Chapter 1274: Chapter 1274: Wizard, World, ‘God’ (Grand Chapter for Monthly Votes)
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The cool moonlight cascaded from the firmant above, illuminating the dim path winding through the forested mountains.
He Ao lifted his head, gazing at the endless range of mountains ahead. He couldn’t fathom how long he had been walking—was it a few kiloters, ten kiloters, or even hundreds?
When he first caught sight of these mountains, they filled him with novelty and intrigue.
But as the journey revealed one identical range after another, one repeated landscape after another, his emotions began to dull.
The path winded through dense forests as well as undulating stretches of withered grass.
Yet, throughout his journey, he hadn’t encountered a single living person—he hadn’t even seen any signs of life.
The dense forest bore no traces of chirping insects or singing birds, nor any subtle sounds hinting at life’s activity.
Only the brittle yellow leaves stirred faintly under the night breeze, producing a soft rustling sound.
At first, this sound whispered of a forest’s solitude, carrying with it a faint lancholy. But if this sound were the only voice in the world, if it continued endlessly, it would resemble the world’s own eerie “chewing” noise, tinged with a macabre terror.
After crossing yet another mountain ridge, He Ao stood atop the peak and lifted his gaze forward.
This ti, the view was different—the first divergence from the repetition that had haunted his journey.
What greeted his field of view wasn’t another stretch of undulating mountains, but a vast, sprawling plain.
At the boundary where the plain t the mountains, an imposing city stood steadfastly.
The city did not resemble any modern creation. Its enormous walls towered high, built from compacted soil and stacked stone, devoid of visible concrete or steel reinforcent.
It seed more like a relic of an agricultural era with limited technological advancent.
And yet, the towering walls—seemingly seventy or eighty ters high—far exceeded what He Ao understood to be possible for such a primitive period.
City walls are typically constructed to defend against external threats. For example, the fortified cities of the dungeon world were built to shield against exotic beasts and eerie anomalies.
For humans of a normal agricultural age, there would be no need for such colossal walls, nor would they possess the ans to build them.
Conversely, in an industrial age ard with combat aircraft, walls would have far less utility, making it unnecessary to invest so much effort into their construction.
The engineering and defensive capabilities of these walls exceeded He Ao’s expectations.
The “life” of this constructed world seed to have progressed along a civilizational path distinct from both the main world and the dungeon world.
As his thoughts wandered, He Ao cast his gaze over other parts of the city.
Though protected by formidable seventy- or eighty-ter walls, the city had long since been destroyed. When He Ao moved his gaze further, he could see collapsed walls and ruins of buildings.
It was as though an unknowable catastrophe had once descended upon this place, reducing much of the city to rubble. Only a sparse assortnt of jagged remnants remained, hinting at the city’s forr magnificence.
He Ao’s gaze shifted toward the city’s outskirts.
Near the edges of the remaining walls lay undulating ruins, with most structures having rotted away into oblivion, leaving only faint traces behind.
Only a small number of exquisite buildings still retained pieces of sturdy walls and fragnted bricks, testifying to the city’s grandeur in the past.
He Ao sprinted down the hillside, his figure flickering as he arrived at the city’s border, just before the crumbling houses.
He slowed his pace, carefully threading his way through the “roads” ford by the broken-down dwellings.
His eyes scanned both sides, scrutinizing the ruined houses around him.
So of the wooden components surrounding the houses had petrified, transforming into fossil-like objects.
These preserved objects provided He Ao with fodder for further “imagination.”
The structures at the start appeared rudintary, like simple shelters, leaving only faint traces behind.
But as He Ao approached deeper into the city, the buildings gradually beca taller and sturdier.
By the ti he reached the city walls, complex courtyard-style architecture had erged.
This suggested a rigid hierarchical order within the city: the closer one lived to the city’s center, the wealthier they were.
Simultaneously, it indicated that the area around the city lacked particularly strong packs of exotic beasts, wild predators, or eerie monsters.
Under circumstances where “wild hunters” road, humans rarely risk gathering near exposed city walls.
For instance, the fortified cities of the dungeon world operated on this principle—everyone sought refuge deep within the city.
Previously, the Federation of the dungeon world attempted to establish settlents outside their high walls, but these were quickly destroyed by exotic beasts lurking near the cities, plunging the areas into bloodshed and birthing warped, horrifying beings.
In so respects, this “world” seed relatively “peaceful.”
It was understandable—after all, this was a “world” artificially crafted by the Trapped Destiny Plate. Those wizards likely exerted effort to eliminate interfering variables to facilitate their experints.
With that in mind,
He Ao glanced up at the city’s remaining walls.
What purpose had these magnificent walls once served as defense against?
Lost in thought, he navigated through a gap in the collapsed walls and entered the city proper.
The city still retained a crisscrossing network of street ruins. He Ao followed these streets, advancing step by step.
As he moved forward, his eyes explored the structures surrounding the streets.
The buildings within the city were preserved slightly better than those outside, and the interior’s layout seed to diverge from the exterior.
Inside the city, the houses nearer to the walls were compact and oppressive, while the closer one got to the city’s center, the more expansive and open the hos beca.
The architectural style of these structures differed from anything He Ao had ever seen. If anything, they bore faint echoes of Central Earth and the First District’s aesthetics, interwoven with elents resembling those from the Second District.
Despite these mixed influences, the buildings’ designs didn’t feel out of place. On the contrary, they exuded a unique and peculiar “beauty.”
This hinted that within the world—or at least this city—there existed so sort of “master architect.”
The idea made He Ao’s thoughts pause.
The system’s introduction had ntioned the Trapped Destiny Plate’s ability to “fabricate souls.”
Could fabricated souls possess the refined artistic vision and capability to design grand cities?
If so, what differentiated these fabricated souls from authentic ones?
He Ao halted his train of thought, attempting to “imagine” and “create” a fabricated soul within his mind.
But the eerily silent world remained indifferent to his notions.
He Ao raised his head, gazing at the heavens above. A fragntary thought flashed through his mind.
“Let the moon rise higher.”
The luminous moonlight steadily ascended, reaching the zenith of the sky.
The Trapped Destiny Plate could comprehend He Ao’s thoughts, but it hadn’t executed his command for soul fabrication.
Either the system’s information was inaccurate, or the Plate lacked any capacity to fabricate souls.
He Ao surveyed his surroundings. He envisioned raising the land beneath him, but the ground remained unresponsive.
Alternatively, his permissions could be insufficient.
His influence over the Trapped Destiny Plate seed limited to altering celestial patterns and controlling the weather. More intricate, advanced operations, however, were beyond his grasp. He hadn’t even figured out the thod to pull others into the Plate, nor did he possess any direct information about the Plate.
For now, he still wasn’t the “owner” of this transcendent artifact.
Withdrawing his gaze, He Ao continued following the streets ahead.
From a distance, he could faintly make out a vast clearing at the city’s heart.
As he walked toward the city center, the surrounding hos grew increasingly larger and more spacious.
Yet, those once grand “manor houses” had now completely succumbed to decay, leaving behind only fractured remnants that spoke to a bygone era of splendor.
Before long, He Ao arrived at the central clearing of the city.
This was the flattest area in the entire city, as if an invisible force had descended to erase everything here.
He Ao crouched down, brushing away the dirt and debris from the surface of the clearing.
Eventually, pieces of what seed to be stone foundations revealed themselves to his gaze.
He scrutinized the stones before him, lifted his hand without hesitation, and struck the ground hard.
BOOM!
With a violent explosion and tremors, clouds of dust and fragnts of rock erupted into the air.
The smooth ground tore open, exposing traces of foundations and remnants of structures buried beneath.
These foundations and ruins ford broken lines, dividing the enormous flat expanse into an array of unevenly arranged “rooms.”
He Ao’s gaze calmly swept across these traces.
Initially, his interest lay solely in the Trapped Destiny Plate and figuring out how to control it. But upon seeing this city, he suddenly beca fascinated with the “relics” embedded within the Plate’s domain.
This city hinted at a highly developed civilization—and seemingly, not an ordinary one at that.
He Ao’s focus soon landed on a section of the ground distinguished by abnormal coloration in one of the “room areas.”
Amid the cracks he had opened, he could vaguely discern patches of black.
He Ao strode quickly toward the site, arriving at this specific “room.”
Leaning down, he stared at the black beneath the fissures and swept the surface debris and stones aside with deliberate force.
Fragnts of shattered black stone ca into view.
Faint markings appeared on the stone shards, with so patterns interconnected, suggesting the outline of a humanoid figure.
Fixating on the outline, He Ao didn’t hesitate. He swiftly began collecting these shards and attempted to piece them back together.
The stone shards resembled granite in texture, but their fractures lacked any apparent pattern. After briefly inspecting them, He Ao felt that matching their edges would be laborious.
Rather than attempting by hand, he activated his Super mory, noting the shapes of all the fragnts and quickly “assembling” them in his mind.
Before long, a general outline erged in his thoughts.
His hands followed the ntal arrangent, swiftly piecing the fragnts together.
The shards still weren’t complete, and gaps remained. He Ao continued his ntal construction while searching the area for additional pieces.
In ti, he gathered most of the fragnts, reconstructing a rough shape.
Though gaps persisted, the overall structure was now discernible.
These shards appeared to be remnants of a stele—likely shattered by so force.
He Ao approximated the stele’s original configuration and deciphered the images engraved upon its surface.
They depicted stick figures in successive postures, their movents subtly shifting.
The style of the figures was distinctive, yet upon observing their gestures, He Ao instinctively recalled a martial arts prir.
Despite their disparate diums and artistic approaches, the stele and the martial arts book evoked a parallel “feeling.”
Raising his hand, He Ao began mimicking the figures’ movents based on the stele’s engravings.
At first, as he perford a few stances, he felt no changes in his body—nor any tangible force behind the techniques.
Unperturbed, He Ao continued practicing in alignnt with the stele’s motions.
When he reached the fifteenth position, an unexpected sensation stirred within him: his energy circuits quivered briefly, before a surge of energy began to circulate through his body, matching his movents.
In that instant, He Ao recognized the significance of what was happening.
Taking a deep breath, he concentrated on capturing the ambient energy within this world, while simultaneously harnessing the energy from the “blood-stained jade pendant” hanging on his chest. He directed these forces into his body, maintaining steady, rhythmic breathing as he absorbed them.
Throughout this flow, his hands remained in motion, synchronizing with the stele’s engravings.
Gradually, the energy in his body began to circulate faster and faster—its acceleration palpable to his heightened perception. As the energy flowed, the rate at which He Ao absorbed and converted it increased concurrently.
He could distinctly sense the transford energy completing its circuit through his body, gathering into a dense cluster, and finally converging in his mind to form Divine Sense.
His body shuddered faintly, as though a tempest had risen around him, siphoning the thin energy scattered in the air.
Under normal circumstances, He Ao would have reached his limit due to the sparse ambient energy available.
However, He Ao’s current training thod seldom relied on external natural forces.
His chest’s jade pendant held an abundance of stored energy, readily accessible.
As a faint glimr radiated from the pendant, an overwhelming force surged out, flooding into He Ao’s body, where he absorbed it instantly.
Before long, He Ao completed an entire practice cycle based on the stele. Though the incomplete engravings prevented his movents from being refined—in fact, there had been several pauses disrupting efficiency—the energy absorption rate was still astonishing.
He assessed the volu of Divine Sense within his mind; completing one cycle had directly yielded a singular incrent of Divine Sense.
After attaining B-level Martial Arts promotion, even with the pendant’s ample energy reserves, it typically took him half a day of arduous practice to cultivate a single additional thread of Divine Sense.
Now, following just one complete cycle of movents from the stele, he had succeeded in refining one unit of Divine Sense.
And this was under the condition that the stele’s engravings were incomplete, leaving gaps in the sequence.
Once more, He Ao looked down at the stele fragnts before him.
Just as he had inferred, the stele contained a thodology associated with Martial Arts.
From his practical application, it appeared to describe a Martial Arts cultivation technique aid at enhancing the efficiency of breathing and energy intake.
The technique itself wasn’t overly complex; even beginners could utilize it and imdiately experience amplified results.
He Ao’s gaze swept across the terrain at his feet.
This area lay at the deepest reaches of the “palace” zone, surrounded by fragnted yet robust remnants of enclosing walls.
The stele might once have been the single most prized artifact of this city, reserved solely for those possessing a particular lineage to learn cultivation techniques from it.
Unfortunately, with the advent of so annihilating calamity, the city’s culture, its entirety, shattered alongside the stele.
He Ao looked upward, his eyes gliding over the remnants of the ruined city and the mountain ridges interspersing its remains.
Initially, He Ao had assud the wizards had only constructed a world.
He hadn’t expected that they had built a world as a “stage” upon which they would then birth a civilization.
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