109: Chapter 109 Extraterrestrial Races

The night wind was biting cold.

Vice Hall Master Zhao Shanhe leaned against the rusted railing, the cigarette in his hand already half-burned.

He didn't look at Lin Mo beside him, but instead squinted through the swirling smoke at the seemingly peaceful starry sky above.

"Lin Mo."

He suddenly spoke.

"Do you think the Great Xia of today is stable?"

Lin Mo was taken aback for a moment.

"It's not exactly stable, is it? There are Mimics inside the cities and ferocious beasts in the wilderness, though they're mostly kept outside the walls. Countless Awakeners die because of them every year."

Vice Hall Master Zhao Shanhe let out a cold laugh.

"Haha, there's pressure, right? But you haven't seen the real scenes yet."

He flicked the ash, his voice dropping low:

"Those things—beasts? Mimics? In my eyes, they don't even count as trash."

Lin Mo frowned. "General Zhao, what do you mean by that?"

Vice Hall Master Zhao Shanhe didn't answer directly; he pointed to the starry sky, his gaze suddenly becoming sharp.

"The real pressure comes from there!"

"The Void Race, the Skeleton Race, and the Fallen Ones!"

"We call them the Starry Sky Alien Race. They descended upon this land a thousand years ago."

"At that time, Great Xia was a hundred times stronger than it is now. True dragons soared through the sky, divine phoenixes cried out, and the Saint Beast totems recorded in history books were all living beings back then."

Lin Mo's breath hitched.

"Those legendary totems... they really existed?"

Vice Hall Master Zhao Shanhe's eyes dimmed.

"They existed."

"But they all died out."

He took a deep drag of his cigarette, his voice becoming increasingly raspy amidst the smoke.

"That great war lasted for decades. The sky was torn open, and the earth was shattered. All the transcendent totems of Great Xia died to the last one to protect this land."

"The last to fall in battle was the Saint Beast, the Azure Dragon."

"It's said that to hold back the enemy's main gods, its dragon blood was spilled across half of the Divine Land, forcefully pinning the three strongest alien deities into the seal."

Lin Mo's pupils contracted.

He instantly thought of the image of the Azure Dragon in his mind, that majestic body spanning thousands of kilometers.

Before this, Lin Mo had always thought the Cataclysm written in textbooks was just an ancient legend.

He never expected the truth to be so bloody.

"So... we won?"

Vice Hall Master Zhao Shanhe crushed the cigarette butt against the railing, sparks flying.

"It wasn't exactly a win."

"It was a pyrrhic victory, a mere survival."

He turned around and looked Lin Mo straight in the eye:

"Those three strongest ones were sealed, but they aren't dead. For the past thousand years, those alien races have been trying like mad to tear open the seal and resurrect their masters."

Lin Mo's pupils shrank slightly.

"The Sealed Land you mentioned... where is it?"

"In the spatial gap where two worlds overlap. No one can find the specific coordinates, but that space indeed exists, and... the fighting has never stopped."

"Almost all high-level combatants of Great Xia, once they break through to that level, must report to that meat grinder."

"A true hell."

"Only seventh-rank Awakeners are qualified to step in! And they could die at any moment!"

Lin Mo's breathing became rapid.

He had always thought high-level experts were in secluded cultivation, enjoying privileges and honor.

He never expected the truth to be so bloody.

"Do you know why every major power holds onto a few secret realms like treasures?"

Vice Hall Master Zhao Shanhe changed the subject.

Lin Mo was stunned.

"Aren't they legacy sites left from ancient times?"

Vice Hall Master Zhao Shanhe smiled, a complex expression.

"Yes, and no."

He pulled out another cigarette and lit it.

"Most of those secret realms are ruins from that great war a thousand years ago."

"Some are places where Saint Beast totems fell, their essence blood turning into spiritual veins within the secret realm."

"Some are where the remains of alien deities fell after being slain, twisting the space and forming eerie spatial force fields."

"And some... are small worlds opened by those transcendent creatures with their final strength before death, wanting to leave their legacy behind for a fated person to claim."

He exhaled a smoke ring.

"Do you know how the ancient legacy secret realm at Tianyan Academy came to be?"

Lin Mo shook his head.

"That's where the totem Qingluan fell. The Qingluan had the bloodline of a Phoenix. After it died, its essence fire remained unextinguished, burning that mountain range into a sea of fire for three hundred years. Once the fire died out, that space became an independent secret realm."

He paused.

"Inside is the fire-attribute legacy left by the Qingluan, which is why the fire-attribute Awakeners from Tianyan Academy over the years have been increasingly fierce."

Lin Mo listened intently.

"Then what about the Martial God Secret Realm in Lingwu City?" Lin Mo suddenly thought of the Martial God Secret Realm Shen Yi had mentioned to him.

Vice Hall Master Zhao Shanhe gave a scoff.

"That place is even more sinister."

"Back then, there was a genius named Martial Demon. At the peak of the ninth rank, he was only one step away from transcendence. In the end, he perished together with a transcendent-level Fallen One."

"His remains and the remains of that Fallen One were sucked into an alternate dimension together, eventually appearing in Lingwu City and forming that secret realm."

He glanced at Lin Mo.

"So the Martial God Secret Realm in Lingwu City is the most unique. It's generally not open to the public because it contains both the Martial Demon's martial will legacy and the pollution residue of the alien race. There are opportunities, but there are also deadly things."

Lin Mo fell silent.

He finally understood why those major powers valued the secret realms so highly.

They weren't ordinary training grounds.

They were graveyards left from the great war a thousand years ago.

They were legacies earned with the lives of transcendent creatures and human saints.

"One last question. Since the situation is so critical, why do the higher-ups still leave those beasts and Mimics outside the cities?" Lin Mo continued to ask.

Vice Hall Master Zhao Shanhe took out another cigarette, lit it, and took a deep drag.

"Kid, think about it. If all these low-level whetstones were crushed, where would you young people go to see blood?"

"Are we supposed to send you straight to the Sealed Land to die as soon as you awaken? Before the seventh rank, you don't even have the qualification to go there and die!"

He exhaled a smoke ring, his gaze becoming meaningful:

"Leaving them is for training the troops."

"It's to sieve the truly strong from among you people."

Lin Mo clenched his fists.

"So this is... raising venomous insects?"

"You could understand it that way."

Vice Hall Master Zhao Shanhe paused, his gaze turning toward the west, a mocking curve appearing at the corner of his mouth.

"Furthermore, there's an unwritten rule."

"Beings above the seventh rank will never interfere in low-level struggles."

"This is to temper you, and it's also a kind of helpless tacit agreement."

"After all, the truly strong must save their energy for that Sealed Land."

Lin Mo suddenly thought of something.

"If the high-level experts have all gone to the Sealed Land... what about the borders? The West Federation side..."

Vice Hall Master Zhao Shanhe's face darkened.

"The West Federation?"

He gave a cold laugh:

"A thousand years ago, when Great Xia held off the main alien force alone, those guys were so weak they didn't even have the qualification to participate. They could only hide in a corner and shiver."

"And now?"

"Great Xia has exhausted its foundations, while they've taken advantage of this peaceful period to develop stealthily."

Lin Mo frowned. "Aren't they our allies?"

"Allies?"

Vice Hall Master Zhao Shanhe laughed sarcastically.

"Now those ungrateful wolves not only don't think about helping to reinforce the seal, but instead spend all day pondering how to bite a piece of meat off Great Xia."

"The border situation is tense. Most of the fifth and sixth-rank backbone forces are tied down on the border lines, in a standoff with those guys."

Lin Mo found it hard to believe.

"At a time like this, when all of humanity faces the risk of extinction, they still want to fight internally?"

"That's just human nature."

Vice Hall Master Zhao Shanhe stubbed out the cigarette, his voice turning low:

"As long as the threat of the alien races remains, the West Federation doesn't dare to completely tear off the mask."

"After all, if they truly push Great Xia too far, everyone will go down together, and no one will gain any benefit."

He turned around and patted Lin Mo's shoulder.

"But this balance won't last much longer."

"The pressure on the Sealed Land is growing, and the seal left by the Azure Dragon is loosening. That meat grinder is turning faster and faster, and more and more people are dying."

"The bones of our generation are almost not enough to fill it anymore."

Lin Mo was silent for a long time.

"General Zhao, you're telling me all this because you want me to..."

Vice Hall Master Zhao Shanhe interrupted him.

"I'm not trying to scare you."

"I just want you to know how difficult the current situation is."

He pointed to the faint mark on Lin Mo's forehead:

"Of the four inheritors of the Azure Dragon, the first three are currently filling the gap with their lives in the Sealed Land. Two are already dead, and the remaining one is still gritting their teeth and holding on."

"You are the fourth."

"And the one most likely to inherit the complete will of the Azure Dragon."