Visitor from Beyond

After eating and drinking their fill.

The three of them leaned against the towering ancient tree behind them.

Beneath the glow of the dying campfire and the starlight, they gradually drifted off to sleep, recovering from the exhaustion and depletion of the past few days.

However.

For Long Zhanye, this night was not a peaceful rest, but a bizarre dream so strange that he would remember it for the rest of his life.

In the depths of sleep, his consciousness drifted into a boundless Sea of Consciousness shrouded in mist.

There was no up or down, no left or right, no passage of time. There was only himself, floating like an isolated island.

Beneath his feet was the manifestation of his spiritual power—

A calm yet profound silver sea, reflecting the equally endless "sky" above.

Within this void of vast emptiness.

A distant, desolate voice that seemed to have crossed endless time, space, and the barriers of the void.

Slowly reached him from every direction, from an unreachable place far away:

"Once... there were nine people..."

"They each stood at the summit of different continents..."

"They were all humans... who had touched the threshold of godhood and come infinitely close to becoming 'gods'..."

"But... later... they were defeated..."

"A soul-seizing Shadow shattered nine heavens; ten thousand miles of rivers and mountains were emptied for me!"

These two lines, spoken like a poetic title, carried a resolute force capable of tearing apart heaven and earth, along with an overbearing loneliness.

They echoed through Long Zhanye's Sea of Consciousness, making even his spiritual power tremble slightly.

He seemed to see fragmented scenes, blurred yet utterly breathtaking—

Nine towering figures, a soul-seizing shadow that pierced heaven and earth, shattered continents, and desolate rivers and mountains stretching for thousands of miles...

"I... wandered the endless void... knowing not the years... only to... find one destined for me..."

"Look beneath your feet... shall I grant you a fortuitous opportunity...?"

Long Zhanye instinctively lowered his head and looked at the "sea" beneath his feet.

Then he saw.

At the spot below him where the phantoms of four black Ten-Thousand Year Soul Rings from the real world had originally been reflected.

The outline of a fifth Soul Ring slowly and eerily emerged!

It was black as well, yet its color was deeper, its aura more ancient, and its texture more peculiar than the other four Ten-Thousand Year Soul Rings!

This Soul Ring seemed not to have been condensed from a Soul Beast.

A quality beyond description flowed across it, as though it bore the aura of endless ages and the annihilation of the void.

Grayish-black mist faintly swirled around it, radiating cold fluctuations that did not belong to this world's laws.

At the same time, a strange black shadow transformed into a dense, pure mass of grayish-black mist.

It rapidly sank and fused into the depths of Long Zhanye's Sea of Consciousness, then fell silent.

There was no further movement, as though an eternal black reef had simply appeared on the seafloor.

Long Zhanye's consciousness blurred, then was pulled back into the depths of heavy sleep.

The next morning.

Birdsong rang crisply through the forest, and morning light filtered down through the gaps between the branches and leaves.

Long Zhanye was awakened by the sound of stretching and yawning.

Old Man Gu and Zhua Yun were already awake, loosening up their bodies.

When Old Man Gu saw Long Zhanye open his eyes, he immediately urged, "Brat, stop dawdling and get ready!"

"Today, we'll find your fifth Soul Ring. Once we kill the Soul Beast for this last ring, we can head home and stop feeding mosquitoes in this forest!"

Long Zhanye rubbed his slightly swollen temples. The memories of last night's dream remained vivid.

Especially that black Soul Ring which had appeared out of nowhere...

His heart was full of questions, and he instinctively released his Martial Soul and revealed his Soul Rings.

The Heavenly Eye on his forehead grew faintly warm, then slowly opened.

A mysterious black gleam had appeared deep within his silver eyes.

Then.

Soul Power surged beneath his feet as five Soul Rings—black, black, black, black, black—

Rose in sequence!

Wait... five?!

Long Zhanye's eyes abruptly widened as he stared fixedly beneath his feet!

There, in the spot that had originally been empty and should have awaited his fifth Soul Ring, floated a mysterious... black Soul Ring!

It was exactly the same as the phantom "Soul Ring" he had seen in last night's dream!

"This... this is real?!" Long Zhanye rubbed his Double Pupils in disbelief, then carefully sensed it again.

His connection with the Soul Ring was incredibly real, and his Soul Power circulated smoothly, as though this Soul Ring had always belonged to him and had existed for a long time.

His Soul Power had also stabilized at level fifty-five, precisely the increase one would gain after absorbing a Ten-Thousand Year Soul Ring!

He tried hard to recall the final whisper from last night's dream. That voice seemed to have called itself...

"The God of Sin?"

The title made his heart tighten, yet left him even more confused.

"Hey! Brat! What are you spacing out for? I told you to get ready... huh?"

Old Man Gu impatiently turned his head, stopping halfway through his sentence.

His gaze landed on the five Soul Rings beneath Long Zhanye's feet, and his voice abruptly cut off!

His aged eyes instantly widened as round as saucers, as if he had seen a living ghost!

"You... you, you, you!" Old Man Gu pointed at Long Zhanhai, his tongue starting to stumble.

"You... why do you have another Soul Ring?! And it's Ten-Thousand Year?!"

"Didn't you only have four before we went to sleep yesterday?! Brat, what did you do last night?!"

"Did you sneak off while we were asleep to hunt a Soul Beast by yourself?!"

Zhua Yun beside him saw it too, his face equally full of shock. "Little junior brother, what... what is going on?"

"You last night..."

Looking at their shocked and suspicious expressions, Long Zhanye gave a bitter smile and shook his head. "No..."

"I didn't secretly hunt a Soul Beast. I... I just had a very strange dream last night, and when I woke up... it was like this."

"A dream? You dreamed that a Soul Ring grew by itself? Who are you trying to fool, brat?!" Old Man Gu clearly did not believe him, blowing his beard and glaring.

"Tell me the truth! What happened? Did you find some treasure Soul Beast nest we don't know about?"

Zhua Yun wore the same expression that said, Do you really think I'd believe that?

Long Zhanye himself did not understand the situation. The dream had been far too bizarre; the source of that voice and the manner in which the Soul Ring had been bestowed were both completely beyond his understanding.

He could not explain it in detail and could only emphasize once more, "I really don't know. I just had a dream, and then the Soul Ring appeared."

Seeing that Long Zhanye's face was also filled with confusion, Old Man Gu and Zhua Yun exchanged a glance. Though their doubts remained, they did not question him further.

Old Man Gu stroked his beard and put on an inquisitive expression. "Forget it, forget it. I've lived for so many years; what strange things haven't I seen..."

"Since you have the Soul Ring, let me see what kind of thing this fifth Soul Skill from your 'dream' is."

"Don't tell me it's a dream too?"

Long Zhanye calmed himself. He was also eager to know what kind of ability this Soul Ring of unknown origin had given him.

The black light on the Soul Ring slowly flowed.

"Fifth Soul Skill—"

Long Zhanye shouted softly, forming a strange yet solemn hand seal with both hands.

The middle and ring fingers of his left hand lay horizontally over the Heavenly Eye on his forehead, while the middle and ring fingers of his right hand stood vertically before it.

The four fingers crossed into a slanted cross, and then his arms slowly pulled apart to either side!