Chapter 1 How Did That Key End Up in the Hands of the First Governor?

This was the question that occupied Agatha’s mind most at that moment—because regardless of which historical record one consulted, whether from the perspective of the Frost Queen’s supporters or from the viewpoint of the current city-state authorities, there was one point of agreement regarding the “Uprising” or “Rebellion” of half a century ago: that an irreconcilable conflict existed between the Frost Queen and the rebel army.

The two sides were enemies, with no possibility of understanding or cooperation, let alone any relationship of "inheritance"—so then, why would Queen Lei Nuo La's key be in the hands of the city-state's governor? And why did Winston call it both a "curse" and a "gift"?

Thinking rapidly, Agatha lowered her head, gazing into Winston's eyes: "Was there another truth behind the uprising? Did the Frost Queen and the rebels have some sort of agreement…"

"There was no such dramatic twist, Gatekeeper. Although that certainly sounds like a good story—a mad city-state ruler and a rebel leader admiring each other, using a grand uprising to end the chaos of the previous dynasty and complete the transfer of power and responsibility. Screenwriters and playwrights would love that subject matter, but alas, there’s no such warmth in the real history."

"The Great Uprising was inevitable. The rift between the Mad Queen and the Frost citizens was irreparable. She was once great, but her failure in the Deep Sea Embers Project had pushed the city-state to the brink of collapse. The first governor raised an army against the Queen for the survival of more people. There was no room for peaceful dialogue between them from the start."

"But you're right about one thing. There was indeed a certain 'understanding' between the Queen and the rebels."

"The Queen knew that being overthrown was an unavoidable end, and the rebels also knew that the Queen's mad actions were not simply 'insanity'. She definitely had many secrets."

"So, on the night before her execution, the rebel leader, the first governor, found the imprisoned Queen. He wanted to understand what secrets the Queen was hiding."

"So, the Queen gave him the key and told him—once the execution was over, once her life ended, the person holding the key would naturally know everything."

Winston paused, a mocking and helpless expression on his face. He lowered his head, staring at the brass key in his hand, and after a long silence, he said with a wry smile, "Do you know what her last words to the rebel leader were? Later history books never described it. Only successive governors know these words."

"I tried my best. If you think you can do it, fine. Now it’s your turn—that's what she said after the first governor took the key."

"...Every choice has a price." Agatha sighed softly after hearing this unknown history.

"Gatekeeper," Winston suddenly raised his head, holding up the brass key with a strange smile, "Do you want to try it? Take the key and see the scenery that Lei Nuo La once saw?"

Agatha suddenly hesitated. She stared intently at the key Winston offered, feeling her already slow-moving heart pounding again. A deep pressure spread from the key, as if it contained half a century of darkness and malice—yet after a few seconds of silence and hesitation, she took a light breath and reached out towards the key.

A slightly cool sensation came from her fingertips.

In the next second, countless phantoms suddenly涌out from the endless darkness, chaotic fragments of light and shadow swept over like a storm, filling Agatha's rationality, and in this onslaught of information fragments, visions began to flash through her mind—

In the endless dark sea, some huge and terrifying dark limbs were slowly growing and becoming stronger;

Ancient and chilling gazes looked from the depths of the sea towards the city-state, indifferently surveying the sentient beings of the mortal world like indescribable ancient gods;

Dark and terrifying substances overflowed and surged from the deep sea, transforming into replicas of the real world. In the transformation between虚and实, those substances sometimes turned into shadows, sometimes into entities. The boundless deep sea was densely packed with chaotic and turbid figures, looking up at the city-state with empty eyes;

And in a more distant place, a more dark and deep seabed, the entire world, the entire boundless sea, under hundreds and thousands of city-states, were all shadowy, as if the old world had sunk into that boundless darkness, and abhorrent things were breeding from the ancient corpses, constantly rising, constantly rising…

And deep within these countless visions, Agatha could always feel some kind of "gaze." It was not a gaze, not any kind of will with a clear source. She felt as if she were being stared at by time itself, something older than history, larger than the city-state, even as if it came from the deepest part of this world… staring at herself.

There was no emotion in that "gaze," no malice, and no kindness. It was just staring, like a soulless shell staring at an uninvited guest who had unwittingly stumbled into the truth, and indifferently said—

"Oh, you've come." "Boom!"

Agatha felt a roar in the depths of her consciousness. Her remaining sanity made her struggle to float up through the countless overlapping visions, and in this process, her perception and thinking were suppressed to the extreme—she could feel that there was more information, more fragments of thought, surrounding her, which might even contain the will or words left by Queen Lei Nuo La, but she could neither see nor understand it.

By the time she regained control of her body, all the visions had ended. She opened her eyes in the dark chaos and saw Governor Winston still in front of her, even still holding the last posture of offering her the brass key—time seemed to have only passed by a second.

She had returned to this strange, wriggling dark space… Wait, no, something had changed!

Agatha suddenly noticed the strange changes in her vision and raised her head in horror, looking around her.

The darkness in all directions seemed to have receded a lot compared to the beginning, and those black, shapeless things that were slowly wriggling and deforming in the darkness seemed to be gradually凝and幻化into实体. Between this constantly wriggling虚and实, she saw many things that had grown out of thin air from the surrounding space—they looked like dry branches, but their scale densely filled the entire space. The black "branches" bridged and gathered in the nothingness, and weak flashes of light traveled between them, like…

Swift capsules being transported rapidly in steam pipelines.

And deep within this complex, thorn-like network of "branches," through the layers of overlapping phantoms, Agatha saw a huge…limb.

It was a robust limb like a tentacle, its enormous scale like a giant pillar supporting the sky and the earth. The surface of the giant pillar was covered with dark blue紋, and the patterns formed by those紋…looked like countless eyes.

Mental pollution? Illusion? Approaching madness?

Countless thoughts flashed through Agatha's mind. She immediately closed her eyes, only to find that the "giant pillar" that supported the sky and the earth still remained in her vision. She tried to pray to the god of death and use divine magic to stabilize her will, but found that she was sober and not showing any signs of being侵蝕.

After several rapid emergency treatments failed, she realized one thing—

She wasn't crazy, but in a clear and rational state, she was seeing a "scenery" that was located somewhere unknown, whether it was real or not.

She stood in this magnificent and terrifying "scenery," as if she had lost her ability to think, until Governor Winston's voice pulled her back: "Oh, it seems you saw it."

The middle-aged governor said, slowly raising his head and sighing softly, "It's spectacular, isn't it?"

Agatha hesitated and lowered her head, only then noticing that what Winston was "leaning on" was not a tree stump at all—it was actually part of the surrounding huge "branch" structure, an end extending from the branch, and its upper part still had vague black structures, extending all the way to the deepest part of this strange space.

"These… these branches…"

"This is the thinking of the Ancient Gods. Its embodiment in the eyes of us mortals is this appearance," Winston said lightly. "You're only touching the key for the first time, so you can only see very little, but I've been living with this key day and night for more than a decade… It tells me things far beyond your imagination."

Agatha understood Winston's words dully, as if falling into a dream, and subconsciously repeated, "The Ancient Gods'… thinking?"

"Isn't it incredible? These branch-like things don't really exist. What you're seeing is probably just a thought that flashed through a god's mind at a certain moment, and that thought is strongly imprinted here, transforming into the vast structure you see—oh, don't try to decipher anything from it, don't try to understand the patterns of the light flashes, you'll go mad."

Agatha suddenly turned her head, "Has anyone gone mad because of it?"

"Yes," Winston smiled, "Have you forgotten? Her name was Lei Nuo La…"

Agatha was speechless for a moment. After a few more seconds, she whispered, "Then… what is that thing outside the 'Thicket'?"

"That is the Gloomlord," Winston said softly, "A small part of him,刺into the city-state."