Chapter 850: A Map

The towering, rotting giant tree underwent a dramatic transformation the instant the key's radiant light flashed.

Silvery-gray miasma flowed out from the numerous rotting holes in the tree's trunk.

It did not target Ye Qiyan, but instead blanketed the entire sky.

That bizarre eyeball satellite seemed to sense something and reappeared once more.

Yet hovering above this miasma, it carefully observed with all those eyes, still failing to spot anything unusual.

In the satellite's perspective, everything here remained as it always was, still filled with that suffocating sense of reasonable despair.

"There seems to be something up ahead?"

The golden key returned to his hand, and upon the tree trunk, a doorway materialized.

Eve moved forward first, walking up to the door and pushing it open for Ye Qiyan.

Beyond the doorway was not some mysterious special space, but merely a room carved out from the tree itself.

An ordinary room that looked as though someone had once lived here.

Ye Qiyan stepped inside.

There weren't many things in the room.

Mostly various books, and from certain decorations, it wasn't hard to tell that the owner of this place had likely been a woman.

He wanted to pick up one to identify, but before he could even touch the books,

everything in the entire room was swept by the faint breeze stirred up by his footsteps. In an instant, all their original colors faded away, and the next second, they turned into weightless flying ash, swirling within this not-so-large space.

The Wandering Star Holy Sigil shielded Ye Qiyan from this ash.

But by the time the ash settled, nothing remained in the room.

They had been corroded.

Not just by that strange power clinging to the tree trunk, but also by... time.

"Nothing at all?"

The three paths existing at the Crossroads of Fate couldn't possibly be meaningless.

Wait... meaning, huh?

Ye Qiyan suddenly realized that he seemed to have fallen into a misconception called [Habit].

This was a world of despair.

It was a small fragment of the treasure vault, left behind after the Golden Tribe's primordial land was destroyed by the End.

How could those who sought to completely annihilate the Golden Tribe tolerate the existence of anything with [Meaning] in this world?

That was right.

Just as the system description said.

This was a world filled with despair, a place where no hope existed. Colors, existences, none of them were permitted.

The Crossroads of Fate had chosen three paths for him. The first two most likely led to monsters even more terrifying and powerful than that bizarre satellite just now, or other even more dangerous situations.

Only this third path, while nothing particularly special, could offer him a place in this world of despair that was perhaps the only spot where he could temporarily rest and figure out the situation.

But if that was the case, how was he supposed to find that treasure vault?

Ye Qiyan didn't know the size of this world, but just from what the Nano Giant Sting Bee swarm had explored, the moment they strayed more than eight hundred meters from this towering dead tree, they could no longer distinguish directions.

Because beyond that was a world of pure, colorless, terrifying nothingness.

The moment the Nano-Bee Swarm got slightly close to that grayish-white expanse, they would lose contact instantaneously.

"The Colorless Land, what a fitting name. Stripping away civilization, race, meaning, even color itself. So this is the power of the End, a colorless apocalypse? It seems to be far stronger than that strand of wind in Suoluo City."

Ye Qiyan's expression remained calm.

Though he knew the outside was fraught with danger, since he had come all this way, he would have to try and find that treasure vault no matter what.

This time, WALL-E couldn't assist with treasure hunting, so he could only rely on himself to explore.

He turned to leave, planning to return to the train first to think about how to find the path to the treasure vault.

But at that very moment, that golden leaf known as the Key floated up from his hand.

The tip of the leaf pointed toward one direction.

It was a corner of the room.

An unremarkable corner that even Ye Qiyan had deliberately overlooked.

"Huh?"

Following the Key's guidance, he had Lisette walk over, take out the [Spell-Breaking Sigil], and stab it into that corner.

Clang.

An ancient clock, colorless, formless, and utterly devoid of any presence, suddenly appeared before Ye Qiyan's eyes.

The moment it appeared, just like everything else in the room, it rapidly lost its color and turned to ash.

But within that pile of ashes, there was a protruding cylindrical object.

Lisette picked the item up from the dust, returned to Ye Qiyan's side, and handed it over.

This item was a golden-threaded scroll about the thickness of an infant's arm.

A scroll made of unknown materials that, despite the passage of eons, had still managed to resist corrosion and the ravages of time.

[Golden Tribe Vault·First Authority Map (Level 1)]

[Category: Cross-Time · Unique Item]

[Upon it rests an extremely long-lasting authority of time. Time cannot recede, cannot cycle. The power of this authority is [Stasis].

The one who activated this authority placed this unremarkable map into the single item capable of preserving objects.

After countless ages of stasis, the item itself was corroded by the power of 【??】, losing its color and meaning.

But they left behind this map. They hoped someone would come here, yet they didn't truly believe anyone would ever reach this world of despair.

This sole map is the final relic of the one who faced death calmly beneath this very tree.]

The Key that had provided guidance also lost roughly a quarter of its color.

The Goddess of Beauty, Venus, her power still resided within this key. Though meager, it was enough to provide Ye Qiyan with four more guidances in this place.

That beautiful goddess had indeed done everything within her power.

While Miatira identified it for him, Ye Qiyan had already unrolled the scroll.

The map wasn't large, and it resembled the kind of dynamic map that could be freely moved around in online games. It was hard to imagine that something like this was only Level 1.

The train system's evaluation of Golden Tribe items seemed to have some peculiarities.

On this map, there were a total of seven special regions marked.

They bore the unique script of the Golden Tribe, which Ye Qiyan naturally couldn't read.

So, he directly handed the map to Lisette.

His maid never let him down.

In just a few minutes, a new addition appeared in Lisette's ordinary module.

[Ancient Language Mastery]

She had learned the Golden Tribe's language.

Though she didn't know why she could always learn things, well, since Master needed it, she had to learn it no matter what.

A gentle smile curved at the corners of Lisette's lips. Using a pen, she quickly completed the translation on the map in human script for Ye Qiyan.

Looking at all the translated content,

it was only now that Ye Qiyan learned that this giant tree he was currently in was actually the King of Venus' Golden Fruit Trees.

It was just that after losing its color and meaning of existence, its ability to bear fruit had long since vanished. But this also told Ye Qiyan that the fruit tree in the Nether Moon Garden, the one that could produce Golden Apples, would one day be able to grow to this very level.

And this towering dead tree, through the long passage of time, had relied on the [Courage] and [Perseverance] left behind by the last member of the Golden Tribe to become the only existence in the Colorless Land that could evade the [Eye of God].

How did Ye Qiyan know all this?

Because tucked inside the map was also a farewell letter, presumably written by the last surviving member of the Golden Tribe.

[I am the Governor of the Golden Tribe! Okay fine, just the Governor's daughter, but I definitely could have become the future Governor through the glorious arena!

Well, though I think it looks like I won't get that chance now. Sigh, such a pity. If I'd become Governor, the resources I could have allocated would definitely have been enough to complete the artistic project of my dreams...

Hmm, I've gotten off track. Anyway, if anyone is reading these words, I must be dead by now. And I probably died in a really terrifying way, maybe even turned super ugly.

Sigh, such a pity. My project isn't finished yet, and I never got to try the glorious arena I prepared for so long. If I'd known it would turn out like this, I might as well have challenged Mother, though I definitely would have lost.

Alright, enough of that. In any case, I don't think anyone can still enter this world. After all, the primordial land has already fallen into the End, and Mother also died fighting those Divine Monsters. We're just an escape pod that was flung out of the primordial land via gravitational slingshot.

But everyone knows we can't escape. Yeah, because this place has long since fallen into the End as well.]

A calm sense of death.

Ye Qiyan could almost see it - that rambling Golden Tribe girl writing her farewell letter in this little room amidst the flames of war.

[Courage, confidence, strength, beauty... all seven cardinal virtues of the Golden Tribe have been broken. The underlying logic of our race itself was found vulnerable by those Divine Monsters teaming up with one (crossed out) two (crossed out)... oh, a full seven pinnacle Wasteland Species.

Seven of them! Geez. Our Golden Tribe's pinnacle could hold their own against seven without falling behind, which is pretty amazing. Unfortunately, that was still too many. If it had been one versus five, it probably wouldn't have been a problem.

So scary, really... Even the bravest Golden Tribe warrior would feel fear upon seeing that 【?*&…】.]

On the letter, there were traces of a name that had been forcibly erased by some power, as if it could not be recorded, could not be spoken.

[Alright, it seems I've said a lot of useless things again. I'm about to die. Everyone's about to die. The Divine Monsters outside kill wave after wave of us, like they can never be finished off. So troublesome. I really hate those Divine Monsters. Their divinity got all twisted and weird when it ended up on them.

Yeah, all of the Golden Tribe's countermeasures against the End have been cracked. Even the End-countermeasure weapon my mother held has been cracked. How strange. How on earth did they manage to obtain all this intelligence?

If I still had the chance, I'd really like to investigate that. Also, those weird Eyes of God - oh, those Divine Monsters all call those strange satellites that name. Such ugly things. I wonder which pinnacle made those. They have no taste at all.

Unfortunately, I definitely won't get the chance to investigate anymore.

Mother gave me a device that can stop time. If I entered it, maybe I could escape from this End. But no.

To escape from the greatest End in history, a mere fragment of time authority won't cut it. Even if I entered that item, I'd still die sooner or later. And I know very well that once inside, my consciousness would remain fully awake.

Entering stasis inside is like sitting in a tiny prison cell, fully conscious.

If it could succeed, I'd give it a try. But no, absolutely not. Those bastards won't let a single trace of the Golden Tribe survive. We will die. We will lose. From the moment the Golden Tribe felt fear, this was already decided. So, no need to try. I'll just go die, together with everyone.

But... Outsider, if there really is an Outsider out there... you must be a madman who loves adventure and treasure hunting.

Then, I must leave something behind to prove I existed. Hmm... a map will do. Just a map that's already losing its meaning. It shouldn't be discovered, right? The talent of Time, though I usually used it to preserve food, at least it can do something now. Looks like I might just be a genius girl after all.

Outsider, I wish you success in your treasure hunt. Now, I'm off to die.]