The Eastern Continent had an extraordinarily long history. On this weathered land, countless beings had been born and died, heroes from every corner had risen and fallen, and dynasty after dynasty had flourished and perished. The dark clouds of war and slaughter had hung over it since ancient times, and by now, the Eastern Continent was scarred from end to end.
There was no need to go into the Primordial War of Gods and Demons. Those fellows had already smashed the Northern and Southern Continents to pieces... Hmm, to use the more technical term, they had become "archipelagos."
The eastern and western continents had been lucky enough to survive. Under the gods' protection, their inhabitants had been able to recuperate, and little by little, their strength had returned. The various races had established powerful empires and lived peacefully alongside one another.
Such was the way of the world: long divided, it must unite; long united, it must divide.
With the outbreak of war among the three great empires of humanity, the curtain had finally begun to rise on the historically renowned "Age of Chaos."
The flames of war had swept across both continents. Humans, orcs, elves, dragonkin... Not a single race had escaped. After all, this world had been quiet for far too long...
When Ye Fengxing had first read the background fiction for Chronicles of the Sky, he had been utterly engrossed. He loved those sweeping epic tales, especially the section about the Age of Chaos.
Ye Fengxing had no idea who the fellow who wrote the background fiction was, but he really liked his style. Unfortunately, the man had written only the "Ancient War" and "Age of Chaos" installments. One glance at the later installments made it obvious that someone else had written them. Left with no other choice, Ye Fengxing could only return to savoring the first two.
The Age of Chaos had lasted neither a particularly long nor a particularly short time-roughly three hundred years, all told. During that period, the various races had alternated between war and peace. Really, a hundred-odd years of fighting should have been enough for everyone, but then a fellow called the "Lich King" had appeared out of nowhere...
In life, he had been a world-renowned Archmage who had left behind countless legends. People had called him "the man closest to godhood."
Yet this very man had miraculously "returned to life" after his death, leading hordes of "Necromancers" that swept like dark clouds, like a surging tide, toward the homeland he had cherished most in life...
Necromancers were terrifying "living creatures"! They were synonymous with death and disaster! They were called living creatures because they could run, jump, and kill... Yet many throughout history had refused to recognize them as living creatures, for they were "monsters" that had crawled out of graves, "things" that had already died.
Almost no one knew why Necromancers had appeared. All anyone knew was that the resurrected Lich King had brought his "subjects," his army.
Necromancers could turn the bodies of dead beings into their own kind. Whether you had been a human, an orc, an elf, a dragonkin, or anything else in life, once you died, they could turn your remains into a killing machine that obeyed the Lich King's commands and transformed still more living beings into their kind!
The appearance of these "things" had undoubtedly overturned everything people thought they knew, unleashing an unprecedented wave of terror!
At their height, the Necromancers' influence had spread across both the eastern and western continents. Every race had suffered terribly at their hands! The trouble was, there was simply no end to them. Even if you killed ten thousand in a battle, you would lose eight thousand of your own, wouldn't you? Afterward, they could find some broken bones and rotten flesh on the battlefield, patch themselves up, and be good as new! A few incantations later, they had another eight thousand fresh troops! How was anyone supposed to fight that?
The various races could endure no more. They could only lay down their arms for the time being, unite, and face the tide of Necromancers together.
At the time, the Church of Light had led the various races, and its leader had been the reigning Pope-His Holiness Joshen Cindrich VII.
In life, the Lich King had been known as "the man closest to godhood." That had not merely been a flattering title, but an acknowledgment of his power! The old fellow's mastery of magic had been unrivaled in his age. With a simple gesture, he could split mountains and sever rivers. People generally called such ridiculously powerful figures "demigods"!
His Holiness Joshen Cindrich VII had also been a "demigod," and in his younger days, his fame had rivaled the Lich King's. But he was the Pope, and fighting and killing were hardly papal duties. As the saying went, those who held office should attend to its affairs. After taking office, His Holiness Cindrich had devoted himself to the Church's internal and external affairs and largely stopped appearing in public, so his renown had gradually faded.
Ordinary people could not deal with a heavyweight on the level of a demigod. His Holiness Cindrich had to take action himself. In this hour of crisis, the various races had no choice but to close ranks and, under the Church of Light's leadership, fight the tide of Necromancers to the death!
The account of the final battle had not actually been very detailed. After all, it was an epic, and an epic was a solemn literary form. It could hardly be as vivid, exciting, and exhaustive as a novel. In any case, the ultimate result had been this: His Holiness Cindrich VII had led the various races to rout the tide of Necromancers, personally fought the Lich King atop Aiska Snowpeak, and slain that fiend of boundless evil, and so on.
How could anything personally inscribed by His Holiness Joshen Cindrich VII possibly be ordinary?
Ye Fengxing did not quite understand what the writing on this damned scrap of cloth meant, but one thing was certain: something like this appearing so early in the game was absolutely not normal!
Could this be that supposed "thing that Martin brat stole"? Someone began carefully recalling what old Aston had said... The old fellow did seem to have mentioned something like that. Yet the original quest objective had merely been to find "Deserter · Martinst," so what had old Aston meant by deliberately mentioning it?
Damn! This could be a hidden quest!
After a moment's thought, Ye Fengxing reached that conclusion.
He already had the goods, and this was certainly no place to linger. If he did not leave now, what was he waiting for?
Someone picked up the scroll and the scrap of cloth again. He really could not tell whether there was anything mysterious about that rag. But looking at it the other way, would those quest designers have put a scrap of cloth in the chest for no reason? Just to line the bottom?
Well... Obviously not! Those scheming bastards had surely laid some trap and were waiting for players to walk right into it.
At that thought, Ye Fengxing's hand involuntarily trembled... Goddammit, with this scroll sitting here so openly, could it be the "trigger" for a trap?
Reverse thinking-the easier something was to get, the less likely it was to be anything good!
Ye Fengxing knew Blue Star's designers all too well. After all, those bastards had screwed him over countless times before. If he still had not learned his lesson, he hardly deserved to call himself Ye Fengxing.
Viewed that way, the scroll became a dangerous object, while something as inconspicuous as the scrap of cloth was much more likely to be a "treasure." Still, the scroll was an orange item, whereas the rag... Hmm, Ye Fengxing had already checked it. It was nothing but gray-quality trash, vendor fodder.
Rubbing his temples lightly, Ye Fengxing suddenly smiled. He reached out and put the scroll back in the chest, then leisurely began channeling his return to town...
Blue Star Entertainment headquarters, on an island somewhere in the Pacific.
Bright sunlight streamed through the broad panes of K-4 reinforced glass, illuminating the spacious, simply furnished office. Pale blue smoke curled upward in front of a luxurious executive chair, occasionally forming perfectly round smoke rings that betrayed its occupant's contented mood.
Suddenly, someone knocked on the door. The rhythm was steady, the volume just right.
"Come in," said the person in the chair... His voice was rich and deep, with an alluring resonance much like that of a late-night radio host.
The young man who entered had fair skin and blond hair. Dressed in a loose designer tracksuit, he looked bright and energetic. The moment he came in, he said urgently, "Boss, someone completed the hidden quest in the [Dust of History] quest chain."
"Oh?" The "boss" responded mildly, then asked, "How did he do it? What's his name?"
The blond young man closed the door and immediately rattled off an explanation, concluding, "According to my investigation, he didn't use any methods that violated the rules."
"You still haven't told me his name." The man in the chair spoke evenly, giving no indication of pleasure or anger.
The blond young man hesitated, then said, "It's One Leaf Windwalk."
"Oh." The man in the chair gave a brief acknowledgment, then said nothing more.
Unsure what his boss was thinking and having received no specific instructions, the blond young man could only remain where he was and share the silence.
After a long while, the man in the chair suddenly said, "You said... he only took the 'Book of the Dead,' and didn't take the 'Scroll of Holy Radiance'?"
"Yes."
"Go check whether he did any similar quests during the closed beta."
"Boss, I already checked. He didn't."
"Oh." The man in the chair fell silent again. This "boss" knew perfectly well how difficult the quest was. Though it might not appear particularly remarkable, it was actually riddled with obstacles.
First, the quest had no clear instructions. Based on nothing more than a single remark from their class mentor, players had to work out its deeper meaning themselves before they could make the correct judgment.
Second, finding the quest location was another obstacle. Anyone who was not exceptionally observant would never find that cave. Even if they did, successfully climbing up to it with the abilities players had early in the game was practically impossible.
Third, even if they got inside, all those level-fifty and level-sixty monsters were no pushovers. Even sneaking in with a stealth class would not be very effective. After all, the level disadvantage was far too pronounced, and the monsters could easily spot "small fry" barely above level ten. There were very few people who could use Blink and Wind Veil as precisely as a certain someone had.
Fourth, the Jade Platform was huge. Who would run laps around it in a place like that for no reason? Someone had only been running to avoid being spotted by the monsters. In his desperation, how could he worry about direction? He simply ran wherever took him farther from the monsters... That was how he had stumbled behind the bone chair and happened to spot that glimmer from the Scroll of Holy Radiance. It had been sheer dumb luck.
Fifth, "lichwind" had surrounded the Jade Platform. That stuff killed you with the slightest brush or touch! Even if ordinary players spotted the Scroll of Holy Radiance, they could only swallow longingly. Yet someone had been lucky enough to arrive just as the holy spirit power within the Scroll of Holy Radiance erupted, temporarily dispersing the lichwind. This thing acted up only once a week, for a mere hour or so. Someone really was...
And his good fortune had not ended there. There had also been that private chat with Yun Xixue. Precisely because of it, someone had noticed the change in the "plague of death" and deduced that "the plague of death effect on the Jade Platform periodically disappeared."
Finally, someone had actually noticed the scrap of cloth lining the chest and even translated the bizarre, scrawl-like symbols on it... That naturally had something to do with his being a closed-beta player, but it did not count as breaking the game's rules. After all, Blue Star could hardly wipe every closed-beta player's memory. There was nothing illegal about recognizing the writing they had newly created.
Most remarkable of all, someone had actually seen straight through the designer's scheme, ignored the orange item sitting in plain sight, and brought back a piece of gray-quality junk instead! That was... downright freakish!
The designer of this hidden quest was none other than that "boss," and he was feeling rather frustrated! From its initial design, this quest had been classified as one that could only be completed after reaching max level at the very least, and there were follow-up quests as well. Although someone had only completed the first step, the reward he had received was absolutely not something that should have appeared so early in the game...
Before you continue