A Yue

"I don't want it."

Jiang You refused him outright.

The High Priest took out a thick stack of I.O.U.s and lit them with a candle. "If you keep the Heart of Black Flame for me, all your previous debts of crystal cores will be wiped clean."

Jiang You laughed. "I never intended to pay them back anyway. Since you've burned the I.O.U.s, I'll admit to them even less. Tsk~"

She clapped her hands and stood up, preparing to leave. "Since you're not dead, I've paid my respects. There's still a lot to do on Longshan, so I'll be going now."

"Jiang You, after the Abyss entrance is opened, Hope Base and Number Nine City will inevitably stand against you. At that time, Tingfeng City will be like a mantis trying to stop a chariot, and its destruction will be an almost unchangeable fate."

He slowly closed his eyes, his voice deepening.

"But Dawn Tower is different. Our strength comes from the same place, and we are the most steadfast allies. If you keep the Heart of Black Flame for me, I can grant you one request. I promise you, excluding the previous debts being wiped clean, I will use my ability to predict three things for you. What do you say to this condition?"

The High Priest swallowed back a cough that was about to erupt from his throat, his dim eyes staring intently at the woman before him through the silver mask.

Jiang You's current appearance reminded him of another cruel and cunning fox. Once, she too had stood before him so vibrantly, lightly tearing apart his original beliefs. He had once thought that fox would accompany him to the very end, but who knew... In the fox's eyes, the rabbit was merely a link in the food chain.

"You remind me of someone."

"Nonsense, if I don't look like a person, do I look like a god? I'm not a weasel."

Jiang You rolled her eyes at him, cutting off the High Priest's burgeoning sentimentality with a single sentence.

"Honestly, your offer is quite tempting. But..."

"But what?"

Jiang You continued, "There's something I don't understand. First, you had September pretend to betray me and send the Heart of Black Flame into my hands. When that plan failed, you're now coming to me directly, face-to-face, insisting on giving me the Heart of Black Flame. Why? I want to know the reason."

"As I said, my ability is prediction, and to a certain extent, it can also be foresight. However, the fragments I see are incomplete, so I don't know the cause or effect. I need to open the Abyss, but I don't know the way."

"Your ability comes from the Abyss, yet you say you can't open it? Isn't that contradictory?" Jiang You asked coldly. "If you can't open the Abyss, then how did you enter it and gain power before? Are you taking me for a fool?"

"No, I'm not lying to you." The High Priest continued, "The bald man you brought is extraordinary. I imagine he has already told you about the origin of my power. I can use the Heart of Black Flame to replicate the abilities of Abyss creatures onto humans, but while possessing the power, the person granted the energy will also begin to be eroded by the black flame. Once the usage limit of the energy is reached, they will be assimilated by the black flame. The reason I was able to obtain Abyss materials back then wasn't because I entered the Abyss. It was because someone provided these things to me."

"Who?"

"A Yue." The High Priest's voice was filled with endless nostalgia.

If you find this book good, remember to add it to your bookshelf to avoid losing it next time.

Suddenly, Jiang You became interested in the A Yue the High Priest mentioned. Judging by the name, it was a woman.

"She said her name was A Yue. When I met her, I was being chased by a group of people. It wasn't until after the apocalypse that I realized that when humans reach their limit of hunger, they shed their rationality and become beasts again. Those people were starving; they ate people. First, they ate the rotten flesh of zombies, and later, after discovering that zombie flesh was inedible and carried corpse poison, they turned their attention to their own kind. They ate their weaker, injured companions first, and then they set their sights on passersby. I went out to find food, only to nearly become food myself. It was then that I met A Yue. She said she didn't like her original name; she liked moonlight, so she called herself A Yue."

"She simply stood there and waved her hand, and those people left as if they couldn't see us. She gave me the Heart of Black Flame, and she accompanied me step by step in establishing Dawn Tower."

"She was very special. Her thoughts were always strange. She said there was nothing wrong with cannibalism, just like animals; in extreme hunger, they wouldn't waste any protein."

She couldn't kill the lion pride just because she pitied the rabbit being preyed upon.

"Nature is fair; the food chain must cycle."

"I asked her why she saved me, and she said that for a moment, her heart softened towards the rabbit, so she drove away the lions."

"As Dawn Tower grew larger and larger, A Yue went out for longer and longer periods. I could feel that she was going to leave, but no one could stop her footsteps."

"She said humans were facing a catastrophe."

"I thought she was talking about the apocalypse, but I later realized she wasn't."

At this point, the High Priest looked at Jiang You, his eyes churning with suppressed emotions.

He asked Jiang You, "I saw it, fragments of the future, that's why I know why A Yue left."

"What did you see?" Jiang You asked.

"Destruction, complete annihilation..." the High Priest's voice turned cold.

"Zombies are just the beginning. I saw countless fragments: massive volcanic eruptions, mountains collapsing, tectonic plates colliding, sea levels surging wildly, the entire world seemed like it was about to explode.

Then, there was a brand new continent, all the plates connected, forming a continent filled with terrifying rifts and countless monsters.

Full of monsters and aliens.

Eyes as dark as night were swallowed by the tide, never to see another dawn."

"What does this have to do with you finding the Abyss?"

Jiang You thought for a moment and asked, "Are you trying to replicate abilities for all of humanity through the Heart of Black Flame? That's simply wishful thinking."

"No, as long as we open the Abyss and let its aura completely permeate the surface, we will achieve a new evolution.

Only by evolving to be stronger can we drive away aliens and monsters with our blades."

"Do you know about the Cambrian?"

The High Priest suddenly asked.

Jiang You replied, "I've heard of it, but I don't know much."

The High Priest continued, "Records show that almost all major biological groups experienced a boom in development within a few million years during the Cambrian period, about 500 million years ago. This is the so-called Cambrian explosion of life.

Many people believe this period is just the fantasy of some scientific fanatics, but many others believe the Cambrian period truly existed."

Jiang You didn't know why he was suddenly lecturing her, but she wisely didn't interrupt his narrative.

Listening to the High Priest, she felt like things were about to be revealed.

"Jiang You, what do you think?"

"I think you're building up to it a bit too much. Get to the point quickly," Jiang You said.