Imperial Pass

The living beings on the Life Ancient Land of the Human Race Ancient Trial Path looked up, watching the massive spaceship depart, and breathed a sigh of relief.

They turned their gaze to the ground, only to find that the lush plains had long vanished, replaced by towering magma fountains spewing endlessly, like a scene from the apocalypse.

They also saw the stars in the sky go dark, their light extinguished, leaving the entire world bathed in a dim red glow—the light cast by the magma.

"Our world... was nearly destroyed..." a living being said, trembling with fear. Those two people were the most terrifying members of the Younger Generation they had ever seen.

Even the young elites who had come from other star regions back then had been slaughtered and sent fleeing in panic, yet they themselves were now chilled to the bone by a single Female Demon.

There was no helping it—their home was on the Human Race Ancient Trial Path, one of the few Life Ancient Lands, where natural resources were scarce.

"That white-haired man looks a bit like the Divine Body who escaped thirty years ago."

At these words, the crowd nodded. Thirty years ago, the Imperial Pass had opened, and all the young elites had set foot on the Starry Sky Ancient Road, heading for the Imperial Pass.

"This time, we hunted that woman and suffered heavy losses. We need to go into hiding. Almost all the younger generation are dead, and the Saints are completely wiped out. Only us old, weak, and crippled ones remain. If we run into such ruthless people again, we'll be annihilated..."

Time flowed on, and in the blink of an eye, three years had passed.

During this time, Xu Changqing and the Woman in White occasionally ventured into the starry sky to spar, but they never fought with full force. Instead, they used the gains from their Secluded Cultivation to verify each other's insights.

Xu Changqing was using her to perfect his own cultivation method and his Healing Cultivation Method.

He had acquired too many techniques—hundreds of millions from the Eternal Star Domain alone, spanning various star regions and eras. He had read through every kind of Healing Cultivation Method.

Since their great battle, the two had not exchanged a single word in three years. Whenever the urge to fight arose, one would go out into the starry sky and wait for the other to arrive.

Over those three years, Xu Changqing's movement techniques and healing Secret Techniques had essentially matured.

With precise coordinates in hand, they naturally had no need to roam the Trial Path slaughtering and seizing Five-Colored Altars to cross the starry sky.

Still, whenever they sensed the aura of a Saint King, they would descend and engage in a fierce battle. They were not Half-Saints but Saints—Saints who could enter the Divine Prohibition—so they had no fear of Saint Kings.

In three years, Xu Changqing and the Woman in White had clashed no fewer than a thousand times, fighting hundreds of rounds each year before finally calling it quits.

One day, they arrived at a Dead Star, and since the coordinates on the spaceship were close, they decided to proceed on foot.

This was a dim Ancient Star, with a crimson crescent moon hanging in the sky. The ground was scorched black, as if countless battles had been fought here. Various ghostly soul bodies roamed the land.

They explored the Ancient Star, occasionally encountering a grave.

Before those grave mounds stood a Stone Tablet, inscribed with several lines of bold, vigorous script.

"What am I truly pursuing? The elusive realm of the Great Emperor? I can't even reach the entrance of the Emperor's Road, so how can I hope to summit it? Then what have I been chasing all these years?"

The blood-red characters on the Stone Tablet were glaring, filled with unwillingness and endless regret.

Xu Changqing noticed more lines on the Stone Tablet. This person had severed all ties to the Mortal World to set foot on the Emperor's Road, walking it alone, only to die miserably here.

"Sage Demon—Ye Ming."

At the bottom of the Stone Tablet was the name of this Outstanding Person. Why he was called the Sage Demon, Xu Changqing neither knew nor cared to learn.

Beside him, the Woman in White stood silently on a crystal-clear Stone Tablet, her deep Autumn Eyes fixed on the lines. Her white robes fluttered, and her jet-black, lustrous hair swayed gently.

"I knew you would come. I'll be waiting for you on the road ahead!"

—Tian Youqing.

"It's her," the Woman in White said softly. Tian Youqing was a powerful figure from their homeland. She had never fought them, but her depth was unfathomable.

Possessing a special constitution, the Innate Dao Embryo, she was also hailed as the number one beauty of the Big Dipper.

She always wore a veil, and no one had ever seen her True Appearance. She was ethereal, like a Fairy Maiden from the Immortal Realm descending into the mortal world—her aura even more transcendent and otherworldly than the Woman in White's.

Xu Changqing continued deeper and spotted a golden Stone Tablet. A few lines were bold and forceful, his deep eyes as calm as a pool of dead water.

"I lost to my father. My mother couldn't set foot on the Emperor's Road because her strength wasn't enough. So I came!!"

"The next time we meet, I will not lose to him!"

—Xu An.

Xu Changqing looked at it for a moment, a cold sneer curling at the Corner of his Mouth. He clasped his Hands behind his back, stopped looking at the Stone Tablets, and didn't wait for the Woman in White. He transformed into a streak of light and charged into the depths of the Dead Star.

The next time he loses to him—he might die!

He was no longer the person he had been back then. He would not show mercy just because of blood ties.

"Boom!"

In the depths of the Dead Star, blazing Saber Light tore through the misty sky, and countless wails rang out.

They were translucent soul bodies—all young elites who had died here. Anyone who could make it this far was no ordinary figure.

But unfortunately, even in life, they couldn't hold out for ten moves against Xu Changqing, let alone as soul bodies, which were essentially ghosts.

Xu Changqing gripped his Bone Saber, pressing forward without hesitation, rapidly closing in on a narrow path. Dense masses of soul bodies surrounded him.

But he simply stabbed the Bone Saber lightly into the ground. With a boom, countless blades rose from the earth, then spun outward in all directions, their sharp Saber Light illuminating the dark world.

Countless Saint-level soul bodies dissolved into specks of light.

Xu Changqing did not rely on the spaceship. Instead, he moved forward alone, encountering many ghosts along the way, all of which he cut down one by one.

The Woman in White also parted ways with Xu Changqing, vanishing into the depths of this Ancient Star.

Two more months passed. Xu Changqing had killed countless ghost-like soul bodies. Because he had a clear direction, it only took him a week to gradually start seeing figures of people.

The sky above was dim, as if dark clouds had covered the heavens, with only scattered starlight flickering. There was no sun, no moon.

A rough, uneven path stretched ahead, surrounded by thick fog, but it carried the auras of other living beings. Using his Martial Dao Heavenly Eye to see through the haze, he noticed several ancient roads intertwined beside him. Ahead lay the end of the ancient road.

"Roar!"

A terrifying roar came from the side. A dragon-like creature swam through the misty haze, weaving through the clouds. Standing atop its head was a man in red.

There were also qilin-like beasts running wildly across the ground, kicking up clouds of dust on the path. Some were Half-Saint cultivators, others were Saints—a vast variety.

Some stunningly beautiful women walked through the void, smiles on their faces, but exhaustion showed in their eyes.

"Get out of the way!"

Just as Xu Changqing reached the end of the ancient road, a furious shout and a thick smell of blood came from behind him, accompanied by an astonishing killing intent.

Hearing this, Xu Changqing stopped and turned around. Suddenly, a bloody mouth filled his vision, its densely packed teeth making one's scalp crawl.

The surrounding living beings saw this and stopped to watch the show. This white-haired man had no one by his side, no intense killing intent, no smell of blood, and not even a trace of bloodstains.

Unlike them, who had fought their way from their homeland all the way here—at least ten years of battle.

Xu Changqing stared coldly at the bloody mouth. He extended his right hand and chopped sideways toward it.

"Chi!"

A flash of light, and the enormous bloody mouth was instantly split in two. The owner of that voice also appeared.

It was an extremely handsome young man, somewhat thin, with very pale skin, like a vampire. But he exuded a rich smell of blood, and a sickly smile hung on his face.

Xu Changqing stood calmly across from the young man, letting the wind ruffle his hair.

The young man opposite him was also a Saint!

But the onlookers stared at Xu Changqing in shock. That bloody mouth belonged to a nearly extinct Primordial Desolate Beast, with extremely formidable combat power—enough to rival the heavens.

At the same cultivation level, it could go toe-to-toe with a Divine Body. Yet it had been killed instantly by someone whose cultivation level they couldn't even identify!

The thin young man's eyes burned with hatred. His face twisted in pain as he looked at the ancient beast lying dead beside him. Tears streaked down his face as he laughed and cried by turns.

It seemed he had gone mad.

"No, how could you kill it? It was so cute—how could you kill it?!"

Cute? Everyone was speechless. That ancient beast looked like a caterpillar, covered in blue fuzz, round and plump, with hundreds of eyes on its face and three bloody mouths—utterly hideous.

"It seems that after more than ten years of fighting, he's gone mad."

Indeed, if anyone had to spend over a decade in a constant state of killing and being hunted, alone with a beast, they would go mad too.

Xu Changqing looked at the thin young man hugging the grotesque corpse. Without any hesitation, he raised his hand and slapped directly at him.

Boom!

The slap erupted with extreme divine light, covering the young man and the beast. The overwhelming attack power was laid bare. The divine might of a Saint swept the entire area, making even the Heavenly Prides who hadn't reached the Saint realm feel suffocated.

Too strong.

And the young man also returned to his normal state, radiating the aura of a Saint. Golden thunder coiled around his body, and a golden sea of lightning appeared behind him.

"I'll make you pay with your life!"

The thin young man gritted his teeth. His mind was chaotic—he had already gone completely mad.

"Bang!"

The thin young man blocked Xu Changqing's slap. He was about to charge forward when a wave of dizziness hit him. Then he saw his own body spurting blood.

Xu Changqing had somehow appeared beside him. His right hand grabbed the young man's hair, and with a hard yank, he tore the entire head off. Finally, with another slap, he annihilated the thin young man's Primordial Spirit.

Those who had just arrived at the Emperor's Road were no longer calm. They had been watching the show, but now they were questioning their own existence.

Without a doubt, that thin young man must have had a special physique.

Yet he had been easily killed by that white-haired youth.

Not someone to provoke.

No strength to back up revenge, and no absolute certainty before recklessly provoking others?

Xu Changqing paid no attention to the two corpses on the ground. He walked straight to the end of the road, arriving at an open space. Ahead, an ancient and vast aura emanated, as if facing an Ancient Great Emperor.

It made killing intent impossible to summon—only reverence.

Ahead, a black wall blocked everyone's view. The black bricks bore traces of blood that hadn't fully dried, as well as marks from swords, blades, and axes. A bronze giant gate stood tightly shut.

This was the Human Race's First Pass.

But with Xu Changqing's cultivation, staying at the Human Race's First Pass was useless. He was already a Saint.

He should charge straight into the deepest part and fight.