65: The fragments of evolution

The world book lay quietly in Bashaka's blood-stained hand.

This heavy tome, bearing the fate of both the Goblin and Elf races, formed from merged pages, now seemed to awaken from its slumber.

On the cover of the tome, the unified emblem, a perfect combination of twisted runes and the trajectories of stars and moon, now flickered ominously.

It was a cold, deep, silver-white light.

“The seal beneath the Royal Palace… you know about it, right?”

Bashaka panted, a ferocious smile on his face.

“You must have encountered it… I felt the fluctuations there earlier… those strange insects… they won’t miss this opportunity…”

Su Jin’s heart stirred, recalling Bai Xiao’s earlier report and the charred beetle that had been killed.

“Beneath the seal… are the true ‘them’… a calamity capable of destroying this world!”

Bashaka’s voice suddenly rose, filled with a hysterical madness, “Originally… I planned to deal with them after I had completely taken control of this world…”

“But now… since this world no longer belongs to the Goblin… then let it… be destroyed with it!!!”

Bashaka suddenly raised the world book in his hand, frantically injecting the last remnants of his power into it!

On the cover of the tome, the unified emblem, a fusion of runes and star patterns, flared brightly.

It was no longer the vast and sacred light from before, but a silver-white that was utterly cold and profound.

Su Jin’s pupils constricted slightly.

This guy wanted to use the ‘merit’ or authority from the world itself, gained by repairing the world book, to pry open the seal beneath the Royal Palace he spoke of!

Madman!

Su Jin’s thoughts raced.

“Buzz—!!!”

An indescribable fluctuation spread out from the world book.

It wasn’t a simple energy Impact, but more like… a conceptual distortion.

It was as if the rules of the entire Adran World were being forcibly interfered with at this moment.

The heavy tome detached from Bashaka’s hand and slowly floated upwards.

The silver-white light grew brighter and brighter, almost completely engulfing Bashaka’s charred body.

At the same time, thousands of miles away, in the Goblin King City.

The previously clear sky suddenly turned gloomy.

Above the Royal Palace, space began to violently twist, and a huge, blurry phantom, emanating an ominous aura, was slowly emerging.

The outline of the phantom was indescribable; its mere presence caused a series of ear-splitting, strange noises from below.

In the deep pit, Bashaka felt the distant response, and the madness on his face reached its peak.

He used his last ounce of strength to utter his final curse and command to the floating world book.

“In the name of the world!”

“By the authority of ‘completeness’!”

“Release…”

He almost coughed blood as he roared out the last two words.

“Calamity!!!”

In an instant, the entire Goblin King City, and even the surrounding land, began to shake violently!

At the center of the Royal Palace, the ground suddenly collapsed, and a bottomless crack abruptly appeared; an ominous aura seemed to gush out from the crack!

However, at this moment, the mad smile on Bashaka’s face suddenly froze.

He stared in astonishment at the world book in his hand; although the silver-white light was still dazzling, the power contained within it became extremely unstable, as if it could go out of control at any moment.

And the expansion of the underground crack also seemed to be obstructed by something; the unknown aura seemed to be pushed back?

The seal did not completely collapse instantly as he had expected.

“What… what’s going on?” A trace of bewilderment flashed in Bashaka’s eyes, “I… I seem… to be unable to control it?!”

He felt as if he had used all his strength to push open a rotten door, only to find that behind the door was not a passage, but a cold, hard stone wall, and he no longer had the strength to pull his hand back!

“Because what you call ‘completeness’ is itself incomplete.”

A calm voice rang out.

Bashaka suddenly looked up, only to see Su Jin had, at some point, walked to the edge of the giant pit and was looking down at him.

What made his pupils constrict even more was that something had appeared in Su Jin’s left palm at some unknown time.

It was a page shimmering with a metallic luster, of unknown material, thin yet tough.

It was also covered with profound and complex runes, whose style was distinctly different from the patterns on the world book in his hand, yet subtly exuded an aura of the same origin.

At this moment, this metallic page was emitting a soft golden light.

Although the light was not strong, it carried an indescribable sense of weight and primordial essence.

“World fragment…” Bashaka whispered in a lost voice, his eyes filled with disbelief, “How is this possible… how could… a third world fragment appear?!”

He almost suspected that he was hallucinating before his death.

In the histories passed down for generations by the Goblin and Elf races, records of the world book clearly stated that it split into two parts, never mentioning the existence of a third fragment!

Su Jin slowly raised the metallic page in his hand; the runes on it shimmered, subtly creating a peculiar resonance and… confrontation with Bashaka’s world book.

“The world book…” Su Jin looked at the metallic page in his hand, then at Bashaka’s world book, “The Adran World has three initial races: Goblin, Elf… and the forgotten Humans.”

“Why would you think that the inherited token symbolizing the world’s origin would only have two parts?”

Su Jin’s gaze turned to Bashaka, saying with some profound meaning.

“The fragments held by you Goblins and the declining Elves might barely constitute what you call ‘completeness’…”

“Then…”

“Where is the one that represents ‘evolution’ and ‘future’?”

Su Jin gently shook the metallic page in his hand, and the light of the runes on it seemed to grow a little brighter.

The color drained from Bashaka’s face instantly, leaving only a deathly pale pallor.

Evolution…?

“So… that’s how it is…”

Bashaka’s voice was as dry as sandpaper rubbing.

“The world… needs to evolve…”

“History was not wrong…”

He looked up at the sky, his eyes complex.

“The records indeed state that the world book split into two parts.”

“Only, no one could have imagined…”

“That the world would place its hope of advancement…”

His gaze returned to Su Jin, filled with a complex, dying emotion.

“…on you Humans.”

“That forgotten race…”

“That… race we considered lowly and weak…”

“But why couldn’t it be… us Goblins?”

He let out a low, sarcastic laugh, filled with bitterness and unwillingness.

Everything he had once despised had now become the key to ending his hegemony.

Su Jin did not respond to his words.

He just looked at him quietly, the metallic page in his hand emitting a soft golden light.

The light was not dazzling, but it carried a vibrant vitality.

Bashaka felt his life force rapidly draining away.

He knew it was all over.

He had lost…

His final gaze rested on Su Jin’s young face.

Finally, the light in his eyes completely extinguished.

His massive body fell limply into the giant pit.

The world book in his hand lost its power, and the silver-white light quickly dimmed.

The tome, bearing the fate of the two races, silently slid down, landing on Bashaka’s charred chest…