Transformation

"You don't dare?" Lin Ye's voice was soft.

"If I told every civilization that there weren't enough definitions to go around, what would they do? Fight over them. Wage wars. The strong would seize the definitions of the weak, and great civilizations would devour the existence of lesser ones. It would be ten thousand times crueler than it is now. So I said nothing. I chose silence. I chose to let the system automatically reclaim the 'least-used definitions.' At least that way, no blood would be spilled."

Source Definition's voice grew lower and lower, until it was nearly inaudible.

"But I knew it was wrong. Those reclaimed definitions, those abandoned definitions, those obsessions that had struggled within the Wall of Obsessions for endless eras—they should not have had to bear this. I was too cowardly."

Lin Ye closed his eyes.

When he opened them again, there was no anger in them, only a light of absolute calm.

"You weren't cowardly. You just carried it alone for too long."

Source Definition trembled.

"But now," Lin Ye stepped forward, and every star on his cloak lit up, "you don't have to carry it alone anymore."

Source Definition remained silent for a long time.

In that Void without any definitions, silence itself was a definition—it defined the boundary between "existence" and "nonexistence." And at this moment, that boundary was being broken.

"Lord of Ashes." Source Definition's voice rang out again, calmer than before, yet carrying something Lin Ye had never sensed from it before—resolve. "Do you know the only way to solve this problem?"

"Let civilizations create definitions themselves," Lin Ye said.

Source Definition trembled again. "How did you know?"

"Because we already did it once. The Ember Era did not borrow definitions from you—it was created jointly by 370 million civilizations."

Source