Life Game In Other World
Chapter 1274: Wizard, World, ’God’ (Grand - for Monthly Votes)

Chapter 1274: Chapter 1274: Wizard, World, ’God’ (Grand Chapter for Monthly Votes)

"""

The cool moonlight cascaded from the firmament above, illuminating the dim path winding through the forested mountains.

He Ao lifted his head, gazing at the endless range of mountains ahead. He couldn’t fathom how long he had been walking—was it a few kilometers, ten kilometers, or even hundreds?

When he first caught sight of these mountains, they filled him with novelty and intrigue.

But as the journey revealed one identical range after another, one repeated landscape after another, his emotions began to dull.

The path winded through dense forests as well as undulating stretches of withered grass.

Yet, throughout his journey, he hadn’t encountered a single living person—he hadn’t even seen any signs of life.

The dense forest bore no traces of chirping insects or singing birds, nor any subtle sounds hinting at life’s activity.

Only the brittle yellow leaves stirred faintly under the night breeze, producing a soft rustling sound.

At first, this sound whispered of a forest’s solitude, carrying with it a faint melancholy. But if this sound were the only voice in the world, if it continued endlessly, it would resemble the world’s own eerie "chewing" noise, tinged with a macabre terror.

After crossing yet another mountain ridge, He Ao stood atop the peak and lifted his gaze forward.

This time, the view was different—the first divergence from the repetition that had haunted his journey.

What greeted his field of view wasn’t another stretch of undulating mountains, but a vast, sprawling plain.

At the boundary where the plain met the mountains, an imposing city stood steadfastly.

The city did not resemble any modern creation. Its enormous walls towered high, built from compacted soil and stacked stone, devoid of visible concrete or steel reinforcement.

It seemed more like a relic of an agricultural era with limited technological advancement.

And yet, the towering walls—seemingly seventy or eighty meters high—far exceeded what He Ao understood to be possible for such a primitive period.

City walls are typically constructed to defend against external threats. For example, the fortified cities of the dungeon world were built to shield against exotic beasts and eerie anomalies.

For humans of a normal agricultural age, there would be no need for such colossal walls, nor would they possess the means to build them.

Conversely, in an industrial age armed with combat aircraft, walls would have far less utility, making it unnecessary to invest so much effort into their construction.

The engineering and defensive capabilities of these walls exceeded He Ao’s expectations.

The "life" of this constructed world seemed to have progressed along a civilizational path distinct from both the main world and the dungeon world.

As his thoughts wandered, He Ao cast his gaze over other parts of the city.

Though protected by formidable seventy- or eighty-meter walls, the city had long since been destroyed. When He Ao moved his gaze further, he could see collapsed walls and ruins of buildings.

It was as though an unknowable catastrophe had once descended upon this place, reducing much of the city to rubble. Only a sparse assortment of jagged remnants remained, hinting at the city’s former magnificence.

He Ao’s gaze shifted toward the city’s outskirts.

Near the edges of the remaining walls lay undulating ruins, with most structures having rotted away into oblivion, leaving only faint traces behind.

Only a small number of exquisite buildings still retained pieces of sturdy walls and fragmented bricks, testifying to the city’s grandeur in the past.

He Ao sprinted down the hillside, his figure flickering as he arrived at the city’s border, just before the crumbling houses.

He slowed his pace, carefully threading his way through the "roads" formed by the broken-down dwellings.

His eyes scanned both sides, scrutinizing the ruined houses around him.

Some of the wooden components surrounding the houses had petrified, transforming into fossil-like objects.

These preserved objects provided He Ao with fodder for further "imagination."

The structures at the start appeared rudimentary, like simple shelters, leaving only faint traces behind.

But as He Ao approached deeper into the city, the buildings gradually became taller and sturdier.

By the time he reached the city walls, complex courtyard-style architecture had emerged.

This suggested a rigid hierarchical order within the city: the closer one lived to the city’s center, the wealthier they were.

Simultaneously, it indicated that the area around the city lacked particularly strong packs of exotic beasts, wild predators, or eerie monsters.

Under circumstances where "wild hunters" roamed, humans rarely risk gathering near exposed city walls.

For instance, the fortified cities of the dungeon world operated on this principle—everyone sought refuge deep within the city.

Previously, the Federation of the dungeon world attempted to establish settlements outside their high walls, but these were quickly destroyed by exotic beasts lurking near the cities, plunging the areas into bloodshed and birthing warped, horrifying beings.

In some respects, this "world" seemed relatively "peaceful."

It was understandable—after all, this was a "world" artificially crafted by the Trapped Destiny Plate. Those wizards likely exerted effort to eliminate interfering variables to facilitate their experiments.

With that in mind,

He Ao glanced up at the city’s remaining walls.

What purpose had these magnificent walls once served as defense against?

Lost in thought, he navigated through a gap in the collapsed walls and entered the city proper.

The city still retained a crisscrossing network of street ruins. He Ao followed these streets, advancing step by step.

As he moved forward, his eyes explored the structures surrounding the streets.

The buildings within the city were preserved slightly better than those outside, and the interior’s layout seemed to diverge from the exterior.

Inside the city, the houses nearer to the walls were compact and oppressive, while the closer one got to the city’s center, the more expansive and open the homes became.

The architectural style of these structures differed from anything He Ao had ever seen. If anything, they bore faint echoes of Central Earth and the First District’s aesthetics, interwoven with elements resembling those from the Second District.

Despite these mixed influences, the buildings’ designs didn’t feel out of place. On the contrary, they exuded a unique and peculiar "beauty."

This hinted that within the world—or at least this city—there existed some sort of "master architect."

The idea made He Ao’s thoughts pause.

The system’s introduction had mentioned the Trapped Destiny Plate’s ability to "fabricate souls."

Could fabricated souls possess the refined artistic vision and capability to design grand cities?

If so, what differentiated these fabricated souls from authentic ones?

He Ao halted his train of thought, attempting to "imagine" and "create" a fabricated soul within his mind.

But the eerily silent world remained indifferent to his notions.

He Ao raised his head, gazing at the heavens above. A fragmentary thought flashed through his mind.

"Let the moon rise higher."

The luminous moonlight steadily ascended, reaching the zenith of the sky.

The Trapped Destiny Plate could comprehend He Ao’s thoughts, but it hadn’t executed his command for soul fabrication.

Either the system’s information was inaccurate, or the Plate lacked any capacity to fabricate souls.

He Ao surveyed his surroundings. He envisioned raising the land beneath him, but the ground remained unresponsive.

Alternatively, his permissions could be insufficient.

His influence over the Trapped Destiny Plate seemed limited to altering celestial patterns and controlling the weather. More intricate, advanced operations, however, were beyond his grasp. He hadn’t even figured out the method to pull others into the Plate, nor did he possess any direct information about the Plate.

For now, he still wasn’t the "owner" of this transcendent artifact.

Withdrawing his gaze, He Ao continued following the streets ahead.

From a distance, he could faintly make out a vast clearing at the city’s heart.

As he walked toward the city center, the surrounding homes grew increasingly larger and more spacious.

Yet, those once grand "manor houses" had now completely succumbed to decay, leaving behind only fractured remnants that spoke to a bygone era of splendor.

Before long, He Ao arrived at the central clearing of the city.

This was the flattest area in the entire city, as if an invisible force had descended to erase everything here.

He Ao crouched down, brushing away the dirt and debris from the surface of the clearing.

Eventually, pieces of what seemed to be stone foundations revealed themselves to his gaze.

He scrutinized the stones before him, lifted his hand without hesitation, and struck the ground hard.

BOOM!

With a violent explosion and tremors, clouds of dust and fragments of rock erupted into the air.

The smooth ground tore open, exposing traces of foundations and remnants of structures buried beneath.

These foundations and ruins formed broken lines, dividing the enormous flat expanse into an array of unevenly arranged "rooms."

He Ao’s gaze calmly swept across these traces.

Initially, his interest lay solely in the Trapped Destiny Plate and figuring out how to control it. But upon seeing this city, he suddenly became fascinated with the "relics" embedded within the Plate’s domain.

This city hinted at a highly developed civilization—and seemingly, not an ordinary one at that.

He Ao’s focus soon landed on a section of the ground distinguished by abnormal coloration in one of the "room areas."

Amid the cracks he had opened, he could vaguely discern patches of black.

He Ao strode quickly toward the site, arriving at this specific "room."

Leaning down, he stared at the black beneath the fissures and swept the surface debris and stones aside with deliberate force.

Fragments of shattered black stone came into view.

Faint markings appeared on the stone shards, with some patterns interconnected, suggesting the outline of a humanoid figure.

Fixating on the outline, He Ao didn’t hesitate. He swiftly began collecting these shards and attempted to piece them back together.

The stone shards resembled granite in texture, but their fractures lacked any apparent pattern. After briefly inspecting them, He Ao felt that matching their edges would be laborious.

Rather than attempting by hand, he activated his Super Memory, noting the shapes of all the fragments and quickly "assembling" them in his mind.

Before long, a general outline emerged in his thoughts.

His hands followed the mental arrangement, swiftly piecing the fragments together.

The shards still weren’t complete, and gaps remained. He Ao continued his mental construction while searching the area for additional pieces.

In time, he gathered most of the fragments, reconstructing a rough shape.

Though gaps persisted, the overall structure was now discernible.

These shards appeared to be remnants of a stele—likely shattered by some force.

He Ao approximated the stele’s original configuration and deciphered the images engraved upon its surface.

They depicted stick figures in successive postures, their movements subtly shifting.

The style of the figures was distinctive, yet upon observing their gestures, He Ao instinctively recalled a martial arts primer.

Despite their disparate mediums and artistic approaches, the stele and the martial arts book evoked a parallel "feeling."

Raising his hand, He Ao began mimicking the figures’ movements based on the stele’s engravings.

At first, as he performed a few stances, he felt no changes in his body—nor any tangible force behind the techniques.

Unperturbed, He Ao continued practicing in alignment with the stele’s motions.

When he reached the fifteenth position, an unexpected sensation stirred within him: his energy circuits quivered briefly, before a surge of energy began to circulate through his body, matching his movements.

In that instant, He Ao recognized the significance of what was happening.

Taking a deep breath, he concentrated on capturing the ambient energy within this world, while simultaneously harnessing the energy from the "blood-stained jade pendant" hanging on his chest. He directed these forces into his body, maintaining steady, rhythmic breathing as he absorbed them.

Throughout this flow, his hands remained in motion, synchronizing with the stele’s engravings.

Gradually, the energy in his body began to circulate faster and faster—its acceleration palpable to his heightened perception. As the energy flowed, the rate at which He Ao absorbed and converted it increased concurrently.

He could distinctly sense the transformed energy completing its circuit through his body, gathering into a dense cluster, and finally converging in his mind to form Divine Sense.

His body shuddered faintly, as though a tempest had risen around him, siphoning the thin energy scattered in the air.

Under normal circumstances, He Ao would have reached his limit due to the sparse ambient energy available.

However, He Ao’s current training method seldom relied on external natural forces.

His chest’s jade pendant held an abundance of stored energy, readily accessible.

As a faint glimmer radiated from the pendant, an overwhelming force surged out, flooding into He Ao’s body, where he absorbed it instantly.

Before long, He Ao completed an entire practice cycle based on the stele. Though the incomplete engravings prevented his movements from being refined—in fact, there had been several pauses disrupting efficiency—the energy absorption rate was still astonishing.

He assessed the volume of Divine Sense within his mind; completing one cycle had directly yielded a singular increment of Divine Sense.

After attaining B-level Martial Arts promotion, even with the pendant’s ample energy reserves, it typically took him half a day of arduous practice to cultivate a single additional thread of Divine Sense.

Now, following just one complete cycle of movements from the stele, he had succeeded in refining one unit of Divine Sense.

And this was under the condition that the stele’s engravings were incomplete, leaving gaps in the sequence.

Once more, He Ao looked down at the stele fragments before him.

Just as he had inferred, the stele contained a methodology associated with Martial Arts.

From his practical application, it appeared to describe a Martial Arts cultivation technique aimed at enhancing the efficiency of breathing and energy intake.

The technique itself wasn’t overly complex; even beginners could utilize it and immediately experience amplified results.

He Ao’s gaze swept across the terrain at his feet.

This area lay at the deepest reaches of the "palace" zone, surrounded by fragmented yet robust remnants of enclosing walls.

The stele might once have been the single most prized artifact of this city, reserved solely for those possessing a particular lineage to learn cultivation techniques from it.

Unfortunately, with the advent of some annihilating calamity, the city’s culture, its entirety, shattered alongside the stele.

He Ao looked upward, his eyes gliding over the remnants of the ruined city and the mountain ridges interspersing its remains.

Initially, He Ao had assumed the wizards had only constructed a world.

He hadn’t expected that they had built a world as a "stage" upon which they would then birth a civilization.

"""