"Had there ever been a Human King like the one recorded in your legends before?"
Lu Li asked curiously, thinking that this had finally started to connect with his starting identity.
"I don't know. Maybe it was just a story my grandfather made up to amuse me. No... I hope he was just amusing me."
Ji Hong said, "Because that would mean the prophecy on the stone tablet is false. Perhaps people of every era saw that prophecy, welcomed what they believed was their own Human King, and then fell into complete despair after their hope burned out."
"Elder Ji has a point. It's like cold reading."
Lu Li said with a smile, watching Ji Hong perform a complicated series of actions before the stone door of the cave.
"Cold reading?"
This time, even the knowledgeable Ji Hong did not understand.
"It's roughly a trick fortune-tellers use to deceive people. The prophecy on your stone tablet doesn't even specify which era it refers to. It only says 'this era.' So everyone seeing the tablet for the first time would think it referred to their own era. But in reality, six eras have already passed, haven't they?"
Lu Li said. He did not know what humans had been like in the beginning, but ever since records of these six eras existed, humanity had already become slaves and food for strange monsters.
"That is an interesting way of putting it. Perhaps Mr. Lu is right."
Ji Hong said with a smile. After he activated the mechanism, the stone door automatically opened inward. This was clearly not technology their tribe could possess today.
He led Lu Li deeper into the cave. The interior was pitch-black, but Lu Li was no ordinary person and could roughly make things out. Ji Hong, meanwhile, was familiar