Chapter 466 - 28: Flame of Origin

Eleven hundred years ago, the Great Scholar Borel prophesied that the world would fall into an abyss of destruction within two hundred years, for its elements would come to a complete standstill.

The sun in the sky would lose its light. The soil of the earth would no longer be bountiful. The forests in the mountains would wither, and the wind would grow ever drier. All of creation would slowly meet a silent end.

The Earth God, too, sensed the world’s impending decay. The Earth Element Land that sustained the entire world was gradually collapsing. The bountiful lands were about to wither and heat up, scorched to ash by flames from the world’s core.

It was a near-irreversible, hopeless situation that not even the power of a Divine Being could prevent. And so the Earth God, beloved by the four nations and worshipped by countless Earth People, made his final choice after pondering for one hundred days and nights.

And a sacrifice.

He chose to sacrifice himself to maintain the land’s fertility for a time. Just as a corpse can return richness to barren soil, he surmised that the death of a Divine Being could surely extend the world’s life for a while.

’If I return the Initial Earth Element that allowed me to achieve divinity back to the world, perhaps I can delay the end for a time.’

With that thought, the god took his own life, burying himself deep within the earth through a profound and mysterious Orbit.

He succeeded.

And so, the world’s life was truly extended for a time...

But this also brought the Earth People a prolonged torment known as the "Thousand-Year Apocalypse."

The ceasing of the Demon Tide halted the apocalypse’s advance, which in turn rendered the Earth God’s sacrifice meaningless. During the thousand-year absence of Spiritual Qi, the Era of Earth lost its Divine Being, all its Near-God Powerhouses, and all those of the Elite Tier. With only a fraction of its Formal Professionals left, almost all of the era’s legacies were severed. It reached the point where no one even knew why the Earth God had sacrificed himself, or for what reason he had died.

Throughout this period, all the Earth People were tormented by hardship. They even lost any will to resist the apocalypse, knowing only how to eke out a wretched existence and pray that the end of the world would arrive before they died of old age. One can only wonder what the Earth God would have thought if he knew his forceful extension of the era had led to such a painful outcome.

But no matter what, at the moment he decided to make that sacrifice, the god must have been filled with determination.

The place he chose for his sacrifice was the very center of the Tartadis World. Today, it is the site of the world’s largest Netherworld Maze—a colossal pit that holds the corpse of the god.

With the power of Su Zhou and the Wind God, it did not take long to reach the center of the world. Several hours later, they arrived amongst colossal mountain peaks. There they saw it: an incomparably deep abyss, stretching for tens of kilometers, looking like a massive scar upon the world.

Even a bird attempting to cross this chasm would find no perch and no supporting updraft, and would have no choice but to plunge into its depths.

And that was the entrance to the Maze.

Now, the center of the world was completely shrouded in a gray mist.

This Gray Mist was not harmful in any way. At Su Zhou’s behest, many bold individuals in Naisel City had tested it numerous times. The results were always the same: ordinary people, Transcendents, and even the most common rats and insects could all live freely within the Gray Mist, completely unaffected.

In other words, it was likely not the Gray Mist that brought destruction. Rather, wherever the world fell into a deathly stillness, that place would become completely shrouded by the Gray Mist and fall under the domain of the Netherworld.

This left Su Zhou, who viewed the Gray Mist as a tangible manifestation of the Silent Lord’s essence in this world, deeply puzzled.

Su Zhou had also used his Spiritual Pupils to carefully observe the Gray Mist’s essence. However, apart from discovering its strange ability to permeate all things without reacting to any Spiritual Qi, he found nothing else of note. Even Yara wouldn’t answer when he asked.

Elias, flying along with Su Zhou and the others, was experiencing subsonic travel across half a continent for the first time. Even after they landed, he was still dizzy. It was hard to tell if he was stunned by the revelation that the mysterious man was the Wind God, or simply dizzy and nauseous from the incredible speed.

But after the group entered the Abyssal Maze, he quickly became clear-headed again.

"This feeling... it’s so familiar, so warm..."

For some reason, as he ventured deeper into the Maze, the Little Duke of Naisel City wore an expression of deep nostalgia, though he himself did not know what he was nostalgic for.

"It’s the Earth God."

The Wind God provided the answer. He replied softly to Elias’s unspoken question, "The Earth God is the symbol of the Earth Era. His very presence reminds the Earth People of the warmth and normalcy of the world as it once was."

The Wind God’s tone was also nostalgic, while Su Zhou remained silent.

The Central Grand Maze was not difficult to navigate. It didn’t have many twists and turns. After entering, one only had to find the massive Great Rift leading downward to reach the next level.

Along the way, they did encounter many powerful Magical Beasts. These were various Extraordinary Creatures revived in the Netherworld, all of them champions from past Eras. However, in the face of Su Zhou and the Wind God, even the most frenzied Magical Beast was scared into a docile kitten that one could pet without worry.

As they traveled, Elias almost felt as if he were on a leisurely stroll through the outskirts of Naisel City. The Maze’s Magical Beasts that occasionally appeared only to prostrate themselves on the ground, trembling, seemed no different from ordinary citizens running over to say hello, posing no threat whatsoever.