Chapter 1856 - 1855: Ancient Visitor

[Age 65: In the mysticism market of Xiqilelan, you met a mysticism merchant who mastered a vast amount of mysticism knowledge. From him, you purchased the ritual of ’Record Master’. Later, you learned that this merchant was a priest of the God of Knowledge.]

[Age 66: You returned to Kovotra, completed the ritual, and successfully promoted to become a Record Master. Your age was too advanced, and the promotion process was quite unpleasant; you nearly died during the promotion.]

[Age 67: Your successor has resigned, but the new generation of governors in Kovotra still maintains the foundational policies from your era. Now, Kovotra is the largest commercial city in the Central Federation, with a massive influx of population and caravans, exchanging and interacting here.]

[Age 68: Your son’s tavern is growing larger, and indeed the wine he brews is delicious. Accompanied by caravans, the wine began selling to other regions of the continent. The method for obtaining extraordinary power stably has started rapidly spreading across the entire continent, and now the children in the family don’t need to undergo blood trials but only need to purchase the corresponding Secret Medicine.]

[Age 69: The times have changed exceptionally quickly in these years. Due to the influx of caravans and people, Kovotra gradually became the largest mysticism market in the central continent. You rented a small shop there, acquiring or selling some antiques or mystical trinkets.]

[Age 70: The heir you chose passed away, and you attended his funeral. A statue of you stands in the center of the city, but fewer and fewer people still remember you now.

It’s unclear whether it’s the effect of the Transcendent or the amplification from the blood trials of your youth, even though your age surpasses most people, your body remains healthy.

With prolonged residence at the mysticism market, your understanding of mysticism grew deeper, and you began searching for news related to promotion.]

[Age 71: Your son fell seriously ill, and you found some extraordinary potions to cure him. The city’s governors have changed several generations. The new generation’s governor is a young man committed to governance, attempting to expand Kovotra’s territory by constantly waging war on nearby small cities.]

[Age 72: A war broke out on the border between Kovotra and the Julia Kingdom. Kovotra was defeated; the bloody battlefield drew a terrifying exotic beast that slaughtered everyone within a hundred miles. During the collection of promotion news, you received information from the descendants of a former ’companion’ who betrayed you as a fellow governor.

According to these descendants, the former companion once discovered an ancient ruin near the mountains of Kovotra early in the Era of the Great Cataclysm; it held terrifying power. After returning from the ruins, the former companion became brutal and bloodthirsty.

The descendant who provided this information attempted to explore the ruins but ultimately returned empty-handed.]

[Age 73: Equipped with various collected props, you followed a map and found the ancient ruin guarded by a powerful exotic beast. Despite being a C-level Transcendent, it took considerable effort to successfully enter the ruins.

It appeared to be the remnants of an ancient city-state, with its urban construction somewhat resembling Kovotra’s inner city. You speculated it might be the early site of Kovotra city.

You’ve heard from minstrels that in earlier times, terrifying exotic beasts were everywhere, and the ancestors preferred building cities inside caves. However, early Kovotra lacks historical records, leaving you clueless about the source of this story.]

[Age 74: You didn’t explore the entire ruin at once but instead proceed cautiously step-by-step. Deep within the ruins, you saw many murals regarding fire and sacrifice, which suggested a past deity worshiped by early Kovotra.

This worship was extremely devout, as evidenced by the ubiquitous altars in the ruins, demonstrating the emphasis the ancestors placed on worship practices. Deep in the city, you witnessed various weapons, diverse defensive fortresses, and numerous sacrifice pits, indicating the ancient ancestors valued slaughter and warfare.

This inclination towards slaughter and warfare possibly enabled the ancestors to endure ancient chaotic periods, surviving the attacks by exotic beasts. But, once relatively stable times arrived, internal issues might have surfaced.]

[Age 75: Over several years, you didn’t gather any information on the subsequent B-level extraordinary power for Record Master. It seemed to be an obscure extraordinary power, with scant information revealed.

However, given your advanced age, such a promotion seemed equivalent to courting death, leading you to gradually abandon the idea of promotion.

Still, you continued exploring the ruin, finding multiple traces of transport and excavation. Evidently, you’re not the first explorer, possibly not even among the top ten. Most areas of the ruin were thoroughly excavated, with some areas harboring hidden poisonous snakes and exotic beasts, causing several near-death experiences.

You began contemplating whether to continue exploring the ruin, also aware that the former governor ’companion’ who fell from power probably found nothing.]

[Age 76: Your age has advanced further; your son has a grandson, and the grandson has a great-grandson. Occasionally, they visit you, forming a lively and noisy gathering.

You sometimes reminisce about the night you first married your wife; it was just the two of you in a small room, a bit lonely.

You continue exploring the ruin, but not alone, hiring several young family members as mercenaries. After years, you’ve finally reached the deepest part of the ruin, a massive altar closely attached to the cliff wall.

Above the altar is a large, abstract painting, mostly damaged, with only some edges possibly depicting weapon motifs remaining.

The entire altar and its surrounding architecture, which seems to be the city’s central building, have suffered destruction and burning, and judging by the damage, it was a long time ago.

The outer buildings remained mostly intact, while the core area was burnt and destroyed, suggesting it was a small-scale unrest originating not from outside but within the city itself, where some central figures destroyed the city’s core, likely killing the ruler or High Priest.

It was evidently a small-scale military coup.

Sometimes, you reflect with irony—Kovotra’s penchant for military coups seemingly stems from ancestral habits.

In these destroyed ruins, extensive scavenging traces were found, doubtlessly left by the former governor, who appeared to have thoroughly scoured this area, taking anything movable. However, after he was murdered by slaves, subsequent soldiers found no similar items while cleaning his residence.

Perhaps some items were taken during the chaos, and no one could clearly account for them amid the disorder. You weren’t bogged down by these matters but instead searched around the altar, hoping to find any residual items.

Eventually, you found a hidden compartment in the altar’s deepest part, opening it to reveal a sealed underground chamber.

Apparently, many years had passed without anyone entering this underground room; it was filled with a thick moldy odor, and torches would extinguish upon entry. You waited for a while before daring to descend.

The underground room was small, about the size of a small chamber, with a peculiar black coffin in its center adorned with intricate carvings.

You opened the coffin, but it held nothing except a wooden plaque with unknown scripts. The atmosphere inside the coffin was quite cold.]

[Age 77: You transported the coffin back to your store, along with the wooden plaque, whose front was inscribed with orderly, dense writing, and the back was carelessly carved.

You started collecting clues related to the text and learned from a minstrel that the scripts originated from an older era, once widely used. Following this lead, you discovered numerous studies about the text.

A caravan returning from the Northern Kingdom brought you information about the subsequent extraordinary power for ’Record Master’; this B-level power was known as ’Century Visitor’, yet you failed to procure the related Secret Medicine.]

[Age 78: You focus on studying the text, gathering a large amount of data and begin deciphering the text on the wooden plaque.]

[Age 79: You are the first to decipher the scrawled text on the back of the wooden plaque. It seems to be a record, stating that the person who wrote the text found this coffin under the guidance of the God. He is gifted with Divine Inspiration and is about to face a disaster.

Therefore, he conducted a large-scale slaughter and population kidnapping, offering human sacrifices, praying for the Divine Being to provide a way to avoid the disaster. Ultimately, under the guidance of the Divine Being, he obtained this coffin.

He was immensely grateful to the Divine Being.

You speculate that this text may have been left by the High Priest of the relic, and perhaps it was precisely due to the High Priest’s tyranny and slaughter that led to the military coup within the relic, causing his death.

His method of avoiding disaster ironically resulted in disaster.

After translating the subsequent text, you continue to attempt to decipher the text on the front side.

In winter, a caravan from the Northern Kingdom brought you news that a century visitor’s Extraordinary Power seems to have been discovered in an ancient relic in the north.

You set off for the north.]

[Age 80: Outside the relics at the edge of the Northern Kingdom, you find materials suspected to belong to the century visitor. The relics are being excavated by a local noble who is auctioning off excavated items. Due to the low interest in these items, you successfully disguise yourself as a collector and purchase them at a relatively low price.

You do not obtain the century visitor’s ceremony. You begin offering large rewards for related clues.

Your deciphering of the text on the wooden plaque is also reaching its final stage.]

[Age 81: Your son falls seriously ill, appearing even older than you. You gather a large amount of Extraordinary Power and finally save him, but your body is no longer as healthy as before.

You receive a message from the east, seemingly from a believer of knowledge, claiming he has the century visitor’s ceremony but demands an extremely high price.

Ultimately, you agree to his terms, almost selling off two-thirds of your assets to obtain the ceremony from him.

The promotion ceremony of the century visitor has very special requirements. It demands the Promoter to have extraordinary longevity, surviving from one era to another, but you do not know how the ceremony distinguishes eras.]

[Age 82: You finally decipher the text on the front of the wooden plaque inside the coffin. It details the purpose of the coffin, where the person hiding inside will slowly fall into a deep sleep, and their life will pause at that moment until the coffin is opened and they awaken from it.

You hear news from Julia Kingdom that on the distant East Coast, there seem to be fleets landing on the shore. You arrange for young members of your family to go east and gather the latest information.

You sense the frailty of your body, having reached your life’s limit.]

[Age 83: Your dispatched personnel return from the east, telling you that indeed people from across the sea have landed on the east, at the place where you once watched the sunrise, and are building a new city there.

In that moment, you suddenly realize that an era is about to undergo some kind of change.]

[Age 84: Your health deteriorates further, worse than your son’s. You can keenly perceive that your life is nearing its end, having lived long enough, with several of your grandchildren and great-grandchildren already deceased.

Sometimes, living too long may not necessarily be a good thing; a lengthy life may not be a Blessing.

You wonder how the Queen of the North endured such extended solitude. Perhaps those friends of hers back in the day, like the young knight, still exist somewhere unknown.

However, you are curious to know what the people from across the sea will do and change.

You recall the coffin and the ceremony of the century visitor.]

[Age 85: You gather your smartest grandchildren and great-grandchildren, teaching them how to open the coffin. Then, with the Secret Medicine of the century visitor, you lay inside the coffin.

As the coffin closes, intense drowsiness strikes your mind.

You faintly hear sounds outside the coffin, seemingly of your grandchildren’s departing footsteps, followed by intense roaring sounds, painful cries, and sounds of fleeing.

You realize something is amiss, wanting to raise your hand to open the coffin, but no matter how much you try, you cannot lift your hand. Intense drowsiness sweeps over your body, rendering you unable to control your body, ultimately causing you to fall into sleep, only being able to feel the trembling coffin and collapsing ground.]

[Age 86-902: Sleep]

[Age 903: You hear faint sounds, suggesting someone is digging out the coffin from somewhere, followed by turbulence and chaos. You sense something spreading into the coffin from outside, engulfing your soul.]

[Your task is: Investigate the cause of Kovotra’s destruction]

[Enjoy your game]

What does this mean? Has the entire city of Kovotra been destroyed?

He Ao only feels his consciousness entering a realm of hazy chaos, surrounded by darkness.

This time, the character starts right before the Great Cataclysm; is it truly the ancient visitor?

Thud thud——

Just at that moment, hasty footsteps seem to reach from outside.