Above the History Books, Someone Else's Pen

Qin Zhaoye was holding the Rakshasa God Deadlock: Full Case Assessment form when the heavy rumble of wheels came from outside the academy gates.

Dean Feng Yanqiu came jogging into the courtyard, beaming as she brought the news:

"Zhaoye! The Spirit Hall Branch has escorted the deposit for the Pope's number-one order here. They're waiting to hand it over in the front courtyard!"

After putting the form away, Qin Zhaoye stepped out of the new residence and saw several large iron-bound chests arranged neatly in the open space of the front courtyard.

The officer in charge of the escort stood before the chests. It was none other than He Zhili, the man in charge of the Suotuo Branch Hall!

The level fifty-five Soul King who had led a team to seize someone just days ago had changed into an escort officer's uniform and was waiting respectfully at the foot of the steps.

When Qin Zhaoye came out, He Zhili waved a hand, and several branch hall deacons hurried to pry open the locks and lift the lids.

The chests on the left were filled with neatly stacked Gold Soul Coins, while those on the right contained rare soul-tool materials shimmering with precious light.

Feng Yanqiu stared at them, eyes glazed, and quietly tugged Qin Zhaoye's sleeve.

"Good heavens, every bit of it is first-rate hard currency, and the man in charge of the branch hall even escorted it here for you himself!"

He Zhili did not so much as raise an eyelid at those words, acting as though he had not heard them.

"By strict order of the Pope's Palace, the first installment of the material deposit for the full case assessment has been escorted to Perching Swan Academy in its entirety."

He Zhili took out the official seal he carried, breathed on it, then stamped the escort officer's column on the handover document.

Although the veins stood taut on the back of his hand, it did not tremble in the slightest. He did not dare show any sign of weakness.

After stamping the document, He Zhili lifted the handover form in both hands and respectfully cupped them toward the young man on the steps.

"The Gold Soul Coins and rare soul-tool materials are all accounted for, down to the last fraction. Please inspect them, Lord Historian!"

Qin Zhaoye descended the stone steps and swept his gaze over the chests. With the Eye of Historical Observation, he could verify the quality of everything inside.

He took the handover form and signed his name, then tossed the receipt back and said:

"The quality is good. I'll accept the deposit. Go back and tell Spirit City that work on the full case assessment will begin as scheduled."

"Yes, sir! I'll report back truthfully at once!"

He Zhili accepted the receipt with both hands. He did not even dare breathe too loudly as he respectfully withdrew from the courtyard with his attendants.

Feng Yanqiu directed the academy instructors to carry the great chests of deposit into the storeroom, clicking her tongue in wonder.

"The man in charge of a branch hall personally acted as your escort guard, and he even had to call you Lord Historian. It feels like our Perching Swan has really shaken off its troubles and stood tall!"

Qin Zhaoye smiled, returned to the new residence, and shut the door before unrolling the bronze scroll.

As he personally entered the Rakshasa God Deadlock: Full Case Assessment form at the counter, a grand peal of bells rang out above the Group Hub.

A crimson-and-gold scroll stretching across the public screen slowly unfurled, triggering the Myriad Ages Douluo Group's first volume-level settlement announcement!

"Group Hub end-of-volume announcement: The first-stage intervention for the First Era timeline has been calculated. The proportion of invalidated history has officially exceeded ten percent!"

"Approximately ten percent of the entries in the Official History of the First Era have now been converted to gray files awaiting revision. The major divergences will now be displayed together!"

A huge two-column comparison chart then unfurled with a clatter in the middle of the public screen, as though achievements were being revealed.

The column on the left listed the original text from the Official History of the First Era, while the one on the right displayed the current reality, flashing with golden light.

At the top of the chart, beside the dossier originally stating "Nothing worth recording in Suotuo City," the words "No such person found" were conspicuously pinned. This was the largest divergence.

Further down, the enrollment storyline that originally said Tang San went straight to Shrek Academy after graduation had also changed course, becoming a trail of footsteps leading deep into the mountains in search of his father.

The lower half of the chart was even livelier. Beside the branch hall's statement, "All academies were suppressed; none dared disobey," was an account of the punitive expedition's crushing defeat. And beside the words "Had no dealings with this person," recorded under the last Pope, Bibi Dong, was, astonishingly, "Number-one client waiting in line to sign an order"!

The original accounts and current situations of the four major cases hung side by side, and before everyone's eyes, those words of official history faded into gray files, piece by piece!

The counter for the Cross-Era Gallery jumped wildly. The people from later eras stared at the entries turning gray across the screen, all of them dumbfounded.

Even Lan Xuanyu, usually the quickest to post and play along with a joke, held his fingers over the screen and, for once, froze for quite a while without managing to send a single word.

After all, the Official History of the First Era, which they had memorized from childhood, was the foundation of their all-knowing archaeology crowd. At that moment, its first great crack had appeared!

[The Bystander Sees Clearly: About ten percent of the official history entries have turned into gray files awaiting revision... So all the standard answers we memorized before are invalid.]

[Ten-Thousand-Year Melon Field Contractor: I just checked the Fourth Era historical archives. Even several pages of the Suotuo Dossier and Spirit Hall Volume have turned completely gray!]

[Ten-Thousand-Year Melon Field Contractor: But our world and memories haven't been affected. That means we're following the updates of a brand-new official history as they happen!]

[Ancestral Precepts Recitation Champion: Holy shit! Now that Old Lan puts it that way, I'm really fired up!]

[Ancestral Precepts Recitation Champion: Archaeology used to mean digging through old accounts. From now on, we'll be watching new history being written with our own eyes!]

At that moment, Tang San also stopped in the deep mountain gorge. He raised his head and silently watched the comparison entry on the public screen: "Enrollment storyline diverted to search for father."

He remained silent for quite a while, then reached up and pulled the strap of the bundle on his shoulder one notch tighter.

[Tang San: I've already seen the suffering written for me in the official history.]

[Tang San: Since that ten percent of the entries could turn gray, the remaining ninety percent might not be impossible to change either.]

[Group Owner: The first report on the invalidated history has been recorded. The old history is past; a new chapter awaits revision. Everyone, watch what comes next.]

After sending that message, Qin Zhaoye switched back to the historian's backend and personally opened the income-and-expenditure ledger and order book for volume one.

The gold-paper ledger listed the volume's holdings in clear detail: from the group's founding until now, the shares from special sessions, income from divergences, and revelations from various sources came to a cumulative income of roughly 27,000 Talking Capital.

The expenditure column was just as clear. Direct top-ups for five bound topics had cost 4,350, while two Historical Evidence Remnant Shadows had used another 4,000.

Adding the 1,800 for escort intelligence on the two trips to the western outskirts hunting grounds and the ancient forest brought the volume's total expenditure to 10,150 Talking Capital.

Qin Zhaoye picked up his pen and slowly drew a red line at the bottom of the ledger, then rolled the entire Talking Capital balance after expenses into the reserves for volume two.

Afterward, he opened the fate-changing order book that had appeared on the right side of the same screen.

Bibi Dong's number-one order for a full case assessment had already been entered in the accounts and was awaiting assessment. Qian Renxue's number-two order for route consultation followed close behind, scheduled and waiting its turn.

Counting the second Group Owner Nomination Voucher kept in the scroll's inner pocket, all three core assets were accounted for, so they too were carried over into volume two.

"Level forty-one cultivation, all four Soul Rings in place, and plenty of Talking Capital and orders saved up."

Qin Zhaoye closed the ledger with satisfaction and turned his gaze back to the top of the group announcement board, where two things hung side by side.

On the left was a preview post: "Second Era special session: A party involved in Peerless Tang Sect will soon join the group." Its crimson countdown ticked down at an unhurried pace.

On the right was the betting pool that had yet to be settled: "Will Tang Hao return to the world?" With every step Tang San took in search of his father, interest in the bet rose another notch.

Tang Wulin, never one to mind the excitement getting bigger, immediately cropped a screenshot of the Second Era countdown and made it his group profile picture.

[Ancestral Precepts Recitation Champion: Profile picture changed! Waiting with one hand for the result of our founding ancestor's search for his father, and with the other for the Second Era seniors to join the group. Double the fun!]

[Ten-Thousand-Year Melon Field Contractor: @The Bystander Sees Clearly, Old Huo, look at Old Tang's profile picture. There really can't be much time left on the countdown!]

[The Bystander Sees Clearly: Let them come. I'm not the one whose real name will be revealed on the first day anyway.]

Qin Zhaoye read the discussion in the group, then raised his hand and pressed the "Archive end-of-volume log" button in the Group Hub backend.

Streams of data rustled across the bronze scroll, quickly packaging and sealing all the group chat records and divergence files from this stage.

Just as the archive progress bar reached the end, Qin Zhaoye's gaze suddenly sharpened.

Deep in the Group Hub's underlying logs, a line recording a deletion and alteration flashed past!

It was not an action taken by him, the group owner. He did not recognize a single character in it, and when the Eye of Historical Observation swept over it, not a word of annotation appeared.

"What was that?"

Qin Zhaoye reached out and pressed his finger hard against the deletion-and-alteration record!

But the instant his fingertip touched the scroll, the record vanished completely, and the underlying log page returned to an empty expanse of white.

The Second Era special session countdown at the top of the group continued ticking down one interval at a time.

Qin Zhaoye stared at the empty log page, his finger still pressed to the same spot, and did not move it for a long while.