A Yue

"I don't want it."

Jiang You refused without hesitation.

The High Priest took out a thick stack of IOUs and set them alight over the candle flame. "You keep the Heart of Black Flame for me, and all the crystal cores you owed me before will be written off."

Jiang You laughed. "I never planned to repay them anyway. Now that you've burned the IOUs, I'm even less likely to acknowledge them. Heh~"

She clapped her hands, stood up, and was about to leave. "Since you're not dead yet, I've paid my respects. There's still plenty to deal with on the Longshan side, so I'll be leaving first."

"Jiang You, after the Abyss entrance is opened, whether it's Hope Base or Number Nine City, both are destined to stand against you. By then, Tingfeng City will be like a mantis trying to stop a chariot. Its destruction will be an almost unchangeable fate."

He slowly closed his eyes, his voice deepening.

"But Dawn Tower is different. Our power comes from the same source. We are the firmest of allies.

"If you help me safeguard the Heart of Black Flame, I can promise you one thing.

"Aside from writing off everything you owed before, I promise to use my abilities to predict three things for you.

"How does that sound?"

The High Priest forcibly swallowed the cough that was about to burst from his throat. Through the silver mask, his dim gaze stared fixedly at the woman before him.

Jiang You's appearance at that moment reminded him of another cruel and cunning fox.

Once, she had also stood so vividly before him, effortlessly tearing apart his original beliefs.

He had once thought that fox would accompany him all the way to the end, but who could have known...

It turned out that in the fox's eyes, the rabbit was merely one item on the menu.

"You're very much like someone."

"What nonsense. If I don't look like a person, what else could I look like—a god? I'm not some weasel spirit."

Jiang You rolled her eyes at him, and a single sentence choked back all the sentiment the High Priest had been feeling.

"To be honest, your offer is rather tempting. But..."

"But what?"

Jiang You said, "There's something I can't figure out. First, you had Jiu Yue pretend to betray you and deliver the Heart of Black Flame into my hands. When that plan failed, you actually came straight out and handed it to me personally.

"You're determined to put the Heart of Black Flame in my hands.

"Why?

"I want to know the reason."

"I told you before: my ability is prediction. To a certain extent, it can also be considered precognition.

"But the fragments I see are incomplete, so I don't know their cause and effect.

"I need to open the Abyss, but I don't know how."

"Your ability comes from the Abyss, yet you claim you can't open it. Isn't that contradictory?"

Jiang You said coldly, "If you can't open the Abyss, then how did you enter it before and obtain your power? Do you take me for a fool you can deceive?"

"No, I didn't deceive you."

The High Priest said, "That bald man you brought with you has an extraordinary background. I imagine he's already told you where my power came from.

"Through the Heart of Black Flame, I can copy the abilities of Abyss species onto humans. But while gaining power, those who receive the energy also begin to be eroded by black flame. Once the number of times they use the energy reaches its limit, they will be assimilated by the black flame.

"Back then, I obtained the Abyss substance not because I entered the Abyss.

"Someone provided those things to me."

"Who?"

"A Yue."

The High Priest's voice was filled with boundless longing.

Jiang You suddenly became interested in the A Yue he was talking about. From the name, it sounded like a woman.

"She said her name was A Yue. When I met her, I was being hunted by a group of people.

"It was only after the apocalypse that I learned that when humans reached the limits of hunger, they could lose their reason and become beasts once more.

"Those people had gone mad from hunger. They ate humans. At first, they ate the rotten flesh of zombies. Later, after discovering that zombie flesh was impossible to swallow and carried corpse poison, they turned their attention to their own kind.

"They first ate the weaker and injured members of their group, then turned their attention to passersby.

"I went out to look for food, never expecting that I would nearly become food myself.

"That was when I met A Yue.

"She said she didn't like her original name. She liked moonlight, so she called herself A Yue."

"She merely stood there and gave a casual wave of her hand. Those people left as though they couldn't see us.

"She gave me the Heart of Black Flame, and she was also the one who accompanied me as I built Dawn Tower step by step."

"She was very special. The thoughts in her head were always strange and unconventional. She said there was nothing wrong with humans eating humans. Like animals, when faced with extreme hunger, they wouldn't waste any protein.

"She couldn't kill an entire pride of lions just because she pitied the rabbit being hunted.

"Nature was fair. The food chain had to continue."

"I asked her why she had saved me. She said it was because, at one particular moment, she had softened toward the rabbit, so she drove away the pride of lions."

"As Dawn Tower grew larger and larger, A Yue spent more and more time away. I could feel that she was going to leave, but no one could stop her steps."

"She said humanity was facing a catastrophe."

"I thought she was talking about the apocalypse, but only later did I learn that she wasn't."

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

He asked Jiang You, "I saw fragments of the future. That was how I learned why A Yue had left."

"What did you see?" Jiang You asked.

"Destruction. Complete annihilation..." The High Priest's voice turned icy.

"Zombies were only the beginning. I saw countless fragments: massive volcanic eruptions, mountains collapsing and the earth splitting apart, tectonic plates colliding, sea levels surging madly. The entire world seemed about to explode.

"Then there was a brand-new continent, with all the plates connected into one, forming a land filled with terrifying ravines and countless monsters.

"It was full of monsters and alien races.

"Eyes like the night were submerged by the tides, destined never to see the next dawn."

"What does that have to do with your search for the Abyss?"

Jiang You thought for a moment before asking, "Could it be that you want to use the Heart of Black Flame to copy abilities for all of humanity? That's simply absurd."

"No. As long as we open the Abyss and allow its aura to spread completely across the surface, we will complete a new evolution of the self.

"Only by evolving to become stronger can we drive away the alien races and monsters with butcher's knives."

"Do you know about the Cambrian?"

The High Priest suddenly asked her.

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

The High Priest said, "According to historical records, almost all major biological groups underwent explosive development within the few million years of the Cambrian, approximately five hundred million years ago. This was the so-called Cambrian Explosion.

"Many people believe that this period was nothing more than the delusion of a group of mad scientists, but many others believe that the Cambrian truly existed."

Jiang You didn't know why he had suddenly started lecturing her, but she tactfully didn't interrupt him.

As she listened to the High Priest, she had a feeling that certain truths were about to emerge.

"Jiang You, what do you think?"

"I think you've laid the groundwork for too long. Hurry up and get to the point," Jiang You said.