The act of deleting periods from the calendar, while counter-intuitive, is something that has genuinely happened. For example, on Earth, Dorothy's hometown, Pope Gregory XIII of the Catholic Church once deleted ten days between October 4th, 1582, and October 15th, 1582, from the calendar. The reason was to reconcile the accumulated precession errors in the Roman calendar, to restore the calendar to normalcy, and to correctly guide agricultural production.
Therefore, in Earth's history, the day after Thursday, October 4th, 1582, was immediately October 15th, 1582, skipping roughly ten days. Of course, this action was merely a manipulation within the calendar rules set by humans and did not affect actual natural time.
However, if the same operation were applied to the False History of this world, it would be vastly different. The False History world is a world dominated by 'Qi' (Awakening/Enlightenment). Elements of 'Qi' such as history, calendar, and jurisprudence are the framework of this world, and other so-called "real" things are merely attachments to this framework. Therefore, changing history here can also change the world, and changing the calendar can also change time. Here, the calendar is not merely a measure of time but time itself.
Gregory XIII canceled ten days from the calendar, while Dorothy here canceled seven thousand years from the calendar. By canceling the long years within the calendar, Dorothy could make tomorrow of a certain day become today seven thousand years later, making seven thousand years of time instantly vanish into nothingness, allowing herself to witness the scene from seven thousand years ago.
Within the endless desert of Buserite in the False History world, Dorothy stood atop a towering sand dune, silently gazing at the magnificent scene before her.
That was an incredibly massive phantom image standing within the wind and sand, the phantom image of an entire city, seemingly real yet false, substantial yet ethereal. This mirage-like illusory city stretched to the horizon, covering the entire visible skyline, far surpassing the scale of Bastis.
The enormous illusory city appeared mostly blurry when viewed from afar, with only one extremely massive pyramid standing out conspicuously. That phantom pyramid, seven to eight hundred meters high, on one hand looked incredibly grand and magnificent, yet on the other hand felt very ethereal and insubstantial, giving an overall impression of being light and easily blown away.
Since Dorothy changed the calendar, the original False History world disappeared just like that. In its place was the scene before her now. Dorothy understood that this was some kind of truth from deep within the False History world, guided out by her.
"Is that... a city?! With this style, is it a city of the First Dynasty? An First Dynasty relic on the scale of a city is simply unheard of..." Beside Dorothy, Awei, in her iron coffin form, couldn't help but exclaim upon witnessing such a magnificent spectacle. Too many things that happened today had greatly exceeded her previous understanding.
"A city hidden in the inner realm, is this the legacy left by the First Dynasty? Is this what you have been seeking? Is this also what Yunina is trying to seize now?" Awei continued to speak in astonishment, while silently watched the distance without directly responding to Awei's words. On the other side, Vanya, looking at the city in the distance, also couldn't help but sigh.
"Such a grand and magnificent city, it feels even bigger than Tivian... If it didn't feel like a phantom, the level of shock would be similar to Holy Mountain..."
Vanya said this, then couldn't help but take two steps forward. However, just then, many profound and mysterious characters suddenly flashed before her, and a translucent wall constructed of characters appeared before her eyes, blocking her steps.
"This is... a restriction? Does this city have a restriction, not allowing me to pass?" Touching the invisible wall before her, Vanya couldn't help but murmur. And Dorothy, after hearing Vanya's words, also extended her hand, reaching towards the distant illusory city. However, before her, there was no obstruction from a restriction.
"It seems this restriction recognizes people. I seem to be unobstructed," Dorothy said, looking at her arm before her. Then she turned around and spoke to Vanya, Neff, and Awei behind her.
"Wait here for me, I'll go explore inside."
Dorothy said to the people before her, then she immediately soared into the air, turned around again, and floated towards the distant illusory and magnificent city. For a time, only two people and one coffin remained at the scene.
"Scholar Miss went over there alone... Is it okay?" Standing still, Vanya looked at Dorothy, who was flying away and disappearing into the sand dust, and couldn't help but say with some worry. On the other side, Neff, however, waved her hand and replied.
"Relax, relax... Vanya, we don't need to worry about Scholar Miss no matter who we worry about. It's not like we haven't seen her abilities. Look at Scholar Miss's restriction exemption, that must be a privilege only granted after a true 'Qi' (Awakening/Enlightenment) inheritor is chosen by the Judge of Heaven. There's really nothing to worry about after going in, just choose to believe..."
Neff said this lightly, then leaned against the restriction wall beside her, wanting to rest on it. However, the next second, something unexpected happened.
"Oh dear!" Neff leaned sideways like that, but she didn't lean on the invisible restriction wall that she had expected to be there in the air. She fell straight down, rolling twice on the sand, and accidentally got a mouthful of sand.
"Ptooey, ptooey, ptooey... What's going on? Where's the wall?!" Sitting up on the sand again, Neff complained while spitting out the sand from her mouth. On the other side, Vanya was startled after seeing this scene, then she also extended her hand, trying to touch the restriction wall hidden in the air. As countless glowing characters in the space before Vanya's hand reappeared in the void, the restriction wall once again surfaced before Vanya's eyes, blocking her reacting arm from extending further.
Seeing this scene, Vanya was stunned, and Neff was also stunned. After they stared at each other for a while, Vanya slowly spoke.
"Thief Miss, you also don't seem to be affected by this restriction."
"Eh..." Hearing Vanya's words, Neff didn't know what to say for a moment.
...
On the other side, after passing through the restriction wall, Dorothy flew straight into the sky full of sand dust, flying towards the mirage-like city in the distance. After flying for a considerable amount of time, Dorothy finally gradually approached the illusory city.
This overly large city had no walls. After flying for a while, Dorothy flew directly over the city. Unlike a true mirage that disappears upon approach, Dorothy could see the true state of the city here.
These buildings were generally four to five stories high, decorated with distinct First Dynasty characteristics and were very luxurious. Huge, wide roads cut through the city's building clusters. Flying over the city and looking into the distance, the city was boundless. Besides the excessively large pyramid in the city center, there were also many other very conspicuous giant buildings erected within the city, showcasing the city's past grandeur and prosperity. Dorothy had seen these scenes before, but what she saw then was merely a model, far less shocking than what she saw now.
If there was one minor imperfection, it was that the grandeur of this city was not "real". It was in a state of blurriness and illusion. This state was something Dorothy had never seen before in the False History world. Although the history of things in the False History world was fabricated, they were real in that world, unlike the ethereal nature of the city before her now.
Besides the city being very illusory and blurry overall, making it impossible to truly see or touch, another characteristic of this city was that there was no one inside, no living creatures. The entire city appeared incredibly empty, without a single trace of life.
'Hidden behind the curtain of seven thousand years of history, is this what the Holy Domain of the First Dynasty looks like? In this state, I can't read any valuable content at all. Can I really find the information for Golden advancement here?'
Looking at the scene before her, Dorothy couldn't help but think to herself. Although she had obvious worries in her heart, she did not stop her exploration. Her target for exploration at this time was directed towards the center of the city, that huge pyramid.
That giant pyramid, at least seven hundred meters high, also had an incredibly vast footprint. A considerable portion of the entire city's area was occupied by this pyramid. When Dorothy flew to the side of this illusory pyramid, looking up, she only felt a giant phantom wall, blocking out the sky and sun, stretching before her eyes, exuding an incredibly powerful sense of oppression.
Following the outer wall of the phantom pyramid, Dorothy flew for a long time and finally found the entrance to the pyramid, a huge Stone gate guarded by two giant eagle-headed statues. That Stone gate itself was in an open state, and a grand avenue led directly into the interior of the pyramid. The entire gate was over twenty meters high and about ten meters wide, appearing very spectacular.
Dorothy paused for a while before this grand gate, picked up and observed it, and then chose to enter through the gate. Next, Dorothy arrived in an extremely long corridor that was much wider than a normal road, and continued to go deeper into the pyramid along the corridor.
On the giant walls on both sides of the corridor, countless characters and murals were densely carved, with no blank spaces left. As Dorothy flew through the corridor, she wanted to carefully look at what those carvings and murals were like, but as soon as she focused and looked closely, the content of those carvings and murals would appear very blurry, making it impossible to see them clearly.
Just like that, Dorothy ignored the murals on both sides of the corridor and flew straight along the long corridor deeper into the pyramid until she reached the end of the corridor, a vast space.
Here was an incredibly huge indoor space. The entire space was roughly square, nearly a hundred meters high and several hundred meters long and wide. On the walls of the space were countless giant human-shaped relief statues. Most of the bottom area of the space was nonexistent, being a downward-sloping abyss. The top had no visible ceiling; instead, there were countless shining stars. Beneath this starry ceiling where the stars were arranged, above the giant pit abyss, a large circular platform was suspended. Four corridors opened from the four walls of the huge space, and a thin bridge was built along each corridor to reach the platform. The corridor Dorothy came through was one of them.
"It seems like this is an altar, not a tomb..." Looking at the scene before her, Dorothy couldn't help but murmur. At first, she thought this pyramid was a tomb, but judging from the current scene, it seemed more likely to be an altar.
After finishing her exclamation, Dorothy flew along the thin bridge extending before her, until she reached the circular platform in the center of the space. Here, Dorothy could see the things on the platform more clearly.
On that circular platform, inscribed were star patterns corresponding to the stars in the space's sky. These star maps were connected by lines, forming constellation patterns. Surrounded by the huge star patterns, in the center of the platform, five simple Stone chairs were placed. Four of the Stone chairs faced inwards, forming a circle, and in the center of the four Stone chairs, the fifth Stone chair was placed. And on this Stone chair, a figure was sitting at this moment.
That was a skeleton. She was wearing a luxurious robe, a cumbersome, complex, yet heavy and massive exquisite crown, and countless profound and mysterious decorations were hung on her body. Many ribbons were wrapped around her, depicting star arrays, and the robe also had many star decorations and embroidery. A white mask of unknown material covered her face.
Although many parts of her body were sunken due to the decay of the flesh, and her hands revealed withered bony palms, Dorothy could still tell from the features of her clothing that the owner of this skeleton was once a woman. Her overall attire had similarities to the female pharaoh Dorothy had seen before, but it was more solemn and magnificent.
And... more importantly, this corpse is a physical entity! That's right, in this illusory and blurry city, this corpse is actually a real, incomparably clear physical entity! When Dorothy saw the corpse, she was stunned for a moment, and it took her a while to react.
'This attire is... a Lich Pharaoh? No... this seems to be a real dead person, not a Lich...' As she approached the corpse in front of her, Dorothy thought to herself, and soon, she roughly identified who the corpse in front of her was.
That was the peak of the Judge of Heaven's faith in the First Dynasty, corresponding to the Four Great Lich Lords and Four Great Pharaohs, the Golden Person of the Path of Pure Reason, the former highest priest of the Judge of Heaven - the Saintly Sage.
'The Golden of the Path of Pure Reason, when the First Dynasty was destroyed, did not choose to become a Lich...'
'I have reduced seven thousand years of time, but she still appeared here in the form of a withered skeleton... What does this mean?' Looking at the silent corpse slumped on the stone chair in front of her, Dorothy thought with a sigh in her heart. Looking at the deceased, Dorothy had various thoughts at this moment. Her intuition told her that the secret she was looking for on this trip was on her.
Dorothy descended from the sky, slowly stood on the huge platform, and then slowly walked step by step towards the deceased on the stone chair in front.
Just as Dorothy officially approached the deceased and was about to observe it carefully, a voice suddenly echoed in the empty space.
"You've finally arrived, the foreseen one..."
This was an ethereal, mysterious female voice that was faint and indistinct, echoing in the space without any warning. What she said was a language Dorothy had never heard before, yet she could inexplicably understand it.
"Who are you?" After hearing the female voice, Dorothy was startled, then immediately said with extreme seriousness and looked around, while the voice once again echoed faintly.
"I am... the gravekeeper of the vanished history, the hidden knowledge keeper who maintains the divine will... the decayed withered skeleton in front of you that has endured the passage of time..."
"You are... the highest priest of the Judge of Heaven, the Saintly Sage of the First Dynasty?!" Hearing this answer from the voice, Dorothy suddenly looked at the deceased in front of her and said with a surprised expression.
"That's right... I am the last divine revealer of the First Dynasty. I have been waiting for your arrival, the foreseen one." The voice echoed again, responding to Dorothy's words, and Dorothy spoke again with a serious expression.
"You call me the foreseen one. Could it be that you used prophecy to foresee my arrival?"
"No, it was not I who foresaw you, but the Divine Master. Under his enlightenment, Shepsuna and I also foresaw your existence to varying degrees, so after the catastrophe, I have been waiting for you..." The voice continued to echo in Dorothy's ears from the space. After hearing it, Dorothy's brows furrowed even deeper.
"The Judge of Heaven foresaw my arrival. Can he foresee things so far into the future? Since he foresaw that I could come here, did he not also foresee the demise of the First Dynasty?" Dorothy continued to speak seriously to the Saintly Sage, and the other party immediately replied.
"Do not doubt the great power of the Divine Master. The things he foresees are far more than what we foresee. He not only foresaw your arrival, but also the collapse of the dynasty, the destruction of civilization, the disputes among the gods, the invasion of madness, the rise of Light... and even his own fall..."
"The Judge of Heaven... foresaw his own fall..." Listening to the Saintly Sage's words, Dorothy couldn't help but widen her eyes and slowly said, and then she couldn't help but speak again.
"Since it could be foreseen, why did it still happen? Did the Judge of Heaven not try to change his own destiny?"
"If destiny could be easily changed, it wouldn't be called destiny," the Saintly Sage said calmly, and Dorothy pressed on.
"Even a god cannot change his own destiny? Shouldn't they all be seated above the sky, ruling over all living beings? Shouldn't they be the masters of destiny?"
"Humans have human destinies, and gods have god destinies. Gods can arbitrarily rule over human destinies, but this does not mean that they can completely control their own destinies. This is the content contained in the enlightenment that the Divine Master personally gave me..." The Saintly Sage continued to respond calmly to Dorothy, and Dorothy then asked seriously.
"You mean... the Judge of Heaven is destined to die, and he himself knows it? Did he not resist? Did he not do anything?"
Dorothy asked the ancient being in front of her, and after a slight pause, the other party slowly replied.
"Among the gods, no one understands and controls destiny more than the Divine Master. What I can confirm is that the Divine Master has always been making some arrangements and deployments regarding what he considers his destiny. I don't know if he is trying to resist or dealing with the aftermath. I only know that in the end, the Divine Master still fell. I don't know if this was the helpless result after his struggle failed, or his own choice.
"However, the Divine Master had long foreseen his own fall. Before his fall, he also secretly instructed us to make certain preparations, including having me hide the entire Holy Mountain in history, and including inducing Hafdar and others to secretly prepare for the conversion ritual. Before the destruction of the dynasty, Hafdar had long believed that he was conducting forbidden and blasphemous research, but in fact, this was the result of my secret guidance and inducement under the enlightenment of the Divine Master..." The Saintly Sage said this to Dorothy. Hearing her words, Dorothy continued to ask with a solemn expression.
"Why was the First Dynasty destroyed?"
"The Holy Dynasty perished due to the unprecedented secondary disaster that occurred when the Divine Master fell. This disaster manifested from the Spirit Sight and erupted downwards, spreading to the Real World, occurring from every inch of the sky above the Holy Dynasty, destroying everything that the Holy Dynasty had accumulated over thousands of years in various forms.
"However, due to the Divine Master's foresight, I had already issued various policies before the disaster occurred, transporting as many ordinary people as possible to the colonies on the northern continent, which can be considered a reluctantly mitigation of the losses caused by the disaster. But even so, it was still unable to stop the complete destruction of the Holy Dynasty in the disaster.
"Because the Holy Dynasty was established based on the Divine Master, there were traces of the Divine Master everywhere. When the disaster came, these traces all became the origin points of the disaster. scriptures turned into evil texts, divine statues turned into monsters, the whispers from the altars drove people mad, and the corrupted and mutated malicious knowledge surged out from all traces of the Divine Master, poisoning all living beings around. All followers of 'enlightenment' died and mutated one after another because of the information in their minds and the mutation of their Spirituality. Except for the shelters I specifically arranged in the colonies, every inch of the Holy Dynasty's land did not escape the disaster.
"Our civilization, the first civilization established by humans, was completely destroyed in the chaos. Although the embers were left behind, those embers were carefully erased by me of the Divine Master and the traces of the Holy Dynasty. They could continue humanity, but not the Holy Dynasty... Except for these people in the shelters, in this destruction, only a very small number of people managed to escape due to various reasons."
With a lighthearted tone, the Saintly Sage said this to Dorothy, and Dorothy was stunned in place after hearing it.
"You mean, the production of Spirit Sight originated from the fall of the Judge of Heaven? The destruction of the First Dynasty was also because of the sudden appearance and proliferation of Spirit Sight?"
Dorothy asked the Saintly Sage this, and the other party fell silent for a while, seemingly acquiescing to Dorothy's words.
"You just said... that because of the invasion of Spirit Sight, almost all the followers of 'enlightenment' in the First Dynasty either died or mutated. These followers of 'enlightenment' refer to the Extraordinary of 'enlightenment', right? The reason you induced the four Pharaohs to study and perform the conversion ritual was to escape the path of 'enlightenment' and avoid being affected when the fall disaster occurred. What about you? As the one closest to the Judge of Heaven, why were you not affected..."
Dorothy asked the Saintly Sage in front of her, and the Saintly Sage still replied slowly and unhurriedly.
"Because... I have the divinity that the Divine Master personally split and processed and gave to me. Relying on this divinity, at the cost of my own life, I performed a ritual to strip the entire Holy Mountain from the Real World and seal it in the depths of history, thereby avoiding the impact of the disaster."
The Saintly Sage said this. Hearing her words, Dorothy finally understood the cause of the Illusory History World.
The Illusory History World was created by the Saintly Sage relying on the divinity of the Judge of Heaven. The original intention was to hide herself and the Holy Mountain of 'enlightenment' so that they could escape the disaster caused by the fall of the Judge of Heaven.
"So... you are dead now?" Listening to the Saintly Sage's words, Dorothy continued to ask, and the other party quickly responded.
"Yes, I am already dead. What is talking to you now is just a wisp of consciousness that I have left behind through the ritual itself. I can't even be considered a Lich."
"Why did you go to such lengths? You could have clearly used the conversion ritual to become a Lich to escape the catastrophe. At least in the form of a Lich, you could act more freely and were more powerful. Was it to preserve the Holy Mountain?"
Dorothy continued to ask the Saintly Sage seriously, and after a period of silence, the other party continued to speak silently.
"Preserving the Holy Mountain is only one aspect, and more importantly, it is because of you."
"Me?" Listening to the Saintly Sage's words, Dorothy asked somewhat unexpectedly. She didn't understand why the choice of the person in front of her seven thousand years ago would involve her.
"The foreseen one, I want to hear, what is the purpose of your arduous journey to this place?" The ethereal female voice of the Saintly Sage continued to echo in the air, and Dorothy paused slightly after hearing it, then looked seriously at the withered deceased on the stone chair in front of her and said.
"I came here to seek knowledge, to seek the knowledge of the ritual to advance to the Golden rank on the Path of Pure Reason..."
"Hoo... that's right..." After listening to Dorothy's words, the Saintly Sage let out a long sigh of relief, and just as a hint of confusion appeared in Dorothy's eyes, the Saintly Sage spoke again.
"The Path of Pure Reason, the Extraordinary path closest to the Divine Master, its ritual for advancing to the Archetype World cannot be recorded on any page, any stone tablet, any wood carving, or any clay sculpture.
"No form of information carrier can, whether Extraordinary or not, record the path of the ritual to the Saintly Sage. The advancement ritual of the Saintly Sage can only be known by the Divine Master himself through enlightenment, or personally taught by the previous Saintly Sage."
The last priest of the Judge of Heaven said this to Dorothy. After hearing it, Dorothy's eyes widened slightly, and then she said directly.
"So, this is the reason why you were unwilling to become a Lich? You... needed to retain the identity of the Saintly Sage?"
"Yes, once I became a Lich, the identity of the Saintly Sage would naturally leave me. In my heart, the knowledge about the advancement ritual would disappear in an instant, and I would not be able to teach you here how to become the next Saintly Sage.
"In addition, there is a very important point, which is that if I were a Lich, I would not be able to bear the power of the divinity given to me by the Divine Master. This power is still preserved in my body, which is the greatest legacy left by the Divine Master in this world, and it will also be passed on to you through me..."