Chapter 1196: Inquiring the truth

Rewinding time a bit.

At the very moment that the library’s roof was blown off.

“Don’t move!”

Gu Qing Shan sent this voice to the other three.

His body transformed abruptly into a giant snake that swallowed everyone at once.

The snake was several hundred meters long and instantly slithered out of the library through the roof.

In the sky, the scene of the 6 simultaneous nuclear explosions was being reflected in the snake’s vertical eyes.

They seemed like 6 blinding suns in the sky!

The white light spread throughout the sky in every direction, dying the entire world white.

No matter the direction, all they could see was the color white.

The shockwaves would soon follow.

At the very next blink of the eye, the combined shockwave blast from the detonation of 6 nuclear bombs would manifest and destroy everything on the ground.

Although the giant snake wasn’t afraid of the nuclear bomb, the intense impact would greatly hinder his movement.

Hisss!

In an instant.

The giant snake released his inner sight and abruptly lunged forward.

As the blinding white light erupted in the sky, he vanished.

Divine Skill, [Ground Shrink]!

With his current body, using this Divine Skill allowed him to bypass the long-distance to immediately reach the bank of the great river.

Quite a few apocalyptic monsters stood with their eyes closed above the water.

Although the light of the nuclear explosion couldn’t kill them, it was enough blind their vision.

While the blinding light continued to erupt, the water of the river abruptly parted ways to reveal a direct path to the bottom.

The giant snake slithered in.

The river swiftly closed up behind him.

Despite how long it all seemed, everything occurred in the mere few blinks of an eye.

——–at the next blink of an eye, the intense light had gradually faded away.

The world became visible once again.

The shockwaves from the 6 nuclear bombs began leveling the city.

The monsters opened their eyes again and silently observed the city being destroyed.

Until it was over.

The monsters began to search the leveled city for any traces of the seed of [Chaos].

Then they proceeded to march towards other cities.

Everything had been destroyed.

Only the giant snake remained hidden underneath the sandy riverbed, silently concealing itself.

It wasn’t until all the monsters in the water had left along with the current that the giant snake began to move.

Swimming in the other direction——–

He started to move against the current to search for a city that was upstream.

According to Ye Ru Xi, it was a city that had already been destroyed by the Apocalypse.

While the giant snake hurriedly slithered at the bottom of the river, all the water on its way parted ways to make sure that his traversal was smooth and without obstacles.

At this point, the apocalyptic monsters had already left.

——while the [Order] had been kicked out by Gu Qing Shan, so it wouldn’t know about Ye Ru Xi’s survival.

Due to the resulting radioactive fallout and electromagnetic interference from the explosions, humanity wouldn’t be able to draw a definitive conclusion for now.

Because of that, this would be the best time for them to escape and move into the shadow.

An hour later.

Four people stood under the shade of a tree by the river, reorganizing themselves.

“If I had died in this backwater world, I wouldn’t have been able to close my eyes” Zhang Ying Hao lit a cigarette for himself, then offered Gu Qing Shan one as well.

“No thanks to the cigarette, give me a bottle of liquor” Gu Qing Shan only took one drag before shaking his head and throwing the cigarette away.

Zhang Ying Hao then took out a bottle of strong liquor for him.

Gu Qing Shan popped the cork open and gulped down large swigs of the alcohol.

It was very dangerous just now.

Even more so than the time he had to face the 2 million demonized people.

A Foundation realm cultivator facing 6 nuclear bombs at once would essentially result in nothing but their death.

If he had died here, never mind Zhang Ying Hao, even Gu Qing Shan wouldn’t be able to take it.

“Wait a minute, what did you mean by that? Could it be you aren’t people of this world?” Ye Ru Xi sharply caught their conversation.

Zhang Ying Hao shrugged.

Gu Qing Shan admitted: “That’s right, we’re the same kind of person you are”

Ye Ru Xi froze.

“Same kind of people?” she repeated after him.

“That’s right”

Gu Qing Shan recalled what the colonel had said in the crater.

——-those people feared Ye Ru Xi.

Ye Ru Xi seemed to have thought of something, her expression became a bit anxious and full of anticipation at the same time.

“Please elaborate, you had better not be lying to me” she stated.

Gu Qing Shan started: “You surely must have done something to cause your comrades to be so wary of you”

Ye Ru Xi appeared to be recalling the past as her emotions clearly deflated.

Gu Qing Shan took a step forward and looked straight into her eyes, continuing: “That occurrence, you would definitely never forget it, wouldn’t you?”

“That’s right, I can’t, even if I wanted to” Ye Ru Xi didn’t avoid Gu Qing Shan’s gaze and faced it head-on.

Gu Qing Shan continued observing her and stated: “They fear you because of it; but believe me, we would never consider you to be different from ourselves”

—–World Technique, [Time Recollection]!

Instantly.

The world faded away from Gu Qing Shan’s vision.

He found that he was standing in the middle of nothingness.

Countless curves manifested out of nowhere to form another world.

The inner city, a walking street, a school, a glorious yellow sunset.

In this yellow sunset, a long-haired girl was walking back home while carrying a backpack.

——Ye Ru Xi’s adolescence years.

Gu Qing Shan stood next to her, silently observing.

The [Order]’s words couldn’t be fully trusted, so Gu Qing Shan had decided to personally take a look.

How mysterious.

Gu Qing Shan completely couldn’t imagine why [Chaos] would place so much value on an unawakened Deity.

Comparatively, not even the Soul Shrieker who had spent countless years to bring about the advent of the Era of [Chaos] received this much attention.

What exactly did Ye Ru Xi do?

Gu Qing Shan followed behind the young girl as she continued walking.

The girl suddenly pulled out her phone, pondered, then mustered her courage to punch in a row of numbers:

“Hey~ mom, I won’t make it back in time for dinner tonight”

“Hm, extra classes, yes, I’ll get home when I’m done”

“Don’t worry”

“Ok, I’ll hang up now”

The girl hung up, then displayed a delighted expression on her face.

She sped up and started to run towards a certain direction.

A few moments later.

The young girl reached the vicinity of a cinema.

“Hey! Over here!”

From afar, a voice called out.

Gu Qing Shan and the young girl both turned to that direction.

Only to find several other high school girls standing at the entrance to the cinema, waving towards the young Ye Ru Xi.

“Quickly, Ru Xi, the movie is about to begin!” one of the girls called out.

Ye Ru Xi smiled.

As she was about to head towards her friends, something unprecedented happened.

The earth began to tremble intensely.

The sky was enveloped in a crimson glow, followed by a declaration:

「 Humans, it is now your time to die 」

Asteroids began to rain from above.

It was literally raining, as there were too many asteroids to even count properly.

Boom!

One of the asteroids crashed into the square in front of the cinema.

Flames erupted.

A large crocodile crawled out from the crater of the asteroid; its cold eyes stared at those who stood around it.

It lightly turned its head and chomped.

Several people were caught in its large jaw, spilling blood instantly.

Everyone immediately panicked.

The sound of screams, cries, and shouts filled the entire square.

The young Ye Ru Xi stared at the monster in shock, apparently forgetting to run away.

“How is that possible, they dared to eat humans in front of me?” she muttered in a low voice.

Gu Qing Shan turned his gaze to her.

Only to see that she was hesitant and unsure, her fists clenched tightly.

So she already knew about her powers.

Then, what actually happened?

After a short pause, the presence emanating from Ye Ru Xi vanished.

“No—— I can’t, I can’t do it—–”

She sighed and let go of her clenched fist, turning around to flee.

Boom!!!

After she had taken just a few steps, another resounding sound of impact could be heard.

「 Your age of Apocalypse beings at this very moment, humans 」

From a second asteroid crater, a yellow glowing grizzly bear of towering stature crawled out.

It immediately leapt forward to catch a few humans.

——those girls from before.

「 What feeble entities, there is only one meaning to your existence 」the grizzly bear declared.

The girls panicked and uttered a resounding shriek of fear.

Ye Ru Xi immediately stopped trying to flee.

Those girls were her friends!

She gritted her teeth, hurriedly ran forward, and shouted: “Let them go, I’ll be your opponent!”

The grizzly bear didn’t even bother to look at her.

The bear paw the size of a truck simply closed up.

The desperate cries from before immediately ceased.

Blood dripped from the clenched paw.

Gu Qing Shan couldn’t do anything but sigh.

This was Ye Ru Xi’s memories, her past, and Gu Qing Shan is helpless to save those girls.

He could only watch in silence.

At this point, the grizzly bear’s voice continued:

「 Food has never been able to go against their determined fate 」

It then turned to Ye Ru Xi and grinned with its terrifying maw.

Ye Ru Xi froze up.

They were living, breathing individuals.

Her close friends who had been with her since childhood simply died in front of her eyes.

She started to shiver and collapsed to her knees, tears beginning to flow.

“I told you to let them go, you apocalyptic monster!” Ye Ru Xi muttered.

The grizzly bear moved towards her step by step.

「 Since you were so close to one another, I’ll send you to them 」it said while walking forward, and Ye Ru Xi sat there motionlessly, silently sobbing.

The grizzly bear reached its other hand out to grab Ye Ru Xi.

Ye Ru Xi hurriedly shook her head and looked up at the sky.

“Come”

She declared.

Before her words had finished, the entire world became silent.

The falling asteroids were frozen in the air.

The fleeing group became still.

Even the crocodile who was in a feeding frenzy stopped in the middle of its chewing motion.

The grizzly bear’s paw had stopped in front of Ye Ru Xi’s forward, unable to forward a single inch forward.

One second.

Two seconds.

Three seconds.

A booming voice resounded from above the sky:

「 The age of Apocalypse has yet to end, it is not time for me to awaken, who is calling for me? 」

Ye Ru Xi replied: “I am”

Whatever was above the sky paused for a moment.

「 So it was…」the voice seemed hesitant.

“Help me kill these monsters. But, can you please not hurt anyone else? I beg you” Ye Ru Xi begged.

The voice didn’t respond to her.

However, immediately following that, a finger made entirely of bronze descended from above the clouds.

This finger was so long that it connected heaven and earth, squarely landing in front of Ye Ru Xi.

The bronze finger lightly touched the earth, then pulled back above the sky.

That entity had left.

A second later.

The entire city.

Everything.

Vanished in a puff of smoke.