Dyon stood before the stone etchings for a long while.
In the distance, the obscenely large hand of the entity was still in view. For something to still seem so large from millions of miles away… Even now Dyon couldn’t fathom his size.
Last time Dyon stood here, the pressure was enough to make him drop to his knees. Now… He hardly felt it. But, how could he be proud of something like that?
A man chained up and restricted by seals Dyon didn’t understand, even now, could make his knees weaken from millions of miles away. How was that anything but pitifully pathetic?
With a wave of his hand, The Seal appeared, causing the stone etchings to rotate and open, exposing three empty indents where the kernels once sat… In the center of it all, a shadowy figure sat in meditation. Its features weren’t clear, just as before, but now, Dyon got the feeling that it wasn’t that they weren’t clear… But rather that he wasn’t powerful enough to perceive what he should have.
Dyon suddenly felt a pressure he hadn’t noticed before. In that moment, he was certain that if he reached out with his divine sense that his soul would be crushed to oblivion.
‘God level Presence… But… This isn’t his body?’
“Hoho… This is unexpected…”
The voice was just as gentle as Dyon remembered it. It had a hint of ambiguity, but it was undoubtedly calm and soothing.
When Dyon first met the entity, its voice reminded him of a young father speaking with his children. Even now… That feeling hadn’t changed. If anything, with his heightened senses, the voice was even more comforting, as though he could trust his whole existence with him…
“… To think the young man who hates me the most in the world would actually come seeking to talk… Too unexpected, truly too unexpected.” Dyon could almost sense the slight and inviting smile on the entity’s face as though this was truly a pleasant surprise.
“What an interesting state you’re in… Rare, rare indeed. Your life span is decreasing quite quickly. Ah, I see why, your dao heart actually shattered…
“You know, life force and the dao heart are inextricably linked. As a mortal though, it’s not a simple one to one ratio. While a mortal can survive having their dao heart shattered, for an immortal, that means death.
“Interesting… So you’re using your life force as a replacement for your dao heart. Oh? That’s not all either, you’ve actually exchanged your life force for access to that Ancient Constitution…”
The entity was just as talkative as ever. Dyon doubted that this entity was capable of treating anyone as an enemy… Maybe he saw everyone as children compared to himself.
However, he only spoke the truth.
The reason for the fifth trial of the God trials was to test one’s potential as an immortal. Those of the transcendent plane didn’t have set life spans… Rather, the solidity of the dao heart decided how long they could live. Theoretically, a transcendent really could live forever.
The problem was that no one’s dao heart, no matter how talented you were, could last forever.
Even Dyon’s grand teacher’s dao heart was on the verge of collapse, which was exactly why his appearance and demeanor were so old and sickly.
Thus, the connection between life force and the dao heart was clear… It was just that Dyon’s dao heart consolidated a level of comprehension it wasn’t prepared for… It was the equivalent of integrating celestial level meridians into the body of an essence gatherer… Dyon was lucky that he didn’t die.
“… These flames…” For the first time, the entity’s tone slightly changed as he finally found the root cause of Dyon’s fall.
He had seen these flames before. When he first met Dyon, it was obvious that this young boy was angered beyond belief.
Whenever Dyon was angered beyond a certain limit, back when his wills were unsealed, of course, his eyes would flicker with black flames. With his senses, how could the entity have missed it?
The problem was that the flames were truly too weak when he last saw them. Plus, The Seal was interfering heavily, in fact, it was interfering now. Its passive ability was to hide its owner from sensory inspections and attacks of the mind. If Dyon wasn’t allowing the entity to see what he wanted to see, in his current state, the entity wouldn’t have been able to sense a thing.
“Interesting!” The entity chuckled slightly. “It seems I was wrong about you. Your talent is quite good! It’s no wonder your dao heart is in such a state.”
Those who knew the entity personally would be shocked by his words.
When last he spoke to Dyon, he mentioned that there were only four people to have ever existed that he acknowledged the talent of. For him to say that Dyon’s talent was quite good when he at first dismissed him, even knowing that Dyon had absorbed the cumulative talent of billions of individuals… It spoke for itself!
“Ai… It’s a shame that you’re technically a junior brother of mine, although I have to admit that I disdained to admit it before. Too many generations have passed for me to have seriously considered you so, but this changes everything! If you weren’t, I would have liked to take you as an in-name disciple.”