Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“Seems like I’ll have to go and take a look for myself.”
Ye Kong took a step forward and walked up the stairway, which stretched all the way to…
The top of the clock tower!
Outwardly, the clock tower looked like a column wrapped by a large serpent. The serpent in this metaphor being the staircase, the column the tower. Overall, it looked very abstract.
At the same time, the clock tower was a “solid” structure, so it didn’t have an interior.
In short, if Ye Kong wanted to climb to the top of the clock tower, the only way up was the outer staircase. Alternatively, it could be said that the designer intentionally put the “interior” of the clock tower on the outside to symbolize an inversion.
Pitter-patter…
Ye Kong continued up the stairs, each step bringing him closer to the sky. The winds at this height were very strong, and they mussed his hair and made him feel like he was stepping into the clouds.
It took a while before Ye Kong reached the end of the staircase.
“I’m finally here.”
In front of him, there was a spacious platform with a large clock hanging in the center. Each of its gears was crafted from an unidentifiable metal and had survived the passage of time unscathed, giving the clock a feeling of immense power.
It was a shame that the clock’s hands had stopped turning, because it gave the impression of decay.
A mechanism that symbolized time had been eroded by time itself.
Ye Kong stepped up onto the platform and looked around—
“A stopped clock tower. Now, where could the clues be?
“Huh…”
Right away, Ye Kong’s gaze was drawn to a black box sitting directly under the clock’s hands.
The black box was covered in a fine pattern, and it was as beautiful as a piece of art.
Ye Kong briskly strode over to the box and bent down to touch it.
Swish!
The instant he made contact with the box, his surroundings changed. It had originally been nighttime, but now, it was dusk. At the same time, he heard the voices of priests, who said together in unison:
“Oh great Lord of Wisdom, you have brought us the light of fire. You are the gospel of mankind…”
A large number of religious devotees stood around the platform, surrounding it. They were all wearing black ritual robes with a flame embroidered on one shoulder, and they were obviously all members of the same religion.
“Hmm?”
Ye Kong frowned, having noticed that two strangers had abruptly appeared beside him. It was a white-haired old man and a young, red-haired lady. They were also wearing the long, priestly robes, but theirs were different from everyone else’s, a pure-white color.
From their clothes, it would seem that they were the priests of this religion and that they were higher up in the hierarchy than the rest.
“Huh, these two people…”
Ye Kong couldn’t resist stretching out his hand to try and touch the red-haired lady—
The next second, his fingers went straight through her torso, and he felt nothing but air.
“As expected, they’re just phantoms.”
Ye Kong shook his head. “I didn’t think there would be a mirror image here. This Illusory Realm keeps getting more interesting.”
The mirror image that Ye Kong was referring to was a small segment of a scene from a different time preserved in the Illusory Realm. When players activated the mirror image, they could enjoy watching the short segment.
As the mirror image was a virtual projection, and not tangibly recreated in the Illusory Realm, players couldn’t influence the events in the mirror image, and the subjects of the mirror image also wouldn’t take note of the player.
Coming to an understanding of the situation, Ye Kong simply let go of any further reservations and settled down to watch the mirror image—
“Uncle Solomon, will our prayers have any effect?” The red-haired young lady was filled with anxiety, and she asked the other priest: “The Lord of Wisdom, his deeds…”
It was a very unusual scene. Even though the other priest was a white-haired old man, the red-haired young lady still called him her uncle. But then, there was something even stranger—
“Now that things have come to this point, we have no other choice.”
The white-haired old man opened his mouth to speak, and the voice that came out was surprisingly youthful, like what one might expect from a regular middle-aged man.
“Our only choice is to put our trust in the Lord.”
As the words left his mouth, a huge sound came from the heavens.
Kaboom!
It was the roaring of thunder, which sounded almost like the roar of a savage beast!
In that instant, the color drained from the faces of the other priests on the platform—
“It’s the Lord! The Lord must be coming!”
“The Lord is coming! We’re doomed…”
“Jupiter is coming to punish us!”
During this commotion, the white-haired old man raised an eyebrow and shouted: “Maintain order. Do not forget who you are!”
The white-haired old man’s composed demeanor immediately pacified the others. Even though the priests were still nervous, they maintained their discipline and continued as they had been in an orderly fashion—
“Oh great Lord of Wisdom, you have brought us the light of fire. You are the gospel of mankind…”
The sound of the priests’ voices echoed across the platform. At the same time, Ye Kong saw “Solomon,” the white-haired old man, turn to whisper to the red-haired young lady:
“Olenna, leave Theus City at once through the ‘small passage.’ You know the location of the small passage, so I’ll spare you the details. Also, you must remember—”
As he said this, Solomon’s voice grew solemn: “To pass on the ‘Fire Spark’!”
“Olenna?!”
Ye Kong’s eyelids twitched, and he quickly checked his equipment screen—the name of that Jewel was…
It was Olenna’s Orb!
“I understand, Uncle Solomon.”
Olenna nodded her head vigorously as she stared deeply into Solomon’s eyes. Just as she was about to depart—
Kaboom!
Lightning came down from the heavens to strike the earth!
Boom!!!
The sound of thunder was deafening, as though heaven and earth were being punished!
Ye Kong’s eyelids were spasming. Even though it was just a mirror image, he could still feel the terrible forces here!
It was the kind of power that even his past self, when he was at his strongest, couldn’t withstand a single strike of!
It was because this wasn’t the work of man, but…
Divine punishment!
Boom!!!
A huge, thick thunderbolt came down like a silver serpent, ready to devour everyone on the platform!
“Wisdom is the light of mankind, lighting up the path to civilization.”
The phrase was spoken by a calm voice, and in the next instant, a figure appeared on the platform. The man spread his arms wide, as a flash of light flew out from the body of each priest and converged in front of him, finally transforming into a giant curtain.
Bang!
The giant curtain swallowed up the mighty silver serpent.
Then, the man floated into the air, up toward the dark clouds, where a figure of gigantic stature waited—
“Jupiter, you are going too far! You shouldn’t call down divine punishment on humans!”
“Prometheus, you were the first to break our agreement!” a white-haired male in a white robe, with bolts of lightning streaking across his body, said to the man… or rather, god. He floated up to him and said severely: “It’s not only you but also your devotees who must accept my divine punishment!”
Prometheus made no reply. He merely spread open his curtain quietly, showing that his mind was made up.
“Fine!”
Jupiter laughed scornfully in anger.
“We shall see who emerges victorious!”
At the same time, on the platform…
While everyone else was distracted by the two gods fighting with each other, Olenna seized the opportunity to slip away undetected.
Ye Kong didn’t pay any more attention to Olenna, as her fate had already been sealed.
At this point, Ye Kong’s attention was focused entirely on the heavens.
“I see. The two gods are ‘Divine Lord of Thunder – Jupiter’ and ‘Divine Lord of Wisdom – Prometheus.'”
Why were they called Divine Lords? Because they were superior to other gods and were the true central core of their “Pantheon”!
For instance, Artemis was the core god of the Lunar Pantheon, and she was a female Divine Lord.
However, compared to the title “Divine Lord,” these gods had an even more esoteric name, which had circulated among the players by word of mouth. That name was—
Overlord!