The plaza did not immediately fall silent after the words Aldous had spoken.
On the contrary...
The information he had revealed moments ago had ignited a wide wave of discussion among the young men and women.
Small groups gathered here and there, lowering their voices to excited whispers as each of them tried to comprehend what they had just heard.
Dragons were real.
Phoenixes were real.
Giants, Demons, Elves, Vampires...
All those races that most of them had known only through ancient myths and stories truly existed somewhere else in the world.
That truth alone was enough to send their imaginations soaring.
"Do you think dragons are larger than the books describe them?"
one young man asked his companion excitedly.
"I don't know, but if Lord Aldous himself mentioned them, then they must be real."
A girl who had been listening to their conversation said,
"But I still can't believe Elves actually exist."
Another girl replied,
"And I can't believe Merfolk exist... Where could they even live?"
"In the sea, of course."
"I know that, but I mean... are there really entire cities beneath the water?"
The girl had no answer.
The two simply exchanged a look filled with curiosity.
In another group, the conversation had shifted to the Phoenixes.
"If Phoenixes are reborn from the ashes of their former bodies, does that mean they never die?"
one of the young men asked.
"That's what the stories say."
Another young man replied.
A third youth then interjected,
"But Lord Aldous said there are countless races, and perhaps what we know about them from the legends doesn't represent the whole truth."
A brief silence fell among them.
Then one of them said,
"That means everything we know about the world might be only a very small part of the truth."
It was a simple sentence...
Yet it caused those who heard it to fall silent for several moments.
The thought that the world they had known throughout their lives was nothing more than a tiny fragment of a much greater world was enough to stir a strange feeling within their hearts.
As the minutes passed...
The discussions continued.
Even among some of the teachers and cultivators standing at the edge of the plaza to watch the lecture, quiet conversations arose concerning the information Aldous had revealed.
But...
After several minutes, a faint sound was heard.
"Ahem..."
Aldous coughed quietly.
Although the cough was not loud, its sound echoed clearly throughout the plaza.
The whispers stopped at once.
The discussions ceased.
It was as though the entire plaza had instinctively responded to that single sound.
A hundred thousand people fell silent once more, and a hundred thousand pairs of eyes turned toward the platform.
Aldous remained seated where he was, then spoke in a calm voice that carried unmistakable authority:
"Let us move on to the next question."
As though his words had been a spark that reignited their enthusiasm.
Thousands of hands shot into the air at once.
This time, their excitement was even greater.
Everyone wanted to ask a question.
Everyone wanted to know more.
But Aldous was not affected by the brief chaos that had returned. Instead, he swept his gaze across the crowd before randomly pointing toward a young woman sitting among the rows.
She was wearing glasses, and her appearance suggested intelligence at first glance.
The young woman froze for a moment when she realized that Aldous had chosen her.
Then her eyes widened.
A moment later, a beautiful smile appeared on her face, blending joy with surprise.
She had raised her hand among thousands of others and had not expected Aldous to choose her so quickly.
She took a deep breath, trying to compose herself, then spoke in a clear voice:
"Lord Aldous..."
She paused for a moment before continuing:
"If our world really was as you described, prosperous and beautiful in the past... then why did it become what we see now?"
Her expression changed slightly as she continued her question:
"Why did it become barren and dry, and why has the energy within it become so scarce and weak?"
The moment she finished speaking...
The atmosphere in the plaza changed.
The smiles disappeared.
The whispers faded.
Even many of the teachers and observers standing at the edge of the plaza became more serious.
The question was different from the ones that had come before.
It was not about some mysterious race or mythical creature.
It was about the world itself.
Its fate.
And the reason it had transformed from a prosperous world into one that was almost dead.
And so...
Everyone focused on Aldous.
Even those who had been speaking moments ago fell completely silent.
Everyone wanted to hear his answer.
Aldous remained silent.
The expression on his aged face changed noticeably.
The faint smile that had rested upon his features disappeared, replaced by an extremely serious expression.
He lowered his eyes slightly, as though carefully organizing his thoughts before speaking.
Several seconds passed in heavy silence.
Then Aldous slowly sighed.
"We do not know the confirmed reason that caused our world to become this desolate and almost dead."
The moment the audience heard his answer...
Clear disappointment appeared on the faces of most of the teachers, young men, and young women.
They had expected Aldous, as the strongest cultivator in the city, to know the truth.
They had expected to hear an ancient story.
A great catastrophe.
An event that had changed the face of the world.
Something that would explain how the prosperous, green world Aldous had described only minutes ago had been transformed into the barren land upon which they had lived since birth.
But...
Even Aldous did not know the confirmed reason.
Some of the youths slowly lowered their hands.
Several teachers exchanged silent glances.
One young man said quietly,
"Even Lord Aldous doesn't know..."
His companion replied,
"I thought someone at his level would know the truth."
But their disappointment did not last long.
Because Aldous raised his head.
And this time, his eyes were even more serious.
Then he spoke in a focused voice:
"But..."
The breaths of nearly everyone in the plaza seemed to stop.
He continued:
"We have two hypotheses that explain why our world became a ruined and barren world."
At that very moment...
The emotions of the audience changed.
The disappointment that had appeared only moments ago gradually disappeared, replaced by anticipation.
Heads rose.
Eyes lit up once more.
One of the young men called out loudly:
"Tell us these two hypotheses, Lord Aldous!"
His words were followed by nods of agreement from many of those around him.
Another young man said,
"Yes, what are they?"
A girl added,
"If we cannot know the truth, then at least we want to know what the scholars of the ancient records believe."
Aldous remained silent for a moment.
Then he said without beating around the bush:
"The first hypothesis..."
The voices stopped completely.
"And the least likely one..."
Aldous looked ahead and said:
"States that a colossal meteor struck our planet millions of years ago."
A heavy silence descended.
He continued:
"The impact of that colossal meteor upon the surface of our world caused unprecedented natural disasters."
His voice remained calm, but his words seemed to grow heavier with each passing moment.
"Earthquakes..."
"Volcanoes..."
"Floods..."
"Storms..."
"These terrifying disasters destroyed most of the forests, lakes, and living creatures."
His eyes paused for a moment.
Then he said:
"Including powerful cultivators."
Everyone's eyes widened.
But Aldous did not stop.
He spoke in an even more serious voice:
"Even the legendary Immortals... are said to have fallen during that catastrophe."
The plaza froze.
No one moved.
No one uttered a word.
Even some of the teachers and cultivators standing at the edges of the plaza froze where they stood.
It was information they had never heard before.
It was not part of the knowledge commonly known among ordinary humans.
Nor was it information known to the lower-level cultivators.
And Aldous's mention of the legendary Immortals...
Made the matter even more shocking.
"The Immortals..."
one of the teachers murmured unconsciously.
Another cultivator standing beside him looked at him and said quietly,
"I've never heard that information in my entire life."
"Neither have I."
the other replied.
In the middle of the plaza, the youths continued staring at Aldous in astonishment.
It was difficult for them to comprehend the idea that their world might once have suffered a catastrophe of such magnitude.
An entire planet...
Struck by a colossal meteor.
Then that impact triggering a chain of disasters that destroyed forests, lakes, and living creatures.
Even powerful cultivators...
Even the legendary Immortals...
Had not been spared.
Several long moments passed before their astonishment turned into excitement.
The plaza erupted into discussions once more.
"A colossal meteor struck our planet and its impact turned our world into a wasteland?"
one young man said in disbelief.
"My God... I've never heard this information before, not even in the books!"
another exclaimed.
A young woman shouted,
"How enormous was this meteor?!"
Another young woman sitting beside her replied,
"Rather, tell me this: how powerful would an impact have to be to turn a planet into a ruined world like ours?!"
A young man said excitedly,
"No, those aren't the questions we should be asking!"
Several people around him turned toward him.
He raised his voice even more:
"Did the Immortals truly exist in the past? And did they really fall during that catastrophe?!"
His words sparked another wave of discussion.
"The Immortals?"
"Did Immortals truly exist in the past?"
"If they existed, how powerful were they?"
"And could a catastrophe like that really have been capable of killing them?"
"Then how enormous was the meteor?!"
"Did it strike the planet directly?!"
The voices overlapped.
But amid all of it...
There was one question that remained dominant in everyone's mind.
If the first hypothesis was the least likely...
Then what was the second hypothesis?
After several minutes of discussion, the voice of a young man who appeared more intelligent and composed than most of those around him rang out.
"Lord Aldous..."
The youths gradually stopped talking.
The young man continued:
"What is the second hypothesis you mentioned?"
The moment the question left his mouth...
The voices died down.
As though everyone remembered at that exact moment that there was another half of the story that had yet to be revealed.
A hundred thousand eyes turned toward the platform.
Even the teachers and cultivators standing at the edges of the plaza focused their gazes on Aldous.
No one spoke anymore.
Their curiosity had reached its peak.
But this time...
Something else happened.
A different emotion appeared on Aldous's face.
His expression hardened.
His face became more serious than it had been at any point during the lecture.
There was something in his eyes that was difficult to describe.
It was not merely thoughtfulness.
It was as though the very idea he was preparing to speak of was extraordinarily heavy.
He remained silent for several moments.
Then he said:
"The second hypothesis is..."
He stopped.
Absolute silence descended.
Even the breeze passing over the plaza seemed to lose its voice before that stillness.
Then Aldous continued:
"The second hypothesis states that what happened to our world..."
He paused once more.
"Was caused by a great war that took place in the past."
Everyone who heard his words froze.
This time, astonishment did not merely appear on their faces...
It was as though their very minds refused to believe what their ears had just heard.
A war?
A great war?
Could a war really have done this to an entire world?
A hundred thousand young men and women stared silently at Aldous.
Even the teachers and cultivators standing at the edges of the plaza could not hide their shock.
The proposition...
Was simply...
Difficult to believe.
For how could a war, no matter how great, transform an entire prosperous world filled with forests, lakes, and life into a barren land with weak energy, almost devoid of life?
And none of them knew...
That the question posed by that young man had not opened the door to a simple answer.
It had perhaps opened a door to a history buried beneath the ruins of an entire world.