Glorious God Throne

Amidst the Grand Mage’s voice, a system prompt suddenly appeared.

[Hidden world setting of the nightmare fragment instance has been decoded.]

“…It was a sudden day when the most powerful prophecy mage on the Holy Light Continent glimpsed a dark future. All was silent, black rain fell, and the world perished in darkness. That prophet told us that was the Return to the Void.”

“It was the inevitable end and destruction that infinite worlds would face. An absolute destiny that we small mortals could not resist. But of course, we refused to believe it.”

“We did everything possible to change fate, struggled with every method we had, but only when the Return to the Void truly descended did we understand the inviolability of destiny.”

“—So this was not a struggle between humans and gods, but against fate itself. The gods weren’t frightening – the deities in heaven originally came from humans and weren’t invincible.”

“…What was truly invincible was fate itself.”

The weight in the Grand Mage’s voice was enough to make anyone hold their breath, infected by that heavy despair and sorrow. But Bai Yi focused on a different question—

“So gods really exist in this world?”

The Grand Mage was taken aback. “You could say they exist, and you could say they don’t.”

[Originally there were no gods in this world – those who dwelled in the sun, moon, and stars were merely Holy Light Mages who had grown powerful beyond ordinary human comprehension. They absorbed the purest light elements from the morning star to continuously strengthen themselves.]

[Living in seclusion while researching magic, with their power already transcendent and making their homes among the celestial stars, they occasionally spread various miraculous holy light spells to the mortal realm. As time passed, they unconsciously became gods in the hearts of countless people.]

[When the Return to the Void descended, the world’s laws were eroded by the void energy. Starting from a distant corner of space, it began to collapse, then surged forward like rolling waves, with destruction spreading like earthquakes, shattering star after star.]

[Until the sun, moon, and stars, along with the Holy Light Mages viewed as gods upon them, vanished into eternal silence, leaving seemingly only the Holy Light Continent in this vast boundless world.]

[Before destruction descended, the “gods” among the stars made one final effort, exhausting everything they had to preserve the Holy Light Continent. It was precisely because they poured all their energy into the Holy Light Continent that the sun, moon, and stars were easily destroyed, and they themselves perished along with them.]

[But a small portion of people on the Holy Light Continent survived. It was like having a death sentence commuted to a stay of execution – there was room to struggle.]

[Even so, this world no longer had a future – when the surviving Holy Light Mages emerged from their shelters back into the world, they discovered this painful and desperate truth.]

[The descent of the Return to the Void had destroyed the Holy Light Continent at its peak, with the world’s rules destroyed, eroded, and twisted.]

[What greeted them was a world fallen into eternal night, filled with void energy, and void beasts everywhere.]

[These were the so-called Out of Control.]

[A group of ordinary people with higher resistance to void energy survived, but could only barely subsist like wild dogs, hiding from the omnipresent slime monsters in the darkness, dying of hunger, dying from madness at being unable to accept reality – and even their corpses after death became void beasts.]

[Living beings eroded by void energy became void beasts. They themselves became new sources of contamination, emanating void energy more concentrated than that floating in space. Living beings that approached them would suffer more intense erosion.]

[Even staying away from void beasts only slowed the speed of erosion by void energy, because void energy was everywhere.]

[Therefore, being eroded, twisted, and contaminated was everyone’s inevitable fate. Until the day this world completely returned to the void.]

[And they had no way to stop it.]

[Even the purification techniques they devoted themselves to researching only treated the symptoms, not the root cause. Continuing to struggle in this mortal world, they would ultimately lose control and become void beasts, perishing along with the world.]

[This hopeless and dark future left them in despair.]

[But they weren’t willing to waste the “gods'” sacrifice, and were even less willing to imagine the consequences of giving up.]

[In the infinitely distant future, if other beings were fortunate enough to arrive in this world, would they see only endless darkness and countless void beasts wandering within? Would they still be able to discover that a great human civilization once existed on this continent, find traces of holy light magic?]

[More terrifying than death was forgetfulness.]

[—That would be the extinction of an entire civilization.]

[Their glory, their fall, their resistance, their struggles – none would remain to know of them.]

[The barely surviving survivors couldn’t accept such a fate. The few remaining mages gathered together and made a decision—]

[They would pass down holy light magic forever.]

[If they couldn’t, they would at least die in human form.]

[So that when outsiders came to this continent millions of years later, they would at least see human remains, and from these scattered traces, discover and remember their civilization.]

[Thus, the highest-ranking and most powerful Holy Light Mage of that time, along with his companions, told a massive lie.]

[—To prevent others from giving up their struggle due to the overly desperate truth, they altered the history of the world’s destruction, changing the inevitable destruction into a curse and punishment from the gods. It was humans who had angered the gods, bringing this bitter fruit upon themselves.]

[Since it was punishment, there was a possibility of it being lifted.]

[The prophecy of the Child of the Sun was thus born.]

[This was false hope constructed entirely of lies, but it was the only hope that could keep the survivors from giving up, to continue struggling in this eternal night.]

[With this lie, they gave others hope to struggle with all their might, maintaining human continuation as long as possible, even if just for one more day, month, or year, using more time to gamble on the slight possibility that true hope might appear in the future—hope of passing down holy light magic, or hope of recovering human form, before the last human perished.]

[And during these years of struggle…]

[…Since they had fallen to this state due to the gods’ curse, wasn’t it reasonable for the Chasers of the Sun to constantly seek traces of the past, attempting to find ways to lift the curse?]

[In this process, striving to preserve traces of the holy light civilization and human history became natural.]

[This is the truth of everything.]

“So that’s how it was? All the stars, all continents, all planes where life might exist beyond this continent have already been destroyed?”

At this moment, Bai Yi suddenly understood why the Holy Light Continent was left with only darkness. Surely the infinite space outside was now just empty black holes – where could light come from to illuminate this world?

Plants containing light elements, like calendulas, were already considered remaining miracles. He suspected that the Holy Light Continent’s ability to retain a small amount of light elements was related to the fallen “gods.”

—This was the hope they left for the Holy Light Mages.

Otherwise, the first “Chasers of the Sun” couldn’t have been born, Holy Light Mages’ spells would have completely failed, and everyone could only hopelessly give up and become void beasts, without even room to struggle.

“Now you understand what the title ‘Child of the Sun’ symbolizes?” The Grand Mage’s words interrupted Bai Yi’s increasingly distant thoughts. “Do you still dare to take on this title?”

—It was a fabricated false hope. Yet it was the spiritual support and faith that kept many Chasers of the Sun alive until now.

If someone took on this title without being able to live up to it, the Grand Mage could hardly imagine what the Chasers of the Sun would do when their hope was shattered.

Even though he felt Bai Yi was somewhat special, he couldn’t arbitrarily let her shoulder such a heavy burden. “Are you prepared to become the last remaining hope for this world’s final survivors?”

“No problem, I can do it, I’m ready.” Bai Yi promptly gave three affirmative responses, looking at the Grand Mage without blinking.

…So, bring on the identity of the ‘Child of the Sun’!

The Grand Mage was bewildered by her unconventional response. “Little girl, you need to think this through…”

“I’ve thought it through clearly. From the moment I appeared in this world, even if the prophecy isn’t true, I’ll make it come true!” The young girl with baby fat still on her cheeks held her head high, her tone revealing inexplicable confidence. “After all, I have the power to easily destroy this world.”

As her words fell, mysterious power surged from “her” brow, an invisible mental storm swirling around her, like intangible dark currents slowly churning in the depths of a pitch-black ocean.

This was his new utilization and development of mental energy after combining the Spirit Forger system with holy light meditation.

The Grand Mage suddenly stood up, both shocked and delighted.

His gaze locked firmly on Bai Yi, and after the initial joy came regret. “Such powerful and pure mental force, and rarely leaning toward negative energy… If the Return to the Void hadn’t descended, you surely would have become a pioneer of a new branch of holy light magic!”

As the mental storm gathered, an illusory black sun traced itself behind Bai Yi. The increasingly dangerous aura made the Grand Mage’s expression constantly shift. The crisis sense from his intuition stabbed at his heart, as if that black sun might explode the next second, its incomparable power sweeping away everything. In his daze, he even had the illusion of having died many times over.

He snapped out of his trance, realizing cold sweat had seeped through his skin under his robes, yet his expression showed joy rather than fear. “Your talent is beyond question, far exceeding my expectations…”

Having witnessed the power of the “gods” above the stars in his youth, he knew deeply that the little girl before him had the talent to stand alongside the gods in the future. Such a genius might truly be able to accomplish things he, a mere mortal, couldn’t imagine…

“Perhaps, perhaps the prophecy really has a chance of coming true?”

After Bai Yi demonstrated his artistic attainments, which he had upgraded after testing earlier on Bai Xiaoxi, this Grand Mage was even more shocked—actually, the effects Bai Yi demonstrated weren’t as good as purification techniques, but he wasn’t using purification techniques at all.

What did this mean?

It meant that this child before him had figured out another method different from purification techniques, yet equally effective at weakening contamination, just by wandering alone in the eternal night. Even though this method’s effects weren’t ideal yet, the mere fact that it used mental force instead of light elements was already remarkable.

Moreover, didn’t this further prove that Bai Yi really might make the prophecy come true, changing that hopeless future?

If just cultivated properly, it was really quite possible.

The Grand Mage made an immediate decision. “Child, from today forward, you are the prophesied Child of the Sun, possessing authority equal to mine in this camp. I will pass on all the knowledge I possess to you without reservation. There are many magical knowledge records from our predecessors preserved here, which you may browse at any time.”

He stood up and led Bai Yi out of the underground stone chamber. He didn’t forget to add, “This is your last chance to back out.”

“I will announce your arrival to everyone.”

“—You will have to become the Child of the Sun in everyone’s eyes, bearing their hopes and future.”

“Alright.” He heard the child’s light response, her tone still somewhat lively, “I’m super looking forward to it!”

At the same time, Bai Yi addressed the system. “Prepare to go AFK. It’s time to let the character level up and gain experience on their own.”

The world froze in an instant.

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