Free Web NovelChapter 574: Chapter 191: The Era of the Well
Unlike pure textual records, as the High Tower Master’s description reached this point, Bai Wu was already able to see images.
When it came to the Twisted Master Alpha, Bai Wu didn’t manage to turn the page in time...
Because the surrounding scenery had changed dramatically in an instant.
When Bai Wu tried to turn around to question the tyrant, he found the tyrant was no longer with him.
He looked down upon everything on the frozen tundra like a god.
The ice seemed even tougher than rock.
The entire world was covered by a layer of ice.
Even the bodies on the ground wouldn’t decompose.
But sometimes, if the cold wind blew fiercely enough, they would shatter.
Before the creatures of that civilization had been touched by the distortion, even if they were able to perceive more than humans, even if they had what humans considered metaphysical abilities...
In the face of such extreme and desperate cold, all life would freeze.
In the distance, Bai Wu saw numerous spherical structures forming a tribe.
He didn’t know how many years ago this was, but he knew that the planet had indeed experienced several super climatic changes that led to the extinction of most animals.
The dominators of that grand civilization had abilities beyond human imagination, abilities that were origin powers.
Some among them could see fragments of the future, some could revive the dead, but only small animals.
Others could temporarily resist the ravages of time.
Within this civilization, it was said that this was called multidimensional sensation.
It was a perception of natural laws that went beyond the dimensions of human beings.
But these people couldn’t escape the cycle of life and death.
Those who could see short, uncertain future glimpses couldn’t avoid death for themselves.
Those who could bring small animals back to life would also die from the cold.
Those who seemed to chase time and hardly ever aged would eventually grow old and die.
Bai Wu saw many kinds of origin powers; in that tribe of spherical structures now locked in winter’s grip, his gaze seemed to pierce through time and space, witnessing the civilization’s past splendor.
They followed order, revered nature, explored the essence of life, and studied one another’s powers.
Although the notes mentioned two factions, this kind of enormous ideological divergence wasn’t there at the beginning.
During the civilization’s golden age, everyone was divided into several factions—
The Thought Faction, the Foresight Faction, the Nether Faction, the Hidden God Faction, the Time Faction, the Nature Faction, the Mutation Faction.
Corresponding, perhaps, to spirit, causality, life and death, space, time, elements, and evolution.
Elements represented mastery over various material things of the world, and evolution was about physical mutation.
Some didn’t study combat skills or martial arts but had innate superhuman strength.
Some seemed weak, but their brains worked extremely fast.
Everyone had different abilities, complementing one another.
Occasionally, there were a few geniuses with two kinds of abilities, and extremely rare prodigies among geniuses with more than two types of abilities.
They indeed led humanity’s civilization, but not with absolute technological supremacy, rather a kind of... multidimensional civilization dominance.
If summarized according to the inertia in human stories, humans would probably call such a civilization a blend of magic and technology.
And the recorder of the entire history, the owner of this notebook, was among the most exceptional of a clan.
It could even be said, the most powerful in that civilization.
Unprecedented.
Except for the Nether Faction and the Mutation Faction, he was proficient in all others.
Such a person in that civilization would probably be a template for a supremely arrogant character.
He watched people in that tribe interact with each other, collecting and transforming various resources with their talents.
Families record historical changes based on clans.
Nations record historical changes based on dynasties.
And the world records historical changes based on civilizations.
Some families flourish during certain periods, while others decline.
The same is true of dynasties, strong enough at times to bring all nations to court, but when in decline, the common people struggle to survive.
Civilizations are no different.
If one were to compare human civilization with the civilization he was seeing at that moment, it would be like a beggar coming across the most enormous family in the world.
But even such a robust civilization—would still head towards extinction.
In extreme conditions, more and more people died in what seemed to be an endless winter of despair that could last for centuries.
Bai Wu believed that, in fact, with the capabilities of this civilization, they would ultimately get through it, but not without suffering significant damage.
Those from the Mutation Faction and Nature Faction would probably be chosen by the times, eventually surviving this winter.
But this civilization met with a different fate.
Everything originated from that madman mentioned in the notes—
Alpha.
...
...
As everything before his eyes disappeared, Bai Wu felt as if a long time had passed, but when everything around him returned to the appearance of the spherical library...
Bai Wu glanced back at the tyrant, who was trying to make sense of the complex pathways at the center of the sphere.
It was like a person trying to untangle a knotted ball of yarn.
His figure kept moving, but Bai Wu noticed... the tyrant’s position had scarcely changed.
He had just experienced a lengthy winter, his consciousness traveling to a distant past civilization, yet in reality, it seemed as if nothing had changed.
He had experienced something similar inside the Magic Tower, where, in the Magic Tower, Bai Wu encountered enlightenment.
On the sixth floor of the High Tower, Bai Wu also had a similar experience, that spiral corridor...
Only, the spiral corridor was in reverse.
Inside the corridor, it felt like hardly any time had passed, but more than a month had gone by outside.
Bai Wu couldn’t help but marvel at the abilities of the High Tower Master.
He steadied his mind and began to flip to the next page.
...
"You already know of that madman, and perhaps your being here means that you’ve already had dealings with him."
"When the whole world was engulfed in severe cold, one of my clansmen, self-proclaimed as the Twisted Master, redeemed our entire civilization from despair, or at least that’s how it seemed to us at the time..."
"He floated above our city like God beginning to create the world, the terrifying cold and snow unable to harm him in the least."
"And then a bizarre scene unfolded, the snow and ice began to melt instantaneously... as if the cold that should have lasted for centuries was replaced by scorching heat in a moment."
"Even though the long winter nights resulted in shorter days, the alternation of day and night still had considerable intervals, but after that..."
"The temperature started rising continuously, and in the process, even though only a dozen minutes had passed, day and night had already alternated several times."
"The whole city had been frozen of life, yet after his arrival, plants began to break through the soil around our winter shelters at an astonishing rate."
"Some clan members even heard the sound of the ocean tides."
Here, Bai Wu once again saw a magnificent yet twisted scene.
Dust storms filled the sky, obscuring vision with flying sand.
In the distance, the waves lapped against the beach outside the city.
Massive plants, like the world tree of myths, stood tall, forming huge protective umbrellas.
The outside of the futuristic spherical buildings was entwined with wildly growing plants.
For the creatures that had been frozen to death by the bitter winter, once their encasing ice melted under the blazing sun, they astonishingly began to move. freewёbnoνel.com
Cities, forests, deserts, oceans, bitter winters, scorching suns.
Time, space, life and death...
All rules seemed to become chaotic at this moment.
Those resources that had long been exhausted began to grow in an irrational manner.
There were occasional pauses in growth, and even reversals.
But at least for a moment, they showed a possibility.
Those observing from within the spherical buildings felt a sense of shock.
A planet that had been on the verge of exhaustion, a civilization about to be buried under extreme cold, at this moment, was resurrected!
"When things deviate from their original order, when everything doesn’t function according to the predestined track, when rules lose their certainty, our lives gain infinite possibilities!"
"Any attempt to find a pattern amidst change, to seek an unchanging truth... is a path destined to decay."
"The only thing eternal in the world is change itself, that is the true path of eternity! My people! Come forth! Embrace the dawn of a brand-new era!"
Under the blazing sun, Alpha’s body shone resplendently.
He drifted in the air, joyous at the sight of a world where time and space were in disarray, where the systems of life and death were collapsing.
Countless clan members emerged from the spherical buildings, and they too had gods to worship.
Within the many power systems, the God of Nature, God of Space and Time, God of Causality, God of Life and Death and others were all deities they venerated.
But at this moment, feeling the long-missed cleansing of sunlight, sensing the environment teeming with life after plants grew wildly... regardless of which god they believed in, they all began to kneel before Alpha.
As if welcoming a supreme existence, the Twisted Master.
Bai Wu watched this scene, equally shaken.
He saw the arrival of a twisted era, the collapse of a people’s faith.
Were these people foolish?
No, they spent their lifetimes living in order, exploring the laws of how things operated.
They had a near-perfect system of mathematics and physics, almost indestructible, unshakable.
Although they wielded powers beyond human comprehension, they never ceased their pursuit of science.
Yet such a civilization still met its destined destruction.
On the contrary, the one they had once exiled, suddenly brought a performance that struck to the soul.
Bai Wu looked at the shocked expressions of those people—fear, joy, sadness, pain...
Everyone’s expression was different, but every person’s emotions were also very complex.
Bai Wu saw some wailing bitterly, some continuously slapping their own faces, others banging their heads on the ground... He seemed to hear a sound.
The sound of collapsing beliefs.
All physical laws, mathematical formulas, all scientific theories fell apart in front of this spectacle.
All efforts made previously to conserve resources, to ensure long-term development of the clan, to prevent the world from premature exhaustion, now seemed utterly ludicrous.
Only the High Tower Master, looking at Alpha in the sky, had a look of concern in his eyes.
And in the sky, Alpha also saw, among the countless kneeling people, the High Tower Master who stood still, his expression comparatively calm.
One was the best genius of the clan.
The other, a heretic and madman of the clan.
One was full of hope, while the other was exiled for his lunatic views.
But at this moment, it seemed even the interpersonal relations beyond the rules were twisted.
Alpha and the High Tower Master, genius and madman, their statuses reversed.
But here, that fateful confrontation had not yet begun.
The High Tower Master finally scanned the clan members around him, looking at the environment undergoing mad changes, he did not kneel, but silently accepted everything.
He did not know how such an environment would change, but he knew that this drastic change was indeed what the current civilization needed.
Yet as a sage, the High Tower Master seemed to have also seen an unpredictable future.
He always felt that disrupting rules was a form of cheating.
The World Will tried to erase a civilization, the correct approach was to find a way to survive within the rules allowed by this Will.
But now, Alpha brought about an absolute chaos.
It was disrupting the World Will, modifying the rules under the Will.
This might solve problems temporarily, but could it invite the World Will’s... backlash?
Although at this moment, the High Tower Master did not know about the existence of the Well, nor did he know how Alpha accomplished these things, he had already seen a...
Fragmented future.
Their civilization indeed faced death, but ultimately did not die, and perhaps in the desperate situation, they would find a way to break through.
But this option was now crossed out; Alpha had brought another alternative.
As a clansman, he accepted such an arrangement.
As a sage, he worried about the distant future.
...
...
The notes continued, and after seeing the turning point, Bai Wu turned to a new page.
"Seeing here, you should realize that a new era has already begun."
"After my clansman displayed his divine powers, he became known as the Twisted Master."
"That day, everyone’s thoughts and souls suffered an unprecedented shock, and he began to preach his twisted theory."
"I did not agree, but I did not stop him. Because I, too, wanted our clansman to survive."
"Once Pandora’s Box is opened, it becomes difficult to close again, yet at that time, even if we realized it, what could we do?"
"We could not stop it but could only meet the arrival of the twisted with reverence and caution."
Faced with such a soul-striking, belief-collapsing spectacle, the High Tower Master remained calm, something Bai Wu greatly admired.
"In the process that followed, everything began to change. The thoughts of the people, needless to say, almost ninety percent of the clansmen began to believe in the twisted."
"But to believe in science is to study science. So how should belief in the twisted be manifested?"
"The Twisted Master indeed was a good adherent, and you’ve guessed it—he could do all these things because he found the Well."
"And the reason he could find the Well might have to do with the fact that the Twisted Master initially belonged to the Thought Faction."
"Although he holds a crazy theory, no one surpasses him in spiritual power, not even I am his equal in this field."
"The Thought Faction often receives strange insights and guidance because, before this, nobody believed the Twisted Master’s theory."
"Naturally, no one would be guided by the Well."
"The pursuit of the twisted became the ladder to the twisted. The Twisted Master, my clansman, became the first one to... find the Well."
"I often want to judge him purely based on madness and evil, but he is not that kind of person; I must admit that all he did was perhaps not to satisfy his private desires, not for revenge against clansmen, not to gain recognition."
"After coming into contact with the Well, he truly became a servant to the Well."
"He could have been a god, yet he willingly unveiled his own magic, mentioning the existence of the Well. He seemed to genuinely hope that everyone would contribute to the twisted."
Bai Wu found this unbelievable as he read. freēwēbnovel.com
Alpha was the first to find the Well?
Having acquired extraordinary powers, having found something capable of twisting the world, he did not choose to conceal it all but decided to disclose everything.
No wonder the High Tower Master could not define Alpha with a simple word.
"So shortly after, the most mysterious and dangerous thing in the world became our subject of research. An epoch of exploring the Well—arrived."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~End of Chapter~~~~~~~~~~
