The words gradually turned mournful, echoing through this pitch-black cavern that never saw daylight, incomparably desolate.
The middle-aged Xiang Lang's tone grew increasingly low, as though he was about to dissipate.
Zhou You knew this opportunity was hard-won. He had to seize this rare chance to break the deadlock.
The Phantom Empress had painstakingly arranged for Liu Jingguo to lead him here; there had to be a conspiracy behind it. Now that the origins of this place had been uncovered, could he perhaps learn something about the relationship between the Myriad Manifestations Martial Sage and the Phantom Empress?
"Senior, may I say something?"
"Hmm?"
The middle-aged Xiang Lang said bleakly, "I am merely an abandoned remnant, not the Martial Saint's true body. What do you wish to say?"
"The Myriad Manifestations Martial Sage committed a grave mistake in his later years, one whose effects remain to this day. That was indulging phantoms in dreams!"
"Phantoms? Your companion, she..."
The middle-aged Xiang Lang said decisively, "Impossible. No matter what, he would never compromise with an alien kind, much less collude with one!"
"Allow me to explain in detail..."
Zhou You rapidly recounted the legends passed down by later generations, though he knew full well that the Xiang Lang before him only retained awareness up to the moment of the Earth Grandmaster, with no concept at all of what came afterward.
Yet no matter what, one's nature remained unchanged. The other party should still be able to infer the path by which the Myriad Manifestations Martial Sage would later commit his great error.
"..."
After listening, the middle-aged Xiang Lang fell silent for so long that Zhou You thought he was about to vanish...
His eyes gazed into the black void as he spoke. "I remember an old matter from years past..."