Read Novel Full Chapter 646: Awakening
Chapter 646: Awakening
Liora did not need to search for a long time before locating the source behind the ever-looming aura.
The moment she stepped into the palace and entered its main hall, she came face to face with it.
She had made several guesses about what it could have been before coming here.
A slumbering being. A powerful weapon. Even the force of an enormous formation.
Yet the moment she saw its source, she realized that all her previous guesses had been completely wrong.
The item emitting that oppressive aura was neither a weapon nor a person.
Instead, it was a statue.
Made of stone and stretching infinitely toward the sky, it seemed bigger than the secret realm itself.
It occupied the central place within a vast space, its head nearly touching the ceiling.
However, it was far from being all alone.
Surrounding it were thousands of other statues. Though big, they looked like dwarves compared to it.
They resembled the ones Liora had encountered during her adventure in the City Lord’s palace, found at each intersection of the giant maze.
They were made from the same material, seemingly having been sculpted by the same person.
… Or at least, that was what an ordinary person would think at first glance.
Liora knew better.
From her view, traces of deadly crimson energy constantly appeared out of nowhere before seeping into their bodies and fusing with the stone.
At first, nothing happened as a result, as though it was a mere coincidence.
But as Liora observed the process for several seconds, she finally noticed a change.
Suddenly, one of the statues began to shake violently.
Large fractures formed across its surface and stone chips smashed to the ground with a continuous clatter.
Before long, the outer layer of the statue had vanished. What lay beneath it was revealed.
It was a man—the very person the statue had depicted.
Wearing the same ancient attire as the cultivators in the outside world, he seemed like a corpse that had maintained its state for billions of years.
Until suddenly, his eyelids abruptly fluttered.
Moments later, his eyes opened wide.
A powerful momentum surged from his body and spread through the surroundings.
At first, it was ordinary, as though he was a mortal person.
But soon, that momentum began to soar.
Rank 1. Rank 2. Rank 4.
In the blink of an eye, it had entered Rank 7 and showed no signs of stopping just yet.
Rank 7. Rank 8. Rank 9.
It was only when the man was accompanied by a Rank 10 aura that things started to slow down.
When it became equivalent to a veteran Rank 10 Awakener, the transformation finally stopped.
The man flexed his body, as though adjusting to his new state.
Just when Liora was wondering what this newly revived powerhouse was going to do, a voice suddenly echoed and spread throughout the room.
“Proceed according to the arranged protocol. Wait for further instructions.”, a cold, emotionless voice rang out.
Hearing it, a trace of surprise flashed across the man’s face. But seemingly recognizing the voice’s owner, he immediately nodded and did as instructed.
Without any hesitation, he walked out of the room from the entrance at the back.
He was not the only one. Soon, statue after statue was awakened.
They all possessed Emperor momentum, and they were all guided by the indifferent voice to move out.
Watching this scene unfold, Liora looked thoughtful.
While maintaining the disguise of the guard—patrolling according to the routes she had plundered from their memories—she watched as person after person emerged from their stone shells.
By now, she had a rough understanding of what was happening.
This palace was clearly plundering the essence of the dead people in the entire extraterrestrial battlefield, using it as nourishment to awaken these slumbering cultivators.
Liora strongly suspected the people she had seen in the fortress outside had also been statues in the past.
They just so happened to be the first people to be awakened. Or more precisely, they were weak enough not to require too much essence for the process to be completed.
What caught Liora’s attention, however, was not the awakening itself.
After all, like the powerhouses in the outside world, she had long known someone was behind everything.
What piqued her interest instead was the power of the awakened creatures.
Every single one of them was an Emperor!
If that were the case for all the statues in the room, then the cultivation civilization would possess thousands of Emperors, more than all four Apex Civilizations combined.
More importantly…
“That’s the best-case scenario, assuming that these people are at most Emperors.”
“If some of them are more powerful…”, Liora looked at the center of the room, where the more majestic and imposing statues were located.
Then, she slowly raised her head to stare at the statue towering above them all. It was the source of the Heavenly Armor Pavilion’s disturbance.
If the statues beside it had already surpassed Rank 10, then how powerful would this creature be?
Rank 12? Peak Rank 12?
Or perhaps even Rank 13?
Liora’s eyes narrowed as countless calculations raced through her mind.
In the end, she shook her head, suppressing these thoughts for the time being.
She made no attempt to interrupt the statue’s awakening process.
It was clear to her that a powerful formation was engraved around the entire room, regulating the essence of millions of beings to help these cultivators awaken.
Even with her strength, it would require a lot of effort to stop it. By then, everyone within the fortress would surely have been alerted and rushed here.
Even so, that didn’t mean that Liora’s trip to the palace had been for nothing.
Besides these stone statues, she could sense something else within this building.
A familiar aura. It was nearly unmistakable.
Of course, even if Liora had certain doubts and for some reason distrusted her instincts, she would still be absolutely certain.
For no other reason than that a voice rang out.
“My Lord, I can sense the aura of Mechanical beings. They are not far away from here.”, Alpha’s voice lingered in her ears.