Chapter 331 – Truths and Lies (XVII)

Chapter 331

Truths and Lies (XVII)

It was beautiful, akin to a thousand flowers blossoming in the span of a few seconds, cradling the world awash with colors.

At the moment of collision of two energies, a massive pillar of rainbow lights exploded upward and downward, shattering the stone of the arena so violently that it destabilized the entire thing. It began to collapse, like dominos falling, yet it was only the beginning; the pillar exploded outward, but only in one direction–toward the Young Lady Yawen.

The way it bent was as though it were made of rubber, curving like the bow’s limbs. Young Lady reacted just in time, storming her fingers with lightning and tossing forth a massive sphere of energy, dwarfing an entire building in size.

Yet another collision happened, with the first one still reeling. The dual explosions propelled forth such agonizing levels of energy that Shao Li felt the skin on his face distort and even melt under pressure.

The winds were so rapid and violent they took the calm waters of the lake and made them turbulent, as though they’d come to sail on the most vicious ocean waters.

They were so biting and sharp they cut into the stone of the arenas, ripping up even the surrounding ones.

Even the folk who ran off and were hiding at the lake’s shore felt the might of death, forced to retreat even further back.

Shao Li’s fingers were trembling, and try as he may, he was unable to write a word.

In part, it was because he felt his body tearing up–if he continued standing here, he would collapse alongside the arena itself. But in part… it was because, for the first time in his life, he could not find the words within himself.

Children who looked like they ought to have still been playing with their parents were instead wreaking havoc on the Moon Lake’s force.

The lauded genius, Young Lady Yawen, who was said to even have a chance of becoming an Empress in the distant future, was just barely holding on.

The secondary explosion had barreled her backwards so violently that both her arms were torn clean off as her body shot back into the city, collapsing through several dozen buildings and leaving them in ruins.

The shadowed figures were all blown backwards as even the children struggled desperately to leave the collapsing stone platform, rushing off to the shore.

All the while, the darkness above remained–still and unmoving, even as the world around it was collapsing under its own weight.

What words was he to write? For, he knew, they would be his final–as soon as the dark ink turned the paper wet, he would die. He would use the last shred of his strength to shield his imprint upon history, his life be damned.

The world was ending–the platforms were beginning to crack like spiderwebs, and the sheer onslaught had reached even the town, burying and shattering the countless piers looming over the water’s surface before moving on to the lake-adjacent buildings. The enduring stone that had stood for hundreds of years was being destroyed, buried.

He was ready to die when he found himself dragged by something he could not see or even feel, hurled over the edge of the collapse, tumbling gently across the ground, his writings settling right by him in the dry grass, perfectly preserved.

Who was it? Nobody.

He felt no Qi, not even shamanic sorcery, both of which he knew how to recognize well enough; it was akin to a ghost, some invisible thing that…

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The Guardian!!

He remembered the eternal tales of the Moon Lake’s Guardian! The elusive, ethereal thing that most of the world believed was a lie made up by the City Lord!