In the cold and desolate depths of space, stars are sparse, like scattered diamonds on endless black velvet, shimmering with a constant and faint light.
For travelers traversing the starry sky, most of the stars they see along the way are more like the steles and inns on ancient post roads—not the destination, but merely coordinate nodes for confirming their course and position on a cosmic scale.
These coordinates were often marked by small altars carved by sages who traversed the starry sky in ancient times.
At the center of the Five-Colored Altar, the Daoist gate inscribed with the Bagua of the Primordial Heaven suddenly lit up, emitting a divine radiance that seemed to pierce through Eternal.
The Bagua symbols on the door shone brightly, as if cast from divine metal.
Since returning from the Yang God World, Li Qingshan has spent a year on the Starry Sky Ancient Road. This is his third time using the Five-Colored Altar to leap across star regions.
As the divine light swept by, a small, dark brown star flashed past the edge of the field of vision. In stark contrast to the vibrant life of the Ancient Life Star, it was lifeless and desolate, without any trace of life, like a huge stone wreck floating in the Void.
"In this boundless universe, darkness and annihilation are the norm, and life, on the contrary, has become the most incredible miracle." Li Qingshan gazed at the Eternal night outside the altar, and couldn't help but feel a sense of emotion.
In the cold universe, darkness is an endless curtain, and silence is its Eternal theme.
The clamor of living beings and the brilliance of civilization, on this scale, are often nothing more than a fleeting, faint glimmer, gone in an instant, imperceptible.
Since the beginning of time, from the chaos that separated heaven and earth until now, countless billions of years have passed.
Faced with such a vast and despairing river of time, everything seems so small and insignificant.
Even the Great Emperor, whose brilliance shines over an era, only live for a little over ten thousand years; a complete era usually lasts only a million years.
Only by adding up the Desolate Antiquity, primordial, mythological, Chaotic Ancient Era, and Immortal Ancient eras, and even the more ethereal underworld era, and the legendary era of the Emperor's Fall Era, can one barely touch upon the grand epochal scale of "hundreds of millions of years" and glimpse the true weight of time.
In the Immortal Ancient Era, ordinary cultivators often needed to spend millions of years of arduous effort to step into the realm of True Immortal.
Then, what about the long span of time, measured in hundreds of millions of years? Perhaps only the legendary Immortal Emperor could bear it, transcending ancient history and looking down upon the myriad realms and cycles of reincarnation.
For such beings, birth is Eternal, and the rise and fall of an era is but a fleeting moment.
"Ancient roads have been traversed through countless autumns, stars have fallen and the universe is silent, yet the war continues. The tolling of the bell has banished all enemies of the ages, but where can the Emperor's trace be found?" A deep and slightly melancholic voice resounded directly within Li Qingshan's Immortal Platform Secret Realm.
The one that spoke was none other than the Beginningless Bell that had long remained hidden and suppressed here.
It seems to be responding to Li Qingshan's reflections on time and life.
Li Qingshan was immersed in contemplating the eternal desolation of the universe when the deep and familiar sound of the Boundless Bell suddenly resounded across the Immortal Platform Beginningless Bell warning, startling him.
Since the Purple Mountain incident, this Emperor Weapon had mostly remained dormant in his Immortal Platform Secret Realm, rarely awakening on its own or actively communicating. Its sudden appearance now was quite unexpected.
Li Qingshan gathered his wandering thoughts and completely pulled his attention back from his boundless reflections on time and space.
His gaze sharpened as he looked ahead along the Starry Sky Ancient Road and said, "Senior Zhong? You're awake. We've covered more than half the journey." He paused briefly, seemingly confirming our location, "Based on the coordinates of this ancient road and our current speed, after traversing approximately four hundred light-years across the universe, we should be able to see that familiar Sun. My home Sun System is just over there."
"Your homeland, Earth?" The Beginningless Bell's thoughts carried a hint of understanding and reminiscence. "Based on the coordinates of the Starry Sky Ancient Road we are currently following, and combined with the characteristics you mentioned earlier, I can basically conclude that the Earth you speak of is the Primordial Ancient Star recorded in ancient history." That is no ordinary life-bearing planet; its foundation and secrets, on a certain level, are no less than those of the Big Dipper, the star that buried emperors. In the past, I accompanied the Great Emperor Wushi there, and what I saw and heard was truly astonishing. The Emperor Zun, the founder of the Heavenly Court in the Mythological Era, and the Nether Emperor, the source of the Underworld, both left behind unparalleled masterpieces there."
Li Qingshan naturally understood that the Beginningless Bell was referring to the astonishing " Ninety-Nine Dragon Mountains," Immortal Ascension Ground deep within the Mount Kunlun Range on Earth.
But he feigned ignorance and followed up on the conversation, asking, " Primordial Ancient Star? My homeland seems to lack something as vast and imposing as Big Dipper."
Bo is just a small, blue planet inhabited by life.
Upon hearing this, the Beginningless Bell seemed to emanate a faint, almost laughing, vibration within its mind. "In the past, the information was incomplete, making it difficult to be certain. Now, with the star coordinates clear and the route more than halfway complete, I can be absolutely certain. The Earth you speak of" is indeed the Primordial Ancient Star. As for its seemingly ordinary appearance today, I recall—it's merely a manifestation after numerous great calamities and the depletion of the essence of heaven and earth. Its core and its past are anything but ordinary."
During the subsequent interstellar travel, Beginningless Bell and Li Qingshan exchanged many old stories, mostly about the discoveries and speculations made by the Great Emperor Wushi when he set foot on Kunlun Immortal Land he Great Emperor Wushi.
Li Qingshan knew most of this information based on his memories from his previous life, but the details were made more vivid and the perspective more unique by the account of Wushizhong, a person who experienced Beginningless Bell.
During the three years of solitary stargazing travel that followed, the occasional awakening of the spirit of this Emperor Weapon, which kept me company and helped to dispel much of the loneliness of the journey.
According to the records of the Beginningless Bell and the original text he read in his previous life, he learned that the Ninety-Nine Dragon Mountains of Kunlun, the Primordial Ancient Star of the primordial world, Immortal Ascension Ground immortals were made, and their origins can be traced back to the end of the Mythological Era.
The ancient Lord of the Heavenly Court, Emperor Zun, in order to explore the method of achieving immortality, joined forces with the Underworld Nether Emperor, who was later revered as the ancestor of Source Arts and also had intricate connections with the Underworld. This was Duan De's Lifetime in the Mythological Era, or perhaps his second. Together, they laid out this earth-shattering plan.
They used their supreme supernatural powers to find the most ancient dragon vein ancestral mountains from all over the universe, a total of ninety-nine, and transported and arranged them in Kunlun with heaven-defying methods, forming this unparalleled terrain that devours the entire ancient star and even plunders the essence of the universe.
Its core purpose was to nurture a supreme artifact that could potentially become a "celestial artifact," the Immortal Ascension Cauldron, which is the Green Cauldron that follows.
It can be said that the Nether Emperor 'Emperor Formation Source Arts played a crucial role in the Fortune of the Ninety-Nine Dragon Mountains, which was a masterpiece of nature.
It was only through the collaboration of two Heavenly Emperor emperors who stood at the pinnacle of the Mythological Era that the Green Cauldron was born.
Although the Emperor Zun himself ultimately failed to achieve immortality directly through the Ninety-Nine Dragon Mountains, the successful creation of the Immortal Ascension Cauldron revealed a crucial fact to the supreme beings of the Heavenly Court at that time: "Immortal" is not an illusion; if immortal artifacts can be created, then by extension, true immortals can also be created and must exist!
This undoubtedly greatly strengthened the determination of later generations to conquer the Road to Immortality, and in a sense, laid an important foundation of belief for the conquest of the Road to Immortality in later generations.
Therefore, it is not an exaggeration to say that Kunlun Immortal Land, is an important legacy of the Nether Emperor's Daoist practice.
These Ninety-Nine Dragon Mountains were not located in one fixed place over a long period of time.
It was once like an incomparably greedy cosmic "devourer," driven by the Ancient Heavenly Court, migrating from one ancient star brimming with life to another.
Wherever it goes, the life essence of the stars is forcibly extracted, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth is rapidly depleted, plants wither, all things degenerate, and civilization declines.
At its worst, it could reduce a once-glorious, vibrant star to a lifeless, desolate one.
In the distant past, Yinghuo Ancient Star was once a thriving star, but it was this calamity that caused its decline.
Zhen was reduced to the desolate, barren wasteland we see today.
The Primordial Ancient Star that Earth once was was the final destination chosen by the Ninety-Nine Dragon Mountains.
However, the fact that Earth has fallen into the Dharma-ending Age and its spiritual energy is depleted is not caused by a single event, but is the result of multiple unprecedented calamities.
Initially, it was naturally the Ninety-Nine Dragon Mountains that took root here, frantically absorbing the Spirit Transformation from the Earth and even the surrounding star regions to nourish and nurture the Immortal Ascension Cauldron.
This has already caused fundamental and lasting damage to the Earth's environment.
Later, the Immortal Ascension Cauldron was formed and taken away, but it shattered in a great battle and scattered throughout the universe.
Until about two hundred thousand years ago, the Feathered Divine Dynasty somehow recovered about one-third of the fragments of Green Copper and escorted the so-called "opportunity to become an immortal" back to Kunlun on Earth.
They attempted to use the Immortal Ascension Ground conducive to immortality to repair the Immortal Cauldron, even going so far as to collect various special physiques from across the universe for blood sacrifice.
It was this very operation that led to the death of a young man with extraordinary physical abilities, who was none other than the elder brother of the later legendary Ruthless Great Emperor.
After defying the heavens to attain enlightenment, the Ruthless Great Emperor arrived filled with hatred. With a single palm strike, he shattered the core of the Kunlun Immortal Land, not only disrupting the Feathered Divine Dynasty's plans but also causing the Immortal Fetus that might be conceived within, along with that portion of the Green Copper, to perish.
However, the Ruthless's palm strike failed to fundamentally solve the problem of the Ninety-Nine Dragon Mountains continuously absorbing the Earth's spiritual energy.
The earth's surface continues to slowly rotate, like an unhealable wound, continuing to drain the earth's essence.
The powerful beings of later generations on Earth, such as the Qi cultivators of the pre-Qin era, gradually realized the root cause of the deterioration of the world.
Among these Qi cultivators who have survived since the pre-Qin era, there are many whose cultivation is so astonishing that it can shake the stars.
Rong Chengshi, who was revered as an "Earth Immortal" and had the title " Zhen Yuanzi," Fortune extraordinary abilities and his realm was unfathomable. It is said that in a certain era, he even intended to compete with the " Emperor Lord " who later established the vast Divine Court, vying for the supreme position of the Great Emperor.
The Celestial Master Ge Hong was equally brilliant, achieving extraordinary success in Daoist arts and alchemy. What is even more remarkable is that he mastered many supreme secret techniques originating from the Mythological Era, including several of the " Nine Secrets ".
In addition, there are the special beings born from the unique environment of Earth, who were reborn from the corpses of Ancient Great Emperor.
At a certain historical period, the number and quality of top-tier powerhouses gathered on Earth were unparalleled in the vast universe, except for the Big Dipper Ancient Star of the Big Dipper, which gathered all races and buried many Ancient Emperor Great Emperor.
Many powerful individuals attempted to use their immense magical abilities to separate the Ninety-Nine Dragon Mountains and prevent it from devouring everything.
However, the thinking was too simplistic. The Ninety-Nine Dragon Mountains is not to be touched by anyone but Great Emperor. The Emperor Formation set up by the Nether Emperor alone is enough to make Quasi-Emperor bleed. Moreover, the terrain is already set, and moving one part will affect the whole situation.
However, faced with the desolate Kunlun Mountains, they also felt helpless. Many people eventually chose to leave their increasingly depleted homeland, travel to the stars, and seek new paths and vitality. As a result, the end times of the world on Earth became even more severe.
Li Qingshan knew that the only fundamental solution was to remove the fragment of the Green Copper cauldron deep within the Immortal Ascension Ground, connected to the core of the terrain, and completely stop its operation.
This stalemate continued until later, when Ye Fan returned to Earth and, relying on the Immortal Treasure Map he had obtained in the Myriad Dragon Nest, was able to safely penetrate the Immortal Ascension Ground and finally retrieve one-third of the broken Green Copper cauldron.
With the removal of the broken cauldron, the devouring terrain of the Ninety-Nine Dragon Mountains, which had continued for countless millennia, finally ceased its operation.
The spiritual energy it has accumulated over a long period of time has even begun to slowly nourish the mountains and rivers of the earth.
As a result, the Earth's environment began to turn around, gradually recovering from the abyss of the Dharma-ending Age and opening a new chapter of spiritual energy return.
The Beginningless Bell recounted the ancient history deduced by the Great Emperor Wushi in detail. Li Qingshan listened quietly, combining his own knowledge with the story. Although he already knew many of the details, revisiting them against the backdrop of a solitary journey through the starry sky made him feel the vicissitudes of the universe and the ruthlessness of time. Behind a seemingly ordinary blue planet, there was actually a complex web of schemes and grudges among so many Heavenly Emperor, carrying such a weighty epic of rise and fall.