The Land of Chaos

A blood-red dusk fell upon the land, bewitching and desolate.

Xiao Chen sat motionless on the cold, hard earth, bathed in the scarlet afterglow that stained his body like raw blood. Anyone looking closely would have seen that his flesh was split in several places, held together only by an exertion of divine power. The wounds refused to heal; crimson gaps still gaped, and fresh blood oozed steadily.

This was the terrible price of forcing the divine formation diagram—he had nearly destroyed himself, suffering unimaginable damage to both body and soul.

On top of that, the sweeping palm strike from the demon Ren Mo had carried a destructive force that defied understanding. Xiao Chen had escaped death by a hair's breadth, but the grievous injury now plagued him relentlessly. No matter what methods he tried, he could not expel the annihilating power seething in his flesh and blood. The remnant destructive force of Ren Mo still corroded his flesh and soul.

Struggling to survive, Xiao Chen let the Life Sound of the Eight Origin Sounds resonate through the heavens and earth, hoping to activate his latent vitality and preserve his life.

But in his gravely wounded state, he could not wield the sound's life-giving power properly. Instead of improving, his condition worsened.

His life force felt as though it were drying up. His spirit consciousness grew weaker. Xiao Chen's mind shook—was he about to vanish from this world?

In that instant, he gambled everything. He risked merging with the formation diagram once more. Hazy mist swirled, and the divine diagram slowly took shape.

With a deep rumbling, a thunderous sound echoed from within Xiao Chen's body. He nearly collapsed, his split body tearing further apart, on the verge of breaking into pieces again.

He was attempting a desperate self-treatment, gambling with his own life. Gathering the last of his divine energy, he gave a sharp shudder, merging his body with the drifting diagram—flesh and formation becoming one.

His body shattered at once. Crimson blood splashed across the ground. The sight was brutal, too harsh to look upon. Though his flesh and blood had separated into several parts, each part fused with the diagram, forming a half-complete divine formation.

Divine radiance swirled. The War Swords clanged. The formation diagram, stained with blood, hummed with a faint tremor.

Then, streaks of multicolored splendor burst forth. A surging vitality swelled outward, and at the same time a terrifying destructive force was expelled.

In that moment, the formation diagram had not entered a killing state. The slumbering life potential within it awakened, recognizing Xiao Chen as part of its own substance, and helped repair his wounds, forcing out the destructive power left by Ren Mo.

And the half stone skull inside Xiao Chen's body stirred. Its empty eye sockets suddenly shot forth two beams of light that swallowed the remaining annihilation energy left by the demon.

The formation diagram turned slowly, with an air of profoundness, strength, and solidity. Misty clouds shrouded the area.

Gradually, the diagram separated from Xiao Chen. The split flesh and blood reknit into a whole. But the diagram did not retract; it continued to revolve slowly around him.

Xiao Chen stood like a green pine rooted in rock, motionless. Life essence surged within his flesh, reforging his body. He slowly recovered his vitality.

The blood-red sun sank below the horizon and disappeared. Darkness fell, plunging heaven and earth into gloom.

A cold wind howled across the wasteland with a mournful shriek.

Then, at that moment, a rumbling sound came, like a giant pushing a chariot of war across the endless land.

Clang! Clang! The War Swords around the formation diagram trembled, shooting out dazzling beams of light.

The rumbling grew closer. A black gale rolled in like a flood, a black storm of a thousand black dragons soaring and shaking heaven and earth.

A dread that made the hair stand on end washed over Xiao Chen. He snapped awake from his meditative state. The black gale covered the entire horizon, battering like an ocean.

He swiftly merged with the formation diagram once more, for he felt his heart palpitate—this black storm was something that could shock even an Ancestral God.

No sooner had he united with the diagram than the black gale struck. The formation diagram boomed and trembled violently. The black wind could grind away everything in the world. When it hit, Xiao Chen felt deeply the annihilating aura contained within.

Without the diagram, he was certain his physical body would have been torn apart. The gale seemed capable of destroying any obstruction, including Ancestral Gods themselves.

And then Xiao Chen saw a terrible sight. Within the black wind, broken divine weapons swirled—Ancestral God weapons, shattered and ruined—striking at whatever stood in their path. The formation diagram naturally became a target, and broken remnants of those weapons hacked at it with a metallic clang.

Then he saw something even more astonishing. A black giant was running in the heart of the storm. It seemed to have no self-awareness, driven only by instinct as it wielded a dozen War Swords and crushed everything on the land. It was the black giant that had taken shape from the wind itself—the condensed essence of destruction—and it ran, and it howled.

When the black giant and the gale had passed into the distance, Xiao Chen revealed himself once more. Countless questions flooded his mind. What kind of place was this? He seemed to have arrived on a dead land.

There was not a trace of life on this earth. Only desolation and the wear of ages.

When midnight came, three blood-red moons almost simultaneously burst through the black clouds, casting a sickly crimson light that made the cold, forbidding land even more sinister.

And then something even more dreadful happened. From the central region of the cold earth, with the appearance of the blood-moons, a mournful, desolate song began to drift out. In the same instant, a mysterious force surged across the entire continent.

Xiao Chen felt a terrible foreboding. His soul nearly left his body; his divine consciousness almost shattered.

Then the impact subsided as quickly as water ripples fading. But a strange, inexplicable force began to draw him forward. He could not resist. It pulled him on, irresistible.

It was as if a primeval beast was about to feed, forcing all weaker creatures in the region to prostrate themselves and advance toward that direction.

This was a very bad sign.

No power on this land could defy that summons. One could only go forward; retreat was impossible. Though Xiao Chen could command the formation diagram, he had just endured a great battle and was severely wounded. Forcing the diagram again would surely lead to self-destruction.

He had no choice but to advance.

Ahead, at the center of that land, the mournful song struck directly at the heart, like a demonic melody boring into the brain. It was unbearable. His body felt as if it were about to burst, wracked with terrible pain.

The two Heavenly Marks were summoned, manifesting before Xiao Chen to block the shock waves of sound that came crashing in.

Closer. At last he was close. Ahead, a blood-colored light rushed up into the heavens. Within that light, vague shapes drifted like specters. The mournful song came from within.

It was that blood light that was pulling him forward. The power it contained was enough to seize the soul, as if formed from the annihilation of billions upon billions of beings. Xiao Chen advanced step by step. Now he could see that deep within the light stood a majestic hall, towering like a world monument.

The mournful song issued from the hall, now even more soul-shaking. Even an Ancestral God would feel his spirit on the verge of collapse.

When he was fifty yards from the blood light, Xiao Chen sent out a divine ray into that crimson world.

Without a sound, the ray dissolved and merged with the blood light.

This was a horrifying sight. Ancestral God-level power was absorbed and swallowed. What would happen if a physical body entered? The result was easy to imagine, and it made one shiver.

But now the irresistible pull had dragged Xiao Chen here; he could not retreat. With no other choice, he merged with the formation diagram once more, and the two conjoined entered the blood light.

With a violent crash, thousands upon thousands of blood-red beams came surging, trying to shatter the diagram. After a fierce confrontation, the formation diagram slowly stabilized.

After a very long time, the blood light rippled like water around him, and finally seemed to recognize the diagram as a kindred presence, ceasing its attack.

Xiao Chen could now be certain that this blood light could grind away an ordinary Ancestral God. If he had not had the diagram protecting him, he would surely have perished here.

But he still did not know what world this was. Why did such a strange place exist? Every living creature in this land could be summoned by this blood light, but entering it meant annihilation. Did that mean this world had no living beings at all?

It was truly a land of desolation.

The blood light did not block vision. All around, many ghostly shadows drifted like walking corpses. Xiao Chen did not collide with them.

He was drawn forward by an unfathomable mysterious summoning force. In the end, he felt like a moth flying toward a flame. His body almost tore free of the diagram.

With a thunderous roar, he arrived at the heart of the blood light. The world swayed. The majestic hall stood clearly before him. An overwhelming, immeasurable might emanated from it.

In that moment, the formation diagram gave off a hazy glow of its own, sending out beams of light that connected to the hall. At once, the great force that had been trying to swallow him subsided and calmed.

The diagram and the hall seemed to share a common source, with a similar fluctuation of divine power.

This hall was certainly no ordinary place.

Xiao Chen could already sense that the power stored in this towering structure was enough to destroy an Ancestral God. Anyone who stepped inside would surely be ground to nothing.

It was as if this place was the center of the entire world.

The hall had quieted, but the mournful song within had not stopped. Soft, gentle waves of divine power continued to emanate.

And then Xiao Chen could hardly believe what he was seeing. Through the half-open door of the hall, he saw fragments of stone floating—the same stone from which the Stone Men were made. Then a few petrified broken limbs drifted past the door. They were true broken limbs of a Stone Man.

"What is this place?" Xiao Chen's expression grew heavy.

Even more shocking, as the broken limbs and stone fragments drifted past, he saw two shattered stone skulls slowly floating through the hall's entrance.

"Stone skulls!" Xiao Chen was deeply shaken.

It seemed that at least two Stone Men had been shattered inside that hall.

The mournful song suddenly ceased. Several voices, desolate and bold, rang out across heaven and earth:

"How can our world be a land of chaos? How can our people be sinners? We do not accept!"

Divine radiance blazed. The hall glowed like a sun, shining with brilliant light—but then it quickly dimmed, as if after an extreme sublimation it had welcomed boundless darkness.

At that moment, before the giant hall, a series of real and vivid images appeared, unfolding before Xiao Chen's eyes.

Under a blood-red evening sun, several tall figures supported one another, covered in wounds from which golden blood flowed—and they were all Stone Men! These figures were by nature towering and majestic, but now they could barely stand. They propped themselves up only by leaning on each other. Their pain could not make these undefeated kings bow their heads, but their faces were filled with grief and despair.

In the blood-red light of the dying sun, these kings were all furious and indignant, as if they could not turn back heaven's will. They were kings who could have strode across heaven and earth undefeated, but now they could only lean on each other's shoulders, using one another's strength to barely remain standing.

The ground beneath each towering body was soaked with blood—their wounds bleeding constantly, their flesh unable to heal, their frames unable to stand straight. Yet they all raised their heads to heaven and roared in anguish.

"How can our world be a land of chaos? How can our people be sinners? We do not accept!" They seemed to be defying fate—unyielding, unwilling, bellowing their questions at the heavens.

In the sunset, the silhouettes of those tall figures were sharply outlined—resolute, full of defiance. In the end, supporting each other, dragging their wounded bodies, they walked onto a road of no return. It stretched into the distance, with no end to be seen. The blood-red sun stretched their shadows long behind them. A tragic aura filled the air. No matter how you looked at it, there was a feeling of heroes at the end of their road, upon the threshold of death.

Farther and farther they went, until those tall figures vanished into the distance. The images before the great hall then faded away.

Xiao Chen was deeply moved. Undefeated kings were also so tragically heroic, their greatness in decline as they set out on a road of no return. He immediately thought of the current state of the Nine Provinces—how similar it was.

"A land of chaos… sinners…" Xiao Chen whispered, repeating those words.

The formation diagram rotated slowly, vibrating with a strange aura. The huge doors before him creaked open fully.

Inside the hall, several broken stone skulls floated, along with severed arms and legs and shattered torsos—all made of stone, slowly bobbing up and down.

After a very long time, Xiao Chen murmured, "Are these the remains of those aging kings who walked that road of no return?"

The diagram seemed to respond. With a great rumble, it sent forth a gentle beam of light. The broken limbs and shattered stone skulls floating in the hall all trembled.

Then another set of real and vivid images appeared.

Under the blood-red sunset, several tall figures supported one another, carrying nine eternally burning lamps, their wounded bodies swaying as they left a trail of bloody footprints on that road of no return, marching once more toward the battlefield.

"…Those are the nine lamps!" Xiao Chen's face showed shock. He muttered, "Is the Sinful Land of Chaos the ancient homeland of the Nine Provinces' ancestors? Were those aging kings our forefathers?"