Bronze Fragment

That night, after Chen Tian rescued the villagers, the High Priest was able to recover as well.

The next morning, the High Priest came looking for Chen Tian and brought him once more to the outside of the thatched hut from the previous night.

Sunlight poured down through the window made of wooden sticks, sending beams of light straight to the ground. When the door was pushed open, the hut no longer held the gloomy chill from the night before, perhaps because Chen Tian had taken control of it.

"Chen Tian, I have something to give you. Its origins are extremely strange. I suspect it doesn't belong to this world." As the High Priest spoke, she walked to a stone pedestal inside the hut and crouched down. After touching something unknown, the pedestal suddenly flashed.

Chen Tian sat on a wooden stool to the side, watching the High Priest fiddle around without asking many questions. After some time, the High Priest took a wooden box from inside and turned to bring it over to Chen Tian.

Chen Tian took a close look and discovered that the wooden box in the High Priest's hands was astonishingly ordinary! According to the practices of ages past, something ordinary on the surface surely concealed a secret of earth-shaking importance. "High Priest, what's inside this wooden box?" Chen Tian asked curiously.

The High Priest said nothing. She merely smiled faintly and handed the wooden box to Chen Tian, gesturing for him to open it himself.

Seeing the High Priest's mysterious manner, Chen Tian's curiosity grew even stronger.

Creak—

Chen Tian opened the wooden box. A fragrance instantly wafted into his face, and he cried out, "This! This! This thing is actually this ordinary!"

Inside the wooden box was a Bronze Fragment, but it had been shattered into too many pieces, making it impossible to discern anything from the patterns and markings on it.

Chen Tian was covered in black lines, and a string of curses immediately surged through his mind. What do you mean, its origins are strange?! It's obviously just a lump of scrap metal—the kind everyone would disdain even if it were tossed into the street! He examined it for quite a while, yet couldn't see anything remarkable about it at all. He could only scratch his head.

"High Priest, is this Bronze Fragment the object of strange origins you mentioned?" Chen Tian asked.

The High Priest sat beside him and slowly began explaining the origins of the Bronze Fragment.

"This fragment was passed down by my ancestors. According to my ancestor's oral instructions, this object came from beyond the heavens. When my ancestor obtained it, the Bronze Fragment was still overflowing with some kind of power."

"It was said that after my ancestor touched that power, his consciousness seemed to travel to another place. There, he encountered a mysterious person, who told my ancestor to protect this object and wait for someone to come take it away."

The High Priest continued speaking, while Chen Tian fell into deep thought. Sure enough, it's an ordinary fragment with absolutely extraordinary origins. Damn it!

"High Priest, I want to know what this place is called," Chen Tian asked. The so-called Inner Earth World was merely an explanation; its true name certainly couldn't be that simple.

Sure enough, the High Priest told Chen Tian the true name of this place.

"The place where we live is called Blue Village."

Chen Tian smiled awkwardly. "High Priest, I wasn't asking for the name of the village. I mean this entire world."

The High Priest smiled kindly and said, "Naturally, I mean the entire world."

Chen Tian paused slightly before coming to his senses. The Blue Village the High Priest spoke of referred not only to the village—the entire world was also called Blue Village.

This time, Chen Tian was even more confused.

The High Priest's eyes shifted as she looked at Chen Tian's bewildered expression and continued, "When I was young, I became the High Priest of the village. I'm familiar with everything in the village. The origins of Blue Village and the Bronze Fragment are two things I have never been able to understand."

The High Priest then smiled. "However, now that I think about it, the problem that has troubled me for so long can finally be solved today."

Chen Tian looked toward the High Priest. At that moment, her eyes were fixed straight on him.

"High Priest, is this place located in the Inner Earth World of Ten Thousand Stars?" Chen Tian probed. If that was the case, he would have a way to resolve the enormous trouble outside! Yet the High Priest shook her head with unusual firmness. "Blue Village is not the underground world of Ten Thousand Stars. The two have no connection whatsoever."

Chen Tian frowned and asked, "Then why was I able to come here from Ten Thousand Stars?"

The High Priest gave Chen Tian his answer. "Blue Village is equivalent to a small world. It's completely disconnected from Ten Thousand Stars, yet the two are linked by countless threads. When the first batch of ancestors arrived in Ten Thousand Stars, they used supreme means to place Blue Village beneath Ten Thousand Stars."

"One could say that the underground world still lies beneath Ten Thousand Stars. However, Blue Village opened up a space within that underground world, and Blue Village is located inside that space."

With that, Chen Tian finally understood what this place was.

The High Priest then explained why Chen Tian had been able to come here. Most likely, the passage connecting the two places, which the ancestors had sealed, had begun to loosen after nearly a thousand years.

The villagers of Blue Village would occasionally encounter creatures from Ten Thousand Stars that had mistakenly entered the passage. They were either humans or monsters. However, to ensure the villagers' safety, the High Priest had never offered them assistance unless they could find the village on their own. "Then, High Priest, what was your intention in giving me this Bronze Fragment?" Chen Tian asked, raising the fragment.

"Hehe." The High Priest smiled. "Protecting the fragment until its owner appears is our village's responsibility. And now I've met you, Chen Tian. I believe you are the owner of the Bronze Fragment mentioned by my ancestors!"

Chen Tian turned the fragment over and over several times. According to what the High Priest had said, when Blue Village's ancestor encountered the fragment, a mysterious person had told him to guard it until its owner appeared and took it away.

The High Priest had also said that priests could divine matters of the future, and that he himself was the owner of the Bronze Fragment she had referred to.

Thinking of this, Chen Tian found it somewhat baffling. Why is it that everywhere I go, a pile of trouble is waiting for me?! And it's never just ordinary trouble—either a heap of people will die in the future, or a heap of people are going to die later. Could it be that I'm the Heaven-Killing Lone Star???

"Phew... Fine, then I'll keep it for now." Chen Tian put the wooden box into his Ancient Ring.

Afterward, the High Priest smiled happily. One part of the responsibility she bore had finally been completed. What came next would depend on how Chen Tian proceeded.

Once everything was settled, the High Priest had originally wanted to show Chen Tian around the village and its surroundings. However, she still needed to return to care for the village and couldn't accompany him, so she took a folded sheet of yellow paper from her sleeve and handed it to Chen Tian.

Chen Tian took it and asked what it was. The High Priest smiled. "It's a map—and not just any map. It's a map of all Blue Village. Since you have nothing to do now, you can wander wherever you like according to the places marked on it."

After saying this, the High Priest walked out of the thatched hut. Chen Tian politely waved to her and was about to unfold the map when the High Priest, who had reached halfway down the path outside, turned around and warned him, "Some places in Blue Village contain arrays left behind by our ancestors, as well as certain Forbidden Lands. You must be extremely careful. Although, with your strength, they likely won't be able to harm you in the slightest."

Chen Tian smiled and nodded.

He hadn't expected the High Priest's divination abilities to be so formidable. She had even gauged his strength fairly accurately. No wonder she was so fearless.