“No wonder! A lot makes sense now!"
A bunch of questions he had set aside in the past during his exchange with Feng Jun and Qian Yun were answered at once. Han Xuhan had noticed the incongruent details several times, but ignored them due to not having enough of a lead.
So that was how Qian Yun knew about the tournament despite being stuck inside the Holy Land's world fragment! So that was why his team of rookie disciples were able to smoothly cultivate to the peak of the Physique Transformation realm by themselves at such unusual speed! They had been exchanging information with other backers this whole time. The only reason they had been forced to make deals with Han Xuhan was because the Elders here didn’t have a slave seal of the Holy Land that would have enabled them to send over cultivation resources using the displacement spell!
His understanding of the undercurrents of Stardust Sect was more concise now, accommodating a much larger scope of details and their implications. Naturally, this shift in perspective gave birth to new questions in his mind.
“Master Mingyu, what motive is driving these elders of your sect so desperate?" Han Xuhan said after taking some time to restructure the overall scenario.
“First they misguided the most influential disciples of the current generation into betraying and robbing you, the sect master. Then they decided to use abhorrent demonic techniques on the remaining disciples with good potential, destroying their futures for some rapid gains. Isn't that what the Soul Shattering Puppet Refinement technique gets used for? To extract the nascent spirituality of rookie cultivators and use it to enhance the subject's capabilities temporarily, and puppetizing the subject at the same time through the process?”
This time, Li Mingyu didn’t answer as quickly as before. Instead, he closed his eyes for some time, and a familiar silhouette of red flames suddenly appeared around his body, wrapping him up like a mummified corpse. On the head of the silhouette, the large, diagonal, golden eye opened up to stare at Han Xuhan for the fraction of a second, before it all disappeared in a flash, restoring the normalcy of the scene.
Li Mingyu opened his mouth right after. “I wonder if you've heard of the Prophecy of Extinction. It'd be easy for me to explain if you knew.”
Han Xuhan shook his head, burning internally with curiosity. There were prophecies involved in this matter? Heavens! How deep was this rabbithole? And what was up with that exaggerated title? Who was going extinct?
“That is disappointing. I was expecting benefactor to be a bit more informed. But nevertheless, I guess I'll have the honor of letting you learn of it. Listen, and pay your utmost attention. This prophecy has haunted the top powerhouses of this planet for well over a century now."
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Li Mingyu took a deep breath and began to recite it in the tone of a poem. Han Xuhan put the entirety of his focus on memorizing every word that followed.
“Soul of a dragon, broken and scattered
Soul of a human, twisted, unfettered
Heavens forbid, should they touch
Scholars of laws—they left but a grudge
Rulers of stone, throne unforged
Shepherds of sands, torn and scorched
The crimson worlds—ripped, besieged
The leaf of a god, burnt to bits
The sturdiest sword—cracked, it sits
Scrolls of the wise, buried in lies
Everyone rots, no wreaths."
While Han Xuhan was reeling in shock, trying to analyze the implications, Li Mingyu added another layer of complexity to it.
“This is actually not the absolute form of the prophecy either. It's just the most popular version among orthodox sects. But I have travelled across several continents and collected many fragmented prophecies that are more or less similar to this one. For instance, on the other side of the Poison Sea, there is a version of the prophecy in which the penultimate line is, ‘Scrolls of the wise, a thought's the price'. On the high seas, another version of the prophecy claims that some Abyssal Turtle shall be enslaved till its last breath. Both of these versions doesn't contain any verdict of what shall happen to the ‘Rulers of Stone' either!”
“Do you know who these identifying phrases are referring to? And who discovered this prophecy? Was it a cultivator like you, practicing the art of foretelling?” Han Xuhan jumped to his feet, his anxiety rising as the weight of the prophecy began to set in.
A prophecy of extinction, he said? The title didn’t sound exaggerated anymore!
“The source of the prophecy is dubious. People who first came to know of it never opened their mouths about the source, only insisting that they heard it from someone else. But when every leader of all the powerful sects across the planet repeats the same line simultaneously, even a fool would be able to guess that the source carries some mysteries better left uninvestigated.”
Li Mingyu shuddered suddenly, a fearful gleam flashing in his eyes as if he didn’t want to recall certain horrifying experiences associated with his investigations.
“As for the analysis of the prophecy's content, I have my guesses, like everyone else. Some of them are easy to identify. For example, the title—Scholars of Laws definitely refers to the Holy Land of Laws where Feng Jun and his followers are stuck right now. The prophecy is quite accurate about the fact that there is nothing left of the law manipulators except a grudge against whoever wiped them off so brutally.”
“What else? Who else?” Han Xuhan raved on like a madman.
“The leaf of a god might be a reference to Forestheart Foundation, which is one of the three sects organizing this tournament. Of course, there are other sects that have a focus on plant-based cultivation techniques, but I doubt this prophecy is concerned with the fate of small, unremarkable sects.
“The sturdiest sword is a title that has been contested over for quite some time, even before the prophecy became popular. All the top blacksmiths in the world claim that their best creation is the sturdiest sword on the planet. So this is hard to confirm.
“And lastly, the only sect that carries the word ‘Crimson' in its title is the Crimson Snow Sect. I'm not sure if you've heard of it. This sect is quite the mystery. From my past visits, I could tell that it is a lot stronger than it reveals itself to be, especially so in the case of its Sect Leader, whose breadth of knowledge is stunning, to say the least. There are rumors that he is a direct descendant of a clan from the upper realms among the stars. So he may have a better idea about the fate of his sect according to the prophecy."
Li Mingyu paused for a moment to scan Han Xuhan's strange reaction to the last part of his revelation. Even though he had tried to hide his surprise, Li Mingyu saw through the attempt.
“Something rings a bell? Do you know anything about him?”
“...Yeah, he's my sect master,” Han Xuhan admitted honestly, seeing no point in trying to hide it.