Chapter 399 - 395: Auric Sea, What Lies Beneath
The specific targeting of the Auric Sea made Wei Wuyin recall something that Wu Yu mentioned when they were discussing various matters years ago. According to him, the Divine King Han Xei had a huge problem with dragons of the starfield. For some reason or another, he had acted in genocide.
Curious, he asked what these dragons were like. He had met Anu, a living and breathing dragon that was struggling for lifeforce. It didn’t seem to hold any hatred towards him specifically, lacking the distinct anger of a species that went nearly extinct by a human’s actions.
He believed the dragons might be in hiding or in hibernation, awaiting for the right time to awaken. But he felt that wasn’t correct. So when Wu Yu explained that dragons were originally the rulers of this starfield, he was shaken.
In ancient records, the dragon lineage of beasts was a species that was present before humans or elves, and the planets and continents were their living grounds. While demons existed alongside them, creating an off-branch of demonic dragons, there were no humans or elves beforehand.
Without them, there were no beastmen that were born from them. It was strictly a starfield ruled by dragons, and their power levels were extremely high. Unlike humans, elves, or just cultivators in general, beasts at the Star Beast level could travel amongst the stars, soaring and surviving through the Dark Void. They seemed to be able to resist the unique Chaos Mana with relative ease.
Not all beasts had wings, but they could all ’swim’ through mana.
They weren’t a very intelligent society and lived on the most basic animal kingdom rules. But one day, humans and elves had arrived in the starfield and started to develop. The dragons would mostly ignore them, eating a few that bothered them too deeply. There were even records that depicted dragons as abhorrent bloodthirsty creatures that consumed humans and elves like they were great enemies.
But if that was true, humans and elves would’ve long since went extinct before they got the chance to grow. Wu Yu didn’t believe those records as they defied common sense. As for how or why humans or elves came about, he felt it had to do with the concept of Void Gates.
No matter what, it seemed very strange that the advanced method for storage rings and Void Gates existed in a nascent cultivation society before Realmlords were even a thing. It was as if they were carried here from elsewhere alongside these newly arrived humans and elves.
They likely came from Void Gates elsewhere, traveling beyond the starfield. Who knows why or how, but they just arrived. This was recorded by ancient murals of demons, preserved and observed by historians who relished in understanding the past.
Later, the cultivation society came to be. Even the Alchemic Dao started to show signs of development, but the starfield still had limitations. Tens of thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands of years later, the King of Everlore was born and the current cultivation society elevated beyond the starfield’s limit. The Fourth Stage of the Astral Core Realm’s limit was elevated!
Humans, elves, the newly born beastmen, and hybrid demons were given room to become equals or even greater than the dragon lineage present. They did, and the Divine King Han Xei had started a bloody war with dragons.
While Wu Yu didn’t know why the aggression and lack of mercy, the dragons were hunted down and all killed. There wasn’t a single one left on the starfield. This included every last beastman and woman of the dragon lineage.
With the Divine King of Han Xei breaking the Mortal Limits, how could these dragons resist? They were all slaughtered. Wu Yu had witnessed it, but he had stayed his hand in this. Well, there was another reason.
The first Mystic Ascendant to be born in the starfield was the Divine King Han Xei, someone who was born in the same continent as the King of Everlore himself. They seemed to have had a relationship despite the age difference. The time he exterminated the dragon lineage whole, no one could stop him, no one even rivaled him at the time.
This was all the information Wu Yu knew. While it wasn’t likely the full story, Wei Wuyin knew one thing: the Divine King Han Xei carried strong killing intent towards dragons.
But when Kratos noticed the force pressed upon it, it also felt its bloodline stirring wildly. Wei Wuyin felt it too, which was why he was descending downwards closer to the Auric Sea. While he could prevent the Auric Sea’s dragon aura pulling force, he still had to resist the strong gravitational force.
As he reached two hundred feet below the ten thousand feet line, his expression changed. He felt that the Auric Sea’s gravitational force was not one-directional, but like a twister that was churning and pulling him downwards. The force wanted to crush him into nothing and then drag him down.
Despite his incredibly strong mortal body, he felt the immense pressure within his bones. He kept descending despite this, this time no longer taking it slowly as he abruptly dropped like a meteorite. In moments, he reached the five hundred feet distance beneath the safety limit, and the gravitational force was horrifically crushing at this point. He had to bring out most of the powers of his four Astral Souls to resist, but even still his bones released cracking sounds.
He sighed, "This is my limit." While he was a Soul Idol of abnormal quality, he still had a ceiling of power. If it wasn’t for his body refined by extremely pure energies and his physical energies being enhanced by both his Draconic Void Astral Souls and numerous alchemical products, he might’ve already been crushed to nothingness.
Sweeping his gaze to the Auric Sea, he asked: "Anything?"
"..." Kratos remained silent for the longest moment. After that, it spoke in a hoarse voice that seemed to carry indescribable emotions, "They’re alive."
"...!" Wei Wuyin’s silver eyes constricted after those words. His Celestial Eyes were pushed to the maximum by instinct trying to look into the Auric Sea, but to no avail.
"..." Eden, Ori, and King. They all seemed to be sending support to Kratos, causing Wei Wuyin to feel its emotions even clearer. It was a sadness of untold levels. A sadness that he had once felt in his life. It was when he looked back at that moment, knowing that everything he knew and loved was gone.
When he felt the wetness on his face, his heart and hands trembled. "You can feel them?" He slowly asked with his eyes slowly closing, the tears dropping and crushed by the twisting force.
"I can hear them..." Just as Kratos said this, it completely opened up its senses, fully linking them to Wei Wuyin. Then, he finally heard it. He heard something that he wouldn’t forget for the rest of his life.
SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-oOoOrrRrRRrrnNK!!!
BA-REEEEEEEEEEE-AAAAAAARRRRRRRRRUUUUUUUUURRRRNN!!!
Rheeeeeeeeeeegha-ohwoooooo!!!
It was a cacophony of roars, a continuous stream of sounds. When Wei Wuyin heard these sounds, these roars that seemed to be ever-present but forever distant, he realized why he was crying just by connecting with Kratos.
These...
These weren’t roars.
They were screams...