In Bartley’s memory, the stone tablet on the shore and the oval stone in the middle of the lake weren’t that far apart. But the moment he stepped onto this Yulan-colored bridge, everything vanished...

The black lake was gone without a trace. The distant black earth hid itself away. What unfolded before his eyes was an endless Yulan light-bridge, and underneath it flowed a vast, boundless river. The murky current also seemed to stretch on forever. At this point, Bartley felt that calling it a river wasn’t right at all—it was more like an ocean.

Above him was pure void. A starless emptiness, nothing but nothingness.

There was no end ahead. Bartley really wanted to know whether the entrance still existed behind him, but he didn’t dare look. He still remembered what Wutong had said—once he stepped onto the bridge, he must never look back.

He couldn’t turn around, but he also didn’t dare go forward. So Bartley simply watched the great river under the bridge. The surface was very calm. He couldn’t tell where the current came from or where it was going. Without this bridge, Bartley felt he’d most likely lose himself completely in that river.

After watching for a while, Bartley noticed something strange. Ghostly spirits kept rising out of the river, darting from the water’s surface like fish, then diving back into the depths. Their races in life were so many that even Bartley could only recognize a small portion of them. All of them, without exception, drifted in the river as if they’d lost their minds.

By following those drifting spirits, Bartley finally confirmed the river’s direction. In this place where there was no sense of east, west, north, or south, the water flowed from the left side of the bridge to the right, because those spirits were constantly drifting rightward.

“What… what is this place? That river feels a lot like the Underworld’s Styx...” Bartley muttered to himself. He’d seen the Styx before, but it had never given him this kind of eerie feeling.

He stood there thinking for a long time, then finally decided to keep going. He didn’t dare turn back. Since retreat was no longer an option, he could only keep moving forward. Step by step, he walked on the Yulan light-bridge. He didn’t know how long he’d been walking. The bridge still showed no sign of an end. And now Bartley noticed something even stranger.

A human man appeared in front of him. The man wore silver battle armor and held a greatsword in his hand.

And the man was actually standing by the stone tablet. Strange—why was the stone tablet here again? And the lakeshore was back too...

Bartley came to a halt. He saw that the scene ahead had turned back into that black lake. The man in silver battle armor stood in front of the stone tablet. The Yulan light-bridge appeared there as well. The human man was clearly hesitating about whether to step onto it.

Bizarre and hazy. Bartley froze, unable to understand what he was seeing. Once he stopped, the scene before him also stopped, as if it had glitched. Even the ripples from the wind on the lake’s surface froze in place.

After a long look, Bartley took a few steps forward, trying to get closer to the human. As soon as he moved, the scene started moving again. The human man sighed. When Bartley stopped once more, the scene froze again. At that point, Bartley understood. What he was seeing was probably just an illusion. Only if he kept walking would the scene continue to play.

In the illusion, the human man looked up at the sky, as if waiting for something. Before long, a human woman appeared.

“Leia, I knew you’d come...” The man looked at the distant woman and showed a faint smile, as if that woman was his everything.

The man was smiling, but the woman’s face stayed tense. She didn’t look happy at all.

“Can you not go? No living being who’s set foot on that bridge has ever come back alive...” Tears streamed down the woman’s cheeks. It was obvious how worried she was about him. But the man turned his head and moved closer to the light-bridge. With just one light step, he could cross onto it.

“Leia, as the God of War, I have to use my life to reinforce the seal on the Otherworld Gate. That’s my duty. It’s the duty of every god...” The blond man’s face showed not a trace of reluctance, only burning resolve. “Every so often, a powerful being has to offer their life to strengthen the seal on the Otherworld Gate. This mission, passed down since ancient times, won’t end with my generation...”

“Leia, can you grant me one last request?”

“I want... to kiss your face once before I step onto this Bridge of No Return...”

Bartley kept walking, and the scene kept changing. In the end, after the man kissed the woman he loved, he stepped onto that bridge—onto the bridge called “No Return.”

Even knowing the War God before him was just a phantom, Bartley had to admit that this War God was strong. Very strong. At least from the aura leaking through the illusion, Bartley could be sure: this War God was the strongest god he had ever seen.

No matter how strong the War God was, on this Bridge of No Return, everything lost its meaning. The War God kept moving forward on the bridge, filled with hot blood and hope. But who knew how much time passed—his hair slowly turned white, his body gradually aged. In the end, all flesh and blood faded away, leaving only a skeleton walking on the bridge.

At the very end, that skeleton, walking forward on sheer obsession, fell into the river below, becoming one of the endless spirits, drifting toward an unknown end.

Bartley stopped and let out a deep sigh where he stood. After a long, long time, he started moving again...

This time, what appeared was an angel with nine pairs of wings. An eighteen-winged angel!

An angel so powerful that Bartley felt suffocated stepped onto the bridge without a moment’s hesitation. The angel was strong and proud. Yet even he couldn’t escape his destined end. He too turned into bare bones and fell into the river.

When that powerful angel plunged into the river below, Bartley heard the only words the angel ever spoke—and his final words.

“The River of Forgetting!”

So, the river was called Wangchuan—the River of Forgetting. And this bridge was called the Bridge of No Return...

As he kept moving forward, Bartley saw many, many beings. They were all powerful, without exception. Most of them were so powerful they exceeded Bartley’s understanding. For the first time, Bartley realized that the gap between one god and another could be so vast.

Those powerful beings shared another trait: they all wanted to reach the end of the bridge and use their own lives to reinforce the seal on the “Otherworld Gate.” But Bartley had long since lost count of how many had tried. Never—never had a single one of them reached the end of the bridge. They all turned into bones and fell into the River of Forgetting.

Was the so‑called “sealing the Otherworld Gate” nothing but a lie? Watching countless powerhouses, countless prodigies throw themselves forward one after another, stepping onto this Bridge of No Return like moths to a flame, Bartley couldn’t help doubting it.

Because countless people wanted to seal the gate, but he had never once seen any so‑called gate. He hadn’t even seen any sign of an end. Maybe this “use your life to seal the Otherworld Gate” was a colossal lie—a lie that drove countless geniuses to “commit suicide.”

Mighty angels. Terrifying demon gods. Bartley even saw an unimaginably terrifying being once—its entire body wrapped in silver radiance, with suns, moons, and stars floating around it, as if the whole starry sky moved to its will.

But in the end, without exception, that terrifying being, shrouded in silver light from start to finish, also became part of the River of Forgetting.

What was really at the end of the bridge? Would he end up like those beings, turning into bones and finally falling into the river called Wangchuan? For the first time, Bartley felt death so close to him. He had thought that once he ascended to godhood, death would no longer concern him. But on this bridge called No Return, everything he’d seen drove him into despair.

Eyes empty, he walked on this Bridge of No Return that seemed to lead toward reincarnation and the afterlife. Bartley didn’t remember how long he’d been walking. He didn’t remember how far he’d gone. There was no sense of time passing here, no breath of living creatures, only eerie silence and deathly stillness.

Drip...

Drip...

It sounded like water droplets hitting the ground. That sound woke Bartley up. He realized that his left hand had already turned into bare bone. A chilling horror spread through his body. If that dripping sound hadn’t snapped him out of it, he might have ended up just like those beings in the visions, turning into a skeleton in the end.

Dripping water? Where was that sound coming from?

Bartley turned his head and looked around, forgetting Wutong’s warning to never look back.

The moment he looked back, the path behind him was gone... A golden gate hung in the void, vast and magnificent, radiating overwhelming power. The gate was huge. Enormous...

Bartley could feel how far away that gate truly was. It was like countless worlds lay between them. Yet despite such distance, he could still see that golden gate clearly. Just that alone said enough about how big it really was.

Around the golden gate circled countless visible musical notes. They shone in different colors, looping around the golden gate like a rainbow.

At the same time, the void was filled with dense, crimson chains wrapped tightly around the gate. Looking closer, he realized every red chain was formed from condensed red lightning. Every chain in the void was coiled around that unimaginably vast golden gate, as if trying to seal it for all eternity.

“Wh-what... is this place?”

Bartley’s whole body trembled. He could feel it clearly—whether it was the gate or the chains, the power they leaked unconsciously made him feel as tiny as an ant. Just like back when he was only an ordinary dwarf, crushed beneath the presence of a god.

But he was a god now. Even if he was the lowest of the gods...

“A god... above gods?”

After a while...

Tao bro said, “That damn Karthus is already ten kills ahead. We’ve fed him so fat, time to slaughter him.”

So the three trolls ran mid and ganked the godlike Karthus.

“Fuck, we’re all low HP, shit, Karthus popped his ult...”

They did kill Karthus, but they were all left hanging on a sliver of health. When his ultimate came crashing down, the three trolls were still barely alive. None of them died.

“So who died, then?”

“Yasuo. That guy died again!”

Far away on the other side of the map, poor Yasuo got sniped for no reason yet again...

When Li Ritian went to clear the gromp, I noticed Yasuo moving toward him.

I reminded him, “Ritian, after the way you guys treated that Yasuo, he’s definitely holding a grudge. I bet he’s gonna try to steal your jungle. Keep an eye out.”

Ritian stayed alert. Sure enough, when Yasuo got close, Li Ritian instantly Smited the monster and secured it. Only then did Yasuo slowly press his Q.

When he saw the camp was gone, Yasuo just stood there stunned for a few seconds, then walked away, unwilling but helpless.

Sigh, when I watched it back then I almost laughed myself to death. Were those three trolls really doing a good thing? That Yasuo was still just a kid!

Every time I walked out of the dorm across from theirs, my mood would get a lot better. Those three trolls really knew how to play...