Chapter 47: The Path Ahead
The sky was crimson, as if an inextinguishable flame burned; the land was scorched black, as if it had endured the most terrifying extinction.
This was a world that had died, a remnant.
The firmament was shattered, the earth cracked, devoid of life, belonging to no Pillar God.
It perfectly matched Li Wen’s description.
Li Wen walked alone in this dead world. A quarter of an hour had long passed, and the illusory Bell Tower had vanished, but Li Wen was not in a hurry to begin.
She was contemplating a question: what exactly had this world gone through?
Perhaps Doomsday Twilight?
No, as a survivor of Twilight, Li Wen had witnessed what worlds destroyed by Doomsday Twilight would be or would have been.
That would never be a shattered sky and earth, nor inextinguishable fire, nor a storm of flames connecting heaven and earth, nor anything comparable to any conceivable destruction.
No matter where she went, Li Wen only saw scorched earth and flames, so she gave up on continuing forward and took out The Primordial Codex of Ending from her cloak.
The layer of amber that wrapped it remained unchanged, still cool and clear even in this crimson doomsday.
Li Wen took a deep breath, knelt on the scorching earth, and placed The Primordial Codex of Ending before her.
She drew her Bone-Corroding Short Sword and first tried to make a few cuts on the Emerald Star Cloak, but it left no marks. So she took off the Emerald Star Cloak, and then used the Bone-Corroding Short Sword to cut her palm.
“I swear by the name of Twilight!”
Scarlet blood beads fell like raindrops, boiling and evaporating the moment they touched the ground.
“Eternity begins at dawn!”
Li Wen made a second wound on her shoulder; blood slowly flowed out without stopping.
“Ending culminates at twilight!”
The Bone-Corroding Short Sword was raised again, the third wound was on her ankle. At this moment, she was bleeding all over, her entire body stained red.
“Life is meant to lead to death!”
The fourth wound was on her abdomen. Li Wen’s eyes did not even blink as she plunged the sword directly in.
“All things are meant to return to their end!”
The fifth wound was on her back.
“Apart from me, no other end-bringer shall live forever!”
The sixth wound was on her forehead, and the world before Li Wen’s eyes immediately blurred.
“Apart from me, no other eternal being shall walk in the end!”
The seventh wound was on her heart. The Bone-Corroding Short Sword was thrust into it without hesitation. Amidst 100% of the pain, Li Wen recited the final line:
“All destruction begins with me, and all ends with me!”
Her life remained at 1%, not changing at all. Blood slowly flowed onto the dark brown scorched earth, drawing twisted lines.
The lines led to The Primordial Codex of Ending, and now, the amber encasing the Codex was permeated by blood, gradually changing from translucent red-yellow to pure blood red.
When the entire amber was dyed red, with a snap, it shattered like falling glass, and the ancient book with its black cover slowly flew up.
It opened on its own without anyone touching it. The blood on the ground was drawn up by it, and deep blood-red characters began to appear on the blank pages. When the last page was filled, the book closed again. On the previously black and blank cover appeared a lush ancient tree, and beneath the tree was a girl, leaning against the ancient tree, hidden within her cloak, her gaze looking directly outward.
With a thought from Li Wen, The Primordial Codex of Ending immediately opened to a page, and the abstract and profound text on it was now more familiar to Li Wen than her native tongue.
She knew she had succeeded halfway.
The ritual Li Wen used was also from the Strategy Team, and they called this ritual “Seven Deaths and Seven Commandments.” Legend had it that in Canaan, there was a person who exchanged seven deaths for seven vows, and when the seventh vow was made, that person ascended to sainthood.
The seven wounds corresponded to the seven deaths of that Saint: death by nailing through the palm, death by a severed shoulder, death by bleeding from the ankle, death by being pierced through the abdomen by a spear, death by being chopped on the back, death by a crushed forehead from a giant stone, and finally, death by a cut to the heart.
The Strategy Team modeled the entire ritual after this event. It could only be used to bind The Primordial Codex of Ending. There were two reasons for binding: one was to use The Primordial Codex of Ending, and the other was to prevent the Codex from being stolen.
Performing the ritual in such a dying world was due to the latter. When The Primordial Codex of Ending broke free from its restraint, its power would inevitably leak out. The Pillar Gods might not care, but their subordinate gods, apostles, those nameless outer gods, forgotten ancient deities, even demigods, crowned ones, legendary mages, various terrifying beings from the outer realms… there were too many beings coveting Primordial Codices of Systems, so Li Wen had to be cautious.
[THE PRIMORDIAL CODEX OF ENDING]
[Supreme Divine Artifact – Mephistopheles (Li Wen)]
[The Primordial Codex of the Twilight Pillar, recording the path to godhood of the Twilight Witch. It is said that obtaining the Codex provides an opportunity to glimpse the position of a Pillar God.]
[Flip through to view the complete Twilight System.]
The true power of this Supreme Divine Artifact might only be glimpsed when Li Wen ascended higher, but even with her initial binding, she was able to read the complete Twilight System.
Since the fall of the Golden Age and the collapse of the Twilight Pillar, the Twilight System no longer existed in the world. Apart from the Long-lived beings residing in Amber City, no one else could walk the path of its System, including the path once trodden by the Twilight Witch—the Path of Ending.
Li Wen held the Codex, carefully flipping through the pages until she stopped upon seeing the word “Ending.”
She first scanned it quickly, then reread it word by word with great care.
In fact, she had already completed the binding. As long as her brain thought, the content of The Primordial Codex of Ending would automatically appear in her mind.
But Li Wen immensely enjoyed this moment of reading. Although flames and storms roared together here, the shattered firmament howled, and her life was precarious, only a meager 1%. However, it still reminded her of her previous life. Back then, there was no World Tree: Origin, no Great Convergence, no Doomsday Twilight; only the gentle mother reading a storybook in the early spring sunshine, while young siblings were immersed in the story. That beauty was irresistible.
“The complete Path of Ending has twelve stages… Each stage of promotion requires… the Primordial Codices of other Pillar Systems?”
Li Wen broke free from her beautiful memories. She closed the book and reread it in her mind. However, the recorded content was absolute truth. No matter how it was read, the truth never changed.
“Each promotion in the Path of Ending requires the Primordial Codices of other Pillar Systems.”
The Strategy Team spent decades before Li Wen used Urd’s Sting to give her the strategy on how to obtain The Primordial Codex of Ending. Now, she had to repeat such effort eleven more times.
Li Wen fell into a long silence.
