve the current crisis, not the ‘cataclysm’… No wonder no one has survived the Dead City in the past two hundred years. They probably cracked the ‘Link of Truth’ only to find it was all for nothing!”
Igor shook his head. “That’s why I asked earlier if you knew the true history of the Dead City. If the Dead City became a place that pulls people into time crevices after the ‘cataclysm,’ then the crisis we face might be an aftershock of the ‘cataclysm.’ And…”
“Not necessarily no one survived the Dead City,” Ashe added, suddenly moving to the side, staring at the wall thoughtfully.
“Come take a look.”
Everyone gathered around to see runes carved into the wall.
It was mentioned before that the Dead City was filled with strange runes no one could understand. They had wondered who had the time to do this, but after their minds were activated by the ‘Link of Truth,’ these runes were no longer meaningless, incomprehensible symbols.
“‘In 286, there were three forces on par with the Fire Cat cult…’” Ashe murmured as he traced the runes. “So, these writings throughout the city are information left by predecessors.”
The orc was puzzled. “Why didn’t they leave normal-“
“Because they couldn’t. The ‘Link of Truth’ causes gestalt collapse effects on people. We can’t write normal text now either; we can only leave these merged characters!” Igor became excited. “The Dead City holds the intelligence needed for the second Truth!”
“Should we split up to search?”
“No need,” Ashe replied. “We have unlimited time, so efficiency isn’t a concern.”
Despite saying this, they mostly separated within one area to read. The Dead City contained too much written intelligence, some even overlapping chaotically, with a large volume of information. Each person took charge of a portion, extracting meaningful information to compile together.
Moreover, the more Ashe and the others read, the more they understood that the predecessors didn’t leave this information solely for future generations. They had no paper, so they used their fingers as pens, everything as paper, to record their deduction process.
Igor was responsible for compiling the information, but soon he encountered a problem: they were running out of paper.
Sorcerers rarely used paper, and it was a daily necessity, not something they kept in stock, so it quickly ran out. However, Gwen suggested she could use the Starlight Spirit to carve on the walls, which was fast and consumed little energy. Igor adopted the idea.
While Ashe was reading, the Round Cicada suddenly appeared, circling him a few times before nodding its head in another direction.
Feeling a connection, he flew over to see, discerning from the clarity of the writing that this was a relatively new record-the longer it existed, the more it was eroded by wind and sand, naturally making the writing more blurred.
The newer the record, the less likely it was to be covered, not only improving reading efficiency but also increasing the information volume of the record itself. Ashe patted the Round Cicada, praising it for its good work.
After Ashe finished reading this wall, the Round Cicada circled again, guiding him to another nearby relatively new record. Ashe was a bit puzzled, but since the Round Cicada was a Time Sect Demi-God, it wasn’t surprising it could identify new from old, so he didn’t think much of it.
Not far from Ashe, Vesser hid in the shadow of a tall building, the Square Cicada perched on her head, looking tired despite having no expression-it had spent quite some effort rubbing its aura on the wall, otherwise it couldn’t have lured the Round Cicada over.
Vesser peeked out, staring at Ashe’s profile, feeling both anxious and expectant, even pacing in small steps to suppress her excited heartbeat and continue observing.
She thought, the past is about to end.
She thought, the future is about to begin.
Soon, she would no longer be alone. 𝒏𝒐𝒗𝒑𝒖𝙗.𝒄𝒐𝒎
