Chapter 142 History and Records

"You're really funny."

As Yan Shi finished speaking, the white mist around her churned slightly. A woman emerged from the mist and clapped her hands softly.

The woman's hair was tied up in a bun and hung over her left shoulder. She wore a monocle, and her light blue eyes had a misty, focused quality.

She raised her hand, and before them, the white mist rippled slightly, like waves on the surface of water. Several faint rays of light wove together, and a chessboard and two antique chairs appeared out of thin air.

She casually pulled out a chair, sat down gracefully, and looked at Yan Shi with a hint of curiosity in her eyes, "Why are you so calm?"

Yan Shi pulled out another chair next to the chessboard. "What do you think my reaction should be?"

“Sadness? I don’t quite understand you.” Claire chuckled, her eyes probing deeper. “But the human who came more than twenty years ago, the light elf who came recently, and the humans who have been coming frequently lately. All the visitors are sad.”

"Why aren't you sad?" Claire leaned closer to Yan Shi, trying to glean some emotion from her eyes.

Yan Shi looked thoughtful. "I've been represented," she concluded.

Claire: ?

"What does this mean?" she asked, somewhat puzzled.

“What I mean is,” Yan Shi raised an eyebrow and smiled, enunciating each word clearly, “what their reactions have to do with me.”

Claire frowned slightly, then laughed with a sense of relief. "Indeed, it has nothing to do with me." She clapped again. "But I must say, you are indeed very interesting."

Yan Shi lowered his eyes: "That's because your divine life is boring."

Claire glanced at her, offering no rebuttal, but instead spoke with a hint of amusement, "Speaking of boring... let me think, where to begin?"

Some gods really do like to talk to themselves and have strange ideas.

Yan Shi: ...

She muted her microphone.

“Oh, I remember now, more than twenty years ago.” Claire tapped the chessboard lightly, and Yan Shi then noticed that there was an unfinished game on the table.

With only a few black and white pieces left, the game was at a stalemate.

With Claire's light touch, the game changed; pieces appeared and moved, becoming a game halfway through.

On one side of the chessboard, a small figure gradually emerged. She was transparent, her pupils seemed to shimmer with a pale golden light, and she stood behind a black piece, pushing it forward with force.

“More than twenty years ago, a human being, through the power granted by the gods, glimpsed a part of the future and came to me,” Claire said softly.

"She wanted to change the predetermined fate of a dying being. Daydreaming. Going against cause and effect and the future, even God cannot do that. So I rejected her."

"Then she came again. This time, she wanted to change the fate of another being who was going to die. Because this time she came with a god, and as a benevolent god, I agreed to lend my authority temporarily."

The black piece was pushed forward one space by the little man, and one of the little man's eyes turned gray.

Yan Shi realized it was Guan Yunji.

She said that Guan Yunji's blindness couldn't have been caused by a simple fortune teller.

"I hold the power of history and records. The passing of living beings is the most common and unchangeable phenomenon in history. The human who attempted to alter the passing of living beings, as you have already seen, expended enormous faith and life force, and in the end could only delete some unremarkable content, without changing the outcome at all."

"But she was so stubborn and sad, it was strange, so very strange. So I turned what I had recorded in my authority into a comic and released it into your world after everything had happened."

"Humans are truly strange creatures. Such historical records mean nothing to beastmen, demons, and many other races. Their history is filled with death and slaughter, blood and sacrifice, and even their own kind are enemies without blood ties. But humans, they will shed tears for complete strangers, and even sacrifice themselves."

“Since the authority had already been lent to humanity, I simply placed it within the Death Throne. I used faith and life force as the trade price to support visitors in making modifications. Unfortunately, over the years only two beings—a light elf and a human who returned from the future—have used it.” Claire said this with some dissatisfaction.

On the chessboard, two newly appeared little figures diligently push the pieces. With each move, the little figures become dimmer.

Faith is extremely important to the gods. Even after all these years, and despite Ismail and Lin Cai having given their all, Claire still felt it wasn't enough.

"You are the third human I have encountered, and the fourth ordinary living being to arrive here."

"Why aren't you sad?" Claire asked, her eyes filled with growing curiosity and confusion.

Yan Shi: "You hold the power of history and records, yet you don't understand history?"

Claire tilted her head: "History will not change. As the deity who governs history and records, I personally have no position. You humans who try to rewrite history are the ones who are utterly ridiculous; their efforts will not have any impact on the outcome."

Yan Shi scoffed: "Because history is created by living beings, not gods."

"You are a bystander recording the events, not a subject, so you cannot empathize."

Claire: "But as the biggest variable, you don't seem surprised either."

"It's really interesting how history can change drastically with just a small variable."

Yan Shi pointed his finger at the chessboard, moving the piece that the little figure was pushing forward one space. The transparent little figure relaxed and ran behind another black piece, pushing it forward with all its might.

"Gods can never change history, but humans can, and so can ordinary living beings, because we are in history, and every step we take is history."

"I don't have any comic content I want to change," Yan Shi said casually. "A new future has begun, and it will never return to the past."

Claire stared at the chessboard, a white piece leaping forward one square: "I am the god who controls history. Do you, as an ordinary human, think you know more than me? This is my authority."

Yan Shi: "I don't need to know more than you. Because I am not the god who records, I am the one who creates history."

As she spoke, she lightly tapped her fingertip, and a dark chess piece formed from water crystals appeared at her fingertip.

“Claire, you’ve lost.” Yan Shi put down the chess piece and stood up from his chair. “I want to leave.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Yan Shi disappeared from the white mist.

Claire looked down at the chessboard.

At some point, the previously stalemate and near-collapsed situation had completely shifted, with the black stones firmly controlling the entire board. Yan Shi's final move landed precisely on the center.

White's pieces suffered a devastating defeat.

…

Yan Shi opened his eyes.

Indeed, the way to leave the Death Throne and expand the space of this authority is through voice control.

Before her stood the familiar main hall.

The crystal ball is crystal clear.

As she emerged, fog suddenly began to rise again.

Afterwards, the crystal ball spat out all the comic strips that filled the sky, and they flew everywhere.

The papers flew past Yan Shi with a "whoosh" sound and landed on the table on the other side.

Yan Shi looked up.

Countless comic book scenes, some joyful, some tearful. The ten years that Lin Cai, in the future, went through, which were long and difficult for her, were but a single comic book.

Yan Shi chuckled and, without looking at the table again, walked straight towards the door.

She looked up at the towering gate that seemed to reach into the clouds.

Based on her understanding, Lin Cai should still be outside the door, pushing it open.

This great hall is the interior space of the Death Throne, and this door is the door to the authority of history and record.

Claire is free to decide who comes in, who steps into power, and who changes this history.

Even if one sacrifices a great deal of faith and life force, the transaction between God and ordinary beings is ultimately within God's control.

Claire didn't want Lin Cai to come in, but Lin Cai just couldn't get in.

The other party in the transaction never actually had any initiative.

Yan Shi hates feeling powerless.

She slowly reached for the door. The magic circle markings on the door were icy cold.

“Open,” Yan Shi said.

As soon as he finished speaking, the door was slowly pushed inward.

"Lanlan!" Lin Cai was still pushing the door open from behind. Seeing that the door was finally ajar, she looked anxiously at Yan Shi through the crack: "Lanlan, are you alright? Are you...?"

She bit her lower lip.

Lin Cai had many questions she wanted to ask, but when it came time to speak, she didn't know what to say.

Yan Shi also peeked at Lin Cai through the crack. Lin Cai's face was covered in sweat, her complexion was pale, and her hands had red marks from pushing the door so hard that the door's pattern had been pressed into them.

“Lin Cai,” Yan Shi smiled, “you have done your best.”

Lin Cai: "Lanlan, I..." She lowered her head and blinked hard to stop the tears from falling.

Regardless of the timeline, she always felt powerless.

Yan Shi reached through the gap and patted Lin Cai's fluffy head. "Don't blame yourself. My future self did it voluntarily."

"Lin Cai, you've already done a great job. So please don't revise the comic anymore."

Modifying historical records, which is essentially modifying comics, requires a great deal of faith and vitality.

Yan Shi estimated that all the faith that Lin Cai gained from saving the world last time and the comic series would be used up in this project.

If that's not enough, Lin Cai will sacrifice her own life force as well.

Claire is not an easily satisfied goddess.

Yan Shi did not approve of making a deal with God.

Because no god has ever been able to truly save the world.

Those who save the world are just one of the millions of living beings.

Ishmael and Lin Cai have already begun to rewrite history. Everything is different now, and Yan Shi believes she can walk the rest of the road on her own.

For example, right now.

The gap in the main hall's doors widened as they were pushed open, until it was large enough for a person to pass through.

Yan Shi walked out through the gap.

"Lanlan," Lin Cai looked at Yan Shi, "Don't take it too seriously. I... I did it all voluntarily!"

Yan Shi smiled at her and said, "Yes, I know."

As she spoke, she turned to look at the entire hall.

Majestic, towering, and solemn.

Standing in front of the gate, you can't even see the whole thing; the back half is shrouded in a hazy white mist.

Yan Shi walked to the door again, took out the spatial gap key that Dong Tong had given her from her storage space, and placed her hand on the door.

“I want to take this with me,” she said softly.

The hall trembled slightly, and the invisible light of laws fell upon the key in Yan Shi's hand. The miniature model of the banquet hall inside the box began to collapse, and a halberd was spat out of the box and landed on the ground.

Yan Shi: ...

She said the Deathly Halberd was missing; she had assumed it had been eaten by the Death Throne, but it turned out it had been eaten by this spatial rift.

Author's Note: The god accompanying Guan Yunji on her second visit to Claire was Yan Qing, who wielded the power of war and judgment and possessed abundant martial virtue.