Central Dispatch Center. In the command room, enormous screens were covered in red dots. Countless anomaly alarms rose and fell one after another, until at last they converged upon a single section within the torrent.
"Lock acquired."
The dispatcher sighed in relief. "Thanks to the Revelation you brought back, Ji Jue, the source of interference has been confirmed: Collapse of the Heavenly Pillar.
"We have detected a major alteration to historical events... Spider has joined forces with the surviving remnants of the Eternal Empire and intends to complete the Tower's core ahead of schedule."
"What is this?"
Ji Jue's gaze fell upon the center of the screen, upon the spot gradually turning red within the Tower's outline. He had seen it before—the unfinished thing from when the monarch and the rebel minister had drunk together.
"The dwelling of sovereign power, the manifestation of dominion. A component the Mohists had been unable to complete when they severed the Heavenly Pillar back then."
The dispatcher pinched his chin and sighed. "[Void Throne]... Without it, what the Mohists had needed to deal with back then had been the Empire and the Tower, rather than an emperor who held absolute control over the Empire and had become one with the Tower."
"The emperor is already gone. What use is a throne?" Ji Jue frowned. "Can they still dig the emperor back up from underground?"
"The throne is more important than the emperor."
The dispatcher said, "If the emperor is gone, they can replace him with another. But if power is gone, there will never be another emperor... Isn't that the dregs of Celestial Origin?
"Other than power, no one is irreplaceable. Even if the one wielding power wishes to change everything, they cannot shake power itself.
"The throne is the vessel and manifestation of