[You pushed away the boneless-feeling Nine-Tailed Fox from your arms and solemnly declared before all the yokai…]
[The purpose of this gathering was to proclaim the divine oracle of the Chaotic Origin Dragon!]
[The mont they heard the word ‘oracle,’ all the yokai hastily knelt, listening in rapt silence, not daring to make a sound.]
[Even the Nine-Tailed Fox put away her coquettish deanor and knelt properly.]
[You continued, raising your voice to announce… In the near future, a dreadful, wicked god would descend upon the world!]
[At that ti, the world would be plunged into a bloody tempest. Both humans and yokai alike would be caught up in rciless war.]
[By your Father’s command, you were to inform all the yokai here: when this gathering ended and they returned to their clans, they must rally their kin and make preparations for war as soon as possible.]
[Because this was to be a god-war of unprecedented scale, the young and strong would be the first line of battle, the old and infirm the second. As for won and children…they would have to hide themselves to preserve the yokai’s legacy.]
[You asked the assembled yokai if there were any hidden places near their clans where their won and children could be sheltered.]
[The yokai were so stunned by this terrifying oracle that they couldn’t react for a long while.]
[Only after you asked again did they finally snap out of it, chattering over each other as they reported…]
[You raised a hand to silence the clamor and pointed at Shuten Doji, motioning for him to speak first.]
[Shuten Doji frowned and pondered for quite so ti before replying. As the leader of the Shuten Doji race, he indeed knew of a place near their territory that could serve as a refuge.]
[Though the Shuten Doji race was extrely small in number, their strength was great, even the children possessed formidable power, and in the coming god-war, they could contribute much.]
[The Dragonborn Lord need only ask the others, his race would swear to defend the Dragon God’s majesty to the death, even at the cost of their annihilation…]
[Foolishness!]
[You abruptly cut Shuten Doji off, rebuking him in a deep voice. Did he truly think a few yokai children could sway the outco of a war between gods?]
[Such obstinacy would only doom the Shuten Doji race to extinction, erasing them from existence. This was not defending your Father’s majesty, it was destroying his children under his rule!]
[Your furious reproach left Shuten Doji dumbstruck. He carefully mulled over your words and then suddenly understood, realizing his grave mistake.]
[He quickly revealed the hidden place near the race’s territory to you and vowed to conceal their won and children there.]
[You have learned the precise location of Great Kyo-no-Ōeyama!]
“What the hell?!”
It turned out the third option’s reward was the location of Shuten Doji’s ho ground.
aning, if Lin Xun could reach Great Kyo-no-Ōeyama, he would have a chance to find the Shuten Doji clan itself.
Perhaps he could even recruit such a top-tier great yokai as a shikigami…
[You nodded in satisfaction and turned your gaze to the obedient-looking Nine-Tailed Fox.]
[The Nine-Tailed Fox had just opened her mouth to speak when the scene before your eyes suddenly shifted…]
[Everything transford back into the Lecture Hall. The Librarian now stood before you, his forrly benevolent expression nowhere to be seen, his face contorted with blazing fury as he roared…]
[Apostle, you have deceived the noble Librarian!]
[He was so incensed that flecks of spittle flew onto your face.]
Lin Xun narrowed his eyes.
Checking the ti again, there was still one minute and forty-two seconds left until the trial was supposed to end.
So it was the Librarian who had forcibly ended the illusionary trial early!
“I was just a mont away from learning the Nine-Tailed Fox’s location.”
“If not for this damned Librarian, I’d already have that knowledge in my hands.”
His expression darkened, and the rage in his heart was no less than the Librarian’s.
For a mont, anger surged up in him, so much that he wanted nothing more than to transform into a giant dragon and incinerate the Librarian with dragonfire.
Lin Xun took a deep breath, forcing himself to suppress the impulse.
First, the Librarian had yet to issue the trial reward. If he struck rashly, he’d probably get nothing but a single broken monocle as loot.
Second, this Librarian’s strength seed to far surpass the two top-tier yokai he had just seen.
Even this ability to draw phantom images of ancient yokai wasn’t sothing those two useless Librarians from Chapters Three and Four could ever accomplish.
[The Librarian fixed you with a cold stare and imdiately declared that since there were still a great many yokai left undefeated in the trial illusion, your trial results would be settled according to the total number of yokai slain.]
[Do you acknowledge the Librarian’s assessnt of your trial performance?]
“Acknowledge your ass!”
Without hesitation, Lin Xun hit ‘No.’
The Librarian had been the one to mislead him in the first place, only explaining that surviving in the illusion to the end would earn the highest reward.
He hadn’t said you had to kill all one hundred yokai to receive the top rating.
Now that the Librarian had personally ended the illusion, it should absolutely count as eting the highest criteria and entitle him to the best reward.
Lin Xun hadn’t even gotten around to confronting him over the Nine-Tailed Fox incident, and yet this Librarian was already trying to pin the bla on him.
He imdiately summoned the Valkyrie, preparing to escalate if needed.
[The Battle Angel – Valkyrie stepped forth from the void…]
[She seed to sense the raging fury in your heart. Facing the Librarian she’d once slain before, she didn’t wait for your command. She drew the Arrow of Dragon-Slaying…]
[The massive arrow nocked to her golden longbow, dazzling sunlight gathering along its shaft, the point gradually leveling toward the Librarian!]
[The black-robed old man glanced up at the Valkyrie and remarked, “An impressive summoned creature.”]
[Then he gave a gloomy chuckle and muttered to himself. He had traveled through hundreds of apocalypse worlds and encountered Apostles brazen enough to attack him, yet why did he still stand here before you?]
Lin Xun thought to himself, Isn’t that obvious?
If this Librarian had been killed by an Apostle in another apocalypse world, the one standing in front of him now would simply be a different Librarian.
Those words could have been said by the one the Valkyrie had killed before.
And what had been the outco? The Valkyrie’s arrow still pierced his heart, and he died in Shamara’s Astrologer Tower.
[You raised your hand, signaling the Librarian to spare the nonsense and hurry up to deliver your reward, and that it must be awarded according to the highest evaluation.]
[You had perfectly t the requirent of surviving to the end of the illusion without dying, and it was only right that you receive the supre reward.]
[The Librarian shook his head, solemnly declaring that you had obtained an extra reward in the illusion that never should have existed, thus breaking the ga’s balance.]
[Had you acquired such a reward during a normal chapter, he wouldn’t have been so furious. But that you obtained it within his trial made it a severe dereliction of his duty as a Librarian.]
[However, he continued, it wasn’t impossible for you to claim the top reward. In exchange, he would erase your knowledge of Great Kyo-no-Ōeyama’s precise location.]
[If you wanted to search for Great Kyo-no-Ōeyama again later, you’d have to rely on other clues in the ga to uncover it.]
[Do you agree to the Librarian’s terms?]
[Perhaps to show his sincerity, he produced a long strip of paper radiating a five-colored glow.]
[Easter Egg Bookmark (Item): An extrely rare special bookmark. Using it will allow you to unlock and enter an ‘Easter Egg Chapter.’]
Lin Xun’s heart leapt.
“An Easter Egg Chapter!”
Easter Egg Chapters were the most generous bonus content in this cursed ga. In comparison, a Beginner’s Bookmark was basically the cheapest, most worthless perk.
A true Easter Egg Bookmark was the best boon the ga could grant an Apostle!
As the na implied, Easter Egg Chapters were not part of the orthodox chapter sequence, but fragntary worlds existing outside the main narrative.
They still offered interpretation ratings after completion.
So large Easter Egg Chapters were so extensive they could take a month or longer to clear, but the payoff was the chance to earn a corresponding Source of the Apocalypse based on your rating.
Smaller Easter Egg Chapters could be finished in as little as a day. Though they did not yield Sources of the Apocalypse, they still awarded other rare rewards via the interpretation rating.
It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that an Easter Egg Bookmark was tantamount to an entire treasure vault!
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