"Since the first star lit up the moral code, since mankind learned to look up at the moonlight in the mud,
Her voice suddenly froze in her throat, and her wide sleeves with gilded patterns brushed across the desk, startling a few dried Epiphyllum petals off.
"Three thousand six hundred civilizations have changed, and they are the true practitioners of virtue."
Eyelashes bleached by moonlight trembled and drooped.
"Like moths to a flame, none of them can penetrate the eternal night."
The bronze wind chime on the woman's waist suddenly tinkled, breaking the frozen time in the sea of flowers.
Ye Yan saw strange silver lines appearing between the woman's eyebrows, like ice crack porcelain sealing an ancient spell.
"The fire of primal desire is too intense."
The woman suddenly raised her hand to cut off the falling petals. The moment her slender fingers folded, the subtle fragrance ignited a faint blue flame in her palm.
"When the King Gods fought, the seven kings of Li Shen were willing to carve out their thrones just to plant compassion in the world. But guess what?"
She threw the burning petals into the void, and an illusion of a battlefield littered with corpses emerged from the flames.
Ye Yan's temples were throbbing, and the broken mutterings of the last man suddenly emerged from the depths of his memory.
“I don’t want to hear it and I don’t care about it!”
Ye Yan waved his sleeves violently to disperse the illusion of fire. Blood mist surged around him, and the scattered petals were dyed crimson.
Facing the woman's surprised gaze, he took a half step forward, his boot heel crushing the messy flower shadows on the ground:
"I have pure elf blood and a gluttony that devours everything. I can protect everything I want to protect."
“But you can’t even find the direction to leave the world’s border.”
The woman suddenly chuckled, and the shawl embroidered with gold thread moved without wind, revealing the hideous old wound on her collarbone - that was clearly the crescent-shaped wound left by the God-killing Halberd.
She tapped her chest with her fingertips, and blood immediately oozed out of the cinnabar mole:
"Back then, the King of Justice was carrying the Holy Sword of the Sky Mark. He was three years younger than you are now, but he was -"
"I do not know what you're talking about!"
The subtle fragrance suddenly became as sticky as honey, and Ye Yan felt a strange burning pain in his chest.
"I don't want to know anything. My heart is too small to accommodate anything else."
"Really"
The woman looked at Ye Yan, and a complex emotion flashed in her golden eyes.
She said softly, with a hint of sigh in her tone.
"You are very similar to someone I know. You believe you can handle everything. You carry everything on your shoulders. You insist on your inner justice. You move forward courageously, and end up with a bloody head."
After she finished speaking, she smiled slightly, and that smile was less mysterious and more gentle.
"Since you have decided so, I won't say much."
"Then I'll tell you, this is my first request."
“My first request is simple.”
The woman dipped her finger in blood and drew a mysterious rune on the table. The moonlight happened to shift half an inch at this moment, illuminating the arc of relief at the corners of her lips:
"When you are free, come here and drink tea with me."
Ye Yan looked at the blood talisman slowly disappearing on the stone table, and his Adam's apple moved.
The wind chimes around the woman's waist began to tinkle again, mixed with the faint sound of drums in the distance, crushing the unfinished words in the rising morning mist.
"it is good."
Ye Yan nodded in agreement without asking the reason.
"But I don't know how to get here."
He looked at the woman with some confusion, waiting for her answer.
"It's okay, I'll teach you."
The woman said with a smile.
"You don't seem to understand the power of the oath."
"It has absolute defense and can also sign contracts. The binding force of the contract is equal to that of the law."
The sea of flowers suddenly blew up a light golden wind, and countless translucent butterflies flapped their wings and flew out from the contracts.
Ye Yan looked at one of them resting on the back of his hand. The crescent scar on the woman's collarbone was reflected on the butterfly's wings. "The absolute defense of the oath is based on the law of equivalent exchange."
The woman suddenly put her fingers together and slashed through the air, and the butterflies instantly gathered into a rotating galaxy.
"Like right now—"
Ye Yan saw his shadow reflected in the Milky Way being entangled by dense threads of light.
The woman fluttered her sleeves, and two interlocking gears appeared in the galaxy:
"If you want to come to the sea of flowers, I need to pay for the energy to cross the world boundary; if I want to send you back, you have to consume the corresponding time scale."
As she finished her words, the butterfly on the back of Ye Yan's hand suddenly exploded into light powder.
The light dust automatically condensed into new runes, forming a parchment scroll.
"Do you understand?"
The woman raised her eyes and looked at Ye Yan.
Ye Yan nodded thoughtfully.
Simply put, it is a contract that contains equal power of laws, constructed with the power of oath, on the premise of fulfilling a reciprocal contract.
After understanding it, Ye Yan began to try to make a contract.
A trace of power was injected into the air, and that trace of power condensed into strange patterns in the air, flashing with light.
Soon after, a simple contract was completed.
“Now try to inject magic.”
The woman pressed her bloody fingertips to the center of the contract.
The suspended contract suddenly unfolded into a three-meter-long light curtain. On the left side, there appeared a scene of Ye Yan brewing tea in a small cottage in the bamboo forest, and on the right side, there was a scene of a woman sitting alone in a sea of flowers and playing the piano.
Between the two scenes, twelve ancient bronze characters are slowly being reassembled.
"When the conditions are met, the law will automatically bring you here."
The woman suddenly stretched out her hand and touched the intersection of the light curtains, and the entire space was suddenly stretched into a kaleidoscope-like corridor.
The content of the contract is simple and clear.
The woman must help Ye Yan return to where he wants to go, and Ye Yan needs to come and sit in the sea of flowers at the border of the world when he is free.
As long as the conditions are met, Ye Yan will be forcibly teleported here.
And the woman must help Ye Yan to go where he wants to go.
This is an exchange.
Only with equal exchange can a contract be established.
"it is good."
The woman lowered her eyes and chuckled, and the jade cicada hanging in her hair suddenly made a clear sound.
The swarm of fireflies in the twilight changed their formation, weaving a flickering star bridge between the two of them.
When she stood up, her gilded robe brushed against the irises, and those flowers, stained with star marrow dew, were reborn into fluttering blue butterflies between her sleeves.
"Look, this is the last gift before Ragnarok."
She tapped the air with her fingers, and the petals within a ten-mile radius broke free from the stems at the same time.
Waves of rose gold and violet condensed into giant gears in the air, and each petal turned into bronze scales engraved with the divine language of the contract.
The oath pendant on Ye Yan's chest suddenly burst into strong light, resonating with the crescent-shaped groove in the center of the gear.
When the gears began to rotate in reverse, the birthmark behind the woman's ear oozed a silver-blue mist:
"The real name of the ancient teleportation array is 'Cocoon of the Sky' -"
The woman explained softly.
“Step on it and it will teleport you to where you want to go.”
Her fingertips traced the crystallizing air.
The sea of flowers faded into ink-and-wash afterimages in the violent shock of time and space, and Ye Yan saw his own reflection splitting up.
Twelve "him" of different ages reached out to touch the rotating gears at the same time. (End of this chapter)