Listening to Bai Yijun’s slightly bewildered words, Ye Chen’s brow furrowed slightly. He glanced out of the spacecraft’s viewport at the dim nightscape. The thick fog in the sky had obscured the blood-red full moon, casting the earth in a shroud of inky white light. Unbeknownst to them, dusk had quietly settled.

“Perhaps only the Progenitors and the like would know about these things,” Ye Chen sighed softly, then a smile curved his lips. He squeezed Bai Yijun’s small hand. “Let’s return to the clan first.”

“Mm.” Bai Yijun’s cheeks flushed slightly when she felt her hand being held.

Mount Rock God.

The Earth Temple.

A blush of crimson moonlight slowly emerged from behind the dense fog, radiating an eerie, hazy glow that enveloped the mysterious peak coiled within the night.

Within a light-year radius of this peak, there were no major cities, only small towns. The technological power within them was modest, and while their prosperity was passable, they harbored no truly mighty deities. Even in the nearest small town to Mount Rock God, the strongest inhabitant was merely a High God.

Yet, at this moment, within the courtyard residence of this High God, a figure materialized as if drawn from a phantom realm. The silhouette appeared without a sound, as ethereal as a stray wisp of breeze in the night, standing elegantly in the desolate, covered corridor. The blood-colored moonlight, slanting under the eaves, stretched his shadow across the fine sandalwood flooring until it became impossibly long, resembling a demon lurking in the darkness, bearing a secret, knowing smirk.

Dizang Chuan stood thus on the walkway, gazing at the sealed, metallic room before him. A captivatingly handsome smile played on his lips. His clear, sweeping black hair danced in the night wind strand by strand, like grains in an hourglass. His skin, fair as fine porcelain, was half-shrouded in shadow and half-kissed by the bloody moonlight, lending him an air of mystery.

His profound gaze seemed capable of piercing through everything, even allowing him to see the High God cultivating within the metallic enclosure. He smiled, as if strolling through his own home, and advanced toward the metal door of the sealed room. Then, he permeated it like a wisp of light smoke, as if the nigh-unbreakable portal were nothing more than an illusionary projection.

Bora was cultivating his internal demonic energy with his eyes closed. He was the Chief Elder of the Twelfth Hall of the ancient Babylonian civilization, and he was currently stuck at a bottleneck. He needed only a sliver of miracle-like power to help him break through from High God to Peak God, which would allow him to leap from a Junior Chief Elder to an Elder in the Council of Honorary Elders!

Though both were titled Elders, their statuses were vastly different. A quiet anxiety simmered within him. He had remained a High God for many years without progress. Tonight, he resolved to attempt the breakthrough once more. He focused his consciousness entirely inward, leaving no trace of perception for the outside world. He knew that within this meticulously crafted cultivation chamber, absolutely no one could enter—not even a Low-Tier God Emperor!

Whummm~

As he gathered all his strength for the push, he failed once again, just as before. A familiar ringing sounded in his mind, and his thoughts went blank. It was only after a long while that he snapped back to awareness. He let out a heavy sigh internally. Though he had failed countless times, each attempt was accompanied by a faint sting of disappointment and dejection.

He shook his head, rested briefly to recover, and opened his eyes, preparing to rise and wash the grime from his body. But suddenly, his limbs locked, freezing him utterly still. His eyes stared forward at the tall, slender man standing in the gloom, wide with indescribable shock and terror.

“You, you…” His throat moved, but only a low, grating sound, like sand rubbing together, emerged.

“A failure, then,” Dizang Chuan stepped out of the darkness, an elegant and noble smile gracing his lips. Although the cultivation room was dim, he seemed enveloped in a dazzling, star-like luminescence. “Truly disappointing. Your aptitude is abysmal; succeeding would have been a miracle.” His expression held a hint of regret.

“Who… are you?” Bora’s voice sounded as if a demon had clutched his throat, making his words painful to hear.

Dizang Chuan’s lips curved upward slightly. His snow-white eyes held a strange, compelling magic as he fixed them on Bora’s. “Tell me, who is the Great Earth God Lord for this era?”

Bora’s pupils gradually glazed over, as if entranced. He murmured, “The Great Earth God Lord is Cang Dao…”

“Cang Dao?” Dizang Chuan mused, then inquired, “Is Cang Xue within the Earth Temple?”

“Cang Xue… is the Progenitor of the Great Earth God Lord…”

“Oh?” Dizang Chuan’s eyes flashed with a brilliant, crystalline light. “Then what generation of Great Earth God Lord is Cang Dao?”

“The Eleventh Generation…”

“I see.” Dizang Chuan retracted the gaze fixed upon Bora and turned to look at the dense, dark clouds obscuring the skylight of the chamber. His eyes shone as if coated in white snow. “Time flies so quickly… By that reckoning, Cang Xue must have passed away an impossibly long time ago.” His voice in the darkness sounded strangely fervent and heated, carrying a faint trace of iron tang.

Then, he glanced at the now unconscious Bora, his demeanor cold, arrogant, and utterly dismissive. He spoke with a hint of subtle mockery. “Even after all these years, nothing has changed. Still resorting to the same tiresome trick: surrounding the area with petty small towns to nurture so many weak, insignificant microbial lives, planting Spirit Seals within their bodies, and propagating them through the maternal lineage. For generations, these Spirit Seals have resided within the people. If anyone perishes within a light-year radius of here, the Seal will trigger the ambient Spirit Light System, which in turn alerts the intelligent Goddess in the Temple to scan any intruders. Hah…”

He chuckled softly and turned back toward the dark metal door. The instant he turned, the body of the unconscious Bora behind him dissolved like ice and snow. His flesh and blood rapidly melted, resembling a burning candle, swiftly turning into a viscous, crimson liquid pooling on the floor, leaving behind only a stark white skeleton.

“Cang Xue is dead; what is there left for me to fear…” Dizang Chuan’s figure appeared above the small town, standing suspended in the black expanse of the night sky. The soft, cold breeze ruffled the edges of his robes, making them flutter slightly, like the Death God in the shadows, looking down upon the entire settlement.

Then, he slowly raised his hand.

He pressed down gently, as if pushing against the invisible air, or perhaps stroking the skin of a lover.

A faint, ethereal breeze swept toward him, the air carrying traces of mild blood scent. He smiled lightly, revealing two rows of pearly white teeth that seemed exceptionally bright and cold beneath his shadowed features.

Then, his figure flickered, vanishing from sight into thin air.

Moments later, the dense fog in the starry night slowly drew back its curtain, revealing the blood-red moon. Its eerie, cool radiance illuminated the entire small town. This town, which had possessed a low hum of activity moments before, was now steeped in absolute silence, as if sound itself had been extinguished.

The moonlight, like frost, settled on the ground. Along the thresholds of the doors of thousands of households on the town streets, thick, viscous crimson blood slowly began to seep out, creating a scene of uncanny dread and gloom on this dark, wind-swept night.

On Mount Rock God, within the Earth Temple.

A piercing, grating alarm shrieked from the central system, tearing at the hearts of countless individuals. It roused the various Elders, Deacons, and Hall Masters who had settled into the quiet night, causing them to rush toward the source, for the Earth Lord had issued an emergency summons.

In truth, those who had worked there for a long time knew that if the central system alarm sounded, they must hasten immediately, even without a direct summons. For countless, unrememberable ages, the central system had never issued an alert. The closest previous incident occurred seventy million years ago when a Dragon Soul Beast from the Abyss Canyons of the Dark Great World tore through a spatial rift and entered the territory governed by the Earth Temple. That battle had become an epic, indescribably fierce, and was inscribed in the temple’s annals.

In that conflict, the Earth Lord of the Ninth Generation had fallen on the spot!

When the alarm sounded, the entirety of Mount Rock God swiftly awoke from its nocturnal stillness. Sentinels, who had been drowsy moments before, were instantly startled, their blood seeming to rush backward, their nerves taut as heartstrings pulled tight as they anxiously scanned their surroundings.

Inside the Temple Council Hall.

Bright lights illuminated every face, reflecting sickly pale complexions. A heavy gloom settled over the brows of all present. Most sat in silent contemplation, while others engaged in hushed discussion.

“The Lord has arrived!” Suddenly, a soft voice echoed throughout the hall.

Everyone instantly ceased speaking and rose from their seats as if by reflex, standing ramrod straight, as rigid as if their acupoints had been struck.

A faint, sweet fragrance seemed to drift on the temperate air, accompanied by the imagined sound of falling flower petals. From just outside the entrance, a nine-headed divine dragon, clad in golden armor with subtle golden etchings across its chest, stepped forward. Its densely packed scales, sharp as blades, reflected a chilling cold light.

The man moved slowly, yet in a blink, he was at the threshold of the Council Hall, and in the next instant, seated upon the Dragon King’s Throne at the head of the massive table.

“We pay respects to the Lord!”

Everyone bowed their heads and lowered their torsos, their voices reverent and submissive.

The man in the golden armor gently tapped the tabletop twice with his index finger. Everyone seemed released from an invisible restraint, settling back into their places.

“Do you know why I have summoned you here?” The golden-armored man’s gentle yet magnetic voice resonated like warm spring water in everyone’s ears. His gaze rested only on the surface of the table, the distant main doors carved from Divine Wood, and the black expanse of the night sky beyond.

Beneath his mild query, a wave of silence fell over the assembly. After a moment, a slightly stout man stood up, bowed respectfully, and spoke, “Reporting to the Lord, I have just received intelligence from the Intelligence Department. Someone has stealthily infiltrated our Earth Temple headquarters’ restricted zone and, within one minute, brutally murdered the inhabitants of seven or eight towns. Six hundred and forty million lives lost, with not a single survivor. This indicates the intruder is a single individual, and immensely powerful!”

The others, recognizing the stout man as the Deputy Head of Intelligence, frowned upon hearing the casualty figures, feeling a heavy weight settle upon their hearts.

In the deathly silence, the fingers of the golden-armored man tapped slowly on the table, keeping a strange, deliberate rhythm that seemed to strike the collective hearts of the audience. His elegant, warm voice finally broke the quiet. “The one who came is not merely powerful; they must be a monster…” (To be continued)