Chapter 795 The Glowing Skull <TOC> Chapter 797 Regrettable Farewell
Previous page password is bold portion: $tecR0ReJlK
Translator: SumTLMan
It was at the moment of Tulas’s demise, he had a brief period where he hadn’t yet succumbed to the ethereal state of being a ghost. His soul wriggled free from his corporeal form, and for a while, he was oblivious to the fact that he was no longer among the living. Feeling lighter, he began to drift upward.
Much to his surprise, he eventually found himself burrowing out of the earth.
Although the process of moving through the ground was uncomfortable, he successfully penetrated the dense crust.
He believed he had been granted extraordinary powers – the ability to fly and to traverse solid earth – and wanted to escape this mist-enshrouded quadrant of the sea. He pushed upward towards the sky, only to discover there was no way out, not even through the vault of heaven above.
At this point, Tulas finally comprehended that he seemed to be trapped in a world akin to a box, with no exit on any side.
Thus, he descended into desolation and returned to his subterranean refuge.
He recalled clearly that as he descended back into his earthen lair, he mumbled, “What’s the point of flying and burrowing if I can’t escape? If only I had the ability to teleport, I could have gotten out directly…”
Upon lifting his gaze, he noticed the skull by his bedside emitting a steady golden glow that persisted for several minutes.
Yet Tulas didn’t find this peculiar, because during his lingering moments between life and death, this skull often lit up, and he had grown accustomed to the phenomenon. He disregarded the glow of the skull and was more concerned about conserving energy by returning to his bed… although he didn’t feel the pangs of hunger.
However, just as he was about to lie down, he was startled to see a gaunt, withered man lying there, wearing a horned helmet…
It was only then that Tulas abruptly realized that he had passed away.
And he, at that moment, was nothing more than a wisp of a soul.
Looking at his own corpse, feelings of resentment and indignation surged within him.
He was a man of unwavering positivity and hopefulness, full of optimism about life. Even when plunged into the darkest depths, even in the face of solitude and desolation, he never surrendered his will to live. Despite his relentless struggle to survive, why had fate been so cruel?
In his resentment, Tulas went mad.
After that, his memories were bifurcated. From that point forward, Tulas’s memories were chaotic.
Presumably, that was when he began his descent into becoming a ghost.
……
When Tulas recounted this tale, it was only then that Angel belatedly realized that the thread he had been searching for had unexpectedly appeared.
—The golden glowing skull.
Whose skull was it? It was Lucas’s.
Why was Lucas’s nautical log peculiar? Because it always contained inexplicable prophecies.
In the vicinity of a skull, Tulas mentioned his desire for “spatial shift,” causing the skull to shimmer in a golden radiance. Eventually, Tulas’s wish came to fruition.
Moreover, just like other prophecies, his wish materialized several centuries later, when he had already become a ghost, a mere echo of his former self!
Now it all makes sense to Angel! No wonder a lightbulb moment struck him when Tulas was speaking about predestined fate. Because he now realizes that what they called “prophecy” was not really a “prophecy” at all!
Instead, it was akin to a force of causality!
By a mysterious power in the ether, the future was being manipulated, setting predetermined outcomes into motion. Ultimately, transforming the cause into the effect.
However, this kind of power clearly requires an accumulation phase, and this phase is extremely long. As a result, whether it’s Lucas’s “prophecies” or Tulas’s “prayers,” they took hundreds of years to manifest.
As for why the “subject” often changes – for instance, the protagonist of the Sea of Flowers shifting from Lucas to the Beauty Naya – it’s probably because this ability to intervene in the future is actually limited. It only takes into consideration future events and overlooks the realities of the present, such as the life expectancy of the subject.
When Lucas’s lifespan reached its end, and realizing his aspirations required centuries of power accumulation, it resulted in an inability to actualize the anticipated outcome in his lifetime.
Thus, the clandestine force made a ‘forced correction.’
It modified the recipient of the anticipated outcome, which led to the entries in Lucas’s nautical log transforming into the destinies of others.
As for this power that can create a semblance of “causality,” it undoubtedly stems from a Mysterious Object!
According to Tulas, that Mysterious Object is likely the skull placed by the bedside!
“If the skull truly is a Mysterious Object, why didn’t I sense its mysterious power in the first place?” Although Angel still harbors some doubts, he can’t find any other narrative to explain it.
Only this narrative can weave together all the stories.
Angel momentarily disregards Tulas, who is immersed in sentimentality from reliving the past. As long as he doesn’t continue to fall, let him wallow in his sentiments.
Angel takes out Lucas’s nautical log. He decides to retrace his thoughts and see if the journal corresponds with events that transpired in later times.
Following his own conjectures, Angel quickly discovers an entry where Lucas recounts slaying a pirate leader and seizing a great amount of treasure.
He boasts of a hidden treasure location in a world steeped in darkness, a place no one could locate, accessible only to him.
“Let the game begin.” This treasure trove, presumably, is that eerily quiet islet which, under the influence of an obscure force, ultimately materialized.
Other seascapes, Island Gods, Wishing Tree and the like…Angel paid no heed to such matters unrelated to the silent islet. His focus was on finding diary entries concerning the islet.
Suddenly, Angel stumbled upon an entry: “I saw a dragon, ablaze from head to tail, locked in battle with another creature over the ocean. In the end, the dragon perished. The sea creature, on its last legs, I aimed to conquer, to make it the guardian of my treasure trove!”
In this diary entry, that guardian… could it be referring to the Leviathan?
Angel continued reading the following entry, “My treasure is so dazzling, it will astound the world for three millennia!”
A terse sentence that seemed to hold no information, but to Angel’s discerning eye, it suggested a covert message: perhaps, his treasure would reveal itself after three thousand years?
If that was indeed the case, then everything added up. After three thousand years, the sealed islet did indeed open up, albeit opened by the guardian—the Leviathan.
Angel continued to leaf through the diary, finding more information related to the treasure trove.
One entry clearly recorded that he left his ship, the Feather Fan, in the treasure trove and that he would spend his days there… Both of these turned out to be true. The Feather Fan did appear on the islet, and Lucas, after his suicide by jumping into a well, was brought in by an obscure mysterious power.
At this point, Angel was almost certain that this third party force was the Mysterious Object with the ability to intervene in the future and actualize cause and effect.
Angel closed the logbook, looking at its title: —The Most Honest Captain of the Shining Gold Age — Lucas’s Captain’s Log—
Perhaps, Lucas was a notorious liar in history.
Perhaps, Lucas himself was oblivious to the nascent Mysterious Object within him.
This was why the farcical situation transpired later.
Contemplating this, Angel fell deep in thought. He knew there was a difference between naturally occurring and artificially crafted Mysterious Objects. If his conjecture was correct, the Mysterious Object within Lucas must have been naturally occurring. But what law did a naturally occurring Mysterious Object follow? Why could Lucas, known for his lying nature, birth a Mysterious Object?
Everything was a mystery, waiting for Angel to unravel in the future.
Of course, all the above presuppositions hinge on the correctness of Angel’s speculations. There must be a Mysterious Object indeed, and its function must pertain to the realm of causality. Otherwise, all his thoughts would be overturned.
However, Angel personally believes that he is quite close to the truth.
Even though his analysis appears sound, his heart is bleeding. That is a Mysterious Object, and it is potent to an extreme extent – it can even intervene with future outcomes!
Even if the method of its implementation might be limited, flawed, and might even take hundreds if not more years to materialize…
It still cannot negate the fact that it’s a mighty Mysterious Object!
“If I were to possess this Mysterious Object, wouldn’t I simply pray for my future to transcend into legend? Wouldn’t that make it?” Angel indulged in his fantasies. He was aware, of course, that such a wish would certainly be restricted and could even be forcibly redirected to another wizard. Nevertheless, there was no harm in dreaming.
After all… he hadn’t acquired that skull. He surmised that by now, Lucas’s skull must have fallen into the hands of someone from the Song of the Deep Sea or the Sharu Range?
Just the thought that a Mysterious Object, once within his grasp, was overlooked right under his nose, filled Angel with such agony that he could hardly bear it. Even Toby had warned him at the time…
All he could do now was console himself that, at the very least, he had survived.
Life goes on, and he might encounter similar Mysterious Objects in the future… although he found it hard to believe it himself.
“Life is a series of peaks and troughs; too much perfection can also be a regret.”… As if.
As Angel was immersed in his regret, Tulas suddenly exclaimed, “Lord wizard, could that skull be some kind of wish-granting divine artifact? I expressed a desire for spatial shift, and it manifested?!”
Tulas then wore a puzzled expression: “But… if it is a wish-granting artifact, I clearly wished to leave that island, why wasn’t it fulfilled?”
Angel responded indifferently, “Aren’t you out now?”
“But I am dead now, and it’s been over two thousand years.”
“No matter how long it’s been, regardless of your current state, even if you’re dead, it has still granted your wish, hasn’t it?”
Tulas hesitated for a while before admitting, “That seems to be true… So if we go by this, my initial prayers for more ships to come, for someone to take me away, and even my prayers for not vanishing… seem to have all been realized?”
Chapter 795 The Glowing Skull <TOC> Chapter 797 Regrettable Farewell