Chapter 199: It Must Be the Calamity’s Good Work!
Everything within sight was plunged into chaos.
The sky, which should have been dim and lifeless, was instead painted with dazzling colors due to the battle between the two Cataclysm Grade monsters.
The explosive sounds, heart-wrenching cries, and the regretful laments of unfulfilled wishes echoed incessantly in Fang Ji’s ears as he stood, somewhat dazed, in the center of the wreckage of Yumen Pass, staring blankly at what was happening.
This was completely different from what he had anticipated!
With the Shaman Queen’s appearance and her spear of m*rder raised toward the First Generation Miracle Saint, the entire Yumen Pass was gradually collapsing under their battle.
This fight interrupted the ritual that allowed “the wishes of every corner illuminated by the light of miracles to be fulfilled,” and at least one-fifth of the people or urban legends within Yumen Pass hadn’t had time to make their wishes.
And before that one-fifth could fulfill their wishes, the desire to end their lives established by the First Generation Miracle Saint’s oath before his slumber was even further out of reach.
What was this?
An action taken to eliminate a significant hidden danger that could threaten the entire world had now become the starting point for creating a terrifying disaster?
Amidst the sound of crunching steps on the rubble from the distant ruins, Fang Ji looked up in the direction of the footsteps and saw a disheveled, ragged figure.
He studied the figure carefully and realized it was none other than the longest-known elder of the Miracle Cult—Xiem.
Xiem appeared to have aged decades over a short period of time.
And on his back, a bloodied and mangled form could no longer be identified as either dead or alive. Only the size and Xiem’s words suggested it might be Salih, the boy who often followed Xiem, deeply bonded with him, treating him as both a mentor and a father figure.
Salih had likely ended up like this due to the repercussions of the battle between the Shaman Queen and the First Generation Miracle Saint.
The aftermath of two Cataclysm Grade fights was something even A-Class Spiritual Ability Users found difficult to withstand, let alone Salih, whose Spirit Energy fluctuation level was only at B.
And currently, within Yumen Pass, there were almost continuous losses of life occurring in the same manner as Salih.
If the battle between the Shaman Queen and the First Generation Miracle Saint continued any longer, until the God Realm of Yumen completely collapsed, even more cities and potentially a whole country’s populace would share the same fate.
“Oh, Miracle Flower! May your fragrance have mercy and help this child, Salih, through this difficult time…” Xiem kept repeating such words, his voice echoing among the ruins.
Fang Ji couldn’t bear to look at Elder Xiem’s expression, closing his eyes in silent sighs.
At such a moment, still believing in miracles?
What a ridiculous thing! Absurd like a deeply ironic fable.
But… just half an hour ago, wasn’t he just like him? Fang Ji thought.
He suddenly realized he had been wrong, and egregiously so.
Although the oath established by the First Generation Miracle Saint before his slumber could indeed lead to his d*ath, from another perspective, that oath was also a scam.
After all, to fulfill the wish for the First Generation Miracle Saint to take his own life, one had to fulfill the wishes of all those illuminated by miracle light first, and during that process, countless unexpected changes could occur, impacting the realization of the “final wish.”
If only he could do it over again…
At that moment, just as the thought of “wanting to start over” flashed in his mind, a distortion of light and shadow appeared before him. Once his vision cleared, he saw the Shaman Queen stepping onto a scarlet “staircase” leading to the sky, walking towards the First Generation Miracle Saint.
Fang Ji stood there, surrounded by the falling golden light “rain,” staring up at the sky, lost in thought.
He couldn’t tell if it was an illusion, but he felt as if he had seen the scene in the sky somewhere before…
————
Moments earlier, on the other side.
“Are you sure you won’t intervene?” Bai Kai angrily questioned the General, pointing at the sky. “This is no longer something we can watch unfold as it is!”
In the sky.
A phantom doorway rose from the golden light, and beyond the open door, countless solidified birds flew out, accompanied by a soothing fragrance.
On the other side, a figure clad in pitch-black armor drove a scarlet chariot, wielding an iron-spiked weapon that emitted piercing shrieks.
Finally, the birds collided with the iron spikes, resulting in a fierce explosion, and with a sudden loud roar, countless streams of light poured down to the earth like a torrential rain.
Upon contact with those golden or crimson “raindrops,” the beings on the ground—whether they were Spiritual Ability Users, urban legends, or peculiar vegetation that stubbornly thrived in the God Realm of Yumen—instantly reacted as if they had come into contact with concentrated sulfuric acid, producing smoke and rapidly decaying.
The battle seemed to have escalated to a fever pitch, with the residual spirit energy from the clash giving rise to high-intensity Night Corruption, swiftly taking the lives of those engulfed by the flames of combat.
An even more terrifying change, only the General and Bai Kai, who had forcibly increased their powers to pseudo-Cataclysm levels, could perceive.
By surpassing the sensory perceptions of most Spiritual Ability Users and urban legends, they sensed that along with the battle, a force was continuously separating from the monster, believed to be the Shaman Queen, and merging into the First Generation Miracle Saint, seemingly fusing with his powers while also appearing to erode him.
But regardless of which situation it was, Bai Kai and the General found it challenging to achieve their initial goal of reaping the benefits.
If things continued in this direction, once that force completely separated from the Shaman Queen, the scales of victory would tip in favor of the First Generation Miracle Saint. After the First Generation Miracle Saint successfully killed the Shaman Queen, it was highly probable he would become a new urban legend under the influence of that force.
This new urban legend could not only surpass the First Generation Miracle Saint in strength but also possess a part of the dominion over the God Realm of Yumen, just like him.
At that time, even if all the guardians of the Siye Society showed up, it would be challenging to stop that new urban legend from causing destruction in a short span.
Such a high-level urban legend could be considered a doomsday entity. The last comparable urban legend had appeared over two hundred years ago in the records of a certain Lantern Keeper.
The birth of that urban legend resulted not only in the eruption of the Tambora volcano, plunging the entire Asian region into severe climate disasters, subsequently inciting wars that inflicted irreversible harm on ordinary people’s survival, but it also caused a severe break in the top-tier strength of Spiritual Ability Users and urban legends.
According to some members of the Siye Society who specialize in researching ancient spirit energy history, although the top strengths of Spiritual Ability Users and urban legends began to decline in the late sixteenth century, with hardly any high-level individuals born thereafter, it wasn’t until the early eighteenth century, precisely when that urban legend was born, that the century-long decline was concluded.
After that break, it took nearly a hundred years for A-Class Spiritual Ability Users or urban legends to start emerging again, and it would be nearly another hundred and fifty years before entities close to Cataclysm-level strength would progressively appear.
However…
Even if the outcome of the battle between the Shaman Queen and the First Generation Miracle Saint was foreseen, what could be done now? The General wondered.
As he pondered, Bai Kai suddenly raised his sword and stepped forward with anger in his voice, saying, “Do you know why you can never catch up to my senior brother? It’s because you’re always like this—hesitating, overthinking!”
“If I were to say, when faced with such a situation, a man’s mind should only think of one word: charge!”
With that, Bai Kai began to chant, “Looking back at Yinxian Mountain, the killing aura rises like yellow clouds,” and strode forward with his sword.
He knew what the General was hesitating about.
Without the dominion over the God Realm of Yumen, stopping the battle between the Shaman Queen and the First Generation Miracle Saint before they suffered mutual destruction was nearly impossible.
However… the most straightforward and crude way to acquire the dominion was right in front of him, which was to rob it from the First Generation Miracle Saint.
Others might not be able to do it, but as a member of the Yumen Sands Sea Branch, he had a chance to attempt it.
In fact, Bai Kai knew that Lu Ming had once tried to lift the curse of Yumen Pass on the Yumen Sands Sea Branch by robbing the dominion over the God Realm of Yumen from a key urban legend inside Yumen Pass.
Unfortunately, at that time, after Lu Ming infiltrated Yumen Pass, there was no urban legend like the First Generation Miracle Saint available for him to rob, so he turned his attention to searching for other means.
Watching Bai Kai’s departing figure, the General furrowed his brow, hesitating about whether to follow when suddenly a distortion of light and shadow appeared before him.
Once his vision cleared again, he saw the scene where the Shaman Queen had just clashed with the First Generation Miracle Saint.
Watching the two figures colliding in the sky, the General’s mood grew increasingly solemn.
He realized he could “foresee” the movements of those two figures as if he had witnessed them somewhere before…
What puzzled him was that it felt as if he already knew how this battle would unfold, yet the fight strangely returned to its starting point.
Soon after, as he attempted to recall more details, all the aspects of this battle became increasingly blurred in his mind.
————
“Hey, hey, wake up, hurry and eat something and drink some water!”
Hearing such a call, Gu Qiqi awakened from her unconsciousness and opened her eyes.
Upon seeing Ji Yunpei’s anxious expression, she was momentarily stunned, confusion filling her eyes.
She distinctly remembered that just seconds ago, a woman had held a sword to her neck, but now she was here.
Who was that woman?
Gu Qiqi tried to recall the woman’s face, but her memory bizarrely began to fade.
She only remembered that the woman was beautiful, someone she was familiar with, wielding a long sword.
Combining all those elements…
It couldn’t be wrong; it must be the calamity’s good work!
However, just as she finalized the identity of the woman who had held the sword to her neck as a calamity, she suddenly realized she couldn’t remember what calamity had done to her.
Had she been attacked?
If it was a calamity, that would be quite normal, right?
She was so bad!
While Gu Qiqi was lost in thought, a spoonful of egg-fried rice was suddenly presented to her lips, interrupting her train of thought.
“Hurry and eat! You look quite pitiful,” Ji Yunpei urged. “But don’t tell them I brought this to you once you finish.”
Gu Qiqi glanced at Ji Yunpei and then at the egg-fried rice being offered to her, hesitating for two seconds before she began to eat heartily.
Though the system had warned her countless times not to eat the enemy’s food, she needed strength to escape, and to flee from the calamity’s God Realm Prototype, she first had to fill her stomach!
Moreover, this girl wouldn’t harm her…
Without a concrete reason, Gu Qiqi’s instinct told her so.
At the same time, her intuition also warned her that after escaping the calamity’s God Realm Prototype, she should look away from everything and just run away.
It didn’t matter where she ran, as long as she didn’t stay in place…
