Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

The immortal looked into their eyes, and a tense silence filled the room.

“But why all of a sudden? From what I understood, they didn't show any great interest so far...” Jane finally asked.

“That is true, the scum you have met so far, apart from me, has been the bottom of the barrel. None of them can really compare to what is about to happen,” Yu affirmed. Hearing that their experiences with cultivators were only the tip of the iceberg or rather the bottom of the barrel, left a few of them with worried expressions.

“What about the guys I met at the bridgehead?” Seth asked curious. The people he had met there were definitely on another level than the ones he met and heard about around Delta and Y-City. He was interested in where they ranked in the greater scheme of things.

“On the Continent? Below average. About upper middle within the XiGuang Province,” Yu measured the power of the border sects that had united to profit from Urth.

“You still didn't tell us why. And what is the Immortal Summit?” Leana mentioned before they drifted too far off topic. They needed to understand the full situation.

With a nod, the old man came back to the topic and explained to them what the Immortal Summit was and what had happened there. He explained about the weird anomaly of the connection with Urth, as well as the plans of the cultivators to storm this world and find the reason before any harm came to their province.

“So, Urth is really going to face an invasion of Cultivators this time..” Seth muttered.

“That is why I came here as fast as I could. I don’t know for certain how long the sects will actually prepare, or how quickly they will get here without any guide, but I doubt it will take longer than four weeks before you hear of them.”

”Especially the dark path will storm in with all their cruelty,” Yu added.

Judging by the scale the old man was talking about, what had happened so far was mere Child's play compared to what was about to happen. The bard had already understood that there was a vast difference in quality between the different stages of cultivation, but also within the stage itself.

If the big guns of this XiGuang Province decided to swarm their world there was no telling what they would do. Nobody in the room had a high opinion of these invaders. Apart from Master Mountain, the few they had met and fought were a bunch of power-hungry lunatics doing whatever they wanted.

“Yu, you know your people the best. Do you have any advice to prepare before they arrive?” Seth asked the man calmly.

~ Is he trustworthy? Should we tell him about the system? ~ She asked after hearing the reason for the sudden invasion.

Seth, Leana, and most of the people in the room knew the most likely reason why the Voracious Cloud Continent was unable to devour Urth. The system. Everyone who lived long enough in a world of the Pathworks, that was added to the system, knew the reason.

When the System God came to the world, his system undid the catastrophe and impeded or stopped all apocalypse Scenarios, to the point that people may struggle to survive, but have a chance. This was the only reason anyone in Urth was not yet absorbed by manic trees, infected by soul-ripping disease, or any other kind of fearsome catastrophe that could wipe out players in a matter of weeks.

It was the only logical conclusion, that a predatory world that came to suck up all the magic was also stopped. Even if Urth had existed without magic before, with how the world became it was impossible to survive without it.

However, the bigger reason was probably because it was time for the Voracious Cloud Continent to struggle. The continental mosquito had pricked the wrong god this time. There was a high chance the curious eyes of the System God were now directed at the Voracious Cloud Continent, too.

“There is an easy answer, but it is hard to accomplish. An alliance with a powerful sect could discourage many cultivators from causing trouble. As much as I would like to offer an alliance with my sect, I'm not in a position to offer something like that. I'm ashamed to say, we probably wouldn't be enough to dissuade others, either;” Yu answered, visibly guilty that he couldn't give them a ready solution.

~ I think that should answer your question. I think we should tell him.~ Seth answered.

~Alright, I will trust you on this one.~

The question was, how to tell him? How would they react if they found out that a god was taking his liberties with their world? Despite such doubts, Seth was convinced that this was the moment to trust each other. They would need Yu's knowledge and assistance in the future.

“Yu, we believe to know what the cause of this is,” Seth began carefully.

“Really? If you tell me, maybe we can stop any greater harm to your people,” Yu said optimistically. He thought that if they could give the other sects the reason why it was happening, they would have to concentrate on solving the problem instead of making trouble.

“Well, you see... I’m sure you heard of the System God before...?”

Master Mountain had traveled around Urth for a while and had obviously heard from players about this enigmatic existence before. Yet, it was only after Seth struggled to explain their theory, that he made a connection between what was happening to the world passage and the god.

“Do you really think a god could be able to do something like this?” the immortal asked doubtfully. He had heard of gods before, or rather what he associated with ghosts were a kind of Totem Spirit like the barbarians in the far south used to borrow power from.

“I don’t know what kind of god you are thinking of, but someone like the System God could definitely do it,” Seth assured. He doubted that stopping the Voracious Cloud Continent was harder than reverting time on Urth.

“This is worrying. Very worrying. If other sects learn of this they might turn hostile to the inhabitants of Urth,” he said worried.

“Even more hostile?” Jonah asked sarcastically. However, Yo answered him seriously.

“The dark path will use any excuse to act even less constrained. Although many of the white paths are no better than the dark path, they at least try to maintain their image. Things will become infinitely worse if they have a justification,” he warned honestly.

They gulped. Despite having confidence in the strength of Minas Mar, the weight in Yu's voice forced them to take him seriously.

I originally wanted to stay, but I believe I have to return and speak with my sect leader about this.