Chapter 25: Crown of Cupid

Zong Mi’s command carried tremendous force. Moreover, he had poured nearly all of the magic power in his body into it. The moment he spoke, a violent surge of mana erupted.

A gale of spatial elements rose from the ground, mixing with the black mist and churning through the air. In the blink of an eye, it formed a vortex.

Everything happened in a split second. The instant Zong Mi saw the black mist from the future begin to manifest, he immediately invoked a Word of Power, leaving no room for wishful thinking.

He even discarded all pretense.

The bard raised his head. His gray eyes, once as clear as glass beads, were now completely flooded with crimson.

On the Advent Continent, only beings possessing a divine status possessed red eyes.

They were a symbol of the gods’ glory.

Divine status represented authority—a privilege granted from birth to a god. A godhead, meanwhile, was the foundation of a god’s power and existence. Under normal circumstances, neither could exist without the other.

Zong Mi was an anomaly.

He possessed divine status, but lacked a godhead.

Because he still retained divine authority, he could issue commands through language. A true god, however, needed only a single thought. In that regard, he still fell short.

Zong Mi had no time to care about the reactions of the human players.

At this point, he fully understood that this dungeon could not be completed through normal means.

Plague slumbered beneath the Undead Domain. Judging from the progression of the continent’s main storyline, some event must have caused its awakening.

Or perhaps “awakening” wasn’t quite accurate.

Because Plague had already existed long before this, and had been spreading across the continent. The epidemic in the Skaman Empire was merely the fuse.

In other words, the entire continental main quest—and the key to the third expansion update—revolved around Plague.

For the storyline to progress, Plague had to awaken.

To be fair, even if Plague truly became a god, that had nothing to do with Zong Mi.

But if Plague intended to use him as the sacrificial offering for that awakening, then it very much became his problem.

So he decisively chose to run, even if it meant exposing his identity.

Especially since, judging from the situation, Plague had already recognized him.

The violent collision between spatial energy and the aura of Plague created tremendous pressure. A moment of carelessness left a deep cut across Zong Mi’s fingertip.

But he was focused solely on escaping.

After restoring his original strength, he pushed himself upright on the altar and leaped toward the vortex without hesitation. As a result, he paid no attention to the blood dripping from his injured hand.

Unfortunately, fate had other plans.

Drops of blood fell from the wound, descending through the air and landing precisely upon the surface of the blood altar.

Just one drop.

It silently merged with the sea of blood.

Deep within the void, the sleeping god opened its eyes.

In the final moment before entering the spatial tunnel, Zong Mi looked back.

His gaze met a pair of blood-red eyes filled with amusement.

Then he disappeared into the passage.

[Zong Mi has left the party.]

[Party leadership has been transferred to Baili Kong.]

As expected.

A god had truly been born from Plague.

Zong Mi didn’t stop.

Ignoring the shocked cries around him, he immediately cast a Gale Spell on himself and dashed toward the teleportation array in Kadina City.

“To Jazi, Central Continent.”

Slapping a handful of gold coins onto the counter, he grabbed a teleportation token and rushed into the array.

“That youngster’s in quite a hurry.”

The ticket clerk, startled, hurriedly straightened his crooked skeletal head. By the time he looked up again, the blond bard had already vanished from the teleportation platform.

If there was one existence Zong Mi hated most, it was undoubtedly the gods of the Advent Continent.

They were the ones who had exiled him.

And now, after so many years—after even Ragnarok had come and gone—a new god had somehow been born.

Since his identity had already been exposed, he had to reach the City in the Sky before Plague’s divinity fully matured.

That was the only thought left in Zong Mi’s mind.

He had already completed six legendary quests. Only one final step remained before his objective was fulfilled.

With six legendary pieces of equipment, he should be able to reclaim part of the authority over his divine kingdom.

And only the City in the Sky was truly safe.

If he were found again and forced to face a fully empowered god possessing a godhead, he would have absolutely no chance of victory.

The bard sprinted and leaped across the land.

Upon arriving in Jazi, he immediately pulled out bottles of potions from his inventory and chugged them one after another.

At this point, he no longer cared whether those potions had been provided by the witch of the Black Forest.

A cat that catches mice is a good cat.

“I declare that space shall be under my command.”

After restoring some mana, Zong Mi issued another order.

This time, the amount of magical power he could wield was clearly much greater than before.

As he drank potions and prepared another spell, an NPC mage who had just arrived in Jazi happened to notice him.

“Praise the God of Magic. Why are you using spatial magic here? Teleportation arrays generate repulsive interference—”

The mage stepped forward, intending to warn him.

Before he could finish speaking, however, Zong Mi muttered several incomprehensible words and instantly vanished from sight.

The mage jumped in shock.

“What happened? Did the teleportation array activate ahead of schedule?”

Spatial magic was among the most advanced branches of magic. Even short-range teleportation generally required at least fifth-tier mastery.

The mage recalled the young man’s face, tapped his temple, convinced himself he must have imagined it, and hurried away.

The City in the Sky was a long-lost divine kingdom.

After the fall of the gods, it had disappeared into the heavens without a trace.

To reopen a divine kingdom, there were normally only two methods.

The first was the descent of a god.

The second was for someone like Zong Mi—one who possessed divine status but lacked a godhead—to gather the regalia associated with his birth and initiate a grand coronation.

But Zong Mi had no interest in ceremonies right now.

Stepping through compressed layers of space, he bounded upward through the void with the agility of a hunting leopard.

The freezing winds at high altitude whipped his crimson robes violently around him.

He didn’t dare look back.

He could feel the spread of Plague.

He could also feel the determination of a god descending once more upon the continent.

Plague was not a benign existence.

It brought eternal death.

Yet the continent’s main storyline was guiding players toward releasing Plague. Worse still, it had given birth to a god who ruled over it.

That could only mean one thing.

Something had gone terribly wrong with this timeline.

If events continued down this path, there would be only one ending for the Advent Continent.

Destruction.

A main quest leading to the world’s destruction?!

The more Zong Mi thought about it, the more alarmed he became.

Just as he was about to exhaust all of his mana, he finally reached the heavens.

The phantom outline of the divine kingdom floated among the clouds, appearing and disappearing intermittently.

Cold-colored barriers surrounded it.

Anyone who attempted to enter without qualification would be mercilessly torn apart.

The equipment Zong Mi carried opened a path before him.

Even after countless years since the gods’ fall, the divine kingdom remained unchanged.

The palaces built by worshippers, the exquisite statues and fountains, still stood atop its foundations, gleaming brilliantly.

The roses in the gardens bloomed as vividly as ever, crystal droplets of dew hanging from their petals.

The empty divine kingdom was breathtakingly magnificent.

After so many silent years, it seemed almost delighted by the arrival of an unhindered visitor.

Without encountering any obstacles, Zong Mi followed the crimson carpet to the throne at the center.

A god’s throne was naturally extravagant beyond compare.

Its body shone with cold golden light, flanked by symbols of divine authority in the form of solar emblems.

Every temple within a divine kingdom possessed a throne.

Yet the central throne had remained vacant for countless years.

No god had been able to ascend it.

The only being qualified to do so had been exiled ten thousand years ago by jealous gods.

A mocking smile appeared on the blond bard’s face.

Because he still lacked the final piece—the crown—he remained unable to step forward.

Heat once again flooded his eyes.

A burning sensation blazed deep within his pupils, as though his eyes might ignite completely.

Ever since revealing his identity, his gray eyes had remained permanently crimson.

Standing before the throne, Zong Mi gazed down upon the continent below.

He saw black mist covering the land.

Corpses littered the earth.

Everywhere lay the bones of animals and humans.

He saw Plague ravaging the world.

The soil turned black and barren.

Forests withered into desolate wastelands.

Rivers darkened.

Even the sun itself lost its brilliance.

As one of the natural forces born alongside the Advent Continent, Plague possessed terrifying predatory power over all living things.

It sought to dominate the world through pestilence.

Yet its influence extended beyond life alone.

It could alter climates and rivers, transforming entire regions into places resembling the Undead Domain.

In the future Zong Mi witnessed, everything had fallen.

Only the City in the Sky remained suspended above the world.

Below it, the last surviving humans gathered and knelt, begging the gods for mercy.

But black mist soon caught them.

It gripped their throats and spines.

They collapsed in agony as dark blotches spread across their bodies.

Then the God of Plague emerged from the black mist.

He wore black robes.

Beneath his dark hair gleamed a pair of cold crimson eyes.

His face was handsome and sharply defined.

His expression carried a casual cruelty.

The cries of the world meant nothing to him.

Instead, he lifted his gaze and looked directly at Zong Mi atop the divine kingdom.

In that future, Zong Mi wore the complete divine regalia.

Accepted by the divine kingdom, he sat upon the supreme throne, gazing coldly upon all creation.

He saw the God of Plague freeze momentarily.

Then the deep crimson in those eyes seemed to soften.

What followed was overwhelming joy, almost impossible to believe.

But Zong Mi had no interest in observing the plague god any longer.

He raised a hand to his head.

Removed the crown he wore.

And decisively severed his connection to that future.

Darkness swallowed everything.

Since Zong Mi could travel into the future, he could naturally do much more than that.

As long as he paid a sufficient price, he could even take certain objects from parallel timelines.

For example—

A crown now rested quietly in the bard’s palm.

[Quest Item Obtained: Crown of Cupid.]

[Item has been placed in Inventory.]

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