The Epoch Dao Fruit Ripens, A Being Who Has Touched the Immortal Realm
The Epoch Dao Fruit Ripens, A Being Who Has Touched the Immortal Realm
The war between the two worlds raged on for a full several months.
The Beyond’s army encamped outside Sky Deer City, black clouds shrouding a full ten million miles. Beneath those black clouds, even great stars appeared as tiny as specks of dust.
The terrifying aura pressed down upon every Cultivator and living being within Sky Deer City, leaving them trembling with unease, fearing that one day the Grand Array at Sky Deer City would be breached and the Beyond’s supreme experts would come slaughtering their way in.
Every day before Sky Deer City, one could see numerous experts of the Beyond assaulting the city.
All manner of dazzling radiance illuminated the sky, until at last the land there completely collapsed and burst apart, saturated with the reek of blood and fire.
Vast swathes of earth cracked and split. Even with Array Patterns carved by former supreme experts, they still could not withstand the aftershocks of such battle.
In the end, the experts within Sky Deer City simply sealed the city and refused to fight, so as to avoid excessive, meaningless casualties.
Although this course of action avoided excessive casualties,
for the countless Cultivators and living beings of the Eight Wastelands and Ten Domains, it was tantamount to an even greater blow.
As things stood now, the feeling the supreme experts of the entire Eight Wastelands and Ten Domains gave them was that they intended to simply wait for the Beyond to breach Sky Deer City, offering no resistance whatsoever.
This drove many to despair. Some even felt that from the moment Sky Deer City fell, they were doomed to destruction, destined to be invaded and enslaved by the Beyond.
“Looking at it now, the Sky Deer Goddess’s actions back then were actually wise.”
“Facing the Beyond’s army this time, we haven’t the slightest power to resist. We might as well make plans to surrender early.”
“That Gu Changge is truly inconceivably powerful. It’s hard to imagine how such an existence could appear in this epoch.”
Deep within Sky Deer City lay what seemed like an independent universe, appearing even more vast, like a star that had long since fallen into desolation.
Everywhere were dreadful, shattered craters, pools of blood water in every color, and a pervading aura of terror.
Even a Cultivator of the Sacred King Realm would feel their flesh about to burst apart.
Moreover, many coffins had been unearthed and lay strewn across the land, incomparably ancient.
This place remained boundlessly vast. Great stars were reflected across the heavens and earth, revolving with dim radiance.
Pitch-black rivers surged and rolled, black mist-light boiling, interwoven with thousands upon thousands of intricate rule-lights.
At this moment, voices rang out from within those unearthed coffins.
These were supreme experts once believed to have died in battle against the Beyond, their cultivation world-shaking.
Yet what many did not know was that all these years, they had not died at all—they had been hiding here in secret all along.
As for the reason?
In truth, it was simply the fear of death. Back then, they had used feigned deaths to deceive the people of the Eight Wastelands and Ten Domains. They lacked the Sky Deer Goddess’s resolve to submit to the Beyond,
but neither did they wish to die for the Eight Wastelands and Ten Domains. So after some deliberation, they came up with this scheme of faking their deaths.
Afterward, their corpses were buried here by their respective clans.
All these years, they had actually maintained contact with their clans behind them, and knew of what transpired in the outside world.
Many of the decrees and edicts that decided the course of the Eight Wastelands and Ten Domains’ great affairs had been issued from this very place.
But it was all kept extremely secret—even some of their own contemporaries did not know they were still alive.
“This time, it seems Sky Deer City truly will be breached. We had best make our plans early. Otherwise, when the Beyond’s army comes slaughtering in, they will take notice of us.”
From within a terrifying coffin permeated with blood water, after a stretch of silence, a voice suddenly rang out.
This was an unimaginably ancient being, whose seniority in the Eight Wastelands and Ten Domains was fearsome—once a descendant of the Founding Ancestor of the Vermilion Bird War God Clan.
“We should each return to our clans. In this old man’s view, the best plan is to seal our clans away from the world, find some small world where we cannot be found, and hide for a time. When the winds have calmed, we need only change our faces and names.”
“Let Sky Deer City fall if it falls. It can just nicely buy us some time.”
Another voice sounded, coming from a cave-dwelling suffused with dark black light.
Mist-light interwove within it, but the words that came out were exceptionally cold and indifferent,
utterly unconcerned with the life and death of every living being in Sky Deer City.
Indeed, in their eyes, were it not for their regard for the clans behind them, they likely would not even care about the survival of the Eight Wastelands and Ten Domains itself.
At their level, most things of this world were like passing clouds and mist—even immortal, indestructible Dao lineages would one day crumble and perish.
Let alone Sky Deer City, let alone the Eight Wastelands and Ten Domains.
In their hearts, apart from their own Great Dao, there was nothing left in this world worth their care.
“Since that is the case, then send word to our descendants. Have them abandon the city.”
From another direction, footsteps sounded, suddenly echoing through this shattered space.
It was a being who appeared quite young, with a fair complexion and very long hair.
But his eyes were deeply weathered, and chaotic qi coiled around his body.
Sensing this person’s approach, the place immediately erupted into considerable commotion.
One coffin after another trembled lightly, then took the initiative to swing open.
The figures within emerged into the world one after another, each wreathed in blood-light, with an aura circulating about them that seemed capable of crushing this entire universe into collapse.
“Lin Qinglong.”
An incomparably blurry ancient being spoke, his voice carrying wariness, but even more so bewilderment and confusion. “Why are you here as well?”
The other beings were clearly quite wary of this person as well. Though they dwelled in the same world, that did not mean they lived in harmony without conflict.
Lin Qinglong was the third son of the Blood Dragon War God Clan’s Prime Ancestor, his existence traceable all the way back to the very birth of the Eight Wastelands and Ten Domains.
Before him, many ancient beings could only refer to themselves as juniors.
Moreover, long ago, many had heard that Lin Qinglong had already stepped half a foot into another realm. By now, he was unfathomable.
No one had imagined that Lin Qinglong would actually appear here.
For the entire Eight Wastelands and Ten Domains, his existence was tantamount to a living fossil bearing witness to ancient history.
“Why can I not be here?”
Lin Qinglong said indifferently, his gaze calm. His figure was not tall or imposing, yet he bore an irrepressible air of invincibility.
“I have come to awaken my father.”
“Your father? Could it be... the Blood Dragon War God is not dead?”
At these words, all the ancient beings were shaken, their faces unable to conceal their shock—they simply could not believe it.
They knew full well that although this place lay deep within Sky Deer City, it formed a world of its own.
Ordinary Cultivators simply could not find their way here, for this place was shrouded by special rules and a domain-field, hailed as the Land of Rebirth of the Eight Wastelands and Ten Domains.
To be precise, it was a mysterious field-domain.
Why had the people of the Eight Wastelands and Ten Domains chosen to bury them here after their deaths in battle?
Naturally, it was in the hope that they could be revived here.
In their view, the Eight Wastelands and Ten Domains and the Beyond were actually connected.
Between heaven and earth, there existed a mysterious place akin to reincarnation, where living beings could cycle back and forth, dying and being reborn.
The powerful could even be reborn carrying the wisdom of their past lives.
Clearly, the depths of Sky Deer City were just such a mysterious place.
However, they did not dare venture too deep.
Someone had once probed it, but the moment they touched that supreme rule within, they exploded on the spot, body and soul annihilated, reduced to ash.
They understood that since this place involved the most mysterious Power of Reincarnation between heaven and earth,
there must be rules surpassing even the Emperor Realm level. If one dared to touch them, the only outcome was death.
“You have a means to enter?”
The expressions of these old beings all grew solemn as they fixed their gazes on Lin Qinglong.
“Naturally, I have a means.”
Lin Qinglong smiled faintly, entirely at ease, carrying confidence and composure.
He seemed to have other plans entirely, and cared nothing for the Beyond’s war of conquest.
Before this, he had never once appeared before the Eight Wastelands and Ten Domains.
Then he walked along that black river, gold-and-silver interwoven radiance emanating from his body, resisting the suppression of this mysterious land.
The black rivers converged, like the Yellow Springs, forming a deathly silent ocean at the deepest point of Sky Deer City.
Incomparably calm, and black enough to make one’s scalp tingle.
One could even see quite a few nether spirits wandering along the banks of the black river, finally turning into motes of light and walking into the ocean.
The ocean was vast, its end beyond sight, exuding an incomparably profound and mysterious aura.
Looking out, one could see an ancient tree rooted within the ocean, its branches and leaves withered, entwined with wisps of light.
All around the ocean stood black mountain peaks.
Within the peaks were ancient cave-dwellings, like immortal grottos, incomparably resplendent, permeated with divine light of every color, gushing with immortal dew.
From one of the ancient cave-dwellings came waves of suppressed aura that chilled one to the bone.
The other cave-dwellings all seemed deathly still, with no fluctuations coming from them.
In this place, the air was filled with an aura that could shatter a Cultivator’s divine soul.
It was the fluctuation of different Great Daos colliding and grinding against each other between heaven and earth, ceaselessly canceling one another out. It even made Lin Qinglong grunt muffledly, his body swaying.
If Gu Changge were here, he would discover that this place was intimately tied to the Fortuity of the entire Eight Wastelands and Ten Domains, with a Source aura pervading it that was extremely similar to that of the Beyond.
Upon arriving here, Lin Qinglong’s expression visibly grew reverent. Facing the cave-dwelling before him, he said, “Father, the Epoch Dao Fruit is about to ripen. You may emerge into the world now.”
Boom!!
As if hearing these words, an incomparable aura began to revive within the cave-dwelling, making hearts tremble and quake, compelling one to kneel to the ground.
After the war between the two worlds had lasted several months, Sky Deer City ultimately chose to avoid battle.
During this time, however, rumors spread that the supreme experts of the various clans were deliberating on withdrawing their forces and abandoning the city. This news spread among the living beings of Sky Deer City, provoking enormous uproar and commotion.
Many were shocked, furious, bewildered, lost, despairing...
Of course, whether this news was true or false remained unknown, and no living being dared, at a time like this, to go question those True Daoists.
The hierarchy of the Eight Wastelands and Ten Domains was strict—ordinary people simply had no way to come into contact with those True Daoists in their daily lives.
And just as everyone in Sky Deer City was gripped by unease, within the vast black clouds of the Beyond in the distance, towering banners suddenly appeared—a full ten million of them, like a great formation, descending upon the four corners of heaven, earth, and the Eight Wastelands, draping down boundless chaotic qi to shield the hundred-million-strong army of the Beyond.
This sight shook the hearts of everyone within Sky Deer City, filling them with dread. They understood that on the Beyond’s side, some invincible existence was surely about to assault the city.
Moreover, such a display of might was out of concern that the backlash of the shockwaves would harm the Beyond’s army.
From the direction of Sky Deer City, they could see several figures standing within the distant mist, seemingly constructing an altar-bridge.
They exuded incomparable auras, but all were enveloped in chaotic mist, their true appearances impossible to discern.
Clearly, they were constructing this altar to resist the Heavenly Path aura of the Eight Wastelands and Ten Domains.
“The suppression of this heaven and earth has clearly lessened considerably.”
“If Ancestor Gu Lang makes a move, it should be worth a try.”
Gu Changge sent runes flying from his hand into the altar, gazing toward distant Sky Deer City, a strange glint in his heart.
This matter had naturally been decided by him together with some of the Gu Family’s clan elders.
The other forces and Dao lineages were also eager to see just how much longer Sky Deer City’s barrier could hold out.
At that moment, a great roar suddenly rang out. Billions of rays of light emerged there, and the entire heaven and earth seemed to be pressed down by this abruptly erupting aura. Countless stars trembled.
The universe itself seemed unable to bear this aura, on the verge of collapse.
Boom!!
A world-shrouding giant hand emerged, unimaginable in scale, even wreathed in traces of immortal qi, blotting out heaven and earth.
That was genuine Immortal Dao intent, bursting violently from within the altar and slamming forward, seeking to strike Sky Deer City down from the edge of the Eight Wastelands and Ten Domains!
This might shook the entire cosmos—this was absolutely a being who had touched the Immortal Realm!