In the ruins of the church in the Dead City, when the Blue Door reappeared, six figures and a coffin were pushed out.
"So it turns out if you can’t find the answer within a certain time, you get kicked out..." Ash said with a wry smile, "No wonder no one dies in there."
Behind the mist wall, it was indeed another mist wall.
However, unlike the first mist wall, after seeing the golden ’Truth Link’ on the second mist wall, only one question popped into their minds: "What is the biggest factor in activating the Great Skill of the Divine Era?"
Even Igula did not have any divergent thinking. After ten minutes of pondering, everyone was kicked out.
Obviously, they did not possess the key information to deduce the second truth. As the saying goes, even the greatest chef can’t cook a meal without ingredients, and you at least need some basic math to understand L’Hôpital’s rule. To deduce the second truth, Ash and the others at least need to know history related to the Divine Era.
Yet, in the Wasteland, there are only tales of the Fire Cat Era, the Blue Bird Era, and the Gray Fox Era being glorious, but never any mention of how these Great Skills initiated the Divine Era.
Now they are all at a loss—the only way to leave the Dead City might be behind the mist wall, but they just don’t have enough information to deduce anything, unable to crack the "Truth Link"!
When they tried to re-enter the Blue Door, they found that the Blue Door displayed "You are not qualified," meaning they could not enter this hidden Sanctuary in the space crevice until they deduced the second truth.
"Thinking about it carefully, it’s actually very strange."
As the Blue Door disappeared, Ash said: "Why would the Gray Fox Mage construct such a hidden Sanctuary in the highest-level temporal crevice of the ’Sanctuary’?"
"Indeed, it is very strange." Igula pondered: "And inside, they set up ’Truth Links’ related to the essence of the world, as if they knew we would come and left messages for us on purpose." Latest content published on NoveI~Fire.net
"Why didn’t the Gray Fox Mage just leave the information directly? It has to be so troublesome?" Qikara complained: "They should be dragged out and tortured to death."
No one reacted to the Beastman’s statement, probably because internally they all agreed.
At this time, Gwen seemed to recall something and tugged at Igula’s sleeve. Igula looked impatient but bent down to listen.
After the Swindler contemplated for a moment, he nodded: "It could indeed be ."
"Didn’t they say, over two hundred years ago, a ’Cataclysm’ happened, all adults died, most fantasy creations were destroyed, only some kids were left, and then the Wasteland era began?" Igula told everyone: "There should have been people in the Dead City when the ’Cataclysm’ happened, right?"
Ash immediately realized: "If the ’Cataclysm’ was a sudden natural disaster, then everyone in the Dead City would have activated the ’Sanctuary’ and entered the highest-level temporal crevice!"
"But the ’Sanctuary’ can only affect the Dead City area, they couldn’t leave the Dead City, and the ’Cataclysm’ affected the entire Kingdom of Senluo, they couldn’t escape death."
Igula nodded: "There must have been Mages in the Dead City, perhaps even Holy Sanctuary Mages and Legendary Mages. They established the hidden Sanctuary and, like us, pondered over where the ’Cataclysm’ came from, what it was, how to resolve it..."
"Ultimately, they couldn’t escape the ’Cataclysm’, but those ’Truth Links’ are probably the answers they left behind."
Qikara scratched his head: "Even if we crack the ’Truth Link’, it’s useless. We need to solve the current crisis, not the ’Cataclysm’... ah, no wonder no one has walked out of the Dead City alive in two hundred years. Maybe they cracked the ’Truth Link’ only to find out it was all in vain!"
Igula shook his head: "That’s why I asked you guys earlier if you know how long the Dead City has existed. If the Dead City turned into what it is after the ’Cataclysm’, drawing people into temporal gaps, then the crisis we face is likely the aftermath of the ’Cataclysm.’ And..."
"There’s not necessarily no one who walked out of the Dead City alive." Ash said suddenly, walking to the side, staring at the wall thoughtfully.
"Come and take a look."
Everyone came over to see strange runes carved on the wall.
It was mentioned earlier that the Dead City was full of strange runes no one could understand, and at that time, they wondered who had so much time on their hands. But after their minds were activated by the "Truth Link," these runes were no longer unintelligible strange patterns.
"’In 286, there were three forces equivalent to the Fire Cat Sect...’" Ash touched the runes, muttering: "It turns out all the text in the city is information left by predecessors."
The Beastman wondered: "Why didn’t they leave normal—"
"Because they couldn’t. ’Truth Links’ cause effects like gestalt collapse on people; we can’t write in normal text now either, only these compound characters!" Igula became excited: "The Dead City harbors the information needed for the second truth!"
"Do we search separately?"
"No need." Ash said: "We have unlimited time; efficiency is not a concern."
Though he said so, they were practically reading in separate areas within a region. The Dead City had so much written information, some even chaotic and overlapping, and the data was vast. Each person took charge of a part, transforming it into meaningful information and compiling it.
The more Ash and the others read, the more they understood that predecessors left this information not entirely for future generations, but because they had no draft paper, they had to use their fingers as pens, with everything as paper to record their deduction processes.
Igula was responsible for compiling the edits, but he soon encountered a problem: they ran out of paper.
Mages rarely used paper, and as daily necessities were unnecessary to always have on hand, they naturally ran out quickly. However, Gwen gave him an idea: she could use Starlight Technique Spirit to etch characters on the wall, which was fast and consumed little. Igula adopted it.
While Ash was reading, Yuanchan suddenly appeared, circled around him a few times, then swayed its head toward another direction.
Having a feeling, he flew over to see, and based on the clarity of the handwriting, this should be a relatively new record—the longer it exists, the more it’s corroded by wind and sand, making the handwriting naturally blurrier.
The newer the record, the less covered it was, improving reading efficiency, and the record itself contained more information. Ash patted Yuanchan, praising it for a job well done.
After Ash finished reading this side of the wall, Yuanchan circled him a few times again, once more guiding him to find a newer record nearby. Ash felt a bit puzzled, but since Yuanchan was a Time Series Great Skill, its ability to differentiate new from old wasn’t surprising, so he didn’t think much of it.
Not far from Ash, Weiser was hiding in the shadows of a tall building, Fang Chan lying on her head. Even without expressions, it was clear it was quite tired—it had spent considerable effort rubbing its scent onto the wall, otherwise, it couldn’t have lured Yuanchan over.
Weiser quietly poked her head out, staring at the side of Ash’s face, feeling both anxious and expectant, she couldn’t help but fidget and forcefully suppress her excited heartbeat to continue observing.
She thought, the past is ending.
She thought, the future is beginning.
She would soon no longer be alone.