Chapter 116: Family

"If this crystal turns black and begins to burn your skin, it means it has detected the localized miasma of an awakening Walker," Sylvia explained solemnly, handing Theo a smooth piece of lumen-quartz.

Without waiting for a response, Sylvia took the lead, her eyes gleaming with fervor as she ventured deeper into the colossal corridor.

Since her fate trajectory showed no immediate danger, Theo did not insist they stick together.

Instead, he summoned a sphere of karmic fire in his left hand to light the way, keeping his right hand firmly locked with Liana’s.

He attempted to project his spiritual sense outward, but the tomb’s architecture distorted it.

*Great Sage, expand sensory perimeter.*

[Negative. The ambient spatial architecture is coated in a high-density sensory-jamming array. Perception is limited to a ten-meter radius.]

"We will have to rely on our eyes..." Theo muttered.

Walking through the shadows, Theo was struck by a strange sense of nostalgia.

It felt exactly like navigating a haunted labyrinth at a festival in his past life.

Back then, his total lack of fear made those attractions incredibly boring, especially when he watched other couples clinging to each other in terror.

But now, walking hand-in-hand with the Aurora Empress in a genuinely lethal tomb... he finally understood the appeal.

An idea formed in Theo’s mind.

He abruptly stopped walking. "Liana!"

Liana paused, her eyes narrowing. "What is it?"

"The quartz," Theo said, holding the crystal against his chest so she could not see it clearly.

"It feels hot."

Liana frowned.

She scanned the corridor ahead.

There was nothing but a row of ancient, stone-encased statues resembling Imperial Sentinels.

There were no Miasma-Walkers.

Furthermore, her Lunar physique was sensitive to negative energy.

If a lethal miasma was approaching, she would have sensed the drop in temperature long before a rock did.

She glanced at the sliver of quartz peeking between Theo’s fingers. It was perfectly white.

*He is lying,* Liana realized.

Instead of calling him out, Liana’s eyelashes fluttered. Her grip on his hand tightened. She stared intensely at the empty space over his shoulder.

"Maybe... maybe it isn’t a Walker," Theo continued, committing fully to the act. "What if it is a vengeful specter? A ghost trapped in the gloom for a thousand years?"

"I see it," Liana whispered, her tone chillingly solemn.

"Huh?" Theo blinked, his fake panic faltering.

"It is getting closer," Liana said, her eyes fixed on the shadows behind him.

Theo froze. He had been a staunch materialist in his past life, but he currently possessed an Abyssal forge and a sentient skill tree.

If Miasma-Walkers existed, ghosts were entirely plausible. And Liana’s solemn, emotionless delivery was perfectly convincing.

"It is right behind you," Liana said.

Theo spun around.

In a fraction of a second, he pulled Liana behind him, shielding her with his body as he summoned his heavy broadsword, his karmic fire flaring to illuminate the corridor.

Nothing.

"There is nothing there..." Theo breathed.

"Perhaps... I was mistaken," Liana murmured.

Theo turned his head. Liana’s face was pressed against his shoulder, hiding a smirk.

She had intended to tease him back and then give him a reprimanding look, but the speed at which he had moved to shield her had left her pressed tightly against his chest.

Theo stared at her, slowly realizing the icy Sword Empress had just played him.

Before he could formulate a response, a voice echoed from down the hall.

"I found something! Come quickly!" Sylvia called out.

"Coming!" Theo yelled back, breaking the tension.

Liana stepped away, evading any retaliation.

However, just moments after the couple hurried down the corridor, the silence was broken.

*Crack... Creak...*

The shells of the ancient sentinels began to flake away.

As the rock crumbled from one of the statues’ faces, a pair of bloodthirsty, glowing green eyes snapped open in the shadows.

...

The first fresco depicted the sky tearing open. Floods raged, the sun was extinguished, and stars plummeted to the earth.

"This is the Great Sundering," Sylvia said. "This depicts the near-annihilation of the First Empire. This is lost history!"

Theo and Liana exchanged a grave look. They had seen this before in a shared vision of the *Primeval Aurora*.

They knew that ancient, sovereign beings had sacrificed themselves to mend the torn reality, while the master of the Aurora traveled the broken world, preserving the sparks of humanity.

"Does the next fresco show what happened after?" Theo asked, holding his karmic fire higher.

The golden light illuminated the second fresco.

It depicted nine seraph-like figures descending from the rift in the sky, surrounded by countless kneeling mortals.

At the forefront of the nine stood a woman. She wore feathered armor, and her expression was one of sorrowful compassion.

Theo’s breath caught in his throat.

He recognized that face. He had seen it in the shared vision...

But more importantly, the delicate features of the Primeval Aurora perfectly overlapped with the crumbling statue he had seen in Liana’s ancestral shrine.

[Comparing ancestral statue topography with fresco depiction.]

[Match: 99.9%. Note: Target ’Liana’ shares identical and spiritual lineage markers with the depicted entity.]

"Is she..." Theo muttered. "The Primeval Aurora... is she the progenitor of your family?"

Liana did not speak.

But the delicate hand currently resting in Theo’s palm curled inward, her fingers gripping him with an overwhelming intensity.

Her heart was reeling from the exact same realization...

"These frescoes chronicle the aftermath of the Great Sundering," Sylvia said. "The Nine Primevals descended from the celestial rift to mend reality. According to the archives, they became the supreme guardians of the First Empire. Are you familiar with them?"

"I know a little," Liana replied.

Theo glanced at her. In her past life, Liana had been crowned the Aurora Empress.

He wondered if that title meant she was the reincarnation of one of these Primevals...

"Did these Primevals leave behind legacies?" Theo asked.

"Initially, yes," Sylvia nodded. "As the millennia passed, even primordial beings faded. They selected the unrivaled prodigies of each era to inherit their mantles. These successors operated as invisible guardians, intervening only during cataclysmic events."

"What happened to the lineage?"