"Old man, you're in trouble. Come with me."
The dashing young man pushed through the crowd, fixing the two with a cold sneer.
"Eh? You're that..."
Lord Bird instinctively raised his head. Deep in his pupils, countless silver runes seemed to interweave. His expression shifted, and he looked utterly astonished.
Just as Lord Bird was about to utter the word that came after that, Lord Essence Jade suddenly nudged him discreetly.
"Hahaha, everyone, I just remembered that there's an urgent matter at home. That's it for today's business. We'll meet at our usual spot tomorrow."
Lord Bird slapped his forehead as if he'd remembered something important. He and Lord Essence Jade swiftly packed up their stall, grabbed Little Shi, and took off running.
The two old men and the young boy put plenty of distance between themselves and the crowd before stopping in a secluded spot.
"You two saw through my Zhu Yan Precious Technique at a glance. Even if a fully grown pureblood creature came here, I'd be confident of fooling it. You two must have quite extraordinary identities."
Shi Hao crossed his arms and looked the two shady old men up and down before drawling, "Tell me, you two aren't the real rulers of the Void God Realm, are you?"
"I'm not! I didn't! Don't make things up!"
Lord Bird and Lord Essence Jade shook their heads in unison, looking incredibly nervous.
"Mm, so that's what it is."
Shi Hao looked as if he'd expected as much. He took out a complete page of the Primordial Bronze Book and handed it over. "I got the bronze book. I want to exchange it for a peerless precious technique."
"So you're the one who broke the record for reaching the extreme ten times in a single day and created a peerless legend."
Lord Bird's frivolous look vanished in an instant, as if it had never been there.
After taking the Primordial Bronze Book and confirming it was genuine, Lord Bird cautiously said, "We don't have any peerless precious techniques. How about giving you a Sacred Ancient Artifact of the highest caliber instead? I guarantee it won't be any worse than the one Double-Pupil Shi Yi obtained a while ago."
"No. You have one. I want the True Phoenix Precious Technique."
Shi Hao looked at the pair's attempts to wriggle out of it and smiled meaningfully.
"Kid, who exactly are you?!"
Lord Bird and Lord Essence Jade exchanged a glance, their expressions more solemn than ever before.
"Enough. Just hand over the True Phoenix Precious Technique. Even if you two are the rulers of the Void God Realm, you still have to play by certain rules."
Shi Hao didn't answer them and continued speaking.
"Little Shi Hao, it's not that we don't want to give you the True Phoenix Precious Technique. The place where it's stored is simply too troublesome. If we get too close, it affects our minds. Sometimes we're lucid, sometimes dazed, as if we've fallen into endless darkness."
"So I advise you to quit while you're ahead. Just take a Sacred Ancient Artifact and leave."
Lord Bird stroked the Five-Colored Bird perched on his left shoulder, looking somewhat restless.
"No problem. Take me there. I'll handle it when we arrive."
Shi Hao was stubborn and naturally stood his ground.
"Old man, don't bother with him. Just take him there. It'd be best if he died on the spot."
Even the hot-tempered Lord Essence Jade was enraged. He seized Shi Hao and fled toward the depths of the Void God Realm, tearing through layer after layer of space at lightning speed.
Lord Bird sighed and immediately took off after them.
After crossing endless stone steps that stretched to the far end of the void, Shi Hao and the two old men landed inside an enormous black ancient hall.
Deep within the dark, desolate hall stood rows of stone statues, wrapped in countless Order Divine Chains. Around each statue were a dozen or so earthenware jars, arranged in orderly fashion, with divine script covering their mouths.
A faint black haze wafted around both the stone statues and the jars on the ground. It embodied countless strange and ominous forces, and was dangerously powerful.
"That black mist is what corrupted you, isn't it?"
Shi Hao frowned slightly and took two small steps back. Just moments ago, he'd felt as if the most dangerous primordial beast in existence had fixed its gaze on him, making his scalp tingle.
So this was how terrifying the power of darkness that could infect every living being in the Foreign Realm was!
"That damned stuff is exactly what did it. Be sure not to let it touch you."
Lord Bird looked at the black haze warily and nodded toward it. "See that? The Phoenix Bone inscribed with the True Phoenix Precious Technique is right in the middle. Are you confident you can fight your way through and return safely after taking it?"
A crimson Phoenix Bone floated quietly amid the many statues, releasing phoenix runes that continuously purified the strange black mist closing in around it.
"No. But just because I can't do it doesn't mean someone else can't."
Shi Hao shook his head, then carefully took a golden willow twig from his robes and bowed respectfully. "Willow Deity, please descend!"
"Willow Deity? Which ancient divine being is that?"
Lord Bird and Lord Essence Jade muttered together, then looked at each other.
"Boom!"
In an instant, the golden willow twig blazed with light.
A tall, peerlessly elegant figure stepped out of the golden willow twig.
His divine body was ethereal and flawless, but his features were astonishingly indistinct, as if hidden behind a mysterious veil. The more one tried to make out his face, the blurrier it became, until it was completely forgotten.
Countless divine flames circled around him. In every flame sat a phantom of a deity, all bowing repeatedly toward the hazy figure at the center, worshipping him with the utmost reverence. He seemed the only one beneath heaven and earth, eternal and imperishable.
One flame, one divine realm—Three Thousand Divine Kingdoms came to pay homage!
"Why have you summoned me?"
The tall figure who had stepped from the golden willow twig glowed. A peaceful ripple emanated from the hazy light surrounding him.
"Good heavens, that woman's a real beauty. Even I can't help falling for her."
An offhand mutter rang out in the desolate hall.
"Hmm?"
The divine being who looked down upon the ages gave a soft snort. It exploded like thunder beside the two old men's ears, sending their blood and qi surging wildly within them.
"Okay, okay, I'm scared."
Lord Bird, who couldn't keep his mouth shut, grunted and ducked his head. After wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth, he quickly backed down.
"Old fellow, don't you think that woman... that person looks a little familiar?"
"Now that you mention it, he does look familiar. But I don't know what's wrong with my brain. It's like someone's put a veil over it. I know I recognize him, but I just can't remember who he is. What a headache!"
The two old men huddled in a corner, occasionally whispering to each other.
After Willow Deity, in the form of the White-Clad God-Man, gave the pair a small reprimand, his gaze was quickly drawn to the strange scene deeper in the ancient hall.
The strange stone statues, the sinister jars, and the black haze that symbolized ill omen all entered the White-Clad God-Man's sight.
"The various Immortal Kings who lost the Immortal Ancient War, along with their many commanders and generals, were corrupted by the power of darkness. Their Primordial Spirits are all imprisoned here."
"So that's it. The Eight Regions were said to be a cage, but I never imagined they were imprisoning these people. Using the entire Void God Realm as a Heavenly Prison to suppress them—that's quite the undertaking. Could this have been plotted by Immortal King Qi Yu and the others, who've been hiding in the Immortal Domain all this time..."
The light around the White-Clad God-Man shifted constantly, betraying his troubled thoughts.
Before you continue