I stared blankly at the King of Reincarnation, his eyes filled with helplessness.
Let me put it this way, Ethan Zhang. The biggest reason we can't leave Hell is Hell's Eye. If we go, the Eye will open again, and billions of souls will be swallowed by Hell itself. If that happens, the new Six Paths of Reincarnation we've built will collapse for good.
I nodded, and the King of Reincarnation continued speaking.
The main reason we can't leave is that this Eye never fully closes. The Ten Judges used the power of the Ninefold Abyss to force it shut, but things are still dangerous. There's been no world-shattering disaster yet, but we've had incidents with Ghost Sovereigns, the Immortality Society, and major upheavals in the Arcane Society.
But none of these are the true source of Hell's Eye opening. Once the Eye opens, the Ten Judges, who once had complete control over Hell, begin to lose control over some of Hell's autonomous behaviors. These have already seriously affected the living world and the Six Paths of Reincarnation system.
Tell me, what exactly is the source?
The King of Reincarnation nodded.
We only figured it out recently. When Hell's Eye opened, we reviewed everything that happened in both realms during that second. But the one thing we couldn't see was how you three were born from that lake. For nearly a hundred years, we investigated every detail. Hell's Eye opened because of your birth—yours and the other two. So the source is you.
My eyes widened, then I burst out laughing and shook my head.
What does any of this have to do with us?
When New Hell replaced Old Hell, that Eye opened. The reason the three rulers of Old Hell died was because Hell chose us and abandoned them. So we seized control of Hell, but that also means we can never leave—forever imprisoned here.
Everything the King of Reincarnation said was just too much for me to care about. I didn't care if Hell survived, or what happened to the living world. The only thing I wanted—the only thing that mattered—was to fight that bastard, Soul of Man, to the bitter end.
Come with me.
With that, the King of Reincarnation headed diagonally toward the long spike, and I immediately followed.
What exactly are we going to do?
The real reason I asked you here today is to test what we've found. If you, as one of the causes, get close to Hell's Eye, something might happen—an anomaly. That would prove that the birth of you three was the reason Hell's Eye opened.
Gradually, the Eye became impossible to make out. From this height, all I could see was a dark, undulating wasteland.
A few minutes later, the King of Reincarnation brought me to the side of a mountain-like spike. I felt a surge of heat—something was there. We stood right by the fissure of the Eye. From where I was, I could only see a bright, river-like chasm. Below, there must have been the eyeball itself. Waves of heat kept rising up. I looked at the pulsing veins beneath my feet. The King of Reincarnation pointed at the fissure and said:
Go take a look.
I made a sound of acknowledgment, but deep down, I felt a surge of fear toward this thing. I didn't know why. Slowly, I floated up and entered the fissure, still dozens of meters from the bottom. I swallowed, uneasy, as if something was staring at me—my whole body tense. Whatever was below didn't look like an eyeball, more like a beautiful crystal, white, black, and gray.