102: The Prophecy Book
"How... is she?"
"Her condition is relatively stable, much better than last time." Qila's face looked somewhat haggard. From last night until now, she hadn't closed her eyes once.
Though she hadn't participated in the battle, her magical power had indeed been completely exhausted.
Fatigue had taken over her body. She could stay awake purely because her sister was still sleeping, and she couldn't rest easy about her.
"Your Highness should rest first. Your current condition isn't good either." Xue'er gently closed Leticia's bedroom door and came to the living room. "Her Majesty's condition is much better than last time. The slumber shouldn't last long, so don't worry."
"And Miss Bai, you should go back too. I'm here, so there's no need to worry."
Xue'er said to the equally exhausted Bai Ling. This famous Sword Saint looked very disheveled now, with several large tears in her clothes and obvious wound marks on the skin beneath, though they had healed.
Though already healed, the faint red traces silently testified to how difficult that battle had been.
Xue'er couldn't imagine what kind of terrifying opponent Bai Ling and Leticia had faced to be pushed to such a state even fighting together.
Leticia was forced to burn herself, and Bai Ling was also badly injured.
These two could be called the world's strongest, yet fighting together they still ended up in such a sorry state—it was truly astonishing.
"Sister Xue'er, I want to speak with Sister Bai alone. Is that okay?" Qila said to Xue'er.
Perhaps she should find some allies, especially powerful ones like Bai Ling.
Otherwise, relying only on herself and her sister, they had almost no ability to fight back against deities.
"...Alright." Since Qila said so, Xue'er naturally had no reason to refuse.
With Leticia unconscious, Qila was the highest authority in this house. As a maid, Xue'er naturally couldn't question her master's orders.
Though theoretically speaking, Qila had no jurisdiction over Xue'er.
Xue'er was Leticia's maid, and only Leticia's maid.
"Thank you, Sister Xue'er." Qila understood she actually had no right to order Xue'er around, so she was quite polite.
Qila and Xue'er weren't very familiar.
Xue'er returned to her room and locked the door from inside, leaving the living room to Bai Ling and Qila.
"Does Sister Bai Ling want to know why I was so determined to get this 'Mythological Age Magic Studies'?" Pointing at the small book on the table, Qila asked a question with an obvious answer.
If Bai Ling didn't want to know, she wouldn't have needed to come see Qila with Leticia, right?
"In Leticia's words, this book doesn't record anything useful." Bai Ling nodded. She indeed wanted to know the answer to this question, especially now after encountering someone claiming to be a deity.
Qila picked up the book from the table with a complex expression. "Because this is just a disguise. Without knowing the decoding method, this is just an ordinary mythology book."
Her fingertip glowed faintly as she gently traced across the page. The page actually emitted weak golden light.
The golden light gradually covered the entire study, and when it faded, what appeared before Bai Ling was a completely transformed book.
"This is the study's true form. Of course, its common name is actually the Prophecy Book." Qila said softly. "This is the first volume of the Prophecy Book, and also the most important volume."
"The demon's Prophecy Book is the second volume, the elves' is the third volume..."
"What does it prophesy?" Bai Ling frowned. She suddenly felt things were getting serious.
Qila knew a lot about this matter, and according to her, other races also knew about the Prophecy Book, but humans knew absolutely nothing.
"The return of the gods." Qila said gravely.
"Gods..."
"Once, our world had gods." Qila nodded. The God of Fog they encountered was one of those countless deities.
That was long, long ago, when the earth had no humans, demons, elves, or similar races. The world then belonged to the gods.
The gods warred against each other on earth, the strong defeating the weak and devouring their divine authority.
It was an arena where only the strongest god could emerge victorious and become the world's ruler.
At that time, the victorious god could create their own followers, like countless predecessors before them.
"Things should have gone that way, but one day, a different kind of god appeared." Qila told Bai Ling everything she knew. "Please forgive me for using the term 'god' to describe Him. Compared to those sealed gods, that one could truly be called a deity."
"He despised this bloody, cruel war, so personally negotiated peace strategies with the most powerful gods at the time, but those gods who considered themselves invincible ignored His proposal."
"What happened after that, I don't know, but the final result was that the divine war abruptly ended and all gods disappeared."
This world suddenly transitioned from the age of gods to the age of mortals.
No one knew how humans, demons, and elves appeared—perhaps through natural evolution, perhaps from seeds left by gods. In any case, life appeared.
"Our worlds should originally have been one, but for some reason we were separated into different worlds, only discovering each other's existence decades ago."
"As the worlds gradually merge, that god's seal has also begun to loosen, and some sealed ancient gods have started extending their tendrils, attempting to continue that bloody and cruel war from countless years ago."
After finishing this sentence, Qila picked up her cup and drank some water.
She felt Bai Ling needed time to digest what she had just said.
Bai Ling indeed needed time to digest this. She had originally thought other races were humanity's greatest threat, but now this so-called deity had appeared.
Were deities humanity's real threat?
"If that's the case, why don't you tell humans about this? We could cooperate." Bai Ling didn't understand why Qila had to buy the human Prophecy Book to bring it back to the demons when she could have just explained things clearly. Why make it so complicated?
Bai Ling's question made Qila chuckle. "Sister Bai, if a demon told you that humans and demons should unite to fight gods from mythology, would you believe it?"
Bai Ling was silent for a long time, then shook her head.
She wouldn't believe it.
If Qila weren't Leticia's sister and her own sister's good friend, she wouldn't believe Qila either.
Even if Qila were a demon princess, she wouldn't believe her.
The war that had lasted decades had already worn away what little trust remained between the races. Now they were more like temporary truces.
Once the opportunity arose, great war would resume.