On the Emperor's Avenue entirely paved with gold, Azir silently walked at the forefront.
Li Lin, Kassadin, and Sivir, who was being pulled by Li Lin, followed him from afar.
"Hey! Have you all gone mad?! Why don't we escape while we can?" Sivir shouted from a distance, looking at the majestic and imposing figure of the emperor with an eagle armor tens of meters away.
Her face was filled with anxiety.
Over two hours ago, after Sivir was revived by the water of life, Azir went to the inner hall of the ancient tomb sanctuary and obtained a magically linked golden scepter.
During the following time, Azir had been moving within the Sun City, using the celestial magic he had just acquired to reconstruct one building after another.
Sivir was initially very wary of this newly revived emperor. She thought about escaping quietly with Li Lin and Kassadin while he was busy.
She felt that this old guy, who had just been revived from the tomb, occasionally chanted ancient Shuriman language from the ancient times and talked to himself in the silent Yellow Sand City, was mentally abnormal.
Maybe, in a moment of madness, he might bury everything he had just built back into the ground...
Or perhaps, having revived himself with the magical spring water, he suddenly felt that she owed him and demanded repayment.
However, what surprised Sivir was that Li Lin actually rejected her proposal to leave.
Not only him, even Kassadin didn't want to leave either.
Just when Sivir was ready to give up and escape on her own, she was stopped by Li Lin.
Initially, Sivir resisted and almost had a falling out with Li Lin and Kassadin.
However, he rewarded her with a set of portable foldable power armor, only asking her to follow them in the Sun City for some time.
After careful consideration, Sivir reluctantly agreed.
There was no choice; that power armor was too powerful.
However, Li Lin didn't mention that Sivir's foldable power armor was far inferior to the ones he and Kassadin possessed...
"Why are you always thinking about running away?" Li Lin, who had already opened his mask, couldn't help but turn around and roll his eyes at Sivir. "You're of royal blood. Why are you so afraid of your ancestors?"
"Who knows if he is really my ancestor? The concept of imperial bloodline is too elusive and uncertain; there's no way to confirm it." Sivir refused to admit such things on the surface.
But in fact, she could clearly feel the connection between her and Azir's bloodlines. This was not something she could deceive anyone about.
Imperial bloodline... perhaps.
But what did that even mean? Would this guy make me the emperor?
Sivir sneered inwardly as she glanced at Azir in the distance.
For her, gold coins were the most important.
Li Lin understood Sivir quite well. Through her actions in her original timeline, he could roughly guess what she was thinking now.
"Sivir, it's your bloodline that revived Azir, and it's because of you that he can complete the ascension ritual... If we have to put it bluntly, he's probably thanking you. How could he possibly demand anything in return?" Li Lin, seeing through Sivir's thoughts, continued to persuade her.
Sivir, with a flickering gaze, averted her eyes, feeling guilty. "I... I didn't say such things..."
"Then why do you keep thinking about running away?"
Sivir hesitated, "..."
"You want gold, right? Look at the road beneath our feet." Li Lin took advantage of his victory and continued persuading, "This whole road is paved with gold. Is the Shuriman Empire lacking in gold?"
Sivir remained silent.
"Obviously, it's not lacking. Moreover, you have royal blood, you're Azir's descendant, a member of the royal family... If you stay, do you think you still need to worry about gold?"
Besides, there's someone outside who wants to sever Azir's bloodline. If he finds out about you, he will surely find ways to get rid of you.
Li Lin added silently in his mind.
Sivir opened her mouth, wanting to retort, but didn't know what to say.
But thinking about it carefully... what he just said seems to make sense.
Sivir lowered her head in silence for a moment, then immediately shook her head in a self-deprecating manner.
No!
How could you let yourself be brainwashed by such words, Sivir?
If I really am the so-called descendant of the emperor, and this old guy, who has been sleeping for thousands of years, confines me to the Sun City and doesn't let me leave, what should I do?
She subconsciously looked towards the forefront of the Emperor's Avenue, leading to the city's second-highest point and the palace with the most sunlight coverage from the sun disc.
In this city of silent desolation, there were only herself and Azir in that deep and grand palace...
The mere thought of those days ahead was enough to convey the difficulty they would face.
Sivir gritted her teeth, preparing to ask Li Lin and Kassadin one last time. If they refused to leave, she would rather abandon the power armor and depart from the imperial capital.
However, as she lifted her head, she was stunned by a scene in the distance.
Azir, with head held high and chest puffed out, struck a proud pose. Golden sand particles rose from the roadside rocks, flowing between his left claws, swiftly converging on both sides of the road, creating lifelike figures.
It was the manifestation of the Shuriman Empire's influence before the disaster, meticulously recreated by him using the power of an Ascended.
All the people made of dust, assembled on both sides of the Emperor's Avenue, gazed towards the hovering sun disc and the top of the temple. There, the royal family and the sun priests stood on the Ascension Platform, venerating the grand emperor's ascension ceremony.
However, soon, the excitement on everyone's faces turned into fear. People screamed and scattered in vain. An invisible wave of energy instantly annihilated them, turning them into dust and sand, swept away by the incoming strong winds.
At this moment, Li Lin, Kassadin, and Sivir, who were still in shock, keenly felt Azir's sorrow in the distance.
Azir didn't linger for too long; his figure became more resolute, his strides larger. Soon, he reached the base of the Ascension Platform.
"Let's wait for him here," Kassadin reminded in time. "Except for those of royal blood, the emperor's trusted people, and the sun priests, no one else can ascend the steps of the Ascension Platform."
Li Lin nodded, turning around to look at Sivir, who was still dumbfounded, staring at Azir and the image formed by the sand.
She, for the moment, had stopped thinking about escaping.
In the short time Li Lin turned around, Azir had already taken five steps in one, sprinting up the Ascension Steps at an astonishing speed.
The image beside him dispersed and reorganized, cyclically replicating everything that happened here thousands of years ago.
Finally, Azir reached the top of the Ascension Platform, surrounded by the last group of onlookers in a circular formation. His assistants, advisors, sun priest bishops, and his pregnant wife, along with his daughter and son, who had grown up. All of them held their heads high.
Below the steps, Li Lin and the others looked at Azir with heavy hearts. He collapsed and knelt on the ground, extending helpless hands, wanting to touch those family members he had painstakingly restored.
However, the next moment, they were obliterated by an invisible force, just like the subjects on both sides of the Emperor's Avenue...
After a moment of silence, Azir slowly stood up under the Ascension Shrine.
Everyone present could see that Azir, who had been human three thousand years ago, was being drawn by the power of ascension into the air.
However, at this moment, another figure made of sand suddenly appeared, attracting everyone's attention—Xerath.
His lips moved, uttering cryptic incantations. The next moment, Azir in mid-air was pulled by a dark arcane energy, forcibly thrown down from the Ascension Shrine, turning into ashes amid the endless fires of the sun and the magic of the celestial realms.
Immediately after, on the Ascension Platform, a group of elite Sun Warriors rushed towards Xerath, who was slowly ascending.
However, the power of ascension from the sun disc had already been injected into his body, reshaping his flesh and blood into a formless mass of arcane energy.
One who is not acknowledged will never achieve a perfect ascension posture.
As this immense starry energy was stolen by Xerath, the ruthless and uncontrollable energy aftermath instantly swept across the entire Shurima, disintegrating all the remnants made of yellow sand.
Azir took a sharp breath.
Even after becoming an ascendant, part of his emotions had been severed by the power of the celestial god.
But the blazing anger burning in his heart could still be heard in his voice, "Xerath!"
Azir's voice was majestic and hoarse.
He tightened the scepter in his hand, turned around, and looked in a direction. Through the sand beneath his feet, he could sense an evil arcane energy somewhere in the desert.
"Your sins are unforgivable!"
(End of this chapter)
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