All Good Things

Kang De sat in a chair, holding a cup of hot, brewed milk tea, breathing slowly.

The scene before me finally returned to normal, familiar people and objects were right in front of me, and the White Mist World existed clearly within the string of time and space, under complete perception.

The portal can be activated at any time.

The initial palpitations have now turned into lingering fear.

The desolate scene of a dark, White Mist World with no response and no trace of his companions touched his heart, reminding him of a past he didn't want to recall.

When I first arrived on the deserted island, it was the first loss I experienced in my life.

Now that he has more, he can no longer afford a third time.

A Xing half-squatted beside him, holding his hand with concern.

Just like on the Holy Seal Archipelago, on that deep and terrifying night, she and Kang De huddled together, facing the potential threats in the darkness. It was then that Kang De first met A Xing and rescued her from being attacked by Black Beast. During the days she recovered from her injuries, they established their first friendship and trust.

Previously, it had soft fur; now, it has smooth skin. A Xing's gaze remains the same as before, innocent and ethereal, filled with worry and care.

Even though A Xing is preoccupied now, sometimes lost in thought, looking around blankly, when he hears his shouts and sees his panic, he now puts all his worries aside and only has eyes for him.

Kang De gently squeezed her hand to indicate that everything was alright.

The A Xing responded with a smile.

"You said you just saw a scene from the past?"

The Dragon Girl sat on the other side, waiting until Kang De's breathing had calmed and his eyes were at peace before asking her question.

Kang De's gaze flickered for a moment, then he slowly nodded.

"So what did you see?"

"... I saw the scene here. You were gone. It was a much darker environment. The environment had changed. There weren't as many of those luminous crystals among the rocks. There was light in the distance, water nearby, and I could hear the sounds of large wild animals moving around, as well as the calls of birds... It was much more lively than it is now."

Kang De slowly replied, "As for the others, I couldn't see them clearly."

Lily leaned forward, her expression intrigued, her eyes filled with curiosity. "Are you sure that's a scene from the past? Or some kind of hallucination?"

"No, I can confirm it's not an illusion," Kang De replied. "Spacetime... that's another spacetime."

Only in this way can we explain why, despite possessing all his supernatural powers, the White Mist World is unable to respond to his summons, and why he cannot even perceive its location.

Hallucinations are even less likely.

Phoenix Vision is the eye that breaks illusions, and the Fire Thief's supernatural powers can break all laws. With Brother Tu protecting them, how could they be deceived by illusions without warning?

The Dragon Girl nodded gently. "Based on your exceptional expertise in phase studies, I'll tentatively agree with your judgment. If you truly did see scenes from the past, then it's most likely..."

She paused for a moment, then slowly said, "Time Flashback."

"Based on the literal meaning, it was an accidental observation of a time gap from the past." Kang De's emotions gradually calmed down, and he began to analyze, "Are there similar records?"

He made a pact with the Space-Time Dragon God Akatum, and was endowed with the power of time and space. Although compared to the vast divine power of the King of Gods who straightened the timeline and turned the world from chaos into order, his ability was nothing more than a tiny molecular bond at the tip of a hair—but at least he had entered the realm of the divine.

It was precisely because he possessed the power of time that he was so concerned about the time phenomena he encountered.

From the moment he transmigrated to this other world, everything he encountered and did was somehow connected, and this event was probably not a coincidence.

"Yes, but very rare. Since the birth of intelligent beings, there have always been beings who claim to have received divine enlightenment, or to have seen the past or encountered the future. Among these so-called prophets, many are false, doing so only to satisfy their own desires and selfishness. They are easily exposed and discerned."

"There's another part, which is hard to distinguish between truth and falsehood, because these things are difficult to verify. You don't know whether the other person is hallucinating or truly seeing the past..."

Kang De asked, "Is there another small part that is conclusive evidence?"

"If 'soliciting evidence' refers to a credible case with conclusive proof, then my answer is no."

Lily replied, "In this era, the dragon race recorded three cases of Space-Time Flashback, but these weren't three cases of 'encountering the phenomenon of Space-Time Flashback,' but rather three cases of 'these beings actually saw some kind of scene.'"

"... I don't quite understand, how do you explain it?"

"The first example dates back to the previous era. The decline and demise of the Ledes Dwarves led a dwarven lord to claim he experienced Time Flashback phenomenon, witnessing a planetary wonder left behind from the heyday of the Rock Clan in the era before that: an Endless Mines eternally excavating towards the planet's core, a Furnace Road filled with extremely compressed natural magic stones, high-quality rare metal ores, and countless amounts of gold."

"At first, no one believed him. Then, he used his personal wealth and prestige to gather an expedition to find the Furnace Road mentioned in the Space-Time Flashback phenomenon. The dwarves were all laughing at him."

"But a year later, good news arrived: they had indeed found the mine, exactly as the lord had seen in the past. The mine they brought back caused a sensation throughout the Rune Alliance, and all the major states followed suit, investing enormous financial and human resources to reopen the buried path to wealth, breaking through the tectonic shifts that had buried it, and continuing to delve deeper."

"That lord's prestige instantly soared to its peak, making him a hero among all dwarves. He was exceptionally nominated as a candidate for the next dwarf king. If the selection is successful, he will undoubtedly become the greatest king in the history of the dwarves of this era, worthy of being ranked alongside the legendary kings of all time."

Upon hearing this, Kang De said, "If—you used the word 'if'—he failed?"

"No, he succeeded. The dwarves invested a great deal of manpower and resources, and finally broke through the Endless Mines dug by the Rock Clan, and then..."

Kang De asked curiously, "And then?"

Lily rolled her eyes. "Then they saw a world filled with lava, sulfur, and black rivers, and countless demons poured out of the tunnel."

"The alarmed dwarves tried desperately to stop them, but a few days later, the impatient hell lords disrupted the environment of the lava lake below the cave entrance, triggering a lava vent at the bottom of the lake."

"The immense pressure propelled countless streams of magma out through the newly dug openings of the caverns, instantly annihilating the essence of all the Laidesi dwarves gathered there. It also hurled countless Hellfire giants, obsidian teleportation arrays, and molten demons all the way to the surface, turning this so-called endless mine into a volcano, continuously scattering massive amounts of demons and teleportation arrays across the world."

"The invasion of Hell has begun."

Upon hearing this, Kang De was startled. "Damn, the devil lives down there?"

Lily replied matter-of-factly, "... What else?"

"... I thought they were all in another dimension."

"That's how mortals understand it, and there's not much difference. Although it's on the same planet, the area where demons live is a distance that's extremely difficult to cross by physical means relative to the Earth's surface, and it's even possible to say that they can never reach it. Generally speaking, demons can only come to the surface through summoning rituals and teleportation arrays."

Kang De was somewhat worried. He looked around and said, "Here..."

"... This is less than two thousand meters deep. Do you know how deep that Path of Destruction is? Those idiots from the Rock Clan have been digging for over a thousand years—it's nowhere near as deep. Don't worry."

Kang De was then relieved. "The invasion of hell... how was it resolved back then?"

The enormous volcano continuously spewed out demons, Hellfire giants, and teleportation arrays, affecting the entire world and causing a cataclysmic disaster—was this how the previous era ended?

Upon hearing this, Lily gave a strange smile, shook her head, and scoffed, "It was easily solved. Those idiots in Hell who were soaking in lava baths probably hadn't ejaculated in thousands of years. They spewed out an enormous amount of lava and dust, covering two-thirds of the sky above the continent at the time. Within months, the smoky clouds spread across the globe, blocking out sunlight, causing temperatures to plummet, and ushering in an eternal winter..."

"Then the demons that escaped were frozen solid, their combat power dropping by at least 70%, so much so that the first thing they did upon reaching the surface was to build heat towers and cower in warm areas, unable to move."

"At that time, the various races of the continent were able to gather their elite forces, reclaim the erupting area, push the demons back, defeat the invasion of hell, and then find a way to dispel the smog and let the sunlight return to the earth..."

Lily paused, then added calmly, "But the prolonged cold caused massive crop failures, resulting in countless famines and deaths, and the extinction of many creatures, ultimately contributing to the end of the previous era..."

Kang De sighed.

What a painful lesson.

He immediately realized. "The Time Flashback that the dwarf lord saw..."

"Yes, it was documented because the cost was so heavy and it had a significant impact on the course of the world. However, there is still debate within the Dragon Clan about whether what that lord saw was Time Flashback. Conspiracy theorists believe that it was not a fragment of the past, but rather the whispers and deception of some demon lord. In short, both sides have their own opinions, but the mainstream view is that it was indeed Time Flashback phenomenon."

Lily shrugged and said, "The second and third cases are similar, just not as sensational. For example, the second case involved the emperor of the Vituan Empire seeing footage of his empress having an affair with the chief of the temple knights on their wedding night ten years ago, and then watching several more episodes from the following years..."

Kang De exclaimed, "I want to hear this! Tell me quickly! The first example should be mentioned only briefly!"

Dragon Girl spat. "What's so good about it? It's just that on our wedding night, the Empress was taken advantage of while the Emperor was drunk in front of her; while the Emperor was giving a speech in the palace council hall, the Empress was taken advantage of while hiding in the lounge; while the Emperor was reviewing official documents next door, the Empress was taken advantage of in front of their wedding portrait; while their son was in his cradle; in the bathtub; in the wardrobe..."

Kang De slammed his hand on the chair. "Damn it, it was recorded? How did you know?"

Dragon Girl spat. "This matter caused quite a stir at the time. Because the Empress was from the Starry Sky Temple, she couldn't handle it privately. Her son was also very unlike her. The Emperor couldn't hold back and filed for divorce, overturning the table. In the end, it became known throughout the world and opened the prelude to the struggle between the Vituan Empire's political and divine rights, and also sparked a major legal debate."

"The joint court responsible for the adjudication invited spacetime scholars and great magicians from various races to participate in the debate, namely, whether the phenomenon of Space-Time Flashback truly exists and whether it can be used as evidence in the testimony of the parties involved..."

"Finally, civil war broke out, and both the Starry Sky Temple and the Vituan Empire declined."

Kang De said in a complicated tone, "Damn, so casual."

"What do you think politics is? A bunch of cunning, shrewd people in power playing a grand game?" Lily glanced at him. "No, politics, many times, is about stumbling upon things, about competing to be the worst, about winning by accident, and about losing by clear understanding. There are countless reasons to win, but only one reason to lose: stupidity. It's about two groups of fools making mistakes one after another, and then the less foolish group wins."

Kang De shook his head. "A bit extreme."

Lily declared proudly, "I am a dragon."

This is not a question worth arguing about, Kang De asked, "And what about the third case?"

"The third example is a bit vague. It occurred during the Great Cataclysm at the end of the previous era. At that time, the dragons were also preoccupied with their own problems. The world collapsed, the climate became abnormal, countless lives perished, and species became extinct. The dragons fled the apocalyptic lands to find a safe place to survive the cataclysmic disaster, but the Mortal World races could only struggle on the shattered earth. This time -Space-Time Flashback is just a vaguely heard rumor."

"On the desolate wasteland, a great guardian sought to establish order in the darkness and preserve the Spark of Civilization. She claimed to have received enlightenment and warnings from the past, and a great being had shown her a mission, a path, Civilization, and hope. She shared this dreamlike enlightenment with those around her, spreading the meaning of mutual assistance, goodness, sacrifice, and morality, and establishing a final Shelter..."

At this point, Lily looked at Kang De.

Kang De asked, "And then?"

"Then the previous era ended," Lily said, shrugging. "The Spark was extinguished, and she disappeared too."

"..."

Kang De rolled his eyes.

Dragon Girl blinked. "So here's the question: have you noticed anything in common among these three cases?"

Kang De took a deep breath and roared, "It's all bad news, you bastards!"

The Dragon Girl patted his shoulder. "Don't think like that. If the dwarves hadn't continued digging, but instead had developed mining in the existing mines, the Rune Alliance's power would have skyrocketed. If the emperor had been more patient instead of flipping the table, he might have been able to gradually take down the Starry Sky Temple. And if the Guardian had been a little stronger, she might have been able to lead her people to survive into the next era, just like us."

"They failed, not because Space-Time Flashback doesn't work, but because they were greedy, stupid, and incompetent. You're different from them, be confident, that's a good thing."

She nodded again, saying, "Well, maybe the dwarf lord was just bewitched by a demon, and the Vituan Empire emperor is a cuckold fantasist. That mysterious leader made up this story to win over the people. Only you experienced a real Space-Time Flashback."

"This consolation is hardly something to be happy about."

After finishing his cup of milk tea, Kang De put the paper cup aside and slowly exhaled.

He asked, "What should we do?"

Lily gazed at the dark mountains and caves in the distance, the light from her crystalline lens shimmering within them, illuminating the shadowy rock walls. They had been following Aocheweier's trail all this way, and now the surroundings were even more complex. This was Aocheweier's starting point, and the area was filled with traces of the dragon's erratic wandering and rampages—meaning that the trail of this mad dragon had been broken.

To continue tracking this, we either need to find a needle in a haystack or try something new.

You decide.

Lily said, "We need to find Cuixisi, but the terrain here is more complex than we imagined. I don't know what the Space-Time Flashback phenomenon means, whether it's a good thing or a bad thing, but I know that if Cuixisi completes her plan, it will definitely be the worst thing ever."

Kang De paused for a moment, then said, "... What are your thoughts?"

"Based on these three examples, Space-Time Flashback doesn't happen randomly. Instead, it guides us to information from the past. This information can be good or bad, but it all has profound meaning and is closely related to the environment and fate of the person who encounters it. The emperor faces the covert erosion of papal authority, the dwarven lord faces internal and external troubles within the Rune Alliance, and the guardian faces the end of an era and the annihilation of everything."

"The Space-Time Flashback phenomena they witnessed might be a response to their deepest inner unease. I don't know if there's a causal relationship, or if some unseen force is manipulating things, but..."

Lily took a deep breath and said, "There's no road ahead now. Perhaps Space-Time Flashback is the new path. The past landscape you see here might hold the secrets of this place—secrets about mysterious elements, about the River of Origin, about the depths and ascension..."

"If we can't find Cuixisi, there's a way to find the river, that's fine too."

Kang De listened in silence.

"Therefore, my suggestion is to follow the Space-Time Flashback and your intuition. Judging from the descriptions and memories from the past, the flashback phenomenon did not occur once, but many times, and in great detail. That's why the people who experienced it remember it so vividly and even believe it without a doubt. After all, those people were all highly intelligent and knowledgeable leaders. To make them believe it without a doubt, there must be enough truth to it."

"Follow your instincts, search and investigate the phenomena that interest you, and you might find new clues..."

The Dragon Girl here, then slowly said, "Think again, what did you see in those past scenes?"

Kang De pondered deeply: a dark valley, the sound of a river, beasts passing below, light in the distance, light, light... the light seemed to be pulsating.

Like fire.

He said softly, "The light source... maybe it's fire. The others are hidden in the outlines of darkness, but intuitively, Lily, I feel that a long time ago, there was intelligent life here."

Upon hearing this, the Dragon Girl's gaze turned calm and collected. She nodded and said, "Alright, this will be the next target."

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PS1: Update... This is a little earlier today, it could have been even earlier, will continue tomorrow.