Chapter 1 The End

"Hey..."

"Hey!!!"

The voice echoed across the wilderness, and should have carried far, far away, but it rebounded after hitting an invisible air barrier, being condensed and compressed within an extremely narrow range before gradually dissipating...

Tie Wu felt a deep despair.

In this wilderness, he really felt like an insignificant wisp of air.

This layer of invisible barrier trapped him in a corner.

He could do nothing.

Tie Wu knew very well... that every word he said could be heard, and heard clearly, by Gu Shen, the master of this domain.

But this guy was directly ignoring him.

Taking that dazzlingly beautiful girl, he just sat down leisurely in the distant wilderness, beyond his reach, and began to admire the sunset... Was this something a human could do?

The sunset scene in this wilderness was indeed extraordinarily beautiful.

But Tie Wu didn't have the slightest inclination to appreciate it.

He really wanted to know... Old Qin's situation after leaving the Deep-Sea Zone.

He wanted even more to know the Tower of Origin's attitude towards Old Qin.

So he called out to Gu Shen again and again, and after calling his name proved useless.

He began to hurl angry insults.

Still useless.

Then it turned into a wild, unreasonable roar.

Still useless.

Until Tie Wu's strength was exhausted...

Then he began to harass him in a low voice, over and over again with great tenacity. He knew that Gu Shen could hear these voices, and he only hoped for a response.

Useless, it was all useless.

That young man seemed determined to ignore him until he made a final decision... and the previous footage from the Deep-Sea Zone could already be considered a "gift".

Tie Wu leaned against the air barrier and slumped down, raising his head in a daze. The afterglow of the setting sun had dissipated, and the vault above reflected tens of millions of brilliant stars... Each twinkle of a star was a countdown.

Just as Gu Shen had said.

His life was about to reach its final stop.

Perhaps, this was the last night of his life?

...

...

Yes.

This was the last night of his life.

Qin Ye was taken to an airtight cell.

As the heavy door inlaid with mithril slowly closed in front of him, the world of the cell plunged into absolute darkness.

Time lost its meaning for him... anyway, there were only twenty hours left.

He understood Chu Yu's words too well.

Because before today... he was the one who said those words.

Unlike Chu Yu, Qin Ye would give the other party a chance to speak, to listen to the dying words of that pitiful fellow who was not far from death... In his opinion, one should always show some compassion to a person about to die.

This was important.

But Chu Yu didn't ask for his last words... he didn't give him a chance to speak.

Qin Ye knew that there was light outside the mithril heavy door imprisoning him. If he had the Sacred Wood, if he still possessed the Token, then this door would be nothing. It would only take a minute for him to escape from this cell.

Provided that... the Token still favored him.

After disconnecting from the conversation in the Deep-Sea Zone, his mind flashed back uncontrollably.

Again and again.

Back to Lion Alley ten years ago.

Again and again.

Back to the scene of meeting Lu Cheng.

"..."

Qin Ye slowly raised his head. The Sumeru on his body began to flow slowly. He mobilized the remaining Sumeru with all his might. In fact, this was a very weak extraordinary power, and even if it were all gathered, it would not be able to penetrate the Sacred Wood, let alone break through the mithril heavy door in front of him.

He didn't know how long it had passed.

In front of Qin Ye, in the dark cell, floated a tiny "water droplet". The surface of this water droplet was smooth and round, like countless folded mirrors, reflecting a brilliant and soul-stirring dim matte light.

Qin Ye smiled with difficulty.

This was his... last strength...

"I thought... I wasn't afraid of death..."

Just spitting out these few words had left Qin Ye with no more strength to move.

He examined the water droplet.

The memories in his mind were still flashing back constantly, as if possessing an irresistible magic.

And the sentence that kept flashing back was reflected in the depths of his memory thousands of times.

Mental flashback, instant cut, this was an unbearable pain.

Between the entanglement of life and death, Qin Ye chose "liberation".

He closed his eyes.

The black water droplet flashed past.

With a "bang"!

There was a rather thick explosion in the cell!

It was as if someone had fired a shot—

The alarm immediately sounded.

The official in charge of the detention arrived at the first time, but out of caution... he did not directly open the mithril heavy door. The one imprisoned inside was the Apostle of the Tower of Origin, and even if he had lost his Token, he was still an extremely dangerous person.

A minute later, Lu Nanjin and Zhou Jiren arrived. With full precautions, the mithril heavy door slowly opened.

Everyone looked nervous.

A ray of light shone into the cell...

Everyone's expressions were very interesting.

Lu Nanjin's hand, which was tightly gripping the hilt of her saber, slowly relaxed.

She stared expressionlessly at the cell... What came into view was a pool of blood slowly spreading on the ground.

Then, at the end of the darkness, was a man in a trench coat sitting slumped against the iron wall. He closed his eyes with a gloomy expression. The trench coat was covered in thick blood plasma. There was a smooth hole in the center of his brow, and the back of his head was blasted open by an unparalleled impact, with blood pouring down like ink.

"No one can stop an Apostle from ending their own life..." Zhou Jiren took out the Token wrapped in layers of mithril. The acorn tree emblem, which had originally emitted a constant glow, had now completely lost its luster and become dim.

Dead.

Deader than dead.

"It seems that he gave up his life himself." Tree Master looked at his disciple, "But in reality... the Tower of Origin gave up on him."

Lu Nanjin did not speak.

She just calmly looked at the blood spreading on the ground.

Gradually reaching her feet.

As the teacher had said before... Qin Ye would not leave the Tribunal alive. She had prepared herself to fight desperately. If the Tower of Origin wanted to protect the Apostle and take him away from Eastern Continent, then she would draw the sword in her hand and kill Qin Ye after the mithril heavy door was opened.

The long saber was still in its scabbard.

This seemed to be a good result.

But Lu Nanjin was not satisfied. She once again clenched the saber in her hand and asked in a very soft voice.

"Teacher... is it over?"

"...It's over."

Qin Ye's death was the Tower of Origin's compromise, its concession.

The cross-continental dispute, as well as a series of case secrets, would all disappear with Qin Ye's death.

All of this was over.

Zhou Jiren looked at the cell and said calmly, "If you give up... then everything will be over. If you still want to draw your saber, want to avenge Lu Cheng, want to kill the real culprit of the Lion Alley case, then it's not over yet."

The real culprit was never Qin Ye.

The chess piece was broken.

The chess player was still there.