"What do you wish to see?" Liam played the character well, rubbing his beard as he reckoned, "but it would be the last one, and you must accept it no matter what. Do you agree with these rules, young man?"
The boy thought for a while, then nodded. He saw nothing wrong with the requirements.
Rather, there was nothing wrong at all!
"What is your name?" Liam asked.
"This Junior is called Hero... Senior"
"Hero... What a name." Liam nodded, then waved his hand over the leather mat. Like a gust of wind, the cards on it appeared to be the same, but the boy caught it, 'The card's positions were altered'
He thought inwardly, by then, Liam gestured, the dry touch in the air wafting into their nose.
An immortal city isn't really that hygienic, especially the main streets.
But for immortals, cultivators to be more precise, such smells weren't really an issue for them.
"Then, pick a card again. And make sure to think of the question that you want to deduct."
Hearing his words, Hero nodded, his hand reached out hesitantly over the leather mat, hovering above the cards.
There were a total of 16 of them, one was taken just now and is currently in his hand.
The symbol of a joker, half smiling, half unsmiling. Even after the answers, Hero still didn't understand it.
But he believed there must be hidden wisdom behind this mysterious old man's words.
Leaving behind 15.
And since even one of the cards possessed such an incredible detail, the boy suspected the rest of the cards to possess their own uniqueness.
He hoovered his hand carefully, hesitating whether his choice would be the right one for his question.
What exactly is the calamity? Even just a hint, he would be satisfied.
And most obviously, the main question he wanted to ask.
What's happening in this small city...
A city that was so close to the great wilderness, further away from every major forces in this region.
And yet...
The mysterious expert behind the Purple Cloud Pavilion, the safest place from the calamity, and now this mysterious expert that can read a person's fate.
This city is dangerous! Barely a few days in, and he stumbled upon so many taboo secrets that he wished he could forget.
But he couldn't.
Soon after, he picked up a card.
Questions lingered still at the back of his mind, and once he made up his decision, Liam flipped the chosen card upside down.
Revealing the picture of a strange circle encircled in deep purplish hue.
"What does this card mean, Senior?"
"It means death, or to be more, a catastrophe"
"Catastrophe... "
How ironic. It was as if this Senior could read his mind. But Hero doubted it.
Rather, this senior definitely knew more about this so-called catastrophe than him.
Hero wanted to inquire further, but Liam simply shook his head before he even could voice his words, "The purple sun, it's a sign of catastrophe not because of heaven. But something else... "
"Not because of heaven?"
But that's absurd, any catastrophe in the past, it was always at the hand of the heavenly machine that orchestrated everything.
Liam saw his thoughts and smiled, "We Human often overlooked one thing, the heaven main goal isn't to destroy us, but to curb our growth... "
"Child, look further than that. Heaven won't kill but rather to punish. "
Then, he said no more.
After all, 'I made everything up' Liam secretly said. Not knowing that the so-called script he was trying to create was aligned with everything that was happening in the world currently.
Hero believed everything he said without questioning. His eyes are deep, seemingly to be in deep thoughts.
Liam noticed this, and smiled.
He already completed his goal, which was to make contact with this second dungeon diver of his.
Especially after Hero touched the card, the connection was already established and Liam could pull him inside whenever he wanted.
But not now...
Abruptly pulling him without further reasons would be rather, "amateurs"
Liam began planning another script to keep up with this ongoing story. His eyes in daze as he lowered his gaze.
The days passed. Hero spent most of his time in this city, not setting an inch of foot outside the gate.
As time passed by, the subtle flow of people entering this city seemed to increase dramatically. There was no sign of decreasing at all.
But it was natural, with the presence of a suspected Nascent soul ancestor potentially residing in this city, especially with the coming red fog tide, many cultivators flocked to this city with the hope of taking refuge during the storm.
When the sky falls, trees like the existence of even rumours of Nascent soul ancestor's presences became blinding lightbulbs in this vast expanse of darkness.
Attracting everyone towards it.
Seeking warmth against the cold world.
During the days, Liam spent most of his time opening eggs that Iliya brought to him from the pavilion.
And as expected, well... He barely expected anything for the most part. "they were all... qi refining realm beast eggs"
Liam sighed, he turned his head to the side, just to see the scattered ashes of the failed eggs. Most were too fragile, too old, and ended up in failures column.
Few managed to succeed.
At the very least, he can use them to fill in the upcoming dungeon that he wished to create.
Well...
How do I expand the dungeon size anyway?
It's kinda hard to tell since everything depends on his own exploration to figure things out.
A month passed, the news that was brought from the distant places wasn't so satisfactory.
Immortal families fled in large batches, the mortal dynasties wailed, common people suffering.
The secular empires were destroyed overnight under the red tide.
A witness described it as an unimaginable horror. The sky bleeds red, the earth wailed, and mortals suffered under this unjust world.
But it can't be helped, this region was simply too vast.
In a perspective, we can say that the size of this region was equivalent to that of several blue star.
And to the fact that mortals can't access the immortal world's mean of transportation, traveling from one point to the other point would take more time than usual.
"There must be something that I can follow along with the current Lucien's part. Something to tie the already ongoing main story with this protagonist to be pulled in"
He pondered, it wasn't exactly a solid framework this whole time. Most were dependent upon the common monks beliefs on what was happening.
"The hidden human ancestor hiding in this remote place. The so-called Yellow King from behind the scene."
Bla bla bla...
A bunch of noises that were made up to cover up the truth.
"Then... Might as well follow along some of the rumours that had been going around from these people's mouths. One lie mustn't be greater than the other, one lie must be prudent, hard enough to be truthful in a way"
Liam smiled, eyes turning to the side as he was perching on the chair under the shady tree's canopy. The wind blew by, the grass swayed around ever so slightly.
He closed his eyes for a moment, head leaning back against the back of the chair. And soon enough as his thoughts were turning around inside his head, a whole new plan that followed the same template as the one that had been implanted for Lucien was created.
"Then... Hero was it?" A smirk appeared from the corner of his mouth.
His eyes opened, revealing the deep pool of stagnant ocean within it, as if it holds everything in this world has to offer, "then welcome to the game that I am about to create. A whole new world for us to portray... Being the one behind the scene is rather fun when I think about it"
Then, the scene ended there as the world was enveloped in the darkness of the soothing night. Far away, but the ever approaching tide of redness finally arrived by the end of this month.
Monks were seen standing in the air and over the walls. The city protective barriers were brought up, opened to its full capacity, like a huge upside down bowl that encompassed the whole land under a giant hand.
But it worked.
Sizzles...
Sizzles...
Like the noise of acidic rain hitting against something that it can't decompose. The thick fog of blood wafted outside, flowing against and over the bowl as if it was a water current rather than liquid like.
"What a bad omen this is... "
"Is this what they called the calamity of an era?"
"How terrible! How much worse can our lives be? Our human race had been punished enough, but now even worse."
The murmurs from the cultivators atop of the walls resounded among each other, after all... They are all in this together. If they want to survive, they must strive to work together.
But then, remembering the rumours, and also the presence of the Purple Cloud Pavilion mysterious expert, they felt relieved.
After all, in times like this where the heaven sent down heavenly punishment upon the human race, usually it would be these hidden ancestors that would take action at the front line.
Fighting whatever horror that descended onto this world...