Suppressing all unnecessary thoughts, Emrys reached into his pocket dimension and took out a pair of eyes. These pupils were flashing with boundless starry power, swirling with stardust and galaxies like living cosmic vortices. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Then, with precise care, Emrys gently opened the eyes of the corpse. They were empty sockets.

Without delay, Emrys inserted the pupils into those empty sockets.

And then, a miracle occurred.

The moment the pupils entered, countless nerve threads burst forth from the starry eyes like glowing tendrils, each as fine as a hair, yet brimming with unfathomable vitality. They crawled deep into the corpse’s skull, binding with the optic nerves, linking with the brain, and weaving themselves into the body’s natural structure.

It was as if these eyes had always belonged to him.

Well, of course, these eyes always belonged to this man.

As the final nerve fused into place, the corpse’s body glowed faintly. A ripple of cosmic light passed over the coffin before calming down.

"It is time," Emrys muttered and raised his hand. Immediately, a shimmering container formed from pure spatial energy appeared in his palm. It held the Starry Holy Water, glowing with silvery brilliance that seemed to be carrying the reflection of countless stars and galaxies.

He gently poured the entire contents of the container into the coffin.

The Starry Holy Water flowed smoothly, spreading beneath the corpse, and soaking into his body.

BOOM!

The moment the liquid touched the man’s skin, a blinding explosion of light erupted from the coffin, shaking the very space around them. The corpse’s body and the Starry Holy Water both burst with brilliant cosmic radiance, so intense that it forced Emrys to narrow his eyes.

The light wasn’t just light; it seemed to carry an endless life force and the essence of stars. The coffin began levitating slightly as the corpse absorbed every last drop of the divine liquid.

And then, Emrys watched as the corpse’s muscles tensed, his bones cracked, shifted, and aligned. His hair slowly turned into a flowing dark cascade and his presence grew heavier and faster with each passing second, as though a sleeping god was about to wake up.

And then...

Gasp!

The man opened his eyes with a snap and gasped for a deep breath. After breathing deeply a few times, he slowly sat up.

However, his breath was still not calm. He continued to take deep and long breaths.

’He woke up!’

Emrys’s eyes flashed resplendently. He calmly observed the man sitting inside the coffin.

The man looked calm and young, with long black hair and starry eyes. His body was strong, and at this moment, he didn’t look to be someone who had been asleep for ages at all.

He raised his head and a bright light flashed in his eyes. Then he spoke in a hoarse voice, "So, you... are... Emrys... Frazier."

He found it difficult to speak, so he had no choice but to say one word at a time, pausing briefly after each one.

Emrys nodded without speaking.

The man slowly stood up, his gaze steady, and then started speaking again, "My name is Long Xiao. I am the last disciple of the First Primordial Ancestor."

As he spoke, he looked at Emrys seriously. "She trained me for only one purpose, and that is to protect the "Key" and hand it to you."

"I did as I was told. I protected the key and waited, waited a long time for you to come and claim the key, but... something unexpected happened. A Hollow somehow found Spiritarium and entered. I had no choice but to face the Hollow since no one else could have possibly been able to kill it. In fact, even I was unable to kill it. I had no choice but to rely on the treasures given by my master to seal it deep underground. Even so, I was unable to seal all of its power completely. By now, it should have already been on the verge of breaking the seal and come out again."

"Years after I forcefully defeated and sealed the Hollow, I discovered that its Hollow Energy had already begun corroding the village and its people. The villagers were no longer pure. Even my dear wife had been tainted by the Hollow Energy. I was betrayed by them, and with the Hollow’s support, they were able to ambush and gouge out my eyes."

"I had no choice but to escape the village, but before that, I at least wanted to put my wife to rest. I had no choice but to personally kill her and seal her body inside a coffin. Then I used that coffin to mislead the villagers, making them believe I had died. On the other hand, I escaped the village. However, I had already been weakened greatly by the Hollow, and after my eyes were dug out, recovering almost became impossible. In the end, I sacrificed much of my strength and several treasures to create a space that can help you go to and fro to the Cosmic Battlefield in Eternity. Even so, that space can only support three such transmissions. After doing all this, I finally, sealed myself and entered a fake death state."

Long Xiao finally looked down at his hands, then at the coffin, and struggled to stand up before crawling out of the coffin. Then he gave Emrys a deep glance before speaking, "Wait for me to recover first. After that, we’ll return to the village. You’ll help me, if possible, kill the Hollow. If not, just keep it busy long enough for me to retrieve the key and hand it to you."

Emrys frowned a little as his thought diverted towards the dark beast he faced inside that small village.

Compared to before, he was far too strong. Perhaps, he truly has the strength to kill that beast now. Even if he is unable to kill the beast, he is sure he could keep it busy for a few years without retreating.

So, he nodded and calmly accepted Long Xiao’s suggestion.

Then, the two men sat at a distance of a few meters from each other and started meditating.