Lord of Prayer

“Back when the Ancient Continent had not yet been destroyed, humanity’s talent and evolutionary speed were beyond imagination. Every few decades, Magic would be revolutionized, becoming more advanced and powerful. But with the destruction of the Ancient Continent, the surviving ancient humans began to believe that this immense potential was a curse upon the human race. It was humanity’s endless pursuit of truth that brought about disaster, leading to the Ancient Continent’s demise. They believed that for humanity to survive, it should not chase after dangerous knowledge; ignorance was not necessarily a bad thing. So they imposed the Genetic Lock on the entire human race, sealing away the vast potential within human genes.”

“Later, the Extraordinary Era dawned. Remains buried within the planet were triggered by a medium of Mysticism, splintering into a massive amount of Authority that scattered across the World. That was the day of the global Heaven-Sent Authority. On that day, the Star Association realized humanity had to grasp Power to fight against unknown risks, so they decided to use the Miracle Light to undo the Genetic Lock and release that potential.”

“And it was that attempt that caused the Miracle Light to be almost completely depleted, the Prayer Bottle to be lost, and for you to obtain it.”

Zhang Tao explained the whole story.

“So that’s how it was.”

Zhou Chen had discussed this with Tang Ling before, but he never expected it was the Star Association that had used the Miracle Light to undo humanity’s Genetic Lock. Looking at it now, the Star Association’s decision was undeniably correct. It was precisely because of this unleashed potential that humanity developed explosively over two centuries to its current state, able to contend with the Abyss.

“Then there’s the matter of the Divine War.”

“You were the one who ended it,” Zhang Tao said solemnly.

“Shortly after the war began, you ascended to Demigod, burned your Divine Position, and used a Divine Artifact left over from the Ancient Continent to seal all Divine Level beings within history. Then you found me, told me everything I just told you, and after you finished, you burned to ash.”

After learning all this, Zhou Chen had actually harbored a faint suspicion of this in his heart, but having it confirmed now still left him inevitably shocked.

‘I was that badass before?’

‘It was like I suppressed the entire era single-handedly, invincible, with my back to all living things, deciding the fate of eternity alone.’

“That’s why I said that compared to your former self, you’re a husky now,” Zhang Tao lamented. “The old Zhou Chen was as clutch as they come; he could carry the whole team even if everyone else was slacking off.”

“But, this way is pretty good too,” Zhang Tao added with another smile.

“Hm?”

“After all, your former self was just too tired. Anyone could see the weariness in your Soul, right in your eyes. You really did need a rest.”

Zhang Tao took a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, lit one, and took a long-overdue drag. He leaned back in his chair, watching the smoke curl under the light, feeling as if he were in a dream.

After a long moment, he spoke. “After the mists of history were unsealed, I had them urgently investigate the timeline of the Old Era. Guess what they found?”

“What?” Zhou Chen asked.

“The timeline of that period of history is extremely chaotic, more tangled than my grandma’s ball of yarn. It took them a long time to sort it out and make any sense of it—a total of forty-one time travels.”

Zhang Tao looked at Zhou Chen. “You were responsible for all of them.”

Zhou Chen fell into deep thought.

“The situation isn’t hard to guess.”

Zhang Tao took a deep drag from his cigarette and slowly exhaled. “First run, you witnessed the destruction of the Old Era, so you used the Prayer Bottle’s Ability to travel through time, returning to where it all began. On the second run, you tried to reverse the apocalypse, but you failed. So you traveled through time again and again.”

“You went back forty-one times, finally succeeding on the forty-second run. You found a way to continue human civilization, and in the process, you endured pain beyond human imagination. That’s why you chose to forget those memories forever.”

Everything clicked into place.

The Extraordinary Era dawned, the Star Association used the Miracle Light to undo humanity’s Genetic Lock, causing the Prayer Bottle to fall into Zhou Chen’s hands. He relied on the Wish Bottle to grow stronger, and eventually witnessed the end of the world in the Divine War.

Unwilling to let the World be destroyed just like that, he activated a miracle to send himself back to the very beginning, starting a second run to find a way to save the world.

It wasn’t until the forty-second run that he found a way to continue civilization. After ascending to Demigod, he burned his Divine Position to seal the Divine War in history. Afterward, he completely erased those heavy memories and was reborn, which is why he can’t remember anything at all.

And the Prayer Space was clearly something he left behind from the Old Era. The residual Demigod Level Power within it is the best proof—it has Power but no Status, because the former Divinity was already burned away.

“That’s the gist of it. Any other questions?” Zhang Tao asked, stubbing out his cigarette in the ashtray.

Zhou Chen pondered. The truth of the Old Era’s destruction, his own past, the reason for his rebirth, the origin of the Wish Bottle… All these questions that had troubled him for so long had been answered. Now, all that was left was…

“Why did the Divine War break out?”

“Fallen Paradise had been plotting for a long time. They wanted to build a new World on the ruins. They initiated a ritual to guide the apocalypse.” Zhang Tao had witnessed it all happen back then at the Stars Association Headquarters.

“On that day, the Doomsday Ark landed in Europe amidst a black fog. Thousands of frenzied animals charged into the cities and began a massacre. In just two hours, the first city fell. An entrance to the Abyss opened amidst a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood.”

“The opening of the Abyss affected everyone’s minds, amplifying the negative emotions in people’s hearts. The entire World fell into utter chaos, and war broke out.”

“At first, it was just small-scale skirmishes. As the influence gradually deepened, all the High Tier Transcendent beings joined the fight. When Transcendent beings of that level unleash their full Power in a city, the result is city after city being wiped off the map.”

“The Divine War lasted for more than forty minutes before you sealed it away. But it wasn’t over. Seeing their plan had failed, Fallen Paradise directly launched all the world’s Nuclear Weapons. Human civilization met its end just like that, with only a few survivors.”

“The Stars Association Headquarters is located in an independent space, so everyone in the headquarters survived. At that time, we all thought it was over. Fallen Paradise had still achieved its goal. We were sure they would come to exterminate us next. And even without Fallen Paradise, there were still the monsters from the Abyss. But in the end, both the Abyss and Fallen Paradise went completely silent.”

“A week later, a recon team discovered the ruins of ‘Eden Garden’ in the Middle East. Through further investigation, we learned that an undercover Investigator had destroyed ‘Eden Garden’ from the inside. The members of Fallen Paradise were almost completely wiped out; only a few, including Cain, survived.”

“The Abyss passage was also sealed by a squad of Investigators. They had tried to close the passage but failed, so in the end, they could only choose to seal it. This bought us three years and nine months of development time, giving us the initial capital to fight back against the Abyss.”

“Given your multiple time travels, I suspect they were all acting under your guidance.”

“All the dangers that would have led to the complete annihilation of human civilization were eliminated. The probability of that being a coincidence is just too low.”

Zhang Tao’s voice suddenly stopped. A moment later, he said, “Let’s pause here. There’s a new development.”

“Okay.”

Zhou Chen nodded. The mists of the Old Era had been cleared away; it was time to focus on the present.

Zhang Tao snapped his fingers, and the privacy mode was deactivated.

“President, take a look at this.”

The large screen began to play footage transmitted back from a satellite Investigation Mirror.

In the sand-swept Middle East, upon the endlessly desolate desert, a figure in coarse linen robes stood with arms outstretched, solemnly proclaiming to the World:

“The eternally blissful Celestial Kingdom shall be rebuilt here!”

The desert instantly transformed into a green oasis. Towering trees shot up from the ground, and countless flowers and plants bloomed. Rivers of milk and honey flowed past, and one by one, holy Angels appeared, holding musical instruments and playing beautiful melodies.

In the blink of an eye, the dead desert had become a vibrant paradise, and it was expanding in all directions at an incredible speed.

But if one looked closely, they would discover that everything in this Eden Garden was actually made of crystal.

The flowers, the trees, the rivers, the earth, the clouds… even the Angels radiating Holy Light were all made of various colored crystals.

Eternally brilliant, unstained by a speck of dust, transcendent and otherworldly.

“Deploy it.”

Watching the scene on the screen, Zhang Tao simply said two calm words.

And so, the sky cracked.