Saint Descendants

The storm swept across the entire small world. Caught in its midst, Ling Yun was like a tiny reed, able only to drift with the current.

"You can't do this to me. I only just broke through, and I've already been knocked back to where I started before I could experience the power of a true expert..."

Bitterness filled Ling Yun's heart. He could only struggle to steady himself and look back at the dragon corpse that had caused all these changes.

The dragon corpse, too vast to measure, had opened its eyes. Its golden pupils were like suns, radiating an incomparably blazing light.

"Th-the corpse came back to life!"

Ling Yun's eyes flew wide as he stared in disbelief at the scene before him. At that moment, his worldview suffered a blow unlike any before, shattering into countless pieces.

Fortunately, the storm lasted only a short while before subsiding. But the dragon corpse did not close its eyes, and its gaze seemed fixed on Ling Yun.

Being watched by such a terrifying existence made Ling Yun wish he were dead. His scalp prickled, a chill shot straight to the crown of his head, and his heart nearly leaped out of his chest.

"I sense it, the pure saint blood within you."

The dragon corpse remained as it was, a pearl held in its mouth, yet its majestic voice reached Ling Yun's ears, every word crystal clear.

Ling Yun sensed no ill intent from the dragon and gradually calmed down. He began to consider what the voice had said.

"What... saint blood?"

He could not help asking in bewilderment.

"The blood of a saint... the presence of a pureblood descendant. Your talent should stand above all others in this age."

Light flickered in the dragon corpse's eyes as it spoke another string of words that left Ling Yun utterly bewildered.

"A saint's descendant? You mean me? A distant ancestor of the Ling Clan was a Saint Realm existence?"

Ling Yun pondered for a moment before understanding what the dragon corpse meant.

"Could the golden figure in the mural be a distant ancestor of our Ling Clan?"

He could not help but speculate.

Just as Ling Yun was about to ask, he suddenly felt the world spin around him. A force tugged at him, leaving him unable to control himself.

When he opened his eyes again, the scene before him had changed completely!

As far as he could see, heaven and earth had split apart, and deathly silence reigned. Black cracks spread across the sky like a spiderweb, while ravines crisscrossed the land and blood flowed in rivers.

As Ling Yun looked at the apocalyptic scene, a sense of familiarity rose in his heart, immediately giving him a bad feeling.

Before he could react, a giant hole abruptly appeared in the sky. A deafening roar crashed down, leaving Ling Yun's ears ringing.

"Th-the mural!"

A flash of insight struck Ling Yun, and his pupils contracted sharply.

The next moment, a demonic claw that blotted out the sky and sun reached through the breach in the heavens. A world-ending power descended, and the already shattered heaven and earth began to collapse.

Fear rose in Ling Yun's heart as he watched heaven and earth plunge into absolute darkness. Just then, the dragon corpse's voice rang out again, rousing Ling Yun from the scene that had gripped him.

"One hundred thousand years ago, a giant of the evil path emerged and became a saint through slaughter, sacrificing ten empires in blood to do so. This inhuman atrocity enraged a transcendent existence who was also in the Saint Realm."

"A blood sacrifice of ten empires?"

The scene before him became a hell on earth. In the once-prosperous lands, nothing remained but a sky full of aggrieved souls. From mortal ants to Creation Supremes, none had been spared!

"The saint behind the ten empires was known as Evil Slayer, and he hated those of the evil path above all others. An evil-path saint rose within his domain and sacrificed ten kingdoms in blood, instantly making the two Saint Realm existences mortal enemies."

"From then on, the two sides fought several great battles, each ending in victory for Saint Evil Slayer and defeat and flight for the evil-path saint."

"However, the methods of the evil path were so devious that Saint Evil Slayer could never slay his opponent on the spot. As a result, this giant of the evil path gradually rose to prominence, his cultivation grew ever higher, and his fame spread far and wide. He took the title 'Seven Absolutes.'"

The even voice unfolded a tale from a distant age, while the scenes before Ling Yun changed again and again.

Saints battled, and heaven and earth bled.

The successive battles cost both sides dearly, yet they could not bring matters to an end.

Ling Yun was already transfixed by the scenes before him.

Those were truly battles that shook the ages. The heavenly might they unleashed lay beyond the bounds of the Mortal Realm, leaving Ling Yun more awestruck than ever before.

"So the Ling Clan's history with evil cultivators could actually be traced back a hundred thousand years?"

Ling Yun could not help murmuring to himself.

A hundred thousand years was an incomparably long stretch of time.

A saint's lifespan was only a hundred thousand years. But hatred could endure for thousands upon thousands of generations!

The scene changed again-

The two terrifying existences entered a strange world. That world seemed to have been sealed by some unknown power, like a natural prison.

The dragon corpse's voice sounded faintly, once again telling Ling Yun what the scene depicted.

"Because the Seven Absolutes Evil Saint was rising too quickly, and delay might have led to unforeseen changes, Saint Evil Slayer decided to stake everything on one throw. In the end, in a strange world, he paid a terrible price to slay the Evil Saint's true body."

Did the strange world mean the Eastern Desolation?

Hearing this, Ling Yun could not help feeling astonished. As he had always understood it, the Eastern Desolation was merely an ordinary corner of this world.

Yet he had never imagined that, according to the dragon corpse, the Eastern Desolation's peculiar nature had made it the Evil Saint's burial ground!

"The Seven Absolutes Evil Saint's power was split into seven parts and sealed forever within that strange world, where it could only be worn away by the passage of time."

"As for Saint Evil Slayer, his allotted time came to an end. His saint essence dissipated, and he passed away."

At this point, the dragon corpse's voice took on a profound sorrow, and even Ling Yun fell silent, feeling a resonance in his heart.

In this other world, both Saint Realm existences were supreme beings, transcendent figures who stood above the clouds.

Yet in the end, their fated struggle to the death had failed to produce a true victor.

The Evil Saint's body had died, but certain powers might soon rise again from the ashes. Saint Evil Slayer had passed away, but his descendants were still carrying on an inextricable fate.

"One hundred thousand years have passed, and the evil path shows signs of making a comeback. To eradicate evil cultivators once and for all, the five spirit beasts who served the saint gave up their bodies to become one with the Dao, condensing the cultivation of their entire lives. Several of the saint's descendants brought it into that sealed world, all to eliminate the future threat of evil cultivators once and for all."

"And that is the true origin of the Forbidden Heart, and the true origin of your Ling Kingdom!"

"You are all blood descendants of a saint, with a saint's blood flowing in your veins!"

As the dragon corpse's voice fell silent, the scene before Ling Yun finally faded, pulling him back to reality.

"Descendants of a saint!"

Ling Yun could not help saying the words aloud.

In that instant, the blood in his veins seemed to boil, as though telling of a hundred thousand years of lingering sorrow, a hundred thousand years of sweeping grandeur, and a hundred thousand years of fated struggles between life and death.

Ling Yun raised his head and gazed at the enormous dragon corpse, an inexplicable loneliness surging in his heart. In the mural, how divinely mighty had this flood dragon been?

Was this not the very totem spirit that their Spirit King's Manor had inherited?

"So this fate has endured for so long. Now, is it finally about to reach its true conclusion...?"