Chapter 670: Ascending the Stairs

The moment Yao Qing's voice echoed over the Red Dust domain, the world went quiet.

The green God Path Star hung in the sky, and countless afterimages of great figures watched the end of the God Path... There, Yao Qing's figure stood tall, and before him was a void.

He was waiting for a response from the heaven and earth of past and present; he was waiting for the ninth level of the staircase.

The next moment, the scene before Yao Qing changed.

In the void, something seemed to be descending. It had no physical form, yet it was omnipresent... The moment it descended, a massive amount of information flooded into Yao Qing's mind.

His consciousness was like crossing time and space. He witnessed the first human being nurtured in nature, and witnessed a tribe struggling to survive under the erosion of time... When they first polished tree branches into sharp spikes, when they first carved crooked patterns on rocks, when they first lit a fire at the mouth of a cave, a deafening thunderclap exploded in Yao Qing's ears!

From that moment on, the foundation of human civilization took deep root in the rushing years. The edges of the river of time brushed against Yao Qing's face. He saw day and night like light and shadow through the gaps in the leaves of a Bodhi tree, flickering crazily. Human civilization was rapidly piling up in units of millennia.

More and more symbols were carved into stones; star-studded tribes intertwined into towns, rising from the banks of rivers; bright fabrics adorned the bustling crowds; some danced happily around high-piled bonfires; some used herbs to smear dripping wounds; some used stone dice carved with different numbers of holes for entertainment...

Yao Qing's pupils contracted constantly, the light of civilization flickering crazily within them. He saw the pyramid of human civilization growing taller and taller in the river of time, not only not shaking in the slightest under the erosion of time, but becoming even more magnificent and dazzling!

In the eyes of others, Yao Qing was still standing on the eighth level of the staircase, with nothing but void before him;

But in his own eyes, he was already standing before a vast and boundless tower of civilization...

He was as small as an ant.

"This is... the heaven and earth of past and present?" Yao Qing muttered to himself.

The era was changing, and civilization was still piling up. He saw neon lights flickering briefly in the darkness, soon to be extinguished into the void. After the Great Cataclysm came the birth of human domains... He saw the Red Dust.

Three hundred years is an unreachable shore of time for humans, but in front of human civilization, it was nothing more than a snap of the fingers.

He saw the fake Red Dust rising from the nuclear ruins, millions of people living and multiplying in the scroll, the old order gradually replaced, and a new order slowly generated... Millions of people were just an extremely tiny branch in the fate of humanity, but the fate of this branch had indeed changed because of Yao Qing.

The existence of the Red Dust was not perfect; beneath its prosperous and beautiful skin, it nourished sin and evil, but that was not the fault of Yao Qing or anyone else...

In the end, this is human nature itself.

Human nature was born earlier than human civilization; it is a trace branded in human genes that cannot be modified. The prosperity and magnificence of human civilization are largely derived from human nature, but where there is light, there is destined to be darkness. The evil of human nature will always exist in any era and any civilization. It might be constrained by extremely strict laws, but it can never disappear.

If not for the Floating Life Gallery founded by Yao Qing, the dark side of human nature nourished in the despair of the nuclear ruins would only be more brutal and rampant.

Art did indeed change the era.

The aura of the heaven and earth of past and present slowly receded from around Yao Qing, and that towering tower of human civilization gradually faded from his vision... But at the same time, the ninth level of the staircase slowly outlined itself in the void before Yao Qing.

That was the sign of human civilization recognizing Yao Qing; that was the final level of the staircase sent to him by the heaven and earth of past and present...

Heaven and earth bestow a rank!!

"...He succeeded??" Seeing this, Wuji Jun's pupils contracted sharply!

The moment he saw this level of the staircase appear, a faint smile finally appeared on Yao Qing's aged face.

This smile was simple and pure. The boy who was once called a sissy and was ignorant had finally stepped through all the storms and witnessed the clouds clearing... The moment he truly stood before the ninth level of the staircase, he seemed to have become that boy again.

"I suppose I have no regrets in this life."

Yao Qing closed his eyes, took a deep breath, lifted his sole, and landed it gently on the ninth level of the staircase...

The next moment, the loud sound of ascending the stairs rang out like a surging bell, echoing through the world!!

……

Ancient Treasury of the Thief Path.

Gray clouds swirled under the hollow sky.

On the desolate and dead earth, a magnificent temple in the style of the European Middle Ages stood tall. Countless treasures and glass floor-to-ceiling windows refracted light, like the only bright and dazzling pearl in the Gray World, shining brilliantly.

Through the colorful glass windows, one could see tens of millions of cultural treasures displayed in the temple... rusted bronze weapons, a jewel-encrusted Ming Dynasty gold tripod, Louis XV's Saint-Germain soup bowl, an Indian crown embedded with eleven Colombian emeralds, yellowed manuscripts by Da Vinci, an intact classic Ferrari 250 LM...

These treasures from different eras and regions gathered here across time and space, as if an invisible hand had stolen the most precious things of every civilization from the years and treasured them in this magnificent and grand temple.

And at this moment, in the deepest part of the temple, a highly oppressive silver throne sat silently above all the treasures.

"Huh..."

In the dead silence of the temple, a soft sound of surprise suddenly rang out. A figure on the silver throne slowly opened his eyes.

It was a man wearing a white British-style shirt and a gray gentleman's vest. Gold-carved buttons were arranged meticulously on his chest, and his long, slightly curly black hair was draped behind his ears, like an aristocrat who had walked out of the European Middle Ages.

His features were three-dimensional, his eyes light blue. Although he had the contour characteristics of a Westerner, he retained the softness of an Easterner's face, like a mixed-race person.

"Heaven and earth bestow a rank, huh... I didn't expect that in this era, the Green God Path could still produce a Demigod."

He rested his head on one hand, looking with great interest in a certain direction in the void, while the other hand conjured an ancient Roman Aureus gold coin from nowhere, flipping and playing with it nimbly between his slender fingertips.

"The Green God Path is quite interesting. Borrowing it to play with for a couple of days wouldn't be bad..."

He raised his eyebrows slightly, flicked his fingertips, and the gold coin flew toward the sky, flipping. At the same time, he lifted his slender palm, seemingly wanting to grab something in the void... But the next moment, his fingertips stopped in mid-air.

As if discovering something, he frowned slightly.

Clang—

The Aureus gold coin fell to the ground, making a crisp sound. After flipping twice, it lay on the ground motionless.

"Considering you're so pitiful, I won't steal it this time..." He shook his head with some regret.

"I thought there would be another interesting guy in the world... What a pity."