427: promote

Xiao Shi was incredibly shocked by this.

Such a feat… truly left him in awe!

As someone who had already encountered many eras, he had never before seen a method that sealed an entire era.

In fact, if he hadn't witnessed it with his own eyes, he would find it hard to imagine such power existing in the world!

One must know that every era was founded by a supreme expert of the Martial Dao Ninth Realm.

Sealing an era… to some extent, was like sealing a supreme expert of the Martial Dao Ninth Realm.

This was an incredibly unbelievable feat in Xiao Shi’s eyes.

After all, he knew that although there were even more powerful Martial Gods above the Martial Dao Ninth Realm, the Tianwu Continent had yet to give birth to a Martial God.

Therefore, Xiao Shi could rule out the possibility that the being who sealed the Evil Ghost Era was a Martial God above the Martial Dao Ninth Realm!

“It’s a pity that in the scene just now, I couldn’t see his appearance, nor could I perceive his specific realm and cultivation,” Xiao Shi said with some regret.

However, he could confirm that the being seen in the scene was undoubtedly the founder of the Four Symbols Divine Martial Sect!

Currently, he had two conjectures about this person’s identity.

First, this person might be Chen Yuan’s master, who was also the first Sect Master of the Four Symbols Divine Martial Sect.

Second, this person could be the Demigod inside the black coffin.

Of course, it was also possible that the Demigod in the black coffin was Chen Yuan’s master.

At least from the information Xiao Shi had gathered so far, the Demigod in the black coffin had a deep connection with the Four Symbols Divine Martial Sect.

Regardless of the possibility, it made him realize that the mysterious expert who appeared in the scene, at most, only possessed the cultivation of a Demigod!

“As far as I know,” Xiao Shi mused, “the Four Symbols Divine Martial Sect appeared some time after the Great Wu Dynasty was established.”

“And in the Great Martial Era, there was only one Martial Dao Ninth Realm, the Martial Emperor; there couldn’t be a second Martial Dao Ninth Realm.”

“If the person who founded the Four Symbols Divine Martial Sect was not the Martial Emperor, then this person would at most be a Demigod.”

Although Xiao Shi had never seen the Martial Emperor’s appearance, he could basically confirm that the person he saw in the previous scene was definitely not the Martial Emperor.

If this person were the Martial Emperor, Xiao Shi would have certainly felt some kind of resonance through the Emperors Armor on his body.

But he felt nothing just now.

From this, he could conclude that this person was not the Martial Emperor.

This made Xiao Shi’s mind even more shaken.

This person was clearly just a Demigod… yet he sealed an entire era!

This kind of ability… was definitely not something an ordinary Demigod could accomplish.

This reminded him of Heavenly King Yao Xi’s previous demise.

Initially, he had speculated that the mastermind might be a Martial Dao Ninth Realm existence, but if the opponent was a Martial Dao Ninth Realm, many things wouldn’t make sense.

Now, after seeing such a scene, Xiao Shi began to realize that there might be some unknown power existing within the Tianwu Continent.

This power could enable a Demigod to unleash extraordinary abilities!

Otherwise, Xiao Shi couldn’t explain how the Demigod in the scene, with the power of a Demigod, sealed an era.

This was absolutely not something an ordinary Demigod could do!

Xiao Shi gazed at the massive evil ghost statue before him.

From the scene he had just witnessed, he knew that this statue would certainly not “come alive.”

The existence of this statue was more like a totem.

It was precisely because of this statue that the Evil Ghost Branch of the Four Symbols Divine Martial Sect was able to continuously develop and grow.

It could be said that this statue was an important foundation supporting the Evil Ghost Branch.

Now, as Xiao Shi absorbed numerous evil ghosts, his abilities within the Evil Ghost Branch had grown to an extremely terrifying extent.

This allowed him to discover that he could now leave a brand on the statue before him.

This brand could deepen his connection with the statue, granting him more powerful evil ghost energy.

He even felt that he could try to awaken the evil ghost within this statue!

However, if he were to do so… the Four Symbols Divine Martial Sect would completely lose its Evil Ghost Branch.

After all, awakening the evil ghost statue, to some extent, was equivalent to unsealing and releasing the Evil Ghost Era.

At that time, the Four Symbols Divine Martial Sect would no longer be able to use the power of the Evil Ghost Era as its own branch.

Therefore, for both Xiao Shi and the Four Symbols Divine Martial Sect, it was best for this evil ghost statue to remain untouched and preserved here.

After Xiao Shi left his brand on the evil ghost statue, he quickly departed from that area.

He appeared in an entirely different region than before.

His current location was an incredibly vast mountain range!

The entire mountain range soared into the clouds, and Xiao Shi was precisely at the summit.

Standing here, he felt as if he were standing on the clouds.

At the same time, at the summit of this mountain, there was a temple.

Three large characters were written on the temple: Mountain God Temple!

Clearly, this current area was related to the Mountain God Branch.

“So, it seems…” Xiao Shi mused, “this Altar should contain four areas, each corresponding to one of the Four Branches of the Four Symbols Divine Martial Sect.”

He noticed that, just like the previous evil ghost area, upon arriving here, all of his other powers were sealed.

Only the power of the Mountain God Branch could be used.

As Xiao Shi stepped into the Mountain God Temple, he saw a mountain god statue enshrined within the massive temple.

And the moment he saw this mountain god statue, the heart in his hand began to pulsate.

Bronze-colored light continuously erupted from the heart, rippling outwards in circles.

Upon touching the mountain god statue, it directly caused bronze-colored light to also emanate from within the mountain god statue.

These bronze-colored lights all converged and merged into Xiao Shi’s glabella.

This gave Xiao Shi a complete understanding of the entire mountain god statue.

This mountain god statue had great similarities to the evil ghost statue from before.

Both contained an era within them!

However, the main difference between the two was that the era within the evil ghost statue was sealed by someone.

Whereas the era within the mountain god statue was actively refined by the statue itself.

According to the information Xiao Shi was currently receiving, the mountain god statue before him was once a powerful individual from a certain era who, after reaching the Martial Dao Ninth Realm, refined his own era into his body, thereby creating a unique and powerful system!

A Mountain God!

Then, for some unknown reason, this Martial Dao Ninth Realm expert transformed into the mountain god statue, his fate unknown.

It wasn’t until the Great Martial Era that this mountain god statue, formed from the expert, was acquired by the Demigod who founded the Four Symbols Divine Martial Sect through a stroke of luck.

Subsequently, this Demigod used the mountain god statue to establish the Mountain God Branch of the Four Symbols Divine Martial Sect.

“So, it seems…” Xiao Shi realized, “the Demigod who founded the Four Symbols Divine Martial Sect sealed the Evil Ghost Era, and the inspiration for that must have come from this mountain god statue.”

Although he encountered the evil ghost statue first after entering the Altar, he understood that the Demigod who founded the Four Symbols Divine Martial Sect must have first encountered the mountain god statue, and only later had the idea and inspiration to seal the Evil Ghost Era.

After some in-depth understanding, Xiao Shi realized that he could also enhance the abilities of the Mountain God Branch in this area.

However, the method of enhancement was different from the previous evil ghost area.

The enhancement here primarily involved refining.

Xiao Shi needed to completely refine the vast mountain range he was currently in.

According to the information he obtained, this mountain range was not an ordinary one, but a sacred mountain with a great origin and considerable prominence!

If he could complete the refinement of this sacred mountain, then Xiao Shi’s Mountain God Branch power would undoubtedly experience a rapid and significant improvement.

Immediately, Xiao Shi resolutely began the refinement.

The uniqueness of the Mountain God Branch primarily lay in the refinement of mountains and lands.

However, Xiao Shi’s previous refinements were only temporary.

These refinements only made the mountains and lands belong to him for a short period, unable to last.

But now, Xiao Shi’s refinement of this sacred mountain was a permanent one; once successfully completed, this sacred mountain would forever exist within his body.

As he continuously refined, Xiao Shi could clearly feel the enhancement this sacred mountain brought to him.

Thus, under his continuous refinement, who knows how much time passed.

The entire massive sacred mountain trembled, successfully refined by Xiao Shi.

Xiao Shi’s mind stirred.

Whoosh!

The sacred mountain instantly vanished, directly merging into his body.

Xiao Shi felt the sacred mountain within his body, his heart greatly excited.

Now, when he used the power of the Mountain God Branch, he no longer needed to refine the mountains and lands of his temporary location as he did before.

He only needed to extract the power from the sacred mountain within his body.

He was now, in effect, always within this sacred mountain.

The Mountain God Branch actually always had a clear weakness.

That was, once fighting an enemy in the air, if he couldn’t step on the ground and gain the amplification of the mountains and lands, the strength that the Mountain God Branch could exert would be quite limited.

Therefore, those who knew the weakness of the Mountain God Branch often specifically chose aerial combat locations when fighting against people from the Mountain God Branch.

They wouldn’t give the Mountain God Branch an opportunity to use the mountains and lands.

But now, Xiao Shi no longer had this weakness.

Even in aerial combat, he would not be affected in any way.

At the same time, he briefly sensed the current strength of the Mountain God Branch.

He felt that even compared to the Evil Ghost Branch, it was not inferior.

This further confirmed his belief that once he could complete the enhancement of the Four Symbols here, any of the Four Symbols’ powers would reach the level of a top-tier Dao Master!

In other words, he would possess four powerful attacks comparable to Thousand Weapon Dao Slash.

And as long as he aggregated the powers of these Four Branches, he would be able to unleash power at the Demigod level.

“This must be the strongest power of the Four Symbols Divine Martial Sect!” Xiao Shi’s eyes burned with fervor.

After successfully enhancing the power of his Mountain God Branch, he continued to the next area.

Whoosh!

However, the moment he stepped out of this area, he suddenly plunged into a dark, empty world.

Just as Xiao Shi was secretly on guard, a familiar figure appeared before him.

It was none other than the already deceased Heavenly King Yao Xi!

As soon as Heavenly King Yao Xi appeared, he immediately attacked Xiao Shi.

“Is this a dream…” Xiao Shi narrowed his eyes, knowing that he had entered a dream.

After all, in reality, Heavenly King Yao Xi had already perished and could not reappear.

But what shocked him was that the Heavenly King Yao Xi in the dream had the same strength as the real Heavenly King Yao Xi.

Even the way he attacked was completely identical.

The moment he made his move, that sense of temporal distortion already permeated Xiao Shi’s surroundings.

“Even time rules have appeared within the dream realm!” Xiao Shi was startled.

He found that this dream realm was very different from the dreams he himself wove.

This dream realm was incredibly stable, seemingly indistinguishable from the real world.

If it were a dream woven by Xiao Shi himself, he could easily escape the dream and move freely within it.

But in this current dream, he found that he was completely unable to leave.

At the same time, he also had a strong premonition that although this was a dream, if he died here, it would be a real death!

Fortunately, he found that after entering this Dream World, his own abilities were successfully unsealed.

He immediately used the power of the Mountain God Branch.

Rocks of various sizes quickly spread out from his body, covering his entire physique, transforming him into a giant made of stone.

However, just as he transformed into a stone giant, in the next second, the rocks on his body directly retracted back into his physique, as if time had been reversed.

This caused him to return to his state before being covered in rocks within a single second.

This was not the first time Xiao Shi had experienced Heavenly King Yao Xi’s ability to manipulate time.

This was also the most troublesome aspect when he confronted Heavenly King Yao Xi in the past.

In an instant, Heavenly King Yao Xi had already reached Xiao Shi.

With a wave of his hand, *Pfft!*

Xiao Shi’s entire head was immediately sent flying high into the air.

However, without his head, Xiao Shi’s body turned into a stiff stone.

This was clearly just a substitute.

Whoosh!

Xiao Shi’s figure appeared in the distance, his brows tightly furrowed.

Even though his Evil Ghost Branch and Mountain God Branch had both been significantly strengthened, with his current strength, he was still no match for Heavenly King Yao Xi.

And to escape this dream, he clearly had to eliminate Heavenly King Yao Xi in the dream.

Thinking of this, Xiao Shi decisively adopted his previous method.

He took out the heart, preparing to use the heart in his hand to defeat Heavenly King Yao Xi.

However, when he took out the heart, the entire heart made no sound in the dream.

At the same time, Heavenly King Yao Xi did not dissipate under the effect of the heart; he remained perfectly normal, showing no changes.

“The heart is useless here?” Xiao Shi’s expression darkened.