The Ancient City lay steeped in deathly silence.
The Human Race cultivators had all shut their residence gates tight, sealed their windows, locked their courtyards, and dared not make the slightest sound.
A vast ancient bell rang out from the Primordial Secret Realm, deep and sonorous, echoing throughout the entire Ancient City of the Second Pass with an archaic aura tempered by time.
The trial secret realm had opened as scheduled.
Under normal circumstances, this would have been a tremendous opportunity on the Ancient Road.
Within the secret realm, opportunities lay everywhere and resources abounded, enough to drive countless prodigies mad and make them fight until their heads bled.
Countless cultivators had waited all this time for the moment the secret realm opened.
Yet today, after the ancient bell rang three times and its echoes spread in every direction, not a single person in the entire Ancient City stepped out of their residence.
The enormous city square was utterly empty.
The Great Saints responsible for receiving entrants into the secret realm had all fallen. The commanding officers stationed there by every race had been slaughtered, and the law-enforcement cultivators had vanished without a trace.
No one dared enforce the law. No one dared step forward.
Who had the courage to confront a Chaos Body who had torn apart an Ancient Emperor's remnant formation with his bare hands, slain six Great Saints in succession, and used Heavenly Tribulation to temper a supreme treasure?
The fourth bell toll rang out again, lingering in the air as though mocking the cowardice and lowliness of all cultivators in the Ancient City.
The silence remained. No one answered.
Meanwhile, Wang Xuan and Fairy Guye had long since departed, leaving the territory of the Second Pass behind. Their figures crossed the boundless starfields as they walked