Chapter 191: The Hero Forgotten by Time – Rast (Two-in-One)
“Let’s set aside the matter of Sister for now and talk about business.”
Rast withdrew his gaze from the night where Ingrid had disappeared outside the window and turned to his little ferret on his shoulder.
“In the past few months, I asked Mr. Silver to help you with—”
“Collecting the intelligence on the new historical echoes that have appeared in the Night World. How is that going?”
Although Rast spent nearly four months persuading Ingrid to bring the proud inspector under his wings, he was clear about what he was going to do next and had long planned for the future—
That was to further explore the Night World and the subsequent historical echoes of the Sixth Epoch.
According to the previous explorations of the Night World by Starry University, each ancient epoch would yield twelve corresponding Night Worlds that reflect different historical backgrounds.
Now, in the Seventh Epoch, the Night World records six vanished ancient epochs, so if all goes well, there will be seven dozen Night Worlds—quite similar to the seventy-two demon pillars of King Solomon in Rast’s past life myth.
The twelve Night Worlds within the same epoch usually follow a chronological order corresponding to their historical background.
From the bronze age, when civilization sparked, to the flourishing silver and golden ages; then to the tipping point of civilization’s decline; finally fading to extinction.
The Night Worlds previously conquered by the Night Travelers, the historical echoes of the five ancient epochs that have already perished, followed this pattern—until all twelve Night Worlds in an epoch are conquered, and the calamity at the end of the epoch obliterates everything, thus starting a new cycle.
However, the Sixth Epoch civilization that Rast experienced was different.
By conventional logic, the civilization of the Sixth Epoch had already transitioned from prosperity to decline after the Iron Cross Plague broke out in Deep Blue Harbor, entering an irreversible downward path.
Even with the efforts of the Guardian of the Shore Organization, the spark of human civilization was barely sustained for over a hundred years, but ultimately merely a matter of survival.
In the words of Legendary Noah of the Gravekeepers, following the laws of the planes, or so-called “heavenly principles,” the lifecycle of the Sixth Epoch had already entered its twilight phase, destined to meet its end.
If the battle of the Broken Coast had ended in defeat for the Guardians, then the human settlements on the continent would perish in the following decades, eventually leading to the end-time calamity and a reset according to heavenly principles.
But—
In the battle of the Broken Coast, Cisel won.
That elder used his last strength to take with him all the legends capable of walking the earth on the Western continent.
He nearly single-handedly rewrote the fate of the Sixth Epoch human civilization… reversing a historical trajectory clearly marked out by heavenly principles into an unpredictable fog.
Then, he entrusted the position of the Guardian leader and the mission of watching over civilization to Grey.
After the battle of the Broken Coast, no legendary beings existed in the world… although the threats like the Beast Tide, Iron Cross, and Cult Organization still persisted, without the pressure of legends, these hidden dangers felt far less suffocating.
Cisel left Grey and the future generations a vast, danger-filled yet vibrant world, truly free.
As Grey inherited Cisel’s duties and mission, becoming the new Guardian… just how far could she lead the remaining humans across that vast wilderness?
Even Rast, who experienced everything firsthand, could not know.
However, according to the statistics from Starry University, when Rast participated in the battle of the Broken Coast, less than half of the twelve Night Worlds of the Sixth Epoch had appeared.
This meant that the battle of the Broken Coast was not the end of the entire Sixth Epoch history…
In fact, it may become the beginning of another new era.
This brand new era is the last golden age of the Sixth Epoch civilization, and it will become the intersection of the Night World and the present, the Sixth and Seventh Epochs… that is the gap in the historical records of the present, shrouded in mist a thousand years ago, known as the “Pale Era.”
And within Rast, there was a strong premonition.
The secrets he yearned to explore—
The true reason behind the “Fall of Canaan” two hundred years ago, the origin of that seemingly intact Canaan town within the crevice between the Night World and the present.
Also, why he had been trapped in historical echoes for over three hundred years, and the truth about Xiao Ai’s existence and how to truly reunite with her…
Even the true origin of this “Night World,” which had never appeared in the first six epochs but suddenly emerged in the seventh.
All of this.
He might find complete answers in the last “Pale Era” of the Sixth Epoch.
…
“I knew you would ask about this; I’ve already gathered the information for you.”
Mr. Silver yawned on Rast’s shoulder: “Collecting this intel took quite a bit of effort, and I haven’t even enjoyed my fish snacks these days.”
It lazily extended its fluffy white tail, curling it in the air.
The next moment, a scroll of documents appeared in Mr. Silver’s tail, wrapped up and sent to Rast’s face.
“By the way, I’d say I contributed a bit to your effort in subduing Ingrid. When your organization is established, don’t forget to leave a spot for my totem as a reward.”
“Of course, when the time comes, both Ingrid and I will definitely respect you as the guardian beast of doctrine, arranging for two servants to brew tea, serve water, fan you, and groom you.”
Rast stroked Mr. Silver’s snowy fur, took the scroll from that big tail, and spread it out.
Upon seeing the words presented on the document, Rast couldn’t help but narrow his eyes slightly.
“In the last four months, a total of two brand new Night Worlds have emerged, one located within the Empire and the other in the unclaimed lands of the extreme northern ice plains of the Kingdom of Fran.”
“According to the pioneering intelligence disseminated from the Lionheart Institute and expedition team at Starry University—”
“The historical echo backgrounds of these Night Worlds show that their civilization level has significantly surpassed the current world.”
“This is the highest level of human civilization discovered in the entire Night World exploration process, which can be defined as near-future or science fiction era.”
“After you cleared ‘Echoes of the Era’ at the Tower of Secrets last time and completed the battle of the Broken Coast, it seems that some kind of rule restrictions in the Night World were lifted, significantly accelerating the emergence of new historical echoes.”
Mr. Silver’s voice aptly echoed in Rast’s ears.
“In the initial years, or even decades, only one Night World would appear; now they are popping up like mushrooms after rain.”
It plucked a small fish stick from its sub-dimension with its tail and, after licking its little paw, added: “At this rate, in no more than two years, all seventy-two Night Worlds will completely emerge before you graduate.”
Rast’s gaze remained on the scroll: “The historical echoes following the Sixth Epoch have a historical background of near-future or even science fiction era?”
“Mm.”
Mr. Silver nodded: “In the first five ancient epochs we explored in Night World, although there were slight differences due to the branching developments of technological trees—for instance, some epochs focused on magical civilizations while others refined minerals and alchemy to the extreme.”
“But overall, even in the highest point of human civilization in the first five epochs, it was only the steam age—”
“Then these civilizations would decline for various reasons, stagnating or even regressing in technological development until the epoch’s end.”
“Before that, no civilization had truly entered the nuclear energy era, let alone the information age like the present.”
Mr. Silver yawned again: “So before this, we always believed that the human civilization of the current Seventh Epoch was at the pinnacle of technological levels across all epochs, reaching the unprecedented information age…”
“After all, due to the existence of the Night World, when the civilization of the present was just in its nascent bronze age, those previous Night Travelers were already able to glimpse various inventions and creations of predecessor civilizations through historical echoes, avoiding many detours in civilizational development.”
“It was precisely by referencing the previous civilizations through the Night World that humanity of the present could rapidly advance to the current information age within a mere thousand years.”
“However—”
Mr. Silver glanced at Rast beneath it: “It seems that the civilization of the Sixth Epoch is even more exaggerated than ours now, to a somewhat unimaginable extent.”
“Clearly, the technological level had completely stagnated in the steam age, even starting to regress—”
“Yet after the battle of the Broken Coast, the humans of the Sixth Epoch seem to have experienced an unimaginable technological explosion.”
“In less than two hundred years, they completely surpassed the technological level of the present and traversed paths that took four to five hundred years of current civilization to tread.”
Hearing Mr. Silver’s words, Rast did not show much surprise.
After all, although outsiders were unaware, Rast, as someone who experienced it, knew everything.
Leader Cisel, already through his own strength and comprehension of stellar motion principles as part of the “Sun” Sequence, spent hundreds of years in his mind deducing a complete controllable nuclear fusion model.
And when he chose to d*e in the battle of the Broken Coast, Cisel had already stored all related knowledge of “controllable nuclear fusion” in the “Library of Fools” and passed it entirely to Grey.
Even Rast himself at that time transmitted various knowledge and technical details of the future world to Grey via the Library of Fools.
It could be said that Grey had stood on the shoulders of giants from the very beginning.
Under her leadership, the later Sixth Epoch civilization entered a fast lane, experiencing a technological explosion in a short time did not surprise Rast much.
“How science-fictional is the science fiction era?”
He looked at the ferret on his shoulder: “Have humans built spaceships capable of traversing star systems, leaving their original homeworld, starting to colonize outer space, and even constructing Dyson spheres to capture stellar energy, building star-destroying cannons and divine weapons?”
“And then, in the process of exploring the unknown universe, they accidentally angered some fallen empire, resulting in the downfall of the Sixth Epoch civilization?”
“It’s only been less than two hundred years; a technological explosion can’t be as exaggerated as you say.”
The ferret leader shot Rast a glance and swatted his shoulder with its fluffy tail: “It’s just near-future stuff, still maintaining the appearance of tech cities and nations.”
“However, in most subdivisions of technology, they have fully surpassed the current Mechanics—”
“For example, that historical echo shows that biotechnology is highly advanced, with mechanical organ transformation, transplanting, and exosuit arming notwithstanding; even in the most cutting-edge fields, they’ve developed technologies to create mechanical bodies and house human consciousness within them, living as mechanical beings.”
“And the entertainment technology in that Night World is also highly developed; for instance…”
Mr. Silver’s voice paused slightly.
“What instance?”
“For instance, those virtual realities found only in online game novels that can fully simulate human sensory experiences, immersive VR games.”
Mr. Silver hopped off Rast’s shoulder, stood on the windowsill, and looked at Rast seriously.
“Oh, and one more thing… Because it needs to be kept secret, it hasn’t been recorded in the documents, so I have to recount it verbally.”
“A Night Traveler discovered someone’s shadow as a historical NPC in a vastly popular virtual reality VR game set against historical figures, sweeping across the continent.”
“Someone’s shadow?”
“Mm…”
Mr. Silver’s tone grew nuanced:
“The orphan of Deep Blue Harbor, the Guardian from two hundred years ago, the spiritual mentor and pillar of Legend Leader Grey.”
“By his own strength, he altered the outcome of the Battle of the Broken Coast, saving the civilization of the Sixth Epoch…”
“The ‘Forgotten by Time,’ the ‘Heartless Tyrant of the Underworld,’ the ‘Solitary King Turning His Back on All’—”
“Rast.”
(End of Chapter)
