Chapter 1121 - 509: Resentful Monarch

Chapter 509: Resentful Monarch

Ling Shu also trembled slightly, her beautiful eyes filled with shock and... despair.

This truth is too cruel.

The belief they had upheld for countless epochs now seemed like a joke.

They were not heroes guarding the world, but merely a pitiful group of ants trying to plug the leaks on a soon-to-be-shattered soap bubble.

Only Dao Ruins remained unaffected.

Because he had already "seen" all of this.

What the Lamp Keeper spoke of only confirmed his "observations."

"What is that tower?" Dao Ruins asked again.

The Lamp Keeper took a deep breath, suppressing the tremor in his heart. With a point of his finger, a faint, nearly invisible "light spot" appeared on the "real" Star Map.

This light spot was neither within that gigantic "bubble" nor above the "black coast."

It hovered between the two, in an exceedingly delicate position.

"This is us," the Lamp Keeper pointed at the spot, speaking each word deliberately, "or, it is the ’Light Tower.’

"It is called the ’Boundary Tower,’ and it also bears an even older name, ’The Final Coordinate.’

"It is the last ’relic’ left behind by the previous ’bubble’ before it completely shattered."

"The previous... bubble?" Ling Shu exclaimed.

"Exactly." The Lamp Keeper offered a bitter smile. "Before our ’world’ was born, there existed other ’worlds.’ They, like us, were born, thrived, and then... were ’digested.’ And the Fire successors of that epoch, in their final despair, exhausted the last of their civilization’s power to create this ’Boundary Tower’ and launched it beyond the ’bubble.’"

"Its purpose is not combat, not guardianship."

"But to ’locate.’

"It is like a nail, firmly pinned in the ’real’ dimension. It announces to the entire Sea of Chaos the existence of an ’absolute coordinate.’ As long as it exists, the concept of ’existence’ has not been eradicated, has not fully slid into that ’King’s’ Dream Realm Abyss yet."

"And the three of us, we were the guardians who inadvertently entered this place nine epochs ago while chasing a Gui Xu Empress. We should have been consumed by the twisted time-space, but we were drawn in by the tower’s beacon, and eventually became its new ’Lamp Keepers.’"

"Here, we use our own grand dao as ’fuel’ to keep the tower running, so that this ’Final Coordinate’ won’t extinguish."

After the Lamp Keeper finished speaking, the entire small world fell into a Deathly Silence.

The truth was so heavy that it nearly suffocated Cang Ya and Ling Shu.

Dao Ruins, however, extracted the crucial information from the words.

"The fuel... is about to run out?" he asked.

The Lamp Keeper’s whole body trembled. He looked at Dao Ruins with disbelief, seemingly not expecting the opponent to grasp their greatest predicament in an instant.

He nodded bitterly, "Yes. After nine epochs of burning, we have exhausted ninety-nine percent of our essence. This ’Boundary Tower’ can only hold on... for one more moment at most."

A moment could mean a thousand years or ten thousand years for beings at their level.

But ultimately, it has an end.

"Once the Boundary Tower extinguishes, this ’Final Coordinate’ disappears. Our ’world,’ that gigantic ’bubble,’ will lose the last ’anchor point.’ Its rate of sinking and shattering will accelerate by more than ten thousand times."

"By then, the guardianship of Fire will become meaningless."

"Everything will come to an end."

The Lamp Keeper’s eyes showed a deep plea.

"Dao Ruins, sir, you are the first in countless epochs to be able to freely walk in this Restricted Area and come before the tower. Your ’dao’ has surpassed the limits of the ’bubble,’ touching deeper ’reality.’

"You are our only hope."

"We need you to find new ’fuel’ for this tower."

"What fuel?" Dao Ruins’ response was still simple.

"’Source Kernel.’" The Lamp Keeper mentioned an unfamiliar name, "It is one of the core ’cornerstones’ that form this ’bubble’ world. At the birth of the world, there were three ’Source Kernels,’ which together established the stable structure of ’existence.’

"One of them transformed into the essence of ’Fire,’ representing ’order’ and ’continuation.’

"Another, over long ages, became polluted by Gui Xu, degenerating into the ’Gui Xu Source,’ representing ’chaos’ and ’end.’"

"And the last one..."

A complex expression flashed in the Lamp Keeper’s eyes.

"It represents ’transformation’ and ’possibility.’ It has no fixed form, no fixed attribute. It sleeps in the deepest part of the dam, that ’unknown land’ even we can’t explore."

"Find it, bring it back, merge it into the Boundary Tower. The tower can be reignited. Our world can win more time."

"Time..." Dao Ruins’ eyes flickered slightly.

He recalled that slumbering ’King’ on the throne.

Perhaps, what they lack most, and the only thing they can strive for, is ’time.’

To win the qualification to ’face’ that ’King’ before it truly ’awakens.’

"Where is the unknown land?" Dao Ruins asked.