I Forged the Myth of the Ancient Overlords
Chapter 696 - 696 Necessity 1

Chapter 696: Necessity 1 Chapter 696: Necessity 1 When Lu Ban saw Cui Siter, he felt as if worlds had passed since their last meeting.

After all, he had just heard of Cui Siter’s death. The Mysterious Monarch in the cave of Jiangcheng Mountain, suppressing the Ancient Overlord, was none other than his old friend Cui Siter. The fact that he could see Cui Siter again, after destiny’s loop had seemingly closed, was indeed quite moving.

Lu Ban settled into the carriage, and the team resumed their journey.

He glanced at Shia, then at Stone, as if seeking answers from them.

“I’ve already figured it out.”

Cui Siter suddenly spoke up at that moment.

He didn’t explain what he knew, but from the look in his eyes and his expression, it seemed to be everything.

“When I saw Stone, I had a premonition. After all, there isn’t a second pipe like this one.”

Cui Siter took out the briar root pipe from his chest, identical to the one in Stone’s hand, even down to the patterns.

“So you mean to say, I will participate in a mission that involves going back to the past of your world to suppress an Ancient Overlord?”

He confirmed again.

Lu Ban nodded.

“Because I saved your world, you were able to be born in that world and eventually met me. So, the outcome had already been decided the first time we met, and destiny had accomplished its closed loop, right?”

Within the shaking carriage, Cui Siter asked. The somber sunlight sifted through the gaps in the trees, piercing the carriage door, entering the cabin, and casting trajectories of light in the stirred dust.

“Yes.”

Shia answered.

She knew very well that the Cui Siter sitting in front of them was from after the “Glass Flower” but before the Soul Summoning Night. This must be one of the missions Cui Siter took part in during that time. After this, he would undertake the mission to the Foreign Domain where Lu Ban lived, and would eventually meet his end there.

Of course, even if they told Cui Siter this, it wouldn’t feel real to him.

From his perspective, he had just not seen Lu Ban and Shia for a while. Who would have thought that to them, he was already a dead man.

“But it’s not entirely so.”

Shia explained further.

“To be precise, according to what we have observed, your world was saved because of the Mysterious Monarch’s actions. You never returned to the Abandoned Capital after a certain mission, at least not appearing before Stone’s eyes, and the words you left made Lu Ban aware that the Mysterious Monarch was you.”

“What did I leave behind?”

Cui Siter asked.

Stone was about to answer, but Shia stopped him.

“Right now, you don’t know what message you will leave behind, so perhaps there is a turning point here.”

The young mage girl said.

“Because that message is the evidence Lu Ban used to deduce that the Mysterious Monarch was Cui Siter. If we don’t disclose that message to you, it may indicate that destiny can be changed.”

“What does that mean?”

Cui Siter was a bit confused. Some parts of these matters concerned him personally, and some related to the chaotic times of the Silent Lands. It was difficult for someone who had always perceived time in a linear fashion to understand.

“Lu Ban didn’t witness you becoming the Mysterious Monarch or see your death firsthand. So, if we can find a way to intervene, then the fact we came to know in the past, that you became the Mysterious Monarch and died, might not be true. Perhaps you hid away and survived, but we all thought you were dead.”

Shia explained.

“It’s like this, I first saw that there was a piece of cake in your hand, then I turned to look outside the carriage, and when I turned back, the cake had disappeared, and there was a bit of cream at the corner of your mouth, so I deduced that you ate the cake, which is logical,”

“But in reality, it might have been like this, I held a grudge because you ate my cake, so I researched a spell capable of traveling through time and returned to the past. While the past me was looking out the window, the future me came back, stole the cake, and ate it, and even smeared a little bit of cream at the corner of your mouth.”

“Thus, my past hasn’t changed, yet the cake was indeed eaten by the future me.”

Hearing Shia’s explanation, Cui Siter and Stone looked at each other, bewildered.

Only Lu Ban spoke up.

“I also want to eat cake.”

“I want to eat some, too.”

Shia nodded in agreement and then looked towards Cui Siter.

“Do you understand now?”

“However, if that were really me, wouldn’t I be seen by others when I was dying, descendants or whatnot? How do you explain that?”

Cui Siter still found it hard to comprehend.

“What I just mentioned can only be perceived by the Chosen by Gods because the Chosen by Gods are beings who have traversed time and space. To those descendants, since they cannot perceive any time other than their own, all those possibilities are non-existent to them.”

Shia explained.

“If you consider your journey as a novel, then they are characters within the book. Characters in a book can never know they are part of a story; for them, only the version of themselves that have been read by the reader are real. On the other hand, we are like the readers of the book, able to flip through the pages at will, and even skip some chapters, resulting in a rearranged story.”

“This is also why I say if Cui Siter still doesn’t know that sentence, then we have much more room for redemption.”

She looked at Stone and then at Lu Ban.

“Is that so…”

Cui Siter fell into thought.

The revelation of his impending death was shockingly impactful, and with Shia mentioning these words of possible salvation, he indeed needed time to digest it all.

“Moreover, doesn’t Old Cui’s situation confirm one result, that he must be able to leave the Night Country from this mission, which also means our task will certainly be successful?”

Lu Ban spoke again, his gaze landing on Cui Siter.

“Even so, I can’t be happy about it.”

Cui Siter subconsciously moved to light his pipe, but upon remembering that he was in the carriage and that there were ladies present, he put the pipe back in his pocket.

“That’s not necessarily the case.”

Shia interjected, refuting Lu Ban’s statement.

“This is the ancient Night Country, before the construction of the Gray Tower, and I come from the Night Country of the future. The fact that I can stand here and cast spells confirms the construction of the Gray Tower as an inevitable event, a closed loop of destiny.”

“Also, there’s a possibility: the construction of the Gray Tower is inevitable, but it’s not necessarily us who help to build it.”

Stone reminded.

Indeed, as far as Shia could observe from history, the construction of the Gray Tower was unquestionable. Thus, even if they failed this time and managed to escape by luck, others would come to build the Gray Tower, at most a few years, or a decade later. Relying on current history to predict the outcome of the mission was not foolproof.

“No, the construction of the Gray Tower is inevitable, and it will definitely be our achievement,”

Lu Ban suddenly said.