Xu Zimo looked at the old man in the red robe.
The aura within him was boundless, endless, overwhelming.
Wearing a red robe, he stood quietly in front of the caravan, his face painted with heavy makeup.
His body was short, only about one meter and a half tall.
At this moment, he grinned at Xu Zimo.
“Who are you?” Xu Zimo frowned and asked.
“Could the young master talk to me alone?” the old man in red said with a smile.
Xu Zimo glanced at the caravan thoughtfully, then finally nodded slightly.
He followed behind the old man, their figures like hawks soaring, scaling the rocky cliffside.
In just over ten seconds, they leaped onto the cliff, standing at the edge of a precipice.
A cold wind suddenly swept by, rustling their robes.
“Before I introduce myself, I want to ask the young master a question,” the old man in red spoke kindly, smiling. “How has your experience been these past few days in the Blood Rune Space?”
“Nothing much,” Xu Zimo replied indifferently.
“Young master speaks against your heart,” the old man in red chuckled. “Just now, had you rejected that young lady, I would not have revealed myself. I would have let you wander this Blood Rune Space longer. But since you accepted her into your carriage, I decided to come out.”
“This is the Blood Rune Space?” Xu Zimo looked at him calmly. “Why is it different from what I’ve understood?”
“Come with me somewhere. Once there, you’ll understand everything,” the old man in red said.
He extended his right hand, tearing open the void before them.
Within the void, Xu Zimo sensed the aura of a teleportation formation.
Without hesitation, he followed inside.
His body suddenly grew weightless as layers of spatial barriers shattered before his eyes, until finally everything stopped.
Xu Zimo opened his eyes and looked at the world before him. Endless seas of blood flowed thickly in all directions.
Filthy, crimson.
The blood sea roared, the world soaked in red, and within that sea countless eyes seemed to peer at him, carrying immense might.
Xu Zimo turned his head, only to feel as though he were submerged within this ocean of blood, lost within it in an instant.
“This is the real Blood Rune Space?” he asked the old man in red beside him.
“Let me introduce myself. I am the old Patriarch of the Blood Rune Race, my name a single character, Shuo.”
The old man in red smiled faintly.
“You may address me as Patriarch Shuo.”
Xu Zimo spoke his own name, then asked, “If this is the Blood Rune Space, then what was that previous world?”
Compared with this blood sea before him, that world just now was truly the difference between paradise and hell.
“Look over there.”
Following the old man’s finger, Xu Zimo saw a blood-colored orb suspended in the void.
This orb radiated a familiar power.
Xu Zimo approached it, and immediately realized it was a Particle World.
Everything he had experienced earlier was inside this Particle World. From the outside, one could clearly observe the people within, their every action.
The Particle World was of medium size.
From within, he could even see the caravan from earlier, Han Yanrou still sleeping inside the carriage.
“I don’t quite understand,” Xu Zimo looked toward the old man in red and asked.
“Before coming to the Blood Rune Space, when you heard of Blood Rune Beasts, what did you think of?” Patriarch Shuo asked with a smile.
Xu Zimo frowned slightly. Before entering the Blood Rune Space, he had made every preparation.
He believed it would be nothing but blood seas, the Blood Rune Beasts hidden within, savage and bloodthirsty, an inevitable battle of epic scale.
That was the preparation he had made. But upon arriving, he found things were far from that.
“When the world thinks of the Blood Rune Beasts, what they recall is always the end of the Legendary Era, those powerful, ferocious monsters.”
The old man sighed softly.
“At that time, the Holy Progenitor wished to exterminate my people. We begged bitterly, and in the end the Holy Progenitor, upholding Heaven’s virtue of cherishing life, granted us one last chance, only to suppress us here.”
Hearing the old man’s words, Xu Zimo did not interrupt.
He didn’t know much about those hidden matters of that era. Perhaps only those who lived through it could truly understand.
But he wouldn’t simply believe everything the old man said either.
“At the time of suppression, many within the race were violent, filled only with the desire to break free. But the Holy Progenitor’s brilliance, how could we ever compare?” the old man said with a bitter smile.
“Ten thousand years, twenty thousand years, countless millennia passed. With time, our anger dwindled. We no longer sought anything else, only to live freely like other races.” At this point, Patriarch Shuo looked at Xu Zimo and asked: “Do you understand? Only when you truly experience it will you realize that freedom is more intoxicating than any empire or dominion.”
“Then what is the purpose of this Particle World?” Xu Zimo asked.
“What happened in that era, whether right or wrong, should be borne by us old ones. But the younger generations, they are innocent, they should not be dragged down by it.” Patriarch Shuo spoke with sorrow: “From the moment they are born, it is as if a death sentence has been pronounced. Imprisoned here for all eternity, forced to face only the endless blood sea. Some could not endure it and chose suicide in the end. We had no choice. Over ten thousand years, we finally created this Particle World, one that mimics the outside. Every newborn would be sent there. This world was created for our descendants.”
Hearing this, Xu Zimo finally understood.
Whether it was Han Yanrou, or Han Shengxiao and his brother, or that village, or the Dark Kingdom, even more distant lands.
None of them had memories of the blood sea. From birth, they were placed into this Particle World.
Their whole lives would pass in a fabricated but benevolent lie.
They need not endure the torment and pain of the blood sea, but could live quietly, growing old, dying naturally.
This was the greatest help the Blood Rune Race could give their descendants.
“So, the moment I entered that Particle World, you all noticed me,” Xu Zimo asked.
“Yes, but we did not disturb you. We wished for you to experience it yourself,” Patriarch Shuo replied without denial. “We Blood Rune Beasts are no different from your human race, or any other. There are girls with tender feelings, brothers with warm hearts, mothers begging desperately to save their children. No different. They are not evil. Do not look at us with alien eyes.”
“You’ve done all this, told me all this, but in the end your goal is still the same.” Xu Zimo smiled faintly. “You want me to break the seal and help you leave this place.”
“If truly someone must pay for past mistakes, then if countless ages of imprisonment are still not enough, we old ones are willing to bear it.”