Chapter 1678: Carmen Field
By the time it got dark, Xu Huo had finally reached the end of the Nine Divine Paths, which was the central location of the city. Although the gray fog shrouded everything, making it impossible to see the city's overall layout from any single position, the time fragments he had reviewed revealed that the city's layout was circular. The entrance, where the Nine Divine Paths began, was directly in front of the Central Temple. The Nine Divine Paths fanned out, wide at the outer edge and narrowing inward, with their terminus at the Central Temple.
Although the nine avenues all converged in front of the Central Temple in a gradually narrowing fashion, the temple itself was large enough that the area before its gates did not feel cramped. Moreover, the scale of the Central Temple far exceeded the continuous rows of temples along the Nine Divine Paths.
The temples along the Nine Divine Paths were, for humans, merely moderately tall, building-like palaces. But the Central Temple seemed to have been built with the ambition of claiming the title of the world's tallest structure, possessing an indescribable sense of enormity. Of course, in the game world, even floating cities existed, so it was hard to determine an absolute height limit for ground-based buildings. However, because the Central Temple was shrouded in mist, the oppressive sense of its towering height was magnified invisibly.
The main gate of the Central Temple consisted of nine gates that receded in layers toward the sides. The central gate, also the foremost gate, was the largest among the nine. The eight gates on either side stood in four parallel rows. Based on descriptions heard in the time fragments, the entire front facade of the Central Temple had a protruding, convex shape.
Even standing at the entrance, it was impossible to take in the full scope of the gates. Some of the visible pillars were carved with eye motifs of various sizes, though many of the larger ones had been slashed open. The pillars themselves looked as if they had been ravaged by sharp blades, covered in scars.
The ground between the pillars was in no better condition. It looked like earth that had been plowed back and forth repeatedly, its original form completely unrecognizable, now only covered in a thick layer of dust.
The interior of the temple was even worse than the outside. Not only the floor and walls, but even the high, distant dome had been shattered to pieces. However, after the destruction, the debris remained in place, barely providing some cover and roughly preserving the outline of the Central Temple.
On some of the floating rubble, traces of carvings could be seen. Apart from the familiar eye motifs, little else of the original form could be discerned.
Nevertheless, compared to the unfinished temples, the Central Temple was far more intricate and luxurious. The stone used for flooring was a milky white, naturally lustrous material, extremely expensive. Most of the other stones scattered in the air were also costly building materials. It was evident that certain parts of the structure had once been inlaid with something, but those elements had not survived.
Xu Huo walked deeper into the temple, passing through a partition "assembled" from several giant stone slabs. He saw a stone base that had not been completely destroyed. This base had been built along with the Central Temple and was likely where the Divine Envoys had placed their seats.
Finding traces of space rays nearby, he waved his hand to set time in motion. A few seconds later, he saw the undamaged Central Temple in the time fragments.
The first thing that caught his eye was the stone base before him, still intact. It was inlaid with large, vibrant red and green gemstones. Even the steps leading up to it were covered in gems. The base, over ten meters high, must have used tens of thousands of different-sized gemstones. On top of it sat a broad throne made entirely of gems.
Seated on the throne were two men wearing tall top hats, their faces concealed by masks.
The man on the left was speaking, "...People cannot live forever. Every time we see our own aging skin, our fear of death deepens. Since humans cannot avoid death, it is only natural to make arrangements for what comes after. What is wrong with building a city as a tomb?"
His gaze was directed downward from the stone base, so Xu Huo, standing in the middle, also turned around.
A surprising figure appeared in his field of vision—the blue-eyed man he had "encountered" in the time fragments of the residential area. At that moment, a flower basket he had bought from a child was still placed at his feet.
In response to the Divine Envoy's somewhat indignant words, the blue-eyed man said nonchalantly, "You want to build your tomb? No one's stopping you. But if you build it too well, you can't blame others for wanting to take it."
"Blasphemy!" the left Divine Envoy scolded.
The blue-eyed man looked at him with a smile. "You try to enjoy eternal posthumous worship through religious forms—why can't I? After all, your Divine Eyes were also stolen. You can't just take from others as if it's your right and then cry foul when someone does the same to you."
The right Divine Envoy held back his companion and said in a gentle tone, "Are you not afraid of death? If you bully two dying men today, aren't you afraid of divine retribution? That one day, your own grave will be dug up?"
"You're pretty funny," the blue-eyed man said casually. "Dead is dead. No awareness left. Even if you fed my corpse to the chickens, I wouldn't mind. Consider it recycling."
The two men on the throne trembled with rage at his shameless words. Before they could erupt in anger, he stroked his chin and added, "But you've given me an idea. Taking good things into the grave means you can't take them with you anyway... How about this? Since the body is going to feed the chickens anyway, why not hide the treasures in the chickens' bellies? Want me to give you a hand?"
"Too far!" the two Divine Envoys shouted, flinging their wide sleeves. In each of their hands appeared a milky white round stone. These were likely the two Divine Eyes mentioned by the believers, and what the blue-eyed man called Primordial Stones.
Just by looking, it was impossible to discern what power the Primordial Stones held. But in the next second, the blue-eyed man, still some distance from the two Divine Envoys, raised his hands and wiggled his fingers as if plucking invisible strings. At the same time, the two Divine Envoys were horrified and desperately clutched the Primordial Stones to their chests.
"Primordial Stones are good things, but you don't know how to use them," the blue-eyed man said. As he moved his hands, ten extremely thin threads gradually appeared beneath his control. These threads connected to the pads of each of his fingers, then passed through space to attach to the two Primordial Stones.
From the earlier situation, it seemed the two Divine Envoys could draw power from the Primordial Stones. But now, they could only hold onto them, hoping the blue-eyed man wouldn't snatch them away. The stones that should have been theirs now seemed more like possessions of the blue-eyed man. Even across a hundred years of time, one could still feel the resonance between him and the stones.
In fact, in the next moment, a faint, flowing light appeared on the two Primordial Stones. The light traveled down the ten thin threads controlled by the blue-eyed man, flowing smoothly until it touched his fingers.
Realizing they could no longer stop him, the two Divine Envoys were both shocked and furious. They shouted in unison, "Carmen Field!"
(End of Chapter)