Xingtie: After my death, Liuying will understand love.

Chapter 775 Hanging Upside Down

Fate is nothing but... the dullest lie.

When water drops fall on the mask, the mask of joy is able to glimpse a moment of "truth".

Was it the same despair that was reflected in Akivalli's eyes at the time?

Ah Ha could feel that the power of joy was gradually withering, as if it was being continuously absorbed by the sea water, and the thread that controlled joy also became visible under the holy light.

His right hand stroked the hideous cracks on the mask, a hint of self-mockery settled in his light yellow eyes.

"Everything is a reflection..."

Aha's voice was very light, like a sigh

"They're all lies."

The mask of joy was still fixed on his face, like an eternal smiling tombstone.

...

...

Beneath the hollow are branches hanging upside down.

The Qianying sword emitted a faint ice-blue light. Ying held her breath and walked among the branches that were completely contrary to common sense. The naked eye could observe the spiral staircase-like branches that continued to descend.

How could there be a road on the World Tree?

A faint doubt emerged in the depths of Ying's mind, but the neatly arranged rotten branches looked like natural stairs that had been artificially trimmed.

Reaching out to touch the tree trunk beside her, Sakura's pupils flickered with confusion. This place was already deep in the "roots" that she knew of, so why were there more tree trunks and branches buried deep underneath?

The uneasiness in her heart became more and more obvious, and the stairs in front of her seemed to be guiding her towards a destined truth.

Although the branches and trunks have experienced vicissitudes of life and are full of corruption, the air becomes cleaner and clearer as you go downwards.

I don't know how long I walked down among the upside-down branches, until I finally caught a glimmer of light in the depths of Sakura's violet pupils.

A very faint, flickering flame.

Like a fragile flame that could be completely extinguished at the end of the branch at any time, it flickered stubbornly, becoming the only coordinate in this endless darkness.

The spiral staircase formed by branches finally reached the end. The end of the road was not the unfathomable abyss of nothingness as expected, but a huge space with imperceptible boundaries.

The atmosphere here is so ancient that it is suffocating, and time seems to have stood still.

In the center of this vast platform, a golden flame is burning on the wick of an ancient oil lamp. Its light is so faint that it seems that a light breath can blow it away, but it continues to burn tenaciously.

No one knows how long this lamp has been burning here, and what its meaning is.

Next to the oil lamp, a pale skeleton leaned quietly.

It remained in a sitting position with its skull slightly lowered, as if it was just taking a short nap after a long journey, but would never wake up again.

The bony finger bones rest lightly on the lamp holder, as if at the last end of life, they are still guarding the faint light of a candle in the wind.

Ying stood cautiously where she was and didn't move closer, her eyes fixed on the flickering oil lamp and the skeleton beneath it. How could there be human remains in the deepest part of the World Tree?

What exactly happened here?

But in the next moment, something around her waist seemed to be resonating with the skeleton. It was the seal of the Nameless Guest that Ying had just obtained.

The nameless seal that symbolized the identity of a member of the Starry Sky Train suddenly became slightly hot without any warning, creating a strong resonance with the silent skeleton.

The stubborn flame on the oil lamp suddenly trembled, and as the light and shadow flowed, a clear and lonely figure suddenly appeared in the darkness.

The figure did not look particularly majestic, but instead revealed a kind of fatigue that came from having experienced many hardships.

That peaceful voice, spanning the vast time, sounded slowly, each word carrying a heavy echo.

"My name is Akivelli."

The figure in the light and shadow swayed slightly, as if it would disappear at any time, but was stubbornly maintained by some force.

"He was the pioneering Star God, he was the nameless Akivali... but now, he is just Akivali."

"An ordinary pioneer who failed to complete the journey."

The sound continued, and Ying seemed to realize something, and the palm that was holding Qianying began to tremble uncontrollably.

She finally realized the subtlety that had been with her from beginning to end.

“I saw the truth.”

"I once thought about giving up... giving up this hopeless wait, letting the truth rot here with me."

"But in the end, I chose to stay and wait."

"I think... what Ah Ha said makes sense. The fate of pioneers will eventually dissipate, and the Star Gods will also fall... But the will of pioneers itself will lead you to me."

"Whether the road ahead is one of hope or despair, of birth or death, the truth must be known... the path must be continued."

Suddenly, a faint light appeared in the palm of the silent skeleton.

At first it was as faint as a firefly, and then it suddenly bloomed after a moment, like a long-dormant heart beating again.

The gentle light drove away all the darkness in the underground space. Ying couldn't help but stare with bated breath. Everything that was originally hidden in the darkness was now reflected in her pupils.

The surface of those rotten branches was actually engraved with countless words and symbols. Each mark was deep and clear, as if carrying an unimaginable weight.

Every stroke of the engraved text seems to be telling the long time that has passed...and every stroke seems to be whispering the last moment of the existence of the man named "Achivelli".

These texts record Akivali's entire journey from arriving at the World Tree to his final resting place there.

-

Ephemeris??? Year

I reached the top of the World Tree.

But that's not the top.

I saw the sea.

The endless sea.

The World Tree is just a lie. When the lie is shattered, there is despair with no hope left.

On the way back, I didn't see the Starry Sky Train again. I guess the thread that holds our destiny together can no longer bear the weight of pioneering evil.

I can feel the power of exploration being greedily absorbed by the sea.

It turns out that this reincarnation is not without end, but simply has not reached that "quantity".

After me, there will surely be new nameless travelers setting out on their journey. They will have the same aspirations as I did back then, following the remaining star tracks of the pioneers, crossing thousands of stars and finally standing in front of the World Tree again.

With the belief of saving the world, I look up at the sky woven of lies.

But they will eventually learn, perhaps as I am now doing, that the way down is much harder than the way up.

I once thought that climbing upwards was getting closer to hope, but I didn't know that it was a dead end leading to false glory, and the road to the truth was buried deep in the thorns and decay that led downwards, leading to an unknown end.

Beneath the roots, all destinies seemed to have been abandoned, or absorbed into a dead skeleton. All I saw were dead branches that had been swallowed by the sea.

But I finally came here.

I have reached the true top of this inversion.

And at the end of all the lies, there is still one last glimmer of light that has not been extinguished. It is the last meaning and the last hope.

I am determined to keep this spark going.

So, I tried my best, using the last of my remaining authority as fuel to build a true path at the end of this despair.

This road is not meant to lead sentient beings to false glory, but to leave the only spark for every successor who truly arrives here.

Come on...

If you still have the courage to move forward after seeing all these cruel truths.

If the pioneering spirit still burns in your heart——

Please take over this last flame for me.

Bring this final timeline, along with all the truths buried within it, out of this eternally silent abyss.

Before the end completely engulfs all time like a tide.

Reshape it all.

Weave this real spark into new annual rings.

Covering the entire world tree.

-

When Sakura finished reading the last mark, the faint light lingering in the skeleton's palm also completed its final mission, swaying gently and going out.

Then, the figure made of light and shadow slowly turned around, his face blurred in the interweaving of light and shadow. There was no divine pressure in his eyes, only a hint of relief.

That gaze was not just focused on Sakura, but through her, he saw the figures of countless successors, and saw the pioneering road that, despite its twists and turns, had never been interrupted.

"This trip..."

He seemed somewhat relieved, "Finally, it will be tomorrow."

As soon as he finished speaking, Akivali's figure was like stardust blown away by the wind, transforming into countless gentle flickering lights that fell on the skeleton that had been holding on for who knows how many years.

After the light faded, the bones turned into crystal dust and dissipated silently like fine sand under the moon.

Ying looked at everything in front of her with complicated eyes. There was no earth-shaking battle, nor tragic crying. She just quietly witnessed the end of a star god at the end of the story.

She bowed deeply and solemnly towards the place where the light dissipated.

Homage to Achiavelli, and his long perseverance.

Yi Jing, this final timeline that was ignited in desperation and passed to her.

The place where Akivali finally fell asleep was the original "top", and when he arrived at the World Tree, he saw the brilliance hanging high above everything.

It is the root vein.

...

...

"Not...quite right."

Cold sweat oozed from Fu Xuan's forehead. She suddenly discovered an extremely terrifying reality. The future of the universe had just disappeared.

Not only the future, but even the present cannot be predicted. It feels like prediction itself is a joke and has no meaning at all.

In the end what happened?

"Something is waking up," Huang Quan held the imperial sword tightly all the time. The pressure that had never dissipated since entering the World Tree became extremely obvious at this moment.

San Yueqi pursed her lips slightly, and many complex expressions appeared in her pink and blue eyes. She knew that moment was about to come.

Although this was her first time at the World Tree, it was not her first time seeing the sea.

But even she had never thought that the sea would be hiding in that place...or perhaps it had never been hiding from the beginning to the end, but was openly emitting endless brilliance there.

As Aha flew up like a shooting star, he witnessed the true reality with his own eyes.

The huge "crown" woven by countless brilliant golden threads seemed to have self-awareness and was wriggling and growing wildly. Almost in the blink of an eye, countless dazzling golden threads burst out from the crown, instantly turning An Ming's body into an endless forest of golden threads.

Wu Ye slashed horizontally, and the Taixu sword intent slashed out like a parallel "one". The silk threads were cut in half wherever it passed, and shattered into floating light in the sky.

Annie's pupils contracted violently. At that moment, she realized that something was terribly wrong. "This... is not the top of the World Tree!"

Reincarnation is not without end, it's just that in the previous reincarnation... the sea has not yet absorbed enough destiny power required, tracing back to the infinite timeline.

At the moment when the end first comes.

Everything will be replayed with the restart of the timeline, but...not in the end.

He has already come.

The so-called reincarnation is just the process of the end, and it is never the beginning.

The real World Tree had long been drained to the point of withering. The rotten branches that Sakura saw beneath its "roots" were called the top of the World Tree in the past, before the end came.

"The World Tree...is hanging upside down."

An Ming's fingers tightened silently, and everything before his eyes seemed to overturn all his fantasies.

The final glory, as brilliant as that above all gods, seemed to have finally torn off all its gentle disguises and cast a cold gaze upon the tiny peeping person.

When has He ever hidden Himself? He always hangs high above all living beings, like a sword hanging overhead, never concealing His presence, but no one dares to look directly at Him.

But at the top of the real World Tree, the crown that should have received the starlight and nurtured countless lives, had long been stolen by the false gods and buried under the deepest and darkest corruption.

If Akivali had not used his last authority to protect this last spark, even this original timeline would have come to an end.

"There's no chance to do it again."

Annie's face was a little pale. Originally, even if she failed, she might be able to use the memories stored in the floating storage to start a new incomplete reincarnation, but now this is no longer possible.

All timelines have been swallowed by the sea, which means that the moment they are experiencing now is the last and final timeline!

Sakura had not left the root vein yet, and naturally no one knew about the existence of the timeline fire guarded by Akivelli. However, Annie deduced the true situation in a short time.

The situation took a sharp turn for the worse, and it would eventually no longer conceal its existence. When the power of destiny absorbed by the sea reached the required upper limit, what would greet the entire universe would no longer be the beginning of another reincarnation, but an irreversible—

The end.

There are no more new beginnings, no more resetting of the cycle.

There is no more...tomorrow.

Everything will fall into endless silence after the end.

"It's not...over yet," Ahab's calm laughter came from behind the mask, and the endless transparent threads flowed from His fingertips, radiating the light of authority.

It is the embodiment of the concept of joy itself, but now it is no longer used to mock the world.

He wants this tree to turn around again!

----

Feeling completely clear is just like breathing, a simple everyday thing. (Hey hey