Chapter 1560: Chapter 1560

Chapter 1560: Chapter 1560: Failed to Establish the Path?

He Ao’s finger pointed into the void, observing the ripples within.

Along the way, the traces left by the Martial Arts Expert were more or less visible, but mostly buried under the ice.

There were more traces in the outer areas near the pole.

Considering the relic civilization’s prime, when the man-made sun in the sky was still burning, the surrounding areas shouldn’t have been as cold, and exotic beasts might have been more abundant.

It seems that the Martial Arts Expert hunted in those nearby regions.

Stable hunting traces suggest he lived for quite a while.

But after searching around, He Ao couldn’t find where he resided.

Continuing northwards, near the pole, there were no signs of living at all.

He Ao glanced at the gradually dimming radiance in his hand, knowing the power in this projection wouldn’t last long.

He lowered his head, looking at the thick snow and ice below.

Based on previous signs discovered, over the years, the residence was likely buried under the snow and ice.

The orange-gray radiance flickered at He Ao’s fingertips, then suddenly brightened.

He increased the power output, and the world’s underlying waves, centering on him, began to spread rapidly until, roughly three hundred meters underground, He Ao sensed a ‘response’.

No wonder it couldn’t be found, buried this deep.

At that moment, He Ao immediately withdrew his hand and pressed his palm against the ice beneath him.

The orange-gray radiance flashed through his fingertips, slicing open the ice beneath his feet and revealing a fissure.

His body fell downward, and the crack below him rapidly extended downward.

Soon, he stabilized his form, maintaining a steady speed as he ‘flew’ downwards.

After skimming past deep glaciers of unknown years, a bright yellow wooden roof appeared in He Ao’s field of view.

Unlike the closely knit ice around, this wooden house had no ice around it, existing within a spherical void.

The next instant after seeing the roof, He Ao’s body descended into the hollow.

He quickly decelerated, landing outside the wooden house, and raised his head to look at it.

The wooden house was a simple pitched-roof structure, not grounded below, but supported by several stakes driven deep into the ice.

The only slightly unique feature was an ice tree standing in front of the wooden house.

This ice tree was carved lifelike, each leaf bearing distinct veins, as if from verdant summer foliage.

Even now, a faint radiance shimmered within the tree.

The ‘feedback’ He Ao sensed earlier originated from this ice tree.

The surrounding void was naturally supported by this ice tree as its core.

He Ao scrutinized this ice tree, finding nothing special about it, nor did it possess any energy reactions, merely surrounded by some Martial Qi.

Under the ice tree was a decayed grass mat, seemingly for sitting cross-legged.

Besides this ice tree, there was nothing else outside the wooden house.

He Ao turned his gaze towards the wooden house.

He pushed open the door, walking inside. The furniture in the wooden house was simple, a wooden bed and a wooden table.

The wooden bed had no bedding or any signs of decay.

It seemed there were never any beddings to begin with.

There was no one in the house.

The Martial Arts Expert seemed to have left here at some point and never returned.

He Ao lowered his gaze to the small table beside him.

On the table was an empty bowl, a cup, and nothing else.

He Ao left the wooden house, returning to the ice tree.

No traces were left behind?

At that moment, he noticed vague scratches under the decayed grass mat beneath the ice tree.

He Ao moved the mat aside, revealing a line of bold text.

Simply gazing at this line of text, a strong sense of unwillingness surged, causing He Ao’s entire projected body to flicker.

He Ao carefully observed the line of text, written in the First District’s language, without particularly complex esoteric characters; it seemed to form a sentence.

[When the calamity arrives, and the way remains unestablished, is this destiny?]

Did that Martial Arts Expert ultimately fail? Stuck at the transition to becoming an Angel?

Gazing at the line of text, He Ao seemed to sense the sorrow and unwillingness in the Martial Arts Expert’s heart when carving this line under the tree.

The force supporting the void around the wooden house was not the ice tree with residual power, but this line of text.

He Ao could even sense this power nearly reaching Angel Tier.

But it seemed he wasn’t able to take that final step.

So the grass mat was later placed, to cover this line of writing?

In that instant, He Ao’s body paused, and he turned back, looking behind him.

A vague figure gathered behind him.

He Ao gazed at the shadowy figure behind, showing a slight smile, his form shattered, dispersing between heaven and earth.

At that moment, the ambiguous figure fully materialized, walking to the ice tree and gazing at the text uncovered by He Ao, falling into a brief silence.

At that moment, he abruptly raised his head, looking skyward.

In the firmament above, from the deep space, between the damaged man-made sun, an old-fashioned, ancient train appeared as if flipped, cloaked in orange-gray radiance, rushing into the void.

Sitting in the Velora’s carriage, He Ao turned to look around at the deep black space.

In that instant, at Velora’s speed, it was insufficient to slip into the void before a Usurper God.

So He Ao directly pulled Velora into the Trapped Destiny Plate.

When the ‘Star Shadow’ noticed his projection and shifted its focus, he could have Velora reenter the void.

Perhaps startled by the Tuning Master’s death, He Ao felt Star Shadow didn’t seem to work as diligently, having a bit of an employee mindset.

He Ao initially thought he’d have to struggle a bit more.

Hmm, it might also be that ‘Star Shadow’ inherently lacks the sharpness of the Tuning Master.

He Ao lowered his gaze, picking up the map drawn by Yang De, flipping it, and noting down the line of text found beneath the ice tree.

Although He Ao had some foundation in the First District language, this sentence seemed like classical prose from the First District.

This Martial Artist, his thoughts were somewhat ‘old-fashioned’.

He Ao scratched his head, roughly understanding the sentence meant the Martial Arts Expert failed to ascend to an Angel.

When calamity arrives, what does that mean, disaster reached?

The catastrophe that destroyed the entire Relic World?

What does ‘the way remains unestablished’ mean?

Is this destiny? What does destiny imply? Heaven and fate? Is it a predetermined fate?

Is this simply lamentation?

Focus on the first two sentences?

In other words, he didn’t succeed because the disaster that destroyed the relic interrupted his promotion?

Based on what Andaville said, the Martial Way’s ascent to an Angel involves a ritual.

So, was his ritual interrupted?

‘The way remains unestablished’, is that what it means?

‘The way’, does it refer to a ritual?

Why use ‘the way’ instead of ‘ritual’?

What is this exclusive term of the old-school martial artist? Or does it have some special meaning?

He Ao feels like there must be many question marks above his head.

In his contemplation, he picks up a pen and quickly sketches a vague drawing in the corner of the paper.

This content is from page thirteen of the Martial Arts booklet.

The picture’s structure is simple, depicting a small figure floating cross-legged in the air, with the energy circuit diagram of the previous twelve pages flowing within.

Behind the little figure, cloud patterns representing the sky seem to intertwine with horizontal lines depicting the earth. For more chapters visit NoveI[F]ire.net

Forming a pattern of two intertwined fish.

And within this pattern, the energy circuit within the small figure’s body is vaguely depicted.

Clearly, there are missing pages before, and this page lacks any text, likely leaving the words on the missing pages.

He Ao feels that he can’t quite understand this drawing and doesn’t know what it’s trying to express.

He cross-references this drawing with the words left by that Martial Arts Expert, but gains no information.

If only there were a powerful martial artist alive to ask.

As he ponders, He Ao puts down the paper, as a slight purple radiance flows from his fingertips and disappears into the carriage.

With the support of Angel Tier power, under the extreme acceleration of the Velora, he could return to the Main World in about half a day, possibly compressing it into a few hours at the risk of significant damage to the Velora.

When the radiance completely vanishes, He Ao raises his head and looks around.

The old carriage quickly fades away, transforming into a desolate wilderness, with towering steles appearing in front of He Ao.

This is the ‘monument forest’ of the Trapped Destiny Plate.

These densely packed steles are engraved with the ‘remnants’ of the Martial Arts World of the Trapped Destiny Plate.

He Ao is currently standing in the center of these dense steles, gazing at the blank stele in the deepest part.

The person who erected this stele seemed to want to document the method of promoting to Angel in Martial Arts on it.

But ultimately, this stele only left a blank space.

Looking at this blank stele, He Ao gently raises his hand.

A streak of silver brilliance pierces the sky, landing before He Ao, embedding into the ground in front of the blank stele, revealing the form of a silver Longsword.

He Ao’s gaze shifts to the side, where a small black book flips open in front of him, revealing densely packed text.

This text, in essence, recounts the events he experienced in the Historical World.

However, it only records the ‘history’ that he knows.

After He Ao initially grasped the Historical Contract, this text naturally emerged, and as He Ao returned to the Main World, the text continued to manifest.

All recorded from his main perspective, the ‘documented’ history.

But only objectively occurring events, He Ao’s subjective judgments and speculations are not recorded.

And the ‘Eternal Silence Mark’ is the name given to this silver Longsword by the Historical Contract.

In reality, He Ao does not know the name of this sword.

The sword hasn’t communicated any information to He Ao, but after he held it, his understanding of the Trapped Destiny Plate deepened.

Although the Historical Contract records history purely from He Ao’s perspective, it sometimes seems to reveal things He Ao doesn’t know.

Such as the name ‘Eternal Silence Mark.’

For the Historical Contract to specially annotate a name, this sword seems to have its special features.

In fact, as the master of the Trapped Destiny Plate, He Ao has always felt this ‘sword’ core of the Trapped Destiny Plate doesn’t entirely belong to it.

Within its body, there is some ‘foreign’ power.

Of course, this sword, as the core of the Trapped Destiny Plate, also has some ‘other functions.’

He Ao gazes at the silver Longsword before him, reaching out to grasp it.

The whole world suddenly flickers, and at that moment, it seems as if both sun and moon appear to revolve.

He Ao draws the sword.

Accompanied by the crisp sound of the sword, the long river of history, along with the ‘radiance’ cutting through it, reappears before He Ao.

This sword seems to be the ‘history’ of this world.

He Ao looks to his side; the Historical Contract continues to float by him, drifting above this historical river.

Holding the silver Longsword, He Ao gazes at this illusory, time-collapsed river and steps forward.

A kind of invisible pulling force emanates from the silver Longsword, guiding He Ao along this river, against the current.

This feeling is very intriguing, as if witnessing the entire world ‘reverse’ within his field of view.

Time reverses, days transmute, galaxies shift, altitudes fall, and past timeframes seem to unfold within He Ao’s view.

But within these timeframes, there is neither ‘him’ nor Historical Contract.

He and the Historical Contract do not belong to this world; they are ‘outside entities.’

It’s like playing some sort of sandbox game; He Ao can ‘revert’ the entire game scene to its previous state through ‘reversal.’

But he himself does not change—his time continues to flow forward.

He doesn’t belong to this world—he is a ‘spectator,’ or rather, a ‘player.’

An intriguing feeling, akin to being a god.

Of course, only in such small worlds can one perform such an operation.

In the outer world, even Divine Beings have to be ‘cautious of history.’

Soon, He Ao’s god-like experience card is abruptly paused.

He arrives at the uppermost part of the historical river, where the gray brilliance cuts through history.

Suspected to originate from a dear friend.

This time He Ao doesn’t continue to speculate.

If there’s a link established with a friend and suddenly a grey eye opens in the sky, the box will truly be unlocked.

He Ao stands there in front of the brilliance, quietly gazing.

He can sense that ahead of the brilliance, the historical river still exists, seemingly describing the history before this world was destroyed, but he can’t touch it.

He Ao raises his hand, allowing a trace of his Divine Sense to emerge and touch the brilliance.

The Divine Sense drifts through, directly passing through the brilliance.

He Ao’s heart fills with joy.

Then he sees the Divine Sense rebound as if reflected, returning from the original point.

Before he can further react, the Divine Sense suddenly shivers, and is utterly annihilated within the world.

Without any omen, without any perception.

As if the trace of Divine Sense inadvertently touched some unstable deconstructed condition, leading to its natural destruction.

Even though He Ao has now become an Angel, he still perceives nothing.

The sound of pages turning echoes from the Historical Contract beside him.

Unsure if it’s an illusion, He Ao feels the book orchestrating this ‘grandeur’ is preparing to document his entry into the brilliance, following it by a bizarre death.

He promptly reaches out and closes the open Historical Contract.

Whether opened or not, the book can record history.

The Historical Contract struggles for a moment, seemingly attempting to reopen, but it is forcibly restrained by He Ao, ultimately trembling slightly before calming down.

And He Ao falls into contemplation.

Is there anything capable of crossing this brilliance?

In thought, He Ao lifts the silver Longsword, deep in contemplation.

This sword, seemingly, was contested even before the world’s complete annihilation.