Book 16: Chapter 65: Reality and Dream
Book 16: Chapter 65: Reality and Dream
The palace became even more still. It was as if even the world’s vital energy was locked in place, as if time itself stopped.
Inside of this silent world, Lin Xi’s party seemed like four small dots in a forever unchanging scroll.
A single clear trail of footprints was left in the ashes. Even though so much time had passed, it never changed. This lonely trail led into the palace’s depths.
Regardless of whether it was chasing after the greatest civilization cultivators had ever established, chasing after the greatest age of cultivators, or if it was chasing after Principal Zhang’s footsteps, Lin Xi and the others truly felt as if they were making a pilgrimage.
They looked at the ruined divine structures along the way, at the deep hole blasted open by some tremendous power. However, they didn’t spend any time wondering the significance and meaning behind the runes and patterns, nor did they try to look for any soul weapons or cultivation methods left behind. The trail they followed seemed to have already passed through all of the side chambers and structures, and then proceeded deeper into this palace.
If there was anything left in this palace, then it would have already entered Principal Zhang’s hands.
The palace was just too big. After a long time had passed, the world in front of Lin Xi became even more spacious and empty.
He, Gu Xinyin, Nangong Weiyang and Qin Xiyue’s bodies almost became transparent under the icy blue radiance reflecting off the vacant world ahead.
The four of them began to shake uncontrollably again.
All of them arrived at the very center of this entire Green Luan Palace.
Even though they headed straight here and even though they didn’t take a single detour, they were immediately instinctively certain that they already arrived at the heart of Green Luan Palace.
In Lin Xi’s eyes, this vacant plaza in front of him was just like a spherical arena.
All of the structures here were built in a circle around this place. All of the palaces around this place were symmetrical.
What made everyone’s bodies tremble right now wasn’t the buildings itself. At the very center of this spacious and empty plaza was an oval shaped, icy blue whirlpool that floated a few meters above the ground!
This icy blue whirlpool was just like a static river of stars. Even though it was completely icy blue in color, it still felt as if it was releasing all different types of colors. The icy blue light it released lit up every corner of this spacious plaza.
What was even more strange was that the ‘green roulette’ in his head seemed like it wanted to fly straight out of his mind, completely break free from his body.
He didn’t know why he had this type of feeling.
After staring blankly for a bit, while still a bit shaken, he sensed that it wasn’t actually his ‘green roulette’ that wanted to break free from his body, but rather that all of his own perception wanted to enter the icy blue whirlpool floating in the air and merge with it.
When he immersed himself in this feeling even deeper, Lin Xi found his emotions even harder to describe. He suddenly felt like there was a huge connection between that blue whirlpool and himself… Perhaps this shining blue whirlpool was just like a gate. It might be a world just like his previous one.
Lin Xi didn’t know where this feeling came from, but this type of feeling emerged just that directly and clearly. Moreover, it was becoming more and more powerful!
…
Gu Xinyin, Nangong Weiyang and Qin Xiyue didn’t share Lin Xi’s sensation.
They were first placed in an even greater state of shock.
They sensed something from that shining icy blue whirlpool, even from the light that scattered down on them, feeling that it rippled with power beyond their imaginations. This power was even greater than the power those runes outside erupted with… powerful to the point where it couldn’t even be evaluated through Sacred Expert or Sacred Master level.
This type of feeling was even more powerful than when Lin Xi discovered the message Principal Zhang left behind in Frozen God Domain and saw those familiar characters, even stronger than the feeling of an entire world rushing at him.
All of them even suddenly felt an urge to kneel down and kowtow.
Then, after they trembled uncontrollably for a long time like Lin Xi, they slowly discovered that there were still many traces left behind by Principal Zhang. The footsteps circled around that icy blue whirlpool for a long time, as if Principal Zhang circled this blue whirlpool for a long time.
However, Principal Zhang was nowhere to be seen.
This definitely shook them down to their souls.
“Principal Zhang!”
These emotions even overpowered the shock he felt towards this place’s power. Gu Xinyn screamed out these two words.
The instant these two words sounded, this man whose will was as tough as iron, who even spent many years in that underground water prison, was already streaming with tears and beside himself.
Nangong Weiyang became the calmest person here.
She did her best to adjust her breathing and shift her attention from the power within that icy blue whirlpool. Then, she saw that there was a small black metal trunk not far from that icy blue whirlpool.
This was an extremely ordinary metal trunk Green Luan Academy’s people often used to store things.
“This should be what Principal Zhang left for us.” As such, she reached out her hand, opening the metal trunk. She spoke with a serious voice, “It should tell us what happened to Principal Zhang and what exactly this shining blue whirlpool is.”
Lin Xi slowly became clear-headed again under Nangong Weiyang’s voice. His eyes also finally broke free from that icy blue whirlpool, landing on that metal trunk that was extremely far from them, currently just a black speck in their eyes.
He took a deep breath. Even though his heart was still pounding uncontrollably, he slowly recovered his composure.
He knew that regardless of what was inside that shining icy blue whirlpool, regardless of just what kind of connection it had to him, that chest would definitely have the answers he needed.
He turned around to look at Nangong Weiyang, Gu Xinyin and Qin Xiyue. Then, he walked towards that black metal trunk bathed under icy blue radiance. He walked all the way up to the metal trunk, and then he didn’t think anything, only sitting down in front of this metal trunk.
“If you’ve really made it all the way here… and see this, then that means my deduction should be correct.”
There were characters carved on the metal trunk as well. It was still the words Lin Xi was familiar with, the words from the world he and Principal Zhang came from. He lightly touched these words with his fingers, and then began to quietly read them.
The metal trunk wasn’t locked.
Principal Zhang was sure that apart from Divine Generals, in a world where the most dazzling civilization of cultivators had already disappeared for millions of years, there shouldn’t be anyone else who could enter this place. Moreover, the natural energy here even seemed to remain eternally unchanged, so he didn’t have to worry about this metal trunk and the things inside experiencing corrosion or being destroyed.
After Lin Xi read through the words carved on the metal trunk, he swallowed his saliva with difficulty. Then, he opened up Principal Zhang’s chest.
There was only a cowhide scroll inside the metal trunk.
Lin Xi unfolded this cowhide covered densely in words.
“Hi, my hometown friend… Have you ever thought about the first thing you would say if you ever ran into someone like us, someone from a different world… Or I can put it like this. What is the first thing you want to say when the two of us meet?”
Lin Xi read every single word out loud, just like how he read that stele when he first entered Green Luan Academy.
“You really do love speaking a lot of nonsense…”
Lin Xi quietly replied.
He and the Principal Zhang who left these words, many times, most likely carried the same frame of mind. He obviously considered this question Principal Zhang asked him before. ‘You really do love speaking a lot of nonsense…’ was obviously not the first thing he wanted to say. But now, he didn’t know what he should say either.
“Actually, regardless of what you want to say, I’ve already thought out what I wanted to say… I will tell you that being able to see you truly is a wonderful thing, because I can finally be certain that everything I experienced wasn’t just a dream. This entire life of mine, all of those experiences, that past world, everything really did exist.”
“Yes, everything really did exist.” Lin Xi said to himself, chatting with this scroll of characters in his hands. Nangong Weiyang and Qin Xiyue understood his current feelings well. Lin Xi and Principal Zhang possessed things entirely different from others in this world, including their frame of mind. If we were talking about intimate friends, then Principal Zhang and Lin Xi were definitely the two who understood each other most.
“There really are too many things I want to say, too many things I need to say. However, I suddenly don’t really know what to say either… Guess I can only talk about some proper business… If you only came to look for this old man from your hometown, then you won’t feel much disappointment, because you have many more choices… But if you also want to obtain Green Luan Palace’s inheritance and power, then you might be a bit disappointed.”
“I’ve already spent quite a bit of time in this place, and I’ve reached a conclusion… as the location where the ultimate battle took place, Green Luan Palace definitely used some type of mutual destruction method… even so, the ultimate victor was most likely still the past devil cultivators. After all, almost everything that seems to be of value, or of value to cultivators, has already been destroyed. If this hadn’t been the ultimate battle, or if the devil cultivators hadn’t intentionally destroyed everything, then it shouldn’t have been this thorough. It is to the extent where even these runes and diagrams aren’t things we can figure out in our lifetimes. That means that these don’t carry much meaning for us.”
“You should have sensed a strange reaction between you and that thing. Just like you, I sensed the same reaction.”
These words didn’t say specifically what Principal Zhang was referring to, but Lin Xi naturally understood that he was talking about that icy blue whirlpool above him. He couldn’t help but raise his head slightly, looking at that icy blue shining whirlpool again.