The aftermath of the Crimson Tribulation left the Xuan Clan Estate in a state of eerie, crystalline silence. The red clouds had vanished, but the air still tasted of ozone and Deleted logic.
Xuan Ye stood on the altar, his eyes closed. For the first time since he had awakened the Book of Fate, he wasn't looking at the world through the lens of power levels or energy types. He was listening.
Within his Infinite Dimensional World, the red lightning had finally finished smelting the essences of the Void Refinement masters. He still didn't refine the ascension expert's But as the iron of their power cooled, a new sound began to emerge from the very atoms of his internal world.
It was a subterranean current. A reservoir of every instinct and terror that had ever existed.
"Do not be fooled by the silence of the mountain," a voice seemed to echo from the marrow of his own bones. "Your mind is merely a single wave cresting upon an ocean that has no shore."
Xuan Ye's eyes snapped open. He looked at a single grain of dust floating in a sunbeam above the ruined altar.
In his Ink-Wash Vision, that grain of dust was no longer a particle of stone. It was a Vessel for a Silent Witness.he saw Within the nucleus of an atom lies the Archives of Existence.
within the atom a microscopic archive of every beast that had ever hunted and every star that had ever collapsed. The dust wasn't just sitting there it was dreaming.
"Xuan Ye?"
Zhao Ling's voice broke his trance. She was still holding his hand, her grip tight and her eyes filled with a mixture of awe and a burgeoning, protective fear. "You're staring at nothing again. Your soul... it felt like it went somewhere very far away."
Xuan Ye looked at her. He realized that the Princess, the Emperor, and even his cousin with his System were all trapped in the same illusion. They believed their minds were fortresses, separate and walled off. They didn't realize they were walking through a thicket of whispers.
"I was just listening to the wind, Your Highness," Xuan Ye said, his voice carrying a new, resonant depth. "The stones here... they have a lot to say about what just happened."
"Don't talk like a mystic," she murmured, though she didn't let go of his hand. "My father is already suspicious. If he thinks you've gained some Heavenly Insight from the Red Lightning, he won't let you stay in the library. He'll turn you into a weapon."
"The Emperor sees the stars and sees distance," Xuan Ye replied, looking at the Xuan Clan disciples who were now emerging from the shadows, bowing to the Genius Xuan Feng. "He doesn't realize that the crimson lighting is already inside his own cells which can lead to death."