No earth-shaking roar could be heard, nor was there any cataclysmic upheaval of collapsing skies and sinking earth.
Everything was so silent.
Like a humid breeze blowing from a distant shore making tree branches sway, like dust rustling upward in sunlight only to settle back down, like dark damp spots slowly seeping into a coat under falling rain.
Everything naturally, inexorably welcomed change.
Or rather, change was no longer possible...
The earth, the sky, the ruins, the crimson sea of spiritus, and even the shackled remnants of the Sage above the firmament—all lost their color under the illumination of that blazing light.
Stripped of all hues, nothing remained but a hollow, barren pallor.
Beneath the cleaving strike of the blade, burning wings dissolved into nothingness, tens of thousands of outstretched palms were erased inch by inch, and falling tears and hollow eyes blurred into obscurity.
What disintegrated first was the horrific silhouette from the distant vortex.
Once the tangled web of countless connections was severed in a single instant, the projection of the vortex could no longer sustain itself, lacking even the time to intervene in what transpired here.
The flames of the Stagnant Decay Hearth dissipated at a speed visible to the naked eye, dimming until, like a dying candle in the wind, they blew out.
Gone forever.
And then, amidst the silence, the remains of the Sage fell apart.
Like a sandcastle washed away by surging tides, countless pale cinders rose, blanketing the sky, and gently drifted downward like a rain that brought an end to all things.
From beginning to end, Ji Jue watched it all.
Yet everything felt so distant. He could scarcely comprehend realms and transformations so exalted that even his imagination failed to reach them, even though all of this had manifested through his own vessel and the adaptations of Non-Offensive.
Yet he himself was not what mattered most.
He had made the decision; he had sent out the summons; he had lowered his gaze and crowned it with Revolution, receiving this boundless might to carry out the Sage's end.
He had wrought all this with his own hands.
Yet he was merely a single strand within these infinite transformations, a fraction of the colossal system composing the whole, a minuscule sliver manifested by the Edge of Revolution.
He was a component, a cog, an executing terminal.
This torrent of fierce light connecting heaven and earth was merely an external manifestation of the deity, and that rusted sword—whose single flash of blade had sealed all outcomes—was nothing more than a key.
From the resonance of Deus Ex Machina, he could sense the majestic cadence hidden behind it.
Like a furnace manifested using the mundane world as its medium.
Operating from the void was a fire kindled by infinite fuel of souls and infinite zeal for innovation!
Every creation forged by a craftsman was an offering to the deity; a portion of the fire in every Embers Celestial Chosen's hearth was dedicated to it.
This was the Fire of Embers.
The instant he perceived this essence, his consciousness was engulfed by boundless flames, as though merging into an ocean formed by infinite change.
As if transcending reality itself.
As the four-hundred-year cycle collapsed and everything upon the earth was erased, what ignited in the end was the kindling left behind by the Sage: the Genesis Theory known as the "First Cause."
A gentle song rose from the hollow world.
An endless recursion began.
Or rather, a return toward the embers... In her fleeting final moments, Quicksilver, the Sage of bygone days, gave back everything she possessed to the present world!
The world before his eyes turned into a rushing torrent of boundless light—above the fractured firmament, countless stars danced, flaunting their brilliance as they traced long arcs that interlaced into complex, solemn totems.
And at the very heart of the night sky, vast blazing light converged to outline a gate shaped like a sun wheel. The Eternal Gate looked down from among the stars, illuminating all.
And so, Ji Jue saw the endless shifts upon the earth: the magnificent rise and fall of mountains and riverbeds, the roaming and wandering of storms and rain.
Within those fragmented shards of time, he saw torrential rain fall upon an endless desert, coaxing a tender shoot of green from the yellow sands.
A colossal titan vast enough to blot out the sky wailed from the clouds, raining crimson down as it plummeted to earth, decaying and transforming until it became a mountain range.
Nomadic tribes followed pasture and water, vanishing forever.
Yellow sands swept across ruins.
He watched.
Small villages migrated here, fostering trade along the river and slowly growing into towering fortresses. They weathered war, peace, and turmoil, only to decline with time beneath the wind and rain until nothing remained but ruined walls overgrown with moss.
Antiquarians seemed to trek through the wilderness, digging downward in search of ancient relics, cheering as they passed right by Ji Jue. He watched.
Until the earth shook and the mountains collapsed, towns reduced to rubble; amid the tolling bells, the Tower of Tianyuan snapped across the heavens, the mortal realm convulsed, and everything turned to ash. The Sage, with nowhere left to call home, lost everything, weeping silent tears as her singing ceased.
Still Ji Jue watched, bearing witness to the genesis of all tragedy and pain, involuntarily carried by the torrential flow of time toward the fractured past.
Until a familiar weeping echoed once more.
In the gentle rain, an awakened girl looked to the empty space beside her. Finding no trace of her mother, she wept and cried out toward the window, looking at the receding figure out on the street.
Yet the figure did not look back.
Step by step, she walked into the endless darkness.
From then on, wandering among ruins and cycles, never to return.
Until, from a distant fragment of time, a desperate shout rang out.
In that instant, someone rashly tried to reach out and catch her clothes. But separated by four hundred years, this grasp—sustained only through the Edge of Revolution—stirred nothing more than a negligible breeze.
The departing figure merely waved a hand and dissolved into nothingness.
*Snap!*
Ripples so faint they were nearly imperceptible broke apart. Identical marks of Non-Offensive flared, and through them, hands intangible and tangible seemed to brush for a split second.
Like an entreaty and a call bridging four hundred years.
"Look back!!!"
She finally saw the youth beyond the ripples, faint as an afterimage—a soul on the verge of being kindled, holding a matrix identical to her own!
"Look back at her one more time!" Ji Jue, caught in the deluge, clung desperately to Revolution, throwing what was in his hand upward as he shouted toward that receding time: "Even if it's just one glance..."
In the blink of an eye, it vanished.
Only the sound of something falling rang out as it landed on the ground before her.
That familiar pendant, weathered by time and hardship... When she opened it, the faded photograph blurred in the misty drizzle, its contours dissolving until it could no longer be seen clearly.
Swiftly, it faded into nothingness, gone forever.
She froze in place.
Amid astonishment and confusion, she turned her head and looked back.
The scattered veil of rain, the night sky shrouded in dark clouds, the quiet town, the shadow of the clock tower, the empty plaza, and on the steps, the phantom that had never belonged here.
The girl waiting within fractured time.
Her smile.
At that moment, the lost past and shattered future briefly overlapped. Anchored by the ancient pendant, four hundred years of time seemed to weave into a single thread. In endless longing and cycles, they met once more.
Even if a chasm still divided them, forever out of reach.
Quicksilver finally stopped in her tracks, subconsciously reaching out her hand.
Yet in that fleeting moment of confusion, she seemed to understand everything. Gazing into the girl's eyes and smile, she smiled in return, with such joy and gentleness.
A fine mist of rain ran down her cheeks, mingling with her tears.
Just like that, she gazed upon the maiden in time, unable to tear her eyes away, longing to reach out and touch her cheek, distant though they were.
Until the faint afterglow of the future faded entirely.
The world grew dark once more.
She stood frozen in place for a long time, staring at everything before her, hungrily trying to commit it all to memory, until at last she withdrew her gaze.
She turned and departed, disappearing into the veil of rain.
Far off in the dark night, the sky-piercing tower still stood tall.
Only a faint torchlight drifted further and further away.
Like a solitary boat of fate.
Just as history had ordained, nothing changed.
Across four hundred years, there was only one additional backward glance.
Yet in that instant, Ji Jue saw... at the edge of his vision, within the chaotic, pitch-black abyss, a dazzling brilliance suddenly surged!
Like a star, rising against the torrential current, bursting forth with boundless heat and light.
Thoroughly illuminating all darkness!
When the ascent exhausted its transformations, the descent began.
By the time he came to his senses, Ji Jue was already plummeting from the sky toward the pale, hollow earth.
Within the Border Realm, nothing remained but desolation. Yet above the heavens, before the phenomenon of the Furnace of Stars dissolved, a single wisp of flowing light drifted down.
Falling into his soul.
Glorious changes emerged from the light, wreathing Deus Ex Machina.
Having received the authority to act on Revolution's behalf and wield its boundless power, he had severed the stale cycle, passed judgment upon the Sage's sin of monstrous corruption, and erased all that had resulted from it.
The crest of Sovereign Virtue · Embers materialized, bestowing its first blessing upon the Celestial Chosen it favored.
Yet Ji Jue had no time to inspect it just yet.
As he landed upon the fractured workshop nexus, he saw the broken figure collapsed at the breach—the creation already breathing her last after the burning light of Revolution.
The Prophet.
At this moment, she still stubbornly raised her head, looking at him.
Though she had long felt the collapse of the Border Realm and the destruction of the workshop, she still yearned to hear that definitive answer from Ji Jue's lips.
"It is over, isn't it?"
"Both the dream and the cycle have ended, Prophet."
Ji Jue crouched down and told her, "You are free."
"Yes, free..."
Leaning against the broken wall, the Prophet looked back across the fissures upon the earth, softly sighing as she murmured, "Yet freedom is so frightening... I hated this world so deeply, and yet in the end, I actually find it lovely."
"Do you regret it?" Ji Jue asked.
"Perhaps. But there are already too many things to regret, so it doesn't matter anymore."
The Prophet parted her lips in one last self-deprecating smile. "Thank you, Mr. Ji Jue. My purpose as a tool is finally complete."
"And as the Prophet?" Ji Jue asked. "Do you have any last wishes? If I can help, I'll do what I can."
"Ha, well, that might be a bit much..."
The Prophet's lips moved, but the words did not come out. She merely smiled and offered her final farewell: "Thank you for your mercy and compassion. As a creation, I have nothing to repay you with, and as a prophet, I can offer only useless gratitude.
"If blessings truly hold meaning, I sincerely hope that when your journey reaches its destination, you too will find your heart's desire fulfilled."
Ji Jue couldn't help but chuckle. "What journey? It feels like I'm still pacing in place, having never even set out."
"You will. One day, you will..."
She smiled, utterly certain.
The lingering light in her eyes faded away, the last traces of spiritus dispersing into nothingness, leaving behind only silence within that broken, hollow shell.
The overburdened tool thus welcomed her eternal rest.
Chapter 94