Deities became taboo.
Laws became lines no one could cross.
Everyone had to worship the Violet Empire's one and only Former King. At first, only slander and criticism were punished. Later, even silence became a sign of wavering devotion, until eventually, merely failing to praise him was a sin.
That was the pinnacle of the Violet Empire's glory in the New World, yet also the darkest age in the entire Main Universe.
"What about Painter... back then... where was Painter?!"
Zuo Zuo could not stop trembling.
The oppression and terror in those memories made even her feel waves of suffocating dread.
Lynn closed his eyes, clenched his hands, and said:
"If I'm not mistaken, those were the years after the Battle of Heaven. Raven had lost the influence of that Great Lord's subconscious. It was also after the Battle of Heaven broke out that they could no longer determine whether the Great Lord was asleep or truly dead."
Perhaps it was precisely that fear that drove them to such extremes.
The memories made no mention of Painter.
But Lynn understood that if this truly had happened during that period, Painter probably would not have intervened even if she had been there, because her fixation on him... was far deeper than that of anyone else in this era.
One might even say that their extreme rule, their forcing everyone in the Main Universe to worship the Violet Great Lord, perhaps also carried a desire to awaken him. In a sense, faith was indeed an exceptionally stable anchor, one that could drag him back into order if he fell into chaos.
But they did not know.
By then, the Great Lord had already begun his struggle against that calamity, a tug-of-war that would stretch on for countless years.
And it was during