He was the source of the bronze fragment’s aura!
“This… how is this possible?!”
A storm of shock surged through Lu Xuan’s heart. He could not help but stride forward several steps, almost pressing himself against the mural, wanting to see it more clearly, more truly!
He stared fixedly at that side profile, his gaze seeming as though it would pierce through the barrier of the mural to see the man’s face, to see the emotions contained in his eyes.
The man had his head slightly raised, looking toward the Quasi-Immortal Emperor upon the altar. The mural had captured the line of his jaw in profile, as well as those tightly pressed lips, filled with endlessly complex emotions.
Within them were reverence, reluctance, worry, and sorrow—but more than anything, there was a firmness and resolve that seemed carved into his very bones, of the same origin as the Quasi-Immortal Emperor’s.
He seemed to be saying something, or perhaps he was merely seeing him off in silence.
In his hand, he also seemed to be tightly gripping something.
Because it was only a side profile, it could not be seen clearly. Vaguely, it looked like a… bronze fragment?
Lu Xuan subconsciously reached toward the bronze piece in his robes. The moment his fingers touched it, it was scalding hot.
The latter half of the mural became blurred and tragic.
The Quasi-Immortal Emperor resolutely stepped into the Boundary Sea, facing that boundless darkness.
As for the man who resembled Lu Xuan, he remained behind. His figure appeared from time to time in the subsequent murals, leading the surviving living beings in continued resistance. But the scenes grew increasingly惨烈, the world continuously collapsing, the darkness constantly spreading…
In the end, the images came to an abrupt stop, leaving behind vast stretches of blankness and mottled marks, as if foretelling the outcome of that war—the Emperor Fall Era, its brilliance brought to an end.
Lu Xuan stood rigidly before the mural, unable to recover for a long time.
Who was the man on the mural?
Why did he resemble him so much?
Why did he possess an aura of the same origin as his?
And what was his relationship with this Quasi-Immortal Emperor who had set out on an expedition into the Boundary Sea and might have ultimately fallen?
Could it be that he truly had such a profound connection with the long-buried Emperor Fall Era of this Perfect World?
The fog of countless ages seemed to have been torn open at one corner because of this mural, revealing an even more intricate and inconceivable truth behind it.
Lu Xuan felt as though he had touched a vast web of karma spanning endless time and space, and he himself was a crucial node within that web.
He stood before the mural, gazing at that side profile so similar to his own, as though staring across countless ages at another “himself.”
Lu Xuan gazed at the side profile on the mural that bore such an astonishing resemblance to him. His mind churned violently, countless questions and guesses crashing against his understanding like a raging tide.
He tried to decipher more information from the mural’s limited strokes.
He wanted to see the man’s face clearly. He wanted to understand just what connection existed between them.
Just as he was fully focused, his mind almost merging with the ancient and tragic meaning contained within the mural—
A sudden change occurred!
That mural, which had lain silent for who knew how many countless ages, seemed to be thoroughly activated by his gaze and by their aura of the same origin. It abruptly revived!
“Buzz—!!!”
All the patterns, all the colors, all the runes on the mural erupted at the same instant with an indescribably resplendent radiance!
That light was not merely pure energy; it was supreme divine power containing the highest laws of time, space, karma, fate, and more!
The entire ancient cave trembled violently. The jade-like material of the cave walls let out groans as though unable to bear the burden, as if they might shatter at any moment.
Lu Xuan’s expression changed drastically. He immediately activated the phantom of the Chaos Bell, chaotic energy surging around him as he tried to withstand this sudden anomaly.
He felt as though he were a lone skiff amid stormy waves. The divine power erupting from the mural was vast and boundless, carrying a will that seemed to originate from the very source of an era!
The target of this power was unmistakably him!
On the mural, at the position of the eyes of that side profile—the man who had bid farewell to the Quasi-Immortal Emperor and resembled him—it was as if two tangible gazes had pierced through the time and space of countless ages, crossing the barrier of the mural to fix upon Lu Xuan!
Immediately afterward, the mural depicting the epic of the Emperor Fall Era seemed to transform at its center into a rotating vortex!
Within the vortex were shattered currents of spacetime, annihilated fragments of laws, countless illusory heroic spirits howling as they fell, and the ultimate scene of that dark turmoil that had swept across the heavens!
A devouring force far surpassing the suction of the ancient cave from before, utterly impossible to resist, locked firmly onto Lu Xuan!
“Not good!”
Alarm bells rang madly in Lu Xuan’s heart. He pushed the Chaos Bell to its limit; the bell’s toll resounded mightily as he tried to stabilize himself and resist this suction force.
The phantoms of the Three Corpses manifested behind him at the same time. The Daos of good, evil, and self intertwined, forming his strongest defense.
Yet all of this appeared so pale and powerless before the supreme divine power erupting from the mural!
The level of this power was far too high!
It surpassed Immortal Kings, touched upon Quasi-Immortal Emperors, and might even… be connected to that true fallen “Emperor”!
It was not trying to destroy Lu Xuan. It was trying to guide him, to devour him into that buried span of ancient time recorded within the mural!
“Crack!”
The protective light curtain of the Chaos Bell was the first to show cracks!
The phantoms of the Three Corpses shook violently and grew indistinct!
Lu Xuan’s body was pulled uncontrollably toward the terrifying vortex at the center of the mural!
In the instant before he was completely sucked in, his gaze locked firmly onto the side profile of the man on the mural who resembled him.
In a trance, he seemed to see those tightly pressed lips, filled with complex emotions, move ever so slightly.
They outlined an indescribable trace of… relief and anticipation, as though spanning countless ages?
Was it an illusion?
There was no time to think—
“Boom!!!”
Heaven and earth spun; time and space shattered!
Lu Xuan felt his consciousness, his physical body, his Dao fruit—everything, all of it—
being completely torn apart, stretched out, and thrown into a violent river composed of countless shattered histories and tragic fates!
Behind him, the light of the mural abruptly withdrew, and the vortex instantly calmed.
The ancient cave returned to deathly silence. Only that mural still stood, recording the epic of the Emperor Fall, as though nothing had ever happened.
Only, beside the side profile of the man bidding farewell to the Quasi-Immortal Emperor, in the place that had originally been blank, there seemed to be… an extremely faint, nearly background-blending, blurred outline belonging to Lu Xuan?
As for Lu Xuan himself, he had already vanished from this time and space, forcibly taken away by that supreme divine power from the position of an “observer,” and completely… cast into that fragment of spacetime buried before countless ages!
His journey to the Emperor Fall had changed from observing a mural to personally entering the stage!
The intense sensation of tearing and the dizziness of temporal-spatial disorder receded like a tide. Lu Xuan’s consciousness struggled free from a haze of chaos.
The first thing he felt was an incomparably scorching yet vitality-filled pure energy enveloping his entire body, as though he were soaking in warm spring water.
Immediately afterward came a sensation from his body… a weakness and restraint unlike anything he had ever experienced before.