Absolute Choice
chapter-502-30041322

Although he felt his scalp tingle and his body felt discomfort, it was something he had to ultimately face. Hence, Shi Xiaobai could only bite the bullet and ask, "What choice?"

The Infernal Queen said with a coquettish smile, "No rush. Before talking about the choice, let me tell Darling a story."

Shi Xiaobai waved his hands and said, "You can cut out the story. This King doesn't have the patience at this moment in time."

The Infernal Queen blinked her eyes and said, "If the story isn't told, there's no way to tell the choice. This is also a rule. Darling, are you trying to make things difficult for me?"

Shi Xiaobai rolled his eyes and said, "Since it's a rule, why do you need to ask? Just go straight to the story."

The Infernal Queen blinked her eyes once again and said, "But the story is somewhat long. I'm afraid Darling might lose his patience?"

"Since the choice can't be revealed without the story, This King has to listen to it even if he lacks patience, right?"

Shi Xiaobai felt extremely speechless. Suddenly, he realized something was amiss as he said in enlightenment, "Are you stalling for time?"

The Infernal Queen stuck her tongue out and said 'cutely', "Oh no! I've been discovered!"

The cute expression of a young girl on that gorgeous but sensuous face of maturity made Shi Xiaobai immediately feel a deep sense of malevolence. Furthermore, the Infernal Queen's lack of technique at stalling time had rendered Shi Xiaobai very speechless.

Shi Xiaobai tried his best to calm down as he said in a deep tone, "Quick, tell the story. If you drag this on any longer, readers will be cursing you till the cows come home!"

The Infernal Queen blinked her eyes as she continued saying with a 'cute' expression, "What is Darling talking about? Why can't I understand a single thing?"

Shi Xiaobai felt his scalp tingle as he shouted, "Story! Quick, tell the story! This King wants to listen to the story!"

"Darling should have said so earlier."

The Infernal Queen once again said in a malicious 'cute' manner, "Since Darling is so eager to listen to the story, I'll undertake the difficult task of doing so, alright? However, the story is a bit long. Darling, you must be very, very patient."

Shi Xiaobai looked up into the sky and felt extremely distressed and upset. He could already predict that the Infernal Queen, who had targeted him maliciously, would act shamelessly by showcasing her skill at padding out her story. She would be able to pad a story that could be done in a few hundred words into one that needed a few thousand words or even more than ten thousand words. The word 'padding' is truly chief of all evil!

"Sigh, tell the story properly. No, speak properly! Please!"

Shi Xiaobai lowered his head to 'beg for mercy'.

"Since you are so sincere in your pleading, This Queen will temporarily let you off."

The Infernal Queen gave a complacent smile and once again changed her form of address. Following that, with a coquettish smile, her expression turned slightly aloof. The speed at which she changed her expression left Shi Xiaobai somewhat astounded.

The 'aloof' Infernal Queen seemed to truly switch into storytelling mode as she said with flair, "First, you need to understand one point. The world in the Nine Revolutions Transcendental Tower's seventh level might be a world created by a program, but it is also a world that has truly existed in the past."

"It's a real world called 'Transcendental World'. That means that Leonis, the gatekeeper giant and the Infernal King you replaced, as well as the Celestial King and the Hexstar Bravehearts, are all figures who really existed in history."

"The world of the seventh level that the lot of you arrived in, is at a particular point in time of the Transcendental World's long history. Of course, the arrival of you and your partners would result in various changes in the replicated historical scene. However, these changes are not the things that had truly happened in the past. And the story that This Queen will be telling next is the true history of the Transcendental World!"

Shi Xiaobai gaped slightly. He had previously heard of the fact that the world of the seventh level was a world that had truly existed. Therefore, he was not too astonished. But didn't she say she was telling a story? Why did it become a historical lecture? How long would the depiction of the history of a world take?

Shi Xiaobai felt an ominous sense of foreboding but he knew that only soft tactics worked on the 'little bitch' that was the Infernal Queen. The more he spoke back, the more deliberate she would be in her actions. Hence, he only nodded in silence.

The Infernal Queen continued acting aloof as she looked at Shi Xiaobai in a deadpan manner. However, the sly smiling intent in her eyes could not be concealed. She said rigidly, "The story traces back to thirty thousand years ago. The Transcendental World was a desolate world that had yet to develop."

"Back then, the lands were infertile and desolate. It was a world filled with hunger and illness. For food and land, various races engaged in unending wars. To kill or be killed was the main theme of that era. But in this period where blood flowed like rivers, a towering tree filled with vitality suddenly appeared."

"Some said that the towering tree was a tiny sapling that grew into its towering appearance within a day. Others said that they had witnessed the towering tree fall from the sky. There were even others who said that the towering tree had burst out from the ground and that it came from the deep abyss."

"How the towering tree appeared remains a mystery to this day but the appearance of the towering tree had brought extremely clear changes to the desolate world. The desolate land suddenly became brimming with life. Plants grew quickly and wild animals multiplied in great numbers."

"The cold and vile weather that remained constant in the desolate world turned for the better as it welcomed its first spring. The appearance of the towering tree solved the problem of hunger. War did not cease immediately, but it was alleviated."

"Various races finally began attempting to step into the realm of 'civilization'. And the one that developed the fastest was the D'ya clan whose land was closest to the towering tree. It could even be said that they had metamorphosized."

"The D'ya clan was nourished by the towering tree and it gradually became the strongest race in the desolate world. Due to the favor they received from the towering tree, they added the words 'Transcendence' to the tree. They changed the name of their clan to 'Transcendents'."

The Infernal Queen finally paused after saying so much in one go.

Shi Xiaobai was rolling his eyes inwardly. He had guessed that the Infernal Queen would drag out the story to talk about the so-called history of a world but he had never expected for her to begin from the point of a desolate era when races had yet to fully develop, despite the story containing quite a few shocking pieces of information.

He had already guessed that the towering tree was the Transcendence's Transcendence Holy Tree. However, he never expected that the Transcendence Holy Tree had such a great history. Furthermore, the fact that the Transcendents were originally the D'ya clan left questions in Shi Xiaobai's mind.

That was because he had once seen a historical treatise in the Infernal King's chamber. In it, it mentioned that the first Infernal King and the Celestial King were princes of the D'ya clan. And the two princes of the Infernals and the Celestials had fallen out, eventually leading their own divisions of the D'ya clan.

But in the 'history' mentioned by the Infernal Queen, the D'ya clan had become the former version of the Transcendents? What was going on?

Shi Xiaobai was puzzled but he did not ask a thing. He knew that if he were to ask another question, the history lecture would go on for endless days. He did not wish to 'invite death unto himself'.

The Infernal Queen had deliberately stopped for a long time but after realizing that Shi Xiaobai had not posed any questions, she continued, "The towering tree is the Transcendence Holy Tree that you saw when you came to the seventh level's world."

"However, at that point in time, the Transcendence Holy Tree had already been besmirched with too many toxins. It was no longer as divine as it was at the beginning. But thirty thousand years ago, the Transcendence Holy Tree was like a miracle of God."

"The D'ya clan, that was closest to the Transcendence Holy Tree, were green-skinned dwarves initially. But after receiving the favor of the holy tree, they gradually began to possess extraordinary power. At the Braveheart Martial Arts Tournament, you had seen Leonis and Moya transform themselves into larger forms and their physical attributes had increased severalfold. They called it the first, second or third form but in fact, that is the 'Transcendental Nine Transformations' ability the Transcendence Holy Tree had given them."

"In the first batch of Transcendents, there were even some of the strongest that could reach the seventh transformation but by the time of the world of the seventh level, the Transcendence Holy Tree had already lost most of its divine might. Reaching the fourth transformation was enough to crown Leonis king."

"Imagine, every Transcendent, who had suddenly been given the 'Transcendental Nine Transformations' in the desolate era, had the ability to use Leonis's fourth transformation. So how powerful would the Transcendents be? Therefore, in a few short decades, the Transcendents became the strongest race in the lands. They were deemed the best of all other races. As such, the desolate world gained its name—Transcendental World!"

The Infernal Queen was copious and fluent as she spent more than a few hundred words to finally explain the origins of the 'Transcendental World'. And clearly, the so-called history story had only just begun.

Shi Xiaobai felt his scalp tingle. Although the Infernal Queen wasn't bad at telling stories and she had managed to communicate the 'dignified importance of history', he was in no mood for a 'history lesson'. Furthermore, it was a history lesson of a world of other races. It rendered him very speechless.

Shi Xiaobai tried his best to maintain his calm and pretended to appear patient. He could not let the Infernal Queen see his impatience or the 'little bitch' would surely go from bad to worse.

The Infernal Queen paused for several seconds once again as though she was waiting for him to pose questions. However, after seeing Shi Xiaobai maintain his silence, she found it pointless and nearly shattered her 'aloof' image. She had managed to forcefully maintain her facade as she continued saying rigidly, 'The Transcendents established Transcendence and controlled the Transcendental World. The other races were made subjects and the lands ushered in three thousand years of peace until one day..."

When Shi Xiaobai heard that, his eyes lit up slightly.

He thought to himself that his strategy of 'pretending to be patient and not pose any question' was correct.

Hey, the story has been pushed forward by three thousand years!

Eh, that's not right.

To have three thousand years pass by from thirty thousand years ago, wouldn't that mean there's still another twenty-seven thousand years?

There was still another twenty-seven thousand years of history to go.

Why the hell would This King be happy for!?

The Infernal Queen was unaware of the mental gymnastics that Shi Xiaobai was undergoing but she still delivered a very sharp, fatal blow.

"Until a particular day that was twenty-seven thousand years ago..." IChooseDogLeading (我选择狗带) when read in Chinese sounds like I Choose Go Die. It was a meme that resulted from a former member of famous Korean boygroup, EXO, TAO (Huang Zitao). At a concert, there was a part in a rap that where he said "", but due to a mispronunciation, it sounded like he will not easily choose to be led by dogs. This phrase now means 'I'd rather die/I choose death'.