The Nine Heavens and Ten Lands stretched boundlessly.
As a top-tier greater world that had weathered the wars of the Immortal Ancient Era, this world possessed unfathomable foundations.
Above the firmament, fragments of immortal Dao laws faintly flickered within the densely packed rifts in the void.
The world's will had been fully activated.
The world barrier, which had been on the verge of collapse, slowly but steadily healed under the repairs of the world's vast power.
Meng Tianzheng stood above the Celestial God Academy, his face pale, a trace of understanding appearing in his eyes.
The monster coiled within the chaos had not attacked of its own accord.
It really was only breathing.
The laws of Perfect World were resilient enough to withstand that unconscious pressure.
"Grand Elder, just what is outside our world?"
Wang Changsheng's figure appeared in the void through a Divine Sense projection.
The head of this Immortal Family wore an equally grave expression.
Meng Tianzheng turned, his gaze sweeping over the projections of the Supreme Beings present.
Everyone was waiting for an answer.
Meng Tianzheng drew a deep breath, his voice hoarse.
"It was a scale."
The projections of every Supreme Being present flickered violently at once.
After a brief silence.
Without another word, Wang Changsheng cut off his Divine Sense projection.
The other Supreme Beings also vanished without a trace in an instant.
Probing the details of such a forbidden existence could entangle them in tremendous karma at any moment.
Looking at the empty void, Meng Tianzheng gave a bitter chuckle as well.
He issued his highest directive.
Seal off the Celestial God Academy. No one was permitted to set even half a step into the chaotic region beyond the Nine Heavens.
Meanwhile, Gu Xian remained asleep within the chaos.
His body was simply too enormous.
Even casually coiled, he spanned countless Star Domains.
In his sleep, he instinctively stretched his body.
His Dark Gold dragon tail, stretching an unknown number of tens of millions of miles, slowly drooped along the chaotic currents.
The very tip of his tail accidentally touched a weak point in Perfect World's space.
"Hiss."
With a soft sound that ordinary people could not hear at all.
The spatial barrier was easily pierced.
The edge of a small scale at the very end of Gu Xian's dragon tail extended directly into the Three Thousand Dao Provinces below.
The Three Thousand Dao Provinces, at the Sin Province Border.
This was a vast No-Man's Land, occupied year-round by poisonous miasma and ferocious beasts.
Several days earlier.
Accompanied by the earth shaking and mountains trembling.
A Dark Gold mountain range stretching hundreds of millions of miles had fallen from the sky without warning, slamming firmly into the depths of No-Man's Land.
No one knew how this mountain range had appeared.
Its entire surface bore a suffocating Dark Gold sheen, covered in natural patterns so intricate that they made one's head spin.
This mountain range was far too tall, piercing the clouds and splitting the entire firmament in two.
At the foot of the mountain range.
A backward tribe called "Ancient Barbarian" knelt prostrate together.
The tribal chief was a gaunt old man whose face was covered in totem markings.
He raised both hands high, holding a freshly slaughtered Pure-Blooded Ferocious Beast Descendant.
"Great Guardian Spirit!"
"Please enjoy your offering and protect our people as we survive upon this wilderness!"
The Ancient Barbarian Tribe's original Guardian Spirit had died fighting in a Ferocious Beast Tide not long before.
Just as they faced the danger of annihilation, this Dark Gold Divine Mountain had descended.
The vast, ancient aura radiating from the Divine Mountain had terrified the ferocious beasts within a hundred thousand miles out of their wits, sending them fleeing in every direction.
The Ancient Barbarian Tribe had been saved.
They regarded this Divine Mountain, which defied all common understanding, as a new Guardian Spirit bestowed by heaven.
The chief forcefully splashed the ferocious beast's scalding blood onto the Dark Gold mountainside.
A miraculous scene unfolded.
The moment the blood touched the Dark Gold mountainside, it evaporated into nothingness without leaving so much as a trace.
An exceedingly faint, warm current of air rebounded from the mountain's surface, brushing over every tribesperson present.
The chief's hidden injuries healed instantly.
Several young, strong tribespeople even broke through their cultivation bottlenecks on the spot.
"The Guardian Spirit has manifested its power!"
The entire tribe kowtowed wildly, their eyes filled with fervent faith.
They had no idea at all.
This was no Divine Mountain.
It was merely a tiny portion of a barb on the outermost edge of a scale at the tip of Gu Xian's dragon tail.
As for those healed injuries and cultivation breakthroughs.
They were merely the result of an insignificant wisp of aura inadvertently spilling from the origin Dao resonance inherent in Gu Xian's scale.
Several days later.
A bedraggled figure sped through the sky above No-Man's Land.
It was a youth.
His clothes were ragged, and he carried a broken sword. It was none other than Shi Hao, who had been hunted all the way here.
"Those old dogs of the Heavenly Human Clan really do haunt me like lingering ghosts."
Shi Hao wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, a ruthless glint in his eyes.
Thousands of miles behind him.
A terrifying streak of divine light was rapidly approaching.
It was a Heavenly God Realm elder of the Heavenly Human Clan, dispatched to capture Shi Hao.
"You little bastard, let's see where else you can run!"
The Heavenly God elder's voice exploded across the horizon like thunder.
Shi Hao clenched his teeth, the Supreme Blood within him burning furiously as he tried to widen the distance further.
But the instant he raised his head.
His entire body froze.
Ahead, a Dark Gold barrier with no end in sight abruptly stretched between heaven and earth.
Shi Hao had seen countless famous mountains and great rivers in the Three Thousand Dao Provinces.
But he swore he had never seen terrain so bizarre and oppressive.
Its surface was incomparably smooth, with a metallic texture, and even a single glance at those patterns made his eyes sting.
At that moment, the Supreme Blood within Shi Hao actually began boiling uncontrollably.
It was an instinctive shudder in the face of a superior presence's pressure.
"What exactly is this thing?"
Shi Hao stopped, his eyes fixed on the Dark Gold mountainside ahead.
He activated his Martial Dao Heavenly Eye.
Golden runes flowed through the depths of his eyes.
His gaze pierced the mist on the surface, and Shi Hao finally saw the course of those patterns clearly.
This was no mountain range!
These were clearly the surface features of some living creature!
Shi Hao's breathing instantly quickened, and a chill shot from the soles of his feet straight to the crown of his head.
The Heavenly Human Clan's Heavenly God elder caught up at that moment as well.
He hovered in midair, looking down upon Shi Hao from above.
"Run. Why aren't you running anymore?"
The elder sneered repeatedly, clearly having noticed the Dark Gold mountain range ahead as well.
But he had not activated a heavenly eye and merely took it for an unusual natural sight.
"Since you're done running, obediently meet your end!"
The Heavenly God elder raised his right hand.
Endless divine power gathered in his palm, forming a terrifying magical seal tens of thousands of zhang across.
Bearing the power to destroy heaven and earth, the magical seal smashed viciously down toward Shi Hao.
The attack covered far too large an area.
Even the Dark Gold mountain range behind Shi Hao lay within the magical seal's attack range.
Shi Hao tried to dodge.
But to his horror, he discovered that the surrounding space had already been completely locked down by heavenly god laws.
Just as that magical seal, tens of thousands of zhang across, was about to strike Shi Hao and slam into the Dark Gold mountainside behind him.
Time seemed to stand still.
The magical seal struck the edge of that Dark Gold scale without any suspense.
The anticipated heaven-shattering, earth-rending explosion never came.
There were no energy fluctuations.
Nor was there any flash of light.
The instant that magical seal, containing a Heavenly God's full-powered strike, touched the Dark Gold scale.
Like a snowflake beneath the sun, it melted into nothingness without making so much as a sound.
In midair.
The savage grin on the Heavenly God elder's face froze instantly.
He maintained his pose, pressing down with one hand, his eyes fixed below, his mind utterly blank.
His attack could shatter stars, yet it hadn't even raised a splash?
Before he could wrap his mind around it.
Among the intricate patterns on the Dark Gold mountainside, one faintly lit up with an almost imperceptible glimmer.
It was a purely physical recoil force.
"Hum."
A ripple spread through the void.
The ripple moved far too quickly, ignoring the distance in space as it swept straight over the Heavenly God elder in midair.
The elder did not even have time to scream.
His protective divine light, his Heavenly God Artifact, and his mighty Heavenly God body.
Before this recoil ripple, they were as fragile as a castle on the beach.
A gentle breeze blew past.
The Heavenly God elder's entire body turned to ash that filled the sky and scattered with the wind.
Not even a drop of blood remained.
Below, Shi Hao stared upward, his mouth slightly open.
He had watched with his own eyes as a lofty Heavenly God simply evaporated from the world.
The entire process had taken less than a single breath.
The Dark Gold mountain range still stood there quietly.
It had unleashed no divine abilities.
Nor had there been any fluctuations of Great Dao laws.
It had merely passively received a blow, then rebounded it through the hardness of its own material.
And a Heavenly God was gone.
Shi Hao swallowed with difficulty.
He turned his head and looked once more at the Dark Gold Divine Mountain worshipped as a Guardian Spirit by the surrounding tribes.
This was absolutely no natural wonder.
This was part of some living, forbidden existence!
Shi Hao's instincts screamed a frantic warning.
Get away from here.
I must get away from here immediately.
At the same time.
As Gu Xian slept within the Chaos Void, his enormous body moved unconsciously once more.
[Sleeping Task in progress.] [Current Deep Sleep State: good.]
Gu Xian slept very comfortably.
To him, an attack of that level did not even count as a mosquito bite.
It had not even scraped through the outermost layer of dead skin on his body.
He remained immersed in perfect sleep, waiting for the moment the countdown ended.
A breeze swept across the wilderness at the edge of the Sin Province Border.
The ashes of the Heavenly God elder scattered on the wind, failing to stir even a trace of a heavenly phenomenon. His death caused not the slightest ripple.
Shi Hao stood where he was and swallowed with difficulty.
He turned his head and looked once more at the Dark Gold Divine Mountain before which the Ancient Barbarian Tribe knelt in worship.
His gaze climbed along the mountainside, piercing the clouds before disappearing into the fierce winds above the nine heavens.
This was no naturally formed Divine Mountain at all.
It was a section of a living body!
Just a single scale on its skin stretched across a hundred thousand li of land!
"What the hell kind of creature is this?"
Shi Hao forcibly suppressed the trembling in his heart and cautiously edged forward.
He dared not fly into the sky, afraid of drawing this unknown being's attention.
The chief of the Ancient Barbarian Tribe was leading over a thousand tribespeople in pouring bucket after bucket of Ferocious Beast true blood along the edge of the Dark Gold mountain.
The blood evaporated instantly.
Wisps of gentle life essence flowed back down, turning into a sky full of radiant rain.
Mysterious totems appeared on the skin of the Ancient Barbarian tribespeople bathed in that radiant rain, and their auras climbed steadily.
Shi Hao's eyelids twitched wildly at the sight.
This mere wisp of essence that casually leaked out was actually purer than those legendary sacred medicines!
He quietly took out a drab gray stone. It was the God-Striking Stone.
"Ow! Who disturbed my sweet dreams?"
The God-Striking Stone had barely emerged and had yet to complain when Shi Hao grabbed it and pointed ahead.
"Go on, take a bite and test how hard it is."
The God-Striking Stone looked in the direction of Shi Hao's finger.
It took only one glance.
This wondrous stone, which claimed it could smash through anything and dared to strike even Gods, actually began trembling violently in Shi Hao's palm.
"You... you want me to bite that?"
The God-Striking Stone's voice cracked.
"The Dao resonance on that thing is ten thousand times more terrifying than immortal gold! You're sending me to my death!"
"Shut up. I'm not asking you to actually bite it. Go sense its aura," Shi Hao scolded in a low voice.
The God-Striking Stone floated over, trembling with fear.
It did not even dare approach the Dark Gold scales, stopping a hundred zhang away.
Suddenly, the God-Striking Stone let out a scream like a pig being slaughtered.
"My teeth!"
It shot backward as though electrocuted, burrowing straight into Shi Hao's robes and refusing to come out no matter what.
"That thing is alive! The physical pressure it gives off naturally was enough to crack my true body!"
"Run! Don't stay here!"
Shi Hao's heart shook violently.
It had not even touched it, yet the physical pressure from a hundred zhang away had cracked the God-Striking Stone?
He finally understood exactly how that Heavenly God elder had died.
An ant had rammed headfirst into an iron plate and smashed itself to pieces.
Shi Hao took a deep breath and solemnly bowed toward the Dark Gold mountain, then turned and left without hesitation.
This unknown "guardian spirit" was absolutely not to be provoked.
At the same time.
In the Three Thousand Dao Provinces, in the Heavenly Human Clan's ancestral grounds.
Inside an ancient hall housing the life tablets of the clan's powerful cultivators.
Crack!
A crisp snap broke the hall's deathly silence.
The disciple responsible for guarding the life tablets looked up. His face instantly went deathly pale, and his legs gave way as he fell to his knees.
Among the highest row of jade tablets, a life tablet engraved with a Heavenly God mark had shattered completely into powder.
"The elder has fallen!"
The shrill cry rang throughout the Heavenly Human Clan.
Before long, several terrifying auras descended upon the hall.
At their head was an old man with white hair and beard, powerful fluctuations of the Self-Severing Realm surrounding him.
As he looked at the shattered life tablet, terrifying killing intent burst from his clouded eyes.
"Who dares kill a Heavenly God of our Heavenly Human Clan in Sin Province?"
"Activate the inter-province teleportation array immediately!"
"Mobilize the clan's warship. I will go to Sin Province myself and rip out that little bastard Shi Hao's soul and refine it!"
Amid a thunderous rumble.
A bronze warship a thousand zhang long rose into the air, tore through the void, and headed straight for Sin Province.
Just as undercurrents stirred throughout the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands because of a corner of a dragon's tail.
On the far shore of the Boundary Sea.
The Foreign Realm.
This was a vast, boundless great realm shrouded in dark matter year-round.
Countless immortal families and royal clans lived and flourished here.
At the center of the Foreign Realm.
An ancient chariot stood in the void.
Pulling it was a terrifying Ferocious Beast resembling an ancient wild bull, every breath accompanied by thunderbolts springing into being and dying away.
Upon the chariot sat a figure of boundless grandeur.
An Lan, the Immortal King of the Foreign Realm.
With one hand resting on a golden spear and his eyes half-closed, he was divining the timing of the next assault on the Imperial Pass.
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