This intuition made him feel uneasy.
It's like when you go out and always feel like you've forgotten something, but you can't remember it no matter how hard you try, until you realize much later that you really forgot your wallet.
That intuition isn't unfounded; it's a reminder from your subconscious.
Amid the cheers, Qingchen stood still, head bowed in thought, trying to find the source of his unease in his past memories.
What is it?
What clues did I miss that made me so uneasy?
In an instant, Qingchen's pupils narrowed.
Everyone's movements became slow motion. When Xiao Qi cheered, beads of sweat fell from his hair, dancing and hovering in the air.
A dagger was stuck in the neck of an orc, and crimson blood slowly spurted out.
The whole world seemed to slow down suddenly.
However, it's not that the world is slowing down, but that Qingchen's thinking is speeding up!
Where should we look for clues?
Qingchen felt as if he had returned to the origin of the story, to that narrow and dilapidated military and civilian alley.
He was still sitting under the awning in front of the supermarket when an uncle passed by, carrying four freshly bought sesame seed cakes. The freshly baked cakes were damp with moisture, and a layer of white mist appeared inside the transparent plastic bag.
At the end of the alley, bus number 103 flashed past the narrow alley entrance, and a woman in a beige trench coat ran towards the bus stop with an umbrella.
But this wasn't the clue he was looking for.
Qingchen stirred his memories, passing through a hazy fog, the contents of which he couldn't see or approach.
At that moment, a voice rang in Qingchen's ears.
He seemed to have returned to that dimly lit safe house, where the tritium lamps on the walls emitted a faint glow.
Black Spider calmly said to him, "Starting sixty-four years ago, the Roosevelt royal family required each duke to present one forbidden item as tribute every year. Currently, many of these forbidden items are hidden in the hands of the royal family, and they are rarely seen being used."
Qing Chen suddenly woke up!
Yes, in 1964, 256 forbidden items were gathered in the hands of the Virtuoso. And this was only the tribute from the four dukes. The Virtuoso himself did not know how many forbidden items he had.
However, even as the orcish army was on the verge of defeat, Qing Chen did not see those forbidden items.
According to the information given by the Fifth Princess, the forbidden object is to be used to contain the forbidden object 'amber'.
Even if the amber that can seal the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons needs to devour one forbidden object a year, it only consumes a few dozen. What about the rest?
Now that the Virtuoso is about to lose, why doesn't he use it?
Even when drowning, people will want to grab onto straw, but the Fate Master still keeps those forbidden items hidden.
The war with the Western Continent lasted two or three months, and the Fate Master only managed to produce less than twenty forbidden items in total. Where are the rest?!
Moreover, the Storm Duke has not yet appeared.
Qingchen emerged from the hyper-memory state inherent in his bloodline and saw many members of the parent-teacher association cheering and celebrating. Some people hoarsely vented their pent-up anger, while others collapsed to the ground and cried loudly.
Qing Chen suddenly shouted, "Contract! Move closer to me! Stop celebrating, the battle isn't over yet!"
He wasn't sure what the Virtuoso's next move was, but now was definitely not the time to celebrate.
When he shouted, the parents stopped to look at him. Xiaoqi asked, "What's wrong, boss?"
"Get back to the last line of defense, quick!" Qing Chen didn't have time to explain.
All the parents fell silent. They calmed down and returned to their fighting spirit. Those who were crying suppressed their emotions, wiped away their tears, and stood up!
...
...
The North, beyond the battlefield.
The towering Duke of Storms, draped in a black robe, stood atop a mountain, his eyes tightly closed as if trying to sense something.
Not far away, twelve virtuosos, clad in black robes, stood silently, waiting.
“Fate has been obscured. Some of you can even pinpoint the Marquis of Phoenix City thousands of miles away, while I cannot see what is right beside me,” Duke Storm said calmly. “I suspect that a special being has suddenly appeared on the battlefield, and the fates around him are all concealed… Qing Chen.”
Duke Storm revealed the true principle behind Qing Chen's concealment of destiny: Qing Chen is an existence beyond this world. With him as the center and his life force field as the radius, no one within a hundred kilometers can glimpse the destiny of this land.
Qing Chen is like someone who possesses a halo that shields his fate; wherever he goes, this halo covers him.
Beyond the halo, only his fate becomes blurred, as if covered with a frosted film.
Everything disappears within the halo.
A charlatan whispered, "Has he already transcended the realm of demigods...? Then he is a true god."
Duke Storm calmly replied, "It's alright, today we'll slay a god."
He looked up and saw, on the mountaintop behind the twelve Virtuosos, a series of forbidden objects arranged in order: a wardrobe, a clock, a bracelet, a magic hat, headphones, a human skull, and an eyeball placed in a vessel.
There are a total of 258 items. Some of them have appeared in the society of the Western Continent and are well known. For example, the pair of eyeballs can be transplanted into normal people to give them the ability to see through things; the magic hat can be worn to hear other people's thoughts; and the bracelet can turn people into diamonds.
Some have never appeared before and have always been hidden in the imperial palace of the central capital.
A virtuoso presented a scepter about two meters long. The scepter resembled intertwined white bones, with two withered skeletal hands supporting it at the top. It seemed as if there should be something in their hands, but it was nowhere to be seen.
Another Fate Weaver retrieved the human skull from the forbidden artifacts and handed it to Duke Storm.
Duke Storm took the scepter and placed the human skull on top of it. With a click, the scepter was complete.
He slammed the scepter heavily on the ground.
With a hum, green flames ignited within the skull, and flames flickered deep within the eye sockets.
The skull opened its mouth and took a deep breath, only to see the remaining 256 forbidden items on the ground turn into powder and pour into its mouth.
The Eastern Continent contains extremely terrifying forbidden objects, such as the forbidden object ACE-002 Heaven and Earth Chessboard, which requires the sacrifice of 3,610 lives to be contained.
The forbidden item in the Storm Duke's possession requires the sacrifice of 256 other forbidden items!
No wonder the royal family demanded that the four dukes present the forbidden object; the Virtuoso had been waiting to take possession of this terrifying scepter for a long time.
The next moment, the green flames inside the skull blazed fiercely, its eyes radiated light, the sky shifted, and ribbons of green light meandered across the sky, making it seem as if an eternal polar night had suddenly descended within a radius of a hundred kilometers, with auroras filling the sky.
Duke Storm's eyes also turned green. He stood on the mountain and looked into the distance: "Fate Masters, go to the battlefield and conquer this world completely."
...
...
On the A1 front, April of the Forbidden Tribunal is collecting corpses. If she doesn't, the entire Eastern Continent will become a forbidden land after this battle.
The crows, draped in linen robes, were busy at work when April suddenly cried out in alarm, "What's going on?!"
May looked on curiously: "What's wrong?"
April hesitated before saying, "These corpses seem to have moved, and there's more than one!"
"No way, they're all dead," May said in confusion.
However, as they were talking, the corpses of the orc warriors that had died earlier suddenly moved, and then they slowly got up again.
Despite their festering wounds and blood-soaked bodies, they still cannot move.
Not only that, but the parents who had been dead also got up. Their eyes were devoid of any emotion, and even with their abdomens cut open, they could still move as if they were alive.
April and May shouted, "Oh no! Get out of the battlefield! It's dangerous!"
They didn't know what was happening, but they felt that something terrible was about to happen!
However, after the corpses stood up, they ignored the members of the Forbidden Tribunal and instead ran wildly toward the A5 front with their bodies twisted!
On the A3 front, more orc soldiers rose to their feet, letting out deafening roars towards the sky.
The next second, the more than four thousand giants who had fallen earlier got up.
The whole world seemed to have fallen into hell, grotesque and terrifying.
These resurrected corpses began to run, one by one rushing over mountains and valleys towards the A5 front!
The army of the dead was utterly defeated, yet they retained the strength and power they possessed in life!
Ahead of them lay the corpses of two old monsters, the Fates Masters, whose bodies had been beheaded by Wang Xiaojiu, yet they could still run as headless ghosts, as if they didn't need heads.
March, who had just arrived at the edge of the battlefield, saw this scene and her pupils suddenly contracted: "30,000 beast soldiers and 20,000 parent-teacher association members on the A3 front; 90,000 beast soldiers and over 4,000 giants on the A5 front; and there are more on the A5 front..."
...
...
A5 Front.
At Qing Chen's call, the parents' association and all the reinforcements abandoned their celebrations and retreated to the last line of defense.
Everyone held their breath, observing the battlefield, trying to see what had made Qing Chen so wary.
But after a few minutes, nothing happened.
A family member whispered, "Nothing's wrong."
Xiao Qi said coldly, "Shut your mouth. When has the boss ever missed a chance?"
Even though Qingchen has lost his memory, they still believe in him unconditionally. If Qingchen says there is danger, then there must be danger!
Just then, everyone saw the beast soldier's corpse, which had been lying motionless on the ground outside the defensive perimeter, tremble slightly, and then the beast soldier slowly got up.
Xiaoqi was stunned: "That's not right, I remember it, I broke its neck myself."
The next moment, more and more beast soldiers got up from the ground, some with daggers stuck in their hearts, and some with their faces cleaved open by Wang Xiaojiu. The dead beast soldiers were all 'resurrected'.
Not only that, but the dead soldiers of the Qing clan and members of the parent-teacher association also slowly got up from the ground.
Xiao Qi and the others were horrified. They realized that all these corpses were being controlled by someone behind the scenes and had become undead warriors!
On the A5 defense line alone, there are 120,000 beast soldiers, 160,000 members of the Parents' Association, 60,000 Qing Clan soldiers, and three old monsters who are masters of fate...
If all enemy and friendly forces on the A1 and A3 lines were to resurrect, the number of dead they would face would be terrifying.
On Qingchen's side, there were the parents' association members, the giant, and the fire pit man, all covered in wounds and exhausted from fighting.
Even Chen Zhuoqu, Hu Jingyi, Li Ke, and Wang Xiaojiu won't last much longer.
It turns out that the Fate Master family did so much, even sacrificing all their aerial fortresses, just to create the illusion that the Eastern Continent could win, and then have the Eastern Continent concentrate all its elite forces and trump cards on this battlefield, ultimately turning them into the army of the dead in the hands of the Storm Duke!