Chapter 185
Ha. As expected of the Main God System. When he slogged through all those prerequisite dungeons before, it never showed its face. Now that it’s the final stage, it pops up just to reap the rewards.
And not just one—this time it wanted two. Both he and Wen Renxu had become its pawns.
With that kind of patience and shamelessness, the Main God System was bound to succeed in anything it did.
Lu Chuan sighed. He had no choice but to accept.
Now that it had assigned a mission, how could he possibly refuse?
“Let’s go, System. We’ve been in this dungeon so long, and this is the first time I’ve actually seen Starry Ming.” Lu Chuan rubbed his wrist. “If this really is the final chapter of a time loop, I have a feeling that once I survive this timeline, I’ll still have to go back to earlier timelines to finish the story. Luckily, the God of Time isn’t colluding with the Main God System. Otherwise, we’d be screwed.”
888 shuddered in agreement.
This trash dungeon was just too damn hard.
The investigators didn’t recognize Lu Chuan, but fortunately, they were all friendly toward humans. At this critical moment, humanity had finally learned to stop fighting each other and focus on survival.
Something to celebrate, at least.
Lu Chuan walked with them and even invited them onto his flying tool.
They looked around with wide-eyed curiosity.
“Are you also a legendary investigator? Regular folks can’t make something like this,” one of them asked.
“Sort of.” Lu Chuan smiled. “What, do you have a lot of legendary investigators here?”
“There used to be quite a few. Our City Lord Starry Ming once had many teammates—all legendary investigators, very powerful. But they all sacrificed themselves fighting the evil gods.” Sadness clouded the man’s face. “During the time when City Lords Wen Ren and Lu weren’t here, they held the line for us. Otherwise, humanity would have gone extinct already.”
“Starry Ming… is he good to you?” Lu Chuan couldn’t help asking.
“Yes, he treats us well, though he’s rather strict. Everything is distributed according to labor, and anyone with ability can rise up. Some tried to resist and form factions before, but the City Lord led people to wipe them out completely. After that, no one dared again.”
Back when Starry Ming was in the Star Guild, he had wanted to run things like this, but failed. So he realized his ideals here instead.
In this world, it actually worked.
Sigh.
If Starry Ming had failed, Lu Chuan could’ve taken the chance to make him stop competing for the Guildmaster position. But instead, Starry Ming succeeded—and that was a problem.
That meant scheming and backstabbing between them would continue. Truthfully, Lu Chuan just wanted to leave, become Guildmaster in one step, and stop taking detours.
When he finally reached Star City with the investigators, he couldn’t help comparing the ruined city before him with the one in his memories.
Number 6’s crimes were unforgivable. Hadn’t he worked so hard to develop this city?
It takes decades, even centuries, to build a city—but only a day to destroy it.
The city before him was nothing like what he remembered.
“I’ll take you to meet City Lord Starry Ming—wait, don’t just fly off—!”
Before the investigators could stop him, Lu Chuan was already riding his flying tool straight toward Starry Ming’s office.
“Who?!” Starry Ming instantly drew his weapon.
But when he looked up, he saw Lu Chuan’s infuriatingly smug face.
“Well, well, it’s been a while. Starry Ming, you’ve turned into an old man.” Lu Chuan hopped off the tool and, itching to mock him further, snapped a photo.
Sure enough, Starry Ming’s face was deeply lined, looking like a man in his sixties or seventies. If not for the fact that Lu Chuan had nearly been tricked by him before, he might not have even recognized him.
“You still don’t know how to talk.” Starry Ming slowly put away his weapon. “Which timeline are you from? Did you see the Guildmaster?”
“I just met him.” Lu Chuan sat down casually across from him. “And let me be clear: I found the Guildmaster first. The next Guildmaster of the Guild is me. You’re out. Save yourself the trouble.”
Starry Ming looked at him, then suddenly laughed. The laugh made him look ten years younger. “Last time we met, you said the exact same thing in front of the Guildmaster, so arrogant. My answer is still the same: until we leave this dungeon, everything is meaningless. Only when we’re out will I give you my answer.”
“That was then, this is now. For me, this is my first time meeting you.” Lu Chuan shrugged. “Anyway, tell me what’s going on. You must’ve gotten the Main God System’s notice too, right?”
“I did.” Starry Ming nodded. “In that case, I’ll start from the beginning.”
He quickly pulled out a locked case and handed it to Lu Chuan.
Lu Chuan squinted at it. “Damn, isn’t this the case I buried? You dug it up? And opened it?”
He weighed it and noticed it felt heavier.
“Yes. To see what was inside, I tested it with gold ingots. Every time it absorbed gold, it opened a bit, so I managed to glimpse quite a lot.” Starry Ming glanced at him. “I was going to return it last time, but you said you wanted it to sink a little longer. So I didn’t.”
Cough. Yeah, that did sound like something he’d say.
Lu Chuan reclaimed the case.
“System, what’s with this case? Why does it swallow gold? I never added that function.”
[Although you didn’t add it, you’re the God of Wealth. This case is powered by your Money Tree, so naturally it inherited traits of the God of Wealth.] #888 explained. [In short, you and your seeds have no resistance to gold. It passively absorbs it to convert into wealth energy to sustain itself. Put that way, does it make you feel better?]
In other words, Lu Chuan was such a money-grubber that even his items acted like him. Old sayings had some truth after all.
Lu Chuan rubbed his nose sheepishly. “Fine, fine. Let’s get back on track.”
“I wanted to open it and see what was inside. But one day, it opened on its own—and you flew out of it. I still don’t understand how you did that,” Starry Ming said.
That was because Lu Chuan had stuffed his Money Tree and the divine seed he got from the Father of Nature inside the case, suppressing the divine seed’s aura. He’d buried it as a backup plan in case he died on some timeline. Most likely, he had died in another timeline, and the divine seed had replaced him, allowing him to emerge from the case.
“Then, after Number 6 devoured the other four evil gods and regained his full consciousness, he became the greatest threat to this world. During one of your battles with him, the power fluctuations triggered a time distortion. You and Guildmaster Wen Ren were drawn into it and vanished. I stayed here, waiting for you two to return to the correct timeline.”
He laid everything out.
Lu Chuan did a quick count of the timelines he had experienced. Aside from one or two blank ones, most matched what Starry Ming described.
“I see.” Lu Chuan nodded. “So now that I’ve returned to the right timeline, all we need to do is wait for the Guildmaster, and—”
He stopped mid-sentence, noticing Starry Ming’s expression change.
“…Don’t tell me something happened to the Guildmaster.” Lu Chuan’s heart sank at the sight of Starry Ming’s grief-stricken face.
“Come with me.” Starry Ming sighed heavily. He led Lu Chuan through layers of checkpoints until they reached an underground chamber.
Lu Chuan’s heart pounded.
At the deepest level of the city was a secret room.
Inside lay Wen Renxu.
He was chained to a bed, wrists and ankles bound, surrounded by sealing sigils.
“The Guildmaster came back earlier than you—but he had a problem.” Starry Ming’s voice was heavy with pain. “His main personality has been asleep. What took its place was his long-suppressed eighth personality. This one is cruel, bloodthirsty, and even pretended to be his main self to deceive us. If I hadn’t reacted quickly, I’d already be dead.”
Starry Ming showed Lu Chuan his wound — a hideous gash right next to his heart.
“The Guildmaster rarely wakes up. Even the few times he does, it’s only to strengthen his own control, repeatedly warning me that unless it’s before the final battle with Number 6, he will not appear again. If he does show up before then, it will definitely be that cruel personality in disguise, and I must never trust it.”
Lu Chuan frowned as well. “What about the Guildmaster’s other personalities?”
“They’re also asleep.” Starry Ming shook his head. “It takes the main personality together with the other six to suppress the eighth. We don’t even know how this personality suddenly emerged. Clearly, the last time the Guildmaster turned a page, he was still fine.”
“Lock him up for now.” Lu Chuan sighed. “Just like the Guildmaster said—until we face the final battle with Number 6, don’t let him out.”
Starry Ming led Lu Chuan out of the secret chamber. “If we can defeat Number 6 and escape this instance, there’s still a chance to use the Main God System’s power to save the Guildmaster.”
“Do our best, then.” Lu Chuan wasn’t that confident. He and the vice guildmaster had already guessed at the reason why the Guildmaster couldn’t leave the instance. Now it seemed their suspicions were confirmed.
