The world beneath the water bottle was nearly dead silent. Only those pale blue patterns glimmered faintly like life stirring back to wakefulness, yet that was enough for Li Ziran to manifest them across the surface of Hippo Ancient City.
The runes were taking shape, like an exquisite ring of tattoos etched across the outer layer of the city walls. What struck Li Ziran as strange was that these runes were not as unresponsive as rotten mud. On the contrary, they were consuming vast amounts of Hippo Ancient City's Origin Essence energy.
The consumption was practically siphoning. Whenever the Void Heart produced even a trace, it was poured mercilessly into the runes. In mere moments, those strange runes had nearly drained it dry, yet the ever-improving runes gave Li Ziran no special indication at all.
The runes continued. This was Li Ziran's first time dissecting the inner mysteries of the Boundary Wall, and he believed these runes could not possibly exist for no reason.
"Zizz... zizz zizz zizz zizz zizz zizz!"
Suddenly, a string of strange noises appeared in Li Ziran's consciousness, like wandering electrical code, piercingly shrill. The sound was bizarre, like whispers, yet even more like communication from some loftier dimensional level.
He observed the runes on his body. They had not yet finished, but that string of sounds felt like fingernails scraping across his eardrums, or like someone quietly speaking to him.
There was civilization in the Void Expanse.
A terrifying thought took shape in his mind. It seemed that the seemingly endless Void Expanse before him was not empty after all. But he quickly shook his head. That exchange just now was more like audio triggered by electrical currents—more like code.
The runes continued to improve, and the zizzing sound grew louder and louder, exactly like