Chapter 97: Valhalla p1
An ancient ruin.
This wasn’t the first time Luo Ling had seen this strange, ancient ruin. She looked around, the surrounding layout giving her a sense of déjà vu.
Simple and unadorned, yet carrying an inexplicably eerie and gloomy atmosphere.
Although indoors, it felt vast and desolate, numerous pillars standing around, their surfaces seemingly once adorned with reliefs, now almost completely eroded by time, leaving only fragmented bumps and hollows, not a single piece of information to be found.
Beyond these pillars was a spreading darkness, only slightly dispelled when her consciousness approached, as if Luo Ling’s vision was a lamp with a limited range.
“This is…”
Luo Ling walked between the pillars, her gaze sweeping over them.
But unfortunately, none of the pillars carried any useful information.
The her standing here was just a strand of consciousness.
Perhaps even this ancient ruin itself… was also just a form of consciousness.
Beyond this consciousness, the battle should still be raging.
Luo Ling knew that, having just annihilated all of Chou Ke’s avatars, she would directly bear all the despair he had faced since embarking on this path.
But… unlike Chou Ke and Xuanyuan E’s understanding, this wasn’t a big deal for Luo Ling.
Luo Ling didn’t know if this despair could break her spirit, but she had already experienced the world’s funeral in her dream, and she knew the hardships ahead.
She knew from the very beginning that, if she truly wanted to save this world on the brink of Doomsday, facing despair was inevitable.
Therefore… confronting it directly was the best option.
However…
The current situation was beyond Luo Ling’s expectations.
Whether because Chou Ke had poured all his thoughts and feelings into his avatars, or for some other reason, after briefly enduring all of Chou Ke’s despair, Luo Ling’s consciousness arrived at this strange and mysterious place.
A lingering sadness remained in her mind, but it quickly dissipated.
…Chou Ke’s despair, compared to the world’s funeral in her dream, was ultimately insignificant.
Luo Ling, in that instant, witnessed the failure of all civilizations, even the last four origin points were described as insignificant “mourners” by the woman in black.
“…Wait?”
Just then, Luo Ling seemed to have realized something, her expression turning serious.
She remembered where she had seen this layout before.
—The Mysterious Tomb.
The birthplace of the Doomsday Messengers, where the original Twelve Messengers received their so-called divine revelation, despaired upon realizing the truth of the world, and embarked on this path.
Previously, Luo Ling, restricted by Xuanyuan E, couldn’t explore much of the Mysterious Tomb, so she didn’t see its full picture.
Moreover, Xuanyuan E herself didn’t know much about the Mysterious Tomb, because she was just a sword. Before becoming crippled, she was only responsible for killing enemies, and after becoming Yin Ke, due to her condition, she rarely participated in the Doomsday Messengers’ decision-making.
As for Mao Ke, there was even less need to elaborate. She wasn’t even an original Messenger. To her, the Mysterious Tomb was just a safe place for meetings.
Of course… after Luo Ling appeared, this “absolute safety” became relative.
Only Zi Ke and Chou Ke knew the secrets of the Mysterious Tomb.
If that was the case…
Luo Ling quickened her pace, and soon, she discovered something else besides the pillars.
Statues.
Statues of all Grotesqueries.
She found it!
Seeing these familiar statues, Luo Ling’s conjecture was confirmed. This… was indeed the Mysterious Tomb.
“However, compared to a ‘tomb,’ this place is more like… a temple.”
Luo Ling thought carefully. Previously, not knowing its full picture, she wasn’t sure, but now it seemed that this so-called “Mysterious Tomb,” in terms of architectural style, was very similar to the temple ruins in the origin point Valhalla.
Valhalla didn’t have anything like Victoria’s taboo stone tablet or Great Xia Imperial City’s towering stele to record the Sequences. Luo Ling already knew this.
However, whether it never existed, or was lost, was unknown.
Whether in Valhalla’s own records or the Xuanyuan clan’s archives, the origin point Valhalla was incomplete, seemingly missing a part of its history, even the existence of their legendary land, Nibelungen, was uncertain.
If this was the lost part of Valhalla, the place where they recorded the Sequences…
It wasn’t impossible.
Luo Ling continued forward. She clearly remembered that at the end of these statues was the Doomsday Messengers’ meeting room.
However, just as Luo Ling reached the end of the grotesque statue corridor, she sensed some flickering figures and immediately became alert.
Even as just consciousness, Luo Ling could still use Doomsday and Transcendence related Authorities. This was her most fundamental power.
However…
Luo Ling realized that the flickering figures… were just that, figures.
She stood at the entrance of the meeting room, silently watching the constantly changing figures within.
These were the Doomsday Messengers’ past.
She immediately saw the white-haired Xuanyuan E, sitting in the corner with her sword, eyes closed, seemingly deep in thought.
Beside Xuanyuan E sat a tall, black-haired woman, arguing fiercely with others.
She also saw Chou Ke, sitting slightly behind the main seat, wearing reading glasses, ignoring the others’ arguments, engrossed in the tattered book in his hands.
Unfortunately, they were just figures, their faces difficult to discern, let alone their voices, just a distorted rustling sound, like a broken record player.
However, Luo Ling could still vaguely understand the meaning behind this scene.
“This… seems to be the memory of the Doomsday Messengers’ first arrival at this Mysterious Tomb?”
These figures moved with the passage of time, changing rapidly. Luo Ling had to focus all her attention to keep up.
Gradually, the arguments lessened, and these original Messengers seemed to have reached a decision. The rustling sound became clearer, and Luo Ling could faintly hear brief, fragmented words.
“…Tomb… Doomsday… Grave Keeper…”
Perhaps because this consciousness originated from Chou Ke, even though the rustling sound became clearer, and she could vaguely distinguish several voices, the only one Luo Ling could clearly hear was Chou Ke’s.
Luo Ling also wanted to hear what Xuanyuan E said back then, what she thought as a member of the Xuanyuan clan.
However, in these images, Xuanyuan E spent most of her time meditating with her eyes closed, occasionally exchanging a few words with the black-haired woman beside her. Even if she could hear their voices, it probably wouldn’t be meaningful.
Luo Ling patiently deciphered Chou Ke’s words, gradually piecing together the truth of the past from these fragmented words.
“………”
The image progressed, and the number of original Messengers decreased, until only four remained.
Besides Chou Ke and Xuanyuan E, there was a man who seemed to be Zi Ke, and the last one was the original Messenger who almost reached the “grave keeper” level in the rumors.
The image suddenly stopped, an eerie silence, all figures vanishing.
This pause lasted for several breaths.
From the formation of the original Messengers to this scene, it only took about ten breaths, the rapidly changing figures conveying a relatively complete past.
Just as Luo Ling thought it was over, the image reappeared, this time, the scene she had seen before.
Zi Ke sat at the head of the table, Chou Ke beside him, and Xuanyuan E, her eyes covered, on the other side.
Clearly, the battle that decided the Doomsday Messengers’ future had ended.
Xuanyuan E thus embarked on a path of no return, until almost her entire being was offered to Doomsday, forced to stay in the void forever.
From Zi Ke and Chou Ke’s state, it was also evident that they suffered considerable injuries in this battle.
“Now, we’ve won.” At this moment, Chou Ke’s voice was incredibly clear, his tone calm and restrained. “But… it’s not over yet.
Our great vision of ‘preserving civilization’… has only just begun.”
The image completely vanished, and the meeting room fell silent.
Luo Ling, holding her breath, finally exhaled, her mind filled with the fragmented information she obtained from these images, piecing it all together.
“…So that’s how it is.”
This was indeed an ancient ruin, but… not from the distant past, but a recent one, appearing only after the birth of the four origin points.
Its creator was the civilization of Valhalla.
Its purpose was to escape Doomsday by abandoning their physical bodies and existing as consciousness.
The former Transcendence, before its demise, exhausted all its effort to create the four origin points, protecting them from Doomsday’s erosion with Transcendence’s protection, but this could only delay the inevitable.
Just like Great Xia Imperial City when the Transcendence protection shattered, Valhalla, when first facing the terror of the void, also suffered a heavy blow.
Great Xia Imperial City was fortunate to have the Emperor, successfully containing Doomsday’s spread, surviving this terrifying disaster at the cost of the Emperor’s sacrifice.
But… Valhalla wasn’t so lucky. Not only was there no Emperor, but the Doomsday disaster they faced was even more severe.
Three of the nine worlds were directly destroyed, and the remaining worlds fearfully faced Doomsday’s unstoppable spread, waiting for their demise.
This “Mysterious Tomb” was a creation of that era, called “Valhalla.”
The grotesque statues weren’t created by Valhalla, but like the taboo stone tablet and the towering stele, they were divine objects left behind by Transcendence.
This construct, existing in the form of consciousness, carried the hopes of the former Valhalla, attempting to escape the despair brought by Doomsday.
Unfortunately, they failed.
When Doomsday arrived, the spirits who abandoned their physical bodies also faced their own doomsday, all annihilated within “Valhalla.”
Moreover, a trace of Doomsday’s power, for some reason, remained in “Valhalla,” allowing this ancient ruin to barely survive in the void, not completely annihilated.
This was why the Doomsday Messengers called this place a “tomb.”
The reason why Valhalla continued to exist afterward was unknown to the Doomsday Messengers. This part of history wasn’t recorded by the current Valhalla, all discovered by Chou Ke in the Mysterious Tomb.
Besides this, Chou Ke seemed to have discovered more information, but unfortunately, the image was incomplete, and Luo Ling could only piece together this much from the fragmented words, unable to deduce his other discoveries.
But one thing was certain: although the “Valhalla” plan seemed to be the most important one for the former Valhalla, they should have had other plans to counter Doomsday.
Whether these other plans succeeded or not was unknown.
However, judging from the current situation… perhaps a small part of them succeeded, because Valhalla still existed, even though it had lost most of its past.
“Judging from the outcome, it should be at this time that Chou Ke began collecting everything about the past, gradually uncovering the truth and despair, and finally embarking on the path of ‘grave keeper’.”
Luo Ling thought silently. From the images, it was clear that no matter who the leader of the Doomsday Messengers was, Chou Ke was always second-in-command.
Xuanyuan E only became a leader after the incident. At other times, she was just there to make up the numbers, always slacking off during meetings.
Luo Ling even felt that, if her friend hadn’t been killed, Xuanyuan E might not have even intended to become a “grave keeper,” just staying with her friend.
Being able to steadily hold this position, Chou Ke wasn’t simple.
Moreover, the abilities possessed by Zi Ke and Chou Ke, reincarnation and myriad avatars, were both obtained from this Valhalla, not to mention the technology for building Doomsday branch stations.
Of course, Chou Ke made many improvements. At least, the initial Doomsday branch stations didn’t have the function of “tombstones” and couldn’t be used as weapons, just a method of establishing footholds in the void.
The Transcendence power they utilized, even the people of Valhalla themselves probably didn’t fully understand, otherwise, it wouldn’t have just been a foothold.
It could be said that the Doomsday Messengers basically completely inherited the legacy of the former Valhalla, allowing them to resist the various factions for so long.
Even as a failed product, it was still created using all the resources of an origin point, containing an unknown amount of knowledge, all falling into the hands of the Doomsday Messengers.
Perhaps Chou Ke’s “preserving civilization” plan was also inspired by this.
Even though the former Valhalla was lost to the past, it truly appeared before them through this ancient ruin, “Valhalla.”
“Unfortunately…”
Luo Ling sighed softly.
The surrounding scenery began to distort, everything becoming blurry, as if covered in a thick mosaic.
Then, a wave of illusion washed over her, making Luo Ling realize that this was just a dreamlike scene, impossible to ignore any longer.
Since entering this place, Luo Ling had already known the truth, but to stay here, she had to suppress all thoughts about it.
Now… this dream had ended.
“Unfortunately, I couldn’t go to the true ‘Valhalla’.”
