Chapter 132: The Final Purpose

Chapter132: The Final Purpose

Nyren’s eyes narrowed, her gaze cutting through the tension like a blade. "How many sectors remain?"

Situ Li paused for several long, agonizing seconds, a slow, predatory smile stretching across his pale face.

"Two."

Lothe’s gaze sharpened instantly upon hearing that. "Four and Five," he murmured, his voice so low it seemed he was speaking to the shadows themselves.

But Situ Li’s senses were sharp. He heard the whisper and his grin widened. "Indeed. And since you’re so fond of puzzles, I’ll give you a hint: Sector Four is the Core."

"The Core of the entire palace?" Lothe asked.

"Exactly," Situ Li continued, seemingly indulging their questions because, to him, they were already walking corpses. "The central hub. The brain of the organism."

Lothe’s mind immediately flashed back to the massive, abyssal structure he had seen through the altar floor with his [Qi Sight].

The Cradle.

He could still feel the phantom sensation of all those diverse energies—Ice, Metal, Wood, and Void—converging toward that silver-black mass suspended in the dark.

"And what about Sector Five?" Lothe pressed, his tone dropping into a deeper, more serious register.

For several seconds, the chamber was swallowed by a pin-drop silence. For the first time since his arrival, Situ Li’s expression became difficult to read, his eyes clouding with a mixture of reverence and something that looked suspiciously like fear.

"The Final Sector," Situ Li said softly, as if the words themselves held weight.

"That doesn’t tell me anything," Lothe said, nearly facepalming at the cryptic response. Even so, his eyes remained locked on Situ Li, recording every microscopic twitch in the man’s facial expressions.

"And it isn’t supposed to tell you anything," Situ Li shot back, his voice taking on an irritated edge. "Just know this: Sector Five, the Final Sector, is not another trial. It is not a test of strength or a collection of traps."

"Then what is it?" Adrian demanded, his voice echoing off the stone shelves.

Situ Li stared at him for a long time before his lips curled into a wide, unsettling smile.

"It is the reason the palace was built in the first place."

The answer sent a visceral chill crawling down everyone’s spine. Considering the near-death battles, the psychological torture, and the blood-soaked"" refinery sectors they had already survived, the "purpose" of this place was clearly not something meant for the salvation of humanity.

Lothe’s pupils contracted. The answer was deliberately incomplete, but for an analytical mind like his, it was a roadmap.

Extraction. Refinement. Integratio""n. Core.

The sequence was far more deliberate than he had initially assumed. This wasn’t a ruin to be explored; it was an engine to be started.

Situ Li looked at him, his gaze piercing. "You’ve understood now, haven’t you?"

Lothe shook his head slightly, a faint, dangerous smile playing on his lips. "I’ve understood enough."

Situ Li’s expression hardened instantly. The air around him grew heavy, and his killing intent spiked, turning the atmosphere into thick, cold sludge.

"This," Situ Li hissed, "is exactly why you need to die."

BOOOOM!

The group acted instinctively.

Adrian’s metallic weapons immediately spiraled around him in a protective, humming orbit. Nyren’s Ice Qi surged, frost crawling up the length of her crystal sword.

Only Lothe remained completely still amidst the sudden chaos, his mind still spinning through the data fragments he had just harvested.

"You have already reached a point where your presence is interfering with the palace’s intended progression," Situ Li said, his voice dropping into a lethal, monotone register. "If you are allowed to descend further..."

Dark, oily Qi began rolling out from Situ Li’s robes, pooling on the floor like spilled ink. Behind him, his twin silver moon-blades clicked together, spinning with a subtle, high-pitched whistle that promised decapitation.

"...you will become a variable the palace cannot correct. And that would be very bad for the harvest."

Lothe smiled faintly, his dark eyes gleaming with intensity. "So that’s it. You aren’t just a hunter. You’re a janitor, cleaning up the ’bugs’ in the system."

"I am not afraid of you, human," Situ Li responded, taking a single, heavy step forward. The silver moon-blades split apart, hovering at his flanks like hungry sharks. "I am simply removing a problem before it grows into a catastrophe."

Lothe’s dark eyes flashed. "Then come and try."

At that exact moment, the Ancient Palace groaned.

THUMP.

A massive, rhythmic pulse traveled through the basalt walls. Situ Li’s aura surged upward, his robes fluttering in the pressure. Adrian stepped forward, and Nyren lowered her stance, shards of ice crystals forming in the air around her.

But before Situ Li could launch his strike—

THUMP!

A second pulse, louder and more urgent than the first, rang out through the labyrinth.

The staircase behind Situ Li suddenly erupted with brilliant light. Five ancient, golden runes ignited along the archway, glowing with a blinding intensity.

Lothe’s expression changed completely. He recognized that energy signature.

The trigger. Something—or someone—has reach the Core.x

Situ Li whipped his head toward the staircase. For the first time, his arrogant composure shattered, replaced by a look of genuine, frantic urgency.

Lothe watched him closely, a cold smirk touching his lips. Even he didn’t expect this timing.

Situ Li turned back toward Lothe, his face twisted into a mask of pure, concentrated venom.

"This isn’t over, Cultivator," he spat, the oily Qi around him vibrating with agitation.

"Leaving so soon?" Lothe taunted, his voice dry and mocking. "I thought I was such a dangerous variable."

"For now," Situ Li hissed. Without waiting for another word, his body blurred into a streak of gray shadow.

But before he vanished completely into the darkness of the lower corridor, he looked directly at Lothe one last time. "Keep going deeper Cultivator. I’ll be waiting at the finish line."

And then, he was gone.

Adrian slowly lowered his weapons, his chest heaving. "He left? Just like that? What the hell was that pulse?"

No one answered him. Nyren stared into the darkness of the staircase, her knuckles white as she gripped her sword hilt. She knew that from here on out, the "foreplay" was over. The palace was no longer testing them; it was rushing them toward a final, bloody conclusion.

Lothe’s gaze remained fixed on the glowing runes of the archway. Situ Li had been sent specifically to eliminate him, yet he had abandoned the mission the moment the palace pulsed.

It wasn’t fear, Lothe analyzed. It was a priority shift. Whatever happened in the Core is more important than my life.

He walked slowly toward the staircase, his deep purple robes fluttering in the cold wind.

"So..." Lothe looked into the abyss. "Let’s see what you’re so desperate to protect."

He paused, glancing over his shoulder at the two stunned heirs. "Are you two planning on standing there all day? Or are we moving?"

"We’re coming," Adrian said, shaking himself out of his stupor. His hovering weapons retracted back to his waist belt, while some dissolved back into his Soul Manor.

Nyren took a deep breath, her own crystal blade vanishing as the ice crystals in the air dissolved. She walked up beside Lothe, looking at him with her usual icy detachment, though there was a new, unreadable glint in her eyes.

"It seems you have a genuine knack for attracting the worst kind of trouble," Nyren said casually.

Lothe only shrugged. "What can I say? It’s a gift."

"Lothe," Adrian asked suddenly, his voice taking on a rare note of genuine concern. "Where is Seana? Weren’t you with her? Did you guys get separated at the gates too?"

Lothe held his breath for a long, heavy second. He lowered his head, the long black hair obscuring his expression.

"Yeah," his voice was barely a whisper. "We were separated in Sector One."

No other words were needed. The simple sentence carried the weight of a thousand unspoken emotions—the longing, the suppressed worry, and a cold, burning determination.

For a brief moment, a soft wind blew through the corridor. It wasn’t the eerie, stale drafet of the palace, but a phantom breeze that seemed to carry the faint, sweet scent of lotus flowers.

Lothe’s eyes gleamed like two sharp lanterns in the dark.

"I’ll find her," he murmured, stepping onto the first stair. "No matter what this palace tries to put between us."​