Yamata no Orochi arrived at the outer hall and saw Mu Tiancheng pacing back and forth with some irritation.
Seeing Yamata no Orochi arrive, he immediately stepped forward and said, "Orochi, did the Divine Child contact you to reprimand you?"
"?"
"It seems not." Seeing the confusion on Yamata no Orochi's face, Mu Tiancheng nodded and said, "That's good. I was worried the Divine Child would take his anger out on you because of the failed operation."
"……"
Yamata no Orochi knew about the operation planned by Mu Tiancheng to go to Andai State and seize the two fragments from the Shadow's hands.
Without the approximate location range she provided, the operation couldn't possibly have found the place.
"I originally thought a sudden operation would definitely be effective. I didn't expect..." Mu Tiancheng sighed, "Sigh, it seems I still underestimated the Shadow. No wonder, since he's called the 'World's Number One Ascendant,' he's definitely not easy to deal with."
Mu Tiancheng paused and said, "Since enmity has already been created, I'm afraid it won't be so easy to resolve. I heard the Shadow has already bombed the royal palace of Andai State in retaliation. If he gets the chance in the future, he'll definitely retaliate against Sakura Prayer Country too. We need to prepare early."
Yamata no Orochi remained silent. After a moment, she spoke, "Is there anything else?"
Mu Tiancheng shook his head, "I'll make other plans. We'll take action after this rule ends."
After saying this, he hurried away. Suddenly, Yamata no Orochi felt a stir in her heart, and Fragment 5 appeared in her palm.
She "saw" it. The location of the two fragments had already arrived on this island.
"……"
Yamata no Orochi thought for a moment, then put the fragment away.
Half an hour later, she appeared alone outside the shrine, arriving at the foot of a mountain at one end of the island.
Guan Tong was currently standing on the mountaintop. Relying on the excellent field of view, he had chosen this place as his "operation center."
He originally wanted to send the Shadow as the vanguard to eliminate some of the enemy's active forces first. He didn't expect that before he could even start the operation, the location of the fragment holder proactively left the shrine and began moving towards him.
Through the surveillance shadows he had placed nearby, he quickly discovered the approaching person.
It was just a woman in her twenties, alone, not the large force he had imagined.
This puzzled him somewhat.
However, since the fragment was moving along with her, it meant this woman was the holder.
He manipulated the materialized Shadow to follow him down to the foot of the mountain.
The two of them met in this somewhat bewildering manner.
Guan Tong's body was covered in Shadow Armor as he looked at the woman who had come "alone to the meeting."
Judging by her appearance, apart from having a pair of very strange, snake-like vertical pupils, her other facial features were quite ordinary.
But her entire body was wrapped in thick clothing, and Guan Tong noticed that the skin on her neck looked somewhat scaly.
"You're the Shadow, right?" Yamata no Orochi spoke.
Guan Tong couldn't figure out why this woman had come to find him alone. He said, "What do you want?"
"I don't want you to attack our base and engage in meaningless combat," Yamata no Orochi said.
"Meaningless combat... Is that why you came alone? To deal with me by yourself?"
"No." As Yamata no Orochi spoke, she took out the puzzle fragment she held. "I know you came for this. If you want it, I can give it to you."
"Don't play games with me," Guan Tong said. "You clearly know its drop characteristics, otherwise you wouldn't have tried to kill me remotely with missiles."
"……"
"I won't let the planner and executor go. If... what are you doing?"
Before Guan Tong could finish speaking, he suddenly saw the woman throw the fragment towards him.
Surprised, he manipulated a shadow line to catch it, confirming it was undoubtedly Fragment 5.
"What do you mean by this?"
He truly hadn't expected this woman to just give him the fragment directly. Why would she do this?
"I hate killing people over fighting for things," Yamata no Orochi said.
"So whenever someone wants to take something from you, you just give it away?" Guan Tong couldn't quite understand this woman's train of thought.
"If you see the content inside the fragment, you'll know it's meaningless. All of this is."
"……"
Everything is meaningless? What does that mean?
Half-believing, half-doubting, Guan Tong took the fragment.
[You have obtained: Kimos Star Chronicle · Fragment 5]
The Fire Thief's prompt was unequivocal, proving this wasn't some counterfeit.
The moment its ownership transferred, the mural information contained in Fragment 5 instantly flooded into Guan Tong's mind, making him understand why Yamata no Orochi had done this.
Part of the content in the mural was exactly as he and that "Primordial One" on the forum had deduced: the fog from the Ninth Doomsday Rule spread and diffused across the entire Kimos Star. Many alien creatures were corrupted, turning into Nightmare Beasts.
These Nightmare Beasts then attacked more of their original kin, causing a rapidly accelerating vicious cycle. A very short time later, the entire Kimos Star was completely enveloped by the fog, with only a few deep underground caverns remaining free of the mist.
A very small number of alien creatures managed to escape to these caverns, clinging to life.
But what surprised Guan Tong was that the murals on the cavern walls weren't drawn by these alien creatures. Among these caverns, there seemed to be only one intelligent alien creature. It only used stone shards to draw a pattern resembling a cluster of flames on the wall.
Seeing that flame-like pattern, Guan Tong immediately realized that this intelligent alien creature's drawing likely referred to the "Fire Thief."
Because according to the earlier mural content, "flame" also held an important position in this alien creature civilization. If the Fire Thief descended on that pla, it might use a similar "name."
But the latter part of the mural depicted very abstract content.
Roughly, a black columnar object descended upon Kimos Star. The surviving alien creatures in that cavern were all sucked into it and taken away from the pla. A distant view of the pla was also drawn.
And at the very end of the mural, it seemed like a multi-fingered mechanical arm reached out from the void, completing the five murals on the walls of the five underground caverns.
Only then did Guan Tong understand. The murals were drawn by this seemingly mechanical arm, a creation by some unknown existence... Was it the Fire Thief? If it was, why would it first destroy the life on the pla, then create murals recording the pla's past?
Moreover, he noticed that on each finger of that multi-fingered mechanical arm, different pla patterns were drawn. The finger that was painting on the cavern wall precisely depicted the pattern of Kimos Star.
This was enough to indicate that countless plas and civilizations had already been destroyed.
But as a destroyer, why would it paint everything it destroyed with such loving brushstrokes?
Would you destroy something you love? This phenomenon might exist in human society too, but Guan Tong didn't believe the Fire Thief would be as emotional as a human.
After seeing all this, Yamata no Orochi's action of directly throwing the fragment to him became understandable.
"You think our Tianshui Star is also destined to be destroyed by the Fire Thief, just like the countless fingers on that mechanical arm representing destroyed plas," Guan Tong looked at Yamata no Orochi. "So you believe everything we humans are doing now is meaningless?"
Yamata no Orochi remained silent. That was indeed what she thought.
Although she hadn't mentioned it to anyone, she had indeed been a nihilist since childhood. After obtaining Fragment 5 and seeing its content, her belief was further solidified.
Even if that Divine Child said she had some ancient god bloodline and wanted to focus on cultivating her, it couldn't change the nihilistic undertone of her personality.
Guan Tong was silent for a moment, then told Yamata no Orochi the content of Fragments 1-4 that he knew.
After listening, her eyes showed some confusion, not understanding Guan Tong's purpose in telling her this.
"Even if a civilization will be destroyed, it won't erase the happiness of those alien creatures growing and playing between heaven and earth, recorded in Fragments 1 and 2," Guan Tong said. "Even if we humans will be destroyed in the future, it won't change the fact that we once had a happy past."
"……"
Although Yamata no Orochi was somewhat moved, her expression and gaze remained firm. A nihilist couldn't be changed by just a few short sentences.
It's just that if the Sakura Prayer Country officials knew the person they were cultivating actually harbored nihilism in her heart, they would probably feel a strong sense of disillusionment.
"I'm leaving," Guan Tong said.
He didn't want to fight anymore. Fighting with a nihilist was, in itself, a very nihilistic thing.
"What about the fragment? How are you going to explain it?"
"It doesn't matter," Yamata no Orochi said.
"……If one day you want to contact me, you can use the website Ascendant Home. Send a private message to the Administrator."
"Why would I want to contact you?"
"Because this land cannot accommodate nihilism."
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