"You've come..."
A distant, ancient voice came from the magnificent being's mouth, echoing throughout the Element World.
The voice was not loud, yet it seemed to carry the accumulated weight of endless years. Every word seemed dredged from the deepest reaches of time, bearing the dust of eternity, and its loneliness too.
The being's black-and-white eyes rested on Zhou Heng. There was no hostility in that gaze, no scrutiny, only an utterly pure appraisal that bordered on nostalgia.
"The rules of boundless endless once told me of the uniqueness of your journey..."
"I also asked that old angler why he thought so highly of you..."
"But..."
The words paused briefly, and a smile of indeterminate meaning appeared at the corners of the magnificent being's mouth.
"Hehehe..."
The low laughter flowed through the space interwoven with eight elements, carrying a trace of desolation, a trace of self-mockery, and a trace of deeply concealed sentiment.
"Through the years of boundless endless, the strongest beneath the Master of Boundless Endless, those such as myself, were abandoned by the era in the end..."
The words "abandoned by the era" were spoken with utter calm, as though stating a fact long since accepted over countless epochs.
Yet it was precisely that calmness that allowed Zhou Heng to discern something deeper than grief within them: the final lingering echo left after even sorrow had its edges worn smooth by time.
The magnificent being looked at Zhou Heng and continued.
"From the moment the Master of Boundless Endless constructed a divine kingdom of their own, the eight elements of wind, thunder, water, fire, ice, wood, light, and darkness came to exist between heaven and earth..."
"Later, for reasons unknown, the Master of Boundless Endless added two more to the world's elements..."
The being raised a hand slightly,