"So this is the companion object of Ei and Makoto?"
Su Han looked down at the already-decayed old man.
He felt that things had gone a little too smoothly.
After thinking for a moment,
a strand of Pure Yang Flame ignited in his hand.
Boom.
The lotus immediately twisted and let out shrill screams beneath the flames.
"Heh, just as I thought."
Su Han stared at the burning leaves with a cold sneer.
He had already felt that everything was going far too smoothly.
He had just happened to arrive here.
Just happened to encounter the statue.
Just happened to meet an elder of the Takamagahara race.
And just happened to receive the other party's final inheritance.
But how could there be so many coincidences in the world?
There was only one answer.
Something was wrong here!
Under the intense burning of the Pure Yang Flame, the lotus gradually revealed its true appearance.
Its pink and purple outer skin slowly peeled away.
In its place were two rotten, twisted plants that emitted a nauseating stench.
Like living creatures, they writhed frantically in the air.
A moment later,
the plants stopped moving.
Su Han still made no move. Instead, the flames burned even more fiercely.
A full ten minutes passed.
Only when the strange plants were on the verge of collapse did they finally lose their patience.
A sharp purple spike emerged from one of them and shot toward Su Han's face.
It moved as fast as lightning.
Unfortunately, an indestructible wall of golden light blocked its attack.
The spike slammed into the wall.
Countless cracks immediately spread across the surface.
Su Han raised an eyebrow.
This thing was rather interesting.
It had actually managed to damage the Golden Light Incantation barrier.
"Let me see what other tricks you have."
A heavenly thunderbolt appeared out of nowhere and struck the flying spike.
Large amounts of filthy energy drifted out.
The spike's power was finally exhausted.
Yet Su Han did not stop attacking.
Instead, he continuously bombarded the strange plant with heavenly lightning.
Five minutes later,
the plant had been reduced to charcoal.
Its life force had fallen to rock bottom, leaving it unable to launch another attack.
Even then,
Su Han still did not lower his defenses.
He cautiously moved closer to inspect it.
As a result, he heard the spike cursing.
"You shameless and despicable human. Why are you so cautious?"
"I hid myself so perfectly."
"Damn bastard."
Su Han let out a cold laugh.
Still daring to talk big?
With a flick of his finger,
lightning infused with Haki transformed into a long needle and pierced straight through the spike.
A piercing scream immediately rang out from within.
What followed was a flood of desperate pleas.
"Hero, spare me!"
"Grandpa..."
"I'll never insult you again, save me..."
"Please stop attacking me. I really will die."
Su Han ignored it.
The power of the lightning continued to increase.
Only after the spike trembled hundreds of times did he finally stop.
Retracting his finger, Su Han looked at the spike coldly and asked,
"From now on, I ask and you answer. If you dare lie, then you can disappear."
The spike trembled.
It immediately stopped struggling.
"What is this place?"
"The Land of Divine Birth, Takamagahara."
"When was it destroyed?"
"I... I don't remember."
The answer displeased Su Han.
The spike instantly sensed his mood and hurriedly added,
"Grandpa, please don't be angry. I really don't know. There are no traces of time here anymore, nor any measure of its passage. How would I know how long it's been since the destruction..."
Suddenly, the spike remembered something.
It continued,
"But there is one thing I do remember."
"After Takamagahara was destroyed, three groups of people came here."
"The first group was Imperial Knights and an Imperial Princess. They seemed very disappointed by Takamagahara's destruction and left shortly afterward."
"The second group was a bunch of noisy women who never stopped chattering. They were extremely cautious and cunning. They didn't even dare touch this book. They only used magic to investigate it before leaving in disappointment."
"As for the third group, it was actually one of the women from the second group. She secretly stole some information from here, believing it to be Takamagahara's greatest treasure. Little did she know that the contents had long been altered. Hehehehe..."
The spike let out a wicked laugh.
A lightning needle immediately descended.
The laughter instantly turned into a scream.
"Aaaah!!!"
"Grandpa, why are you torturing me again? My body is barely holding together..."
"And I really didn't lie."
The spike felt incredibly wronged.
It swore that everything it had said was true.
Yet Su Han calmly replied,
"Your laugh is too unpleasant."
"..."
The spike fell into depression.
After the room finally quieted down,
Su Han resumed questioning.
"What are the Fallen Empire and the Imperial Princess?"
"They were the most powerful nation in this world. Though they weren't divine beings, their power was inexplicably immense. Of course, you've already seen the result. In the end, those people caused the destruction of the world."
The spike's tone was still full of schadenfreude.
This time, however, it was smarter.
It kept its laughter to itself.
Hearing this, Su Han formed a suspicion, though he wasn't completely certain.
Looking at the spike, he asked,
"Do you know Surtalogi?" (TL/N: One of the Five Sinners of Khaenri'ah)
"No."
The spike answered instantly.
Without the slightest hesitation.
Su Han looked at it in confusion.
"So it wasn't him?"
"What?"
The spike seemed puzzled.
Su Han did not answer and instead moved on to the next question.
"Do you remember the names of the second group?"
"Mmm... I remember some of them. The noisy one seemed to be called Alice. Another was called something like Gold. Anyway, she was someone who loved tinkering with things." (TL/N: Gold is Rhinedottir. the RAWS calls her gold instead.)
The spike instinctively started to laugh again.
But it quickly remembered what had happened earlier.
So the laugh died halfway through.
"By the way, that woman called Gold was the one who secretly returned later. She also broke the seal she had established with her companions."
The spike's words cleared up Su Han's confusion.
This was probably the mystery behind Khaenri'ah's fall and destruction.
Perhaps many years ago,
the Witches' Assembly wandered along the borders of the world.
Their power was terrifyingly strong.
But there was a saying.
Curiosity kills the cat.
Maybe Alice didn't care.
The problem was that others could become obsessed with the power of the Abyss.
Gold Alchemist Rhinedottir was one of them.
"So that's how it was."
Su Han finally understood many things.
For example, there was no race in Teyvat similar to Klee.
The answer had now been revealed.
Alice was a being from the Second World.
Or perhaps she originated from the First World.
Either way, her movements revealed enough clues.
At the same time, another truth had been confirmed.
Khaenri'ah and the Second World.
had both been destroyed because the path to the Abyss had been opened.
How tragic.
Su Han sighed inwardly.
The whole story reminded him far too much of Obito.
If he had introduced manga earlier,
perhaps the man would not have fallen for it.
Some people were simply too naive.
"Now for the third question. How much of the book is true?"
"The second-to-last sentence and all the memories are fake!"
The spike answered straightforwardly.
The answer matched Su Han's suspicions.
But he felt it was still incomplete.
Lightning pierced through it again.
This time, Pure Yang Flame was added as well.
"Aaaah!!!"
The sharp spike immediately bent like a shrimp.
It began desperately begging for mercy.
"Grandpa, why again? Didn't I already answer?"
"No, stop!"
"Please!"
"Fine, I admit it. I lied..."
"Just once. I only lied this one time."
Su Han watched the performance without the slightest reaction.
He even took out another weapon.
Enma.
Conqueror's Haki enhancement.
Golden Light power infusion.
With all those forces stacked together,
the spike genuinely felt death approaching.
It frantically begged for mercy.
Otherwise, it would truly die.
"I'll never do it again. Grandpa... Ancestor... Great Ancestor..."
"I know many secrets. Please..."
"As long as you spare my life, I'll tell you everything, even the Abyss's plans."
The lightning finally stopped.
Looking at the spike, Su Han said calmly,
"Continue."
"Then could you remove those powers first?"
Bzzz.
The lightning intensified once more.
This time, the spike no longer dared complain.
"The Abyss has always been infiltrating different worlds. They are the source of corruption. They want to assimilate everything!"
"They? Then what are you?"
Su Han was very curious.
Could this thing hiding inside the book really not be an Abyss creature?
Its aura certainly resembled the Abyss.
After all, anything that could be ignited by Pure Yang Flame was unlikely to be anything good.
Asked about its identity,
the spike froze.
"That's right. What am I?"
"My body clearly contains the power of the Abyss, yet I instinctively hate it!"
"Why is that...?"
The spike muttered to itself.
It seemed to have fallen into deep thought.
Su Han did not interrupt.
He simply watched quietly.
About five minutes later,
the spike still had no answer.
Shaking its body helplessly, it said,
"I can't figure it out. Ancestor, ask another question."
It wasn't refusing to answer.
It genuinely didn't know.
Su Han's eyes flickered.
He changed his approach.
"Why do you think you're different from the Abyss?"
"That's easy. I hide inside this book specifically to avoid being assimilated! At least, my consciousness strongly rejects that fate. It's like... I really hate those disgusting things, even though my body contains the same power."
"So your true form is also a spike?"
Su Han asked curiously.
The spike laughed awkwardly and explained,
"Not really. That's just an attack form."
As it spoke,
its body transformed.
A tiny black creature appeared before Su Han.
Its appearance resembled the Pari of the desert.
Except its entire body was black.
It wasn't particularly appealing.
It looked more like a little lump of coal.
After observing it, Su Han sneered.
"Heh. Doesn't seem like much."
The little coal ball felt speechless.
As if its appearance was something it could control.
Still, it dared not talk back.
Its life was in someone else's hands.
At that moment, Su Han thought of another question.
Looking at the little coal ball, he asked,
"You don't know what you are, but do you know what happened in Takamagahara?"
"That, I do know."
The little coal ball had learned an important lesson.
One had to demonstrate value.
Without value,
the only outcome was destruction.
"First of all, Ancestor, this place is mostly as described in the book. As for the Divine Wedge, hehe... I modified it a little."
"It became a method of parasitism."
"But don't worry. The real Divine Wedge technique truly exists."
"And don't be fooled by that elder's righteous words about his own greatness. Do you know something?"
"Takamagahara enslaved those gods!"
"The so-called Land of Divine Birth was actually a place where they plundered resources from other worlds to create artificial gods."
"And the Divine Wedge was the contract used to bind those gods."
"Using pure twin maidens to bind twin gods..."
The truth of history was ruthlessly exposed.
Su Han brought the little coal ball outside.
To prove that it wasn't lying,
the creature led him to an altar.
"Right here. Clear away the corruption nearby. What lies beneath will prove my words."
Holding Enma, Su Han slashed downward.
The terrifying sword strike frightened the little coal ball.
If that attack had landed on it earlier,
it would already be dead.
Once the corruption was swept away by the sword energy,
a massive pit of bones appeared before them.
Corpses from countless races had been thrown into the pit.
Around it were numerous magical formations.
At that moment,
a silver flash passed through Su Han's mind.
Scenes from the past appeared before him.
Countless slaves were thrown into the pit.
Their eyes were lifeless.
The white-haired elder showed no mercy.
Instead, he constantly urged the others onward.
"Hurry and grind up these offerings."
"Our gods need nourishment!"
"The world is about to descend into chaos. Before that happens, we must give birth to the strongest gods. I can already sense it. Two powerful gods will emerge from the Land of Divine Birth!"
"This is the achievement of our race."
Blood.
Bones.
Souls.
Everything was transformed into nourishment and injected into the earth.
The statues Su Han had seen earlier stood guard on both sides.
As for the destination of the formation's flow,
a tree was weeping.
"This is..."
Before Su Han could see clearly,
the vision vanished.
Seeing him muttering to himself, the little coal ball sneered.
"As you can see, all of them were talented individuals from various races. And they were all girls. Only girls could be absorbed by that tree."
"But unfortunately,
everything was already too late."
"When the sun turned black, the entire land sank into a black ocean. Then came endless darkness and those disgusting purple creatures."
At this point,
the little coal ball seemed to remember something.
Frowning, it flew toward the distance.
Su Han immediately followed.
Very quickly,
the two arrived behind the temple.
This was where gods had once been born.
It was also where Su Han had seen the weeping tree.
Unfortunately,
nothing remained except a tree stump.
Even that stump
had been contaminated by purple energy.
Looking at the little coal ball, Su Han waited for an explanation.
The creature pointed at the stump.
"Ancestor, I think I've remembered something."
"This tree that gave birth to so many gods was later cut down."
"Then it was turned into a ship and disappeared completely."
"Strange. Why do I remember this so clearly?"
The little coal ball fell into contemplation once more.
Looking at the stump, Su Han felt the silver energy within his body react strangely.
"So that's what triggered it?"
No longer hesitating, Su Han gripped Enma.
Pure Yang Flame erupted completely.
The terrifying flames burned across the heavens before condensing into a monstrous slash that destroyed everything nearby.
The purple corruption vanished.
The tree stump, which had been eroded almost to collapse, was finally exposed.
Calling it a stump was generous.
It was already riddled with holes.
Its roots had long since lost all vitality, as if something had drained them dry.
Leaving the little coal ball behind, Su Han followed the pull within his heart and flew toward the base of the roots.
"Ancestor, wait for me!"
The little coal ball was startled when it saw him leave.
Being tortured was one thing.
Being abandoned was another.
If left behind, it would probably be assimilated before long.
One option was pain.
The other was losing itself completely.
Even a fool knew which choice was better.
Su Han descended and landed gently on the ground.
Then he walked into the roots.
Passing through the opening,
he saw roots heavily corroded by foul fluids.
However, protected by both Golden Light and Haki,
he was completely unafraid.
He flew straight inward.
Only upon reaching the center
did he stop.
"Is this the place?"
Su Han closed his eyes.
The silver energy within him circulated faster than ever before.
He stretched out his hand and reached forward.
The little coal ball, arriving behind him, witnessed an unbelievable scene.
Space itself distorted as Su Han extended his hand.
"Heavens... he's actually a master who can touch space-time!"
Throughout history,
in any world,
the power of space and time had always been among the strongest forces.
Even among gods,
it represented one of the highest authorities.
But Su Han could no longer hear anything.
His consciousness, much like Lumine's, crossed the barriers of time and space and witnessed the past.
"How much longer must I endure this..."
"I am the Tree of Space-Time, yet every day I suffer such humiliation."
"For one hundred thousand years, countless sins have been fused into my body. The hatred of countless races has accumulated within me."
"When will all of this finally end..."
The ethereal voice
was filled with exhaustion and despair.
It seemed to be the voice of the tree.
The darkness before him faded.
Batch after batch of souls
were forcibly transmitted through the tree's roots into its body.
Pair after pair of souls were born.
They should have been pure and flawless beings.
Yet a group of vile people forced them into Divine Wedge contracts.
Thus, the Land of Divine Birth fell into their hands.
The scene continued for an unknown length of time.
No one knew how many wars had occurred.
Takamagahara,
once a barren land,
had been transformed by a group of executioners into a sacred realm of gods.
Yet no one knew
how much sorrow the tree that birthed the gods carried.
At last,
everything ended on the eve of the world's destruction.
It was a day of darkness.
The sun turned black.
The earth was consumed by darkness.