Forty-nine rules of the end times

Chapter 175 Fragment 5 Mural Content

When Yagi Yukari arrived at the outer hall, she saw Mutenjo pacing back and forth in a somewhat agitated manner.

Upon seeing Yamata no Yukari arrive, he immediately stepped forward and asked, "Yukari, has the Divine Child not contacted you to punish you?"

"?"

“It seems not.” Seeing the doubt on Orochi’s face, Mutenjo nodded and said, “That’s good. I was worried that the Divine Child would be angry with you because of the failure of the operation.”

"..."

Yagi Yukari knew about the plan orchestrated by Mutenjo to go to Antai State and seize the two fragments from the Shadow.

Without the approximate location of the fragments she provided, the operation would be impossible to locate.

“I originally thought that a sudden action would definitely be effective. I didn’t expect…” Mu Tiancheng sighed, “Alas, it seems that I underestimated Shadow. No wonder, since he is called the ‘World’s Number One Ascendant,’ he is definitely not easy to deal with.”

Mu Tiancheng paused and said, "Now that the feud has been formed, it probably won't be easy to resolve. I heard that Shadow has already blew up the royal palace of An Dai Bang as revenge. If there is an opportunity in the future, he will definitely take revenge on Ying Qi Kingdom as well. We need to prepare as soon as possible."

Yamata no Yukari remained silent for a moment before speaking, "Is there anything else?"

Mu Tiancheng shook his head: "I will make other plans and take action after this rule ends."

After saying that, he left in a hurry. Suddenly, Orochi Yukari had a thought, and Fragment 5 appeared in his palm.

She "saw" that the two fragments were located on the island.

"..."

Yamata no Yukari thought for a moment and then put away the fragment.

Half an hour later, she appeared alone outside the shrine, at the foot of a mountain on one side of the island.

Standing atop the mountain, Guan Tong, with his excellent vantage point, chose this spot as the "center of operations."

He originally intended to send Shadow as the vanguard to eliminate some of the enemy's manpower. Unexpectedly, before the operation even began, the location of the fragment holder moved away from the shrine and closer to him.

He quickly spotted the newcomer using the surveillance shadows he had set up nearby.

She was just a woman in her early twenties, all alone, not the large group he had imagined.

This made him a little strange.

However, since the fragments are moving, it means that this woman is the holder.

He manipulated his materialized shadow to follow him to the foot of the mountain.

The two met somewhat inexplicably.

Guan Tong, his body concealed within the shadow armor, watched the woman who had come alone to the meeting.

In terms of appearance, apart from having a pair of strange-looking vertical pupils that resemble snakes, her other features are quite ordinary.

But her whole body was wrapped in thick clothes, and Guan Tong noticed that the skin on her neck looked somewhat like scales.

“You are a shadow, aren’t you?” Yamata no Yukari said.

Guan Tong couldn't figure out why this woman had come to see him alone, and asked, "What do you want?"

“I don’t want you to attack our base and engage in pointless fighting,” Yamata no Yukari said.

"A pointless battle... Is this why you came here alone, intending to take me down by yourself?"

“No.” Yamata no Yukari said, taking out a puzzle piece she was holding. “I know you came for it. If you want it, I can give it to you.”

"Don't pretend with me," Guan Tong said. "You all know its drop characteristics very well, otherwise you wouldn't have tried to kill me with a missile from a distance."

"..."

"I won't let the planners and executors get away with this. If... what will you do?"

Before Guan Tong could finish speaking, she suddenly saw the woman throw the shards at her.

Surprised, he manipulated a shadow line to catch it, confirming that it was indeed Fragment 5.

"what do you mean?"

He truly hadn't expected this woman to give him the shards directly. Why would she do that?
“I hate killing people over things,” said Yagi Murasaki.

"So if someone tries to take something, you just give it away?" Guan Tong couldn't quite understand this woman's thought process. "Once you see the contents of the fragments, you'll know it's meaningless. It's all meaningless."

"..."

What does it mean that everything is meaningless?
Guan Tong took the fragment with some skepticism.

[You have obtained: Yahoo! Chronicles - Fragment 5]

The fire thief's clues were accurate, proving that this was not a counterfeit.

The moment its ownership was transferred, the information from the mural contained in Fragment 5 instantly flooded into Guan Tong's brain, making him understand why Orochi had done this.

The content of the mural, in part, was exactly as he and the "Primordial Man" on the forum had deduced: the mist in the ninth apocalyptic rule had spread throughout the entire planet Qimo, and many alien beasts had been corrupted and turned into nightmare beasts.

These monstrous beasts then attacked even more of their own kind, creating a rapidly evolving vicious cycle. In a very short time, the entire planet Qimo was completely shrouded in mist, except for a few deep underground caves that remained free of it.

A very small number of strange beasts managed to escape into these caves and survived by the skin of their teeth.

To Guan Tong's surprise, the murals on the cave walls were not painted by these strange beasts. Among these caves, there was only one beast that appeared to possess intelligence; it simply used stone shards to draw a pattern resembling a flame on the wall.

When Guan Tong saw the flame-like pattern, he immediately realized that the pattern drawn by this intelligent beast was likely referring to the "Fire Thief".

Based on the earlier murals, "fire" holds a significant place in this alien civilization. If the fire-stealers were to descend upon this planet, they might also use a similar type of "name."

However, the content of the mural is quite abstract in the latter half.

Roughly, a black, columnar object descended upon the planet Qimo. All the surviving alien beasts in the cave were sucked into it and taken away from the planet. It also drew a distant map of the planet.

At the end of the murals, it is as if a multi-fingered mechanical arm has emerged from the void and created five murals on the walls of the five underground caves.

Guan Tong then realized that the mural was painted by this thing that looked like a mechanical arm, and was created by some unknown entity... Was it the Fire Stealer? If so, why would it destroy life on the planet first, and then create a mural to record the planet's past?
He also noticed that the multi-fingered mechanical arm had patterns of different planets drawn on each finger. The finger that was painting on the cave wall had a pattern of the planet Yamato.

This is enough to show that countless planets and civilizations have been destroyed.

But why would a destroyer use loving strokes to depict everything he destroyed?

Would loving something lead to destroying it? This phenomenon may exist in human society, but Guan Tong doesn't believe that fire-stealers are as emotional as humans.

After seeing all this, it's understandable why Orochi Yukari threw the fragments at him.

"Do you think that our planet Tianshui is also destined to be destroyed by the Fire Thieves, just like the countless fingers on that mechanical arm representing the planets that have already been destroyed?" Guan Tong looked at Yamata no Yukari, "So everything we humans are doing now is meaningless?"

Yagi Yukari remained silent; that was indeed what she thought.

Although she had never mentioned it to anyone, she had indeed been a nihilist since childhood. After obtaining Fragment 5 and seeing its contents, she became even more convinced of her beliefs.

Even if that divine child said she had the bloodline of an ancient god and that she should be given special attention, it couldn't change the nihilistic nature of her personality.

Guan Tong remained silent for a moment, then told Yagi Yukari what she knew about fragments 1-4.

After listening, she looked puzzled, wondering why Guan Tong was telling her all this.

“Even if civilization is destroyed, it won’t erase the joy of those strange beasts growing and playing in the world, as recorded in Fragments 1 and 2,” Guan Tong said. “Even if we humans are destroyed in the future, it won’t change the fact that we had a happy past.”

"..."

Although Yamata no Yukari was somewhat moved, her expression and eyes remained resolute. A nihilist cannot be changed by just a few words.

However, if the official authorities of Sakura Kingdom knew that the person they were training harbored nihilistic tendencies, they would probably feel a strong sense of disillusionment.

"I'm leaving," Guan Tong said.

He didn't want to fight anymore; fighting a nihilist was itself a meaningless endeavor.

"How do you plan to explain the matter of the fragments?"

"It doesn't matter," said Yagi Yukari.

"...If you want to contact me someday, you can do so through the Ascended Ones' Home website. Send a private message to the website administrator."

Why should I contact you?

"Because this land cannot tolerate nihilism."

(End of this chapter)