An Industrial Revolution Two Thousand Years Early?

'Soul of this person could not be detected'

That was the response she received once again.

What was going on? Could it be that after entering the portal, they had been reduced to ashes as well?

She then switched to someone else.

'Soul of this person could not be detected'

'Soul of this person could not be detected'

'Soul of this person could not be detected'

'Soul of this person could not be detected'

'Soul of this person could not be detected'

"Were they all silenced?"

After checking five people in succession and receiving the same response every time, Brunhilde's heart sank.

The next second, she directly performed large-scale so-called facial recognition on the several hundred people who had just entered the portal, then summoned them all at once.

The result was—

'Soul of this person could not be detected'...'Soul of this person could not be detected'

The densely packed pop-up windows were all filled with the same message, making cold sweat run down her face.

Had the souls of several hundred subordinates been completely destroyed? Was Western Chu Hegemon King Xiang Yu truly that brutal?

If he really was that brutal, then some of the written records might actually have been true.

According to those written records, whenever Xiang Yu led his army to conquer a city, he would often commit acts of utter madness—the massacre of an entire city.

With a thought, Brunhilde summoned a group of people: black-armored soldiers clad from head to toe.

After identifying them, she summoned them again.

'Soul of this person could not be detected'.

The result was still the same. Those black-armored soldiers had been dealt with too?

"Big Sister, could they have been blocked after entering that portal?"

Lantigreese, who had remained silent, proposed that possibility.

"How could they possibly be blocked? This is the call of the world's Akasha System. So long as they exist in this world, in this universe, no matter how well they hide, it is impossible for them not to be summoned. There is only one reason there would be no response—their souls have been utterly shattered, beyond even the possibility of resurrection. Only then would there be no response."

Brunhilde's voice was loud and somewhat excessive, as though she found her sister's foolish hypothesis especially laughable.

Yet in truth, she had entertained the same thought as Lantigreese. She simply refused to believe it, and could not bring herself to.

Because it was an impossible fact. This was Akasha, after all, the record of everything in the universe.

Anything that existed in this universe would be recorded within the Akashic Records.

Besides, did these people not have records of their activities throughout history? That proved they had truly existed in this world.

Since they had existed in this world, so long as their souls had not been completely shattered for some reason after death, they could certainly be summoned through the Akashic Records.

If they could not be summoned, then it meant their souls had shattered and become dust in the universe. That was why their souls could not be detected.

What? Could their souls have somehow leaped beyond the universe in which the Akashic Records existed?

That was even more impossible!

Absolutely impossible!

The only explanation for such a result was that someone had committed the brutal act of annihilating souls on a massive scale in order to conceal something beyond imagination.

By that logic, the number of erased souls probably far exceeded Brunhilde's expectations.

Taking a deep breath, Brunhilde called up a complex interface and rapidly tapped away at it with both hands.

At that moment, she looked as though she had become a hacker.

Finally, after she slammed down on a button, more windows popped up, and vast amounts of data flooded across the screen.

At the same time, Brunhilde's eyes darted rapidly back and forth.

'Soul of this person could not be detected'

'Soul of this person was detected'

'Soul of this person could not be detected'

'Soul of this person was detected'...

The more information that appeared, the more terrified Brunhilde became. There was truly so much of it that her scalp went numb.

Right now, she was filtering a specific span of time: from 259 BC to 202 BC. Both dates held significance.

The former was the year the First Emperor had been born, while the latter was the recorded year of Western Chu Hegemon King's death.

Her sixth sense told her that the two had some unknown connection, which was why she had chosen that time period for the search. As expected, the results sent a chill through her.

She conducted a comprehensive census of the people in that Eastern nation during that era. A huge number of souls could not be detected—not just soldiers, but countless ordinary civilians as well.

The periods in which souls vanished in massive numbers almost all coincided with large-scale wars near the end of the Warring States period.

Hm? Some were not from the Warring States period. They were from the time when the Qin Dynasty was established. During one particular period, the number of vanished souls was the most horrifying of all—more than a million souls had abruptly disappeared.

That period seemed to coincide exactly with the First Emperor's order to build the Great Wall.

At that moment, Brunhilde's scalp tingled.

She thought of something: the First Emperor had also pursued immortality and divinity. Could he have strayed onto some forbidden path?

And that forbidden path required a vast number of souls. Was that why so many people's souls had completely vanished—because they had been sacrificed?

And if he could erase human souls on such a massive scale, then it proved the First Emperor possessed power beyond humanity.

If that was the case, how could the Qin Dynasty have collapsed so suddenly? Moreover, Xiang Yu had been one of the main forces that overthrew the Qin Dynasty.

If the two truly had a connection, then perhaps the collapse of the Qin Dynasty had been deliberate, meant to conceal something while they lay low in secret.

She adjusted the historical time node she intended to enter once more—the period when the Great Wall was being built. Brunhilde intended to take a look at that era.

Confirmed!

However, another anomaly appeared.

An Industrial Revolution Two Thousand Years Early?

She should have arrived at the historical time node Brunhilde had selected after confirming it.

At that moment, the original image in her vision should have been flooded with unimaginable colors, as though she were looking through a soap bubble into a mysterious, multicolored world.

And when she confirmed the jump, that scene did indeed appear—but it vanished in an instant, like a soap bubble being punctured.

At the same time, Brunhilde felt a faint tremor.

How should she put it? It was as though she had just started a car and driven forward, only for some force to seize it and drag her back to where she had started.

Thus, after the incredible colors disappeared, the place that entered her sight once again was still the bank of the Wujiang. In other words, she had not left the original point in time?

No, she had moved. She had advanced a little.

What should have been before her now was the King of Han's army falling into chaos because Xiang Yu's body had suddenly collapsed. Yet the King of Han's army was nowhere to be seen.

Instead, before her stood the portal, the black-armored soldiers, and Western Chu Hegemon King Xiang Yu.

In other words, had she gone back to an image from more than ten minutes earlier?

Wait, no. Brunhilde's pupils contracted as she noticed something out of place.

First of all, why was Xiang Yu missing?

Wait, was he not right there in her field of vision? Why would she say that?

Because there should have been two Xiang Yus: one artificial human, and one true body. Yet there was only one figure now. That figure seemed to be the artificial human, so where was the true body?

She scanned her surroundings, but could not see the body anywhere.

And where was the crate? The crate that had originally carried the artificial human's body was nowhere in sight either.

Could it be that the image had not gone backward at all? Perhaps after fast-forwarding for a while, the portal had opened here again, and their group had come out once more.

Yes, that was probably it.

"B-Big Sister!"

Lantigreese let out a trembling cry of disbelief. Her eyes were wide as she stared in one direction, as though she had discovered something unimaginable.

What was it?

Looking over, Brunhilde finally realized what the slightly strange black object she had caught in the corner of her eye was.

It was a ship!

But what was so shocking about a ship?

If it had been an ordinary ship, there would have been nothing worth seeing. The problem was that this was not a ship that should have existed in this era.

It was a steam-powered ship, a product that should only have emerged after the First Industrial Revolution.

And there was not just one ship docked at the riverbank. Several more transport ships were moving upstream, carrying something.

"Woooo—!"

The whistle had not come from a ship, but from land. Following the sound, they looked in that direction.

The sight that entered Brunhilde's vision stunned her again. A steam locomotive, billowing vapor, rumbled toward a bridge spanning the river.

"Big Sister, it's currently 202 BC, right? Not the eighteenth century?"

Lantigreese spoke again in a daze.

The history before them was far too abnormal. The Industrial Revolution, which should not have begun until the eighteenth century, had started before the Common Era?

That was two thousand years early!

Something had to be wrong, right?

Such an obvious historical anomaly could not possibly have been concealed. Yet they had never heard of anything like this.

It was utterly bizarre, making even Lantigreese feel uneasy.

Now, Lantigreese could perhaps somewhat understand Goll's inexplicable terror.

So while feeling unsettled, Lantigreese also wondered what Goll had seen during the two previous times she had followed their sister.

"Big Sister?"

Only then did Lantigreese notice the panic on Brunhilde's face. She looked completely flustered, as though she did not know what to do.

Her sister had been even more shocked than she was?

Could it be that Brunhilde had discovered something even more horrifying through the Akashic Records?

"B-Big Sister!"

Her face had gone pale, as though she had suffered an unimaginable blow. She looked utterly dazed.

"What is it, Big Sister?"

"—I can't contact the Akasha System!"

Brunhilde's voice trembled with fear. That was why she looked so helpless.

When Lantigreese asked to confirm the time, Brunhilde had discovered in horror that she could no longer call up the Akasha System. No matter how she called for it, there was no response, and she could not sense it at all.

It was like playing a virtual reality game and suddenly having one's consciousness trapped inside it. Without being able to call up the system, one could not log out and would be trapped in the virtual game forever.

"Big Sister, they seem to be able to see us!"

At that moment, Lantigreese noticed something even stranger. The black-armored soldiers were all staring at them with sharp eyes.

As though they had suddenly spotted assassins, they drew their weapons and charged over, half-encircling the two women.

And the weapons in their hands were not swords or sabers, but muskets?

Of course, such muskets were only threatening to ordinary humans. They were Valkyries. Though not true gods, they were still demigods, and human weapons like these could not harm them.

Normally, there would have been no need to worry. But given the bizarre situation they were facing, especially with the artificial human Western Chu Hegemon King Xiang Yu, they could not help feeling that he possessed the power to threaten them.

"Fall back!"