"Heavenly Emperor Hao, Lin Hao?!"
Bibi Dong's red lips parted slightly as she stared fixedly at the back of that sky-piercing stone stele, whose front bore the words "Heaven · Burial Heaven Island"...
She silently repeated those ancient seal-script characters, which she clearly should not have been able to read, yet whose meaning she inexplicably understood.
Her heart was filled with surprise and curiosity.
"The being who established the Heavenly Court and rules this mysterious world has the honorific 'Heavenly Emperor Hao,' and his name is 'Lin Hao'?"
On the Douluo Continent, the title of a Titled Douluo was prestigious.
Even beings as powerful as gods-the Asura God, the Sea God, the Angel God...
Their titles were more symbols of their divine positions.
Yet seeing the ancient seal-script characters for "Heavenly Emperor Hao" in the sky-screen livestream, paired with the name "Lin Hao," gave Bibi Dong a sense of even greater majesty, one that made her heart tremble even more.
It seemed...
This was not merely an honorific or a divine position, but an emperor who suppressed every enemy in the world with absolute power!
As Bibi Dong thought this, her gaze grew more focused.
She tried to make out exactly what information was inscribed on the side and back of that stone stele.
After all, she wanted to visit the Shrouding the Heavens World too...
To see with her own eyes just what sort of existence this so-called Shrouding the Heavens World was.
If she could learn as much as possible about the background of the Shrouding the Heavens World, especially anything concerning its ruler, "Heavenly Emperor Hao Lin Hao," it would bring a hundred benefits and not a single harm.
In fact, it was not just Bibi Dong...
Inside a dormitory at Shrek Academy.
Ning Rongrong covered her little mouth, excitement sparkling in her eyes. "Xiao Wu! Did you see that? Heavenly Emperor Hao... Lin Hao! So that's the name of the master of the Heavenly Court!"
"Just hearing that name makes him sound so imposing!"
As Ning Rongrong spoke, she shook Xiao Wu's arm beside her. "Xiao Wu, that Jiang Wanwan is already so powerful."
"Then just how powerful must Lord Heavenly Emperor Lin Hao, whom she admires so much, be?"
Xiao Wu shook her head, her eyes full of curiosity too.
"I'm so jealous of Zhu Zhuqing. If only I could go to the Shrouding the Heavens World..."
Ning Rongrong muttered under her breath.
Meanwhile, next door, Tang San was also watching the sky-screen livestream.
"What would that Heavenly Emperor Hao write on a stone stele standing on an island above the nine heavens?"
The Shrouding the Heavens World, Burial Heaven Island.
While everyone on the Douluo Continent was discussing the Heavenly Emperor's name with curiosity...
Xu Han finally recovered from his shock.
"Whew!"
He steadied himself a little, looked around, then turned his gaze back to the stone stele.
Xu Han had watched the sky-screen livestream before. He knew that Long Aotian, who had walked toward that stone stele, had been erased outright by the passage of years.
But behind him, beneath the swirling clouds and mist, lay a bottomless drop from ten thousand fathoms up, leaving him no way to retreat.
"Behind me is a drop of ten thousand fathoms, with no way to go at all. Ahead..."
In the end, Xu Han gritted his teeth, a trace of determination flashing across his face, and chose to walk toward the stone stele anyway.
"I refuse to believe there isn't a single path to survival here! I'm Xu Han, a lucky one chosen by the sky screen!"
Murmuring encouragement to himself, Xu Han raised his foot with extreme slowness and caution, then stepped slowly toward the stone stele.
On the Douluo Continent, everyone watching the sky-screen livestream stared fixedly at Xu Han's every move.
At the same time, they watched his surroundings, making sure they would spot anyone there immediately.
They desperately wanted to know whether this new "lucky one" would follow in Long Aotian's footsteps.
And just how had Long Aotian died?
More importantly... what information was inscribed on the side and back of that mysterious stone stele?
One step, two steps, three steps...
Unexpectedly, Xu Han was neither eroded by the power of time as Long Aotian had been, nor subjected to any obvious attack.
It was just that the interval between each step inexplicably grew longer...
But that did not seem to be anything serious, did it?
Inside Shrek Academy's dormitory, Tang San saw that Xu Han had actually taken several steps unharmed.
"It seems not every place with a stone stele is as sinister as the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Land."
"This Burial Heaven Island looks quite sa... huh?"
But before Tang San could finish speaking, he suddenly noticed...
Something was wrong!
On the sky screen, the farther Xu Han walked, the more slowly his feet came down, until his tenth step...
He had merely raised his foot, then almost stopped moving altogether, holding that same pose.
"Could Xu Han have discovered some danger and become afraid to keep walking?"
Tang San guessed, his eyes filled with confusion.
Beside him, Yu Xiaogang shook his head, no longer daring to offer any rash analysis. After all, he felt that his face had been slapped far too painfully; almost every analysis he had made today had been wrong.
Am I not the Douluo Continent's foremost theoretical Grandmaster? How could I be wrong?
Yu Xiaogang could not accept it.
Soon, Tang San was suddenly horrified!
"No!"
"It's not that Xu Han has stopped moving. The leaves around him, the clouds in the sky..."
Hearing Tang San's words, Yu Xiaogang instantly realized it too. Yes...
The surrounding leaves, the clouds in the sky-everything was normal. Only the speed of Xu Han's steps seemed to have slowed a thousandfold, ten thousandfold.
"Gasp!"
Yu Xiaogang sucked in a breath of cold air, his voice dry and trembling with disbelief.
"Th-this... is time stopped?"
"Or rather, the flow of time in the area he occupies has become extremely slow!"
Tang San nodded, his eyes filled with shock. "Burial Heaven Island seems to be the complete opposite of the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Land!"
"In the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Land, a single step spans decades, speeding up the passage of time. But on Burial Heaven Island..."
"It actually takes decades to take a single step?"
In a corridor at Eastsea Academy.
Tang Wulin and "Gu Yue" exchanged a glance, each seeing the horror in the other's eyes.
Gu Yuena's delicate brows drew tightly together, and she took a deep breath. "What a terrifying Burial Heaven Island!"
"Accelerating time strips away life; slowing time brings almost eternal imprisonment... the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Land and Burial Heaven Island-each is more sinister than the other!"
"The Shrouding the Heavens World truly harbors great terrors!"
But...
Just then, a thought suddenly flashed through the mind of Gu Yuena on the Douluo Continent.
"Say, the back of Burial Heaven Island's stone stele bears the five ancient golden seal-script characters for 'Heavenly Emperor Hao Lin Hao.' Does that mean he's been here?"
"Not only could he come to such a deathtrap, he could even leave behind such an imperishable stone stele..."
"And the stone stele in front of the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Land is identical to this one."
"Then could the back of the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Land's stone stele... also bear writing left by this Heavenly Emperor Hao Lin Hao?"
At this conjecture, not only Gu Yuena, but Tang San, Bibi Dong, Qian Renxue, Di Tian...
All of them could not help sucking in a breath of cold air.
After all, if that were truly the case, then that Heavenly Emperor Hao Lin Hao...
If he could leave his own mark in both the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Land, which stripped away years, and Burial Heaven Island, a prison of time, did that not mean...
He stood above time?!