Translator: CinderTL
Feng Qi found his private email inbox completely empty. He could only think of one explanation:
Just as the Narrator had said, after his future self entrusted the email to Mu Qing, she exposed it, leading to the evil forces clearing out its contents.
But a question immediately arose in his mind:
Why didn't the evil forces leave misleading messages in the email to manipulate his judgment?
Perhaps the evil forces lurking within Human Civilization simply don't believe you can travel through time. After all, time travel is such a fantastical concept. You wouldn't believe it yourself if you hadn't experienced it firsthand. But since the email contained a wealth of information related to them, they chose to delete everything and eliminate you, knowing you possessed their secrets.
Hearing the Narrator's explanation, Feng Qi nodded in agreement.
He had come to the same conclusion. Otherwise, it was impossible for the email to be completely empty.
Even if Mu Qing hadn't left any messages, his future self would have surely left plenty of information.
He had hoped to glean valuable information from this venture into the Dream Realm, but the most crucial data—the contents of his personal email—had been deleted, severing his only lead.
Now, he couldn't communicate with his future self to uncover what critical information his future self had obtained.
Nor could he understand Mu Qing's reasons for forming the Dawn Army and massacring the city.
After a moment of silence, he decided to use the remaining time to scour the historical archives, hoping to find other useful clues from a different perspective.
He focused particularly on information related to Mu Qing's formation of the Dawn Army.
Perhaps he could uncover new leads or even identify the spy for the Mysterious Force lurking near Mu Qing.
Closing the email window, he entered keywords into the search bar. The screen immediately filled with results.
The Future People had produced an overwhelming amount of commentary on the dawn rebels.
Even online, numerous historians offered their interpretations of the dawn rebels' actions.
As he scrolled through the records, he realized that the dawn rebels' strength wasn't solely embodied in Mu Qing.
In truth, Mu Qing was surrounded by many exceptionally talented and powerful individuals. She merely represented the pinnacle of personal combat prowess.
It was precisely this abundance of talent within the Dawn Army that allowed them to contend with the entire world, their momentum in conquering territories proving unstoppable.
If Mu Qing had relied solely on her own strength, even her extraordinary abilities would have been stretched thin.
The twelve core members of the Dawn Army were known to the outside world as the "One Demon, Three Fiends, Eight Heavenly Kings."
The Demon, of course, referred to Mu Qing herself. She was hailed as the Great Demon King of history, having personally ushered in a turbulent era that future generations would later call the "Dark Era."
Future People assessed Mu Qing's combat prowess as the strongest of her time and one of the Ten Strongest figures in human history.
However, debate raged online about her ranking among the Ten Strongest.
Much like comparing Guan Yu to Qin Qiong—two legendary warriors from different eras who never clashed—such comparisons were inherently impossible.
Yet most agreed that Mu Qing's place within the top three historical figures was beyond doubt.
As for the Three Fiends, these were the three individuals within the Dawn Army who held the highest positions after Mu Qing.
The three were the absolute core of the Dawn Army, assisting Mu Qing in managing, commanding, and developing the army, as well as leading its external wars.
They were:
Qin Shikong, group leader of the Heaven-Pillar Domain Combat Team. His personally established team had once been among the top hundred combat teams, but after Mu Qing formed the Dawn Army, he led his members to join, becoming an integral part of the organization.
During his time with the Dawn Army, he contributed significantly to its development through strategic planning and numerous contributions. He himself was originally a scavenger.
The second member was Long Qianyuan, former leader of the scavenger assassination organization "Thorn."
He was one of the earliest veterans to follow Mu Qing in establishing the Dawn Army, primarily responsible for the army's assassination operations and intelligence gathering. He was also one of the absolute core members of the Dawn Army.
As for the final member of the Three Fiends, no useful information could be found online. All that was known was that she was a woman named Mu Yao, with no further background details available.
After Mu Qing's death, Mu Yao became the new leader of the Dawn Army. She rallied the scattered members and launched a second counterattack against the Human United Army.
Based on this alone, her abilities and background couldn't be simple. Otherwise, how could she have compelled the other two to willingly submit to her authority and treat her as their leader?
Feng Qi's curiosity about the enigmatic Mu Yao grew.
To uncover Mu Yao's identity and origins, he immediately opened the search interface and began searching for her information.
After filtering the results, relevant information appeared on the screen.
In the photo, Mu Yao wore a standard military uniform. Her delicate features and sweet smile gave her a sunny, approachable aura.
Judging by her appearance alone, she seemed more like a playful girl next door than someone associated with the Dawn Three Fiends, whose name struck fear into the hearts of many.
Mu Yao (Rebel Leader)
Lifespan: Unknown
Cause of Death: Unknown
Lifetime Achievements: None
Introduction: After Mu Qing's death, Mu Yao took over the Dawn Rebels, becoming their new leader. She continued to uphold Mu Qing's ideals, launching relentless attacks on cities and slaughtering civilians, causing irreparable damage to the development of Human Civilization.
However, in the final days of the Dawn Rebels' imminent defeat, Mu Yao suddenly vanished without a trace, leaving no clues as to her whereabouts. Her fate remains unknown to this day.
After reviewing Mu Yao's information, Feng Qi felt a headache coming on.
He hadn't expected her profile to be completely "unknown" in the database.
Even Liu Yue, despite his enigmatic nature, had some traceable origins—he was known to be a descendant of the Liu Family, a mysterious lineage that had vanished without a trace.
While Mu Qing's cause of death remained classified, the database revealed she was a rune augment and a graduate of Star City Academy.
Yet Mu Yao's online presence was a complete enigma.
Numerous unsubstantiated theories about her origins circulated online.
Some believed Mu Yao was Mu Qing's adopted successor, personally groomed to inherit her legacy. They claimed she was the only other rune augment capable of perfectly fusing with a rune crystal.
Others speculated that Mu Yao was a Domain-Transcending Creature whose worldview aligned with Mu Qing's desire for World Destruction. This alignment, they argued, led her to join the dawn rebels, willingly serving as Mu Qing's lieutenant to amplify the rebels' momentum.
Thus, after Mu Qing's death, Mu Yao seized the dawn's banner, continuing to pursue Mu Qing's vision of World Destruction.
The internet was rife with speculation about Mu Yao's identity, but no concrete evidence existed to prove her true origins.
It was as if she had materialized out of thin air into history.
At this point, a sudden thought struck Feng Qi: Could this enigmatic Mu Yao have come from the "Heaven-Reaching Road"?
That would explain why she seemed to appear out of nowhere, with no traceable records.
Liu Yue's identity, on the other hand, was known primarily because he hailed from the mysteriously vanished Liu Family. Without that connection, he too would appear to have materialized out of thin air.
If Mu Yao truly came from the Heaven-Reaching Road, a new question arose:
Why would someone from the Heaven-Reaching Road help Mu Qing establish the Dawn Army, and then take command after Mu Qing's death to wage war against all of humanity?
And what exactly was the Heaven-Reaching Road?
Unable to find answers, Feng Qi began searching the database for information on the war between the Dawn Army and the Human United Army.
However, all the online videos of the conflict were restricted by access permissions. Without the necessary credentials, he couldn't view them.
As he continued searching through war-related information, a video caught his attention.
Our civilization has reached a dead end. The frequency of Domain Invasions is accelerating, and our future hangs by a thread.
Intrigued, he clicked on the video.
The footage showed a distant view of a city bathed in the bright sunlight, radiating an air of tranquility.
Just as he was wondering about the video's purpose, several beams of light suddenly descended from the sky. Upon impact, these beams rapidly expanded, and humanoid domain creatures began pouring out of them.
These creatures, accompanied by the Domain Field, immediately launched a massacre against the city's inhabitants. Within moments, the city was engulfed in flames, its skyscrapers collapsing into ruins, leaving behind a scene of utter devastation.
By the video's end, the Domain Field had completely enveloped the city, reducing it to rubble and extinguishing its former vitality and prosperity.
What struck him as particularly unsettling was that the initial beams of light hadn't only brought domain invasion creatures; they had also brought humans.
These humans had risen up in resistance, engaging the invading domain creatures in a desperate struggle for survival, but ultimately they were defeated.
In the end, these figures vanished along with the pillars of light into the ruined city.
Witnessing this, he immediately thought of the mysterious Heaven-Reaching Road.
Could these reinforcements, like Liu Yue, all be from the Heaven-Reaching Road? Do they appear only during humanity's greatest crises to resist the Domain Field's invasion?
But this theory left one question unanswered:
Why would these vanished powerhouses go to the Heaven-Reaching Road, only to emerge during humanity's darkest hours? Why wouldn't they join the domain combat teams and fight on the front lines?
Have you ever considered where the Domain Field actually comes from? Why does it periodically descend upon Earth? What is the true source of all this?
Hearing these words, his heart jolted.
"Are you suggesting that the Heaven-Reaching Road is the true front line against the Domain Invasion? That the vanished powerhouses have been deployed to the source of the calamity to confront the domain creatures?"
I can't say for certain, but based on the available information, that's certainly a possibility.
"If that's the case, why is the Heaven-Reaching Road's existence kept secret? Why can't the world know about it?"
How would I know? I'm just a heartless prompt robot, all dings and no brains. Being around you is burning out my brain cells.
Feng Qi: ...
Following the narrator's prompts, he continued to ponder, and a hypothesis surfaced in his mind.
Perhaps the strong individuals who ventured to the Heaven-Reaching Road to confront the source of the calamity were operating in secret, needing to conceal their actions from domain creatures lurking within human society. This secrecy would explain why powerful figures occasionally vanished mysteriously in the modern world, and why no information about the Heaven-Reaching Road could be found online.
It would also explain why the enigmatic Mu Yao suddenly disappeared just as the Dawn Army was about to fall. Perhaps she had already returned to the Heaven-Reaching Road by then.
Furthermore, it would explain why a mysterious force descended through beams of light to assist during the Domain Invasion.
But new questions immediately arose.
Where exactly was the Heaven-Reaching Road located? Had the shadowy mysterious organization truly never discovered its existence?
If this mysterious place, which seemed to exist outside the world, was real, could it mean that even after the world's destruction, a spark of humanity might still survive within the Heaven-Reaching Road?
He was now desperate to learn more about the Heaven-Reaching Road.
If he could find the Heaven-Reaching Road, it seemed many of his problems would be resolved effortlessly.
(End of the Chapter)