Chapter 191: Wait, I Haven’t Gotten On Yet

“Thank you, Elder. No need to see me out.”

After visiting the last elder, Chen Xiyi went back on his own. Everyone he passed seemed to be in a hurry.

He had discovered something major: Wandering Light seemed to still be planning something.

From the memories of the high-ranking elders in the Temporal Response Bureau, Chen Xiyi confirmed one thing. Most of the top members were essentially Wandering Light Devotees. Or, to put it another way, the Wandering Light Devotees were a special force they created, directly under Wandering Light’s command.

As for the Wandering Light Devotees they had targeted in the past, those were actually either people who were eliminated for various reasons or some fake devotees who were just swindlers. The real Wandering Light Devotees were mostly an extremely elite force.

“The origin of the Wandering Light Devotees goes way back, alongside the birth of the Temporal Response Bureau. But from the very start of the Bureau, it seemed Wandering Light was already guarding against some entity. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have heavily militarized like this.”

If he truly intended to rule forever, he wouldn’t have allowed the whole world to develop so freely.

If Chen Xiyi were in Wandering Light’s position, not only would he not allow such a variety of Internal Energy weapons, he would ensure even the Martial Way disappeared. He would turn the whole world into a Dharma-Ending Age feudal kingdom like the Great Li Kingdom, then rule using divine mandate methods.

Instead, Wandering Light vigorously developed military equipment and provided further support for Martial Artists.

“Wandering Light definitely wasn’t guarding against Lin Feng and me. From the analysis of previous outsiders, it was the changes in this part of history that made Wandering Light alter his measures. Originally, he might not have had such plans.”

From the memories of these Temporal Response Bureau elders, who were also Wandering Light Devotees, Chen Xiyi learned that the development of the New World was only notified by Wandering Light about a year ago.

The approximate point in the New World where Chen Xiyi was, a year ago, was when he captured the eleven Temporal Immortals. It was precisely at that time that Wandering Light was forced to change his strategy.

“So, who exactly is he guarding against and preparing for?”

Chen Xiyi couldn’t figure it out. In this Martial World, Wandering Light could be said to be completely invincible. Apart from himself, no one could beat him.

Yet even so, he still spent ten thousand years on large-scale military training.

That’s right, in Chen Xiyi’s eyes, both the Temporal Response Bureau and the Wandering Light Devotees were essentially one big ten-thousand-year-long military exercise.

Wandering Light’s twenty thousand years in the sky were probably spent searching for and verifying that unknown entity.

“It’s the being that brought the Ascension Ritual!”

Chen Xiyi suddenly realized. From the intelligence he obtained, the completers of the Ascension Ritual were Lin Feng and the other person who carried the Ascension Ritual themselves.

At that moment, he also understood something: why the Temporal Response Bureau was investigating matters related to the Ascension Ritual.

The reason was simple: Wandering Light ordered it. The goal was also simple: to find the other person who completed the Ascension Ritual besides himself, or the one who brought the Ascension Ritual.

Lin Feng had been to the origin place of the Ascension Ritual and unearthed many records. Wandering Light, being a future version of Lin Feng, must have gone through this process too; otherwise, how could he become Wandering Light?

‘The god descended from the heavens, bringing sky-fire and divine light, shattering the firmament, cleaving the night to bring the day, proclaiming himself the king of heaven and earth, ruling for eight thousand years before witnessing his own withering and vanishing.’

Chen Xiyi recalled the Ascension Ritual he had unearthed from its origin place. It briefly described the origin of a certain entity.

It meant a god came from the sky to the earth, accompanied by fire and light, shattered the sky, used a strand of light to slay the terror called Night, brought daylight, proclaimed himself the king between heaven and earth, ruled the mortal world for eight thousand years, then saw his own death and disappeared.

The Ascension Ritual was a legacy left by this god. Later, a group of primitive people thought that to become king, one must complete this Ascension Ritual.

Unfortunately, none of them could complete it. Over time, they naturally found other methods.

That was the related record. Moreover, according to Chen Xiyi’s speculation, this record was made quite late, probably ten to a hundred years after that self-proclaimed god, The Immortal, left.

And regarding that god’s records, there were only these. Whether myths, legends, or corresponding records, there were none.

Chen Xiyi guessed they were likely erased.

More importantly, after The Immortal left, the Martial Way began to sprout, and the entity known as Internal Energy started to emerge.

“The first The Immortal established a primitive dynasty and ruled for eight thousand years, then disappeared. So why did he leave?”

“Even more important, is he still alive?”

Chen Xiyi felt the Cycle Function held too much malice towards him.

The Qi Refiner World was one thing, but this Martial World was also giving him nested layers. He just wanted to quietly have a one-sided game where he overpowered everything. He didn’t want to play games of ‘you scheme against me, I scheme against him’ with all sorts of messy, powerful beings.

From all the current situations, Wandering Light’s real enemy should be that first The Immortal, the god who brought the Ascension Ritual to this world.

As for whether that god was locally produced?

That’s like a villager sharing controlled nuclear fusion technology with you. Did you really think this was some neighboring civilization? Primitive people came up with a terrifying ritual comparable to the Qi Refiner system?

This was a sandbox farming game, not a historical strategy turn-based game. This world was a Martial World, not his own bug-filled, half-finished Homestead.

“The more I think about this, the more alarming it gets.”

Chen Xiyi thought that when it came to things like this, he’d better take it easy.

“Step by step. First, deal with the enemies in the Fallen Land, then kill Wandering Light. As for that god who looks like the mastermind behind the scenes, I’ll just have to let Lin Feng take the lead.”

What? He wouldn’t step up?

With this dungeon difficulty and VS level, it wasn’t something a newbie like Chen Xiyi could handle.

As for how to deal with follow-up matters after turning all enemies into Nourishment Resources, that wasn’t something Chen Xiyi considered. If he didn’t turn this group of enemies into Nourishment Resources, Lin Feng would probably crumble first.

If the first step failed, the subsequent plans would naturally be void.

To be honest, if a The Immortal wanted to hide, Chen Xiyi wasn’t sure he could find them. After all, the population was so large, and his Game Map didn’t have a search function. Finding the words ‘The Immortal’ among hundreds of millions of name prefixes wasn’t a simple task.

Moreover, he suspected that after so many years of change, their prefixes had likely altered long ago.

This wasn’t impossible. Prefixes indicated profession or certain traits; they weren’t immutable.

“Once I have enough Nourishment Resources, I can perform Nascent Soul Shaping. Then, perhaps by leveraging timing and terrain, it might be possible to team up with Lin Feng to gang up on Wandering Light.”

Otherwise, how could Chen Xiyi kill Wandering Light? All the people in the Fallen Land were his experience packs. To use cheats, one must pay a huge price.

Either spend the time cost to grind up slowly, or use manpower cost to save time. One couldn’t just become powerful out of thin air.

Even Lin Feng couldn’t do that. His rapid ascension relied on Wandering Light’s thirty-thousand-year accumulation and continuously drawing Power from history. Otherwise, how could a Postnatal Warrior jump straight to becoming an embodiment of rules?

“Ten more days. That’s enough.”

Chen Xiyi returned to Li Zhi’s house. He was currently wearing Li Zhi’s skin, so where else would he go but his home?

But this Li Zhi had it pretty rough. In his fifties, almost sixty, he fit three of the categories: widowed, childless, and disabled.

When he got home, there wasn’t even anyone to cook for him.

What a waste of his elder status. Although he was the lowest among the elders, in the Fallen Land, he wasn’t a minor figure. You could tell from his residence.

‘Normally, Li Zhi’s house should be empty, right?’

Chen Xiyi looked at the white dot on his Game Map and felt a bit strange.

Because the Fallen Land was covered by Wandering Light’s Chronological World sky, there was no sunlight. So, you couldn’t tell if it was day or night.

But whether day or night, he was sure of one thing: Li Zhi lived alone.

“It probably isn’t someone coming to ask Li Zhi for a favor, but someone with ill intentions.” Chen Xiyi thought that since there was trouble, he wouldn’t go back. Instead, he turned and headed towards the Calendar Department.

Knowing there was a problem and no benefit, why would he walk right into it? That would be crazy.

Especially since the person hiding in Li Zhi’s house had the prefix ‘Wanted Rebel.’ Clearly, they were an organization at odds with the Temporal Response Bureau.

If he eagerly went up there, wouldn’t that be seeking death?

As for possibly getting some intelligence?

That was simply impossible. Could any unknown organization have more intelligence than those in power?

Chen Xiyi had copied the memories of all ten of the highest-ranking elders in the Temporal Response Bureau. No unknown organization could know more than Wandering Light’s own subordinates.

If any did, it would only be Wandering Light himself.

“But why would they target an elder from the Calendar Department? Why not pick another… oh, right, they probably can’t get in. The other elders with real power have heavy defenses at home. Only Li Zhi, being all alone, is an easy target.”

Chen Xiyi also realized that if he were choosing a target, he would indeed pick someone like this.

“At this critical juncture, they’re really daring to risk it.” Chen Xiyi shook his head and went back to Li Zhi’s office in the Calendar Department.

But just as he reached the main entrance, looking at the white dot on his Game Map, he couldn’t help but think, ‘Wow, really?’

“Dang it, so you’ve got me figured out, huh? Whether it’s Li Zhi’s home or this Calendar Department, you’ve arranged people at both places.”

The Calendar Department had been off work for a while now. It was a laid-back department. Even the printing of calendars wasn’t done here; they just checked them after printing, stored them in the warehouse, then followed department orders to have others distribute them.

It was totally a nice place to retire. So the rules weren’t strict, let alone overtime—there was simply no work to do. They were definitely parasites in the Temporal Response Bureau.

“It seems they’re determined to get Li Zhi. Hiding for ten days won’t hold up. I might as well go check it out.”

Although Chen Xiyi was very reluctant, since he couldn’t avoid it, he might as well face it head-on.

He pretended nothing was wrong and walked into the Calendar Department office, slowly looking for a candle to light.

Suddenly, a gust of wind came from behind. ‘Chen Xiyi’ seemed to fail to dodge and was knocked out by the opponent’s move.

That person, after doing this, took a leather rope from their waist and tightly tied up ‘Chen Xiyi’. Then, they stuck their head out the window, mimicked some bird call, carried ‘Chen Xiyi’ downstairs.

A black carriage had somehow appeared at the entrance. The person threw ‘Chen Xiyi’ into the carriage and said quietly, “Target acquired. Let’s go quickly. We need to leave the city as soon as possible.”

“Don’t worry, the city gate guards have been bribed. There won’t be any trouble.” The coachman replied in a low voice, then drove the carriage away.

Only Chen Xiyi, who had just come out of the Calendar Department’s entrance, was left watching the carriage go into the distance. “Wow, you guys, wait for me! I haven’t gotten on yet. That guy just now tied up a lump of air!”