202: Chapter 202 Forbidden Land? My Royal Garden

Thud. Thud. Thud.

Each sound made the ground tremble. His forehead was soon torn open, blood mixing with dust, yet he felt not a hint of pain.

"This old servant dares not. Even if I were to die ten thousand deaths, I would not dare hide anything from the King."

"I beg my King to appease his anger. I beg my King to appease his anger! This old servant will speak right now, I will speak now."

His voice was distorted, filled with tearful pleas, fearing that if he delayed for even a moment longer, his Divine Soul would completely dissolve under this terrifying will.

Su Changge raised his hand.

That pressure, which almost crushed the very space itself, receded by thirty percent, finally allowing the dying crowd to catch their breath.

"Speak."

A single word.

Yet it carried an irresistible power, branded directly onto the Old Priest's Soul, leaving him without the slightest hesitation.

The Old Priest remained prostrated on the ground, words squeezed out from between his teeth, broken and muffled.

"Reporting to my King... the source of the Blood Abyss Realm's pollution, and the core of this realm's Spiritual Vein depletion... its origin..."

"...is in the Forbidden Ground, the Northern Region."

"The Northern Region is where our First Ancestor fell in a bloody battle. Since that war a hundred thousand years ago, the First Ancestor's divine blood soaked the earth, but it also summoned the most vicious curse in heaven and earth. It has long since turned into a land of death, a graveyard for all living beings."

"Anyone who steps into the Northern Region, regardless of their cultivation level, has never returned. Their Physical Body becomes food for the curse, and their Divine Soul is forever chewed by that filthy land, never to enter Reincarnation."

The Old Priest's voice was thick with inescapable fear; the words 'Northern Region' alone felt like an abyss capable of devouring Souls.

Su Changge's eyelids lifted slightly as his knuckles silently tapped the armrest of the throne, his mind racing with calculations.

He had less than fifty-eight days left.

Staying here and waiting for the Heavenly Demon army to advance was simply waiting for death.

Going to the Northern Region to find a solution might offer a slim chance of survival.

But in this Northern Region, even the Divine Soul could be chewed up, and not a single person who entered had ever returned.

He was just at the Qi Refining First Layer, a fake relying entirely on System special effects to put on an act; what difference would going there be from seeking death?

At this moment, the Shadow Kill Prince, who had been silent, stepped forward and bowed, reporting in a raspy voice: "Reporting to my King. In the last century, ten Golden Core experts of our tribe have entered the Northern Region, and their Soul Lamps all shattered within three days."

"Thirty years ago, the Grand Elder, with a Nascent Soul Early Stage cultivation, forcibly entered with three Soul-protecting Spirit Treasures, and has not been heard from since."

The Succubus Prince followed, her voice trembling slightly: "The Northern Region is shrouded in gray mist year-round. Divine Sense shatters upon contact, and all communication Magical Artifacts fail when nearby. Stepping inside is equivalent to losing all contact with the entire world."

Su Changge listened quietly, the invisible shackles tightening around his heart.

Even Nascent Soul experts vanished without a trace after entering.

Going meant certain death.

Not going meant waiting for death.

There was no way out of this dead end.

In the midst of this despair, a thought he had overlooked suddenly surfaced from the depths of his memory.

Xuantian Old Ancestor.

He had inherited a hundred thousand years of memories from the Xuantian Old Ancestor. That Old Ancestor was a Peak figure of the previous era, and his knowledge and experience spanned an entire epoch.

The spatial rift between the Blood Abyss Realm and the Cangxuan Dao Domain had existed for a hundred thousand years. Could there be records of this Forbidden Ground in the Xuantian Old Ancestor's memories, or perhaps some secret technique that could suppress that curse?

Once this thought emerged, it could no longer be suppressed.

This was his only path to survival.

Su Changge's mind settled. Beneath his lowered eyelashes, his gaze shifted, unexpectedly carrying a hint of playfulness.

He raised his hand with a lazy posture, a nonchalant sneer in his voice.

"It's just a mere Northern Region; is it really worth you all being this terrified?"

His voice wasn't loud, yet every word fell clearly into the ears of every member of the Blood Tribe.

The hall became so silent that a falling needle could be heard.

The Old Priest suddenly looked up, his face streaked with blood and dirt now filled only with complete blankness.

He stared blankly at the figure on the throne, feeling as if his Divine Soul had suffered a massive shock.

The King... he said, a mere Northern Region?

That eternal Forbidden Ground, which had devoured countless experts and left even Nascent Soul Elders helpless, was so trivial in the King's mouth?

The King, as expected, does not fear the curse of the Northern Region.

Of course. The King is the First Ancestor returned through Reincarnation; in this world, what curse could the First Ancestor not resolve?

In an instant, the terror in the Old Priest's eyes was swept away, replaced by a sacrificial fervor igniting within his pupils.

Su Changge's heart skipped a beat.

He had talked too big.

While he was wondering how to walk back his words, the Old Priest kowtowed again, his voice distorted by wild joy as it echoed throughout the hall.

"My King's Divine Might is unparalleled. To think you wouldn't even care about the eternal curse left behind at the place of the First Ancestor's fall."

"If this old servant can follow my King in this life, even if my Soul Flying Away and Spirit Scatters in the next moment, I will die with no regrets."

Su Changge looked down at the prostrate Old Priest; that face full of fervor and distorted joy surged silently in his eyes.

But his heart was filled with a cold silence.

Not afraid of the Northern Region's curse?

He was so scared his Divine Soul was trembling.

That nonchalant remark just now was merely a risky move to buy himself some breathing room in a desperate situation—a disguise used to suppress these Blood Tribe members and win time to search through the Xuantian Old Ancestor's memories.

Who would have thought that these Blood Tribe experts, who had lived for centuries or millennia, would so easily treat this empty talk as a divine oracle?

Thoughts flashed through his Sea of Consciousness, yet Su Changge's face remained undisturbed.

He even deliberately curled the corner of his lip, revealing a faint curve mixed with mockery and indifference, as if he had heard some trivial joke.

"A mere curse, and it dares to be called a 'taboo' before this King?"

He leaned back against the cold throne, his knuckles gently tapping the armrest; every sound produced struck heavily against the hearts of all the Blood Tribe members in the hall.

"This King has existed for a hundred thousand years, witnessing the birth and death of epochs and burying more divine and demonic bones than the living beings you all have ever seen. The place where the First Ancestor fell? Heh, that is merely a former garden where this King once slumbered."

Every word carried a desolation and overbearingness from the end of time, an indifference that viewed all things as straw dogs.

The entire Blood Abyss Divine Temple was deathly silent.

The gasps that couldn't be suppressed earlier due to injuries vanished. Even the cough that the Mad Blood Prince had been forcibly holding back in the distance ceased.

Every member of the Blood Tribe, whether prince or guard, held their breath; their Divine Souls seemed suppressed into immobility by the terrifying amount of information contained in those few sentences.

The King... he said the Northern Region was the former garden where he slumbered?

What did this mean?

The fall of the First Ancestor was actually just "slumber" in the King's words?

This overturned the Blood Tribe's eternal understanding, yet perfectly explained the King's return!

So that's how it is! So that's how it is!

The King never truly fell; he had simply fallen into a hundred-thousand-year slumber! Now, he has awakened!

An indescribable wave of fervor exploded in the hearts of every Blood Tribe member. The way they looked at the throne was no longer just simple awe and worship; it was a devotion akin to looking up at a creator deity, an ultimate faith willing to burn every last drop of blood for him!

Following such a King, why worry that the Blood Tribe cannot return to their ancestral land and rule over Cangxuan?