Mars lay beside Emperor Venerable's ancestral star. It was an ancient world covered in blood-red soil, with almost no spiritual energy of heaven and earth. Its mountains were barren, its great rivers had run dry, and not even half a dragon vein remained beneath its boundless lands.
At first glance, it was a dry, impoverished planet, no different from the countless barren stars scattered throughout the universe, with nothing whatsoever to recommend it.
Yet closer inspection revealed that Mars was no ordinary dead world. It had once enjoyed a glorious, dazzling past. Those endless barren mountains were not worthless mortal ridges, but "dead dragons," long since withered, their bones buried here.
In other words, Yinghuo Ancient Star had once flourished, only to suffer an unimaginable catastrophe. The essence of this life-bearing star had dried up, its dragon veins had all perished, and its cultivation traditions had collapsed. No cultivator had been willing to remain here any longer.
Over a hundred thousand years ago, this place had also served as a battlefield for the mightiest beings. Its former glory and splendor were gone, leaving only earth stained black by the blood spilled in those battles, along with buried ruins that spoke of its past.
"A life-bearing source star that met its destruction, and one of the battlefields of the Mythical Era."
The Qilin Emperor had evidently never visited Yinghuo Ancient Star. After Yuangeng brought him here, he studied it carefully for a long time before reaching that conclusion.
As he spoke, the old qilin extended a large hand. The black-and-red earth immediately trembled, and he unearthed an ancient broken artifact from beneath the bloodstained strata.
It was a fragment gleaming silver all over, its edges razor-sharp. Deep, intricate runes were engraved intermittently across its surface. Though broken, it still retained some of its divine power.
"A fragment of a Quasi-Emperor-class warship, with even some divine mark purple gold mixed into it. It must have been a vessel capable of crossing the starry skies, yet someone crushed it. Not a single living being aboard survived."
The Qilin Emperor sighed. A Quasi-Emperor-class warship like this, carrying several Great Saints and a dozen or so Saint Kings, could have assaulted almost any life-bearing star beneath the heavens with little resistance. Yet it had fallen here, utterly powerless to resist, crushed outright into fragments of metal and flesh.
"You've never been here?" Yuangeng asked, somewhat surprised.
"If Yinghuo Ancient Star were a life-bearing source star like the Primordial World, I might have come to take a look. But a dead star like this was merely one of the battlefields of the God War. I've only heard of it," the Qilin Emperor said, shaking his head.
An emperor's lifespan was naturally long, but the universe was simply too vast. Even an emperor could not set foot on every star in existence. That was far too unrealistic.
"What a pity."
Yuangeng also strolled leisurely across Yinghuo Ancient Star. This was the Primordial Era, and many events from the original story had yet to occur. There was no Great Thunderclap Temple here, no eighteen levels of hell, and no vengeful ghost of a great accomplishment sacred body. To an emperor, this place posed no threat at all.
"There's nothing to regret. This star is withering, with no hope of recovery." The Qilin Emperor narrowed his eyes, then suddenly seemed to think of something and frowned. "Did the supremes on Flying Immortal Star reveal something to you?"
Yuangeng led the Qilin Emperor across Yinghuo Ancient Star's surface. In just two steps, they reached its northernmost reaches. An ocean had once stretched across this place, but now it had dried up, leaving only red sand filling the sky and obscuring everything.
Soon, the two arrived before a blood-colored mountain. Yuangeng casually moved the hundred-thousand-zhang peak aside, revealing a pitch-black cavern. This was Mars's sea eye, cold and sinister, seemingly connected to hell:
"The Mars Sea Eye. This place leads to the source of the God War."
There was a hint of a smile in Yuangeng's voice. His attitude pleased the Qilin Emperor greatly. He felt that this friend of his truly knew how to treat a friend: whenever he encountered some great secret hidden through the ages, he never kept it to himself, but took the initiative to bring him along.
"There's a seal inside. I'll clear the way."
The old emperor drew a deep breath, and his gray hair instantly turned azure. He stirred the Extreme Dao blood within his chest, his aura rapidly rising to its peak, then used the Qilin Step to stride into the depths of the sea eye.
The two descended deep underground. Soon, they felt a powerful fluctuation blocking their path. Formation patterns at their own level emerged, interweaving in dense layers and sealing off everything beyond.
"Flawless emperor formation patterns?"
The Qilin Emperor raised an eyebrow, clearly delighted. Imperial Dao formation patterns blocking their path meant that the hidden realm they were exploring was of a very high order, with something extraordinary buried within.
"Dao Severs Two Realms!"
He acted at once. To a reigning emperor, an emperor's formation was hardly an insoluble problem. He raised a hand and swept it forcefully across the void, making the Imperial Dao formation patterns tremble violently. After several such sweeps, the formation shattered and dispersed completely.
With another step, both Yuangeng and the Qilin Emperor felt the space before them suddenly open up. Deep beneath Mars lay an entirely new world. It was boundlessly vast, and all they could see was a pitch-black ocean with no end in sight.
The two gazed down. Who knew what sinister taint had stained that black ocean? There was not a trace of life within it. Vast quantities of death energy surged through its towering waves, suffocating in their intensity.
"Extreme Dao supremes died here, and more than one."
The moment he arrived, the Qilin Emperor sensed the terrifying presence of death. Only the deaths of Extreme Dao supremes here could have given rise to such an immense land of death.
"This realm... must have been one of the Supreme Battlefields during the God War."
Meanwhile, Yuangeng also had his suspicions. Fierce light blazed in his eyes, allowing him to see the countless broken corpses and weapon fragments floating in the Black Sea. All of them were at least at the Great Saint level, but their vital essence had long since dried up, leaving only boundless death.
"Come on, let's look deeper inside!"
The Qilin Emperor grew eager and flew toward the depths of the Black Sea first. At his level, few places could inspire anticipation or satisfaction in him. Only an adventure involving cultivators of his own level could excite him like this.
His imposing might clearly stirred the waves of the Black Sea. Black water surged, and death energy shot into the sky. One monster after another, formed from fused Great Saint and Quasi-Emperor corpses and weapons, rose from the black tide. They actually took the initiative to attack, seeking to block the Qilin Emperor's path.
"Who created such a sinister place?"
The Qilin Emperor stared at those dead beasts in disgust. He pondered the matter. So many Great Saint corpses and fragments of Quasi-Emperor Weapons could not have appeared casually. It seemed someone had deliberately piled them together to create this sea of death.
"Roar!"
Of course, all of them were mere dung and dust to him. A qilin's roar erupted from his mouth, and billions of li of the Black Sea evaporated beneath his imperial might. Azure imperial flames devoured the monsters, leaving not a speck of residue.
The two pressed onward and soon reached the deepest part of the Black Sea. This place was unusual, with corpses piled densely together. Upon closer inspection, they proved to be Quasi-Emperor corpses, every last one drained of vital essence and heaped like garbage around the outskirts of a palace, where they were rotting.
"So it's true. There really was a hidden hand behind the God War. With so many Quasi-Emperor remains, I refuse to believe they all died here!"
The Qilin Emperor gazed toward the distant island where the palace stood. It was almost buried beneath Quasi-Emperor corpses, and the thick stench of decay made him frown deeply.
What unsettled him even more was that an even more powerful aura of death seemed to be surging inside the palace. Its intensity far surpassed that of the Quasi-Emperor corpses, as though it belonged to a far stronger being.
"You should be very familiar with the hidden hand behind the God War. He is none other than the god of your Myriad Races from the beginning of this era."
Yuangeng narrowed his eyes at the distant palace. He could sense a terrifying aura reviving in its depths, seemingly because of their arrival, awakening from an age-long slumber.
Then Yuangeng reached out and clapped the Qilin Emperor firmly on the shoulder, his voice brimming with trust:
"Fellow Daoist Huo, go kill the Undying Heavenly Emperor!"
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