It must be that the Wraith authentication isn’t based on cerebral knowledge but rather on system identity.
Ye Bai comforted herself with this thought, deliberately ignoring the fact that she also held the prestigious secondary profession of a top-tier historian.
The Wraith beneath the cloak appeared to be a boy, though his features were strikingly soft and androgynous. His frame was ten times smaller than normal, resembling an elemental sprite—except without the corresponding elemental powers or signature wings.
[Wraith???]
Level: 10
HP: 500/50
Skills: Concealment, Levitation Flight
Weakness: Brain
Under Appraisal, Ye Bai saw that the Wraith’s level and HP were pitifully fragile. Beyond evasion and flight, none of the vast knowledge-based abilities typical of their race seemed to remain.
Earlier, the paper figure had mentioned that Wraiths were cursed with a fear of knowledge, causing them to loathe their own wisdom. Was this why their abilities and stature had deteriorated so drastically?
This made Ye Bai recall the divine history recounted by the Elf Queen—the invasion of the Abyss began with the civil war between humanity’s two great duchies, triggered by an anomaly among the Wraiths. Could that anomaly have been the curse of knowledge, which then provoked the human duchies allied with the Wraiths?
But who had cursed them?
Ye Bai gathered her thoughts, considering how best to communicate with the Wraith before her.
After manifesting, the Wraith cautiously glanced at Ye Bai before his gaze immediately locked onto the branch of the World Tree in her hand.
"Ugh…"
The Wraith seemed to want to speak, but his expression quickly twisted into frustration—the kind born from desperate, inarticulate urgency.
Ye Bai paused for a moment before understanding dawned, filling her with sorrow.
Under normal circumstances, the erudite Wraiths could converse fluently with any race, versed in all languages. But now, this Wraith seemed to have even forgotten his own tongue.
Still, Ye Bai grasped his intent through gestures.
She extended the World Tree branch toward him. The Wraith didn’t retreat. Instead, he stretched out his tiny hands—ten times smaller than normal—and touched the leaves.
The moment contact was made, a radiant light erupted.
Ye Bai felt the branch tremble violently in her grip, its latent power catalyzed. The light split the air, forging a new passage—one that stretched skyward.
At the end of the passage, a door hovered silently, its frame enclosing an abyss of swirling chaos.
No explanation was needed. Ye Bai knew: beyond that door lay the God-King’s treasury.
Simultaneously, the Wraith’s form began dissolving into the light.
As Ye Bai looked back, she saw his face soften with relief and gratitude. The curse must have lifted at that moment, for she heard him regain his voice:
"Please…"
But those were the only words she caught before his figure vanished, merging into the passage itself.
So this Wraith had been the third key all along. And now, the World Tree branch had shed its leaves, leaving behind only bare wood.
"…"
Ye Bai took a deep breath, suppressing the storm of awe, grief, and questions rising within her, and stepped onto the passage.
Yet just as her foot was about to land, the familiar sound of shattering answer-walls echoed. Over fifty figures—along with a dozen wooden crates—plummeted into the plaza.
These were all elite warriors of Tier 3 and above: half were Holy Knights, a few were crimson-robed occultists, and nearly half were Death Knights. Among them, Codos stood out—a demigod.
Despite heavy losses in the labyrinth, the forces of Saint Loriburg had broken through with their strongest unit, arriving just a step behind Ye Bai.
CRASH!
The crates shattered as one, unleashing a tide of deathly energy that coalesced into a massive black shadow looming above the army. A withered, twisted face formed within it, its hollow gaze locking onto Ye Bai as a hoarse voice rasped:
"Correct. The Deathly Relic is upon her."
[Lich King???]
Level: 1??
HP: ??????/??????
Skills: Minion Reanimation, ????, ???
Weakness: ???
A god-tier Lich King!
Ye Bai’s eyes flicked over the string of question marks. Without hesitation, she sprinted forward, leaping onto the luminous passage.
Had this been the Lich she’d encountered in the Dragonkin dungeon, even without the Tome of the Dead, he could’ve succeeded in raising an undead dragon.
Clearly, he was here for the Tome. With the main quest within reach, only a fool would turn and fight now. In an instant, Ye Bai vanished into the radiant passage.
"Heh…"
The Lich King’s pale-flame gaze swept over the celestial gate. No longer restraining his power, he unleashed a surge of black mist upon the army below.
"Agh—!"
Screams erupted as the shadow of death descended. Every living Tier 3 knight and occultist perished instantly, swiftly reborn as Death Knights and Liches. Only Codos remained untouched.
Meanwhile, strands of life force and holy energy were siphoned from the fallen, funneling into Codos. His power surged abruptly, leaving him stunned and horrified.
Before he could react, the Lich King enveloped him and the newly risen undead elites, dragging them into the luminous passage.
…
[You have discovered the ‘Corridor of History.’]
The moment Ye Bai stepped through, the scenery shifted violently.
"Whoosh…"
Ocean winds howled; waves churned. Ye Bai found herself suspended in the sea beside Autofis, untouched by the currents. Breathing underwater posed no issue—she had inexplicably become an observer.
Ahead, a host of deep-sea folk with fishtails knelt in worship before a colossal red octopus she knew all too well.
"Kraken!"
Ye Bai instinctively called out, but the Kraken on the other side showed no reaction. Instead, it waved its tentacles, casting some kind of magic toward the deep-sea creatures ahead.
A radiant glow enveloped the deep-sea beings, transforming them all into tiny specks of light.
The Kraken opened its mouth and swallowed the specks whole.
Though the scene looked as if the Kraken was devouring the deep-sea creatures, Ye Bai sensed they hadn’t been eaten—rather, they had been protected in some other way.
As the Kraken absorbed the light, its body visibly withered and shrank.
At that moment, the world around them fell still. Ye Bai felt her perspective shift from that of an observer to an active participant—she could move again. Her vision suddenly expanded, revealing multiple branching paths of possible futures, like diverging roads waiting for her choice.
Seeing this, combined with the earlier system prompt about the "Corridor of History," Ye Bai’s heart stirred.
"The Corridor of History… Is walking through this passage truly stepping into the history of the divine realm?"
Everything before her defied her past understanding. The boundary between reality and the game blurred to its thinnest, and her time-based abilities faintly revealed the true nature of this passage.
To navigate it, she would have to choose the correct historical path. A wrong choice, like failing to find the Answer Wall in the Labyrinth of Knowledge, might trap her in an erroneous timeline with no escape.
Ye Bai wanted to pull out the paper figure from her scroll pouch to confirm her path, but in this state, her only option was to make a choice.
So she took a step forward, selecting one of the branching paths.
In the next instant, the sea surged violently. The abyssal waters, along with the Kraken and its marine inhabitants, were swept away by an unfathomable force, dragged into a realm filled with scorching heat and the stench of sulfur.
In that fleeting glimpse, Ye Bai thought she saw a faint figure standing on the ocean’s surface.
Was that… the God King?
Time flowed before her eyes, and the scene shifted once more. When she looked up, she saw a sky-city both familiar and strange—the floating ancient dragon citadel.
The sky-city was eerily quiet, with only a few dragon silhouettes circling in the distance.
Ye Bai turned, sensing something, and spotted a long procession of human soldiers marching in the distance. At their forefront was a mighty warrior of the Lightblood lineage, clad in heavy armor, his face hidden beneath a helmet, a massive sword of pure radiance strapped to his back.
So, humanity had once waged war against the ancient dragons… Why were there so few dragons now? Was it because of the Great Annihilation?
With a sigh, Ye Bai stepped into the moment of the sky-city’s fall.
Time leaped forward again, bringing Ye Bai and Autofis to a vast emerald forest. The sky burned with the glow of battle as infernal creatures poured forth from the Gates of the Abyss, and war erupted.
After Eno Lucia loosed an arrow at the Infernal Demon God, another historical fork appeared.
Knowing the answer already, Ye Bai stepped into the branch where the queen wove the Emerald Dream. Amidst the swirling illusions, she thought she glimpsed that same figure from the depths of the ocean passing by once more.
…
After witnessing countless historical scenes, Ye Bai couldn’t tell whether she was experiencing illusions or fragments of real time. She sensed this wasn’t as tangible as her own [Time Reversal], yet it carried traces of temporal manipulation.
Finally, in the latest historical scene, she felt an unusual pulse from the remaining Life Branch in her hand.
Ahead lay a familiar plaza with a throne-shaped statue, but the surroundings were no longer the chaotic architecture of the Labyrinth of Knowledge—just ordinary ruins.
At the same time, a faint, ethereal song drifted from afar:
"The King’s conquest never ends, the King’s curse never fades, the King’s true name none may speak…"
