Chapter 1220, The Truth

Translator: Silavin

The moment those words left her mouth, every single person immediately looked towards Ouyang Bai Ge, waiting to hear exactly what problem she had.

Ouyang Bai Ge said gravely, “This Void Insect has been monitoring the Desolate Ancient God all along, yet what it found was that the Ancient God has not moved at all! It has remained in the same spot the entire time.”

“What!?” Lu Fan felt this was simply inconceivable. “How can that be? If it hasn’t moved, then how could we possibly have been unable to catch up with it all this time?”

“Exactly!” The Bronze Dragon King also refused to accept this. “We were advancing at full speed for quite a distance earlier. On top of that, right after we first entered the Valley of Life, we kept pushing forward. No matter how you think about it, we’ve covered several thousand kilometres by now. The Valley of Life may be vast, but the distance we’ve covered so far has nearly taken us across the whole of it. If the Desolate Ancient God truly hasn’t moved, shouldn’t we have caught up to it long ago?”

Ouyang Bai Ge said with absolute certainty, “It really has not moved at all. This is the intelligence brought back by my Void Insect. It is accurate, beyond a shadow of a doubt.”

“But…” Ye Wuxian said, “You mentioned earlier that throughout our pursuit of the Desolate Ancient God, we have maintained roughly the same distance between us. If the Desolate Ancient God hasn’t moved, then this would mean we’re just going around in circles on the same spot?”

Qin Qiu’s expression shifted. “You mean we’ve walked into a trap? We appear to be moving forward the entire time, but in reality we’re just spinning around on the same spot?”

Jian Ying frowned. “But that’s impossible. We’ve come this far and haven’t noticed that we’re going in circles. If we really had been on the same spot the entire time, we’d noticed by now, right?”

“Exactly!” The Flame Dragon added. “Never mind everything else, take that mountain peak, the one that’s either Three Linked Mountain or Great Summit Mountain. We were seeing it for the first time. If we’d already seen a mountain peak with such obvious features before, I would have noticed it long ago.”

Seeing that no one agreed with her assessment, Ouyang Bai Ge did not rush to explain anything. Instead, after thinking for a moment, she said, “One thing can be stated with certainty: the Desolate Ancient God has not shifted its position from the start. Yet, we have also not been able to close in on it the entire time despite covering a distance of several thousand kilometres. If the distance between us has not decreased, I believe the problem can only lie in…”

“I understand!” Lu Fan had a sudden flash of realisation, and asked Ouyang Bai Ge with a look that was somewhere between a smile and not quite a smile, “Teacher Ouyang, you mean to say that the problem lies in the path between us and the Desolate Ancient God, right?”

Ouyang Bai Ge nodded. “Exactly. That is precisely what I mean.”

“What are you talking about…” Han Ke tilted her head, completely baffled. “Fan’er, stop keeping us in suspense. Just tell us already…”

Lu Fan smiled, turning to his Auntie. “Auntie, you’ve surely ridden an escalator before, right?”

“Of course I have. That’s normal.” Han Ke said without a second thought.

Lu Fan said, “Think about it. Isn’t our current situation very similar to being on an escalator? We’ve been walking forward with great effort, and the other party is waiting at the far end of the escalator, completely still. Yet no matter how far we walk, we somehow never manage to catch up.”

This analogy made Han Ke understand at once. “You mean we’re currently on an escalator, being carried the entire time by some force in a direction away from the Desolate Ancient God. So, no matter how far we walk, we can never catch up with the Desolate Ancient God, and the Desolate Ancient God doesn’t need to move anywhere in order to ensure we can never find it?”

Lu Fan nodded. “En, that’s roughly the idea. But, our current situation is probably a bit more complicated than how I’ve described it.”

As he spoke, he surveyed the surroundings, and gravely said, “We all know that throughout the entire journey, we haven’t passed through the same scenery twice. Rather than saying it has been constantly pushing us away into the distance, it would be more accurate to say that the Desolate Ancient God has been laying an endless path before us the entire time, ensuring we can never finish traversing it. My guess is that the Desolate Ancient God Power has completely devoured the entire Valley of Life, turning it into a part of its own body. So, it can alter the whole terrain at Will, ensuring there is an inexhaustible path ahead of us.”

“It has been quite careful about it, not pushing us away all at once, but always maintaining an ambiguous distance between itself and us. This way, we wouldn’t suspect a thing. We would be like hamsters who’ve stepped onto a wheel, working as hard as we like but always remaining on the same spot. We’d just keep thinking that perhaps we simply aren’t fast enough, and that’s why we can’t catch up. So, it can toy with us in the palm of its hand, consuming our stamina.”

“If I’m not mistaken, even if we tried to retrace our steps right now, we wouldn’t be able to find the exit out of the Valley of Life. It wants to trap us here until we’re too exhausted to resist, at that point, it will come and devour us.”

“What!?” Tao Xiaoman and the others, upon hearing that the group had already been trapped by the Desolate Ancient God, immediately had their expressions change dramatically.

Lu Fan smiled, sounding at ease. “Of course, there’s no need for any of us to be afraid. A trick like this couldn’t possibly trap us all. I can open a Territory Transportation Array and we can easily leave, or alternatively, have Xing Chen cast her Starry Space Passage Skill, which could pass through the Valley of Life and bring us back to Dragon Domain. We also have Teacher Ouyang with us. Her Void World can also be used, and we could leave through the Void World. It is just that we wouldn’t know exactly where we’d end up.”

Ouyang Bai Ge nodded. “Right. As far as danger is concerned, we are not in any danger, because we have more than one method of escape. I believe the Desolate Ancient God knows this as well. So, it is certainly more anxious than we are right now. If it is lucky enough, it may be able to deceive us into wasting our stamina here and then find an opportunity to take advantage of us. But now that we’ve uncovered the truth, there is no danger whatsoever. The moment we find our situation to be unfavourable, we can simply leave.”

The Shadow Dragon King considered this for a moment, then gravely said, “Escaping from here is definitely not difficult. But if we leave, then what are we supposed to do about the Desolate Ancient God?”