The Ninth Spirit Ring: Seven-Colored Gilding! Nine-Hundred-Ninety-Thousand-Year Ancestral Qilin! (Part 1)

Blood-red runes spread along the stone steps.

Su Chen stepped onto the first stair, and the Void Throne's tremors shifted from intermittent to continuous.

It was not a warning, but resonance.

Something deep within the eighth floor was answering it.

The passage was half as wide as those of the previous seven floors, allowing only one person through at a time. Ancient murals covered both walls, their strokes crude and bold, their pigments long since faded.

After Su Chen took three steps, the murals moved.

Color seeped from the stone walls and flowed like living creatures. The ancient soul beasts in the paintings opened their eyes, while the Legion of All Spirits formed ranks beneath the heavens. Behind their leader rose a Void Throne identical to Su Chen's.

That was the previous Supreme Summoner.

He had led the Legion of All Spirits toward a crack in the sky, battling the descending gods.

Golden divine blood rained upon the earth, and beast souls roared loudly enough to shatter stars. The battlefield in the murals spanned several planes, vast enough to suffocate anyone who looked upon it.

Su Chen did not stop walking, his gaze sweeping over the final mural.

The image froze at the end of the war.

That previous Supreme Summoner had not fallen beneath the gods' attacks. Holding the [Myriad-Realm Summoning God Seal], he turned to face his own Legion of All Spirits—then shattered his own divine core with his own hands.

The shattered divine core became a seal, locking the Lord of All Spirits' Godhood within this inheritance space.

He had not been defeated.

He had committed suicide.

The murals went dark behind Su Chen. White light shone from the end of the passage.

Su Chen stepped off the final stair.

The eighth floor held no altar and