Chapter 377

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Chapter 377: The Red Thunder

“Whose memory is this?”

“Millie…”

“I am Millie, no… I am…”

Yoshine Ise woke up, disoriented, as the life of a rural girl unfolded before her eyes.

Hi

She found herself living in Yingzhou, learning the history of the world. Even though the distant allied country was separated by an endless sea, she had always remembered the name of the “mentor.”

That country, throughout history, had been the only one to initiate a grassroots revolution, establishing a completely new system. It had left an indelible mark on her memory.

Now, the memories of historical figures had grown even more vivid, richer, as though she herself had lived them.

The rural girl, Millie, gazed at the silhouette of a boy turning into a young man over the course of more than ten years. Sadly, she was still dead—dead before dawn.

Yoshine Ise knew she was dreaming, but the confusion remained. She didn’t understand why she could see someone else’s entire life.

She stood up, surrounded by mist, and realized she was in a strange world.

In front of her stood a tombstone bearing the name ‘Millie,’ complete with her birth and death dates written in an ancient European font. It felt so familiar, as if she had experienced those memories firsthand—perhaps even inherited them.

Ise circled around the tombstone, then paused. Another tombstone loomed ahead with the name ‘Klaise.’ To the left, she saw ‘Wu Xixue.’ To the right, behind her, and stretching even farther…

As she gazed around, the mist surrounding the tombstones began to dissipate. Rows upon rows of tombstones stood silently, stretching to the horizon. How many were there? Maybe a hundred thousand, maybe a million.

This was a graveyard, a place where names were etched into stone, a pale and silent place buried deep in memory.

Yet, this graveyard wasn’t endless. Ise noticed a massive and majestic tree—a golden tree. It stood tall, supporting the sky, its light pushing back the swirling black fog. It brought silence to the tombstones, as though soothing them, making their mournful cries fade into quiet slumber.

“Why is the golden tree, which is clearly the symbol of the Imperial Royal Family, here?” Ise wondered aloud.

She walked along the tombstones, drawn to the base of the golden tree. Though it seemed distant, she quickly reached the edge of the graveyard.

But she couldn’t leave. An invisible force separated the graveyard from the golden tree. Ise reached out, touching the barrier.

The transparent barrier allowed her to see but not pass through.

Then, from the golden tree’s courtyard, a figure appeared.

Surprised, Ise tapped on the transparent barrier, calling out to the figure.

The sound reached the other person’s ears, and Igarashi Shimizu’s expression shifted to one of surprise and joy. She rushed toward Ise, wanting to embrace her, but instead, her head collided with the transparent wall with a dull thud.

The two friends, separated by the barrier, exchanged words.

They could speak to each other, but they couldn’t touch.

Igarashi Shimizu shared her experience of being a noble girl named ‘Sophia.’ She had witnessed the rise and fall of the rumored last emperor.

When she awoke, she found herself lying at the foot of the golden tree, surrounded by the golden courtyard.

In the large courtyard, there was a big dog and a cat—lazy, unbothered, and entirely nonthreatening.

At the other end of the courtyard, an art studio stood. Inside, there were many paintings and an old piano, dust-covered, though recently cleaned and renovated.

There was a giant chessboard in the courtyard, resembling the one in “Magic Academy and the Secret Room.” The chess pieces were golden, but the game was already finished, and the golden emperor had fallen.

Everywhere, statues were scattered, either broken or depicting death, with golden blood flowing from them.

In addition, there were secret rooms she couldn’t open. Through the windows and keyholes, she saw vague rose-like patterns that seemed to hint at something deeper.

After searching around, she thought about leaving.

The two women realized that they had witnessed the lives of two completely different individuals—one a follower of the mentor, and the other a worshiper of the emperor. One lay in the graveyard, the other in the golden courtyard.

These two people had never met, yet their lives intertwined in ways that were profound. Mentors and emperors had always been ultimate enemies, their positions utterly opposed.

This left Yoshine Ise and Igarashi Shimizu perplexed. They gave up on their assumptions and tried to figure out a way out. But the graveyard and the golden courtyard seemed to offer no exit.

Suddenly, the heavens and earth shook violently.

The sword witches struggled to maintain their balance, all of them looking up at the sky at the same time.

The golden tree that had held the sky together collapsed, creating a vast gap in the dome above. It was like a beautiful stained-glass window of a cathedral being torn apart.

Atop the gap stood a figure, capturing the attention of the two women.

“Mentor…” Yoshine Ise whispered.

“Your Majesty…” Igarashi Shimizu murmured.

They stared at each other in disbelief, unable to reconcile their vastly different interpretations of the figure they saw.

But neither believed they were wrong.

The figure didn’t notice them, standing there in the spiritual realm, gazing beyond the crack.

A pair of eyes stared back at Bai Wei—eyes like burning stars or a swirling plasma energy of destruction. It was a deep blue eye, cold and calculating, casting a frigid gaze upon him.

An otherworldly, malevolent god.

Bai Wei, in his prime, had never faced an opponent so formidable. This evil god, though cunning and strategic, never engaged in direct confrontation. It always chose the weak, avoiding the strong.

The infiltrator’s approach, so different from the outer god’s usual tactics, meant Bai Wei was dealing with something much more dangerous.

Though he hadn’t fully regained his former strength, Bai Wei prepared to act.

He had two choices: endure the situation and retreat, or unleash his power to force an upgrade to Golden Power.

The first choice would surely cause soul trauma, perhaps requiring months of recovery. The second was just as risky, consuming his ether anchor and bringing him dangerously close to self-destruction.

Bai Wei wasn’t one for self-destruction—especially for a mere evil god. It wasn’t worth the risk.

He had another goal in mind: to defeat the Supreme Will, perhaps curing his dementia in the process. If he didn’t take a swing at that eye, it wouldn’t be polite.

Gathering his strength, empowered by Golden Power, Bai Wei was ready to act. Even if it meant sacrificing his soul, he intended to force the evil god to lose an eye and disrupt its next move.

But before he could make his move, a sudden bright flash of electric light tore through the void, followed by the roar of crimson thunder.

The crimson lightning struck the evil god’s eye, pinning it down. The god attempted to escape, but it was too late.

In the next moment, the sky and earth split in two.

A sword cleaved through the evil god’s eye, and the crimson thunder dispersed, unleashing thunderous sounds that echoed for miles. The entire spiritual realm was torn apart.

This sword strike was precise, dazzling, deadly, and utterly dominant, carrying a hint of delicate elegance as it retracted.

The evil god’s eye was cleaved open, and the entire spiritual realm split like a fake moon in the sky, scattering the dark clouds.

The silhouette behind the moon appeared, and Bai Wei looked at him, their eyes meeting.

The figure remained calm, emotionless—his eyes like a smooth mirror, reflecting everything around him without any display of feeling, yet perfectly capturing Bai Wei’s expression.

Bai Wei remained silent, his gaze steady. Then, the red thunder vanished, and the sound of thunder faded away.

The figure standing before him was none other than Tokugawa Iehide—the modern shogun, one of the only three heroic spirits in the world.