"The Dao?"
Qin He stood frozen in the void, his heart jolting violently.
He had traversed many Returning Ruins Battlefields, peered into the strange fabric of the Interlayer Inverse Path, and analyzed the layered patterns of the Divine Court's seals. Yet he had never imagined that the root cause of the supreme Ancient Immortal Court's ultimate destruction would be something as simple as the word "Dao."
The Ancient Immortal Court had actually perished because of the Dao.
"Different Daos. The great sundering."
The Ancient Ape's hoarse, halting voice continued to echo slowly through the deathly void. Each word seemed to have been pried from an ancient, crumbling stele, steeped in the weathering of countless ages.
"The great sundering?"
Qin He's throat tightened, and he drew another sharp breath.
Countless scattered clues from the past suddenly linked together.
He had already sensed that the Ancient Immortal Court's annihilation was far more than a simple calamity of heaven and earth or an upheaval of the void. Whenever those ancient beings who had survived to this day spoke of the Ancient Era, every last one kept their lips tightly sealed.
He had not understood before. Now, much of it became clear.
It was not merely that people dreaded the subject. Heavenly secrets also concealed it beneath layer upon layer.
In ordinary lands, if anyone dared touch upon this forbidden secret, a nine heavens tribulation would descend before they could finish speaking. The power of heavenly secrets would obliterate them on the spot, erasing every trace.
Yet here in this Forbidden Void, he could question it openly and hear these secrets, while heaven and earth around him remained utterly calm.
No thunderclouds gathered, no backlash of energy struck, and no sign of punishment from heavenly secrets appeared.
Qin He instinctively spread his divine soul