Anticipation

In the ruins of the Dead City's cathedral, as the blue door materialized once more, six figures and a coffin were thrust out. "So if you don't solve it within a certain time, you get kicked out..." Yaxiu said with a bitter smile. "No wonder nobody died in there." Behind the wall of mist, sure enough, was another wall of mist. Yet unlike the first mist wall, when they saw the golden Truth Link inscribed on the second, only a single question sprang to mind: "What was the greatest factor influencing a grand law in ushering in a God Era?" None of them, not even Igola, could come up with any divergent thoughts. After ten minutes of racking their brains in vain, every single one of them was kicked out. Evidently, they did not possess the crucial intelligence needed to deduce the second truth. Just as even the finest chef cannot prepare a feast without Lalafells, and L'Hôpital's rule at least requires someone with an elementary math foundation to derive it, if Yaxiu and the others wanted to derive the second truth, they would at least need historical knowledge regarding the God Eras. Unfortunately, the wasteland only passed down legends of how glorious the Fire Cat God Era, Blue Bird God Era, and Grey Fox God Era were; it never mentioned how these grand laws had ushered in those eras. They stood there in utter bewilderment—the only way to escape the Dead City might lie beyond the mist wall, yet lacking sufficient intelligence, they could not deduce it no matter what, unable to break the Truth Link! When they attempted to reenter the blue door, they found that it actually displayed, "You are not qualified." In other words, until they deduced the second truth, none of them could enter that hidden shelter concealed within the crevice of space. "Come to think of it, this whole thing is actually very strange." Watching the blue door vanish, Yaxiu said, "Why would the Grey Fox sorcerers build such a hidden shelter within the highest-tier time crevice of the Shelter?" "It is indeed strange," Igola mused thoughtfully. "Furthermore, they set up layer upon layer of Truth Links related to the fundamental nature of the world inside, as if they knew we would come and deliberately left behind information to tell us." "Why didn't the Grey Fox sorcerers just leave the information out in the open instead of making things so troublesome?" Chikala complained. "They should be dragged out and have their peckers flicked till they die." No one reacted to the orc's remark—in all likelihood, they rather agreed in their hearts. Just then, Gwen seemed to recall something and tugged on Igola's sleeve. Igola wore an impatient expression, but still bent down to listen to her. Then the Swindler fell into contemplation for a moment and nodded. "It really could be so." "Hmm?" "Didn't they say that over two hundred years ago, a Great Cataclysm occurred? All the adults died, most phantasm creations were destroyed, leaving behind only some children before the world entered the Wasteland Era," Igola told the group. "Then when the Great Cataclysm struck, there must have been people in the Dead City too, right?" Yaxiu caught on immediately. "If the Great Cataclysm was a natural disaster that erupted in an instant, then the people in the Dead City definitely would have triggered the Shelter and entered the highest-tier time crevice!" "However, the Shelter could only affect the area of the Dead City. They couldn't leave, and the Great Cataclysm's reach covered all of Senluo, so death was inevitable for them." Igola nodded. "Among the people trapped in the Dead City, there were bound to be sorcerers, perhaps even Sanctuary Sorcerers and Legendary Sorcerers. They carved out the hidden shelter, and then, just like us, pondered where the Great Cataclysm came from, what it was, and how to resolve it..." "In the end, naturally, they failed to evade the Great Cataclysm as well. But those Truth Links are very likely the answers they left behind." Chikala scratched his head. "Then even if we solve the Truth Links, it's useless! What we need to solve is our present crisis, not the Great Cataclysm... Ah, no wonder no one has walked out of the Dead City alive over the past two hundred years! Maybe after all the trouble of solving the Truth Links, they realized they'd wasted their time!" Igola shook his head. "That's why I asked you all earlier if you knew how long the Dead City's history actually is. If the Dead City only became a dead city that drags people into time crevices after the Great Cataclysm, then the crisis we face is probably an aftershock of that event. Furthermore..." "It might not be true that no one has walked out of the Dead City alive," Yaxiu said. He suddenly stepped aside, staring at a wall in deep thought. "Come over and look at this." Everyone walked over and saw runes carved into the wall. As mentioned before, the Dead City was covered in strange runes that no one could read. Back then, they had wondered who had so much time on their hands, but once their minds were stimulated by the Truth Link, these runes were no longer meaningless, incomprehensible patterns. "'Year 286: there were three other factions of the same tier as the Fire Cat Sect...'" Yaxiu murmured, running his hand over the runes. "So the writing covering the entire city is actually information left behind by predecessors." The orc found it odd. "Why didn't they leave behind normal—" "Because they couldn't. The Truth Link induces an effect like Gestaltzerfall. Even we can't write normal words right now and can only leave behind these compound characters!" Igola said excitedly. "The Dead City holds the intelligence needed for the second truth!" "Should we split up to search?" "No need," Yaxiu said. "We have infinite time; there's no need to worry about efficiency." Even so, they basically split up to read within a single area. Because the Dead City contained far too much textual information—some of it chaotically overlapping with an overwhelming amount of content—they had to each take charge of a section, distill the meaningful intelligence, and compile it together. Moreover, the more Yaxiu and the others read, the more they understood that the predecessors hadn't left behind this information solely to aid posterity. Rather, lacking scratch paper, they could only use fingers as pens and everything around them as parchment to record their deduction process. Igola served as the editor responsible for compiling everything, but he soon ran into a problem: they were running out of paper. Sorcerers rarely used paper to begin with, and as an ordinary everyday item, there had been no need to keep large stocks on hand, so naturally their supply quickly ran dry. However, Gwen gave him an idea: she could use a starlight sorcery spirit to carve words into the walls—fast and low-cost. Igola adopted the suggestion. While Yaxiu was reading, the Round Cicada suddenly emerged. After circling around him a few times, it bobbed its head toward another direction. Sensing something, he flew over to take a look. Judging by the clarity of the writing, he could tell this was a relatively recent record—the longer something had existed, the heavier the erosion from wind and sand, and naturally, the fainter the writing became. The newer the record, the less likely it had been written over. Not only did this improve reading efficiency, but the record itself contained far more information. Yaxiu stroked the Round Cicada and praised it for a job well done. Once Yaxiu finished reading that wall, the Round Cicada circled a few more times and guided him to another relatively recent record nearby. Yaxiu was slightly puzzled, but the Round Cicada was an entity of the Time Grand Law after all, so it was hardly surprising that it possessed the ability to distinguish between old and new; thus, he didn't give it much thought. Not far from Yaxiu, Weise hid in the shadow of a tall building. The Square Cicada lay perched atop her head, looking quite exhausted despite its lack of facial expression—it had gone through considerable effort just now rubbing its aura onto the walls, or else it wouldn't have been able to lure the Round Cicada over. Weise poked her head out quietly, staring at Yaxiu's profile. Her heart was a swirl of apprehension and anticipation; she could hardly stop herself from pacing in small, restless steps, forcefully suppressing her racing heartbeat as she continued to watch. She thought: the past was coming to an end. She thought: the future was about to begin. She would soon no longer be alone.