"Boom—!"
Amid the earth-shaking explosion, the giant Primal Energy palm collided with the dense fog. The berserk shockwave forcibly tore a gap through the wall of mist before them.
Before the crowd could cheer, a sudden change occurred—
The scattered fog suddenly churned violently. Like a primeval giant beast driven into a rage, it instantly condensed into enormous waves that seemed almost solid, rolling and crashing toward everyone.
"Fall back! Hurry, fall back!"
Feng Wuya shouted sharply as his figure retreated at full speed.
The sect masters and elders of the various major sects witnessed this scene, and all of their expressions changed drastically. They hurriedly used their movement techniques and fled at the fastest speed they could manage.
"Ah... help..."
An elder from a third-rate sect, dressed in gray robes, was half a step too slow. Tendrils at the edge of the fog wave wrapped around his ankle and violently dragged him into the mist. His cry for help abruptly ceased.
"This fog... is alive?"
Liu Xinghe cried out in disbelief.
After advancing thirty zhang, the fog wave suddenly seemed to crash into an invisible barrier. It churned violently for a moment before beginning to retreat.
The receding fog left behind viscous black liquid on the ground. The earth had been corroded, leaving behind one black pit after another.
"Not sure. Nothing like this has ever happened before."
Zhang Zhidong's brows drew tightly together. The changes in the dense fog had far exceeded the limits of his understanding.
"Looks like we can only wait again. Hopefully, nothing happens to those little fellows."
Feng Wuya let out a helpless sigh.
Two periods of fifteen minutes later.
Wei Qing and the others emerged from the misty passage, all of them shaken by the ruined scene before their eyes.
It was a wasteland that had clearly endured a ferocious war.
Countless broken weapons jutted crookedly from the cracked soil of the scorched-black earth.
Moss covered the bronze swords, while half of a black iron spear shaft was buried in the ground.
Several tattered flags snapped in the bleak wind. A blurry character could still be seen on each flag: "Firmament."
Even more horrifying were the enormous bones scattered throughout the area. Some were a full ten zhang tall, and the savage horns on their skulls still gleamed coldly despite the passage of time.
"What kind of earth-shaking battle took place here?" Jun Wushang's Adam's apple bobbed, and his voice was hoarse.
Qin Shuang's brows were tightly furrowed. "After such a brutal battle, why is there no record of it in the histories of Ji Province?"
"According to what is known, the Black Mist Wasteland appeared during the early period when the demons descended. The records may have been lost because of the battle." Tantai Yue sighed softly, her tone carrying a hint of speculation.
Nangong Ruyan, Liu Yulong, and the others nodded slightly in agreement.
"What do we do next?"
Song Yuanming voiced the doubt in everyone's hearts.
The crowd looked at one another.
In the end, their gazes fell on Wei Qing.
They waited for his decision.
Wei Qing crouched before a special skeleton.
It was a human skeleton, with three long swords of different designs embedded in its chest.
The skeleton had died kneeling, its arms locked tightly around the skull of a demon. Its finger bones had sunk deep into the skull's eye sockets.
"Since we've come all this way, why not go in and take a look?"
Wei Qing rose to his feet. He still had no clues, so he could only order everyone to continue forward and search for a way out.
The others moved with him, following closely behind Wei Qing as they set off down the road ahead.
After circling around the remains of a colossal creature, a broken stone stele appeared before their eyes.
The stone stele was about three zhang tall, its surface covered in cracks.
When everyone drew closer, they finally made out the words upon it: "Third year of the New Tianyuan Calendar. The entire Cloud Firmament Sect came here to die and suppress the Heavenly Demon."
The names of countless people were carved densely beneath the inscription. At the very top was a particularly striking line: "Sixth-generation Sect Master of the Cloud Firmament Sect, Yun Tianheng."
The Cloud Firmament Sect!
When the crowd saw those three characters, their hearts shook violently, and they all drew in a sharp breath.
The Cloud Firmament Sect had been the strongest of the hundred sects in the Eastern Domain before the demons descended!
After the war between humans and demons two hundred years ago came to an end, the Cloud Firmament Sect vanished from the long river of history in the Tianyuan Realm.
"I truly never expected this place to be where the Cloud Firmament Sect fought its final battle." Tantai Yue sighed softly.
"That's right. If the Cloud Firmament Sect hadn't stepped in back then, the Eastern Domain might have fallen to the demons overnight and become their paradise." Qin Shuang's tone carried deep reverence for that bygone era.
Even though two hundred years had passed,
the deeds of the Cloud Firmament Sect were still passed down within some sects.
The four kingdoms of the Eastern Domain had even compiled the Cloud Firmament Sect's deeds into the martial artist education textbooks used in each country.
But in that final battle,
after an earth-shaking explosion, the Cloud Firmament Sect, as well as Silvermoon—one of the six Heavenly Demons of the demon race—and the demons under its command, all vanished without a trace.
Afterward, the human experts repeatedly set out, but still failed to find any trace of either side.
Helpless, they could only give up the search in the end.
Who would have thought that the final battlefield would actually appear within Great Zhou, near an inconspicuous little county town?
A final line of small characters remained on the inscription.
"Descendants of later generations, unless your cultivation has reached the Martial King Realm, you must not open the Heavenly Demon seal!"
Boom...
The crowd suddenly froze, almost forgetting that a terrifying Heavenly Demon was imprisoned here.
Grandmasters and even Innate Realm experts were as weak as infants before it.
At the thought of this, everyone felt an inexplicable chill rise along their backs.
"This... this is bad. The Heavenly Demon King—forget us, even our sect master would meet his end on the spot if he came here." Zhao Gao of the Blood Robe Sect spoke with a trembling voice, his expression filled with terror and helplessness.
Negative emotions were contagious.
As Zhao Gao's trembling words fell, it was as if a massive boulder had been thrown into a calm lake.
More than a dozen disciples immediately paled, terror rapidly spreading across their faces.
"Senior Yun's message was perfectly clear. The Heavenly Demon is still sealed, so what are you afraid of?" Jun Wushang looked unhappily at the man who had ruined the atmosphere.
For some reason, from the moment he had seen the Blood Robe Sect's disciples at the passage, he had felt an instinctive aversion toward them.
"My junior brother is simply a little timid. I apologize to everyone on his behalf."
With that, Qin Yang lightly cupped his hands, his tone carrying sincerity and apology.
Seeing this, Zhang Xue gently tugged at Jun Wushang's sleeve and softly advised him, "All right, Wushang. We're all companions."
"Hmph."
Jun Wushang snorted coldly and stopped looking at Zhao Gao.
Zhang Xue gave a slight nod to express her apology.
Qin Yang waved his hand magnanimously, seemingly not taking it to heart.
Yet after Zhang Xue turned around, he stared at the backs of the two of them, and a trace of sinister amusement quietly swept through the depths of his eyes.
To show their respect for the Cloud Firmament Sect,
everyone stepped forward in turn and bowed deeply toward the stone stele.
At the instant the final person straightened up, a faint tremor suddenly came from the ground beneath their feet.
Everyone's expressions changed drastically, and they hurriedly used their movement techniques to retreat at top speed.
At the same time as they retreated,
a crisp "crack" rang out from the sky. Immediately afterward, the space behind the stone stele shattered like broken colored glass.
One ruined palace after another emerged from within the space.