He is the leader of the Tantric sect in Chagdu.

Chapter 68 The Great Red Dragon

"noob----"

Like a dream so real it was immersive being shattered from the outside, Ai Yi uttered a word that was difficult to understand.

Then it was as if I had just woken up from a dream.

"Is it over?"

Out of habit, he asked this question.

"Will you return? Yes/No"

The door, which had been offline for a long time, repeated the subtitles from before, looking rather unintelligent. So Ai laughed and scolded, "Don't try to fool me—it's not time to go back yet."

He looked around at the frozen scene and said in a deep voice, "It's like the movie suddenly ends and the credits start rolling, and I feel like I can wait for that post-credits scene."

"Xiao Bai," he said solemnly, then silently began to wait.

"Why----"

The screen reluctantly lit up. "Wouldn't it be better to just walk away quietly? Although it's role-playing, you've basically torn the script to shreds. Why not just enjoy yourself to the end? Why bother watching that predetermined ending?"

Ai tilted her head, a half-smile playing on her lips: "That's not what you told me when I first came in."

"That's because development can't keep up with change—that crow must have gone crazy and dumped you here. This history is so ancient that even the white doves almost forgot about it. Its traces are too faint and too shallow. I squeezed in outside for a long time but couldn't get in even a little bit."

The door seemed somewhat angry, but more so helpless: "Fine, fine, since you want to see it, then see it—what Mo Ya is about to tell you is a disaster on the same level as the decay of the Heart's Standards. Knowing it now will only add to your troubles. I didn't even want you to know so soon."

"Stop being stubborn."

Ai laughed, "I have long accepted the world's many flaws, no matter how thoroughly it rots—when I burn it down and rebuild it, all despair and suffering will become part of my great cause."

"Then let's go to that real history, are you ready?"

"Anytime"

The moment he spoke, everything began to fade—

At first, there were gray spots that spread from Lot's palms to his entire body. Then they turned into a thin layer of mist, enveloping the surface of the world, spreading out from the "contact point" until all the colors in the scene faded away, and time and space seemed like an old black and white television set, absurd and fake under the embellishment of countless noise and pixel blocks.

Soon, consciousness was gradually peeled away from this body, the five senses faded away, and in the gradually dissipating world, the only thing that still had a trace of weight attracted Ai's full attention.

That feather—the one Anda left for herself.

He gently held the feather in his hand; the bright red stain on it was still striking. It now looked heavy, unlike things that had lost their meaning and weight, and seemed out of place in the artificial environment.

He gripped the feather tightly.

The frozen world faded from his eyes in the next instant.

Another seamless scene transition – “Anchored History”.

Fukano, the former site of Ruin Village.

A week has passed since the Anti-Cult Bureau completely eradicated the "cult" in the wilderness.

Almost all the people of Tun Ling are talking about this atrocity that occurred in the "civilized era".

"That kind of monster, that kind of demon! I can't believe it still exists, it's terrifying—thankfully there's the Anti-Eradication Bureau."

Everyone says that the Deep Plains is a land occupied by barbarians, and the foreign tribes living there still adhere to the ancient tradition of eating raw meat and drinking blood. As long as those bloody and cruel sacrificial rituals are not completely eradicated, the Deep Plains will not be able to be included in the glory of Ys.

During this sensitive period, a young man named Rod left Dunling and went to Shenye, to that desolate village that had been wiped out by the anti-suppression bureau.

Ai got off the car and came to this familiar yet unfamiliar village once again. He stood next to the old site of Agdewu. Originally, the bishop's small but magnificent and complete chapel should have stood here.

Now, all that remains are the burnt ruins, the fallen dead trees, and the charred human-shaped remains lying on the ground.

He looked around and was surprised to find that there were still living people there.

"Abram".

Ai called out softly, and he wanted to walk forward quickly, but his steps slowly froze due to a sudden feeling of palpitation.

He saw many makeshift wooden frames, with charred marks stretching from the ground to mid-air, resembling a stake.

Ai stopped at the very front of all the wooden frames.

The traces of the flames had cooled down a week ago, so there wouldn't be much high temperature or fly ash left; everything, including the tortured person, had solidified here.

He swayed and almost lost his balance.

"Anda".

He saw a corpse.

Even though she was already a red dragon, she still looked so calm when she was being slaughtered, as if there was no sign of her struggling. The flames were as docile as lambs in front of her, so they only burned off her warm white hair and burned her already barren flesh until it was as clear and translucent as porcelain. The wing membranes on her back were burned away, leaving it withered and shriveled.

As if she had not suffered any pain, the girl's eyes remained wide open, their brilliant golden-red color like solidified amber. Although she could no longer blink, they were still as vivid and captivating as if she were still alive.

She is dead, a death without a trace.

In the endless spirals, in the final act of burning, a person lies exposed to the sunlight in the wilderness—having transformed into an ominous monster, he can only face his demise in solitude.

Ai's tone was lifeless, devoid of any further emotion: "So this is Anda's fate in the anchored history."

Aren't you sad?

Ai walked slowly forward, approaching the high-hanging execution rack.

He silently approached the withered corpse, gently stroking the shriveled, decaying bones and the frail flesh that seemed ready to crumble at the slightest touch. "Anda, you haven't eaten properly again."

His voice was so soft it was almost inaudible.

"[—" The doorway whispered, "I thought you would appear to be in more pain.

Ai sighed and said softly.

"Do I look that sad?"

""

Beneath those slightly unfocused pupils, a wisp of madness silently ignited.

"Perhaps that is true, because I still have doubts—after all, this is history that I haven't even witnessed, so why should it be anchored?"

He looked up. "I've seen something else, a completely different scene."

"That was another piece of history that I witnessed firsthand. At that time, a foreigner named Lot came from Dunlin, carrying justice and ideals, and witnessed all of Anda's efforts, her transformation from a lamb to a red dragon, and her soaring high in the sky."

Ai clenched his fist, then slowly relaxed it, uttering each word with difficulty: "Then, I will take her away from this place, take her to another sky to fulfill all her dreams, whether it is this world or the more distant future, I will take her to see it all—I promised."

"noob."

He asked, "Tell me, at what height must I climb to become an anchor of history?"

"Don't rush."

The subtitles seemed eager to explain, "I brought you here not so you could see these things—"

Men suggested, "Let's ask the person in front of us what happened first."

"Abram".

Ai used all his strength to look away from his trembling gaze. He looked at Abram, who was standing quietly to the side, but he didn't know how to ask about what had happened.

Abram glanced at him, and a knowing look flashed in his eyes.

"You've come for our king?"

"--king?"

Ai narrowed his eyes, not understanding what he was saying. At that moment, the emaciated Abram suddenly laughed. He looked at the withered corpse hanging on the execution platform, his expression one of genuine joy. "So that's it, Your Majesty. You've been sleeping here all this time, waiting for him?"

"What do you mean?" Ai's gaze grew increasingly confused.

Instead of answering him directly, Abram told him a story.

"Did you know? In a distant legend, there was a bird that commemorated history and all things, recording all the stories it remembered in pale white on its joints, and that book carved with everything was called the Pale Revelation."

"In that book of revelation, a decisive destruction is prophesied—the record from the white dove is the answer, not a doubt, so it must and will eventually happen."

Abram said softly, "At that end time, the great red dragon that foretold the apocalypse will rise from its own charred corpse to challenge the wind father who abandoned his offspring for the sake of its people. He will win this sacred revenge under the sunlight and tear the sky down forever—even if it causes turmoil in the world, He will not hesitate."

"I do not understand."

Ai was about to lose patience with the incomprehensible conversation and was about to interrupt when he was quickly interrupted by an unexpected situation.

He felt something hugging his thigh.

He looked down, and in his daze, he saw a little girl dressed entirely in pale white, leaning against him.

"You—" Ai hesitated, instinctively looking at Abram beside him, only to find him unusually calm.

"This is—your daughter, isn't it?" He thought for a moment, then decided to bring up the relationship, "Your and Lily's daughter."

No matter how history changes, some predetermined tragedies will not change.

Abram seemed to have no further reaction. He simply shook his head and sighed softly, "Lily is her mother, but her birth is the answer, not the doubt—but clearly, we abandoned ones cannot raise a true bird."

"She might be that white dove, or she might not be—"

Abram chuckled and said, “Take her with you if you wish. Birds don’t belong here—if she has a name, call her Coo-coo. That’s what pigeons call.”

A surge of excitement welled up in Ai's heart, and the next moment she naturally hoisted the little girl onto her shoulder.

"Thanks----"

Abram turned around quietly, his eyes filled with a complex mix of emotions that were hard to decipher, as he looked at the girl's withered corpse, the thin, paper-like wings on his back fluttering slightly.

"The king has seen her last obsession, and she will soon awaken. I must also shoulder the responsibility of the prophet and lead the Agdeum to the Promised Land."

"This time, we will not repeat the same mistakes. Neither birds nor humans will regard us as dust."

"A traveler who does not belong to this era, the king's chosen one."

He smiled.

"We will meet again."

After saying this, Abram left—in this anchored history, he was mysterious and unlike any ordinary person.

Ai Yi pursed her lips.

Moreover, he's a riddle person; he says a lot of things but it feels like he hasn't said anything at all.

The communication seems to have stopped —

However, Ai quickly remembered that he hadn't finished reading the last chapter of "The Story of the Sky," so he took the book out of his satchel:

Following the "Genesis" chapter is the final secret.

From here on, what follows is a chapter that has never been truly translated by the Agdeweys. The "birdsong" it uses is incredibly ancient. In any era, perhaps only pigeons and crows, and at most, Ay, who learned the skill from Sleeve, could fully recognize this language.

At this moment, he took a deep breath, and the sound of birdsong filled his ears. "The Story of the Sky: The Creation Chapter": "The original four elements gave the world the distinction of 'above' and 'below,' separating the present world from the red pool—thus, life finally had a medium for its existence and propagation. After that, the four elements discussed the theory of life together—first, the cooperation of 'wood and stone' and 'honey,' they jointly governed 'below,' and from this, something solid and footed was born from the mud, able to stand firmly on the earth, that was the birth of 'beast.'"

"From then on, things moved about the earth, making it bustling with activity. But on the other side of the world, the aloof 'Light' was indifferent to the governance of 'Above,' so 'Wind' said to itself: 'The boundless Above is too empty. Even the sky needs something to oversee and maintain its stability. To facilitate the patrols of the overseers, they must have wings to fly. I bestow upon them my favor, granting them the lightness and the principle of flight that allow them to thrive in Paradise. They are my descendants, inheriting the bloodline of birds.'"

—This section is about the origin of the winged beings.

Ai turned to the next page, and this was the last page. The top line read like this.

"After the 'wind' granted the sky to the birds, the world bears the marks of life from top to bottom, and that is good."

The following is the title, from "The Creation: The Exiled Race": "However, no one knows that 'Wind' was not a skilled creator; initially, it did not seek the help of 'Wood and Stone,' who governed the principles of life, but instead attempted to create life itself."

"Thus, the first generation of winged beings were mostly grotesque, deformed, and ugly—either with multiple legs or wings, and eyes like broken coal crystals. The volatile side of 'wind' taught them disorder and violence, while its gentle side taught them deception and concealment. Such a despicable species was hated by all things."

"Even the 'wind' loathed its original creations, but the transforming wind couldn't bear to kill them. So it stripped these first winged beings of their favor, making their wings as thin as nothing, and replaced their feathers with transparent membranes and heavy scales, making them unable to stand firmly in the wind. It also commanded them to be born from 'eggs' and to transform into 'cocoons,' each stage of life a heavy test, ensuring they could never return to paradise."

"After this, the Wind believed they could no longer survive in the sky, so it banished them to a corner of the earth, and named that place of confinement 'Agdeu.'"

"However, when 'Wind' created its first offspring, it expended too much power, causing the 'firstborn son' to become excessively strong and uncontrollable. While he was still young, 'Wind' used mist to blind him, and then found 'honey' to bind the firstborn son, sinking him into the depths of the 'River of Birth,' where he was encased in beeswax and resin, solidifying into amber, forever bound by the viscous substance, unable to be born or move."

"The river of fate flows on eternally, until that piece of 'amber' is washed to one side of the riverbed, and something else, in the fragility of amber after being burned by flames, breaks apart like a broken cocoon, and is born from it—"

"This is the reason for being expelled from the Sky Clan."

"Their names have been forgotten in the depths of the earth, even the 'honey ointment' has forgotten what it contains. Only the first white bird to be born remembers these abandoned failures and, through repeated commemorations and inscriptions, picks up their names again and again."

The oldest records of ornithology contain this term:

W·mi7yn

"Shelled species".

"Shelled species".

Ay suddenly felt a chill run down his spine, because he remembered the word he had heard from Anda before, the word translated as "dragon"—in the language system, they retain almost identical word roots.

This means that they essentially refer to the same type of thing.

"dragon----"

He read it aloud, unable to suppress a deep breath, or rather—

"King of Scaled Species".

Ai stared at the withered girl before her, now bearing dragon wings, her mind reeling—

He had heard of this race in the Foundation's files; they were a forbidden race, listed as sorcerous, though he didn't know how, but they were a terrifying existence that had threatened the survival of the entire world more than once.

It was only moments later that Ai learned that the dragons were actually a lineage of shell-like creatures, and even their kings.

"I still can't understand—"

Ai Yi's head throbbed with pain. He clutched it, "Dragons and insects—why would they be from the same lineage? The difference between these two creatures is far greater than the difference between humans and any beast—"

He repeated "I don't understand" over and over, but the door suddenly spoke up: "Perhaps dragons are very different from insects—but the difference between them and birds isn't something I imagined. Before the first real bird was born, was there such a 'firstborn son' as a prototype? That clumsy creator referenced the forms of the 'beasts' already existing on earth, and mixed in his own understanding of wings."

"This is the origin of dragons. They are more ancient than one might imagine. They are older than flying insects, older than birds, only later than the first 'beast' born from the Mother of the Wind. In the Wind's conception, dragons are His first offspring, walking on four limbs like beasts, yet possessing wings—the 'firstborn son.'"

-eldest son.

"I think I understand."

Ai suddenly understood everything: "The dragon is the firstborn son of the sky, and the first creation belonging to 'above.' After the dragon, insects and birds were born, but the young bird took away all the favor of the sky. Thus, the firstborn dragon and the secondborn insect were classified as 'shelled creatures,' abandoned by the wind."

As a fellow abandoned offspring, the dragon, classified as a shelled species, naturally became the "King of the Shelled Species," but he quickly realized his mistake.

"In the Nest World, there are no dragon-like images among the random bestial traits of humans, because the shelled creatures were not created by the Mother, and they do not belong to the 'Beast' category."

"And the Foundation is also actively concealing, and even erasing, any trace of the dragon's existence—"

These practices—if they are said to be a deliberate effort to remove the concept of "shelled creatures" from the nest in order to define the relationship between the world and "shelled creatures"—suddenly make sense.

Ai Yi was deep in thought.

In mysticism, "name" is a very important thing because it is the most basic "medium" and the most common "traces and paths" in the invisible realm.

Erase the traces, bury the road —

So, who are they hiding from?

Who?

Having brought turmoil and destruction in ancient times, and having survived a distant history, the Great Formation still exists, threatening the very existence of the world in the Nest era.

—That one, the red dragon of the Apocalypse.

"Damn." Ai realized a very serious problem, and he felt his head shaking.

—Really?

The moment this speculation arose in his mind.

Inspiration surged, crimson liquid churned, and he saw a scene, faintly peeking out from behind the veil of history—"The very first scene began before him: at a point in time no one could see, the dragon priestess's burned and withered body suddenly began to writhe from within—"

"Something seemed to be stirring. The invisible membrane covering the corpse was stretched and deformed by something, and then it burst open with a 'pop'—a smooth, white arm, wet like the wings of a newly hatched butterfly, as if wrapped in a layer of shimmering scales, emerged from within it like a cocoon being dissected—"

"This is a thin, small girl named Sachiko. She struggles as if her amniotic sac is about to break, and her whole body is covered in amniotic fluid, like a newborn baby, wet and crawling out of the amniotic sac."

"At first her eyes were lifeless, but soon a golden-red light was lit up."

The next moment, a pair of complete and infinitely ferocious dragon wings, with a magnificent appearance that almost covered the entire sky, rose from behind the petite girl. The contrast between the two created an almost insane sense of inversion. The girl opened her eyes, and in her pair of fiery golden-red vertical pupils, there rose endless violence, nobility, and holiness.

She pondered for a moment, then looked up at the sky.

"Father, your eldest son, Bing, has arrived."

The girl moved her still somewhat soft yet firm body, crimson scales completely covering her perfect shell, and the next second, she walked towards the edge of the deep wilderness.

The scene shifts to wolves again in the next moment.

"The sky is cracking."

"The storm was squeezed to death, and then all the birds were screaming in all their might."

"The earth began to tremble, as if a thousand volcanoes were erupting at the same time, and the bright red smoke turned the whole world into a blood-red color."

"The vengeful rebel has risen to the center of the sky, and his wings are so magnificent that they can cover the sun and envelop the earth."

"The horns of revelation sounded at the edge of the world, and a band of seven-headed, ten-horned behemoths concealed their crimson outlines behind the heavens—the wind was their obstacle, the birds their enemy, and countless ferocious roars and howls tore the world into an endless void—"

"They're a bunch of red dragons."

Ai felt a slight tremor, because through countless layers of history, he could still see a golden-red gaze shining from that magnificent, crimson silhouette, falling upon him without any obstruction.

".

The door continued to interpret these scenes for him: "The dragon is a combination of beast and wing, a dual symbol of stability and lightness. Even though it does not grasp the rules, relying on the wisdom and cunning of the shelled creatures, the eldest son of the sky does not have to face the troubles of wind, clouds and fog, and has surpassed his father in pure power."

"The duel came to an end. Amidst the wailing of all living beings, the Crimson Dragon tore the sky apart. The wind, clouds, and mist were all extinguished, and even the radiant light from the sun was tightly blocked by those boundless giant wings. Thus, the land was plunged into what seemed to be an eternal dampness and darkness."

"From then on, the era of shelled species began."

"In the boundless ignorance, humanity groveled like worms, birds were banished from the 'above' realm, and the red dragon occupied the other half of the 'above' position, replacing one of the four elements that held the 'wind' seat."

"This marks the end of an era."

The door told him, "This is the end of the 'Paradise Calendar'."

"What a joke!"

Ai was completely dumbfounded, and he couldn't help but swallow hard.

"Anda?"

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