"A powerful ritualist is in no way weaker than a Destined. To burn rivers and boil seas, to overturn heaven and earth, is only the matter of a single thought."
The Wolf Knight said to Bai Zhou, "When the day comes that you kill people or things of value to Rome, you will be able, by offering them upon the altar, to obtain ever more powerful rituals."
"...Perhaps one day you will be able to become someone like Our King—or even a cut above."
Upon the Wolf Knight's emeralds a green light of unreadable meaning flickered faintly, resting long upon Bai Zhou.
"In truth, I understand very well that even if you truly became an existence as towering as Our King, you would still be unlikely to overthrow Rome and raise Troy's own Rome in its place..."
"You would have to surpass Our King. And surpass Our King by a great deal."
"And yet, how towering was Our King's life? How vast was Our King's past? How profound was Our King's knowledge?"
"Nineteen generations of wise kings of Troy, nineteen generations of saintesses, a glorious age of countless years—and still there came only one Our King."
The Wolf Knight statue shook its head.
"So I know this matter is, in fact, unlikely. Nor need you, at this stage, keep the revival of Troy forever in your heart... Otherwise the pressure will be too great."
"Then why did you still..." Bai Zhou was struck still for a moment.
He even suspected he had misheard. Were these words something an intelligent being could say?
What did it mean, that he need not take this matter to heart...
Surpassing the Scarlet Queen was, for the Bai Zhou of now, truly no different from pure fantasy.
Yet you, this artificial intelligence, had waited atop these desolate ruins for who knew how many years—waited until seas turned to mulberry fields, until seas ran dry and stones decayed—and the whole of that waiting had been only for a vague, unfounded prophecy, and for the revival of Troy...
How could you speak so cold a fact as if it were nothing at all?
If even you believed that only by surpassing the Scarlet Queen could Troy be revived, and that the chance of surpassing the Queen was vanishingly small—then were you not denying the very meaning of your own existence?
Was this... a little too cruel?
So in truth you yourself also knew that Troy was unlikely to revive, and you were even telling Bai Zhou, the only possible one and the last heir, that he need not take it too much to heart...
Cold words, spoken from the mouth of an intelligent being, instead let Bai Zhou feel that being's gentleness.
And yet Bai Zhou had always been one who would bend to softness, and not to force.
So Bai Zhou let out a long, quiet sigh, weighed his words, and spoke.
"I may not have much confidence in myself, but... I will try."
"Senior, there is no need for you to believe anything of me at this moment—but you can leave this matter to time. Time will give the final answer."
"After all, it has been less than half a month since I set foot in the mystical world. Who can say for certain what is still to come?"
"Perhaps, a very long time from now, I really will raise a new civilization called Troy."
Bai Zhou said it in earnest. "When that day comes, I'll appoint you my Grand Chancellor!"
The Wolf Knight statue was silent for a while before it shook its head again.
"Let us hope."
"Perhaps there will come a day when I truly see that day. If so, then my existence will have had value."
"As for the time that must pass between, perhaps three thousand years? Ten thousand?"
The Wolf Knight spoke words that sent a shiver through Bai Zhou. "I hope that day will not be so distant as to lie beyond imagining."
Three thousand years? Ten thousand years?
The Wolf Knight stated a span like this as if it were only natural, yet Bai Zhou could not comprehend it.
Was this how all of your Trojan civilization reckoned time?
From its first sprout until now, how long had the whole civilization of Blue Star even been?
Bai Zhou was only eighteen. He truly could not imagine a stretch of time like this. After all, even if he were still alive then, everyone he knew would have returned to dust. All of today's loves and enmities would seem not worth mentioning. Even Major, with whom he now could not share the same sky, would count for nothing under the passage of time.
But Bai Zhou thought it over, and nodded all the same.
He looked at the Wolf Knight statue, and yet it seemed he was not looking only at this statue.
In this moment he also saw that wolf—that Wolf Knight who had been alive. Bai Zhou could be certain that had been a true "wolf," and not the artificial intelligence of this moment.
That person's figure had appeared within the statue for a single instant, and had said to Bai Zhou:
"If you are a wolf, then that is well."
Then he had departed, his heart set at ease.
Even the wolf had been willing to entrust everything to him. Bearing so much, Bai Zhou truly had no grounds for saying he could not.
He had only to strive, and do it... The various chances Bai Zhou had met with now—were they not, in the eyes of the people of Tinghai on Blue Star, also utterly beyond belief, pure fantasy?
Thinking of it this way, Bai Zhou felt he really did have a bit of a gift for great deeds.
"Once a ritualist has been initiated, as heir of the civilization and Executor of Troy's history, what still remains for your continued growth is the Adventurer pathway."
As it spoke, the Wolf Knight statue's voice seemed to grow heavy.
"In fact, this head you brought—the head of a sergeant major of the Roman Empire—has made me realize that Troy's understanding of the Roman Empire from those years already needs to be brought up to date."
It shook its head. "A Roman sergeant major of those days was not this powerful—far from it!"
"The times have truly changed. After all, so long has passed. It is only to be expected that the Roman Empire, having long since unified the world, should have advanced through its expansion."
"However... based on Troy's knowledge of the ranks of the Roman Empire's armies, and from the residual pheromones gathered from your body, I have already made a preliminary outline of the general levels of the Roman Empire as it stands now."
"By my inference." The Wolf Knight statue said it coldly. "Hereafter, when you walk the Roman Empire, if you want a basic guarantee of your life, you will need at the least to be a level-5 Professional."
"At this level, wandering the wilds of the Roman Empire, or serving as an enforcer for a petty noble or a small trade guild, should already be enough."
"A level-6 Professional could probably find a footing on the more remote borders of the empire, though one would still need to keep a low profile."
"Only when you advance to Fate-Forger can you count as someone strong within the Roman Empire... For in any age of any civilization, the conditions for advancing to Fate-Forger are exceedingly harsh. A wandering Extraordinary without background or talent would, in all likelihood, find it hard to so much as touch that realm in a whole lifetime."
"In other words, a ritualist alone is not enough. You also need to advance as soon as possible to a level-5 Professional. Only then can Troy, with an easy heart, let you go adventuring in Rome."
Bai Zhou listened in silence, and did not make a sound from start to finish.
A level-5 Professional? Wandering? Only a Fate-Forger counted as strong?
This was nothing like Tinghai!
Bai Zhou was suddenly rather curious. The civilization now standing on the surface of Blue Star—before the Roman Empire at its peak, what tier could it even amount to?
It was clearly a civilization with several thousand years of history... How was it that, at this moment, Bai Zhou suddenly felt that before the Roman Empire at its peak it could only count as a newborn?
This glorious civilization, already buried completely at the bottom of history in later ages—just how many tens of thousands of years ago on Blue Star had it stood? How long had it once endured in the world? And for what reason, in the end, had it been destroyed?
"Zhuluoji"... which age had it been, after all?
"But you need not lose heart."
The Wolf Knight statue spoke again.
"I have set these things out only so that you will forever hold the world in awe."
"Heaven and earth are vast. Even one as strong as the Roman Empire was built upon the ruins of civilizations past, and rose by digging up the knowledge of the discontinuous civilizations that came before."
"Over the long course of history, it was normal that there were once civilizations stronger even than the Roman Empire at its peak. It is only that many of them are no longer known to us."
"Even those as strong as they were destroyed. No one can endure forever. The Extraordinary are forever on the road of ascent—there is no end."
Bai Zhou nodded.
This was true.
Even the Roman Empire, strong as it was, had left no record at all in later ages. Only several thousand years ago had a state in the Mediterranean inherited the name "Rome," and dug up some legacy of the civilization before it.
The slight self-satisfaction of having stepped into the mystical world for a mere half month and already advanced to initiated ritualist was gone in the turn of an eye.
And that was not even to mention that Rome—or rather, the present "Xiluo Empire"...
To this day Bai Zhou still had not figured out what those Dragon Knights who dropped from the sky even were, nor that Senate which stood up and flew through the heavens!
"Yet neither are you some existence without background or origin."
The Wolf Knight statue gave Bai Zhou a deep look. "To say nothing of the fact that there is not a shred of Rome's aura upon you, and yet you reached this place by a miracle. That in itself is an inconceivable marvel..."
The moment this was said, Bai Zhou's eyes blinked twice at once.
The wisdom of an intelligent being was beyond question, and not to be slighted. Bai Zhou was also very curious how the other regarded his origins.
Yet the Wolf Knight statue seemed to have no mind to expand on it here, and instead went on:
"Speak only of now, and of all that follows. The whole history of Troy will stand at your back. How could those wandering wild-path strays compare?"
"A camel starved thin is still larger than a horse. Troy has a complete course for raising its own. Though most of its resources are exhausted, the greater part of its knowledge has not, in the end, been lost."
"However one reckons it, so long as you do not perish along the way, your future will certainly not come to a stop at the stage of Professional, nor even of Fate-Forger."
Hearing this, Bai Zhou felt his heart lift.
Then he heard the Wolf Knight statue speak once more.
"Just as now."
"I have sensed that your Intent Seed is already nearing ripeness. You are no more than one step from the door of comprehending battle intent, mastering the basic Fifth Slash, and branding it as a secret art mark upon the Fate Principle."
"It is one step at the door, but a bottleneck is often a heavenly chasm. No one can say when it may be broken through."
"However..."
The Wolf Knight statue spoke words that set Bai Zhou's heart thudding.
"Troy can help you."
The Wolf Knight statue said, voice low:
"In truth, having you hunt the people of Rome hereafter and offer them to the altar—this aim is as much to help you grow as it is because every structure in the temple lies dormant. Opening them, and keeping them running, requires a great quantity of spirituality."
"That includes opening the seal upon the historical repository and manifesting the knowledge within it out of the long stretch of history. That, too, requires spirituality of differing strengths."
"But fortunately, the Roman sergeant major you delivered this time was of no common strength. The spirituality held in his skull can not only sustain me in opening the seal of the Celestial Pivot; the energy that remains... is also enough for me to open a certain structure for a short while, and help you break your present bottleneck."
"The special structures within the temple are not to be thought of... But outside the temple, upon the ruins of Sky City, there are sealed remnants that can still be opened and used again."
The Wolf Knight said, "For example—the Arena!"
"The Arena?" Bai Zhou asked back, puzzled.
"The Adventurer pathway was not, in truth, mainstream in the age of the Three Hundred City-States."
The Wolf Knight said, "At the earliest, when this pathway had just been unearthed, it was broken and incomplete. The Adventurer pathway of that time was still called the Ranger pathway, or the Gladiator pathway."
The Ranger pathway? The Gladiator pathway?
"Later, through the completion and study of it by several great city-states, Rome and Troy among them, the pathway was named, once and for all, the Adventurer pathway."
"As these city-states of ours grew strong, the Adventurer pathway also became a mainstream pathway at the flourishing height of the Three Hundred City-States."
The Wolf Knight statue coldly spoke words that made Bai Zhou's eyes widen.
"So we do not count as the creators of the Adventurer pathway, but we are certainly important completers and developers of it."
"In theory, should later ages again possess knowledge named to the Adventurer pathway, then either it bears some connection to city-states such as ours—or else it is directly related to Rome!"
"So it was..." Bai Zhou's pupils tightened.
His original purpose in exploring "Zhuluoji" had been to seek knowledge of the Adventurer pathway, above all the secret techniques needed to advance.
He had never imagined that a single "Zhuluoji" Gold Pass would send him straight to the forebears of the Adventurer pathway!
On Blue Star, the inheritance of the Adventurer pathway had long since been broken and incomplete?
No matter. In "Zhuluoji," in the Xiluo Empire now at the height of its power, the Adventurer pathway had likely already grown and multiplied to an inconceivable summit...
"And the arena was a structure that, in the age of the Three Hundred City-States, had been in fashion among a small number of the city-states."
The Wolf Knight said:
"Extraordinaries of the Gladiator pathway—that is, the later Adventurers—would fight and kill one another here."
"Exalted Fate-Forgers would not fight here, but countless level-6 Gladiators left the marks of combat within."
"That was combat and slaughter at their purest. Perhaps they can be of help to you..."
The voice had not yet fully fallen.
The Wolf Knight statue had already raised its arm of stone, then clenched its hand into a fist with a crack.
As if some signal had been received, a pillar of light fell from the sky and wrapped Bai Zhou within it.
White light covered his sight. When he opened his eyes again, the ground under his feet had already changed from the quiet, empty temple to gravel everywhere.
He raised his head, and saw the scarlet earth hanging inverted overhead, like a "sky" full of ruins.
And so Bai Zhou knew that he had already left the temple and come into the inverted Sky City—or rather, into the arena.
And so Bai Zhou looked about him. Underfoot was a bed of gravel deep enough to cover his ankles. Here and there, huge and shattered black stone bricks showed through where they had been buried, and moss worn by the years filled the seams between the bricks.
In the distance were high walls, broken on every side. Yet above the walls, seats like steps spread upward, forming a ringed plaza.
Countless years ago, that place might once have been packed with spectators. They shouted, watching the warriors in the center of the plaza fight battles in which life and death were at stake.
Only now, the ringed plaza seemed cleft through the middle. Half the spectators' seats had collapsed. Even the four great pillars that bore the sky had fallen, and two of them lay plain across the ground.
Crunch...
Bai Zhou shifted his steps and, with care, slowly drew near the wall at the edge.
Here, upon the broken walls of the ruins, ancient traces shocking to the eye covered every surface: arrow scars, prints of fists, gaps split open by chops, cracks from impacts of tremendous force...
The marks were packed tight, layer upon layer, deep and shallow. They seemed a rich profusion to the eye, and yet they seemed to hold some strange intent, some hidden wonder.
Bai Zhou's gaze soon came to rest on certain corners of the wall. He fixed on a small part of them and looked closely.
His sight swam. Bai Zhou dimly saw surging phantoms flash across his eyes.
A huge man of corded muscle and an assassin swift as a ghost collided hundreds and thousands of times within a short span. Warriors swung blades in mortal struggle against tall, starving beasts. Curse-casters brandished wands and spat two mouthfuls of blood. A man with an arm severed clenched his teeth and drove his head into an enemy's chest...
Images of struggle at its most primal, its most savage, and most pointed straight at the essence of life surged toward Bai Zhou like a flood that had burst its dike.
As he watched, the three Intent Seeds in his heart began to seethe.
Battle! Battle! Battle!
Dimly, Bai Zhou seemed to hear the Intent Seed roar.
The seed was sprouting. The bottleneck on the road to level 5, which had seemed unbreakable, began to loosen.
Then, as if sensing something, Bai Zhou turned his head again—
He saw a touch of red, buried in the ruins on the ground.
His heart stirred. Bai Zhou, his heart seething and his battle intent churning, went quickly over and swept aside the gravel and the wreckage—
"Kill! Kill, kill, kill, without end!!!"
"The six thousand seven hundredth bout... I can... still fight!"
"As for me, I must drink before I fight. For every measure of wine in my heart, my strength grows by one measure—bring wine!"
"When an opponent's fist-bones shatter against my skull, that crisp crack is sweeter than any lover's words!"
"Ah... pain? No. That is life fervently proving to me that it exists! I want more, more—make me more real! Scum!"
"Not enough! Still not enough! Damn it—fist-strength, explode! Heya! Heaven-Punishing Blast Fist!!"
Broken characters covered the ground. They writhed, crawling in a mad scramble everywhere beneath the ruins, frenzied, their battle intent boiling.
"What is this...?"
Beneath the ruins, Bai Zhou saw the last words left by the level-6 Gladiators.
In the instant he saw them, Bai Zhou's blood seemed to boil all at once. His heart beat like a war drum, and his temples throbbed.
A nameless impulse shot up from his spine and swept his whole body. For no clear reason, Bai Zhou's eyes began to flush red. His breathing grew heavy. As his muscles drew tight, his spirituality surged out of his control and struck a strange resonance with the countless traces left in the ruins all around.
He looked at the last words of the predecessors strewn across the ground, then at the traces of their fighting upon the walls—
The Intent Seed in his heart, already flourishing and ready to burst, was wholly ignited with a boom—
Detonation!
Chapter 205