The carriage moved silently, yet there was no road beneath its wheels.
The wheels rolled over the jagged stones of a steep slope, yet the body of the carriage remained as steady as if gliding across a mirror.
Where the hooves stepped, it was not solid earth, but mist.
The mountain rocks passed under the wheels like phantoms, without a single bump or vibration. Even the tassels on the carriage curtains remained perfectly still.
Shen Jue and Shen Yu sat on the carriage bench.
This was not the first time they had seen this carriage.
On the day Guo Pan led his soldiers to destroy the Divine Seeds, the Divine Lady had arrived in this very carriage.
For a mortal to catch even a distant glimpse of such a celestial vehicle in their lifetime would be a stroke of immense luck.
Who could have imagined that one day, they would be sitting on the bench of this very carriage, driving for the Divine Lady?
The carriage had traveled about a hundred miles from the valley.
A stream several yards wide blocked their path, its current swift and its banks cluttered with jagged rocks.
Shen Jue instinctively tugged the reins, turned his head toward the figure seated inside the carriage, and asked in a low voice, “Divine Lady, there is water ahead. Should we take a detour?”
“It is no matter. Continue forward,” an ethereal voice spoke from behind the pure white curtain.
The two mythical beasts pulling the carriage seemed to understand human speech, for they galloped toward the stream. The moment they touched the water's surface, thick mist suddenly billowed from beneath their feet.
The carriage floated slightly. Shen Jue looked down and saw the wheels gliding steadily over the stream; he could even clearly see the pebbles and swimming fish at the bottom.
Shen Jue’s hand, wrapped in cloth, tightened slightly, and his throat moved as he swallowed instinctively.
He prided himself on being accustomed to life and death on the battlefield, someone who wouldn't blink even with a blade at his throat.
Yet at this moment, the heart in his chest was racing, filled with an indescribable sense of awe.
After crossing the stream, a dense forest lay ahead.
The trees reached toward the heavens, their branches interlaced like a net. Let alone a carriage, even a single person on foot would have to squeeze through sideways.
Shen Jue was about to ask again if they needed to detour, but then he witnessed a sight he would never forget.
As the carriage passed through, all the branches rippled away like water. They did not break or bend; instead, they became transparent in a near-miraculous fashion.
As the carriage moved through the center of a tree trunk, Shen Jue and Shen Yu both instinctively raised their arms to shield their faces.
However.
Their arms struck nothing.
The two opened their eyes and stared in a daze as their fingers passed right through the trunk of an ancient pine.
As they emerged from the forest, they looked back.
The branches of the forest were perfectly intact, the shadows of the trees swaying as if nothing had happened.
Shen Jue’s fingertips were still trembling.
He suddenly realized one thing with absolute clarity.
The being sitting behind the curtain was not separated from him by a mere thin veil, but by a celestial chasm that mortals could never hope to bridge.
Shen Yu’s thoughts mirrored his brother’s.
The power of a deity was far greater than they had ever imagined.
【Shen Jue’s Shock Value +100】
【Shen Yu’s Shock Value +100】
【...】
【Current Shock Value: 37,500】
Yun Shu looked at the Shock Value on the system panel, the corners of her lips curling upward in a pleasant mood.
Once the limited-time prize pool refreshed, with her current Shock Value, she was guaranteed to pull at least one new outfit.
As the carriage emerged from the forest path, the view suddenly opened up, but the colors of the world became increasingly gray and desolate.
Compared to the valley, which was like a hidden paradise, the outside world was filled with withered vegetation and dried-up streams...
“There are people,” Shen Yu said suddenly in a low voice.
Hearing this, Shen Jue followed his gaze. Beneath a dirt slope by the official road, a group of emaciated people huddled together.
There were men and women, old and young.
The tattered clothes on their bodies no longer showed their original color. Their cracked lips were covered in blood scabs, and their eye sockets were deeply sunken, devoid of any vitality.
It was easy to see that they were refugees.
In these times, refugees were everywhere.
Villages were gone, homes were gone, land was gone; they had nothing left but their two legs to walk on.
And so, they collapsed one by one along the way.
Those who fell by the roadside became dry bones on the ground; those who fell by the water became floating corpses.
Wherever they fell, they rotted.
No one would spare them a second glance.
The refugees seemed to notice the carriage as well.
In the crowd, a man was the first to look up.
His eyes were as murky as a pool of stagnant water, but when the shimmering white carriage entered his sight, a strange light suddenly erupted in those eyes.
“It is a celestial carriage...”
“A deity has manifested... A deity has manifested...”
“Deity... Deity...”
The first to kneel was an old man, his knees hitting the dusty ground with a crisp crack of bone.
Immediately following.
Everyone knelt, prostrating themselves on the ground with their foreheads pressed against the dust, their bodies trembling uncontrollably.
The carriage stopped.
A very soft sigh came from behind the curtain.
Without any warning, a bowl of white porridge appeared in the hands of everyone present, and Shen Jue and Shen Yu were no exception.
Seeing the two of them turn to look, Yun Shu quickly switched her outfit to the Scent of Plain Snow set.
“Let us go,” she said calmly.
The locust plague in Xindu City was imminent, and Shen Jue and Shen Yu knew they could not afford to delay.
The refugees remained kneeling, staring blankly at the bowls in their hands as they watched the carriage slowly pull away.
“Porridge, it is porridge...”
Some wailed while holding their bowls.
Some inhaled the food ravenously.
Some lowered their heads with trembling breaths to smell the scent of the rice.
Others raised their bowls above their heads and kowtowed deeply once more.
Shen Jue held the warm bowl of white porridge, looking at the scene behind them with a heavy heart. He could not help but ask, “Divine Lady, will there ever be a day when this chaotic world gets better?”
Once, he thought that as long as he guarded the border and kept the foreign tribes from invading, he could bring peace to the world and allow the people to live in prosperity, free from the suffering of displacement.
But after returning to the capital, he realized that from beginning to end, foreign tribes were not the root cause of the people's misery.
The current Emperor was obsessed with seeking immortality, favoring treacherous officials and indulging in pleasure, while exorbitant taxes and levies weighed so heavily on the people that their resentment filled the air.
“I have watched the affairs of the mortal realm for two thousand years.”
The Divine Lady’s voice held no weariness or sentimentality, only a near-indifferent calm. “A thousand years ago, someone asked me this same question.”
“At that time, my answer to him was that a chaotic world is not a disaster sent from heaven, but one created by man. Since it was created by man, it must be ended by man.”
“Today, I give you the same answer.”
“Ended by man?” Shen Jue’s eyelashes lowered slightly. “By those high officials who fight for power in the imperial court? Or by those vassal lords who command their own armies?”
“There are never any winners in a chaotic world.”
Yun Shu paused for a moment before continuing, “Even if someone eventually ends the chaos, wins the world, and establishes a new dynasty, all they will receive is a broken land.”
This was the ending for the story's protagonist, Shen Jue.
He would spend his life campaigning at war, unify the world, and still be unable to change the situation of internal strife and external threats.
To revitalize the mountains and rivers, he would work himself to the bone, dying of exhaustion on the Imperial Couch at the age of only forty-five.
The plot ended there, but following the natural progression, she could foresee the future.
In a turbulent new dynasty, the Emperor would suddenly pass away, leaving behind only an underage prince.
War would surely break out again, endless and unceasing.
Shen Jue’s brow twitched. “What does the Divine Lady mean?”
Yun Shu’s gaze passed over the Shen brothers and toward the gray horizon in the distance.
“To truly end the smoke and fire of this chaotic world, one cannot rely on a heaven-sent Ziwei Star to turn the tide alone.”
“Only by awakening every person struggling to survive—giving them light in their hearts, blades in their hands, and responsibility on their shoulders—can everyone become a spark, gathering like fuel to form a great torch.”
“To burn away the darkness and forge peace in the mortal realm once more.”
Shen Jue and Shen Yu were both shaken to the core, their eyes churning like a stormy sea, and they remained speechless for a long time.
“Everyone is a spark,” they murmured.
These words were like a key, prying open the iron laws of status and hierarchy that had been deeply rooted in them for over twenty years.
Before they knew it, the carriage arrived at Xindu City.
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