Star Calendar year 6300, Cangcheng fell.
The light arrow loosed by The Hunt brought this Xianzhou to its fated end, and at the same time…
cleansed the “filth” that was about to attach itself to it.
The Xianzhou Cangcheng departed in a relatively dignified manner, while Cangcheng’s surviving orphans were assigned to the other six ships of the Xianzhou to recuperate and rebuild their lives.
Perhaps one day, these people of Cangcheng would rebuild Cangcheng with their own diligent hands, but before that…
the era belonging to the “Xianzhou Cangcheng” had already become a thing of the past.
After this battle, the Xianzhou Alliance was like a man who had lost an arm.
It would need a very long time before it could walk out from the shadow of Cangcheng’s fall.
At the same time, another meeting was held within the Xianzhou Alliance.
The main topics discussed in this meeting were twofold.
The first was the resettlement of Cangcheng’s survivors, and the second was to find the true culprit behind Cangcheng’s fall!
The Alliance believed that Cangcheng’s fall was not an accident, but an organized and premeditated attack.
Their next mission was to find this “mastermind behind the scenes,” and then…
carry forward the tradition of [The Hunt] and launch a “Hunt” against them!
At first, the discussion regarding the “mastermind behind the scenes” fell on Wen Jin.
Did this “Lord of Extinction,” who had already been acknowledged by the Xianzhou Alliance, have a direct connection to Cangcheng’s fall?
Was Cangcheng’s fall brought about by him personally?
The moment this view was raised, a fierce “debate” erupted within the Alliance’s meeting room.
Specifically, with the general of the Xianzhou Yuque as the main force in verbal assault, supplemented by General Teng Xiao of the Luofu and the general of the Yaoqing with martial force, they carried out a dual “sublimation” upon the person who had raised this question “from mind to body.” To put it plainly, the person who raised this view was not only scolded bloody, but very nearly beaten up as well.
In the end, it was still the Marshal who stepped in and stopped this farce.
However, anyone with eyes could already tell that the Xianzhou Alliance truly wished to be on good terms with this “Incineration Avatar”…
or rather, the current “Lord of Extinction.” His contributions to Cangcheng were obvious to all.
If not for him, the current Cangcheng would likely have been directly devoured by that Demon Star.
At that time…
a living “Abundance Xianzhou” would have become the greatest disgrace in the Alliance’s history.
At the same time, less than one in a hundred of Cangcheng’s people would have survived, and at that point, Cangcheng would have met its true destruction.
After that, the clues regarding what had caused Cangcheng’s fall were gradually deduced toward another “suspected culprit.” That was the Emanator of Abundance…
[Shuhu]!
And so, the Xianzhou Alliance launched a grand and mighty campaign against Shuhu.
As for that “Incineration Avatar”…
After this battle, the Xianzhou Alliance and the Interastral Peace Corporation both listed him as a high-priority observation target and marked him as a “friendly and contactable” unit.
His face was entered into the Interastral Network.
Any planet where he appeared would receive an immediate “evacuation order” from the Interastral Peace Corporation under the principle of “humanitarianism,” and they would actively cooperate with the local leadership to conduct “friendly communication” with this “Lord of Extinction.” The IPC’s calculations were blatant, but they left people with nothing to say.
They could only silently remark that it truly lived up to being the biggest rogue boss in the Universe, while secretly praying that a handsome young man with white hair and golden eyes would not appear in their homes again.
Then…
where was the current Wen Jin now?
…
…
White light…
a deathly silent white…
And after that, there was endless black.
When the final chess piece landed, when that light arrow from The Hunt arrived above Cangcheng as promised, the world in Wen Jin’s eyes suddenly became extremely slow.
Before all things returned to silence, he personally witnessed Cangcheng’s final fate.
Within that dazzling light arrow, extinction required only an instant.
The boiled chicken boss who had been playing chess with him, and the surrounding vendors watching from the side; whether it was the abominations eyeing him covetously behind him, the civilians on the verge of a god’s fall, or even…
the Demon Star hanging high overhead.
Everything, as though under this one arrow, became utterly meaningless.
Whether life or matter, all would turn into dust and smoke in the universe beneath the mighty power of an Aeon…
And so, amid the extinction of all things, Wen Jin looked at the chess piece that had already dispersed in his hand and slowly stood up.
Following the memories in his mind, he began walking back in the direction from which he had come.
With every step he took, the world behind him would turn into a corner of outer space.
Just like that…
after an unknown amount of time had passed, perhaps one system hour, or perhaps one minute, or perhaps only that brief instant…
He once again arrived beside that snack street, looked at the streetscape he had yet to fully grow familiar with, and sighed softly.
Then, Cangcheng completely vanished, and he, as always, became a civilization’s final gravekeeper.
Next…
Wen Jin raised his head and stared at his palm as it gradually crumbled away, then smiled in relief.
“To be killed personally by two Aeons…
I’m probably the first one in this Universe, aren’t I?” That murmuring voice echoed among the ashes, and finally sailed from daylight into darkness…
But within that darkness, a pair of round pupils suddenly flickered into view.
It stared in the direction where Wen Jin had vanished, then slowly closed its eyes.
…
Stede-Karl was an obscure planet in the Universe.
It was located on the borderlands of the Universe, and less than a short hundred years had passed since the IPC discovered and developed it.
One could say that the most famous thing about the entire planet was its name, which bore some resemblance to a certain “spider genius” from the Genius Society.
Unfortunately, however, this planet was not a spider civilization, nor was it a “hatching ground” for geniuses.
It was merely…
a barren planet that possessed only basic minerals.
When Wen Jin opened his eyes again, this was the scene that entered his vision: “The gloomy sky completely obscured the light of the star.
The entire world seemed to be wrapped in clouds, but those thick black clouds were not rain clouds.
Instead, they were [waste ash clouds] condensed from the planet’s interior being mined year-round.
What drifted down from those clouds was not rainwater either, but dust burned out after industrial failure.
The land beneath the cover of these black clouds was utterly barren, even displaying an extremely incongruous [black].
An extremely pungent smell permeated the air.
As long as an ordinary person took even the slightest breath, they would happily receive a pair of secondhand, ruined lungs.” Looking at the apocalyptic scene before him, Wen Jin subconsciously wanted to take a deep breath to express his feelings, but in the next moment, he chose to pinch his nose with utter disgust instead.
“Sigh…
Sure enough, after witnessing certain beautiful things, people will start to feel annoyed by some things from the past…” Feeling the environment that was completely different from Cangcheng’s, Wen Jin actually felt an enormous sense of disparity in his heart.
There was even an instant when he thought that it would be wonderful if every planet that appeared before him in the future were like Cangcheng.
But the moment that thought surfaced, Wen Jin rejected it himself.
Forget it…
if every good place had his figure in it, then in the end, this Universe would be full of “good places.” Because all the good places would be completely dead in the end, and everyone left would be living the same way.
Wouldn’t that make them all good places?
Thinking this, Wen Jin laughed self-deprecatingly.
Then, as usual, he proceeded along the unknown road before him, if that could even be considered a road…
Compared to Cangcheng, this planet’s appearance was the common appearance of most dying planets.
At the same time, this was also the type Wen Jin had come into contact with the most.
But…
what was completely different from the past was that the instant Wen Jin appeared on this planet, the planet’s internal detection system let out an extremely sharp explosive alarm.
At the same time…
The Interastral Peace Corporation also received the news that the “Incineration Avatar” had appeared once again.
★ ★ ★ T/N: If you spot mistranslation, do tell me.
★ ★ ★ Shilling time!