You Are a Hero, Seeking to Destroy This World's Will
You Are a Hero, Seeking to Destroy This World’s Will
This was an ancient city slumbering in the deepest depths of the lake, utterly deathly silent.
Its entire body seemed forged from bronze, condensed into a single whole, without any luster, and without any sign of life.
Silent and still, eternally sunken in the depths of the lake’s heart—had the lake water not dried up today, it likely would never have been revealed to the mortal world.
Throughout the entire ancient city were broken artifacts and shattered stone steles suspended in midair. Those Stone Engravings were wreathed in interweaving crimson and black radiance, as if formed from thick blood that had dried.
These Stone Engravings were also carved with numerous complex and profound patterns and designs, as well as ancient characters that seemed to contain some special meaning, indecipherable to the people of this world.
Besides the ancient steles, there were far too many Sword-Forging Pools here, filled with dried molten iron that had solidified into lumps, along with many longswords that had yet to take shape.
This place was once called Sword City, a Holy Land in the eyes of countless Cultivators and living beings of the Profound Sword World, holding supreme significance.
Every Divine Sword that had ever shaken the world came from this place, tempered thousands of times by the legendary swordsmiths of old, forged through countless painstaking efforts.
And now, within this city, besides those broken ancient swords, there were many humanoid figures that seemed frozen and solidified in time and space.
Their faces and genders could no longer be discerned; they could only vaguely be identified as humanoid.
Perhaps tens of millions of years ago, they too had been swordsmiths here, but an unknown catastrophe descended and destroyed this city.
No one had time to flee. They were swept up by that supreme, unknown power, condensed into clay and ash, forever accompanying this city’s secrets, buried here.
And now, as Lin En once again set foot in this place, the entire ancient city once more took on an iron-cyan hue.
A long, drawn-out sigh sounded, as if coming from an unknown place, carrying sorrow and grief, spreading and echoing here, enough to affect the emotions of any living being who stepped into this place.
Why had this ancient city been buried back then? What exactly had happened here?
Although Lin En’s emotions were also affected, his cultivation was powerful and his state of mind was unshakable, so he quickly recovered.
He attempted to use the key in his hand to undo the seal on the altar and retrieve that bronze Divine Sword.
Although he had never seen the Heavenly Path Sword before, Lin En was absolutely certain that this bronze Divine Sword was exactly what he had been searching for.
Vast Heavenly Path aura surged upon it, making anyone who walked to this place unable to resist prostrating themselves in worship.
“No... no... no...”
Just as Lin En attempted to step forward, ethereal and ancient voices once again sounded around him.
Even the several pillars around him began to tremble. The withered human figures bound upon them changed the direction of their kneeling, and from within their dried-up eye sockets, tears of blood actually flowed out, containing extreme grief.
It was as if they had done something wrong back then, and so after death they knelt here eternally, to atone for their sins of the past and beg for forgiveness.
Infected by this emotion, Lin En’s hand, which had been about to undo the seal, suddenly refused to obey him, trembling incessantly, unable to press down any further.
“What in the world is going on?”
Lin En’s face showed shock, somewhat unable to believe all of this. Then he bit the tip of his tongue and spat out a mouthful of blood.
Only then did he feel his mind clear somewhat, no longer as muddled as before.
Then he hesitated no longer, placing the key in his hand onto the groove ahead.
But at this very moment, Lin En suddenly felt a pain in his palm, as if a ball of scorching flame was burning him, instantly piercing through his palm, incinerating flesh, blood, and bone.
He grunted and hastily retreated, his eyes widening, only then discovering that the key was actually melting.
And his blood, tinged with hints of gold, was gathering drop by drop, falling into the groove above the altar.
“Why is this happening? Why do I have such an ominous feeling?”
Lin En’s expression changed drastically. He felt his life force rapidly draining away, flowing out from his split-open palm, seeping into the altar ahead, becoming nourishment for it.
He could hardly believe it. Everything was happening too fast—so fast he couldn’t react in time.
And that Heavenly Path Sword, which he had always regarded as the salvation of the Profound Sword World, now actually developed fine cracks, then turned into a rain of light, beginning to collapse and dissipate.
“How is this possible? What on earth happened?” Lin En simply couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
But he no longer had time to react. As the bronze Divine Sword collapsed and dissipated, the altar ahead suddenly crumbled, and all the surrounding Bronze Pillars trembled and collapsed as well, every chain snapping.
A terrifying great rift valley spread out from this plaza, extending into darkness beyond sight.
From within it, sky-piercing violent winds rushed out, accompanied by dreadful baleful aura, as if it could devour heaven and earth, swallowing all darkness.
The entire Sword City slumbering in the depths of Mirror Lake began to collapse. The Bronze Pillars, originally indestructible, also crumbled one after another, turning into endless dust that scattered between heaven and earth.
All the lake water in Mirror Lake was devoured by this fissure, rapidly vanishing without a trace.
The entire sky seemed to shatter. The silver Tower of Blessings standing firm to the side, accompanied by rumbling sounds, violently crashed down and sank into this great rift valley.
Not far away, amid the gradually subsiding turbulence, the Imperial Ancestor of the Great Yu Celestial Dynasty was still putting up a last-ditch resistance.
But he was already at his last gasp, covered in blood, like a candle flickering in the wind, coughing up blood continuously. There wasn’t a single intact spot on his body; in some places, ghastly white bone was even visible.
Watching this shocking scene, his expression also changed drastically, somewhat unable to believe it.
“This place is by no means as simple as a Heaven-Abandoned Land... this is a Concealment and Sealing Altar!”
He was highly experienced and recognized the altar amid the collapsed and shattered ruins, scattered piece by piece through the void, flickering with an ancient demon-breaking aura.
“What exactly happened here back then? Why would there be a Concealment and Sealing Altar? Could it be... that it was used to seal the consciousness of the Heavenly Path?”
Even at this life-and-death juncture, the Imperial Ancestor of the Great Yu Celestial Dynasty felt that the waters of the Profound Sword World ran far murkier than he had imagined.
“This is the Will of the Heavenly Path you’ve all been searching for.” Gu Changge chuckled softly.
Even though he had already slain several True Daoists, it hadn’t affected him in the slightest.
He knew of the Heaven-Exterminating War that had occurred here back then, when the Will of the Heavenly Path attempted to sacrifice all living beings to achieve Absolute Detachment and take form.
But in the end it failed and was sealed in this place, with only a portion of the Heavenly Path’s consciousness escaping.
And Lin En happened to be a descendant of the being who had sealed the Will of the Heavenly Path back then. His blood could precisely undo the seal here—which was why that Heavenly Path avatar in the Boundless Immortal Valley had lured him to this place.
“You knew all of this all along?”
The Imperial Ancestor of the Great Yu Celestial Dynasty was horrified, his entire body going ice-cold, feeling as if an invisible great hand had gripped his throat, nearly suffocating him.
But he had realized all of this too late. With a wave of Gu Changge’s hand, halberd-light slashed down, shattering rules and order, directly cleaving him in two.
At this moment, all the True Daoists who had rushed to this place perished, not a single one escaping.
The Abundance Sword Immortal, the Snow Sword Immortal, and the others who had been watching this great battle from afar were likewise trembling, terrified to the extreme. They never imagined that this group of True Daoists, even joining forces, would be no match for Gu Changge, swiftly slain and perishing here.
They had witnessed all of this with their own eyes—Gu Changge would absolutely never spare their lives.
“What... what is this?”
Outside the collapsing great rift valley, Lin En stared blankly at everything he had caused, still not having recovered.
He kept feeling that he had walked into a trap and done something he would regret immensely.
“Thanks to you. Otherwise, this wisp of Heavenly Path consciousness couldn’t have been released, and I wouldn’t have been able to obtain the World Source.” Gu Changge’s figure appeared behind him, a faint smile on his lips.
“Thanks to me?”
Lin En’s whole body went cold. He turned around to look at Gu Changge in disbelief, his words trembling.
He didn’t know when Gu Changge had arrived at this place, but judging from the current situation, Gu Changge had killed everyone else here.
“What a pitiful fellow. The Will of the Heavenly Path that your ancestor worked so hard to seal, and you released it just like that.” Gu Changge shook his head with a soft laugh. Though his words held regret, the depths of his eyes remained utterly cold, without the slightest emotional fluctuation.
“My ancestor?” Lin En was stunned. Suddenly he sensed dense grief spreading from all around. From within the already-collapsed Sword City, countless motes of light converged toward him, as if they were the heroic spirits of ancestors from ancient times.
In just an instant, he understood the whole sequence of events. The expression on his face froze as he murmured, “How... how is this possible...”
He truly had been used by the Will of the Heavenly Path, which borrowed his blood to break the seal of this place, rendering all of his ancestor’s efforts wasted.
“I’m a sinner...” Lin En laughed miserably, collapsing to his knees, filled with guilt and sorrow.
“No, you’re no sinner. You’re the hero who saved the Profound Sword World.”
“If not for you, I never would have found where this fellow was hiding.” Gu Changge smiled and patted his shoulder, then took a step forward, already appearing above that great rift valley.
Terrifying violent winds swept about, containing chains of destructive rules indescribable in words, enough to pierce through the Physique of any Cultivator or living being.
But Gu Changge stood towering and unmoving, his figure steady as a prison, gazing toward the bottomless depths of darkness below.
With a pu sound—
All the Cultivators of the Thirteen States of the Profound Sword World were horrified, trembling incessantly, their entire bodies going cold. They saw a fissure split open in the depths of heaven and earth, like a shattered mirror, or like an egg developing cracks, continuously splitting apart at this moment, stretching across the firmament, then beginning to collapse.
Vast and boundless fury and killing intent poured out from there, cold and merciless, as if about to annihilate everything. Every Cultivator who saw this scene felt their heart palpitate, their whole body going cold.
“What is that?”
From within the collapsing depths of heaven and earth, a gaze descended.
It was an eye.
That eye was too terrifying, as if composed of shattered universes, incomparably enormous.
Profound and vast, dark and merciless, displaying black and crimson colors, dense and layered, continuously seeping black blood, making one’s hair stand on end, chilling one from head to toe.
Moreover, it held not the slightest emotion, indifferent to the extreme.
At this moment, even their souls were frozen. This included some Quasi-Nirvana Realm existences who had appeared from the Beyond—they didn’t dare move even slightly, as if they had been locked onto by an indescribable existence, less than ants... no, less than even dust.
Outside the Ancient Arcane Ruins, countless Cultivators and living beings also witnessed this horrifying scene.
“It seems... that should be what we’re looking for...” An Earth Sword Immortal’s voice trembled.
This was no longer an existence on the same dimensional plane as them. They simply couldn’t comprehend what it was. Looking directly at it, their heads even felt like they would explode.
“The Heavenly Path is ruthless, treating all living things as straw dogs.”
“Considering how difficult it was for you to birth consciousness, if you hand over the World Source, perhaps I can spare your life.”
Gu Changge glanced at the eye appearing at the edge of heaven and earth, but his figure did not move. He remained standing before the great rift valley as he spoke indifferently.
He knew that eye was merely a manifested projection of the Will of the Heavenly Path.
Its true eye was actually hidden within this profound darkness.
And as Gu Changge’s words fell, the ground beneath his feet suddenly erupted into chaos, Chaos Energy surging out to submerge him.
A terrifying blood-red color instantly shone forth, dispersing the profound darkness, breaking through the dense black fog, staring fixedly at Gu Changge.
An eye slowly opened within the depths of the darkness, and the projection of that eye at the edge of heaven and earth also looked toward this direction in unison.
Boom!
These two gazes seemed to pierce through the ancient past, the present, and the future, destroying everything.
But clearly, its origin was even more terrifying—far beyond merely the depths of heaven and earth, it lay within the depths of the darkness itself.
No living being or Cultivator could describe all of this, because the instant they beheld this gaze, it was as if they lost their souls, frozen between heaven and earth.
This included the Earth Sword Immortals—their divine souls dissipated, and time and space became places of absolute stillness.
At this moment, only True Daoists could break free from this restraint.
Existences of all other levels could only be imprisoned in place, awaiting catastrophe and death.
“Those who show disrespect... shall be executed.”
Cold, merciless words, like a world-destroying millstone turning, containing destructive power, slowly transmitted out from the dark depths of the earth.
The entire Profound Sword World trembled. Countless Cultivators and living beings were horrified, their divine souls nearly flying out with these words, ground into oblivion.
In response, Gu Changge merely smiled softly, without any superfluous words.
Boom!
At this moment, he suddenly stepped forward from where he stood, his robes unfurling, his Dharma Body terrifying to the extreme, his massive form standing between heaven and earth, breaking through this world.
Immediately after, his sleeve shook lightly, chaos shattered, as if the order of billions of heavens collapsed.
He extended a great hand, as if intending to split the darkness apart.
That great hand covered the firmament, crossed boundless territories, covered the Thirteen States, and struck upon that eye, making it tremble.
In an instant, billions of strands of chaotic light erupted there, as if they could tear apart the ancient heavens of all ages.
Countless Cultivators and living beings watching this scene felt as if they were directly witnessing a divine miracle, trembling in awe, kneeling directly on the ground, prostrating themselves in worship toward that direction.
This was already power beyond their imagination, utterly unfathomable.
Gu Changge struck out, seeking to destroy this world’s Will of the Heavenly Path. In this instant, his matchless Emperor’s might swept across the universe and all creation, a single palm suppressing toward that pair of terrifying eyes, violently piercing through the dark depths of the earth.