The ten-year deadline for the Tomb of the Gods trial passed in the blink of an eye, bringing it to a hurried close.
Looking back on those full ten years of ups and downs in the Secret Realm, Shiheng's cultivation journey had been full of twists and turns, with danger at every step.
For the first seven years, he had led the others through the successive spaces of the Tomb of the Gods, searching for the true meaning of cultivation amid countless turbulent currents of laws, lying low and building his strength amid endless battles between gods and demons, and growing with wild abandon. Fighting all along the way, he had slain Di Lige, a peak Five-Star Fiend, then defeated Dragon Venerable, a peak Six-Star Fiend now lying low on the Fourteenth Layer, in a fierce head-on battle. As a mere Lowgod who had only just reached the God-level, he had repeatedly pushed the limits of combat strength in the Secret Realm, firmly establishing his cultivation foundations.
But fate was fickle, and his first display of brilliance had been followed by a long period of seclusion.
At the end of the seventh year, he had accidentally entered the forbidden ancient hall on the fifteenth layer and triggered an age-old restriction. The vast, mighty power of the ancient hall had instantly pinned him down, imprisoning his body, divine power, and laws alike, leaving him unable to move.
For two full years, he had been trapped in the ancient hall, unable to take a single step, enduring the endless torment of being crushed by laws.
After surviving two years of deathly silent suppression, Shiheng had seized an opportunity within the laws remaining in the ancient hall and used it to break free. He had then settled into secluded cultivation in the ancient