Douluo Continent.
"Heaven, Burial Heaven Island?"
Inside Spirit Hall, in the bedchamber of the Pope's Palace.
Dressed in a purple gauze nightgown, Bibi Dong sat languidly by the window, gazing at the scene presented in the Heavenly Screen's livestream, a trace of gravity on her exquisite face.
That towering stone stele, similar to the one seen in the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Land, likewise stood majestically.
But more eye-catching still was the vast mountain range behind it.
The mountain range's outline resembled a gigantic coffin, exuding an air of desolation from time immemorial.
Around the mountain range, nine branches wound like dragons, extending out from the main ridge.
Their imposing grandeur seemed capable of suppressing the entire starry sky beneath them.
"These mountain ranges..."
Bibi Dong's dark brows knitted slightly. As the Rakshasa God's inheritor, her perception far surpassed that of ordinary people.
She vaguely sensed that these nine mountain ranges had not formed naturally; their arrangement secretly accorded with some profound truth.
The dragons' heads all faced the void, while their tails connected tightly to the central, coffin-like main ridge, forming a heart-palpitating "Nine Dragons Pulling a Coffin" formation.
Amid the swirling clouds and mist, the entire mountain radiated an indescribable majesty and pressure.
"The last thing that made me feel such intense pressure through an image alone was that Desolate Ancient Forbidden Land..."
Bibi Dong murmured, her fingertips lightly tapping the window frame:
"Heaven, Burial Heaven Island..."
"What an overbearing name. Does it intend to bury even Heaven?"
The Far North.
A world of ten-thousand-year-old permafrost, eternally sealed in ice.
The Ice Empress, an Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion whose entire body was translucent as jade and radiated the utmost chill, raised her pincer and gently touched the even more ethereal and powerful figure beside her.
"Sister, why do I feel an instinctive fear when I look at Burial Heaven Island?"
The Ice Empress's voice brimmed with curiosity.
The one she asked was the true ruler of the Far North, the Snow Empress, ranked third among the Ten Great Ferocious Beasts.
The Snow Empress was a being born of heaven and earth, condensed from the purest ice-attribute primordial power of heaven and earth in the Extreme North Core Circle, with an incomparably ethereal bearing and world-toppling beauty.
At those words, her cool gaze swept across the Heavenly Screen, a barely perceptible trace of gravity in her eyes.
"It isn't just you..."
"There is definitely a powerful Soul Beast on Burial Heaven Island!"
The Snow Empress's voice was like ice and snow colliding, crisp and cold.
But soon, she paused and turned toward the Ice Empress, a trace of worry flashing through her ice-blue eyes:
"Bing'er, you still have the leisure to concern yourself with these things? Your next heavenly tribulation is already imminent."
"Heavenly tribulation..."
Hearing those words, the curiosity in the Ice Empress's eyes was instantly replaced by deep anxiety.
Over her long life of four hundred thousand years, she had already endured several heavenly tribulations, each time hovering on the brink of life and death.
The next heavenly tribulation would only be more terrifying.
She sighed, her jade-like body seeming to dim a little. "Ah, if only there were some way to safely survive this heavenly tribulation, or... avoid it."
With that thought, she cast her gaze toward the Heavenly Screen again. "Could there... be... a thread of hope there?"
A corridor at Eastsea Academy.
"Gu Yue, look!"
At that moment, Tang Wulin had already hurried back from outside, his face a mixture of excitement and regret.
Pointing at the Heavenly Screen's livestream, he said to the cool and aloof "Gu Yue" beside him, "It's that Xu Han!"
"He was right in front of me when-whoosh-the golden light carried him away!"
"It was so close! If that pillar of light had shifted just a tiny bit, I might have been chosen instead! What a shame!"
At his words, "Gu Yue" did not turn her ice-blue eyes toward the excited Tang Wulin. Instead, she stared fixedly at Burial Heaven Island in the Heavenly Screen.
Her brows furrowed slightly, her exquisite face filled with gravity.
Only after a long while did she slowly shake her head, interrupting Tang Wulin's imaginings in a cool voice:
"If you'd been chosen, you might be about to die too."
"Die?"
Tang Wulin froze, looking at Gu Yuena in utter confusion. "Gu Yue, what do you mean?"
"Exactly what I said. Just watch!"
Gu Yuena's tone was cool, carrying a trace of wariness that even she had not noticed.
As the Silver Dragon King's primary personality, her instinctive perception of danger surpassed that of humans.
Although she could not see through Burial Heaven Island's secrets at all, its breathtaking "Nine Dragons Pulling a Coffin" formation and the desolate air of countless ages of silence emanating from the island sent warning after warning through the depths of her soul.
She trusted her instincts. That place was anything but safe.
"So mysterious..."
Tang Wulin muttered under his breath, but still turned his gaze back toward the Heavenly Screen, a trace of curiosity arising in his heart because of "Gu Yue's" words.
On Burial Heaven Island, in the Shrouding the Heavens World.
At that moment, Xu Han finally recovered completely from the dizziness of his cross-world transportation.
He blinked hard, looking curiously at everything around him.
Beneath his feet lay hard black rock covered in strange patterns, while a presence he had never felt before permeated the air.
Breathing it into his lungs actually made even him, an ordinary person who had been unable to awaken Soul Power on Douluo Continent, feel comfortable all over, as though every cell were being strengthened.
"The Shrouding the Heavens World! I really came to the Shrouding the Heavens World!"
Immense joy instantly overwhelmed his mind. He waved his fists excitedly, unable to stop himself from shouting in a low voice:
"Hahaha! I'm no longer that useless piece of trash who can only hold a hoe Martial Soul!"
"I'll cultivate here, I'll become strong, I'll make a name for myself and make everyone who looked down on me regret it!"
Back on Douluo Continent, the Martial Soul Xu Han had awakened was nothing more than an utterly ordinary hoe.
Moreover, his Innate Soul Power was zero, dooming him to a lifetime without any chance of becoming a Soul Master.
His youthful, hot-blooded dreams had long since been shattered by reality, but now this inconceivable opportunity made his long-extinguished ambitions blaze once more.
Yet just as Xu Han could barely contain his excitement...
A cool wind blew without warning, making him shiver instinctively.
The dense, almost tangible clouds and mist around him were partially dispersed by the wind, abruptly opening up his view.
Xu Han instinctively looked back, wanting to see the scenery behind him.
But with that single glance, the wild joy on his face instantly froze, turning into incomparable terror!
Behind him...
There was no mountain range as he had imagined, but an endless, dark void!
As far as his eyes could see, there were only distant pinpricks of starlight and, below, the outline of a vast land so far away that it looked like a model.
Only then did he realize...
The entirety of Burial Heaven Island was actually floating tens of thousands of zhang up in the sky, if not higher!
Meanwhile, on Douluo Continent.
Everyone who saw this scene through the Heavenly Screen's livestream erupted into an even greater uproar of shock than before!
"Gasp! The... the whole of Burial Heaven Island is actually flying in the sky?!"
"Holy shit! I thought Jiang Wanwan's Moon-Escaping Immortal Palace tower ship being able to fly was already miraculous, but... but this... this is an entire landmass flying in the sky?!"
"How is that possible? What kind of immense power would it take to hold up such a gigantic island?"
"The Desolate Ancient Forbidden Land devours time and years, while Burial Heaven Island hangs high above the nine heavens. Just how many inconceivable places does this Shrouding the Heavens World hold?"
Voices of shock, discussion, and curiosity rang out in every corner of Douluo Continent.
Soul Masters and commoners alike were utterly stunned by the wondrous sight of "Burial Heaven Island."
Yet inside Spirit Hall's bedchamber, Bibi Dong's pupils abruptly contracted.
Her gaze passed over Xu Han and fixed intently on the towering stone stele at the island's entrance.
Previously, because of the angle and the obscuring clouds and mist, she could only see the five large characters on the stele's front: "Heaven · Burial Heaven Island."
Now, as the breeze brushed past and the clouds and mist dispersed a little.
Some indistinct writing seemed to be inscribed on the side and even the back of the stele as well!
"...Heavenly Emperor Hao... Lin Hao..."