Elor answered him, "This place is located in the oceans way beyond the Rising Sun Continent we know. In fact, according to legends, this island was once part of the world beyond our continent which we are stuck in because of the mysterious barrier that surrounds it."
Damien had a confused expression, "But how's that possible? Isn't it impossible to leave the barrier?"
"Have you heard of the Gateway of the Gods?" Elor suddenly asked, making Damien search through his memories and remember Reva mentioning this to him. A portal that opens up to a mysterious world where even dragons and powerful cultivators were said to roam and how their ancestors had once visited it but came back in a poor state.
"Yes…Reva had mentioned it to me. In fact, she said that Ruthren would be announcing about the gateway opening up soon and if I would be interested in going inside. She also said the last time it opened was tens of thousands of years ago, which is really a pretty long time and that great riches and treasures await us there despite the dangers," Damien said, remembering his talk with Reva a few months ago.
Elor sarcastically smiled as he shook his head and said, "She doesn't know the truth because of which the part where she mentioned 'dangers' must be a greatly watered-down version of the real thing. But the part about treasures and riches and also the fact that the world over there is denser in ethereal energy is true. Still, if you really knew about these 'dangers' or if our ancestors knew about them before entering through the gateway, they wouldn't dare to take one step towards the other side. In fact, we should be thanking the ones who created the barrier around our continent."
Damien had a baffled look as he asked, "What do you mean, senior? How can being imprisoned in a single continent be a good thing?" Damien literally felt as if he and all the denizens of the Rising Sun Continent were stuck in an exaggerated prison where they have to forever live their lives on this single continent, unable to explore the outside world.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})Elor took a deep breath and said, "Dozens of centuries before the first Zirian Emperor, the Rising Sun Continent had no empires or kingdoms. It was just a single continent with a few hundred people compared to today's population. There was only a single leader leading these hundreds of people. That was how simple it was since the only reason they came here was for survival and to escape from the outside world."
"To survive? What was wrong with the outside world?" Damien curiously asked to which Elor sighed and said, "That even I don't know. All they ever mentioned in the ancient records was that the outside world became a place of hell, filled with evil, and received the judgment of the gods. We still don't know the reality, and even our ancestors who said to have come back from the gateway were unable to mention or convey what they saw.
It was as if their minds erased those memories to protect their sanity. To even shake such powerful cultivators to their core like that, the world outside surely is not meant to be walked on by people like us. At least, that was the case at that time. Now that thousands of years have passed, we still don't know if it has become less dangerous or more."
Damien felt apprehensive about the whole thing since the way Elor said it, it was basically a no man's land out there.
"Then how or why did the gateway open in our continent at that time and why is it suddenly going to open up again?" Damien wanted to know why a gateway to such a dangerous world outside would randomly open up in the only safest continent hidden behind a barrier.
"Who said it randomly opens up? It was just an exaggerated lie created by the emperors for their own selfish intentions. The gateway already exists and always did for all these years, but in our history, it had only been used once because of how dangerous it was. It was not something created by the gods or anything but by mortal men like us, the survivors who first came to the Rising Sun Continent. They created that gateway back to their world in hopes of returning to their world one day, though they died without realizing that dream," Elor explained.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})"I see…I never expected it to be something like this…" Damien had no idea that such a dangerous gateway existed in the very continent he was living on all this time.
"Then won't someone who likes to see the world burn open the gateway on purpose and let the dangers outside into our continent?" Damien asked since he felt like he was literally living in a place with a big timebomb.
Elor waved his hand as he chuckled, "You don't have to worry about it. It can't just be opened by anyone, not even if it was a cultivator with the strength of Ruthren. All the four emperors from the respective empires have to use their 'key' at the same time to open the gateway."
"A key?"
Elor nodded, "Yes. It was said to have passed down from the ancestors who came to this place, and now all four of them would have to agree unanimously if they were to open the gateway, even if one of them desperately wants to open it. Anyway, the keys are impossible to steal, and they wouldn't dare to open unless they want their empires to get destroyed. The fear of losing everything they inherited from their ancestors and the riches and power they possess now is what kept them from opening it for all these years. So you don't have to worry about those things for now."
Damien still felt uneasy about this whole thing and the various ways these 'keys' could be misused. Still, there was nothing he could do about it now, and he asked, "But what about this island? How did you manage to get out of the barrier without having a 'key'?"
