After the human cultivator mentioned the Supreme World Consciousness to his companions, their expressions changed in the same instant.
The confusion that had filled their faces vanished, replaced by deep respect mixed with a reverence they could no longer conceal.
For that name was not merely an ordinary name belonging to some mysterious existence, nor was it a title given to some random entity that had appeared in the records of history and then vanished.
It was the name of the existence that maintained the continuation of life on the planet Ibiron.
An existence that stood at a level beyond the comprehension of most beings, an existence whose very presence was intertwined with the existence of the world itself, and which stood on the same level as the Great Beings, who were nothing more than distant legends in the eyes of the current generations.
Silence descended among the Ascendant Immortals for several moments.
None of them needed to ask why the expressions of the others had changed, for they all understood the meaning behind the name they had heard.
They knew that merely mentioning it deserved this degree of respect.
One of them spoke in a low voice:
"Supreme Will..."
The name left his lips slowly, as though he feared that raising his voice too much might be disrespectful to that supreme existence.
Several Ascendant Immortals lowered their heads unconsciously, while others continued staring at the Immortal Energy spread throughout the sky and earth with even more complicated expressions.
They had now realized that the return of this energy might not have been merely a natural phenomenon.
There might be secrets far older behind it than they could possibly imagine.
Ever since the ancient stone murals had been discovered thirty years ago, the rulers of the Human Council had learned much that the common people knew nothing about.
After the information contained within those murals reached their hands, the rulers realized that what had been revealed to them was merely a small fragment of Ibiron's history.
Among the most dangerous pieces of information they had learned was the existence of the Supreme World Consciousness and the Great Beings.
After the Ascendant Immortals learned of this information, a profound sense of reverence and veneration toward those supreme beings arose within them.
Those feelings were not born solely from fear.
They also stemmed from the realization that their very existence, and the existence of their world, was connected to ancient eras in which entities beyond the limits of their current understanding had once lived.
For this reason, the rulers of the Human Council had concealed all important information concerning the Supreme World Consciousness and the Great Beings.
They had not allowed that information to leak to the other races.
Only the existence of these beings, along with the names of some of them, had been revealed.
As for the remaining important information, it had been carefully concealed.
The other races were not merely neighbors of humanity.
There were races that humanity considered enemies, and revealing secrets of such magnitude to them would mean granting them knowledge capable of overturning the balance of the world.
Thus, those secrets had remained buried within the deepest layers of the Human Council's knowledge.
Until now.
The Ascendant Immortals were still staring at the Immortal Energy filling the sky and earth.
With their newfound knowledge, its existence had become even more unsettling than before.
The energy they were witnessing was no longer merely a mysterious form of energy.
It had become evidence of something greater.
Something that might be connected to Ibiron's own past.
After a long silence, one of the human Ascendant Immortals in the group spoke in a low voice, as though he did not wish to break the heavy silence surrounding them.
"Since the Immortal Energy has returned to our world..."
The breathing of several of them paused for a moment.
The man continued:
"Doesn't this mean that what happened a month ago... and what will happen in the future, could be a prelude to the awakening of the Supreme Will and the Great Beings from their slumber?"
The words fell among them with immense weight.
No one answered.
Even those who had been about to speak swallowed their words.
Only one thought began to take shape within their minds.
The awakening.
If the Immortal Energy had truly returned after millions of years of disappearance...
And if the mysterious earthquakes had begun before that...
And if there was an existence that still remained asleep deep within Ibiron...
Then perhaps these events were merely the prelude to something far greater.
Something that had not yet begun.
One of the Ascendant Immortals stared into the distance before speaking in a voice heavier than before:
"If what you say is true..."
He paused for a moment.
"Then Ibiron may be standing on the threshold of a new era."
The first man did not answer.
For the answer was already clear within their hearts.
If the Supreme Will returned...
And if the Great Beings awakened...
Then the world they knew would never remain the same.
And the lands of humanity were not the only places to witness this truth.
In the territories of the other races, similar scenes unfolded.
In the lands of the Dragons, the Ascendant Immortals stood before the mysterious energy, their gazes changing after they realized its true nature.
In the regions of the Phoenixes, similar reactions occurred.
As for the Dark Elves, the Divine Clan, and the other races, the news began spreading among the powerful existences that possessed ancient inherited knowledge.
Not all races possessed the same amount of knowledge.
However, the ancient races, particularly the Dragons, Phoenixes, Elves, and Giants, had inherited information from their ancient ancestors concerning the events of the distant past.
Information about the War of the Great Ones.
And information concerning the reason that had led to the destruction of the world and its transformation into its current state.
Thus, when the Ascendant Immortals of those races realized that the mysterious energy was indeed Immortal Energy, a single thought emerged in their minds.
A thought they could not ignore.
What was happening now...
Was not something ordinary.
The return of the Immortal Energy was not merely a passing phenomenon.
It might instead be the beginning of a great event that would change the world in the future.
And this realization alone was enough to make the most powerful existences in Ibiron observe every change occurring around them in silence and caution.
Time passed.
And as the days and weeks went by, the Immortal Energy did not stop spreading.
Instead, its quantity and density continued to rise at astonishing levels.
The sky and earth continued receiving it without pause.
As though its source knew no exhaustion.
And with every new increase in its density, the atmosphere of Ibiron became increasingly different.
Then...
Four more months passed since the day the Immortal Energy had returned.
On one particular day, the earth began to tremble once again.
But this time...
It was not like what had happened before.
The tremors did not strike the entire world.
Instead, they appeared in thousands of specific regions.
One region here.
Then another far away.
Then a third.
As though something was specifically targeting those places.
At first, no one knew the reason.
But shortly afterward, strange events began occurring in some of those regions.
In one of the vast mountain ranges, a violent tremor resounded among the peaks.
The enormous mountains shook, and dust and rocks fell from their slopes.
Then, in a moment that seemed to have surpassed the laws of nature themselves...
A group of towering mountains began to move apart.
They did not shatter.
They did not collapse.
Instead, they separated under the force of a mysterious power, as though an invisible hand were slowly pushing them toward opposite sides.
The gap widened between the mountains.
Then something enormous appeared behind them.
At first, it was unclear what had emerged.
But little by little, its features became visible.
A city.
A massive, colossal city that had been hidden behind the mountain range.
Its scale was enormous, and its buildings rose in majestic silence.
Yet what inspired the greatest sense of dread was not merely the city's size.
It was its strange architectural style.
Its structures were completely different from anything the current generations had ever known.
Its palaces, towers, walls, and streets bore an ancient character that did not belong to the current era.
It was as though a city from an ancient age had remained hidden all these years, waiting for the moment when it would return to the world.
Silence descended.
Then...
Terrifying life auras began rising from within the city.
Life auras.
But they were not ordinary life auras.
They were heavy, profound, and frightening to such a degree that the area surrounding the city seemed to grow darker.
At the same moment, the Immortal Energy surrounding the region began to be drawn toward the city.
Threads of energy.
Then streams.
Then enormous waves.
The Immortal Energy flowed toward the city at an astonishing rate, as though something within it were drawing it in with a force that could not be resisted.
As time passed, the speed of absorption increased.
The city continued devouring the Immortal Energy without pause.
One day...
Then another...
Then several more days.
Throughout that period, the city remained silent.
No movement.
No sounds.
No one knew what existed within it.
Only the terrifying life auras rising from it, and the Immortal Energy continuously flowing toward it.
Until the day everything changed.
After several days of massive absorption of Immortal Energy...
A laugh rang out from within the colossal city.
"Hahahahahaha..."
The laughter was terrifying.
It was not merely the laughter of someone delighted to have returned.
It carried within it the weight of an immeasurable span of time.
It came from one of the small palaces located in the outer region of the city.
And that laughter alone was enough to make the ancient silence surrounding the city seem even more terrifying.
Then came the voice.
An ancient voice.
So ancient that it seemed as though its owner had not spoken a single word for millions of years.
And when the voice finally emerged after such a long period, it sounded hoarse and deep in a terrifying manner, as though time itself had left its marks upon every syllable.
Then he said:
"Hahahahahaha... The time has come for us to return to the world after countless years of having our existence sealed away... hahahahaha."
The words echoed within the palace.
Then their echoes spread throughout the ancient city.
Yet no one appeared.
The identity of the owner of the voice remained unrevealed.
No one knew what was waiting behind the doors of that small palace.
The only thing that was clear was that an extremely ancient existence...
An existence that had remained sealed away from the world for countless years...
Had begun to recover its strength.
And while Immortal Energy was flooding Ibiron, another ancient city had begun to emerge once more.
A city that concealed within it the secrets of an era unknown to the current generations.
And upon Ibiron...
The ancient eras had begun to open their eyes once more.