When Ye Wen slid down the stone steps to the ninth floor, he suddenly discovered that there was more space beneath the Demon Suppressing Tower. He had always thought the tower had only nine floors. How could he have guessed that there was a tenth beneath the ninth?
Looking at the large characters on the gate not far away—"Ninth Floor of the Demon Suppressing Tower"—Ye Wen felt uneasy. He had a feeling he was about to learn something momentous today.
He could barely handle the huge mess he had just stirred up. Should he really go in now and open up the ninth floor of the Demon Suppressing Tower?
But it seemed he had no other choice. Ever since Human Ancestor, the person Old Uncle Zong had mentioned, brought him to the Ancestral Star, perhaps he had been destined to lead anything but an ordinary life.
Old Uncle Zong had once said he'd waited for him in Yu Village for two hundred years. Perhaps the world really would change because of him!
Ye Wen stopped hesitating, pushed open the ninth-floor gate, and walked inside.
The space on the ninth floor was countless times larger than the eighth above it. Stars seemed to dot the heavens overhead. Were they glowing stones, or were they actual stars?
After walking for some time—he had no idea how long, though it had certainly been a long while—Ye Wen still hadn't found Xingyu. Xingyu hadn't sent him another message, either.
Suddenly, the entire space brightened, like the sun rising at dawn. A gigantic luminous body appeared high above in the distance.
"Is this really a world? Is that a star, a sun? This is incredible! Unbelievable!"
As the rising sun shone down on him, Ye Wen suddenly sensed something was wrong. This wasn't real sunlight. He couldn't feel any warmth; it was simply bright.
Now the whole world was filled with light, and his view became perfectly clear. He saw a mountain in the distance, with a city at its foot.
"A city? How can there be a city here? Isn't this inside the Demon Suppressing Tower? Could that city be where the Demon Race is imprisoned?"
As he wondered, Ye Wen walked toward the city beneath the mountain. Only after entering did he realize it was like a dead city, with no trace of life left in it. Every house was in ruins, ready to collapse.
Ye Wen walked along the ruined streets. Though that "sun" blazed overhead, he felt no warmth at all. Instead, a bone-deep chill crept over him.
Could this have been where the Hongmeng Human Race once hid, their refuge when facing the threat of extinction? Had the ancestors of humanity on Earth all been taken from cities like this and exiled to Earth?
"Come in!"
When Ye Wen reached the largest house, he received another message from Xingyu in his mind. Was Xingyu inside that great house ahead?
Ye Wen slowly approached and pushed open the door, which hadn't been opened in ten thousand years. Following the sudden guidance that had appeared in his mind, he passed through room after room until he came to one that resembled a shrine.
Two towering stone statues stood in the room. They depicted two middle-aged men with solemn expressions. Beneath the statues lay a person—or rather, someone who had once been a person. Now he was nothing but a dried corpse.
Ye Wen stepped closer, stopping beneath the statues to examine the corpse before him. Who was it?
Suddenly, a burst of white mist rose from within the corpse. It was exactly like the white mist that had trapped Old Azure Dragon. The mist slowly gathered into a human shape. Only upon closer inspection could Ye Wen see how closely it resembled the dried corpse on the ground.
Once the mist had taken shape, the figure spoke.
"Greetings, our successor! I am Xingyu!"
"T-this is really Xingyu? Weren't you dead? Then what are you now—a spirit, a ghost?"
Xingyu didn't explain his current state. He simply began to recount what had happened.
"Ye Wen! We were sealed away for ten thousand years. Now that the Demon Suppressing Tower has emerged, the seal has been broken. A new era has begun! And you are the guide who will lead it."
Ye Wen looked at the mist-shrouded old man. He didn't care about eras or seals right now; those things felt too far removed from him. He had far too many questions, about himself and about the Hongmeng Human Race.
"Are you still alive?"
Ye Wen needed to understand the situation, and Xingyu was the only one who could tell him.
"I'm already dead. The one who attacked us ten thousand years ago was far too powerful for us. I didn't survive. I don't know what happened to the others, but I doubt things ended well for them, either."
"Then what are you now... a ghost?"
Ye Wen knew that people in this world cultivated the Ghost Dao, so the question came naturally.
"No. We never had a chance to cultivate the Ghost Dao. He shattered our souls on the spot, and Ghost Dao Cultivation is based on the soul. Just before he killed me, I happened to be near the Demon Suppressing Tower. I used the Demon Suppressing Token to teleport inside in my final moments. I didn't last long after entering; I died here.
"What remains of me now is only a fragment of my memories. Before I died, I entrusted the Order Law to gather them together for me. Once I finish appearing this time, even this fragment of memory will vanish."
Before you continue