New Era 0324.
The Tuna Family began dabbling in politics, investing in the New Emperor of Ghost Country—the thirteen-year-old Young Ghost Empress.
They began helping the New Emperor unite her old forces, using their immense wealth to help the New Emperor, who had inherited power but remained weak, quell the internal strife. Miss Zhong's younger brother became the country's Minister of Finance as a result.
New Era 0327.
Stone Light Emperor Changshou had been gone for far, far too long.
Everyone knew that, in such circumstances, he could not have been far from death.
The Blessing Shaman swallowed wind and consumed qi, but his body was no different from a mortal's frail body. Without treatment, he would die.
"After so many years, if he'd recovered, he definitely would have returned to attack City of a Hundred Stones. But he didn't."
"He's dead."
"He must be dead."
Over the years, countless people had speculated, and panic had spread.
Without Kingship, the Slave Dynasty was doomed!
And on this day, the Slave Dynasty finally discovered Stone Light Emperor Changshou's remains.
Everything had finally been settled.
This once-glorious strongest emperor had actually died on a mountain in a remote village, in a cave where no one had ever paid attention.
"His injuries could clearly still have been treated. There's a village right below the mountain."
The middle-aged traveler from back then had aged considerably. His hair had turned gray. He lowered his head and studied the remains seriously. "But even though he died of severe injuries, this man who trusted no one still clung to his principles to the very end, refusing to ask anyone for help."
"He didn't have the heart to care about his country and the world, either."
He spoke unhurriedly. "If he had even a little conscience, he would have known to pass Kingship on before his death, even if the recipient were merely a fool or a child by the roadside."
The middle-aged man revealed a trace of mockery. "I admit that he was talented, and in a sense, truly a ruthless hero! Yet he chose to drown in his dream of longevity and immortality while clinging to his selfishness!"
"King."
The people beside him looked desperate.
This was the worst possible outcome.
This arrogant and presumptuous tyrant would rather die than place Kingship in their hands—or appoint the next King and let his power disperse into the world.
"Time waits for no one. My fortune truly is terrible."
Suddenly, he lowered his head and looked at the corpse. Even in death, Stone Light Emperor Changshou's hand had grasped a weed, like a drowning man clinging to his final hope.
The species of this weed seemed strangely familiar.
He vaguely sensed something stirring in his mind. Doubts circled there, yet he could not figure them out.
"What exactly was it? What had he seen before his death? Or what had he been searching for?" He paced away, suddenly seized by the intense feeling that if he could break through that layer of secret fog, God of Destiny would truly open its arms to him, and he would step into the ranks of the next immortal emperor.
"What exactly was it?"
New Era 0299.
The New Emperor of Ghost Country paid a private visit to Tuna Port.
The empress stepped onto an island. In the distance stood an exquisite and magnificent castle, with luxurious stained-glass windows and a gigantic Tuna Clock Tower rising along the coastline at the island's edge.
"No wonder your family is called the 'Ocean Clock.' You're rich enough to rival a nation. My country is short on funds right now—compared with you, we're far too poor." The young empress sighed in admiration.
"Your Majesty flatters us."
The little girl from back then, Zhong Qingyu, had already entered middle age.
They walked through a corridor lined on both sides with magnificent carvings inlaid with jewels. Oil paintings brimming with artistic flair hung all around them.
"This is Mr. Li Su of Bronze Jingshan Temple's painting, Tyrant Close to God. It depicts the scene of that battle amid wind and sand—the Battle of the Gurbantünggüt Desert, when three factions fought."
"And this is the final sculpture of Mr. Yin Zhu, who died thirty years ago, Slave Laborer A Da."
"This is the longsword forged by the weapons master Lin Qingzheng!"
The empress had received the finest education in the world since childhood. Every work displayed here was a rare treasure seldom seen, and even her imperial palace did not possess such a rich collection.
The port truly was a prosperous place.
Countless treasures and merchants passed through here. Controlling it was equivalent to controlling the world's central trade route.
"Not at all." Zhong Qingyu shook her head. She was no longer the girl who had embraced dreams and romantic hopes. She was now a politician, the leader of a family rich enough to rival a nation.
Instead, Zhong Qingyu looked at the barely teenage girl before her with a trace of envy. "To you, even the wealthiest mortal is nothing more than a green bug whose juices you could easily squeeze out with a thought."
The Young Ghost Empress shook her head. "Our power has weakened with every inheritance, yet we can't find a way forward. If this continues, there won't be a living being in the world capable of sensing qi."
The Three Hundred Empresses of God?
She remembered records from more than two centuries ago. It had been a mysterious era.
They continued walking and looking around, and the Young Ghost Empress was deeply astonished.
She saw countless treasures, even relics of the Old Civilization Being: iron boxes filled with intricate components called radios, as well as all kinds of mechanical creations from the old era. She was left speechless with wonder. The Young Ghost Empress even had the urge to kill this family, confiscate all their wealth, and fill the empty national treasury!
"Unfortunately, I can't. If I treated loyal ministers who had done everything they could to support me this way right after ascending the throne, I wouldn't be far from losing my country." As the Young Ghost Empress walked, she suddenly saw an unsigned oil painting.
It depicted a man with a tear mole strolling leisurely through a port at dusk, gazing at the blue sea as endless ocean winds swept past him.
The familiar face stirred the Young Ghost Empress. She still remembered a simple sketch preserved in a frame deep within the palace. It had been left behind by the Two Empresses of Ghost Country, the founders of Ghost Country.
The sketch showed an elegant man, also bearing a tear mole, who had saved the two of them.
Above the portrait, the two founding empresses had written:
"We did not know his origins or background back then. We only found him astonishing and mysterious, and made him our idol. The sisters discussed him day and night, our hearts beginning to stir. But after the Great Destruction, when we recalled everything that had happened, the two of us realized the immense terror hidden within it."
"That day, he had actually been using the power of the Blessing Shaman to drive away bandits and swallow wind and consume qi. He had mastered it long before the three hundred of us!"
"If the three hundred of us were called the Three Hundred Empresses of God by the people, then the Old Civilization Being that had mastered this power before us might well have been that god."
These old records might have been the closest thing to the truth of the world!
And the bloodline of the Ghost Royal Family was the one closest to the hidden truth of this world.
They had speculated countless times. Since the mysterious man had met their two ancestors, it was only reasonable that he might also have met the remaining 298 people during the distant years of the old era's disaster.
That was the connection. The god might truly have existed throughout history.
Recalling scene after scene, the Young Ghost Empress could not help pointing at the elegant man with the tear mole in the oil painting and saying, "God!"
"What?" Zhong Qingyu did not understand.
"Nothing." The Young Ghost Empress quickly recovered and asked calmly, "Which great artist left this painting? I can't believe I didn't recognize it."
Seeing the Young Ghost Empress lose her composure, Zhong Qingyu suddenly understood. She looked at the tear mole symbolizing divine authority on the Young Ghost Empress's face, and an unbelievable thought connected everything—the god, that man...
She naturally would not admit that she had painted it. Instead, she deliberately said flatly, "It was left behind by a port merchant who owed debts. We don't know who the artist was. The composition was quite good, so we kept it."
"Oh." The Young Ghost Empress was somewhat unwilling to give up.
They soon invited the current emperor to lunch.
The dishes were exceptionally sumptuous, filled with delicacies from land and sea, and the silver tableware was arranged with perfect propriety.
After the meal, Zhong Qingyu hurried back to the secret room in her quarters and carried out a lush green plant she had carefully tended.
"Wow, the pretty big sister is here to visit me at the usual time again."
"But the pretty big sister has grown old. She loses a little of her youthfulness every year. Now she's full of mature charm. Look at that big butt—she must be over thirty, right?"
"I have to rave about this Self-Healing Aesthetic Game. The Development Team put so much thought into it. My scenario should be a stop-motion film where I'm a plant accompanying the girl who visits me every day as she grows up, becomes an adult, ages, turns into a grandmother, and finally gets buried, right?"
"What a fantastic creative and beautiful concept! As expected of Mortal World—watching a human lifetime from the perspective of a plant."
He was still praising it.
But in the next second, the woman hesitated briefly before pulling him up by the roots and gently parting her vermilion lips to reveal a mouthful of silver teeth.
"Oh, is she going to kiss me?"
"Wow, wow, wow, wow! This is practically an erotic bonus scene!!!"
"Wait!" He quickly sensed that something was wrong as a bloody maw lunged at him.
He murmured, and then suddenly realized everything.
I'm being eaten?
What the hell? This is supposed to be a healing game?
This is a horror game!
His consciousness grew completely hazy. He was probably about to fall asleep, right?
"Holy crap! This works too? As expected of the Development Team. I get it now!"
"There's actually a way to sleep like this? It's a variation of that medicine-pounding scene from before."
"I love it, I love it!"
Zhong Qingyu discovered that after eating that medicinal herb, she had gained some kind of mysterious power. It was as if she had pried open the Gate of Heaven and Earth, and the entire world had become different.
At dusk, she climbed to the attic and pushed open the window. The salty sea wind poured into the room. The view of the sea outside was beautiful. Between heaven and earth, above the ocean, wisps of qi drifted through the air, beautiful beyond anything found in the mortal world.
"So this is the world?"