Mars, Mars.
The dark red sky hung low, and the boundless desert stretched in all directions until it met the equally dark red sky at the horizon.
The gravel was rust-colored, and it made a faint crunching sound when stepped on...
In the far distance, the outlines of buildings could be seen on the horizon, but they were obscured by a pale reddish haze that filled the air.
It's eerily quiet here.
It wasn't the stillness of a forest, nor the tranquility of the night, but a utter, timeless silence, a stillness so profound it seemed as if time itself had stood still.
There were no insects chirping, no wind blowing, and even the sound of one's own heartbeat seemed out of place in this silence.
Ji Ziyue instinctively gripped Lin Hao's sleeve.
"This is... the Yinghuo Ancient Star?"
She looked around, her bright eyes filled with curiosity, but also concealing a hint of nervousness.
Born into the Desolate Ancient Family, she has seen many secret realms and dangerous places, and has even ventured into the outskirts of some Life Forbidden Zone with her family elders.
But there was nowhere that gave her such a... "empty" feeling.
It's not emptiness, but a sense of void after "existence" itself has been stripped away.
Lin Hao nodded slightly, his gaze calmly sweeping across the red desert.
The moment he stepped into this place, his Double Pupils subtly shifted, reflecting a scene invisible to ordinary people:
Deep underground, ancient Dao patterns crisscrossed, most of them broken and dilapidated, but their lingering charm remained, radiating a chilling suppressive power;
The air was filled with an extremely thin yet highly potent "evil aura," a product of the resentment and Dao traces left behind by the fallen top experts, fermenting over the years.
At the edge of the horizon, where the buildings stand, a faint Buddhist light struggles to emerge, dim as a candle flickering in the wind, yet its essence is profoundly powerful...
With its pure purification and compassion, it stands in stark contrast to the deathly stillness and filth of the entire ancient star.
" Great Thunderclap Temple..."
Lin Hao pondered this, then took a step and walked towards the outline of an ancient temple.
His pace wasn't fast, but with each step he took, his figure covered several miles, Shrinking the Earth to an Inch.
Ji Ziyue quickly followed.
Before long, a dilapidated ancient temple appeared before them.
Most of the temple walls have collapsed, and the remaining buildings are also crumbling, covered with a thick layer of reddish-brown dust.
Only in front of the temple, an ancient tree, long dead, with a charred trunk that looked like a twisted ghost claw, stubbornly pointed towards the dark red sky.
Under the tree, there were scattered rubble, broken copper lamps, and a broken wooden fish.
The place was equally desolate, but the faint Buddhist nature, and the extremely unsettling, cold, and foul feeling suppressed beneath it, were several times stronger than in the desert.
Lin Hao paused beneath the withered Bodhi tree, his gaze sweeping over the dilapidated Mahavira Hall before settling on the Bodhi tree again, his eyes deep, as if he were reminiscing about something.
Ji Ziyue was very obedient and did not disturb them.
She looked around, and finally simply sat down next to Lin Hao on the relatively clean stone steps.
At the same time, Ji Ziyue asked curiously:
"I've seen it in some books from Heavenly Court before..."
"It is said that the Yinghuo Ancient Star is Great Ferocious Land, filled with ominousness. In ancient times, a Buddha once suppressed a terrifying demon there."
"But later, the Buddhist temple fell into ruin, and demonic scourges lurked within, making it a forbidden zone that even holy figures were unwilling to easily set foot in..."
She paused, then carefully surveyed her surroundings.
Aside from the excessive quiet and desolation, and the faint, unsettling scent in the air, it seemed... nothing much?
"But now it seems," she blinked, looking at Lin Hao, "Not so great after all?"
"It doesn't seem as scary as some of our Ji Family's ancient trial grounds. At least this place looks pretty... quiet?"
A barely perceptible smile appeared on Lin Hao's lips.
He nodded firmly at Ji Ziyue, his voice gentle.
"It's really not dangerous."
"See!"
Ji Ziyue immediately perked up, her lingering tension vanishing completely, and she wholeheartedly believed her great-grandfather's words, "I knew it!"
"Those ancient books are definitely exaggerating. Maybe the people who came to explore back then weren't very capable and just scared themselves. They went back and started bragging about how terrifying this place was. Humph, they're all just bragging!"
Deep underground, in a dark space sealed by layers of Buddhist light, a pair of enormous eyes, like blood-red lakes, opened a crack. Within them flashed an extremely human-like silence and... relief?
A hoarse, low voice echoed in the boundless silence, audible only to himself:
... Not very good?
boast?
You little brat, in my prime, I could swallow a hundred of you in one gulp!
but...
The giant eye peered through the endless layers of rock and the broken seals at the two figures on the ground, especially the figure in white. Its blood-red pupils suddenly contracted, revealing deep apprehension and fear.
... Following this person, let alone the ominous Mars, even the legendary seven Life Forbidden Zone, and the Ancient Emperor Mountain where the Ancient Emperor slept, would be as easy as strolling through one's own backyard?
No, he might trip over weeds in the backyard, and this guy is wandering into the restricted area... I bet even the restricted areas have to sweep the paths clean themselves, just in case he hurts his feet?
Ji Ziyue was completely unaware that she had just been mentally evaluated by two "not-so-great" terrifying beings who then made the decision to "strategically hide."
She quickly lost interest in the desert, which consisted only of red sand and strange rocks, and touched her flat stomach.
"Great-grandfather, when will the Nine Dragons Pulling a Coffin arrive?" she asked.
"It'll be a while longer."
Lin Hao's gaze was directed towards a certain direction deep within the starry sky, where faint spatial fluctuations were traveling across vast interstellar distances.
"Oh..."
Ji Ziyue drawled out her words, rubbing her stomach. "Grandpa, I'm hungry! I haven't eaten anything since I left home! Are you hungry too?"
Lin Hao glanced at her but didn't say anything.
Ji Ziyue immediately began looking around, her big eyes darting around, trying to find something edible in this desolate place.
But besides red sand and stones, there was only redder sand and even stranger stones.
"There's nothing to eat either..."
She was a little disappointed, but quickly cheered herself up, tugged at Lin Hao's sleeve, and said in a slightly coquettish tone, "Grandpa, shall we look for it?"
"This Mars... oh no, the Yinghuo Ancient Star, maybe it has some special products?"
"For example... red sea buckthorn berries? Or... drought-resistant Demonic Beast?"
When she mentioned " Demonic Beast," her eyes lit up, as if she thought it was a very likely possibility.
After all, it's quite reasonable for such a "not-so-great" place to have a few low-level Demonic Beast, right?
Lin Hao gave a half-smile, but hadn't answered yet.
Just then--
"Rustle, rustle..."
Not far away, a small bulge suddenly appeared on a relatively flat red sandy area, and the sand and gravel slid down.
Then, a dark brown head covered in rough scales emerged, followed by a short, thick neck and a spine resembling armor bones...