Building a sect from scratch.

The group teleported out in a panic. Apart from Nietzsche, the other players were carrying a lot of random things, including hairpins, jade ornaments, and some strange, unknown trinkets, most of which looked quite valuable.

Nietzsche, however, was holding several wooden plaques in his hands!
Although called a wooden plaque, it's more like a "wooden sheet." The wood is shaved into thin sheets, then dried, flattened, and engraved with many characters using stone.

These characters are neither Central Asian script nor the language of China; the symbols are simple and the strokes are crude, making them look somewhat like a variant of oracle bone script.

These things, which are obviously very valuable, are so unremarkable that no one noticed them, but that doesn't mean no one knew their importance.

The sea turtle exclaimed sincerely, "Captain, you're amazing! How did you find this thing?"

“I saw it was neatly folded in the corner, so it must be important and I took it,” Nietzsche replied, examining the pieces of wood. “Probably some kind of quest clue!”

The soup dumpling tiptoed and craned its neck to look at the wooden piece in Nietzsche's hand, frowning: "But it seems there's some garbled text in the translation!"

That's right. Although almost all the text in "Ten Continents Chronicles" comes with a translation of the Chinese language, it's not a word-for-word translation and isn't 100% accurate. Sometimes there are even some garbled characters. At first, players would report this as a bug, but after the official team ignored it, players assumed it was a design flaw due to the language barrier between the game and the Central Continent, in order to emphasize immersion...

"What immersion?! It's clearly just that the official team was lazy and didn't design a complete system, so they just glossed over it!"

In response, the Sea Turtle Qi Pure retorted, "If they really wanted to create a sense of immersion, they could have simply not translated it at all, and just let us see the other world's writing system and learn its language! This whole thing is just pointless and unnecessary!"

Guantangbao glared at Haigui Qichun, his brows furrowing even more: "Don't make a sound. Although there's garbled text, I feel like I can roughly understand it!"

[...I don't remember how many years it's been, I've become somewhat unable to control my thoughts. I wonder if this is the last place where people survived, at least I haven't seen anyone from my sect in a long time. No, I should say I haven't seen a living person in a long time...]

[...This is the thirteenth year. Thankfully, I've heard that the seniors in the sect sometimes go into seclusion for even longer periods. Today, my senior sister said she felt a little dizzy, so we decided to go to the surface to check. If those human sacrifices have left, they can settle on the surface. The aura of the Yinglong (a type of mythical dragon) on those human sacrifices is really unbearable; hopefully, they'll stay obediently underground...]

[...My senior brother could no longer speak in complete sentences. He was writing on the ground with his finger, telling us to kill him. But, but, he was my senior brother...]

"...I have a theory. If all living animals, including us humans, are powerless against Yinglong's aura, then what about plants and trees? Plants can cultivate, and with high enough cultivation, they can even transform into human form. So, if I could find a way to cultivate a tree that has successfully cultivated, and then possess it, wouldn't I be able to escape Yinglong's influence? But my senior sister scolded me for being crazy. I'm not crazy; I keep records every month. It's impossible for me to be crazy..."

[...I really shouldn't have gotten involved in this. Alas, what choice do we disciples have? When will the sect elders finally realize something's wrong and come to our rescue? I swear I'll never secretly curse the elders again...] [...In January of the thirty-first year, my senior sister said the sect members won't be coming because this small grotto-world hasn't had a new human sacrifice brought in for a very, very long time. But Yinglong hasn't been resurrected yet. Without a human sacrifice, the interruption of the ritual will backfire on us! What are we going to do...?]

"...If only I hadn't chosen to join the Sword Sect, I'd still be...no, no, if I hadn't joined the Sword Sect, I'd still be a mortal, long dead! I should have joined the Sword Sect! If only I hadn't chosen the path of formations, and instead followed everyone as a sword cultivator, I definitely wouldn't have been assigned here..."

[...The forty-ninth year? Or the fifty-ninth year? Whatever! Anyway, I'm the only one left. It's so hateful! I'm a genius that only appears once in a thousand years. The elders all praised me, saying I had a chance to become an immortal. In the end, I'm trapped here. I'm so unwilling...]

"...If the Sword Sect finally arrives only to find the ritual to resurrect Yinglong has been interrupted, don't be angry, haha! I did it! Why should we pay such a high price? You all reap the benefits without lifting a finger? I designed an array to maintain the immortality of the human sacrifices through the spiritual energy of the spirit stone mine, keeping Yinglong asleep. This way, you either choose to restart the resurrection ritual, rendering all your previous efforts futile, or you choose to give up! But I've placed the core of the ritual's array on Yinglong's body! Haha! You'd better figure out a way! Whether you restart or destroy the ritual, you must obtain it! But who among you can get close to it? No one can resist Yinglong's aura! Anyone who gets close will be infected! Serves you right! Serves you right! I truly hate it..."

"...I succeeded! I possessed a tree! I'm a genius! Although it required separating several souls, it's alright, I retained three souls and three spirits, so it's no different from before! It's just that making records is a bit difficult now; I can only leave my body and carve the words back into my original body. Damn it, every time I go back, I feel myself becoming more and more corrupted, but if I don't make records, I'm afraid I'll really forget everything. I'm sure I wasn't a tree before..."

[Damn it, why are demon cultivators so troublesome? Why can't that tree next door understand me? It's ridiculously stupid...]

"...I can move now. I found a river today and could barely see my own reflection. Strange, I don't seem to be a tree. What am I...?"

"...I regret it. I should have destroyed the core of the array. If anyone discovers these records, please be sure to completely destroy this small world. If your cultivation is high enough, please also kill me, the tallest tree growing in the center of the world... um, it should be the tallest one..."

There weren't many pieces of wood, so everyone passed them around.

Based on the readable fragments of the wooden tablets, it's reasonable to assume there were far more. Whether Nietzsche didn't take them all, or the other tablets were hidden by the "diary's" protagonist, we only see these dozen or so.

Although there were only a dozen or so wooden pieces, they contained a great deal of information, but no one spoke, and everyone's expression was somewhat heavy.

The silence was broken only when Nietzsche let out a soft sigh.

"Sigh..." (End of Chapter)