Foolish Game of the Chapter 485: The Historian

Snow fell like scattered salt. Wind cut like blades.

The group scaled the high walls against the blizzard and gazed upon the staggered palace complex with renewed awe.

It was hard to define the Rosna Court's architectural style. From a distance, the palaces looked magnificent and imposing. But up close, every pillar, wall, corner, and eave was fashioned from noticeably crude materials.

It was as if the masons had scooped up random stones, ground them into bricks, and slapped them together. The pitted blocks stacked tall with no aesthetic grace — yet pull back, and the whole structure sohow achieved a stunning, harmonious grandeur.

Looking at this, Cheng Shi was oddly reminded of Kanrival, that equally frost-gripped place. There, the [Life] path was harnessed for production. Here, [Decay]'s traces had been embedded into the city's very foundation.

The group leapt down from the walls and advanced straight through the deserted corridors. Before long, the oddity beca impossible to ignore.

They hadn't encountered a single person. The unguarded area was far too vast.

Da Yi stopped, frowning. He perked his ears and listened for a long while, then spoke gravely:

"Drop the stealth. Unless that Chaleon can split himself, there's no way he's silencing this entire area.

"These palaces... are completely empty."

"Completely empty!?" Cheng Shi blinked in shock. "Is this really the Rosna Court?"

Poison nodded with equal gravity. The scene before them defied all logic. Even if the weather was terrible enough to empty the streets, this was the Court. Surely it couldn't be left unattended?

Even if the Rosna royal family was considerate enough to let the guards shelter from the snow, the palace interiors couldn't also be vacant.

"Sothing's wrong, but I don't sense any traps. Wait here — I'll go scout."

Before anyone could respond, Da Yi had drawn two Iron Thorns between his fingers, launched into the blizzard, and vanished.

Watching him go, Cheng Shi clicked his tongue in admiration.

'This guy's nerve was unreal. Faced with the unknown, he didn't retreat — he charged ahead as vanguard. If it were him and Mi Laozhang who'd stumbled upon this place, they'd have backed out hand-in-hand on the spot and found another approach.'

'Sotis, you really needed [War]!'

The three hid in the shadows beneath the walls. Da Yi returned shortly — but not alone. When he appeared, he was hauling a skeletal old man who was one breath away from freezing to death.

"Hot damn, this place is haunted. He's the only one left in the entire Court. Brother Cheng, quick — save him!"

Da Yi didn't need to ask. As a dutiful priest, Cheng Shi already had his hands raised. The instant the two landed, a concentrated burst of healing surged onto the old man's head.

The black-robed, wrinkle-covered elder shuddered all over. His tightly shut eyes slowly opened. Seeing the puzzled Cheng Shi before him, he croaked:

"You're... not guards... trespassing in the Court... should be punished for sacr—"

Before he could finish, Da Yi dropped him on the ground and backhanded him across the face:

"Hot damn, I didn't save you to hear a lecture. Where is everyone in this Court? Where did they go?"

The old man reeled from the slap, trembling fingers reaching for his face. A flush of color appeared on his cheeks.

Don't get the wrong idea — not so bizarre fetish. Just swelling from the impact.

He rubbed his face, his slightly clouded eyes scanning the group. When he noticed his assailant was a hulking giant, he flinched as if rembering sothing, then clamped his mouth shut.

Seeing the old man shut down, Cheng Shi frowned and turned to Poison:

"How did the Rosna Empire actually fall?

"Surely the entire city's population didn't all wither and die of old age in the sa year. That family just now still had children."

"Little priest, you think I'm a history textbook? Piecing together even scraps of information within limited trials is already hard enough. With a living fossil right in front of us, why ask ?"

Poison's eyes shifted. She pursed her lips:

"Are you questioning my honesty? Trying to use this old man's words to cross-reference mine?"

"..."

'Peak players really did overthink everything.'

Cheng Shi hadn't ant anything by it — just an offhand question. But he couldn't stop people from interpreting, so he let it go.

Da Yi shot Poison a look, snorted without comnt, then grabbed the old man by the collar and hoisted him up again:

"Hot damn, I'm asking you — where did everyone in the Court go? Talk!"

The old man had no strength to resist. Even if he looked like the most devout [Decay] follower, Poison had been right: the people of Rosna never received His blessing. He was just an ordinary old man.

Under Da Yi's imposing interrogation, the elder still refused to answer. Worse, he surreptitiously drew a short knife from his waist and jabbed it toward his own lower back.

He was trying to kill himself!

But the sluggish motion was child's play to these players. A [War] believer would never let his "prisoner" find easy release.

Da Yi sneered, crushed the old man's wrist with one hand, crumpled the blade into scrap with the other, and repeated his question over the old man's gasping howls of agony.

'Too brutal. [War] was too brutal.'

Cheng Shi couldn't watch any longer. He tid a healing spell perfectly, then said in a kindly tone:

"Don't be afraid. I won't let you die until you've told us what we need to know."

The expression was gentle. The tone, however, was so sinister that the other three players' looks turned distinctly peculiar.

'This Fate Weaver wouldn't happen to have so unspeakable hobbies, would he?'

The old man had been wailing. But hearing those words, he was terrified beyond reason. His entire body began convulsing. In his eyes, endless torture seed infinitely worse than a clean death. So when he felt his shattered wrist actually knitting back together, he sobbed and begged:

"They ran! Everyone ran! His Majesty ran, the ministers ran, the nobles ran!

"You're too late! They abandoned the faith, abandoned the Empire, abandoned the people of Kannar — they all fled!

"Please, stop torturing ! Kill ! Kill ! Why are you saving ?! I'm already dead! I'm already dead!!"

The anguished howling made everyone's brows tighten.

This was deeply strange. From every angle, the old man's words were riddled with anomalies.

A [Decay] follower who preferred a swift death over enduring suffering? These people tortured themselves daily — yet now he sought release at another's hand?

But this wasn't the ti for his liberation. Cheng Shi thoughtfully cast another healing spell, then followed up:

"Good, good. Still spirited. Next question:

"Who are we?"

"?"

The old man froze. Whether the healing had dulled his pain, or Cheng Shi's question had short-circuited his brain, he suddenly stopped trembling and peered at Cheng Shi through clouded eyes, scarcely daring to believe:

"You're... not World Destroyers?"

"World Destroyers?" Cheng Shi arched a brow and smiled, shaking his head. "No. We are Saviors. We're here to rescue you."

The room went still. The old man was stunned. The other players were stunned too. Their expressions turned odd, but nobody spoke — as if by tacit agreent, they'd ceded center stage to Cheng Shi.

The old man's gaze swept across the players once more. Then, with a bitter glance at his broken wrist, he fell silent for a mont — and chose to believe.

Watching the old man deceive himself so willingly, Cheng Shi's smile widened.

"Good. Now tell us about the suffering you've endured. Only by understanding what's happened to Rosna can we pull you from the depths.

"Trust . Because we are Saviors."