Chapter 1131: Section 1132: The Transmutation of the Night
The change in Lassudral had also reached the Hunting Museum.
In the deep hallway, Aoluxiya stood at the entrance of the Exhibition Hall, with an open window behind it.
Originally, flickering outside the window was a fiery red light, but suddenly, the daylight was obscured by dark clouds, becoming gloomy, almost merging with the dark hallway.
Immediately after, the earth shook, and the fierce wind howled.
“Lord Aoluxiya, the atmosphere in Lassudral seems to have become somewhat unusual,” Tandin, enveloped in a fiery red robe, approached the window and closed it, instantly shutting out the noise of the wind.
Not far away, at a corner, Greerwu curled up into a ball, as if plunged into a kind of sorrowful mood.
“When humans appeared here, the atmosphere in Lassudral had already begun to change,” said a gentle voice, echoing in the silent corridor.
Aoluxiya turned and leaned against the doorpost of the Exhibition Hall, all expressions hidden beneath a porcelain white mask, “However, I didn’t expect that Lassudral would come to this point.”
Tandin did not understand what ‘coming to this point’ meant.
Facing Tandin’s question, Aoluxiya did not explain, but the eyes of the flame under the porcelain mask slowly closed. For it, the world when closing its eyes was sometimes clearer than with eyes open.
“Then, will the current changes affect the Lord’s plan?” Tandin asked anxiously.
“Who knows?”
The events had already happened, the change had become a fact, and acceptance was the only choice. Even if it truly had an impact, Aoluxiya had no choice but to proceed.
One could only say that those so-called great Demons of the Void Tower were really not reliable at all.
Aoluxiya stood up, turned its head back towards the great door of the Exhibition Hall.
The door of the Exhibition Hall was not closed, and unlike the hallway, the inside was very bright. The source of light, however, came from a painting on the wall at the very back of the Exhibition Hall.
Aoluxiya remembered that when it first saw this painting, there were some black spots in it. It was said that these spots represented Nightfall.
Now, there was not a single black spot on the painting, only flames burning.
The flames seemed to be on a flat plane, yet their glow spread into the three-dimensional world. When Aoluxiya looked at that painting, the flames seemed to leap directly at its eyes, and even from dozens of meters away, one could still feel that terrifying sense of scorching.
The protagonist of this Feast of Flames—Night, was standing in front of that painting.
Night had been staring at the painting, but perhaps it was the earthquake in Lassudral that made Night sense something, so it slightly turned its head, revealing a profile against the backlight.
Night looked in the direction of the Void Tower. Perhaps, having integrated a part of the Primeval Flame’s essence, Night’s gaze pierced through the Shadow Mist Area and saw Popota in front of the Inscriptive Central Hub.
There was an aura similar to its own on Popota.
A rare surprise appeared in its eyes. After pondering for a moment, Night recalled that many years ago, Feng had mentioned a very special kind of people to it.
—The Baiyuanians.
“By the Primeval Flame, a group of world’s darlings were born. They are the Baiyuanians, chasers of the Baiyuan Flame.” That was how Feng described the origin of the Baiyuanians in a book, but the next second, Feng chuckled, “The Baiyuanians, blessed by the heavens, were envied by others. When I left the Southern Domain, I heard that the Baiyuanians had already been wiped out.”
Popota carried the aura of Primeval Flame, bearing some resemblance to the Baiyuanians Feng spoke of.
“It’s just a bit regrettable,” Night thought to itself, shaking its head inwardly, “Obsession cannot match one’s own strength, and now it has been tempted by that being and fallen into the profound Abyss.”
Night merely took one glance, and it understood Popota. Withdrawing its gaze, Night’s expression once again became indifferent.
Aoluxiya, witnessing this scene from outside the doors of the Exhibition Hall, was very curious about what Night had seen that could even cause its expression to show emotion?
However, Aoluxiya’s curiosity would probably never be answered.
Because the next second, the flames within the painting suddenly breached the “paper” barrier, and an endless blaze surrounded Night completely.
At the same time, Night’s body also began to disintegrate gradually.
To be exact, Night’s body was turning into basic particles. From afar, it looked like a corner of a jigsaw puzzle transforming into scattered sand, and that sand kept diffusing, eventually to completely disintegrate Night.
“Lord, what is this!” Tandin also saw this scene, its expression filled with astonishment, as it tried to say something but was stopped by Aoluxiya.
“The Night Master is taking the final step. This is the necessary path for the Monarch of Fire.”
As the Night Master’s body began to disintegrate, changes in Lassudral emerged again. Earlier, black clouds had gathered, and fierce winds had raged. Now, the fire in the sky, unwilling to be silent, finally produced a new transformation after the previous “Flowing Fire.”
Not far from the Hunting Museum, at a crossroad.
Kanter and Samantha had finally met the late-arriving Sinafa, exchanging the information they had received from Angel, and were preparing to plan their next steps.
Just then, Lassudral faced a gathering of black clouds and raging winds.
They hadn’t yet figured out the cause of this disturbance when a new transmutation was born.
“Do you guys feel it? The fire element in the air is a bit strange,” said Sinafa, who might be more sensitive to changes in the fire element due to a prior curse from Ice Valley.
It is indeed a little odd, as if the air itself is burning. This feeling, it’s somewhat like being in the land of Magma,” Samantha confirmed after sensing it for a moment.
Had Lassudral undergone another change?
As they puzzled over this, Kanter suddenly noticed a red dot forming out of nowhere in the air nearby, and he looked up at the sky in confusion—
Alike Kanter, Angel was also gazing at the sky at this moment.
Somehow, the sky had started drifting with sparks of fire that sprouted spontaneously, growing ceaselessly, and scattering with the furious winds across the sky.
“Could these tiny sparks be Lassudral’s way of sending a warning?” Angel murmured softly.
“No, this is the fire Monarch’s final step.” It was rare for Angel not to ask proactively, so Fafnir offered the answer, but after speaking, her gaze turned somewhat sad.
Seeing a Half-Blood Demon reaching this stage, while she, who considered her lineage to be more noble, could not yet glimpse the path ahead, complicated her emotions.
Putting aside the gloomy environment, the sky full of sparks was, in fact, quite beautiful.
But its beauty, unlike the flickering of fireflies which is dreamy, had a beauty akin to its very nature—burning and fading away.
What was burning was the sky overhead, and what might be fading away, could be Lassudral in its precarious state.
Within the Hunting Museum, the host of the night was almost half disintegrated into fundamental particles.
The surrounding flames danced more vividly and gradually formed a path. This was the path of passing the flame, a path of glory, as well as a lord’s path.
At the end of the road lay a painting on the wall.
After the flame within the painting had broken free from its shackles, the image didn’t turn into “nightfall.” Now, there was a vortex within the painting, and behind the vortex was a world of flames.
This fiery world seemed to possess an endless allure, holding not only the gaze of the night attentively fixed on the vortex but also that of Aoluxiya.
Aoluxiya’s hands trembled as it, too, desired to set foot on this path to see the world behind the vortex.
For it knew well that this fiery world was actually the origin of everything!
—The Primeval Flame, known as the flame of inception. It clings to the cradle of civilization and burns fiercely in an ineffable world. To witness it directly is extremely difficult; only at the moment the Primeval Flame descends is there a chance to see the entrance to this world.
Even though Aoluxiya yearned to glimpse that ineffable world, to know what it was like, it understood that stepping into it with its strength would likely not even afford the chance to become fodder for the flames before being reduced to ash, disappearing without a trace.
Even the host of the night had to disintegrate into fundamental particles to merge into the Primeval Flame. And when the host returned from that fiery realm, the memories remaining, it is estimated, would be pitifully few.
The reason Aoluxiya knew these secrets was that an ancestor of Greerwu had once entered that world. However, upon departure, all memories of that world had vanished from that Inscription patterned Monarch.
When the body of the host of the night was completely reduced to fundamental particles, a wind from nowhere blew through the Exhibition Hall, wrapping all the flames including those floating fundamental particles into the vortex in the painting.
The Exhibition Hall returned to being spacious and pitch-dark.
It was only after confirming the departure of the host of the night that Aoluxiya stepped into the Exhibition Hall.
Aoluxiya approached the painting, and by then, the flames and vortex within it had all disappeared, returning once more to pitch darkness.
It was only at this moment that Aoluxiya saw in one corner of the painting the name that had been assigned to it: “Night.”
“Night,” Aoluxiya uttered, looking at the pitch-black night within the painting and couldn’t help but chuckle lightly, “So this is your true form.”
This ‘you’ referred both to the painting and to that indifferent Half-Blood Demon.
Tandin, holding a sleeping Greerwu in his arms, also entered the Exhibition Hall: “My lord, what are we to do now?”
“Wait for the night’s return,” Aoluxiya spoke softly, “And make sure to protect this painting well.”
What Aoluxiya meant by protection was not in the literal sense, for the painting had become a portal to that world, in a way, the will of the Abyss. Even if Aoluxiya exhausted all its strength, it couldn’t possibly destroy the painting.
Its idea of protection meant keeping the painting in their sight at all times.
When the night returned from that world, it would undoubtedly emerge from this painting. The Primeval Flame that leaked out then would be Aoluxiya’s target.
Similarly, this Primeval Flame was not only coveted by Aoluxiya, but all fire-aligned Demons would go mad for it! Moreover, with humans now coveting it from the sidelines, they must guard this painting well and be the first to grasp the Primeval Flame in their hands.