Chapter 2119: The Truth of This World
“The time? What is this right time you speak of?” Lu Yun quickly asked when he heard the voice. It should belong to the dead of the tomb. There was no danger in the floating tomb, but it abounded with uncanniness. Perhaps this dead could answer his questions.
“When it is time for your death.”
Lu Yun shrugged and Qingfeng’s eyes widened.
“Then let’s keep going. Since he won’t say anything, we’ll haul him out here so we can ask him some questions.” Lu Yun strode forward, not intending to turn back. Qingfeng quickly followed in his footsteps.
Although the voice didn’t sound again, the scene changed in front of their eyes. Layers of mist obscured the premises and the pavilions, towers, and halls disappeared. They were replaced by layer upon layer of walls and pa.s.sages.
The surroundings had turned into a ma.s.sive maze.
“A maze?” Lu Yun’s lips turned upward with a snort. “Child’s play.”
He walked forward without missing a beat. Mazes truly were child’s play to a veteran tomb raider like Lu Yun. No matter how the layouts s.h.i.+fted, there would always be a path that was the correct one. He would easily find it.
Despite the depths and vastness of the maze, nothing could hide from his eyes.
To him, all of this world’s past glories stagnated the moment the world died and heaven and earth dispersed. Since their grandeur was from times past and their prosperous civilization no more, all that remained were old and obsolete things.
Layouts of burial like the one in this tomb could be found everywhere on Earth. Lu Yun would easily find his way out of here even if he’d never gone to the world of immortals and obtained his current cultivation level.
“Will I see the truth of this world once I exit this maze?” The young man couldn’t help but ask. He knew that the owner of the tomb, the one who lived in a world of the dead, was still keeping an eye on him and Qingfeng.
Qingfeng was so nervous that she subconsciously reached out and grabbed Lu Yun’s sleeve.
“The truth of this world is so harsh that no one in existence can endure it.” The dead’s voice sounded with a trace of an inexplicable emotion. “Outsider, I noticed you the moment you arrived in this existence. You still have time to turn back.”
“Since you discovered me the moment I arrived, you should know who sent me here and why,” Lu Yun chuckled. “I thought they sent me here to revive this world and resurrect heaven and earth, helping creation flourish again. But after seeing this floating tomb in the sky… I realize that I was wrong.
“I have to explore things for myself since you refuse to give up what you know. Just try and see if you can stop me.”
Qingfeng’s expression flickered a few times as she listened to them speak, but she simply sighed in the end.
“This world cannot be revived…” she said. “Its doom was set in stone the moment it died.”
“I know, but how will we truly know if we don’t try?” Lu Yun grinned as a third seal shattered while they spoke. His strength advanced by leaps and bounds yet again. Although he was still very far removed from affecting the objective with the subjective, he was unequivocally stronger than ghost zombie kings now.
“Many tried in the past, but they all failed.” Sorrow crept into the tomb owner’s voice. “You have a chance to live if you leave now, and I will come receive you when you die. You will be able to offer something to this world then.
“But if you continue forward and see the truth, you will not be able to turn back.”
“What will I offer when I am dead?” Lu Yun snorted. “You said so yourself that I am an outsider. I’m not that interested in reviving this world. All I want to do is to save my homeland. I can only know if I want to turn back or not when I actually see things for myself.” Lu Yun knew that there were only two paths available to him the moment he arrived in this place. He either succeeded, or he failed.
He could return home if he succeeded and prevent the great devastation from taking place in the nothing. He would die here if he failed, and his home would undergo that cycle once more. His lovers, family, friends, and child would die in the unending nirvana.
Turn back?
He’d long lost the right to turn back.
“And is turning back something good to eat?” he grinned. “There’s a saying in a city of my homeland, something about the gra.s.s being delicious if one turns back. I’ll treat you to a helping of turning back if I ever get the chance to.” He directed the last part to Qingfeng.
“Um… okay?” she responded reflexively. Delicious? She didn’t know what delicious was. Was it food that tasted good? Food had never tasted good to her, it was just a way to ensure they didn’t die and fuel to increase their strength.
The records of the world that’d died spoke of eating as a form of pleasure in an age when civilization prospered. Perhaps civilization still existed in Lu Yun’s home. No wonder his thoughts and actions were at such odds with this world. His heart had not yet died, hope still existed within it.
The dead fell silent upon Lu Yun’s response, but the fog within the maze grew denser. They almost couldn’t see their hands anymore when they stretched it forward.
The fog cleared after an unknown period of time and a ma.s.sive sarcophagus came into view. A young man sat on top of it, looking roughly sixteen years old. He wore robes of gray cloth and his eyes were gray. The air of death wreathed around him.
“Is this the truth you spoke of?” Lu Yun commented with surprise as he looked at who’d been talking to them before. He looked around them and found nothing else in the vicinity. The brick path beneath their feet had vanished—only the sarcophagus and the young man were present.
It was just an ordinary sarcophagus with nothing special about it. In fact, it looked very much like an… enormous brick to Lu Yun.
“Is this the nothing?” he suddenly realized.
The young man’s eyes couldn’t focus on anything. He looked silently in Lu Yun’s direction and inclined his head. “This is the truth of the world. This is the nothing. You cannot go back after coming here, and this is the truth that you want.”
He jumped down from the sarcophagus and pointed at it. “This world is a brick forged for a city.”
Lu Yun’s pupils contracted violently as he saw a black flame burning beneath the sarcophagus—h.e.l.lfire.
“The two of you walked out of this brick just now.”