"The Woodcutter Sage once said that some locations marked on First Senior Brother's maps are extremely dangerous—even he wouldn't tread there lightly. So is this divine city in Taeming Heaven one of those deadly places?"
Quinn Shepherd's eyes flickered as he weighed his options, and in the end, he decided not to enter the city. Instead, he skirted around it.
As he walked past the city, he suddenly caught a glimpse of a figure and stopped in his tracks.
"Indra King Buddha!"
Quinn nearly cried out in shock—he had just seen another Indra King Buddha, or rather, Indra King Buddha as he was in the Kaihuang era!
Back then, Indra King Buddha wasn't yet a Buddha—he looked like a handsome young god, with no Buddha halo behind his head, no monk's robes, and no bare feet.
He wore gilded winged cloud-boots and dazzling golden armor—at that time, Indra King Buddha was not a Buddha, but a high-ranking divine commander!
Quinn stood frozen, stunned.
Indra King Buddha wasn't alone—he was walking into the divine city, accompanied by several prominent figures.
Quinn's heart pounded wildly, and as if possessed, he followed after them. The group paid him no attention at all—even the vigilant gods and demons in the city seemed unable to see him.
Quinn was puzzled, then suddenly heard footsteps behind him. Turning quickly, he saw a group of skeleton spirits sneaking along in his wake, heads ducked and moving as stealthily as he was.
Quinn couldn’t help but laugh. "These undead are hilariously sneaky... Wait, no—they're copying how I walk. So who's the real sneak here...?"
His face flushed with embarrassment, but he kept tiptoeing forward. He came up beside Indra King Buddha and reached out to tug his robe—only to grasp thin air.
His hand passed right through the hem of Indra King Buddha’s robe—there was nothing solid there.
Quinn stared in disbelief and waved his hand again—this time, his palm went straight through Indra King Buddha’s body. Still, he couldn't touch a thing!
"This divine city—and everything in it—isn’t real!"
Quinn was dazed. Could this be a historical afterimage replay?
But a true historical afterimage only imprints the forms and voices of powerful figures onto space, appearing when triggered—ordinary people aren’t recorded by time itself.
Yet here was an entire divine city, full of ordinary citizens—clearly, this wasn’t some afterglow of history.
And since he couldn’t touch anyone in the city, it proved he hadn’t actually traveled into the past!
So then—just what was going on with this city?
Indra King Buddha and the others walked and talked as they went. Judging by Indra King Buddha’s manner, these people were all extraordinary—their status probably even higher than his.
Quinn tried to circle ahead for a better look at their faces, but when he got in front of them, he froze.
All their faces were completely blank—no eyes, no nose, no mouth, nothing. It was as if a sheet of paper had been pasted right over where their features should be!
The skeletons following him also shuffled around to get a look. Their jaws clattered to the ground in shock—they were just as stunned as he was.
Whoosh—
Indra King Buddha and the others walked straight through Quinn’s body. He was stunned—he didn’t feel a thing as they passed.
He reached out to grab them, but caught nothing at all.
The skeletons scrambled clumsily, pawing at the ground for their missing jaws. When the faceless figures passed right through them, the skeletons shivered, flattening themselves to the floor and not daring to move.
One skeleton, whose lingering soul was mostly intact, whimpered, "Ghosts..."
Quinn skirted around the skeletons and caught up to the faceless figures, thinking, "At least these skeletons aren't copying me now—I'm not the one cowering on the ground."
Indra King Buddha was talking to the others, but their voices were so faint he could barely make them out.
Slowly, the voices grew louder and clearer. Quinn listened carefully as the most distinguished-looking, faceless figure in the center said, "...Before our era, there were several others. I once explored the ruins of those ages, trying to trace the origin of our enemies—to see who we're really up against. I even visited Youdu and questioned Tu Bo, then met with the Heavenly Duke, who was busy monitoring the movement of countless stars. I sought out many of the innate gods and demons of the heavens. Oddly enough, I did find some clues—maybe our enemy isn't what we imagined, maybe the Heavenly Court..."
Quinn edged closer to listen, but the voices faded again.
"Plan for defeat before you plan for victory. Indra King, I need you to do something—gather all the master craftsmen in the world and build us a place where, even if we lose, we can survive and regroup. I found a strange place while searching for the Heavenly Court’s secrets..."
The voices faded, growing softer and harder to hear.
Quinn followed them, but the voices kept dwindling until he couldn’t hear a thing.
The further they walked, the blurrier and more indistinct Indra King Buddha and the others became. When they entered a grand mansion and the gods at the door shut the gates, the figures vanished in an instant!
Quinn was stunned. He followed the figures into the mansion, but as the doors closed, Indra King Buddha and the others disappeared right before his eyes!
"This must be... a gaze!"
Quinn lowered his head, thinking for a moment. Suddenly he looked up, eyes bright, and clapped his fists together: "It's a gaze! This must be the Kaihuang era, more than twenty thousand years ago. Someone in this city witnessed this scene and turned what they saw into a memory! I'm inside their memory! First Senior Brother and I both stepped into this person's recollection! A memory is what the eyes see, transformed into an image in the mind. The person who saw this didn't enter the mansion, so when Indra King Buddha and the others went inside, their figures vanished..."
He passed through the doorway and stepped outside, scanning his surroundings. "They couldn’t see those figures’ faces—their power must have been so great that their divine light shrouded their features. That’s why everyone in the memory has a blank face! So, where exactly did this witness see it all from...?"
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Quinn retraced his steps, eyes sharp, searching every corner. "This witness must have had a strange appearance—maybe they had multiple heads and faces, able to see forward and backward at once..."
The city was packed with gods and demons, crowds bustling down the streets. It was hard to tell whose memory he was inside.
This divine city must have been a crucial hub in Taeming Heaven—there were so many gods and demons here, it was almost unbelievable. Many had cultivated into primordial spirit form, so there were all sorts of bizarre shapes.
Primordial spirit forms like the Four Sacred Beasts of the Great Ruins were everywhere. There were also gods with human heads and snake bodies, ox heads and human bodies, bird heads and human bodies, human heads and bird bodies—all sorts of strange combinations, and plenty with multiple heads.
Quinn looked around in all directions as gods and demons passed through him or brushed by, but he still couldn’t find the one who’d witnessed this scene.
If the whole city was replaying a memory, then the witness must have been somewhere high up—only from a tall vantage could they take in the entire city and imprint it in their mind...
Suddenly, Quinn looked up at the watchtower. Perched atop it was a god or demon—also faceless!