The Future Path

The sky was crimson, as if an unquenchable flame burned eternally; the land was scorched black, as if it had endured the most terrifying extinction.

This was a dead world, a corpse.

The heavens were shattered, the earth cracked, devoid of life, belonging to no Pillar God.

It fit Li Wen's description perfectly.

Li Wen walked alone in this dead world. A quarter of an hour had long passed, and the illusory Bell Tower had vanished, but Li Wen wasn't in a hurry to begin.

She was contemplating a question: What exactly had happened to this world?

Perhaps the Twilight of the Apocalypse?

No, as someone who had experienced the Twilight, Li Wen had witnessed what worlds destroyed by the Twilight of the Apocalypse would be, or would have been, like.

It was never a shattered sky and earth, never an unquenchable fire, never a storm of flames connecting heaven and earth, never any conceivable destruction that could compare.

No matter where she went, Li Wen could only see scorched earth and flames. Thus, she gave up on the idea of proceeding further and took out the Final Codex hidden within her cloak.

The amber encasing it remained unchanged, maintaining its cool clarity even in this crimson doomsday.

Li Wen took a deep breath, knelt on the scorching earth, and placed the Final Codex before her.

She drew the Bone-Gnawing Short Sword and first tried to slash the Emerald Star Cloak a few times. As it left no marks, she took off the Emerald Star Cloak and then used the Bone-Gnawing Short Sword to cut open her palm.

"I swear in the name of the Twilight!"

Scarlet blood droplets rained down, instantly boiling and evaporating upon contact with the ground.

"Eternity begins at dawn!"

Li Wen made a second cut, this one on her shoulder. Blood flowed out slowly, without pause.

"The end arrives with the Twilight!"

The Bone-Gnawing Short Sword was raised again. The third cut was on her ankle. Blood now streamed from her body, dyeing her entire form crimson.

"Life must inevitably lead to death!"

The fourth cut was on her abdomen. Li Wen didn't even blink as she plunged the sword in.

"All things must return to their end!"

The fifth cut was on her back.

"Besides me, no other bringer of the end shall exist eternally!"

The sixth cut was on her forehead. The world before Li Wen's eyes immediately blurred.

"Besides me, no other eternal being shall walk in the end!"

The seventh cut was at her heart. The Bone-Gnawing Short Sword pierced it without hesitation. Amidst 100% agony, Li Wen recited the final line:

"All destruction begins with me, and all ends with me!"

Her life remained at 1%, not changing in the slightest. Blood flowed slowly across the dark, brown scorched earth, tracing twisted lines.

The lines led to the Final Codex. Now, the amber encasing the Codex was permeated by the blood, gradually shifting from a translucent red-yellow to a pure blood-red.

When the entire amber was stained red, with a snap, it shattered like falling glass. The ancient book with a black cover slowly floated up.

It opened on its own without anyone touching it. The blood on the ground was drawn upwards, and profound, blood-red characters began to appear on the blank pages. Once the last page was filled, the book closed again. A lush ancient tree appeared on the previously blank black cover. Beneath the tree was a girl, hidden in a cloak, leaning against the ancient tree, her gaze fixed outwards.

Li Wen's mind stirred, and the Final Codex immediately flipped open to a page. The abstract and profound text on it now felt more familiar to Li Wen than her native language.

She knew she had succeeded halfway.

The ritual Li Wen used was also from the Strategy Group, a ritual they called "Seven Deaths and Seven Commandments." Legend had it that in Kanan, a person exchanged seven deaths for seven vows. After the seventh vow was made, that person ascended to sainthood.

The seven cuts corresponded to the seven deaths of that saint: death by nailing through the palm, death by a severed shoulder, death by bleeding from the ankle, death by a spear piercing the abdomen, death by a hacking blow to the back, death by a heavy stone crushing the forehead, and finally, death by a cut to the heart.

The Strategy Group devised the entire ritual based on this event. It could only be used to bind the Final Codex. There were two purposes for binding: one was to use the Final Codex, and the other was to prevent the Codex from being stolen.

Performing the ritual in such a dying world was due to the latter. When the Final Codex broke free from its bindings, its power would inevitably leak out. While the Pillar Gods might not care, their Subordinate Gods, Apostles, those nameless Outer Gods, forgotten Old Gods, even Demigods, Crowned Ones, legendary Mages, and various terrifying existences from the Outer Realms... there were too many beings coveting the original codices, leaving Li Wen no choice but to be cautious.

[The Final Codex]

[Supreme Artifact - Mephisto (Li Wen)]

[The original codex recording the Lineage of the Twilight Pillar, depicting the Twilight Witch's path to godhood. It is said that obtaining the codex offers a chance to glimpse the position of a Pillar God.]

[Flip through to view the complete Lineage of the Twilight.]

The true power of this Supreme Artifact might only be glimpsed by Li Wen once she ascended higher. However, even with just the initial binding, it was enough for her to peruse the complete Lineage of the Twilight.

Since the fall of the Golden Age and the collapse of the Twilight Pillar, the Lineage of the Twilight no longer existed in the world. Apart from the Elders residing in Amber City, no one else could walk the Path of its lineage, including the End Path that the Twilight Witch had once trod.

Li Wen held the Codex, carefully flipping through its pages until she stopped upon seeing the word "End."

She first scanned it quickly, then reread it word by word with utmost seriousness.

In reality, she had already completed the binding. As long as she thought about it, the contents of the Final Codex would automatically appear in her mind.

But Li Wen savored this moment of reading. Despite the roaring flames and storms, the howling of the shattered sky, and her precarious life at a mere 1%, it still reminded her of her previous life. Back then, there was no World Tree: Origins, no Great Transmigration, no Twilight of the Apocalypse. There was only the gentle voice of her mother reading a storybook under the early spring sun, with her young siblings engrossed in the tale—a beauty that was utterly captivating.

"The complete End Path consists of twelve stages... Each stage advancement requires the use of... original codices from other Pillars?"

Li Wen broke free from her pleasant memories. She closed the book and reread it in her mind. However, the content recorded within was absolute truth. Regardless of how it was read, truth never changed.

"Each advancement on the End Path requires the original codices of other Pillars."

The Strategy Group had spent decades, and only before Li Wen used Urd's Thorn, did they hand her the strategy for obtaining the Final Codex. Now, she had to repeat this effort eleven more times.

Li Wen fell into a long silence.