bayedsolid Chapter 372 A Two-Sided Dilemma
Chapter 372 A Two-Sided Dilemma
Lingyue stumbled and fell towards Li Zhao, her boots crushing the stardust on the ground with a soft sound, each step feeling like walking on thin, shaky ice.
The moment her fingertips touched the other person's blood-stained sleeve, the entire starry sky suddenly began to rotate in reverse, and countless stars fell like out-of-control meteorites, trailing long, luminous tails across the deep sky.
The falling star left scorching marks on the ground, emitting black smoke. The pungent smell of burning, mixed with the cold stardust, hit us in the face.
Black and white particles of light seeped from the wound on Li Zhao's chest, like sand flowing in an hourglass. With each weak breath, those particles of light dissipated at a visible speed, as if his life force was slowly slipping away.
"Hold on!" Lingyue's voice was trembling with tears as she pressed the Source of Light against his chest.
The fragment in his hand suddenly emitted a sharp, metallic clanging sound, so piercing it sent chills down his spine.
The enormous black shadow in the distance slowly condensed into a human form, with twelve pairs of bone wings spreading out to blot out the sky. Each bone wing was covered with fine cracks, as if it were pieced together from fragments of broken spacetime.
With each flap of its bone wings, space distorted like a shattered mirror, and each finger bone was entangled in temporal turbulence, radiating a chilling pressure.
The half-arm protruding from beneath the black robe was covered in scales, with dark purple energy flowing between the scales. The palm was inlaid with the same dark patterned badge as Li Zhao's previous one, which shimmered with an eerie light.
"The power of containers has finally been awakened."
The shadowy voice sounded like countless people speaking at once, carrying a buzzing sound of time and space being out of place. Every word seemed to come from the distant end of time and space, making Lingyue's eardrums ache.
It raised its hand and waved it lightly, and seven chains suddenly appeared around Lingyue. The chains were engraved with runes of silver-armored men, and the runes shimmered with a cold blue light.
"Back then, Wenli and her group of fools thought they could seal away the darkness, but they didn't know that the so-called guardians were born to control this power."
The shadowy figure's words were full of sarcasm and disdain, as if telling a joke that had already been destined.
A sharp pain shot through her ankle. Lingyue looked down and saw the chains seeping into her skin. The cold touch spread along her veins, feeling like a thousand ants gnawing at her heart.
She struggled to mobilize the remaining power, only to find that the energy within her body was like being trapped in a quagmire, with every fluctuation being pulled by the dark shadow, as if her power had already been controlled by the other party.
Li Zhao suddenly grabbed her wrist, a glint of clarity flashing in his eyes. His lips trembled slightly as he managed to utter a few words with difficulty: "Don't use... the fragment... it's a trap..."
Before he could finish speaking, the dark figure shot out a beam of eerie blue light from his fingertip. The beam was like a sharp blade, instantly sending him flying dozens of meters away and shattering a giant meteorite floating in the distance.
The deafening roar of the meteorite explosion sent shockwaves swirling into a massive cloud of dust.
In the intense light of the meteorite explosion, Lingyue witnessed an astonishing scene—the meteorite contained countless remains of silver-armored men, their badges identical to those on the palm of the shadowy figure, and each with half a fragment embedded between their brows.
The fragments emitted a faint, sinister glow, echoing the badge on the silver-armored man's chest.
Memories flooded back. In Wenli's final scene, among the souls sealed at the bottom of the altar, many silver-armored figures were grinning smugly, their smiles seemingly mocking her naivety and ignorance.
"You are the true dark will!" Lingyue roared, her voice filled with anger and resentment.
The fragment in her hand suddenly flew towards the shadowy figure on its own, beyond her control.
The shadowy figure let out a hearty laugh, and its twelve pairs of bone wings stirred up a spacetime storm, causing the surrounding space to distort and deform, and the stars to be torn to pieces by the storm.
"A clever girl, but it's a pity you realized it too late. When the seven fragments resonate with the container, the entire universe will become our forge!"
The fragment transformed into a stream of light in its palm, piecing together with the other half of the fragment to form a complete disc radiating an eerie glow. The runes on the disc flickered with an ominous red light, as if foreshadowing the coming of the end times.
Li Zhao struggled to his feet, his body swaying as if he might collapse at any moment.
The scepter emitted a faint white light, which appeared so small and fragile in the darkness.
"Lingyue... destroy the disc..."
His voice was torn apart by the storm, each word sounding as if he had used up all his strength.
The shadowy figure swung his hand back, and a black rift swallowed Li Zhao. Before disappearing, golden patterns suddenly appeared on his palm, forming a strange yin-yang pattern with the silver-armored man's badge. The pattern flickered for a moment and then disappeared into the dark rift.
Lingyue felt her consciousness beginning to blur, the chains had spread to her heart, and each heartbeat was accompanied by intense pain.
In the nick of time, she suddenly remembered a hidden corner of Wenli's memory—in ancient times, the guardians had used their own souls to forge the "Key to Reversal of Fate".
She bit her tongue, the taste of blood filling her mouth, and spat the blood into the air.
The fragment suddenly burst forth with an unprecedented golden light, carrying a sacred aura, outlining an ancient array in the starry sky.
The lines of the array shimmered with a mysterious light, and each rune seemed to be telling ancient secrets.
The shadowy figure's laughter abruptly stopped: "Impossible! Wenli clearly put the key..."
The moment the array was completed, the entire starry sky trembled violently, and a humanoid figure emerged from the crack where Li Zhao had disappeared.
The figure was dressed in similar attire to the silver-armored man, but his face was exactly like Li Zhao's. However, he was surrounded by a pure aura of light, which illuminated the surrounding darkness and seemed to bring a glimmer of hope.
"Brother, it's been a long time." Guangying spoke, his voice exactly the same as Li Zhao's, but with an added sense of calm and determination.
With a wave of his hand, all the chains shattered inch by inch, the crisp sound of breaking echoing through the starry sky.
“I am the true ‘vessel,’ while you are nothing but a counterfeit created by the dark will.”
The words of the light and shadow were full of confidence and authority, as if they held absolute truth.
The shadowy figure let out a furious roar of resentment, and its twelve pairs of bone wings began to disintegrate, with black fragments falling like raindrops.
The entire starry sky was plunged into unprecedented chaos. Spacetime began to distort and fold, the trajectories of stars were disrupted, and the universe seemed to be on the verge of destruction.
Taking advantage of the moment, Lingyue rushed toward the disc. The fragments and the source of light merged in her hand into a sharp sword, the blade gleaming with a dazzling light that contained her conviction and determination.
The moment the sword tip touched the disc, she suddenly saw a vision of the future—Li Zhao stood in the center of a burning universe, holding a scepter, his black robe covered with silver armor badges, his eyes filled with indifference and aloofness.
He lay in a pool of blood, his remains crushed by the shadows, surrounded by desolation and despair.
In the instant that reality and illusion overlapped, the disc burst forth with blinding light, carrying immense power that swept her into an unknown vortex of spacetime.
Before she lost consciousness, she heard two Li Zhao's voices simultaneously: "Find the real..."
The lingering sound dissipated in the turbulent flow of time and space, like an unfinished puzzle.
When Lingyue opened her eyes again, she found herself in a palace filled with mirrors, each mirror reflecting a different version of herself, some holding dark scepters and their eyes filled with evil.
Some stood shoulder to shoulder with the silver-armored men, their faces bearing smug smiles.
In the deepest part of the mirror, Li Zhao was giving her a meaningful smile, a smile that seemed to conceal countless secrets, sending chills down her spine...