Minos stiffened at Lydis' unexpectedly familiar greeting, a sense of displacent washing over him like an intruder stumbling into a ceremony mid-ritual, utterly unaware of his true role in the unfolding spectacle.
Lydis' expression betrayed more than the asured poise of a faction leader welcoming a potential replacent. There was a tiless quality to his gaze—as if he had awaited Minos for ages, yet saw through him like a parchnt inscribed with secrets he had never written.
A cold dread settled over Minos as he witnessed nearly his entire group collapse unconscious before the overwhelming presence of the Level 129 True Celestial.
Only Devdar remained standing beside him, though the man's ashen face mirrored none of Minos' guarded composure.
Devdar was even more shocked than Minos, looking as if he had just seen a ghost when he entered Lydis' throne hall. Unlike his ally, he knew more about the kingdom's long history and the figures who were legendary even to him and Lydis.
"Senior Lydis… what are you…" Devdar rasped, each syllable weighed down by the gravity of this dialog.
Minos finally broke his silence after half a minute of charged stillness. "You speak as if you've foreseen my arrival. If I may ask, could you tell what you have in mind? I confess I'm a little confused. I wouldn't dare challenge you. Nor do I see any reason to, nor do I consider myself in a position to be your opponent."
Lydis's sapphire strands shimred like liquid twilight as he inclined his head, the ghost of a smile playing across lips that seed to hold centuries of unwritten histories. Every tremor in Minos's voice, every fractured glimr of sincerity—all unfolded precisely as the True Celestial had foreseen. Yet where lesser rulers might weaponise such omniscience, Lydis let his aura soften, the pressure in the throne hall lifting just enough to ease the tension coiling in Devdar's clenched jaw.
"Certain truths refuse the shackles of explanation," Lydis replied, his words rippling through the chamber like stones cast into still water. "I am neither guide nor gatekeeper to your path. But make no mistake"—his irises montarily flared with the icy fire of collapsing stars—"this convergence is no happenstance. The weave of fate tolerates neither accidents… nor bystanders."
Lydis remained difficult to understand, but he didn't worry about whether Minos could grasp the situation amid his words. He went ahead, continuing with what he had planned for this eting.
"Your restraint honors you, fledgling. Had you drawn a blade or manifesto today, even regret could not have stayed my hand." A beat pulsed between them. "But tell —" The water's hum sharpened into sothing resembling a chorus. "—when you tread the spiral's edge anew, do you truly believe this iteration of yourself can bear what all prior echoes could not?"
Minos's nails bit crescent wounds into his palms as Lydis's implications unfurled in his mind. The shadows beneath his eyes deepened, not with re exhaustion, but as if his very soul were straining against chains he'd never noticed.
'This? Iteration' Minos felt the key words of Lydis' speech hit him hard, as the energy of his throne flowed through his body. He also rembered the characteristics of his throne and the distant past, before the rise of the Upper Realm and Hell.
"Senior, what 'iteration' do you speak of?" The question tore from Minos sharper than intended. "I've never entered the Upper Realm's gates until—"
Devdar's sharp inhale interrupted him. The man's face had gone waxen, eyes darting between Minos and Lydis as if tracing invisible threads connecting them. His silence scread recognition.
Lydis's sigh seed to draw shadows from the walls themselves. For a heartbeat, the True Celestial appeared less a domain leader and more a weaver, regretting the tapestry beneath his fingers. Then—
—the air crackled.
Between one blink and the next, Lydis stood inches from them, his presence heavy with the ozone tang of unraveled spaceti. Minos' muscles locked; Devdar's hand spasd.
Touching both of their shoulders, Lydis made them see what he wanted, while saying in a lodious tone. "Five billion years ago, there was a man called Tian Wang. He was great in every way. From his harem to his cultivation, his actions, and thods. He was an Absolute in every sense of the word, immortalized by the Life and Death Tree, with a position in the Dawn Peak."
Devdar and Minos didn't understand exactly what Lydis was getting at, but as they listened, they saw representative images in the illusion the man had put them in.
"Tian Wang wasn't the only true immortal of the Dawn Peak. Besides him, a group of beings recognized by the Life and Death Tree lived for countless eons, creating, destroying and managing from afar the reality that gave rise to everything we know. In a way, they were the Primordial Gods, creators of our infinite planes.
"Tian Wang was the leader of the Dawn Peak and ensured the great universe was sustainable, following the Laws of the Dawn Peak."
Minos rembered the past that the throne had shown him and changed his state, leaving the confusion of a mont ago aside to listen carefully to every word from Lydis.
"But while Tian Wang was preaching law and order, Shulong, another true immortal from the Dawn Peak, wanted more. His ambition was to take Tian Wang's position and take the 'next' step in cultivation, thus surpassing the Absolute stage. To do this, he poisoned the Life and Death Tree, took its powers and sacrificed all the Dawn Peak Absolutes who were at Tian Wang's side."
The sapphire-haired young man looked seriously at the two beside him, while the illusion created showed a gigantic bolt of lightning falling on the ancient eden.
Observing Minos, Lydis remarked, "At this juncture, an improbable event transpired. All the true immortals have had their origins damaged and have disappeared completely. Along with them, the cataclysm ca and everything changed."
With those words, Lydis' illusion ended, allowing Minos and Devdar to return to the reality of the throne hall.
"The Celestial King..." Devdar clenched his fists as he muttered softly, feeling uneasy all over his body. "Was that really the Celestial King?" He asked in search of a second confirmation, his lips trembling.
Who was the Celestial King? This was the strongest among the Absolutes of the primordial era, the leader of the Dawn Peak, creator and maintainer of stability, the last to sit on the throne of existence, the strongest being in all of history!
The Celestial King had practically created the rules of cultivation, living beings, worlds, entire planes, forging today's reality itself.
But not only that, as a true immortal, he was eternal. Even if he disappeared, his will and mark would always exist in reality and the re act of ntioning his na provoked reactions from the realm.
Minos could clearly feel how the stability of this underwater dinsion seed to change amid this conversation, trembling at the ntions of Devdar and, above all, Lydis.
Lydis nodded positively to Devdar. "I'm not mistaken. What I told you is what I read from the Celestial King's own manuscript!"
"That..." Devdar opened his mouth, but found no words to express himself.
Minos frowned. "Impossible. How could he have left a manuscript with such information when he was destroyed by the traitors of Dawn Peak?"
Lydis smiled at this question. "He knew about his own end. He was a seer, after all."
Devdar's eyes twitched as he swallowed his saliva, slowly pointing at Minos.
"Wait a minute! Are you saying that Minos is..." Devdar took two steps closer to Lydis, his voice incredulous. "Gulp! That can't be! What do you an..." He looked at Minos. "Minos... He..."
Lydis revealed, "Yes and no. When Shulong betrayed the Dawn Peak, the heavens collapsed, bringing the First Cataclysm, which almost eradicated all spiritual existence." He paused for a mont, before becoming more serious. "On that day, all true immortals ceased to exist!"
Devdar asked, even more incredulous. "You an the Celestial King is gone for good? Never to return?" His eyes trembled as if he were discovering the worst truth in all of existence.
Lydis continued, "Tian Wang, Shulong and all the other mbers of the Dawn Peak were true immortals. They didn't disappear completely, even though their existences were ruined forever."
Looking at Devdar, Lydis confird, "The Celestial King you heard about will never return." He then looked at Minos, pointing. "However, his will and senses will never disappear. The reality will always bear him a successor. One who will always carry his nature. In front of is the latest of them. Perhaps the one who will finally end this dark cycle and prevent the Second Cataclysm from completely erasing everything and everyone!"
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