Elite Mages’ Academy (Web Novel)

Chapter 441: Time Paradox

All this time, archaeologists had not given up on searching for evidence of the existence of the legendary lost civilization of Atlantis. The debris found in the Pacific Ocean had obviously shocked the world.

Xiao Lin was a little confused. He raised his phone again and said, “Debris? Could it be the ruins we were in at that time? Well, it’s possible. I remember that when I entered, there were indeed many artifacts and slabs with engravings of various characters. Now that the ruins have collapsed under the water, it is understandable that some things now float to the surface-”

“No, I’m not talking about that!” Gu Xiaoyue’s tone was very strange, and once again she interrupted Xiao Lin urgently, ” Look at the second addition! The second addition of the paper!”

“Uh.”

Xiao Lin flipped open the newspaper and discovered that they had used two pages to cover the topic. The second part reported on the various expert analyses on the discovered debris. High-definition color photos of the debris were also published in the newspaper. It was as Xiao Lin had expected. From the looks of it, it did belong to the temple ruins.

“It does appear so. It might not be the hall that we went to, but it’s probably the site where Atlantis sank back then. There must be some relics in the vicinity that have survived the ages. That’s not surprising,” Xiao Lin said.

“The contents!” Gu Xiaoyue said anxiously. “Look at the contents of those photos!”

She meant the photos of the artifacts. It was not known what materials were used on the murals, but there were few signs of corrosion despite thousands of years of being under the sea. Although they were a little blurry, the outlines could still be clearly identified.

Xiao Lin squinted and looked carefully, and after a few minutes, his expression started to change. His phone fell from his hand to the ground with a loud clang. He was dumbfounded, and mumbled, “It can’t be! That’s impossible!”

Although the murals were sporadic, what was engraved on them could clearly be seen. There was a man equipped with armor floating in the center. On his body was something similar to a cage. There were three people around him, and it was obvious that two of them were female and the other was male.

On another engraving, a huge dragon was hovering in the air, with dozens of humans kneeling on the ground. Then, they began to carve these murals under the order of the black dragon and also built a new temple. In the end, the black dragon disappeared from the temple.

Xiao Lin was speechless for a long time. He picked up the phone as urgent sounds started to come from it, and said bitterly, “It’s a coincidence? It must be a coincidence. How is this possible?”

“The authenticity of the murals have been verified. Chronologically, it is from tens of thousands of years ago, just about in line with the end of Atlantis.” Gu Xiaoyue was calm.

“These drawings are scenes of us when we sealed Poseidon? It seems like the black dragon asked the surviving humans to record this. But… But…” Xiao Lin did not know what to say. The debris originated from tens of thousands of years ago. Why would they appear on them?

Gu Xiaoyue was silent for a moment, then asked softly, “Xiao Lin, did we change the course of history?”

Xiao Lin was having a slight headache. He thought for a moment and said, “When we broke the wall of time and entered Atlantis, history must have already changed. However, we still sealed Poseidon, saved Onyxia and the last surviving humans. So, history must have reverted to its normal course. Our ability to return to modern society is the best proof of this.”

“Say, if we didn’t act back then, if we didn’t seal Poseidon and didn’t break the wall of time, what would have happened?”

Xiao Lin was stupefied again.

Back then, Onyxia was on the verge of death, and Atlantis had sunk. Although there were surviving humans, if Poseidon wanted to turn the world into an ocean, any surviving humans would be forced into slavery. The entire Earth will become his playground, and it would be the end of the human race.

According to what Silverlight had told them, at that time, several brave men learned the Shining Seal Technique and planned to seal Poseidon at the cost of their life. Silverlight went to Planet Norma quickly and was not able to witness the result of the final seal. However, in all of history, there had never been a character like Poseidon, so they took it for granted and assumed the seal was successful.

In fact, the whole time when they were in the corridor of time, they had not seen anyone else coming. If they left it unattended, would Poseidon really have been sealed?

Xiao Lin now understood what Gu Xiaoyue was trying to tell him. Even though he could hardly believe it, or found it difficult to accept, he still smiled bitterly and said, “Do you think that we are part of the real history? In real history, it was us who sealed Poseidon, which allowed human civilization to re-emerge? In other words, you and I had always been and had become saviors of mankind?”

The half-ridiculous bad joke in his last sentence did not make Gu Xiaoyue laugh. She was a little confused and said, “I don’t know. If this is true, then, what was the original history? In a history without us crossing the corridor of time, what truly happened then? Could it be said that before this, everything we did was destined?”

This was the reason Gu Xiaoyue felt confused. If people were told that everything they did was preordained, it would cause anyone to break down.

Xiao Lin had no way of answering this question. Even if Silverlight were here, she would not be able to answer it. It was like whether the chicken or egg came first–a time paradox. Xiao Lin did not know how to explain.

“At least we are still alive, and the human race still exists!” Feeling the helplessness of the girl on the other end of the phone line, Xiao Lin mellowed his tone and said, “Regardless of the truth of history, history is history. It has already happened, and will not be repeated, so don’t think about it too much. We still create our own futures!”

“Yes, I know. It’s just hard to accept for the time being.” Gu Xiaoyue let out a sigh.

Xiao Lin knew that she needed some time to ease her emotions, so he let her be. After hanging up, he read the article carefully. Based on the contents of the murals, experts had begun to make various guesses about the Atlantis of that time. Xiao Lin found it very interesting to read this news as a witness of history.

Although Gu Xiaoyue felt tangled inside by the relationship between the past and the present, Xiao Lin was open about it. The past was history, after all. This episode did not have much impact on him. He soon packed his luggage and embarked on the journey back to school.

Almost at the same time, in the office of the Earth Division, Wang Yuelan was looking at rows and rows of forms on her computer screen. She muttered in shock, “Impossible! This is impossible!”