As the System's "Gaze" completely dissipated, the Rust Sea fell into an eerie silence. This wasn't the calm before a storm, but rather the vacuum left behind after some colossal presence had departed. Even the churning nanite waves seemed restrained, as if fearing something.
The stinging pain on the back of Lia's neck finally subsided. She watched Li Tianming, who hovered at the center of the energy platform, the rust-colored light swirling around him gradually receding inward. "You forcibly carved a mark into the System's core logic," her voice held a tone of disbelief and awe, "It's like... igniting a flame on an absolute zero ice field."
Li Tianming slowly descended, the galaxy-like rust color in his eyes now sedimented into an abyssal dark red. "That wasn't an attack; it was a coordinate." He raised his hand, palm up. A wisp of extremely faint, nearly transparent white energy struggled and flickered within it, like a trapped firefly—a shred of pure "Order" he had forcibly stripped from the System's "Gaze." "The System will track this aura, like a hound following a blood trail. But before that..."
He clenched his fist abruptly. The wisp of white energy let out a soundless shriek, completely crushed and devoured by the dense rust-colored divine power around it.
"...We must first find 'them'."
By "them," he meant the wills lurking in the deeper parts of the Rust Sea. Those ancient existences that had briefly stirred and cast their attention during the confrontation, only to fall silent again, far more ancient presences.
Lia understood his intention, her face changing. "You're going to actively 'call' to them? It's too dangerous! Even the K-series database only contains warnings like 'Do not engage' and 'Conceptual-level threat'!"
"Danger has always been present," Li Tianming looked at her, his gaze sharp. "But the System won't give us time to grow slowly now. Either we consolidate all the power of the Rust Sea, or we face complete formatting in the next purge. There is no third path."
He said no more, sinking his consciousness once again into the skeleton beneath his feet that served as the "heart." This time, he didn't command it roughly, but instead attempted to send out a low-frequency, resonating "call," like a dolphin's sonar, probing the endless depths for companions.
The Rust Sea responded to this call, but not with friendliness.
Outside the spherical space they were in, the "sky" formed by the semi-transparent energy barrier began to distort and change color. The dark red faded, replaced by a unsettling, parchment-yellow dullness. The seawater also ceased its churning, becoming viscous and sluggish, as if time itself had congealed here.
"This is... the 'Tide of Oblivion'..." Lia's voice was filled with fear. "Records state this is one of the Rust Sea's self-defense mechanisms; it erodes memory and assimilates consciousness! We can't stay here!"
Yet, Li Tianming stood his ground, closing his eyes. "No, this isn't an attack. This is... a test. A form of communication."
In his perception, countless fragmented images, intermittent sounds, and long-vanished emotions flooded his consciousness like a tide—
· He saw a civilization of unimaginable splendor, its creations spanning star systems, its radiance bright enough to illuminate the void.
· He saw this civilization, at its peak, touch upon a "barrier," an invisible "ceiling" that limited all existence.
· He saw the civilization pour all its resources into launching an ultimate project named "Transcendence" to break through this barrier.
· He witnessed the project's failure. Not an explosion, not destruction, but a silent "Oblivion." The civilization's foundational existence was erased at its root. All records, memories, even its physical traces in the universe, began rapidly "rusting," decaying, dissipating, ultimately becoming this endless Rust Sea.
· He saw the despair and resentment of individuals at the final moment, their will fragments mingling with the civilization's wreckage, drifting in the nanite sea for countless eons, becoming part of the Rust Sea's "Oblivion" authority.
This torrent of information was too vast, too fragmented, enough to overwhelm any solid consciousness instantly. But Li Tianming's core—his spirit, forged through hardship and tempered by obsessions of revenge and protection—stood firm like a reef in a storm. He not only withstood the impact but also grasped the most crucial core from it: the extreme yearning for "existence" itself that permeated the entire Rust Sea, and the deep-seated hatred for that "barrier" and the "System" that caused its failure.
"I... hear you," Li Tianming responded to this ancient collective resentment and obsession within his consciousness. "Your enemy is also my enemy."
The yellowish "Tide of Oblivion" abruptly receded, the viscous seawater restoring its flow. Outside the spherical space, three even larger, more bizarre shadows slowly rose from the churning rust-colored waves.
One was not a physical entity, but a conglomeration of information constantly shifting shape, composed of countless civilization symbols and data streams, emanating an aura of "Forgotten Knowledge."
Another was a terrifyingly complete female divine skeleton, as if carved from obsidian, holding a tome with a stellar core and nebula pages. The book was closed, yet radiated waves of "Sealed History."
The last was a pure, fluctuating shadow with no fixed form, seemingly the embodiment of all "Lost Possibilities," representing the "Paths Not Taken."
These were the true ancient "Lords" of the Rust Sea, the incarnations of "Oblivion," "History," and "Possibility."
The Information Conglomeration issued a silent inquiry, resonating directly within Li Tianming and Lia's souls:
«Outsider, you bear the brand of 'Now.' Why do you seek the power of 'Past'? How do you prove you are not another probe of 'Them'?»
Before Li Tianming could answer, the bloodstained badge at his waist, which had been silent until now, suddenly erupted with unprecedented heat and light!
His sister's remnant divine fragment, as if strongly stimulated by a homologous force, actively manifested, outlining a faint, blurry phantom of a young woman wearing scholar's glasses within the yellowish halo—her demeanor strikingly resembled that of the obsidian female skeleton holding the great book!
The female skeleton's hollow eye sockets sharply "focused" on that wisp of phantom. The stellar tome in her arms emitted a sigh so heavy it seemed to traverse countless ages.
«...Blood of my sister...?»