Chapter 1567 — 1567: Catastrophe

"An entire Age that the whole universe forgot about? Yeah, I can't even imagine what it would take to do something like that," Lex said, more intrigued by the claim than anything else. "I don't think there are enough Dao Lords in the universe to accomplish something like that even if they worked together."

"Exactly. Which is why it is only common sense to ignore something like that. But I think that knowledge here contains some kind of… I'm not sure how to put it. Contamination, or maybe some kind of deep causality might be accurate. Even though with my mind I can conclude that such information is false, my soul bears the weight of it as if I have learned a great secret of the universe.

"As if that is not enough, even for the ruins where we completed no challenges, and forgot the knowledge we learned, a fraction of the weight continues to exist, as if it will haunt us for the rest of our lives.

Lex frowned, and then studied Kaemon using all of his senses, even going as far as checking his Karma. He could not see anything amiss.

"That's odd, because I don't feel anything even after you told me about the Forgotten Age."

"You have to visit the ruins to get the full effect," Kaemon said. "But that makes me unsure if such knowledge is a curse or a gift. My experience tells me that the weight of this knowledge can benefit me somehow, I just need to figure it out how."

"What else did you learn there besides the Forgotten Age?"

"All the knowledge had to be deciphered, for it was recorded in murals, not words. There are things we could misunderstand, but we did our best. The Forgotten Age seemed verily linked to Abaddon, though the exact details can only be speculated on. It seemed like Abaddon was a special region where powerful artifacts were stored, or maybe they were created here.

"Ancient powers once seemed to gather during that age for some reason, as driven together with a unified purpose. It was through those murals that we actually learned the details about our objective - the Chalice of the Abandoned.

"It seemed that, during the Forgotten Age a catastrophe had struck, one unlike anything the ancient powers had ever faced, or even anticipated. The arrival of external threats brought about internal fractures, and war ensued.

"Seeing the unity break, the strongest of the ancient powers abandoned the rest, and that is where the Chalice of the Abandoned was created from. Using the death of countless powers, utilizing the suffering of their souls as fuel, and their bodies as resources, a chalice was forged, its purpose uncertain.

"Just as some used insidious means to create a terrible artifact, others used the method of self sacrifice, giving up portions of their own minds, willfully contributing it to the creation of an entirely different artifact called the Well of Forgotten Dreams.

"These two artifacts together should have protected the bearers from destruction. Should have, because with the arrival of the catastrophe, nothing remained. The land was scorched, and all life ceased to exist. I'm not sure if all life ceased to exist in a Major realm, or some other space, but the mural seemed to strongly signify that the catastrophe initiated the reign of Death over the universe.

"The last picture of the mural just showed a solitary figure, looking out over a massive graveyard, as if it was meant to signify the burial of the whole universe. I do not know why I kept coming to that conclusion - it was almost as if everyone who looked at it could imagine nothing else.

"In the end, I could not help but think of a terrible idea. What if the Forgotten Age predated even the Primordial Age? What if the reason why no one recalled that Age was because all life in the universe had been wiped out, and it was only after the passing of the catastrophe that the Primordial Age began. Who's to say what happened back then? After all, little to nothing is known about even the Primordial Age itself."

"You're letting speculation get the better of you," Lex said gravely. "I don't know much about what you've been through here. I mean, you literally just started the story. But I can tell that the weight of these thoughts is seriously affecting you. If you don't get a hold of yourself, you're going to fall into cultivation deviation, or develop a Heart Demon.

"I mean, what does it matter if there was a secret Age or not? Why does it matter if all life died or not? What happened back then may have historical significance, but on your daily life, right now, it has no great impact. Maybe one day down the line such knowledge will become relevant, but if you don't get a hold of yourself, you'll be long dead by something entirely unrelated. Like a locust, or some other threat here in Abaddon."

Kaemon stared deeply at Lex for a while, unspeaking, but eventually only sighed.

"I know. I too wish to move away from such thoughts, but the weight of this knowledge is very real, and it won't go away. I am incapable of not thinking about it, or being affected by it. That's why I said that the knowledge here is contaminated. It wasn't just the locusts that killed our many reinforcements. Just learning about Abaddon itself makes one more likely to die."

Lex began to ponder Kaemons words, as he himself fell into another bout of silence, thinking about all he had been through. His side quests had been to gain knowledge about Abaddon and the things that happened here, as well as about the Well of Forgotten Dreams as well as the Chalice of the Abandoned.

He had noticed how the system too only gave him quests related to things Kaemon already knew the existence of, as if even the system itself could not peek through the secrets of Abaddon.

If that was true, it was both reassuring, since it meant that the system wasn't entirely omnipotent, but it was also terrifying. The system was far more powerful than Lex could currently even imagine, so what exactly about Abaddon had stumped even the system?