All Things Are Contracts

Chapter 265: The Fourth Era

“Pff.” The blonde beauty laughed, explaining, “I’m joking. I’m not an external avatar.”

“Not an external avatar?” Zhanyue frowned, then recalled the woman saying she might not be a living being. Could she be a ghost? No, Zhanyue suddenly thought of a possibility.

“You… are you a spirit of an artifact?” Zhanyue’s eyes widened. The Heavenly Book world was itself a space-time treasure, so it wasn’t impossible for another divine artifact’s spirit to appear within it.

The woman nodded, then asked, “Guess what kind of artifact spirit I am?”

After thinking for a moment, Zhanyue’s eyes grew even wider. He pointed at the star ship beneath his feet. “Could it be, senior, that you’re the spirit of this star ship?”

“Congratulations, you’re correct. Unfortunately, there’s no prize,” the woman’s eyes behind the sunglasses curved into crescents, looking very beautiful. “Although the star ship was picked up by the Void Emperor, he never refined it. His soul power wasn’t enough.”

“What? Even the Void Emperor couldn’t refine it? If it can’t be refined, how can we take you out?” Zhanyue was puzzled. Why did this woman think they could take her away?

The woman looked at Baizhi beside them and asked, “Do you possess a powerful space divine ability? I can sense that when you pick up items, you’re not using a spatial ring, but connecting to another space. Am I right?”

Baizhi was also shocked. This was unheard of. How did the other party know she was opening her divine ability space?

“The Dream Heavenly Book is a space-time divine artifact. The Eternal Sand Star Ship is an equally powerful spatial artifact, otherwise it couldn’t travel between stars. As the spirit of the Eternal Sand Star Ship, I’m much more sensitive to spatial fluctuations than ordinary people. You’ve used that spatial divine ability multiple times here, and I could sense it each time. The space connected by that divine ability is extremely large, large enough to contain the Eternal Sand Star Ship. Years ago, I made a bet with the Void Emperor. I lost, so I kept my promise and helped him repair the Heavenly Book.”

“I didn’t expect him to have perished. Now the Heavenly Book no longer needs me, and I don’t want to stay here anymore. As long as I leave this place, the Heavenly Book’s seal on me will automatically disappear. At that time, I will regain my freedom,” the woman said without concealment.

“Senior, do you mean that within the Heavenly Book, you can’t leave the Ink Sea area, but if you leave the star ship, you can move freely?” Zhanyue asked. An artifact spirit that could move freely was indeed outrageous, but considering the woman’s terrifying spatial attainments, he could understand.

“Yes, after I help you complete your mission, if this girl puts the Eternal Sand Ship into that space, I’ll be free,” the woman said again, clearly showing her desire to leave.

“How much of what she’s saying is true, and how much is false?” Zhanyue frowned. This woman was too powerful, and he couldn’t fully trust her. Who knew what would happen if they brought her out of the Heavenly Book? Unfortunately, he couldn’t communicate with the Spirit of the Heavenly Book, otherwise he could have another person to verify.

“What’s wrong, feeling conflicted?” The woman smiled, “You won’t be a match for that thunder bird. Even if that thunder bird is fake, far less terrifying than its true form, it’s still definitely not something you can handle.”

“Is that so? To make us feel more at ease, could senior please answer a few questions for me?” Zhanyue knew the woman before him knew a lot. It would be a waste not to cherish such an opportunity.

“Ask away.” The woman looked at Zhanyue with interest, holding up three jade-like fingers. “Seeing your good attitude, kid, I’ll answer three questions for you.”

Zhanyue thought for a moment, then asked, “First, what exactly is the Heavenly Book world, and what is its operating mechanism?”

The woman nodded and answered, “This question is simple. The Heavenly Book’s original name is the Dream Heavenly Book. It’s an ancient human treasure, integrating multiple grand laws including time, space, chaos, order, reality, and illusion. It was jointly refined by multiple ancient powerful beings and is one of the supreme treasures left for humanity. In the Fourth Era, it was obtained by the Void Emperor, earning him the title of the First Heavenly Emperor. You didn’t think the Heavenly Book was refined by the Void Emperor, did you? That boy doesn’t have such ability. Only a divine artifact like the Heavenly Book world can provide such suitable trials for each of you. Of course, it’s not perfect. For example, it calculated that this world would be most suitable for Baizhi, but it seems to have assumed one premise – that I would definitely help. In reality, I could choose not to, and in that case, this little girl wouldn’t be able to pass the trial.”

“Calculate? So the Heavenly Book world constructs various worlds through logical calculations?” Zhanyue couldn’t imagine how terrifying the computational power required for this would be.

“My second question: What is the Fourth Era you mentioned, senior, and which era are you from?” Zhanyue quickly asked.

“It seems you really don’t know anything,” the woman sighed, then continued, “The civilization centered on the human race has flourished and declined many times in the galaxy, just like the rise and fall of dynasties in the mortal world. The First Era, apart from a few traces proving it once existed, is no longer verifiable. Everything about the First Era is a secret. Perhaps it wasn’t even the First Era, but whether it was or not doesn’t matter much now. The Second Era was the most prosperous era of human civilization. At that time, one-fifth of the galaxies in the universe were ruled by humans. The human race then could rival those races that called themselves gods.”

“Unfortunately, later, due to internal strife among the human elite, the alliance front disintegrated. The god races seized the opportunity to invade on a large scale. Countless galaxies were enslaved by them, and countless people became their believers and nourishment. Some powerful humans, with the mentality of preferring to be jade shattered than a tile intact, destroyed countless galaxies, severely wounding both the god races and humanity itself. They were called the ‘Enders’ by us.”

“While the god races were recovering, humans rose again, ushering in the Third Era. Although the Third Era was far inferior to the Second Era, it still led three hundred galaxies and gave birth to three Dao Ancestor level powerhouses: the Blue Lotus Dao Ancestor, the Purple Cloud Dao Ancestor, and the White Deer Dao Ancestor. Unfortunately, the god races wouldn’t give humans the chance to dominate again. Although they were also severely wounded, they were still far stronger than humans. The three hundred galaxies of the Third Era were completely annihilated under the invasion of the god races, and all three Dao Ancestors also perished,” the woman continued telling these fantastical stories.

“Next came the Fourth Era, where humans had declined to a state where they couldn’t widen the gap with other races. Not only did they fail to produce a single Dao Ancestor, but they didn’t even have a Dao Monarch level figure. The strongest were only at the Heavenly Emperor level, like the Void Nine Emperors. In the Fourth Era, humans were confined to a single galaxy. However, the god races still didn’t intend to let humans off. This time, though, they only sent two deities, which was the greatest contempt for humanity.”

“But the result was that the Void Nine Emperors were defeated, and you entered the Age of Declining Laws. To be honest, I quite admire the Void Nine Emperors. At least they didn’t let the spark of human civilization be completely extinguished in their hands. But on a cosmic scale, there’s not much difference between humans and extinction. Forget occupying galaxies, you can’t even defend a single realm now.”