The True Road of Severed Horizons—Nothing But a Pack of Failures
The True Road of Severed Horizons—Nothing But a Pack of Failures
At the end of this road, one could see crimson clouds filling the sky, endless blood-colored radiance spreading across that place.
It was as if heaven and earth themselves were weeping blood—an utterly staggering sight.
Even the entire firmament had sunk into that eerie, heart-palpitating shade of blood-red.
This was an unimaginable road of no return, like walking along the edge of a cliff. A blood-red mist billowed and rolled, and a wind carrying the stench of blood blew across the path.
All around were ancient traces—the broken walls and ruins of celestial palaces and towers, as well as the remains of stars that had fallen from who-knows-where, smashing out abyssal craters ten thousand zhang deep. Some lakes had long since dried up, a sight nothing like what Gu Changge had witnessed on his previous visit.
Within those lakes, one could still see corpses—some as enormous as golden giants, toppled over like collapsed mountain peaks.
There were also crystalline, jade-like bones, flowing with radiant light, small and exquisite—their owner in life must have been a woman of peerless beauty.
Beyond that, there were the remains of all manner of races: colossal skeletons like those of True Dragons, and various other kinds. In the deep pits lining both sides of the road, far too many bones were buried, packed densely together.
The last time Gu Changge had come here, he had seen a vast, verdant expanse, with heaven and earth glowing and immortal aura permeating and interweaving. But now, only desolation and ruin remained.
A terrifying great battle had taken place here in the interim. That blood-colored radiance was still fresh—it had not been left behind from some ancient era.
Now, even the end of this road had collapsed. A horrifying great rift valley had appeared there, completely severing heaven and earth apart.
Stars had fallen and dangled there, boundless Chaos Energy pervading the air. Even beings who set foot in this place would find it nearly impossible to locate the path ahead, to find the true Celestial Domain.
“Before the Era of Immortal Burial, this road was actually a heavenly path carved out by all living beings marching to war against the Source Realm. The great army swept forth in grand fashion and was buried here. Countless epochs have passed—some have long since rotted away, while others remain buried in the deepest parts, waiting for the day they finally decay.”
The Big Red Bird flapped its wings, following behind Gu Changge. Gazing upon these sights, its expression was incomparably complicated as it spoke.
In a daze, it once again saw that magnificent era—that era when all the Progenitors of the Great War Against Heaven pressed forward wave upon wave, one after another, heedless of life and death. Its blood, which had long since gone cold, gradually began to heat up once more.
“How the Great War Against Heaven ended—you should still remember.”
“They were all failures. There’s nothing worth mourning.”
Gu Changge’s flat words were like a basin of cold water, abruptly dumped over the Big Red Bird’s head, chilling its heated blood and leaving it full of stunned bitterness.
Indeed—these were all losers of the Great War Against Heaven.
So what if they had fought with everything they had? In the end, hadn’t they still fallen upon that road, never even qualifying to fight their way into the Source Realm?
A pack of failures who refused to accept death.
Gu Changge lacked the Big Red Bird’s sentimentality, and it was impossible for him to feel such deep emotion over this as it did.
Although in the Big Red Bird’s eyes, he too had been one of the foremost leaders of the Great War Against Heaven, in Gu Changge’s eyes, these failed Heavenslayers were no different from ordinary ants.
Their so-called hot-blooded passion was something he could not feel either. For in his vision—across epochs so long they could not be counted, so vast they defied imagination—just how many times had the Great War Against Heaven been waged?
Truly beyond counting.
The True Worlds of this cosmos were boundless. Before each Great Purge arrived, there would always be some fish that slipped through the net of previous Purges and survived.
Or perhaps some powerful beings who had glimpsed the truth ahead of time would gather together of their own accord, attempting to change this fate that had remained immutable since time immemorial.
Again and again, like reincarnation—yet not reincarnation.
In the eyes of the Original True Ancestors, these were merely fish trying to leap out of the river. But once they leapt out of the river, they simply dried up and died upon the shoals.
“The Celestial Domain can no longer make contact with the Beyond now—some shocking upheaval must have occurred.”
“Was it the doing of the other True Worlds? Or does it have something to do with the Other Domain?”
Gu Changge and the Big Red Bird pressed onward. At the far end ahead, they saw a magnificent stone gate. However, a severed abyss lay between them and it—bottomless, as though some terrifying power had directly sheared the path in two, making it impossible to cross.
That stone gate was grand and towering, standing at the very end of this road, stained with blood. Traces of blood seeped out from the cracks of the gate, and all around it were the marks of a great battle, exuding a dreadful aura that made one’s heart palpitate.
It felt as though merely drawing near would cause one’s Physique to rupture and explode.
One could well imagine just how terrifyingly powerful the owners of those bloodstains had been.
“This is the Road of Severed Horizons.”
“Without the cultivation of an Immortal King, one cannot cross it. It is also the greatest barrier separating the Beyond from the Celestial Domain. Within this abyss, who knows how many supreme powerhouses are buried—those who tried to cross and perished in the attempt.”
The Big Red Bird’s expression was somewhat complicated as it spoke. It had once been the Artifact Spirit of that very stone gate ahead. After awakening its memories in later ages, it had used an extremely special method to split off a portion of its soul, passing through the Restriction ahead, and only thus had it been able to reach the Beyond.
Its true body, in fact, still remained within that stone gate ahead.
Gu Changge nodded. He was well aware of everything the Big Red Bird spoke of. Back then, the Road of Severed Horizons had also been established by Gu Qingyi.
A Restriction Zone spanning a million kilometers had been set up here. Were it still intact, it could block even Immortal Kings from crossing. But now, after countless epochs, it had likely long since lost much of its power.
And in truth, the greater reason for the Severed Horizons was not that the Beyond’s laws were broken and unable to accommodate power surpassing the Celestial Realm. Rather, the Beyond needed a relatively peaceful and stable environment, so that later generations could multiply, thrive, recover, and grow strong.
Within these vast True Worlds of the cosmos, besides facing the Great Purge of each epoch, one also had to guard against invasions and conquests from other True Worlds.
The Source Realm’s reach extended across all the heavens. Because of the existence of the three Original True Ancestors, many terrifying races and powers had been born under their command. Those races and powers either occupied certain True Worlds, or launched the grey, white, and black tri-colored Grand Sacrifices from within the Source Realm itself, purging restless elements ahead of schedule.
After all, the Great Purge of each epoch existed to cleanse the True Worlds of the cosmos, restoring all order to the state the Original True Ancestors deemed acceptable.
These so-called Grand Sacrifices took the destruction of worlds and the reshaping of order as their stated purpose—but in reality, they were still about annihilating worlds. Or rather, about sacrificing all living beings, beseeching the three Original True Ancestors to grant supreme power or authority.
The Original True Ancestors were omnipotent; naturally, they could easily bestow eternal life and higher realms of cultivation upon those races.
When facing the Great Purge, not everyone had the courage to become a Heavenslayer.
Finally, Gu Changge led the Big Red Bird forward, stepping out to cross this abyss. From below came terrifying rumblings.
All manner of Restrictions triggered, and peerless killing intent erupted forth, like supreme Sword Qi piercing straight through this stretch of space, shooting into the Beyond—striking down countless stars and shocking innumerable living beings and Cultivators.
Yet Gu Changge’s expression did not change in the slightest. He strode forward as though walking on level ground, a blurry aura seeming to flow around him.
Every ray of light that fell upon him dissolved into nothingness, utterly unable to halt his steps.
He quickly brought the Big Red Bird to the front of that gate and stopped there, as though he could peer through this portal and perceive the situation on the other side.
“I can open this gate.” The Big Red Bird’s eyes held a trace of nostalgia, and then it spoke with certainty—for its true body resided right here.