Chapter 1: A hundred thousand years in the forbidden land, emerging to shake the nine heavens
The nine heavens stretched boundless, the myriad worlds vast.
Since the collapse of the Primordial Antiquity Epoch, the close of High Antiquity, and the passage of the Middle Antiquity years into the present, it was now the 3,721st year of the High Antiquity era.
The territories of the heavens were boundless, with countless races, thousands of sects, and rising prodigies. Mighty figures contended for supremacy, war intertwined with fortuitous opportunities, and slaughter coexisted with Dao resonance.
Yet within the All Heavens and Myriad Worlds lay a place that, since time immemorial, no cultivator, member of the Demon Race, holy land, or even Great Emperor-level existence dared lightly set foot in.
Its name was-the God-Burying Abyss.
The God-Burying Abyss spanned thirty thousand li. Its depths were pitch-black, its ever-present black mist roiling with a power of annihilation that even Great Emperors feared. Legend held that a deity-level existence had once strayed inside, leaving not even bones behind, its very soul utterly erased.
Across the ages, countless prodigies had sought to venture deep into the God-Burying Abyss in search of fortuitous opportunities, yet without exception, all had perished in the black mist outside the abyss, without stirring so much as a ripple.
Over time, the God-Burying Abyss became universally acknowledged as the foremost forbidden land of the All Heavens and Myriad Worlds.
Within the forbidden land, not a blade of grass grew. Boundless deathly silence reigned, and even the flow of time differed entirely from the outside world.
No one knew that in the deepest reaches of the God-Burying Abyss, inside a tiny stone house that even the black mist could not corrode, sat a man.
A man who had sat there for a full hundred thousand years.
The stone house was crude, built from ordinary bluestone, with no formations reinforcing it and no Dao resonance flowing through it. It looked utterly unremarkable, like the crudest dwelling among mortals.
At its center, a figure dressed in plain white robes sat cross-legged.
The man appeared no older than twenty, his face extraordinarily handsome, his features like Heaven's most perfect masterpiece, without the slightest flaw. His skin gleamed white as jade, and his loose hair spilled casually over his shoulders to his waist, its strands lustrous black and untouched by a speck of dust.
His eyes were closed, his breathing steady and deep. Not the slightest fluctuation of Spiritual Qi surrounded him, nor did the faintest presence of a powerful cultivator escape him. He looked like a mortal without any cultivation, sitting quietly as though he had become one with the stone house.
He was Lin Chen.
A hundred thousand years ago, Lin Chen had been nothing more than an ordinary young man on Earth. After an accident, his soul transmigrated into this vast world of immortal cultivation, and upon arrival, he happened to land in the God-Burying Abyss.
Just as he thought death was certain, the Myriad Worlds Sign-in System successfully bound to him.
[Ding! Host detected within the foremost forbidden land of the heavens: the God-Burying Abyss. Sign-in conditions met. Perform your first sign-in?]
Facing this unfamiliar and dangerous world, Lin Chen had chosen to sign in without hesitation.
[Ding! First sign-in successful. Reward: chaos Dao physique (perfected)!] [Ding! Chaos Dao physique automatically integrated. Host's physical body has transcended mortality, with Immunity to All Techniques and immunity to all poisons!]
His very first sign-in had directly granted Lin Chen one of the finest constitutions in the All Heavens and Myriad Worlds, the chaos Dao physique-and in its perfected state!
In this world, constitutions ranged from mortal bodies to spirit bodies, sacred bodies, emperor bodies, and finally the legendary chaos bodies, with a gulf as vast as heaven and earth between every rank.
Even an ordinary chaos body was enough to make the holy lands of the heavens fight until their heads bled to claim it, let alone a perfected chaos Dao physique-a supreme constitution that existed only in legend, scarcely found throughout the ages.
Yet from the very beginning, Lin Chen had stood at a finish line countless cultivators could never reach in their entire lives.
But Lin Chen had understood all too well how dangerous this world was.
The weak were prey to the strong, strength reigned supreme, and killing for treasures or seizing souls and bodies was an everyday occurrence.
If word of his chaos Dao physique leaked out, not only holy land ancestors and Demon Race Great Emperors, but even ordinary prodigies would stop at nothing to kill him and plunder his constitution.
No one understood better than Lin Chen that possessing a precious jade could itself be a crime.
Thus, he had made a decision-hide.
He would hide in the depths of the God-Burying Abyss, never venturing out, never showing himself, and never contacting anyone, quietly signing in and quietly growing stronger.
The system's sign-in rules were simple: he could sign in once each day, and different locations yielded different rewards.
As the foremost forbidden land of the heavens, the God-Burying Abyss offered sign-in rewards far richer than Lin Chen had imagined.
On the first day, he signed in and received a perfected chaos Dao physique.
On the second day, he signed in and received the supreme cultivation method, the Chaos World-Creation Instruction (perfected).
On the third day, he signed in and received an innate supreme treasure-the Chaos Green Lotus!
On the fourth day, he signed in and received a Great Emperor-level divine ability-the Heaven-Opening Fist!
On the fifth day, he signed in and received a hundred thousand years of lifespan!
Day after day, year after year.
Spring departed and autumn arrived, cold gave way to heat, the years flowed, and seas became mulberry fields.
The outside world underwent generation after generation of change. Holy lands rose and fell, Great Emperors emerged and passed away in seated meditation, prodigies appeared in succession and met their ends, myriad races waged ceaseless war, and epochs continued to turn.
Yet within the stone house deep in the God-Burying Abyss, Lin Chen remained seated cross-legged, signing in day after day.
Ten years, a hundred years, a thousand years, ten thousand years...
His sign-in rewards piled up like mountains.
Constitutions: chaos Dao physique, primordial Dao body, origin Dao body, primordial antiquity Dao body... he had obtained them all in perfected form through sign-ins. His physical body had long surpassed the limits of deities; a raised hand could shatter stars, and a stamp of his foot could tear the heavens apart.
Cultivation methods: the Chaos World-Creation Instruction, the Primordial Creation Scripture, the Origin Indestructibility Canon... every one was a supreme cultivation method of the heavens, and he had cultivated them all to great perfection. His soul was powerful enough to encompass the entire All Heavens and Myriad Worlds, and a single thought could discern past and future.
Divine artifacts: the Chaos Green Lotus, the Heaven-Opening Axe, the Jade Disc of Creation, the Immortal-Slaying Sword Formation... he possessed countless innate supreme treasures and chaos supreme treasures. Any single one casually brought out could drive the Great Emperors outside to slaughter one another in a frenzy, until blood flowed in rivers.
Divine abilities: the Heaven-Opening Fist, the World-Creation Palm, the Creation Finger, the Immortal-Slaying Sword Technique... he had thoroughly mastered hundreds of millions of supreme divine abilities, and any casually employed possessed the might to destroy heaven and earth.
Pills: the Nine-Transformation Golden Core, the Primordial Creation Pill, the Undying Longevity Pill... pills that could turn someone into a Great Emperor on the spot with a single dose were so plentiful in Lin Chen's possession that he could eat them like candy.
Spirit Stones, immortal herbs, divine materials, cultivation method fragments, Great Emperor inheritances, the Principles of the heavens...
Almost every treasure that existed in this world had been obtained by Lin Chen through sign-ins, all in their highest-grade, most perfected forms.
His cultivation had long broken through this world's limits, surpassing Great Emperors and deities to reach a realm even the system could not label.
In a single sentence-throughout heaven and earth, he alone reigned supreme; throughout the All Heavens and Myriad Worlds, none could rival him!
A hundred thousand years of sign-ins had given Lin Chen reserves of unimaginable depth.
He was like an invincible divine mountain that had slumbered for countless ages, seemingly calm and still, yet capable of overturning the entire All Heavens and Myriad Worlds in an instant once he erupted.
Throughout those hundred thousand years, Lin Chen had remained true to his original heart, never taking a step outside the stone house or revealing the slightest trace of his presence.
He was waiting.
Waiting for a suitable moment to emerge.
That day.
Outside the God-Burying Abyss, the wind and clouds changed color.
Three streaks of rainbow light spanning a thousand li cut across the sky, descending outside the God-Burying Abyss's black mist with overwhelming pressure.
The rainbow light dispersed, revealing three figures.
Their leader was an old man dressed in purple-and-gold Daoist robes, his face aged and his hair and beard white. Spiritual Qi surged around him like rivers and seas, and divine light flashed as his eyes opened and closed. The presence he radiated made the void within ten thousand li tremble faintly.
He was Daoist Zixu, a supreme elder of the Mystic Heaven Holy Land, whose cultivation had reached the half-emperor realm, just one step from the Great Emperor realm!
Beside Daoist Zixu stood two young people, a man and a woman.
The man wore white robes, his expression haughty and his gaze disdainful, sacred radiance surrounding him. He was Bai Zixuan, the foremost prodigy of the Mystic Heaven Holy Land's current generation. Having reached the saint king realm at such a young age, he was hailed as a genius seen only once in ten thousand years in the Mystic Heaven Holy Land.
The woman wore a pink dress, her beauty exquisite, her figure graceful, and her bearing cool. She was Su Qingyue, the holy maiden of the Mystic Heaven Holy Land, whose cultivation had likewise reached the saint king realm. Together with Bai Zixuan, she was known as one of Mystic Heaven's Twin Prodigies, and she was a goddess in the hearts of countless cultivators.
Upon landing, all three looked toward the churning, pitch-black mist before them, a trace of apprehension in their eyes, but far more greed.
"Supreme Elder, rumor has it that the depths of the God-Burying Abyss hold the inheritance of a Great Emperor from High Antiquity, and even traces of a chaos supreme treasure. Is this true?" Bai Zixuan asked with cupped hands, unable to conceal his excitement.
Daoist Zixu nodded slowly, gazing deeply into the God-Burying Abyss's black mist as he said gravely, "I spent a hundred years divining heaven's secrets before confirming that a Great Emperor's fortuitous opportunity has indeed emerged in the depths of the God-Burying Abyss. Its grade is extremely high, far beyond any ordinary Great Emperor inheritance!"
"Our Mystic Heaven Holy Land has lain dormant for too long. If we obtain this fortuitous opportunity, our holy land will surely leap into the ranks of the heavens' foremost holy lands, standing above all races!"
Su Qingyue's beautiful eyes shifted slightly as she said softly, "But Elder, the God-Burying Abyss is the foremost forbidden land of the heavens. Throughout the ages, none who entered have returned alive. Wouldn't entering rashly be too dangerous?"
"Dangerous?" Daoist Zixu sneered. "Riches and glory are sought amid danger. Fortuitous opportunities have always come hand in hand with peril! The God-Burying Abyss's power of annihilation has now weakened to its lowest point in all the ages. This is the best possible time to enter!"
"My half-emperor cultivation is enough to keep you both safe. So long as we proceed cautiously into the abyss's depths, we will surely seize the fortuitous opportunity!"
A flicker of fervor flashed through Bai Zixuan's eyes. "The Elder is right! What harm is there in taking a little risk if we can obtain a Great Emperor's inheritance? Once I obtain it and break through to the Great Emperor realm, I'll sweep aside the prodigies of the heavens, and no one will stop me!"
After a brief discussion, the three hesitated no longer.
Daoist Zixu waved a hand, and a purple barrier of light enveloped the three of them, holding back the annihilating black mist outside the God-Burying Abyss. Then he stepped forward into the mist.
The black mist churned with a sizzling sound, constantly corroding the purple barrier. Even a defense erected by a half-emperor trembled faintly before this power of annihilation, threatening to shatter at any moment.
"What terrifying power of annihilation!" Su Qingyue's face paled slightly, and she inwardly counted herself fortunate. Without the supreme elder's protection, she would likely have been reduced to drifting ash by the black mist in an instant.
Bai Zixuan, too, restrained his arrogance and followed closely behind Daoist Zixu, not daring the slightest carelessness.
The three advanced step by step. The farther they ventured into the God-Burying Abyss, the thicker the black mist grew and the more terrifying its power of annihilation became. The surrounding temperature dropped to an extreme, freezing even the void solid.
After they had walked for an unknown length of time, the black mist ahead finally began to thin.
An open stretch of flat bluestone appeared before them.
And at its center stood that exceedingly crude little bluestone house.
"Is that... a stone house?"
Bai Zixuan's eyes widened in disbelief. "How could there be a stone house deep in the God-Burying Abyss? Impossible! Throughout the ages, no record has ever mentioned a human dwelling here!"
Su Qingyue's beautiful eyes likewise widened, her heart shaken to the extreme.
A human-built stone house actually stood in the deepest reaches of the heavens' foremost forbidden land. Such a thing was simply unheard of and unseen!
Daoist Zixu's pupils contracted sharply as well. He stared fixedly at the stone house, his breathing quickening. "The fortuitous opportunity! It must be inside that stone house! This house must be where a Great Emperor from High Antiquity passed away in seated meditation!"
Wild joy filled his heart. Unable to restrain himself any longer, he darted toward the stone house.
Bai Zixuan and Su Qingyue exchanged a glance and hurried after him.
The three soon reached the stone house's door.
It was an ordinary wooden door, without any lock, standing ajar. A gentle push would open it.
Standing before it, Daoist Zixu drew a deep breath, suppressed his excitement, and slowly reached out to push the wooden door open.
Creak-
A faint sound rang out in the deathly silence deep within the God-Burying Abyss.
As the wooden door opened, everything inside came into view.
There was none of the imagined splendor, no mountains of treasures, no powerful formations, and no terrifying Dao resonance.
There was only a simple stone table, a stone stool, and a white-robed young man sitting cross-legged in the center.
The young man sat quietly with his eyes closed, not the slightest fluctuation of Spiritual Qi around him, looking like a mortal without any cultivation.
"Hm?"
Daoist Zixu and the other two froze.
They had imagined countless possibilities: a Great Emperor inheritance hidden within the stone house, a chaos supreme treasure, a divine beast from High Antiquity, an unparalleled cultivation method...
But the one thing they had never imagined was that a living, breathing person would be sitting inside!
And a seemingly ordinary young man without any cultivation at that!
"Who are you?!"
Daoist Zixu was the first to recover. His expression darkened, and his half-emperor pressure erupted, bearing down on Lin Chen as he demanded sharply.
Bai Zixuan and Su Qingyue, both saint kings, instantly tensed, watching Lin Chen warily, ready to strike at any moment.
A mysterious young man appearing in the depths of this age-old forbidden land seemed eerie no matter how they looked at it.
Facing Daoist Zixu's demand and the half-emperor pressure capable of crushing countless saint kings, Lin Chen remained motionless with his eyes closed, as though he had felt no threat and heard no sound.
A hundred thousand years.
For a full hundred thousand years, he had not seen another living person.
To him, sounds from outside were like the buzzing of insects, insignificant.
Seeing Lin Chen ignore him, Daoist Zixu's expression immediately grew uglier.
He was a supreme elder of the Mystic Heaven Holy Land, a half-emperor, a renowned figure throughout the All Heavens and Myriad Worlds. Wherever he went, who did not treat him with reverence?
Now, a seemingly uncultivated mortal was actually ignoring him. How could he endure it?
"Insolence! I am speaking to you, yet you dare pretend to be deaf and mute!"
Daoist Zixu roared in anger, raising his hand and striking his palm toward Lin Chen.
Wind howled beneath his palm as half-emperor power poured forth, enough to kill a saint king with ease. Even an ordinary half-saint would be smashed into bloody pulp by a single strike!
He paid Lin Chen no regard whatsoever. In his eyes, Lin Chen was either a mortal who had wandered into this place or some weak cultivator who had survived through sheer luck, someone he could casually crush.
Bai Zixuan and Su Qingyue stood aside, watching coldly without the slightest intention of intervening.
In their eyes, Lin Chen was an insignificant nobody. If he died, so be it.
Facing this fatal palm strike, Lin Chen finally opened his eyes slowly.
What kind of eyes were they?
Clear, calm, without sorrow or joy, as though they contained the sun, moon, stars, and the All Heavens and Myriad Worlds, yet also as though they held nothing at all, clear as a mirror.
The very instant he opened his eyes.
Boom-!
An invisible force instantly spread from within Lin Chen.
It was not Spiritual Qi, not Dao resonance, not pressure.
It was an invincible will that stood above all things!
This will seemed gentle, yet weighed as much as hundreds of millions of stars, crushing everything and shattering everything!
The force of Daoist Zixu's palm instantly shattered upon touching that will, dissolving into nothingness!
Immediately afterward, Daoist Zixu's entire body froze in midair, as though seized in the vicious grip of an enormous invisible hand, unable to move. The anger on his face instantly stiffened, replaced by utter terror and horror!
Before this will, his half-emperor cultivation could not withstand a single blow!
His soul, his physical body, and his cultivation all seemed utterly imprisoned. He could not move a single finger or summon even a trace of Spiritual Qi!
Wh-what power is this?!
Daoist Zixu screamed inwardly, terrified to the extreme.
He had lived for thousands of years, seen Great Emperors, deities, and countless peerless powerhouses, yet he had never felt power so terrifying, so supreme, so invincible!
Before this power, the half-emperor cultivation he took such pride in was as insignificant as an ant!
Bai Zixuan and Su Qingyue collapsed directly to the ground, trembling all over, without even the courage to lift their heads and glance at Lin Chen.
Before Lin Chen, their saint king cultivation did not amount to even a speck of dust!
The entire stone house instantly fell deathly silent.
A falling pin could have been heard.
Lin Chen slowly raised his head, his calm gaze passing over the three without the slightest emotional fluctuation, as though looking at three insignificant ants.
A hundred thousand years.
At last, he had opened his eyes.
After a hundred thousand years of signing in, his foundations were complete, and he was invincible throughout All Heavens.
It was time to step out of this God-Burying Abyss and see the world outside.
Lin Chen slowly rose to his feet.
It was just a simple movement of standing up.
BOOM-!!!
The entire God-Burying Abyss suddenly trembled violently!
The pitch-black mist spanning thirty thousand li instantly dispersed without a trace!
The power of annihilation in the eternal forbidden land was utterly extinguished!
Countless enormous fissures split open at the bottom of the God-Burying Abyss. The earth collapsed, the void shattered, and even the laws of this world made way for him!
Outside, across the All Heavens and Myriad Worlds.
Cultivators of the myriad races waging war, sacred land patriarchs in secluded cultivation, prodigies discussing the Dao, ancient Great Emperors deep in slumber...
At that moment, everyone felt awe and trembling from the depths of their souls!
An indescribable, invincible presence soared into the sky from the direction of the God-Burying Abyss, pierced the nine heavens, swept across All Heavens, and enveloped the entire Myriad Worlds!
"What... is that presence?!"
"How terrifying! My soul is trembling! A supreme existence has emerged!"
"The God-Burying Abyss! That presence came from the God-Burying Abyss! Just what kind of existence has emerged from that eternal forbidden land?!"
"Invincible! This is a truly invincible presence! Beyond Great Emperors, beyond gods!"
"All Heavens will be turned upside down! A supreme existence has emerged!"
The entire All Heavens and Myriad Worlds instantly erupted!
Countless cultivators raised their heads to the sky, their gazes turning in unison toward the God-Burying Abyss, their eyes filled with awe, fear, and shock.
Meanwhile, inside the stone hut deep within the God-Burying Abyss.
His white robes fluttering, Lin Chen took a step and walked out of the stone hut.
His footfall was casual and effortless.
Yet it seemed to land upon the very heart of the All Heavens and Myriad Worlds.
Daoist Zixu and his two companions lay collapsed on the ground. As they watched that white-robed figure, nothing remained in their hearts but endless terror and despair.
They had thought themselves prodigies who had come to seize a fortuitous opportunity, never expecting to disturb an invincible true god who had slumbered for a hundred thousand years!
Lin Chen stood outside the stone hut, his gaze turned toward the distant horizon, a faint smile curling at the corners of his mouth.
"A hundred thousand years of signing in is enough."
"From this day onward, All Heavens and Myriad Worlds, I, Lin Chen, have arrived."
"Upon emerging, I am invincible!"
His voice was not loud, yet it rang clearly throughout the entire God-Burying Abyss, across hundreds of millions of li, and throughout the entire All Heavens and Myriad Worlds!
The instant his words fell.
Lin Chen took a step, and his figure vanished from where he stood.
All that remained were Daoist Zixu and his two companions, collapsed on the ground with faces ashen as death, and a small bluestone hut that had returned to deathly silence.
And the boundless, towering waves stirred across the entire All Heavens and Myriad Worlds by his emergence!