Chương 1128: Chapter 1126: The Prison

Li Yu walked for another three days before the gentle green hills finally gave way to a grand valley. The capital city of the dragon kin rested in the center of a wide basin and the sight was truly breathtaking. Tall spires crafted from polished white stone reached toward the clouds while broad avenues paved with smooth jade connected countless elegant pavilions. The city looked like a proper ruling center for a powerful race and it radiated a dense spiritual pressure that warped the surrounding air.

He stopped at the edge of the valley and observed the grand architecture of the city. He saw no guards posted at the towering front gates and the entrance stood wide open like a welcoming embrace. Li Yu could, however, hear the sounds of a busy capital even though he couldn't see anyone for some strange reason. He kept his guard up as he walked down the paved road leading to the city but did not hide himself within the void.

The lack of security here mirrored the outer towns but he knew the true ruler of this land resided somewhere within these walls and were most likely different. He stepped through the towering archway of the main gate and prepared himself to face a legion of hidden experts. However, the world around him shifted the moment his foot crossed the threshold. The bright sunlight and the grand white buildings vanished in the blink of an eye.

The spatial transition felt jarring and chaotic but it wasn't anything his body couldn't handle. It did not feel like stepping through a standard teleportation array, it felt as though the fabric of reality tore apart and stitched itself back together to pull him into another place. Li Yu found himself standing on an invisible floor surrounded by an endless expanse of dark space. He looked around and saw dozens of glowing squares floating in the air.

The squares resembled smooth glass mirrors but they projected moving images and lines of strange text instead of reflections. The glowing displays cast a pale blue light across the dark void and created a surreal atmosphere that felt alien to the cultivation world that he knew. He vaguely remembered seeing similar constructs in a past life during his time inside the Temporal Dao Stone so the concept of digital monitors did not shatter his mind.

It merely surprised him to find such constructs hidden inside a dragon fortress at the center of this realm. A figure sat in the center of the floating screens and the sudden arrival of Li Yu broke the quiet silence of the room. The figure was a dragon kin but his body was ethereal and translucent like a roaming spirit but he was real. He possessed pale blue scales and a pair of long elegant horns curving back from his head.

The figure wore simple white robes and hovered in a cross legged meditative pose while surrounded by a ring of glowing glass displays. The ethereal dragon kin opened his bright yellow eyes and let out a startled shout at Li Yu's sudden appearance. He scrambled backward through the air and knocked away several floating screens in his panic. Li Yu narrowed his eyes and scanned the frantic spirit while gathering Qi in his palms in case he needed to fight.

This all happened too quickly and the change startled them both. He probed the cultivation base of the entity and felt an energy that rivaled the Tribulation realm. It was a staggering level of power that could easily dominate this entire realm from what Li Yu had seen so far. Yet as Li Yu analyzed the aura, he noticed something was fundamentally wrong with it. He had survived the wrath of the cosmic tribulation himself and he knew the deep weight that accompanied that realm.

A true Tribulation expert carried the heavy pressure of heavenly laws forged through near death survival. There was a latent power and energy that each Tribulation expert carried that showed that they had survived the judgement of the heavens. The spirit hovering before him lacked that heavenly weight completely, as if they had never suffered such a thing. The energy radiating from the dragon kin was dense and voluminous but it felt hollow.

It felt like a deep lake with no currents or a roaring fire with no heat to it. The cultivation seemed like it was superficial and artificially inflated without the solid foundation of genuine life and death struggle.

"Who are you and how did you get in here?" The spirit demanded while pointing a trembling finger at Li Yu. It was clear that the being was more scared of Li Yu than Li Yu was scared of it.

"No one is allowed inside the administrative space. The barrier should have erased you. How did you even get here without me knowing you entered this continent!" Li Yu let the Qi fade from his hands and decided to take a diplomatic approach as the both of them were quite surprised. The being was clearly terrified and the hollow cultivation base posed little threat to his Creation Lord powers.

"My name is Li Yu. I am a traveler seeking a way back to my home and out of this realm. I walked through the open gates of the capital and the space shifted to bring me here. I assume you are the one pulling the strings behind the central continent?" The ethereal dragon kin swallowed hard and reached out to touch a large glowing screen floating near his shoulder. His fingers danced across the smooth surface and lines of strange text cascaded down the display.

A soft chime echoed through the dark void and the screen flashed with a soothing green light.

"The system identifies you as a safe entity," the spirit muttered while reading the scrolling text.

"But it also flags you as an unpredictable anomaly. You possess energy signatures that do not align with the established parameters of this realm. The automated defense grid failed to target you because it could not comprehend your existence. You simply bypassed the primary filters like a ghost walking through a solid wall. How is this possible?"

"A system," Li Yu repeated the word and nodded slowly as he vaguely recalled one of the lives he had lived through of someone else who had a system as well.

"I have heard of such things before. They are strange artifacts that grant unearned power in exchange for completing specific mandates. A strange thing that cannot be explained through any kind of logic I know of.... Are you the strongest cultivator on this continent?" The spirit puffed out his chest slightly and regained a small measure of his composure.

"I am Jirno. I am the overseer of Dragon Core and my cultivation stands at the pinnacle of this world, yes. I control the weather and the resources and the borders from this very room." Jirno didn't know why but Li Yu's presence made him feel trustworthy and he admitted to more than he should have.

"Since you control everything here, I have a simple request for you Jirno," Li Yu said while taking a step forward.

"I just want to go home. If you have a way to send me back to the Gale Blossom Realm or open a path out of this sealed world, I will leave immediately and you can return to your quiet life. I did not come here on purpose and simply want to leave as soon as possible. I do not want to bother you or whatever it is you are doing here." Jirno let out a long bitter sigh and his glowing yellow eyes dimmed with sadness.

He floated down until his ethereal feet touched the invisible floor and he gestured toward the endless sea of dark space surrounding them.

"I cannot help you, Li Yu," Jirno confessed with a defeated tone.

"I do not know how to leave this realm and I cannot even leave this area. I have been trapped inside this administrative space for over a thousand years. If I knew how to open a door to the outside world, I would have walked through it centuries ago." The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. The revelation hit Li Yu like a heavy stone as he was now trapped in two layers of not being able to leave. To first leave this space and then to leave this realm.

He was in an even worse situation than he was before he had come here. The grand mastermind holding the outer continents in a grip of terror was a prisoner locked inside a glowing cage. The trail of clues had led him to another dead end and he was still no closer to finding his way back to his family. He let out a frustrated breath and crossed his arms over his chest.

"How does an expert at the Tribulation realm become trapped in a room for a millennium?" Li Yu asked while looking at the countless monitors humming in the dark. Jirno waved his hand and summoned a small glowing chair made of hard light. He sat down and offered a weary smile without knowing where to begin. He had not spoken to another sentient being in over a thousand years and the isolation made him eager to open up and share his burdens.

He felt secure within his own system space since the green light confirmed Li Yu was not an assassin sent to end his life.

"I was just an ordinary dragon kin living a quiet life many eras ago," Jirno began his tale while staring at his translucent hands.

"One day a falling star crashed into the eastern mountains and I went to investigate the crater. I found a glowing artifact that merged with my soul and pulled me into this dimension then and there. It granted me instant power and transformed my physical body into this ethereal form you see before you. The artifact called itself a progression system and it issued a grand mandate." Jirno swiped his hand and several screens shifted to display images of the peaceful villages Li Yu had visited over the past few weeks.

"The primary goal of the system is to raise the dragon race into an unstoppable cosmic powerhouse. It demands that I forge an empire capable of conquering the stars. But there is a severe problem with the design." Jirno pointed at a screen showing a list of failed objectives.

"The system requires me to complete monumental milestones to unlock high tier cultivation manuals and advanced martial techniques. I need to harvest the cores of cosmic beasts or conquer rival realms to earn progression points. But I am stuck in this room and my people are gentle farmers who love peace. They do not have the martial drive to complete these missions." Jirno dragged his hands down his face and groaned.

"Because we cannot complete the grand tasks, the system limits mine and their growth. It provides dense ambient Qi to keep the population healthy but it locks away the true path to power. That is why the dragon kin grow up so slowly and lack any real martial prowess. The system demands an empire of blood but it only gave me a garden of sheep." Li Yu listened to the tragic irony of the situation and the strange situation created by this grand system.

The dragon kin were suffering from stagnation because their unseen ruler was trapped behind an insurmountable wall of cosmic tasks.

"If your people are so weak, then how do you maintain the terrifying reputation of this continent? The outer races believe stepping foot on your shores guarantees death."

"The system provides an automated defense grid," Jirno explained and tapped a monitor displaying the turbulent dark ocean.

"The artifact treats the central continent as a secure base of operations. If any unauthorized entity crosses the ocean, the system activates a series of lethal countermeasures. It uses the ambient energy of the world to strike intruders with natural disasters or spatial rifts. Those who survive the initial barrage are captured by automated golems and erased to protect our location." The mystery of the missing travelers that head here was finally solved.

The outer races were not fighting an army of elite dragon warriors when they arrived here. They were walking blindly into an automated meat grinder controlled by an unfeeling artifact of great power. Li Yu had survived his trek across the border solely because his temporal displacement confused the system and he appears as an undetectable being.

"That explains the empty borders," Li Yu said while pacing around the floating chair.

"But it does not explain the enforcers. Before I came here, I met a dragon kin named Vaxx on a different continent. He possessed crimson scales and a Law Seed aura. He was commanding a faction of Moth people and spoke of ruling the world on behalf of Dragon Core. If your people are weak farmers, how did Vaxx become so strong and was so proactive away from your shores?" The moment the name left Li Yu's lips, the ethereal spirit froze. Jirno widened his yellow eyes and his lower lip began to tremble.

He buried his face in his hands and let out a loud tragic wail that echoed through the digital void. Tears formed in the corners of his eyes and floated upward into the dark space like glowing pearls.

"You met Vaxx?" Jirno sobbed loudly and rubbed his eyes but he already knew the real answer.

"Tell me he is doing well. Please tell me he is finally completing a mission for the glory of our race." Li Yu stopped pacing and looked at the weeping spirit with confusion.

"I killed him during our encounter. He tried to enslave an allied faction and demanded my head as a trophy because I killed a few of his supporters. I stored his corpse to feed my companion when he wakes up." Jirno let out another devastated wail and threw his arms in the air.

"No! Do you know how long it took me to get him? I saved my daily points for over one hundred years just to afford a ten pull on the premium banner!" Li Yu blinked and struggled to process the bizarre terminology.

"A premium banner?"

"The system has a reward function," Jirno explained between heavy sobs while pulling up a screen displaying a spinning golden wheel.

"I earn a tiny amount of merit points every day just for keeping the population alive. When I save up enough points, I can roll the wheel to summon a random reward. Sometimes I get rare seeds or healing pills. But if I am very lucky, the system generates a powerful dragon kin warrior and implants them with a high level cultivation base." Jirno pointed a shaky finger at a portrait of Vaxx displayed on a side monitor.

"Vaxx was one of my best pulls ever. He was a rare unit with top tier fire and decay affinities. I sent him out across the ocean to gather resources and establish a foothold on the outer continents so I can finally complete some tasks. I thought with him around I could finally complete some of these tasks but you… you..."

"He seemed more interested in building his own kingdom," Li Yu noted while recalling the arrogant demeanor of the crimson scaled tyrant. He felt kind of bad for Jirno but at the same time did not feel any guilt towards killing someone who had tried to kill him.

"He had a terrible attitude," Jirno cried and wiped his nose with his sleeve.

"The spawned warriors possess their own free will and personality traits. Vaxx was arrogant and rebellious from the moment he materialized in the courtyard. He never listened to my orders and he ignored the system prompts I sent to his mind. I gave him a grand quest to unite the outer lands and he just used his strength to bully the weaker races for his own amusement." Li Yu watched the ethereal dragon weep over the loss of his rebellious pawn and a strange sense of pity washed over him now.

The terrifying puppet master ruling the Dragon Core was nothing more than a lonely prisoner playing a frustrating game of chance. He spent centuries saving up currency to summon a powerful champion only to watch that champion ignore his commands and die a foolish death. The tragic reality of the central continent was laid bare before Li Yu now. There was no grand conspiracy or ancient evil plotting to destroy the world.

The Dragon Core was just a stalled project managed by a depressed spirit who had no idea how to fulfill his impossible mandates. The lethal reputation of the land was a byproduct of automated defenses and the occasional rogue pawn spawned from a spinning wheel. Li Yu stood in the glow of the floating monitors and realized he was truly stuck here now. Jirno possessed no secret knowledge of the cosmos and held no key to the dimensional barriers.

The overseer was just as trapped as he was and their shared isolation created a bizarre bond between the human anomaly and the ethereal system host. Jirno continued to cry over his lost points and Li Yu simply pulled a wooden chair from his spatial ring to sit beside the weeping spirit. They were two lost souls stranded in a digital void and Li Yu knew it would take time to unravel the rest of the secrets hidden within the humming screens.