Chapter 587: Chapter 46: Original Aspirations

Seeing the image of the withered, grim, and mad old Wizard in front of him perfectly overlap with the outline of Rotten Wood Elder in his memory, Lynch’s spiritual body instantly tensed up!

The [Grid Circuit] fully activated, the power of time was poised at his fingertips, and the light of the Domain Prototype flickered on his body! He had never expected that at the heart of this spiritual illusion, which seemed to reveal the truth, he would directly encounter the target itself!

However, in the face of Lynch’s vigilance, the “old Wizard” with a withered face, standing at the center of the decaying frenzy, slowly raised his head.

The manic and obsessed light in his eyes receded like the tide, replaced by a deep weariness, murkiness, and… an almost transparent sadness. That gaze was identical to the gaze of the kindly old man projection who led him and disappeared in the end.

“No need to be tense, young seeker.” The old man’s voice was hoarse and dry, yet oddly calm, starkly different from the frenzied Altonia outside. “Here, it’s not the ’Rotten Wood Elder’ as you know… or rather, not him as he is ’now.’

He slowly raised his withered hand, and an extremely weak, nearly transparent spiritual power wave was emitted without any aggression. This power was pure and ancient, like a candle in the wind, with only a faint breath of life and a rich sense of time sediment, without any malicious or aggressive decay.

Lynch’s Spirit Perception keenly caught this, and his taut nerves slightly relaxed, though his vigilance remained. “What are you?”

“I…” The old man looked down at his withered palm, as if gazing at an unthinkable past, “am just an echo not completely erased by the river of time… ’his’ last strip of intent awaited before he fully embraced decay, stripped away and forgotten.”

His gaze turned to Lynch, with a complicated reminiscence in those murky eyes: “I, like you, and everyone who sets foot on this path, was once just an ordinary Wizard seeking truth and the eternal arcana. Talent… perhaps I had it, from apprentice to Wizard, to understanding the secret skill, becoming a Witch Master… my journey was faster and further than many.”

His tone gradually became confused and painful: “But… where did it start? From which step… did I gradually lose myself? Perhaps… it was from that ’obsession.’

“Obsessed with higher level spells, obsessed with craving for deeper knowledge… they were like sweet poison, intoxicating me, driving me mad.”

“To touch the threshold of that ’Domain,’ I was no longer content with nature’s gift, became reckless, losing my reason… morality, awe, respect for life itself… these cornerstones that once supported my way forward collapsed, one by one, under the temptation of ’power.’ Fınd the newest release on noᴠelfire.net

“Though… in the end, I ’succeeded.’” He bitterly tugged at his lips, pointing at the surging dark green decaying frenzy around him, “I comprehended ’decay,’ established the domain… but I also completely lost ’myself,’ lost in the abyss of power, becoming that… monster outside.”

Lynch was silent for a moment, his gray eyes reflecting the roiling decay, and spoke slowly: “The path of pursuing truth always comes with a price. Power… especially so.”

“Price?” The soul fragment let out a mournful bitter laugh, voice like shattered glass, “But this price… isn’t it too cruel! So cruel that… it turned the land I guarded and the ’beauty’ I pursued my whole life into this sight of despairing decay before my eyes!”

His withered body began to tremble violently, nearly tangible pain filled his murky eyes: “Do you know, young man… the mystery I originally wanted to unravel wasn’t ’decay’… but ’revival’!”

“’Revival’?” Lynch’s eyes focused fiercely.

“Yes! Revival! The resurgence of all things, the bloom of dead wood, revitalizing life withering away, making barren land fertile again! This was the vision I longed to realize most deeply when I set foot on the Wizard’s Road!”

“I wanted this world… to become better!” The soul fragment’s voice was filled with endless remorse and reluctance, “Decay… is just the surface! It’s the inevitable end in the cycle of life! And the ’rebirth’—’revival’—born after this end, should be the true core, the most brilliant ascension of life’s rules!”

“I touched the rules of decay, but lost myself within its power, failing to complete that last, most crucial transformation! My domain… has always been a broken, obsession-twisted ’Decaying Domain,’ not a complete ’Revival Domain’!”

He suddenly turned to Lynch, a last weak yet persistent light bursting forth from his eyes: “Successor… I’ve seen your understanding of time, your insight into the rules… perhaps you… have the ability to complete this domain’s final transformation! Inherit it! Then… continue to explore upwards! Guide this cursed power back to its rightful path, and construct a true… ’revival’!”

Suddenly enlightened, Lynch finally connected all the incongruous and bizarre clues from the previous trials: “So that’s why… this trial is so perilous and rigorous. It’s not just about selecting power, but also selecting… someone who can understand this ’original intention,’ and is willing to bear its ’future.’”

He looked at the soul fragment, “So this trial, was it you… rather than that Altonia outside, who held it?”

The soul fragment slowly shook his head, his gaze looking beyond the illusion, seemingly piercing through space to see the Rotten Wood Elder’s true body in combat with Messiah on the peak: “No… I’m just a fragment in time, long lost the power to intervene in reality.”

“The trial… is indeed ’his’ intention, a carefully laid trap by Altonia now to complete ’Heart of Decay’…”

He paused, his voice turning more ethereal and sorrowful: “But… the one who drove him subconsciously to leave this Trial Road, the one who left this thread of ’possibility’ unconsciously in countless crazy plans… is me… is this deeply buried in his soul core, long forgotten and twisted yet never fully extinguished… that little bit of ’original intention’!”

“That ’former me,’ in the abyss of despair, instinctively hoped… that someone could come to break this frightening obsession, to let everything… return to its original state…”

Lynch looked at the old man.

Their eyes met, he saw a complex look filled with hope but also despair in the other’s eyes.

After a moment of silence, he nodded: “I understand. I promise, if I have the opportunity, I will try my best to let this power… return to its original intention.”

The soul fragment’s withered face seemed to reveal a very faint, relieved smile. He took one last deep look at Lynch, his voice like a whisper in the wind, about to dissipate:

“Remember… no matter when, no matter where, no matter where power may lead you… never forget the ’original intention’ of seeking truth and eternity when you first stepped on the Wizard’s Road.”

“Stay true to your original self… and you will find your way to the end…”

“Don’t… don’t end up like me… getting completely lost in the long journey of pursuing truth… even forgetting… why you initially… sought the truth…”

Before he finished, the silhouette of Altonia’s soul fragment, like a sand painting blown away by the wind, along with the surging decay frenzy and collapsing prosperous illusion, turned into countless glittering dust, completely dissipating in this spiritual space.

Buzz!

Lynch felt a sudden tremor in his spiritual body, the scene before him reassembled like a broken mirror!

Warm sunlight, fields of golden wheat, a peaceful village… all illusions vanished completely.

The biting chill, the howling wind and snow, and the distant, faint sound of a cataclysmic domain collision suddenly surged back into perception!

He found himself standing on an extremely narrow, snow-covered mountain peak platform. Around the platform were bottomless cliffs, and the wind rolled ice crystals like knives across him. At the center in front of him, on an ancient stone pedestal, quietly floated a… Crystal Ball!

The Crystal Ball was about the size of a human head, crystal clear and transparent, unlike the sinister object swirling with dark green mist in Altonia’s hand outside.

Inside of it, a miniature, slowly rotating cosmic nebula seemed sealed, countless tiny runes emitting a soft green light and silver-gray hue floating and circulating within, forming an incredibly mysterious and complex pattern.

An indescribable aura emanated from it, containing both the meaning of universal decay and demise, and the hidden true meaning of vitality thriving and endless cycles.

Decaying Domain Document!

The end point, at last, arrived! Bearing Altonia’s original intention and curse, also holding the key to a possible future, right before him!

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