The Path to the Ancient Past

The divine capital Luoyang seethed with activity as Otherworld Half-Ancestors gathered, intent on opening the underground world.

At that moment, the oppressive pressure of an Ancestral God descended from the heavens, his voice shaking the earth. Atop the golden pagoda, the Otherworld powerhouse arrived.

A flash of light—the blurry figure that had shaken the mountains and rivers of the Nine Provinces vanished in an instant, reappearing deep within the underground labyrinth.

In the gloomy subterranean world, the metal guardian stood silent as a specter. In a blur of motion, it lunged at the Otherworld Ancestral God Lu Lopes, its steel arm slicing through the void toward his throat.

Incredibly fast!

"Bang!"

Lu Lopes formed a hand seal, blocking the metal palm at his throat.

Peerless Ancestral Gods could reduce stars to dust with a wave of their hands, yet Lu Lopes’s seal left no mark on that metal hand.

This was because the metal guardian had been forged from Ancestral God weapons; its body was even tougher than an Ancestral God’s.

Even a single collision between beings of this rank released devastating force! A hazy light flickered between them, enough to annihilate mountains and rivers, but every spark was absorbed by the underground palace without destroying Luoyang.

One could imagine how mysterious and extraordinary the underground world of Luoyang truly was.

Flashing lights—the Otherworld Ancestral Gods Lan Yufeng and Aier arrived together. Three Ancestral God-level powerhouses appearing simultaneously in the underground palace showed how seriously they regarded this matter.

Cold light shot from the metal guardian’s hollow eye sockets. In the next instant, it vanished from before the stone door.

Lu Lopes stood in the underground palace, staring at the spot where the metal guardian had disappeared. "Forging technological-era kinetic warriors from the Ancestral God weapons of the mythological age—a perfect fusion that condensed the essences of two civilizations. Truly terrifying."

"We must prevent it from breaking into the underground palace and retrieving our world’s supreme treasure," Lan Yufeng said coldly.

The three Ancestral Gods acted simultaneously, forming hand seals to draw upon the world’s power and strike the colossal stone door.

"Rumble..."

The entire underground world shook. Though the combined might of three Ancestral Gods was unimaginable, they still could not shatter the great stone door.

"This monstrous family..." Aier’s voice was low.

In the distance, all the Otherworld Half-Ancestors were astounded.

They knew these three had already been Ancestral Gods in the previous civilization era, far stronger than ordinary Ancestral Gods. Yet even three of them together could not break the stone door!

"No matter. Two more will come. The Supreme Ancestral God divined this location; we must retrieve our world’s treasure."

The three Ancestral Gods stopped, waiting for reinforcements.

Soon, hazy light flickered, and two more figures materialized.

The Otherworld Half-Ancestors behind them fell silent, not daring to breathe—shocked that their own Ancestral Gods would mobilize such a force for Luoyang’s underground.

Lu Lopes formed a complex, profound hand seal. Nine layered hand prints appeared in the void, and he chanted an ancient incantation to amplify the seal’s power.

In an instant, the nine hand prints blazed with light, merging into one and striking toward the stone door.

Divine radiance illuminated the entire underground world.

At the same time, Lan Yufeng, Aier, and the other two Ancestral Gods unleashed their strongest divine power, supporting Lu Lopes’s seal. Brilliant light drowned the stone door.

"Crack..."

The great stone door cracked, shedding weathered outer layers to reveal a smooth inner surface.

"What?!" Lu Lopes’s face darkened. The combined strength of the five of them had only peeled off the useless outer stone—they had not damaged the true door in the slightest.

"This monstrous race..." Aier muttered for the second time.

"It seems we must use the Supreme Ancestral God’s pagoda to break this door," Lan Yufeng said, a small pagoda appearing between his fingers—no taller than a palm, but with a full thirty-three layers.

"The Supreme Ancestral God’s supreme treasure—each pagoda layer can crush one heaven; the thirty-three-story pagoda can suppress thirty-three heavens." Even someone as powerful as Lu Lopes showed reverence in his eyes.

In the void, Xiao Chen’s heart stirred. He was not unfamiliar with this thirty-three-story pagoda; he had seen its divine might in a future world.

"Break!"

The five Ancestral Gods shouted together, forming seals, displaying divine abilities, or channeling combat power. Five beams of light converged on the exquisite pagoda.

With a thunderous roar, the thirty-three-story pagoda blazed with divine light, dazzling as a sun, and crashed into the stone door.

"Crack..."

The great stone door shattered completely, collapsing into dust.

In the void, Xiao Chen felt a chill. The Supreme Ancestral God’s treasure was far stronger than five Ancestral Gods combined—this thirty-three-story pagoda was truly terrifying.

Keke clenched its small paws, its long eyelashes fluttering. The little creature was clearly nervous, afraid that the family’s treasures would be snatched first.

A bluestone-paved road stretched ahead into the depths of the underground palace.

"Finally opened. Let’s go."

Lan Yufeng and Lu Lopes led the way, the thirty-three-story pagoda illuminating their path with scattered divine light.

A group of Otherworld Half-Ancestors followed at a distance.

Xiao Chen and Keke, concealed by the half-stone skull, slipped in behind them.

"Don’t rush; let them clear the way for us," Xiao Chen comforted the little creature.

At the end of the bluestone road, an open cavern appeared. The metal guardian stood motionless as a stone statue, its towering form casting a long shadow on the ground.

"Though it’s a soulless dead thing, it still threatens us. We must eliminate it." Aier’s voice was icy. He swept his hands through the void, and starlight blazed forth. A sea of stars surged toward the metal guardian, attempting to seal it.

"Chi!"

A dazzling divine beam shot from the metal guardian’s right eye, shattering the starlight, piercing through Aier’s hands, and nearly pulverizing his skull—shearing off a lock of hair.

"Killing Light!"

The five Ancestral Gods all changed expression. The metal guardian’s right eye concealed the Killing Light—a power fully capable of grievously wounding an Ancestral God.

One could imagine how extravagant the family that forged the metal guardian from Ancestral God weapons must have been, even incorporating the Killing Light.

"Leave now, or all of you die!"

At that moment, the icy metal guardian suddenly emitted a spiritual fluctuation.

"A mere artifact. Even if it has developed consciousness, it will never become a true vessel of greatness!" Lu Lopes’s voice was grim. Together with Lan Yufeng, he activated the small pagoda.

The thirty-three-story pagoda—in a future world, it could suppress heaven and earth, reaching the sky. Now, though only palm-sized, it was still terrifyingly powerful. It transformed into a stream of light and charged toward the metal guardian.

The metal guardian clearly recognized the pagoda’s danger; it did not resist, vanishing once again in an instant.

"This thing is troublesome. If we don’t eliminate it, it will always be a threat. And we don’t know what other terrifying powers this monstrous family left behind."

The five Ancestral Gods advanced with the pagoda leading the way, entering the open cavern. Up ahead, the light grew brighter.

The further they went, the fresher the air became, and the faint fragrance of flowers and grass drifted on the breeze.

Half an hour later, the five Ancestral Gods stopped in their tracks. Before them lay a bright, scenic world—a land of flowers and birdsong unfolded before their eyes.

"This is..."

Several Ancestral Gods changed color. Without realizing it, they had walked into another world, one they had not even noticed passing through. This strange world seemed to blend seamlessly with the real world.

"Roar!"

A thunderous bellow shook the mountains. In the primeval forest ahead, several massive figures emerged, covered in interlocking scales.

"Those are... terrifying primeval beasts from the same era as the ancient dragons. They should have been extinct long ago," said the Otherworld Ancestral God Aier, astonishment in his voice.

The several beasts sensed the Ancestral Gods’ pressure and fled in alarm.

They walked a long distance further. The forest grew denser, the land more open, as if they had returned to the prehistoric age.

"Ah!"

Suddenly, a Half-Ancestor of the Asura clan screamed. A colossal light claw had pierced through him, annihilating his body and soul in an instant.

"That is... a Sky Ape?"

An ominous shadow loomed beside the mountains—a giant ape taller than the peaks themselves. Half its body rose above the mountain ridges, covered in thick black fur, utterly terrifying.

It had been this creature that, with a divine claw, killed the Otherworld Half-Ancestor who had flown above it.

Lan Yufeng said solemnly, "This is a creature from the same era as the Celestial Race. I feel... something is very wrong."

Aier added, "I also feel uneasy. It’s as if... time is flowing backward. We seem to be walking toward the ancient past."

Hearing this, all the Half-Ancestors broke into a stir.

Lu Lopes extended a finger and pointed at the giant ape. The monstrous ape, taller than the mountains, burst into a rain of blood and vanished into the mountain range, a river of blood surging from the peak.

"This is very wrong. We have no way back!" Lu Lopes pointed behind them.

Behind them, nothing but grey mist—an endless void, as if they stood at the very edge of the world.

"Time really is flowing backward..."

"Time really is flowing backward..."

"It’s not time flowing backward; we are walking step by step toward that distant ancient age!"

Two of the Ancestral Gods, who had joined as reinforcements, made this judgment.

Seeing that even their own Ancestral Gods had changed color, all the Half-Ancestors grew deeply uneasy.

No retreat—only a path forward.

And that path led to the distant primordial era!

"What kind of power did this monstrous family possess? How did they make us walk toward the past, step by step?"

The five Ancestral Gods combined their strength to activate the thirty-three-story stone pagoda. In that moment, the palm-high treasure blazed with radiant light, surging upward, expanding to the height of the heavens, beginning to suppress this world.

"Boom!"

Mountains shattered, the earth sank, but time rippled like water and healed all.

"What do we do? There is no way back."

Ahead stretched a boundless, desolate land. Everyone felt a tremor of fear in their hearts. If they advanced further, they did not know what age they would reach.

At that moment, the icy metal guardian appeared once more, speaking gravely: "In the real world, the members of the heaven-defying family are long gone. But if you come to plunder here, you have miscalculated. Someone is waiting for you in that distant ancient age..."