[Large Chapter] Heavenly Ladder

Since the founding of the Divine Martial Kingdom 8,000 years ago, due to the extremely low concentration of Spiritual Energy, Wraith events have been extremely rare, and there has not been a single Wraith event in the last thousand years.

Of the five billion people, aside from a very few immortal old people, probably only the puppet masters who specialize in training to kill the Dark Forest have seen it with their Wraith eyes.

Amidst the suddenly appearing pillar of blood, a withered black hand falls from the sky, and a rotting Kun leaps from the ground...

The spectators on the edge of the track were isolated from the blood-pillared underworld and had never seen such a spectacle before.

Even outside the pillar of blood, one could hear viscous, indistinct, eerie syllables, like the tolling of a bell by gods and demons, striking at people's souls.

Screaming, stunned, fainting, body stiffening, spine chilling, heart stopping, joints freezing, as if something indescribable is stuck in the throat, and the slightest carelessness will cause one to lose oneself and be dragged into an abyss of no return.

The crowd outside the underworld quickly spiraled out of control.

Some fainted, some went mad, and those with even a little bit of willpower scattered and fled.

"Everyone, calm down! There's no danger outside the Underworld!"

Having received special training in anti-darkness techniques, Ding Zhenzi quickly recovered. He had neither the time nor the ability to care for Gao Yao and Xiao Ran, and hurriedly drove his small Yan Armor around to rescue people.

Inside the column of blood.

Hua Lian severed her withered arm and was about to pursue Kun Wraith.

The severed, withered arm dropped countless white eyeballs, which fell like rain.

At the same time, the withered arms in the air quickly sprouted new branches and multiplied into a dense Withered Arm Thicket, rapidly occupying the Blood Pillar Underworld.

"It seems like it was planned... How could the Wraith possess intelligence?"

Hua Lian was unable to escape and was trapped in the Withered Arm Thicket. She summoned a suit of silver armor and wielded a greatsword in both hands to slash downwards, trying to catch up with the Kun-shaped Great Wraith.

Underground.

Just as Xiao Ran sensed the ground sinking, he soon heard a mournful, ghostly sound, emitting sharp, frenzied, and even pleasurable howls that tore at the listener's scalp.

Gao Yao had an anti-ghost chip implanted in his vertebrae, which gave him a high degree of resistance to such ghostly sounds.

"Is the outside the Wraith?"

Gao Yao chewed on Durian Candy and asked expressionlessly.

It seemed that compared to Wraith, she was more concerned about the discomfort of being pressed against Xiao Ran, and the tightness in her chest.

Xiao Ran felt that the girl was a little too calm.

Aren't you nervous at all about something this big happening?

He was completely unaware that he was actually calmer; what he was really worried about was that he might bump into the girl Dragon Raises Head.

"It's the Wraith."

"The Wraith doesn't usually appear within the territory of the Divine Martial Kingdom. The Wraith outside is here to capture you, right?"

"Not only outside, we're already inside the belly of the Great Underworld, which is why I said that we've become sworn brothers in life and death even though we've only known each other for a short time."

"This is my first time meeting Da Ming, but don't underestimate me!"

As she said this, the invisible transparent bracelet on Gao Yao's left wrist suddenly revealed its matte black material and the outline of the watch.

A pink skull-shaped Spirit Runes lit up!

The bracelet instantly transformed into black armor, shimmering with pink Spirit Runes.

A matte black skull paired with pink girly Spirit Runes? Xiao Ran thought this color scheme was awful.

"Stay in the Air Pocket and don't move. I'll be right back."

With that, Gao Yao unzipped the Air Pocket and stepped out, bursting out of the ground in a flash.

The sky above the ground was shrouded in a dark, swirling Wraith Fog, and the Wraith Barrier.

The inside of the underworld was quiet, and no sounds of the underworld could be heard.

At this moment, Chen Xiaofeng also drove out in an old-fashioned Yan Armor and asked in surprise.

"What happened? Where am I?"

Gao Yao never expected that his old rival on the field was actually an elderly puppeteer, driving such an old model out for a stroll.

"We were swallowed by the Great Underworld."

"What! The Great Underworld?"

Chen Xiaofeng felt that he hadn't heard this word in decades.

After a long pause, he finally managed to utter a sentence:

"What kind of partner did you find that attracted the Great Underworld?"

Gao Yao was taken aback.

It's so strange, why does everyone think I'm their boyfriend? Is there no such thing as pure friendship between men and women?

"Not a partner."

Chen Xiaofeng laughed and said, "Is it because you like me that you denied being a partner? It's useless to tell me this now. I'm just a retired puppeteer and race car driver. I can't deal with Da Ming."

You're disgusting! Gao Yao was too lazy to argue with him, and simply said, "Go and rescue the contestants underground. I can handle it on my own."

Chen Xiaofeng: "Okay."

Gao Yao looked around, tested the concentration of the Wraith Fog, calculated the size and level of the Great Netherworld, and the strength of the spatial barrier. Then he sent a spiritual signal to the space base of the Divine Martial Kingdom.

"Zero Four Five Three Six, location within the Netherworld, requesting High-Frequency Space Array!"

About ten breaths later, the other side replied.

"Goddess of War, you are already in the abyss and cannot activate the High-Frequency Space Array."

"Cut!"

According to the theories of the Wraith she had learned, the Great Underworld moves very slowly and has a process of devouring and digesting.

Unexpectedly, this great demon has already entered the abyss so quickly after swallowing the landslide.

It seems it really is here to capture Xiao Ran!

Now that Da Ming has entered the abyss, she has no choice but to unleash her ultimate attack.

"Extermination Wraith Armor, activate!"

The matte black armor instantly lit up with all the pink Spirit Runes.

The Yan Armor rapidly multiplied and expanded, transforming in the blink of an eye into towering giant armor hundreds of feet tall!

It was a black beast bone demon armor, with arms hanging down past its knees, and its entire body covered with a smooth, anti-necromantic coating.

Without using any weapons, all the Spirit Runes operate internally. To enhance heat dissipation, red, burning blood steam emanates from the joints and mouth and nose, which looks somewhat eerie.

In the collapsed mountainside.

Xiao Ran, nestled inside the Air Pocket, guessed that Gao Yao was unleashing her power outside. Curious, he extended his divine sense, wanting to admire the Goddess of War's heroic figure.

The Goddess of War's Steam Black Overlord Armor is pretty cool; she's currently tearing apart and beating up Daedalus...

But strangely, why are the Goddess of War and the Great Underworld getting further and further away from him? Xiao Ran rubbed his eyes.

The collapsed mountainsides around them have disappeared...

Only he and the Air Pocket remained, floating in mid-air.

It was as if he had been thrown away from the landslide and from the belly of the Great Underworld, like a nail stuck on the surface world, watching helplessly as the Goddess of War fought with the Great Underworld and sank into the depths of the abyss.

Who on earth managed to pin him down without him noticing? Had the enemy arrived? And who was the enemy? He wasn't sure if it was just his imagination, but he sensed a light nearby that even his Resonance Divine Sense couldn't detect—it seemed so far away, yet so close...

In fact, he had long noticed this creepy feeling, always sensing something underground, which is why he rarely spoke of their life-and-death friendship.

He initially thought it was this ghostly thing that lured Wraith to capture him, but Wraith not only failed to devour the thing, but also failed to devour him.

He was pinned to the spot.

That's strange...

In the three years since Xiao Ran transmigrated, he has rarely encountered such a mysterious thing.

He tore open the Air Pocket and found himself suspended in the original underground position of the mountain.

Theoretically, he should be within the Blood Pillar Netherworld at this moment, but he is not; the space he is in is isolated from the Netherworld.

He could see Hua Lian entangled in the withered hand forest, fighting while clad in silver armor, constantly moving downwards, trying to save him.

However, the space he was in was separated from Hua Lian by a membrane.

Though seemingly close, they are actually worlds apart.

The surroundings were empty, except for the faint sounds of the underworld and the occasional human voices outside.

He took a few steps while suspended in mid-air, but was blocked by a spatial barrier.

He walked along the spatial barrier and quickly measured it out; it was a standard cubic spatial barrier.

It is about five zhang long on one side, which is about the size of a three-story villa with a basement.

It was like a prison.

Unexpectedly, even his Resonance Divine Sense could not directly perceive the shape of the prison; in the end, he had to figure it out by feeling like a blind man touching an elephant.

This is no ordinary enemy! Xiao Ran Mind Concentration his breath and observed carefully. He quickly discovered that the prison space was not a single unit, but was divided into two levels.

The surface world is one layer.

The Abyss World is one layer.

This layer shifts horizontally along the position of his Dantian, as if a spatial prison moves with him, always keeping his lower body in the abyss while his upper body remains in the surface world.

The atmosphere suddenly turned sci-fi! In other words, there was a matrix-like spatial barrier spanning between the abyss and the surface world, which had imprisoned Xiao Ran.

A spatial barrier spanning two realms—this is far beyond the comprehension of ordinary people.

Xiao Ran approached to examine the spatial wall and found that it was only of a high level, thin, and well-hidden, but did not have the special effect of crossing between two realms.

Could it be the ghostly thing we sensed before?

Xiao Ran activated his max-level, second-tier Resonance Divine Sense, but because the Spiritual Pressure he was driving wasn't enough, he couldn't see clearly.

He closed his eyes, merged with the laws of heaven and earth, and attempted to combine the techniques of [Limitless Combo] and [Serendipitous Critical Strike] to drive the dragon vein vortex within his Qi Sea and forcibly increase the power of his divine sense.

Soon, his eyes lit up! In the very center of this spatial prison, he spotted that faint light.

It wasn't light, but rather an extremely rare and faint Spiritual Power emanating from it.

It was so little that it could no longer be called Spiritual Power; it was like particles of spiritual energy scattered in the vacuum.

He closed his eyes, walked over, and reached out to touch it.

That barely perceptible light instantly illuminated, revealing its physical form.

Upon closer inspection, it was a vertical pillar parallel to Xiao Ran's body.

It is three zhang long and three chi wide, spanning two boundaries.

Like Xiao Ran's body, one half is in the mountain space of the surface True Spirit Continent, and the other half is in the abyss corresponding to the surface world.

The pillar is entirely black, absolutely black, roughly equivalent to a colorless state that has absorbed all light.

Only Xiao Ran, who had activated his maxed-out Resonance Divine Sense, could detect the subtle Spiritual Power emanating from its surface.

It's like the surface of a black hole, where only physicists like Hawking could calculate the minute radiation using mathematical and physical theories.

It was this magical black pillar that, like a nail, pinned Xiao Ran and Xiao Ran spatial prison he inhabited together between the two realms.

Or to be more precise, this spatial barrier exists precisely to protect and conceal this black pillar.

Xiao Ran was simply passing by when he was intercepted.

Xiao Ran reached out and touched it; the pillar was Bing Bing, and he couldn't tell what material it was made of.

There are quite a few concave engravings, resembling carved alien characters.

Xiao Ran felt that without these concave, alien characters, this black pillar could completely prevent the outward emission of Spiritual Power.

Why carve these characters? These characters are not Spirit Runes; even Xiao Ran, with his max-level knowledge of Spirit Runes, cannot decipher them.

This is somewhat similar to the inscription on the stone tablet...

Etc!

It's not that it's not similar! Xiao Ran carefully examined the rubbings of the inscriptions in the System Space, comparing them word by word, and found that they were actually the same script! The only difference was that the inscriptions on the stone tablet were raised reliefs, while the characters on the black pillar were engraved inwards.

What is the connection between the black pillar and the inscription?

Xiao Ran was completely puzzled.

Just as I was pondering this, a voice came from behind me.

"It seems like this is the first time you've seen this?"

Xiao Ran was startled and turned around.

"Who?"

A window appeared in front of him.

The glass windows resembled those of an interrogation room; the glass was a metaphor, but it was probably like having a doorway that could only transmit sound.

The voice was that of a man, with a weathered tone, but his manner of speaking was as crisp and direct as a young man's.

"Even in such a desperate situation, you are not nervous at all, not even as nervous as you are when you are in close contact with a woman."

You might as well just call me a virgin!

Judging from the man's tone, the enemy was an enemy, but not a mortal enemy; he was probably just jealous of his talent.

"Did you deliberately set a trap to arrest me?"

No, that's not true.

The man explained.

"This pillar has always been here, for at least hundreds of thousands of years. It is anchored in space, and no one can move it. I made the outer spatial wall. Rather than saying I set a trap, it's more accurate to say I was waiting for someone. I'm not sure if that person is you, but since you were able to sense the pillar's existence and even directly locate its position, it means you also have the ability."

Xiao Ran summarized the man's words. "Zhu Zi is awesome, and you are awesome too!" He was tired of hearing this kind of talk ever since Xiao Ran got the system and showed off his talent.

"Who are you?"

Xiao Ran asked.

As he asked, Xiao Ran expanded his maxed-out divine sense, driven by Limitless Combo and Serendipitous Critical Strike.

Following the man's voice, they explored inside through the "glass window."

He vaguely saw something that looked like a long astronomical telescope.

And a model of a long spiral ladder.

An astronomical telescope? A spiral ladder? Combining the two, Xiao Ran suddenly thought of something—

Could it be Heavenly Ladder?! This guy wants to build Heavenly Ladder and use technology to ascend to the heavens?

Are they from the military of the Divine Martial Kingdom?

Just as Xiao Ran's divine sense was eagerly exploring further inside, he discovered a figure.

The figure reached out and pressed something, and a shockwave that interfered with his divine sense blocked his consciousness.

"Your spiritual sense is stronger than I imagined."

Xiao Ran had only ever seen the restrained aura emanating from this figure on the white-robed remnant soul of the sect leader.

Could it be the Nine Radiances of the Divine Martial Kingdom? Xiao Ran asked tentatively:

"Are you from the Divine Martial Kingdom?"

The mysterious man said, "There aren't many people from the Divine Martial Kingdom here, but judging from your deduction, you seem to have seen my toys and are trying to guess my identity."

It's safe to say the man is a high-ranking official in the Divine Martial Kingdom, and probably not a member of the Black Ring Group.

Xiao Ran asked directly, "Does the Divine Martial Kingdom want to build Heavenly Ladder?"

The mysterious man said, " In this Dharma Ending Era, who wouldn't want to find the Heavenly Ladder? When you can't find it, you'll naturally want to create it yourself. Demonic Dragon, Sacred Domain, Heavenly Ladder —these legends are all false, like ethereal light. But only those who believe in the light will put in the effort to realize these legends and turn the light into reality."

Good grief, are you Ultraman?

"Has the Heavenly Ladder been built yet?"

Xiao Ran asked curiously.

The mysterious man did not answer directly.

"Ancient Giant Python looks very similar to Demonic Dragon has appeared. If our country's Paradise Tree Project succeeds, it will become Sacred Domain... Do you think the Heavenly Ladder is far away?"

Xiao Ran thought to himself, "Are you trying to create both the Sacred Domain and the Heavenly Ladder at the same time? You might also be searching for the Demonic Dragon. Does the Divine Martial Kingdom want to try all three paths?"

"Senior, keep up the good work! I believe the Divine Martial Kingdom will succeed. It's just that I'm not good at weapon crafting and can't help you."

The mysterious man laughed:

"You are skilled in Spirit Runes, and your senior brother, Gao Shi, is skilled in forging. If the two of you work together, you might be able to help me complete some of the core components of the Heavenly Ladder. Whether you stay at Zongzhi Mountain or go to the Dao Alliance together, it will be meaningless. Your talents will not be used where they are most needed."

Xiao Ran said, "I promised City Lord Kuang that I would help him out. As for Gao Shi Brother Gao, you should go and invite him yourselves. It would be best to find some pretty girls; that might make things easier."

The mysterious man smiled but didn't elaborate further.

"What do you think this black pillar is? Use your imagination, just say whatever you want."

Without using any imagination, Xiao Ran simply said, "Perhaps it's related to the origin of the Dharma Ending Era, the Wraith, or something like that."

The mysterious man said, "If I'm not mistaken, you should have seen the inscription on the stone tablet."

Xiao Ran had swallowed the Spirit Pill that Wraith Punishment Bureau, so he could not mention the stone tablet to outsiders.

"Never seen it before."

Xiao Ran said the three words very decisively.

If one has never seen a stone tablet before, one would usually ask what it is, so the mysterious man deduced that Xiao Ran must have seen it.

"I can tell you that the inscription on the stone tablet and the inscription on the black pillar are exactly the same text and the same content. One is engraved inside, and the other is embossed. What do you think is the relationship between them?"

Xiao Ran pursed his lips and casually said, "Every radish has its own hole; perhaps it's the key to unlocking some kind of power."

The words "stone tablet" were not mentioned at all.

The mysterious man clapped his hands in approval.

"Whether you are the person I deduced to be waiting for or not, I think you are no worse than him. My opinion is the same as yours. The complete inscription may be the key to activating all the black pillars."

"Is there more than one?"

"There should be many similar black pillars on the True Spirit Continent, at least six. Except for the one in the Divine Martial Kingdom that I discovered and hid in advance, the rest have been protected by the Dao Alliance. They are probably the ultimate weapons left behind by the immortals. Opening them will kill all the Wraith."

"You just said that this thing may be hundreds of thousands of years old, back when the Wraith hadn't even appeared yet."

The mysterious man remained silent for a long time before deciding to say, "I am also aware of your deeds and character. Even if we become enemies in the future, it is alright to tell you some things. The location of this thing anchored in space shifts extremely slightly every year due to the rotation of the True Spirit Continent. Based on this, its existence is estimated to be over a million years old. Not to mention the Wraith, it is very likely even older than the immortals. Therefore, the conspiracy theory that it was arranged by the Dao Alliance or the immortals is unreliable."

One million years ago...

Xiao Ran frowned slightly.

"You mean this thing might be the origin of cultivation civilization?"

Chapter 196 The King of Lewd Talk:

An unscientific Zheng Nanli the ancient times