After the two statues crumbled into ash that refused to touch the ground, a suffocating void was created in the air. The corridor before them was no longer made of cold stone, but an expanse of fog swirling like a whirlpool at the bottom of the deepest ocean.
Zhi Xuan stepped forward without hesitation, passing through the grey remnants of the statues' ash. Ji Haoxuan and the others followed with their breath held in their throats. Every ti their feet crossed the forr position of the statues, a sharp, cold sensation seed to slice through their souls.
As soon as they pierced through the swirling curtain of fog, the pressure of the underworld laws that had previously weighed down like mountains suddenly vanished, replaced by an aura that was silent yet laden with withered majesty. Their view opened wide, revealing a giant valley illuminated not by the sun, but by the glow of soul crystals embedded in the cliff walls.
At the bottom of the valley stood a city that seed woven from shadows and black gold. Every pair of eyes reflected the grandeur of the city’s soaring towers, their tips tapering like spears intended to pierce the dark sky.
"Is this... another illusion?" Lu Qingyan whispered, her fan snapped shut in front of her chest. "A city that looks so magnificent... yet in this underworld?"
Zhi Xuan narrowed his eyes. Below them, the vast and orderly city streets were not empty. Figures in ancient war armor and beautiful silk robes were seen passing to and fro. A bustle seed to echo—the sound of footsteps and what appeared to be life rising from death.
"Fengshen... the fallen gods," Zhi Xuan murmured, remaining still. "They do not originate from the present, but are echoes of the past etched by ti, as if frozen in a false eternity."
A woman in a shimring sky-blue robe appeared to be pouring wine into a jade cup at a roadside tavern. However, the wine never filled the cup; the liquid turned into grey steam before touching the jade bottom, and the woman continued her movent with a stiff smile and hollow eyes.
Elsewhere, two warriors in cracked golden armor were seen clashing swords. The clinking of tal sounded real, yet every ti their blades slashed the opponent's body, no blood splattered—only fine dust erged from the gaps in their armor before the fras closed back up as if nothing had happened.
"They... look like walking dreams," Lu Qingyan muttered. "Is that a city shrouded in an eternal dream down there?"
"More like a trapped past; the underworld is a fallen immortal world," Ji Haoxuan replied. "Will the dark fog reach here? We seem to be further away from the ruins of the god's palace."
"No, we are still within the god's palace," Wu Xingyan said, her head shaking slowly. "A single ruin of a god's palace is so vast that it can manifest a world like this within it."
"Then how will we pass through it?" Ji Yuanyi asked, her voice shrinking as she saw the thousands of lifeless figures filling her sight. "Do we have to fight through this crowd of majestic ghosts?"
"They do not notice us, but we see them," Zhi Xuan said, his voice cold. "This valley above is enough to use for defense; we do not know what will happen down there without observing first. Besides, since Wu Xingyan and Wei Tianfeng have only just recovered from the Transforming Demon, it would be foolish to step forward now."
Silence once again enveloped them as they crouched at the edge of the steep cliff, staring far down at the city that looked like a moving ink painting. The valley wind blew softly, carrying the faint scent of ancient incense and a coldness that pierced to the marrow. At Zhi Xuan’s robe collar, Yuyan Die humd softly.
"Hmm... no desire is radiated," Yuyan Die buzzed. "They are completely empty, as if what we are seeing is a moving painting, Master."
"Truly empty," Ao Sheng added, his golden head poking out beside Yuyan Die, staring intently at the city gate. "It’s like standing in front of a massive tomb, yet the inhabitants refuse to stop moving."
"Why are you two so surprised? Just look at ," said Xiao Die, who was relaxing behind Zhi Xuan’s collar. "If I don't feel the aura of life, then I will relax like this. My moth threads are capable of sucking life; if I don't move, it ans my threads feel no life."
Zhi Xuan reached out and touched Xiao Die’s head, stroking her gently while thinking. "We will observe the city first. We do not know if anything will cause us to be trapped along with those repeating echoes."
Ti seed to crawl like a thick liquid in that valley. The light from the soul crystals on the cliff walls occasionally flickered, reflecting long shadows that danced on the faces of the practitioners who were restoring their essence. Zhi Xuan remained standing on the edge of the cliff, his black and white robe fluttering gently.
"Different from the dark fog that appears every five hundred breaths," Wei Tianfeng whispered. "They repeat their movents every fifty breaths, like that woman pouring wine."
"Not just that, look at the won dancing atop the pavilion," Ji Yuanyi pointed out, her wide eyes narrowing. "They seem to... occasionally look up for an almost imperceptible mont, as if there is sothing they fear will fall upon them."
Sure enough, at every thirtieth breath, the dancers on the silk pavilion simultaneously stopped their graceful hand movents for a split second. Their necks, white as marble, tilted toward the hollow dark sky, and their stiff smiles montarily revealed a flash of pure horror before returning to their dance.
"Could it be..." Ji Haoxuan whispered, his voice lowering. "They are staring at sothing that perhaps destroyed them in the past. Even after all this has passed, they remain like that as if the disaster is about to arrive in their sight."
Suddenly, the atmosphere within the city of Fengshen changed. The dark sky that was previously silent vibrated violently. From above, a thick darkness erged until it enveloped the valley without flaw, revealing giant dark hands that tore the sky apart.
From the hands that tore the sky, a giant finger descended with pressure, carrying a breath of destruction so thick that it caused the practitioners atop the cliff to fall prostrate, unable to move. The pressure coming from the sky was no ordinary law, but a suppression carrying a high-level Dao essence.
The giant finger descended slowly, yet every inch of its movent collapsed the space around it. The air inside the valley suddenly beca dense like molten tal, crushing the chests of Ji Haoxuan and the others until they could only gasp in despair.
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"This... is this... the disaster that toppled the gods?" Wu Xinghan hissed, his voice hoarse. "This is truly an echo... the disaster is so real that it erased the gods..."
"Argh... this pressure..." Wei Tianfeng groaned, his hands clutching the ground. "It’s not just an echo... its intent... its intent is still very much alive!"
Zhi Xuan was unable to move while prostrated, as if he were rooted like a tree waiting for the fall of the sun. His sharp eyes remained open even though his body was forced to submit by the will of the wrathful heaven. However, when the finger was exactly above them, it appeared transparent and passed right through them.
The giant finger, though like the falling sky, passed through their bodies without destruction. Rather, the sight of the city beca horrific as the giant finger covered the entire area. Instantly, the magnificent city of Fengshen exploded in a shockwave that slamd into its surroundings.
As the giant finger touched the tip of the highest tower, all the matter that ford that civilization crumbled into drifting dust. The divine figures who were just pouring wine, dancing, and clashing swords shattered into pieces as if their bodies were rely dry pottery crushed by a giant foot.
A silent shriek filled the valley, a lant from thousands of souls forced to feel their deaths repeatedly. Golden dust billowed high, obscuring the view of Zhi Xuan and his group. Yet, strangely, not a single fragnt of that destruction hard them.
The ruins of the buildings and the shards of the divine warriors' armor passed through Ji Haoxuan’s body like smoke, leaving a cold sensation that made his heart nearly stop beating.
"Everything... vanished," Lu Qingyan whispered, her eyes wide as she stared at the valley that was now leveled into grey earth.
However, before they could even breathe a sigh of relief, the golden dust began to swirl again. Below, in less than ten breaths, the dust particles seed to be pulled by invisible threads.
The tower that had just collapsed rose again from the rubble, stone by stone rging like ti being wound backward. The woman holding the wine cup returned to her position, the dancers on the pavilion lifted their hands again, and that stiff smile was carved once more on the faces that had just been destroyed.
"Endless reincarnation," Lu Qingyan murmured, her voice observing. "Look, not a single thing is missing. It is as if this is a normal cycle that will never stop. Restoration and destruction."
"The Immortal World, the face of this destruction..." Ji Haoxuan whispered, his eyes calm in observation. "They were destroyed by an attack they perhaps did not recognize."
"Look at the face of that warrior at the gate," Wei Tianfeng added, pointing to the armored figure that had just reford. "His eyes... he knows that finger will co again. He stands there, holding his spear, as if this is the image of them during that disaster in ancient tis."
"Why doesn't anyone try to run?" Ji Yuanyi asked softly. "That woman holding the cup, she just shattered into pieces before our eyes! Why must she pour that wine again? Why doesn't she throw her cup and hide?"
"Because this is rely a reflection of the past, Yuanyi," Lu Qingyan replied with a bitter, cold tone. "What is in front of us is not the present, but a depiction of the past where they were destroyed."
"The obsession of the world stores every fragnt of that disaster," Zhi Xuan thought as he rose. "But... that finger just now, it was so powerful and unstoppable. Even an immortal city could not withstand it. Who owns that giant finger?"
Zhi Xuan stood tall on the edge of the cliff. His mind drifted far beyond the visible horizon, trying to link the inherited mories of the Ancient Heavens with the silhouette of the finger that had just erased a civilization in an instant.
"Annihilating an immortal city with just one finger," Zhi Xuan thought. "An unimaginable realm."
Wu Xingyan stepped forward; she felt that the underworld laws here seed to gradually lose their oppression as she felt her divine sense could pierce far. "We can speed through; the underworld laws don't seem to constrain this valley much."
Wu Xingyan was just about to speed away, but Zhi Xuan’s cold palm imdiately rose. "Do not be reckless. This valley indeed does not constrain, but it traps. If you speed through as the cycle repeats, your body and soul will be pinched between two layers of ti—the mont the city is whole and the mont it is destroyed."
Wu Xingyan jolted, imdiately withdrawing her newly surging energy. Sure enough, as she looked down, the ripples of air around the city of Fengshen appeared unstable, like the surface of boiling water under unseen pressure.
"Then, when is the right ti, Senior?" Ji Haoxuan asked.
"Right after the finger pierces the city, when the dust begins to rge back together," Zhi Xuan replied, his sapphire eyes glowing sharply. "At that point, the space within this valley experiences a montary vacuum. That is the only window where we can cross without becoming part of the past’s echo."
They waited in a suffocating silence. Jing Kuang, who was still clutching Wei Tianfeng’s shoulder, appeared to be shivering, his teeth chattering not just from the cold, but from the horror of imagining having to pass through a city that had just been pulverized into dust.
DUM...
The invisible thumping sound vibrated again. The dark sky tore open once more, and the giant finger descended again. The sa pressure struck back, forcing them to prostrate at the cliff's edge. Ji Yuanyi closed her eyes tightly as the finger passed through their bodies, bringing a sensation of emptiness that seed to erase their existence from the universe.
Instantly, the city below exploded into particles of golden dust. "Now!" Zhi Xuan shouted.
Without wasting a single breath, Zhi Xuan leaped from the cliff, followed by the others as they pierced through the swirling dust storm. Around them, fragnts of towers and pieces of the gods' bodies floated, beginning to move toward each other to rge once more.
Zhi Xuan swung his hand, creating a shield of sharp intent to cut through the wild chaos of space. Ji Haoxuan and Wu Xinghan guarded the left and right sides, ensuring Ji Yuanyi and Wu Xingyan were not swept away by the dust vortex trying to weave them into the city.
As they crossed the center of the city in the process of restoration, a horrific sight was presented. The figure of the woman holding the wine cup, who had previously been re dust, now began to form her body again. Her half-ford face stared directly at Zhi Xuan as he passed.
Zhi Xuan was briefly frozen in the underworld sky, his sharp eyes clashing for a mont with the woman's gaze before he pulled his gaze away and continued through the spatial chaos. They shot through like arrows, passing over the city exactly as its giant pillars solidified again with a loud thump that shook the soul.
Once they had crossed the city and reached the opposite side of the valley, their feet landed on the rocky ground at the valley's end. As they looked back, the city of Fengshen stood whole again in all its silent grandeur. The woman was pouring wine again, the dancers were swaying again, and the warriors were clashing swords once more.
They stood tall, so looking down at the valley where the city had solidified again. Zhi Xuan exhaled softly; he turned his back to the valley and let the young practitioners behind him speak of the city below that they had just passed.
"That woman's gaze..." Zhi Xuan thought, his brow slightly furrowed. "It was as if she knew I was passing through, when they shouldn't have noticed anything."
He looked at the three celestial creatures behind his robe collar, who seed to be calm and well. "Did you feel anything?"
"Like the monts before, there was no desire or anything like an emotional aura, Master," Yuyan Die whispered. "Look at that Yunyi Die; she’s still lying down because she found no aura of life or even death itself."
"Even in her lying down, Xiao Die looks like a moth that has lost its wings," Wei Tianfeng quipped while extending his golden tail to tickle Xiao Die’s antennae. "Hey, lazy insect! Didn't you feel the vibration from that giant finger earlier? It was the size of a mountain range, you know?"
"So what?" Xiao Die snorted, rising and fluttering her wings gently. "If Senior didn't feel it, how could we as a Rank 1 sacred beast? Besides, I also saw how that woman stared at Senior. Hmm... that wasn't a gaze as if it were life and death, but still like an echo."
Xiao Die extended the antennae on her head out of the robe, then pulled them back. "Look, even the butterfly of desire found no desire. Senior, Xiao Die also doesn't know why that woman could notice Senior."
"Is it because of the armor Master took?" Yuyan Die suggested. "That armor is mysterious, especially as junk. Perhaps that is what made the woman notice Master."
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