406: The Secret of the Early Military Age

In an instant, the cold sweat seeping from Xiao Shi’s body had already drenched him.

He knew clearly that anything capable of making him feel this way, rendering him utterly incapable of resistance, and even preventing him from forming a single thought of defiance, was beyond what a Half-God could achieve!

Only a Martial Dao Ninth Realm existence, beyond a Half-God, could put him in such a predicament!

Before this, Xiao Shi already knew that The Primordial Martial Era had Martial Dao Ninth Realm supreme powerhouses.

But according to the information he had gathered, this Martial Dao Ninth Realm supreme powerhouse had always been in a state of slumber.

He had never expected that his actions of killing numerous Saints would actually provoke this Martial Dao Ninth Realm existence to awaken directly from his slumber.

Nor had he expected the other party to so easily pinpoint him, knowing that everything was his doing, and come straight for him.

Now facing this Martial Dao Ninth Realm supreme powerhouse, Xiao Shi felt a chill throughout his body, as if he were fighting against the entire world!

The aura emanating from the other party made him clearly feel the terror of the Martial Dao Ninth Realm!

Under this intense life-and-death crisis, Xiao Shi’s brain began to churn frantically, desperately thinking.

He went through all the items on his person but found nothing that could resolve the current crisis.

Although the Soul Plate could change the nature of attacks, it was completely ineffective against a high-tier existence like the Martial Dao Ninth Realm.

“The only thing that can contend with the Martial Dao Ninth Realm…”

“Is another Martial Dao Ninth Realm!”

Under this intense life-and-death crisis, Xiao Shi suddenly gritted his teeth, a hint of madness appearing in his eyes.

One by one, pieces of Emperor’s Armor instantly appeared on his body.

A black martial emperor mask covered his face, thick Martial Emperor Shoulder Armor clasped his shoulders, a Martial Emperor Belt wrapped around his waist, Martial Emperor War Boots appeared on his feet, and a golden martial emperors cloak extended from his back.

Xiao Shi tried to form an emperor soul through the Martial Emperor Belt, hoping to imbue all the Emperor’s Armor on his body onto the emperor soul, just as he did in the Martial Emperor’s treasure vault.

He intended to use the emperor soul to resist the Martial Dao Ninth Realm supreme powerhouse of The Primordial Martial Era.

Although the emperor soul itself posed a great threat to him, Xiao Shi knew that in such a critical situation, once the emperor soul appeared, it would inevitably resolve the current crisis first.

However, he discovered in despair that there was no emperor soul left within the Martial Emperor Belt!

Helpless, he could only form the aura of the Martial Emperor through the martial emperor mask.

Boom!!

In an instant, the aura belonging to the Martial Emperor immediately spread from Xiao Shi’s body.

However, Xiao Shi also understood that the aura of the Martial Emperor alone was clearly not enough to withstand the attack of this Martial Dao Ninth Realm supreme powerhouse.

But he had no other better options now; he could only go all in.

As the Martial Emperor’s aura emanated from Xiao Shi, the countless eyes appearing in the sky flickered slightly, a strange light appearing in them.

This prompted him to change his mind.

He chose not to directly kill Xiao Shi, but instead made all the eyes in the sky converge, transforming into a colossal eye that blotted out the sun!

From within this gigantic eye, a figure emerged.

This was a middle-aged man dressed in a golden robe, with sword-like brows and starry eyes, exceptionally handsome, and possessing an imposing presence without anger. His gaze, in particular, could dim the sun and moon!

He wore an Emperor’s Crown, his black hair fluttering.

This was Xiao Shi’s first direct encounter with a Martial Dao Ninth Realm supreme powerhouse.

With just one glance, he felt the immense power emanating from the other party, seemingly integrated with the entire world. Even looking at him, Xiao Shi felt a stinging pain in his eyes, as if pricked by needles.

However, he breathed a slight sigh of relief, knowing that his actions had bought him a glimmer of hope.

Although the current crisis had not yet been resolved, at least it was not the situation of being instantly annihilated by the other party, as indicated by the tianji plate’s earlier warning.

The Martial Ancestor floated in the sky, looking down at Xiao Shi.

“A Martial Dao Ninth Realm from the future era, huh…”

His gaze narrowed slightly.

He raised his hand and grabbed at Xiao Shi below.

Under a tremendous suction force, Xiao Shi was caught in the Martial Ancestor’s hand without any resistance.

The Martial Ancestor carefully examined the Emperor’s Armor on Xiao Shi’s body, a look of realization appearing on his face.

“The aura originates from the mask on his body? Interesting. In that case, just leave the mask.”

He was clearly only interested in the Martial Dao Ninth Realm aura on Xiao Shi’s body, not Xiao Shi himself.

Killing intent followed in his words, as he intended to eliminate Xiao Shi and keep the Emperor’s Armor.

Immediately, an incredibly strong sense of crisis once again passed through the tianji plate, sending a warning to Xiao Shi.

But just as the Martial Ancestor was about to make his move…

“You’d best not kill him.”

An ancient voice suddenly echoed through heaven and earth, causing the world to tremble and all directions to rumble. The resulting sound waves transformed into invisible ripples, sweeping everything away.

It actually shook Xiao Shi directly out of the Martial Ancestor’s hand.

The Martial Ancestor’s expression darkened.

He stared at a certain area in the sky. Under the sound waves, that area twisted, as if a veil integrated with the world was lifted, revealing a figure that had been hidden there all along!

This was an old man dressed in gray cloth, with frost-like white hair and a face covered in wrinkles.

It was… the Dao Ancestor!

“What do you mean?”

The Martial Ancestor seemed unsurprised by the Dao Ancestor’s appearance, but he was puzzled by his words.

“Haven’t you always wanted to revive?” the Dao Ancestor said calmly, his expression unchanged, but his gaze deeper.

“If I tell you he can help you revive, will you still kill him?”

As soon as the Dao Ancestor’s words came out, the Martial Ancestor’s pupils suddenly contracted. He subconsciously scrutinized Xiao Shi carefully, then turned to look at the Dao Ancestor.

“Is that true!?”

The Dao Ancestor nodded slightly.

The conversation between the two was clearly heard by Xiao Shi, who was standing nearby.

This greatly shook his mind, realizing that this… very likely contained the most core secret of the entire Primordial Martial Era!

However, due to the lack of information, he was somewhat confused.

“Revive…”

“What does that mean?”

“Could it be that this Martial Dao Ninth Realm supreme powerhouse of The Primordial Martial Era is already dead?”

Xiao Shi was a bit bewildered by this.

He quietly observed this Martial Dao Ninth Realm supreme powerhouse and found that the other party’s state was indeed a bit strange.

But what did the Dao Ancestor mean by saying he could revive him?

Under Xiao Shi’s puzzled expression, the Dao Ancestor looked at him.

“Show him that eyeball of yours, which seals a great deal of fate.”

Upon hearing this, Xiao Shi took out the left eye of the great wu crown prince and handed it to the Martial Ancestor.

The Martial Ancestor took it and, after a careful gaze, immediately showed a shocked expression!

“This is… the fate of the future era!!”

He recognized at a glance the numerous fates sealed within the left eye of the great wu crown prince.

“How is it?”

The Dao Ancestor looked at the Martial Ancestor with a calm expression.

The Martial Ancestor’s expression was shaken.

“With these fates from the future era, it is indeed enough to revive me, but… these are, after all, fates from the future era. With my body, it is difficult to directly come into contact with them; they must undergo some special processing.”

As he spoke, he looked at the Dao Ancestor with anticipation.

“Can you process these fates from the future era?”

The Dao Ancestor shook his head.

“I tried before; I couldn’t do it either, but… he can.”

At that time, when the Dao Ancestor opened the Dao Gate for Xiao Shi, although he had helped Xiao Shi extract a portion of luck from the left eye of the great wu crown prince, he had already discovered then that he could not perform special processing on the fate of the Great Wu Dynasty.

After all, he was not a person of the Great Martial Era either.

And Xiao Shi, hearing this, basically understood.

Although he didn’t know the true meaning of reviving the other party, he knew that the fate of the Great Wu Dynasty in his hand played a crucial role for the Martial Ancestor!

“I understand!”

The Martial Ancestor nodded in realization.

He looked at Xiao Shi and said with a solemn expression, “Little brother, as long as you can help me revive, I can agree to all your requests…”

Facing the Martial Ancestor’s request, Xiao Shi said, “Can the two of you first tell me what you mean by ‘revive’?”

He still hadn’t clarified whether their definition of ‘revive’ was the same as his own understanding.

The Martial Ancestor and the Dao Ancestor exchanged glances.

“Let me explain,” the Martial Ancestor immediately began to explain to Xiao Shi.

“As someone from the future era, you should know that the current Primordial Martial Era is in a constant state of reset.”

“And all of this…”

“Is the doing of myself and the Dao Ancestor!”

“It was we two who banished The Primordial Martial Era from the Tianwu Continent into this Different Space (different dimension), thereby allowing The Primordial Martial Era to be continuously reset here.”

Xiao Shi nodded, not surprised by this.

One was the Dao Ancestor, who created the Dao of the world.

The other was the Martial Ancestor, who was the first to cultivate Martial Dao to its end.

Only such powerful beings could banish The Primordial Martial Era from the Tianwu Continent into a different dimension, thereby keeping The Primordial Martial Era in a constant state of reset.

It seemed that the Dao Ancestor had also always retained his memories, and his memories had not repeatedly returned to three hundred years ago with each reset.

“The reason we keep resetting The Primordial Martial Era is all to accumulate fate, so that I can revive!” the Martial Ancestor said with a solemn expression.

Xiao Shi’s heart stirred.

“So, senior, you established the rule that no powerhouse above the Saint realm is allowed to die?”

He knew very well that for an imperial dynasty, the death of any existence above the Saint realm would have an immensely huge impact on the fate of the entire dynasty.

If the Martial Ancestor was doing this to accumulate fate, he naturally wouldn’t allow powerhouses above the Saint realm to die.

“Exactly,” the Martial Ancestor nodded.

“But since senior wants to accumulate fate, why not try to cultivate more Saints, or existences of the Upper Three Realms? If more powerhouses could be cultivated, I believe the increase in the dynasty’s fate would be even greater, right?”

Xiao Shi expressed his confusion about this.

“It’s not as simple as you think,” the Dao Lord next to him said.

“After the Martial Ancestor’s fall, I observed The Primordial Martial Era…”

“I found that if we allowed the era to continue developing, The Primordial Martial Era would decline after its prosperity. These three hundred years would be the last prosperous period of The Primordial Martial Era; after that, The Primordial Martial Era would begin to decline.”

“Therefore, to accumulate fate, we must keep the time node at these three hundred years.”

“Only in this way can we harvest a relatively stable amount of fate with each reset.”

“As long as we keep resetting…”

“Eventually, we can accumulate enough fate to revive the Martial Ancestor.”

Xiao Shi’s heart suddenly understood.

He knew very well that the Dao Ancestor, as the creator of the Dao of the world, most likely possessed the Dao that could observe the future trajectory.

Thus, he had observed the future of The Primordial Martial Era.

Therefore, he could only choose to keep the time node at these three hundred years and continuously reset it.

Presumably, this was the true secret behind the continuous resetting of The Primordial Martial Era.

Everything was for the revival of the Martial Ancestor!

“We, who entered The Primordial Martial Era from the future era, must also be able to bring some increase in fate to The Primordial Martial Era, right?” Xiao Shi suddenly thought of this.

“That’s right,” the Dao Ancestor nodded.

“I used an external Dao to leave ‘keys’ in the original space-time of the Tianwu Continent that could lead to The Primordial Martial Era, primarily to allow people from later generations to come to The Primordial Martial Era and further increase its fate.”

“Once you later-generation Saints who arrive here become Dao Lords, you can bring a significant increase in fate to The Primordial Martial Era.”

“That’s why I arranged the identity of my disciple for you.”

“And guided you to Grasping the Dao.”

Now Xiao Shi completely understood.

Although these people from the future era had not joined the Martial Dynasty, as long as they became Dao Lords, they could bring an increase to the fate of The Primordial Martial Era.

No wonder the Martial Ancestor was so angry before… he had not only wiped out all the Saints of the Blood Extension Lower Kingdom but also killed four Half-Step Dao Lords from the future era.

This had already largely disrupted the Martial Ancestor’s plan.

If it weren’t for the fate of the Great Wu Dynasty on him, he would certainly have died today!

No one could have saved him.

However, Xiao Shi’s biggest question now was still about the Martial Ancestor’s revival… “Senior, what state are you in now?”

Xiao Shi looked at the Martial Ancestor and asked in confusion.

The Martial Ancestor sighed at this.

“What you see now is just a clone that I formed with a portion of my divine soul. My main body is already in a state of living death.”

“However, to maintain the stability of the Martial Dynasty, I publicly claimed to be in slumber.”

“If people knew my true state, the entire Martial Dynasty would surely fall into chaos.”

Xiao Shi nodded.

After all, only one Martial Dao Ninth Realm could appear in an era.

Once those Half-Gods knew the Martial Ancestor’s current state, even if they dared not openly rebel, they would certainly harbor ulterior motives.

No Half-God in the world could resist the temptation of ascending to the Martial Dao Ninth Realm.

The pursuit of the Martial Dao Ninth Realm by Half-Gods was already an irresistible life instinct!

“With your cultivation, senior, why did you become a living dead?”

Xiao Shi asked the biggest question in his heart.