Had Fan Zeng uncovered some terrible secret? One so dire it demanded not just his death, but the total eradication of his existence?
If the goal was merely to silence him, killing him would have sufficed.
To achieve complete annihilation where even soul resurrection is impossible—this clearly targets gods, likely fearing they might summon Fan Zeng and uncover some secret from him.
But couldn't one simply witness Fan Zeng's entire life through historical records to learn what secret was being hidden?
Not necessarily. Given the appearance of that portal, which remains impassable, anything said on the other side would remain unknown.
If Fan Zeng can't be summoned, perhaps someone else might provide useful information.
This person—Long Ju—was also seen by Brunhilde, always at Xiang Yu's side until he entered the portal.
Summoning him should pose no issue.
However—
[No soul detected for this individual]
Once again, she received the same response.
What was going on? Could it be that after entering the portal, they had been completely annihilated?
She tried summoning others.
[No soul detected for this individual]
[No soul detected for this individual]
[No soul detected for this individual]
[No soul detected for this individual]
[No soul detected for this individual]
"Were they all silenced?"
After checking five people in a row and receiving identical responses, Brunhilde's heart sank.
The next moment, she performed a mass facial recognition scan on the remaining hundreds who had just entered the portal and attempted a bulk summoning.
The result was—
[No soul detected for this individual]
[No soul detected for this individual]
A flood of identical pop-up messages made cold sweat trickle down her face.
Had the souls of hundreds of subordinates been utterly destroyed? Was Xiang Yu, the Hegemon King of Western Chu, truly this ruthless?
If he really was, then some of the historical records might indeed be accurate.
According to those texts, whenever Xiang Yu led his troops to conquer a city, he often committed atrocities beyond comprehension—massacring the entire population.
A thought crossed Brunhilde's mind, and she attempted to summon a group of black-armored soldiers.
After identification, she tried summoning them again.
[No soul detected for this individual]
Same result. Had those black-armored soldiers also been disposed of?
"Sister, could it be that entering that portal somehow blocks detection?"
Randgriz, who had been silent until now, proposed this hypothesis.
"That's impossible! This is the call of the Akashic Records of the world. As long as they exist in this world, in this universe, no matter how well hidden, they cannot evade summoning. The only reason for no response is if their souls have been completely obliterated—beyond any possibility of resurrection. That's the only scenario where no reaction occurs."
Brunhilde's voice was loud and agitated, as if she found her sister's foolish assumption utterly laughable.
Yet, deep down, she shared Randgriz's suspicion—she just refused to believe it. And she couldn't believe it.
Because it was an impossibility. This was the Akashic Records, which documented everything in the universe.
Anything that existed in this cosmos would be recorded within them.
Besides, didn't these individuals have historical records of their activities? That proved they had existed in this world.
If they had existed here, then as long as their souls hadn't been utterly destroyed after death, summoning them through the Akashic Records should always be possible.
If they couldn't be summoned, it meant their souls had been reduced to cosmic dust—hence, no soul could be detected.
What? Could it be that these souls had somehow escaped the universe recorded by the Akashic Records?
That was even more impossible!
Absolutely impossible!
The only explanation for this outcome was an act of unimaginable brutality—a large-scale annihilation of souls to conceal something beyond comprehension.
If that were the case, the number of souls erased likely far exceeded Brunhilde's worst fears.
Taking a deep breath, Brunhilde summoned a complex interface and began rapidly tapping away with both hands.
At this moment, she seemed to transform into a hacker.
Finally, as she slammed down on a button, more windows popped up, flooding the screen with vast amounts of data.
At the same time, Brunhilde's pupils darted rapidly across the screen.
[No soul detected for this individual]
[Soul detected for this individual]
[No soul detected for this individual]
[Soul detected for this individual]
...
The more information appeared, the more horrified Brunhilde became—there was so much of it that it sent chills down her spine.
Currently, she was filtering a specific time period: 259 BC to 202 BC. These two dates held significance—
The former marked the birth of the First Emperor, while the latter was the recorded death date of Xiang Yu, the Hegemon King of Western Chu.
Her intuition told her that these two figures had some hidden connection, which was why she had chosen this timeframe for her search. And indeed, the results sent a wave of dread through her.
She conducted a comprehensive census of souls from this era in the Eastern nation, only to find that a staggering number of souls were undetectable—not just among soldiers, but also among countless ordinary civilians.
The periods with the largest-scale disappearances of souls almost always coincided with major wars during the late Warring States period.
Hmm? There were also instances outside the Warring States period—specifically during the establishment of the Qin Dynasty. One particular period saw the most horrifying number of disappearances, with millions of souls vanishing abruptly.
This period seemed to align exactly with the First Emperor's order to construct the Great Wall.
At this moment, Brunhilde felt her scalp tingle.
A thought occurred to her—the First Emperor had sought immortality, sought to become a god. Could he have resorted to some dark path?
If this dark path required the consumption of vast numbers of souls, then the complete disappearance of so many people's souls… could they have been sacrificed?
And if someone could erase human souls on such a massive scale, it would mean the First Emperor wielded power beyond human comprehension.
If that were the case, how could the Qin Dynasty have collapsed so suddenly? And why was Xiang Yu the main force behind its downfall?
If the two were truly connected, then the fall of the Qin Dynasty might have been intentional—an attempt to conceal something, allowing them to lie dormant in the shadows.
Adjusting the historical time node once more—this time to the period of the Great Wall's construction—Brunhilde prepared to investigate.
Confirm!
Yet another anomaly occurred.
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