More than ten minutes later, led by a stern, unsmiling butler, Bai Zhi arrived at a room resembling a tea room.
Inside, the elderly man who called himself X was already seated at the table. A teapot and two teacups sat atop the tea table, while an incense burner burned in a corner of the room.
The fragrance of tea drifted through the room, mingling with the faint scent of fresh grass.
"What do you want to know?"
Without any more pointless pleasantries, the old man spoke after Bai Zhi took a seat across from him.
"...Let's start from the beginning."
Resting his chin on one hand atop the table, Bai Zhi thought for a moment before answering.
"I want to know more about you World Guardians. For example, how many World Guardians are still in the [World Tomb] now?"
"Now?"
The old man sighed softly.
"When our group fled into this godforsaken place, I remember there being over three hundred of us. But after so much time, the old have grown older and the dead have died. There are probably only a dozen or so left."
"The casualties were that severe?"
Bai Zhi could not help but frown slightly at the old man's words.
"That time was nothing like the present. Before the system appeared, the chaos here was far beyond anything you could imagine."
The old man shook his head.
"Besides, not everyone was willing to stay in a place like this forever. Everything about a World Guardian is closely tied to their world. Even though we forcibly brought our worlds to this Land of Death back then, as time passed, those worlds were gradually eroded by the aura here and headed toward death."
"What happened later?"
"Later? Then, one day, the system suddenly appeared for no apparent