Chapter 512 - 509: Lockdown

Chapter 512: Chapter 509: Lockdown

"Is the current Zhou Dynasty still the ’Zhou Dynasty’?"

Mo Ling was getting confused. He had no idea if the scenes he saw within the speck of light were real.

’Why am I seeing things from the Zhou Dynasty’s past?’

’Did that shift in perspective mean the Holy Sword had replaced the Zhou Dynasty?’

’Where did the original Zhou Dynasty go?’

Mo Ling watched in confusion as the newborn "Zhou Dynasty" stood bewildered in the monitoring station. Both of them were utterly lost.

The twinkling starlight within the speck of light drew Mo Ling in, captivating him.

Until the piece of film on the Block suddenly flickered and flew over to the speck of light, breaking Mo Ling from his reverie.

The scene within the speck of light was suddenly covered by a brown filter, yanking his consciousness out of the light.

Mo Ling quickly retracted his perspective back to the Block, belatedly coming to his senses.

’Just now... why was I able to feel the Zhou Dynasty’s emotions?’

When he first entered the speck of light, it was a simple sharing of perspective. But later, he found himself unconsciously able to hear the "Zhou Dynasty’s" innermost thoughts and feel his confusion and bewilderment.

If the film hadn’t interrupted him in time, Mo Ling might have remained immersed, becoming completely trapped within that speck of light.

’So dangerous...’

The starlight’s attacks were always so sudden and unexpected. Thankfully, he had Lord Ying’s film.

After resting for a moment, Mo Ling once again extended his perspective outward.

To his surprise, the film didn’t fly back to the Block’s surface. Instead, it slowly enveloped the speck of light belonging to the Zhou Dynasty, as if it were... protecting him.

The brown film twisted, forming a sphere that sealed the speck of light tightly in its center. Then, it carried the speck back into the Zhou Dynasty’s body.

The previously dazed Zhou Dynasty instantly regained consciousness, collapsing weakly to the ground and gasping for air.

Immediately after, the film flew out toward the ribbon of light again, retrieving another speck. This time, the film flew directly to Li Luo.

Upon touching Li Luo, she too snapped back to her senses.

Her reaction wasn’t as intense as the Zhou Dynasty’s, however. She simply looked over her body and breathed a sigh of relief.

The film’s actions seemed to cause the starlight to tremble. The torrent grew even more turbulent, surging toward the Block in an endless stream. Li Luo and the Zhou Dynasty, who had only just recovered, felt their consciousness begin to blur again. As long as they remained in this converging flow of light, their awareness would always be on the verge of collapse.

But at that moment, a brown filter suddenly spread down from the sky, dyeing the surroundings brown. The surging starlight was instantly caught as if in a quagmire, unable to move.

A giant eye slowly descended from the sky. Lord Ying’s lens sealed off the entire forest. A massive wheel spun rapidly, and the buzzing sound it emitted jolted everyone present back to their senses.

"Found you," Lord Ying’s ethereal voice echoed from the sky. The profound lens stared intently at the converging flow of light.

Another, darker brown filter descended, and all the starlight present instantly dimmed, fixed in place by invisible shackles.

The starry sky froze. In the silent Starlight Forest, only the sound of the spinning wheel remained, occasionally punctuated by a strange stutter.

WHIRRRR...

CRACK.

"Where else do you think you can hide, Eye of the Stars?" Lord Ying’s tone was unusually solemn, the profound lens radiating limitless authority.

The frozen starry sky struggled, and a weak, helpless voice emerged. "Why? Why can’t you just let me go?"

Hearing this feeble voice, Mo Ling thought he was hearing things.

’This is the Eye of the Stars? How can it be so weak?’

Mo Ling had expected a fierce battle after finding the Eye of the Stars. He never imagined Lord Ying could render it completely unable to resist.

"Cease activation. Dispel the starlight," Lord Ying commanded, ignoring the Eye of the Stars’ plea.

However, the Eye of the Stars wanted to struggle a little longer.

"I can’t stop. It’s only just begun. Why can’t you let me continue?"

"Because what you are doing is wrong. It must be stopped," Lord Ying warned coldly.

"Why is it wrong! Is it wrong just because you think it is? You don’t understand at all, so why do you keep stopping me? If you could only feel what I feel, you wouldn’t think this way... Why can’t you just open your hearts and minds? Why must you follow those so-called rules?"

The Eye of the Stars was utterly defiant. It argued desperately, firing off one "why" after another.

"All I want is for living beings to understand each other. Why can’t you understand what I’m doing? We are all just stars, separated by vast distances. I just want to connect everything. What’s so wrong with that?"

The imprisoned starry sky flickered, pouring all its strength into conveying its hopes.

"This world is full of war and suffering. I come from human society. I have seen the calamities born from differing ideologies, and I have experienced the conflicts sparked by a single disagreement."

"But if everyone could feel what others feel, none of this would happen! The wolf would understand the sheep, the sheep would understand the grass, the grass would understand the soil, and the soil would understand the water. The activation of all things is the prerequisite for mutual understanding. Once everything is activated, I can link all these consciousnesses together like stars."

"Then, physical bodies will no longer be a reason for conflict. We only need to converge, and we can solve all problems. Life is merely a vessel. We will become a stellar stream of consciousness, flowing endlessly along the river of time."

"All thoughts will travel along the stellar connections, spreading throughout the entire Sea of Consciousness. You will be in me, and I will be in you. Dreams will no longer be out of reach. We will abandon all material desires and pursue a more beautiful cosmos of consciousness."

"Right now, it’s just one forest, but imagine... what if an entire abyss... an entire world were integrated? That would be true world peace! All things would understand and flow into one another. Every consciousness would be the world’s consciousness. We would become the masters of the world—we would become the world itself!"

"Don’t you want that? Don’t you desire it?"

"But what about now? We’re trapped on this Sky Island, engaged in a pointless struggle. You confine me to the center of the Sky Island, and I hide within the starlight, unable to take a single step forward. How shortsighted!"

"All you have to do is open your mind and understand me! It would only take a second! In one second, you could understand everything! Why are you so unwilling?"

The Eye of the Stars shrieked its fury at Lord Ying.

The infinite possibilities it held dear were mercilessly crushed by Lord Ying, confined to this Sky Island. Facing the impenetrable Lord Ying, it could only express its hopes through words.

But no matter what it said, the brown filter remained, holding the starry sky in its deathly grip.