The Road to the Most Evil Land

Legend said that only when the two halves of the split stone skull met could the path to the most evil land be opened. The Martial Imprint had let slip this information from the heavenly stele's imprint, but the road was exceedingly dangerous—even an Ancestral God might not pass through safely.

Before them lay a vast, boundless plain. In the dim twilight, tiny points of light flickered like fireflies dancing across the empty wilderness, while the mournful wails of gods drifted on the wind.

The Martial Imprint led Xiao Chen and the others forward, treading unevenly through waist-high wild grass. That living vegetation grew underground here astonished them.

With a flutter of wings, a strange bird as long as a man burst from the grass. It had a bird's body but an elephant's head, its ivory-white tusks curling back and forth as it circled overhead, peering down at the intruders.

"What kind of hellish place is this? Even the birds have long noses?" the Golden Divine Halberd grumbled loudly.

"This is a creature from a previous civilization era," the Martial Imprint said gravely, his expression turning cautious. "Do not underestimate it. If you're careless, you might be hurt."

"Ridiculous! A little bird could hurt me?" The Golden Divine Halberd was unconvinced.

The bird's tusks flashed twice, sending down two piercing beams of white light. The Golden Divine Halberd roared, unleashing a blaze of divine radiance that startled the strange bird away, and the tusks vanished.

"Even a bird dares to bully me! Damn it all!" The Golden Divine Halberd bore two clear scratches from the tusks, revealing the creature's formidable strength.

Bai Qi found it hard to believe. If even that was possible, what dangers lay ahead?

"I must warn you—never be careless," the Martial Imprint said with utmost seriousness. "Any creature from a past civilization that has survived to this day must be extraordinary."

"So if we meet a flying rabbit, we have to treat it with caution too?" the Dark-Iron Seal remarked, nodding toward a rabbit grazing nearby.

The rabbit was odd: not truly winged, but its ears were enormous—like two huge fans, larger than its body. It watched the intruders while eating.

"Correct. Treat any living thing you see as a potential threat," the Martial Imprint replied.

"You mean that rabbit is dangerous?" the Dark-Iron Seal asked casually.

With a whoosh, the rabbit's ears flapped, lifting it into the air like a gust of wind. A terrible light wave erupted from its ears and sent the Dark-Iron Seal flying dozens of zhang away. Then the rabbit flapped its ears and flew off nonchalantly.

Everyone stared in shock. This place was too bizarre.

The Martial Imprint warned again, "You see? Do not underestimate any prehistoric creature."

They pressed him for more information about the species that had survived from earlier eras.

"I may be an old fossil, but I'm only a powerhouse of this civilization. I don't truly know what races existed in the distant past or how many eras there were." For once, the old charlatan wasn't spinning tales.

"But I can say for certain that the strange bird and the giant-eared rabbit are not the 'masters' of their fallen civilizations. They're merely creatures with strong life force."

His next words conflicted somewhat with what Tianwaitian and Renwairen had said before. According to the Martial Imprint, humanity had indeed been destroyed several times, but it was not the earliest 'master' of heaven and earth, nor were the present Hundred Races entirely the products of the Otherworld Ancestral Gods' experiments.

According to the legends he knew, the mighty Dragon Clan was the first 'master' of heaven and earth after mankind, an era called the Dragon Civilization. "No wonder the Dragon Clan is so powerful and ancient..." Bai Qi sighed.

Before the Dragon Civilization, the masters of heaven and earth were the Heavenly Race—an exceptionally powerful race. Although only a few dozen remained now, no one among the Hundred Races dared provoke them. They were said to be undefeated among the same cultivation level.

"So the Heavenly Race has such an origin..." The Human race, the Dragon race, and the Heavenly Race had all been destroyed multiple times, each having passed through several civilization eras. The layered histories of these three races could be summarized as the three great histories of civilization.

Whether there were greater civilizations above the Big Three was beyond the Martial Imprint's knowledge.

"I understand now..." The Martial Imprint clenched his fists as if recalling something. "I only suspected before that the Most Evil Land contained Eternal Light. Now I'm certain. At least ten Ancestral Gods are buried there!"

"How can you be so sure?"

"I never knew the Most Evil Land was beneath the Burial Armory Valley until I learned today that you held half a stone skull. Then it all clicked."

He had briefly mentioned before that the two halves of the stone skull could open the path, but he didn't elaborate now.

"The Burial Armory Valley contains the divine weapons of past Ancestral Gods. Below it, by logic, lies the burial ground of the gods themselves. There must be Eternal Light there!" the Martial Imprint declared confidently.

"What is that?" The Martial Imprint's eyes suddenly shot out two piercing beams.

A ghostly knight had appeared silently on the grass ahead. He and his steed were both pitch-black, without any energy fluctuation, materializing like a phantom. A wind blew, carrying a thick deathly aura.

"A fallen Heavenly Race knight!" The Martial Imprint's expression turned grim.

They had just been discussing the three great civilization races, and now a dead Heavenly Race knight appeared—an ill omen.

The death knight silently raised his spear. With a thunderous roar, a terrible gray mist surged behind him like a tidal wave.

"Bad!" The Martial Imprint shouted, wrapping Xiao Chen and the others in a brilliant cyan light and fleeing deep into the plain.

Behind them, the earth shook as if ten thousand horses were galloping, and the roar of a raging sea filled the air. The death knight rode his black horse at the front, with the gray mist rolling after him, chasing the cyan light.

"Ancestral God Yin Mist—formed when his consciousness completely dissolved and his soul force collapsed!" Xiao Chen recognized the gray mist all too well. He had been trapped in it with Tianwaitian, Renwairen, and Yingxiong for over a hundred and fifty years.

With a boom, the Martial Imprint hurled dozens of terrifying fist lights stretching hundreds of miles behind him, then pushed his speed to the limit.

After three full hours of relentless pursuit, they finally shook off the gray mist and the death knight.

Only a being like the Martial Imprint could escape; otherwise, Xiao Chen would have been swallowed by the Ancestral God Yin Mist as before.

"Truly the road to the Most Evil Land. We've seen such danger already, and we may all perish on this path." The Martial Imprint's face was grim. He could handle Ancestral God Yin Mist, but what lay ahead was uncertain. "And we saw a Heavenly Race death knight—that mist must have come from a fallen Ancestral God of that race."

"Should we retreat?" the Dark-Iron Seal suggested.

"I'd like to, but the exit is guarded by that mysterious woman and the Bronze Eight Trigrams. Going back is suicide. We might as well push forward and take our chances." Then the Martial Imprint laughed heartily. "I'll bet that old gossip is having a rough time too. The second valley won't be so simple. Since we've found Heavenly Race Ancestral God mist here, maybe the second valley also holds a divine weapon of that race."

He was right. In the second Burial Armory Valley, fierce battle raged. The mysterious woman, merged with a yellow, hazy figure, was locked in combat with a newly awakened supreme murderous weapon. Even the Bronze Eight Trigrams' killing manifestation had been knocked flying.

The second valley shook violently; the divine weapon's murderous aura shook heaven and earth!

On the road to the Most Evil Land, the Martial Imprint sighed, "What genius our predecessors had! Who says the number of Ancestral Gods can't exceed ten? Even their fallen corpses and soul force are put to such ingenious use—truly a blessing for the ages!"

"But can anyone truly harness this power?" Xiao Chen frowned. "It seems to have created another powerful force."

"True. The murderous divine weapon and Ancestral God Yin Mist are no longer sacred," the Martial Imprint sighed.

Three days later, they emerged from the vast plain and found ruins ahead. It was a destroyed giant city, so ancient that even the Martial Imprint frowned at its age.

Xiao Chen picked up a dark shard; it was heavy, made from an unidentified metal. Astonished, he examined the rubble and broken beams—all were indestructible, rare refining materials.

Bai Qi was moved. "These are top-grade materials. If we purified it all, we could forge a terrifying divine weapon."

Even the Martial Imprint was surprised. "How extravagant—building a city with such divine materials deserves divine punishment. But it was still reduced to ruins, likely attacked by at least a Ninth Heaven Half-Ancestor."

They naturally wouldn't pass up such a mysterious site and began digging.

The Golden Divine Halberd and Dark-Iron Seal were blunt: they swept through the broken walls, sending rubble flying, clearing the central area.

"Hmm, the ground seems strange—there's sealing power." That area was covered in black stone slabs that the two couldn't budge, as if powerful divine force had sealed them.

"These aren't Heavenly Race or Dragon Clan structures. They're likely a human ancient city," the Martial Imprint said, striding over. "Move aside, let me see."

He was now a fusion of divine weapon soul and true body, immensely powerful. He lightly stamped, and the black stone ground blazed with dazzling light.

"Everyone back! Something's wrong!"

He stomped harder, his feet pounding like a hundred million mountains, his power surging like the sea. With a crash, divine light shot up, and the black stone ground split open.

"Run!"

The Martial Imprint suddenly cried out, wrapping the group in cyan light and darting into the sky.

A golden line over ten miles long shot up from underground, incredibly fine but blindingly bright. It was ten thousand times more dreadful than ten thousand heavenly thunders. The Martial Imprint's fist light was easily bisected by it—utterly unstoppable!

"What is that!" Bai Qi was horrified.

"Prehistoric Slaughter Light!"

"What's that?" the Golden Divine Halberd asked.

"You wouldn't understand!" the Martial Imprint said urgently as he fled.

"It's closing in!" Xiao Chen shouted.

The golden line, now a hundred miles long, swept toward them, about to slice through the Martial Imprint's cyan light.

"No choice!" The Martial Imprint tore through space into a spatial tunnel.

The Golden Divine Halberd yelled, "Didn't you say we couldn't tear space on the road to the Most Evil Land? We might end up in chaotic spacetime with no way out!"

"No other way! We have to risk it!" The Martial Imprint's voice was frantic.

Fortunately, the prehistoric Slaughter Light didn't follow. But they had entered a chaotic spacetime channel where time and space were disordered. They were lost.

"A beautiful woman..." the Dark-Iron Seal cried out.

In the chaos, a pure, lovely woman appeared. She was dressed in snow-white, her garments fluttering, moving like a meteor toward the far end.

"Qingqing!" Xiao Chen shouted at once. He would never mistake that ethereal white-clad girl.

"Don't waste your breath," the Martial Imprint cut him off. "She's ahead of us, about to disappear. We might be a hundred years apart—remember, this is chaotic spacetime."

Then, more figures appeared: three white skeletons, walking gracefully, following the white-clad girl's trail.

"King Qin Guang, King Yan Luo, King Reincarnation..." Xiao Chen's eyes blazed as he strained to see ahead, desperate to reach them.

"King Yan Luo? King Reincarnation? Those are Suiren's three disciples!" The Martial Imprint's eyes flashed. "It's them!"