Absolute Choice
chapter-503-30041322

"Until a particular day that was twenty-seven thousand years ago, Transcendence entered the greatest civil war it had ever had in its three thousand years of history. The reason and events of the civil war were rather complicated and interesting story but since Darling doesn't have the patience, I won't go into detail."

The Infernal Queen suddenly gave up her 'aloof' act and switched back to her ambiguous address as a coquettish smile suffused the corners of her lips.

It was as though she had discovered her 'conscience'. An important civil war that she could have padded with hundreds of words had been skipped?

Shi Xiaobai was surprised when he heard that but he was not overjoyed. Instead, he looked inquisitively at the Infernal Queen. Why did he not believe that she would be in any way 'considerate'?

Indeed, a cunning smile flashed in the Infernal Queen's eyes. She said, "That's because the story that follows will be even more complicated."

Shi Xiaobai rolled his eyes and responded with silence as always. If he 'objected' toward the Infernal Queen's 'playfulness', it would only waste more time.

Indeed, the Infernal Queen seemed to be bound by the rules and could only pause for a moment. She continued, "The civil war that happened twenty-seven thousand years ago was the most important turning point for the Transcendents or even the entire Transcendental World. The civil war caused Transcendence to splinter."

"Following that, nearly half of the Transcendents left Transcendence collectively, moving to the south of Transcendence to establish a new country. As it was a distance away from the Transcendence Holy Tree, the new country was called D'ya and the residents of D'ya began calling themselves the D'yaeans!"

"There were always tiny conflicts between Transcendence and D'ya but both parties possessed the ability of the Transcendental Nine Transformations. Hence, no one acted out in full force, afraid that a third party might benefit from their internecine struggle. As such, more than a century passed until...an unprecedented disease swept through D'ya!"

The Infernal Queen chuckled at that point as she continued, "In the historical story that follows, Darling has already read it, right?"

Shi Xiaobai nodded when he heard the question. Back when he had asked the Infernal Queen about the Infernal King's Mandate, she had pointed out a history book for him. It had details that connected with what the Infernal Queen had just said.

When D'ya experienced an unprecedented infectious disease, Prince D'yaba was infected, he was quarantined in a sealed-off space with a large number of other infectees, which he called 'hell'.

With his strong will, D'yaba managed to survive 'hell' and later led the 'devil-like' infectees who had survived to establish the Infernal domain of the future.

And on the other side, D'yaji also began to establish the nascent state of the Celestial domain.

Later, when the Infernal King, D'yaba, realized that the sickness was conspired by his elder brother, D'yaji, he was immediately incensed.

Therefore, the first Infernal King and the Celestial King had an irreconcilable vendetta. Hence, all ruling Infernal Kings had the mandate of killing the ruling Celestial King!

That was the history written in the tiny book but it was a rather simple description of the events. It felt like quite a bit of details were missing.

"The scale of the infection gradually increased, with more than half of the people infected. Due to the dire circumstances, the uninfected citizens were forced to abandon the infected land and collectively move to the north. There, they established a new kingdom. And more than half the citizens that remained in the south died. However, there was a tiny portion who survived."

"The D'yaeans, who were infected, experienced various transformations to their bodies. They were originally green-skinned dwarves but not only did their skin turn black after the infection, they would be covered in wrinkles making them look extremely ugly. Numerous thorns and horns would grow around their body making them look like devils."

"Therefore, after D'yaba reestablished his kingdom to the west, calling it the country of devils that come from the burning hells, he renamed the D'yaeans to the 'Infernals', and called himself the Infernal King!"

The Infernal Queen chuckled and continued, "And on the other side, the D'yaeans that moved to the cold north did not escape the calamity. The infection spread once again and this time, it could not be stopped!"

"But strangely, the symptoms of the infected D'yaeans in the north were unlike the originally southern D'yaeans. Instead of having their skin turn black and ugly, it was the complete opposite. In the north, their green skin gradually turned white after the infection. Their short statures also grew taller and they began to become better looking. A pair of pure white wings grew on their backs, making them resemble the legendary angels."

"Hence, the northern D'yaeans considered the infection as a metamorphosis. They were willing to endure the pain that came from the infection and similarly, after more than half their people died, brand new D'yaeans were born."

"After hearing D'yaba term himself the 'Infernal King' and his establishment of the Infernal domain, D'yaji began terming himself the 'Celestial King'. He renamed the northern D'yaeans to the 'Celestials' and called his kingdom the 'Celestial domain'!"

A civil war that resulted in rifts among the Transcendents eventually split into the Transcendents and D'yaeans. Following that, an infection caused the D'yaeans to split again into the northern and southern factions. Due to the effects of the infected surroundings, the southern D'yaeans turned ugly like infernal devils before moving to the west, while the northern D'yaeans transformed into entities as beautiful as angels. Hence, the birth of the Infernals and Celestials!

This was the matter that the Infernal Queen had spent voluminous hundreds of words on depicting. In fact, it could have been finished in about a hundred words but unfortunately, the narration of a story is not an expository list of bullet points. There would always be some necessary or unnecessary details added that would pad the story making it bloat up.

But in short, twenty-seven thousand years ago, the three major factions—Transcendence, Infernal domain, and the Celestial domain entered its nascent establishment. And most shocking of all, the three races and three countries came from the same root. They were all the same weak green-skinned dwarves of the D'ya clan.

However, the Infernal Queen's story clearly did not end here. She continued, "The infection between the Celestials and Infernals had not only changed their bodies. It had also made them completely lose the favor of the Transcendence Holy Tree. They were no longer able to use the Transcendental Nine Transformations; hence, the Infernals and Celestials were no longer powerful enough to fight the Transcendents. They could only be deemed as subjects and hide the fact that they were actually D'yaeans as well. But due to the enmity between the first Infernal King, D'yaba, and the first Celestial King, D'yaji, the Infernals and Celestials began a war that lasted two centuries until the third Celestial King that was inclined toward peace used his Will of the King to forcefully retreat and surrender his troops. He signed a submissive one-sided deed with the Infernal domain that had the unfair clause of the Celestials being isolated forever. Furthermore, with Transcendence intervening, the war between the Infernals and Celestials finally came to an end. The Transcendental World finally returned to the peaceful situation of Transcendence ruling over all.

Twenty-seven thousand years ago, the Transcendents, who were favored by the Transcendence Holy Tree, were still the strongest race in the Transcendental World!

The Infernal Queen continued, "But after thousands of years passed, with the Celestial domain isolating itself, it weakened the stage on which history unfolded. As for the Transcendence Holy Tree, it gradually weakened over the millennia."

"The Transcendents' Transcendence King also weakened from a warrior with the seventh transformation to the sixth or fifth transformation...until the Infernal King's strength gradually exceeded the Transcendence King's! The Infernal King that could not bear the boredom began committing 'atrocities' in the world."

"However, he did not dare offend Transcendence; hence, there was no war between the two races. However, it also gave rise to 'Bravehearts' that were determined to slay the Infernal King! So, the Transcendental World became one in which the Celestial domain had hidden away, the Infernal domain gradually becoming stronger by the day, and Transcendence weakening by the day. As such, another seven thousand years passed until a day twenty thousand years ago..."

Shi Xiaobai was astonished when he heard that. "Seven thousand years passed just like that"?

Although it had only proceeded to a point twenty thousand years ago, it undoubtedly made Shi Xiaobai feel excited.

Heavens knew that the story of the Infernal Queen was as long and ugly as a foot-binding cloth. The crux of the issue was that she had been laying the foundations of the background story without reaching the interesting climax. How could anyone endure that?

However, Shi Xiaobai knew that in common story narration, a story required a cause and development before it could reach a climax. Expounding the boring details was a necessary process for the final excitement.

However, as a listener or a reader, one is unable to understand the difficulties of a narrator. They only have one thought, that the laying of foundations isn't as nice as the climax! Laying of foundations is boring filler! Laying the foundations is just padding the story!

After one round of climax and into the next bout of foundation laying, one would even suspect if the narrator had changed. Why was the difference in excitement so huge? But in fact, it was not the narrator's problem but the problem lied in the story itself!

The little bitch that was the Infernal Queen loved foreplay! She kept dragging out the climax for the listener (readers)!

Well, women come in all shapes and sizes. It was not as though no woman likes to have sufficient foreplay before climaxing. The Infernal Queen was just one person that went to the extremes.

However, the story had finally been pushed forward seven thousand years! It was also proceeding to another stage in the foreplay, just like moving from the top to the bottom. 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'.