469: Chapter 469 Burying the Master

This figure stood still like a monument, robes fluttering silently in the stagnant, deathly wind, untouched by a speck of dust.

He was abruptly clean, glaringly clean, so clean that it felt as if he should not exist in this cursed, scorched earth—like an erroneous epitaph, accidentally carved by someone into a time and space where it did not belong, standing out with a heart-palpitating prominence.

Five gazes suddenly froze.

No aura, no fluctuations, no killing intent.

Even the faintest spark of life was so thin on him, like dying embers about to extinguish.

Yet, it was this figure that was almost "nothing" that caused the five Prodigies, who possessed Divine Bodies and Sacred Bodies and looked down upon their peers, to simultaneously feel an instinctive, primitive chill deep within their Souls, as if a natural predator had descended—a feeling like ants gazing up at the starry sky for the first time, only to realize their own insignificance, no more than dust.

"Who... are you?"

Burial Son's voice was as dry as grinding gravel, and the gray Death Qi around him erupted violently, as if facing a formidable enemy.

"The... gravekeeper of the Burial Land?"

The man in white did not speak.

He merely raised his eyes slightly, his gaze sweeping over them—as indifferent as if brushing past a speck of dust.

Yet, under that single glance, the Divine Souls of the five individuals simultaneously chilled.

It was as if they had been silently dissected by an invisible hand; their lifelong secrets, the roots of their Bloodlines, the most minute flaws and cracks deep within their Souls... all were laid bare under that indifferent gaze, with nowhere to hide.

Then, he "spoke."

The voice did not emerge from his lips, but resonated simultaneously from every inch of scorched earth beneath their feet, every leaden cloud above their heads, and every floating particle of deathly ash in the air—

"You have arrived."

The voice spread steadily across the entire world. It was devoid of sorrow or joy, without rise or fall, yet carried a heart-palpitating, sentencing-like certainty.

"Boom—rumble—!!"

The moment the four words fell.

The world began its awakening.

The firmament was like fragile glazed glass, blooming with countless spiderweb-like pitch-black cracks, bottomless, as if connecting to the void of eternity.

Below, the boundless scorched earth heaved and squirmed like the skin of a slumbering giant beast. From the depths of the cracked earth came a muffled sound, heavy as a heartbeat—thump, thump, striking against their Divine Souls, striking so hard that they nearly vomited blood.

Those towering giant trees, long dead for who knows how many epochs, saw their craggy branches begin to twist and stretch eerily, emitting a "creak... creak..." friction sound that set teeth on edge and chilled the marrow—

As if hundreds of millions of dead Souls were stretching and waking up at the very same moment.

"What is happening?!"

The giant from the Rock Demon Race roared, the rock armor on his body instantly thickening several times over. Earth-yellow Divine Power surged like a tidal wave of the earth, and ancient runes circulated—this was the Rock Demon Race's town-guarding defensive Divine Ability, "Earth Rock Body," reputed to be invincible against all Laws as long as one stood upon the earth!

"No... this is not an ordinary earthquake..."

The youth of the Illusion Sea Race was as pale as a sheet, the azure water light around his body rippling violently, almost dissipating.

"It is the entire Burial Land... this world of death itself... is coming alive!"

"The Burial Land... the level of its Laws is distorting..."

The ice in the eyes of the Void Realm Insect Race woman finally shattered, and horror surged out like a tide.

"This is not a trial ground... this is a... living grave!"

The figure of the Ghost Face Race assassin had long since completely faded, assimilating with the shadows, leaving no trace to be found.

Yet he had nowhere to run.

Because at this moment, every inch of shadow, every wisp of breeze, every particle of dust... was groaning, roaring, and reviving in this trembling and awakening that enveloped everything.

Just as the five individuals' Divine Bodies spontaneously protected their masters, their Sacred Blood boiled, and their minds were seized by this dramatic change in heaven and earth—

A voice, even more magnificent, even more ancient, as if rumbling from the very beginning of time, resounded thunderously.

It resounded in every inch of space in the Burial Land, and in the deepest part of every living creature's Divine Soul:

"Burial Land trial, begin."

The voice was vast and majestic, carrying the weight of countless buried epochs—like an ancient god sitting at the end of time, reading out this eternal Law to the intruders.

"This place is the burial ground of the Lord of Burials."

"It also buries the corpses of thousands of gods and demons, and the grievances of trillions of living beings, since the primordial era."

"Now, since you have set foot here—"

"Then take your Divine Bodies as firewood, your Sacred Bodies as kindling, and your Dao fruits as the tinder."

"Within this endless furnace of the Burial Land, refine your Souls, burn your bodies..."

"Only one in a hundred shall remain."

The last four words were like ice picks falling to the ground, filled with a chilling intent of death.

"In the end, only one person—"

The voice paused slightly.

As if having accumulated the power of eternity, it then spat out the four words that made the entire Burial Land fall silent:

"—Legacy of the Lord of Burials."

...

Dead silence.

Then, it was something that nearly ignited their chests, Bloodlines, and Souls all at once—

Scorching heat.

"Legacy... of the... Lord of... Burials...?"

The giant from the Rock Demon Race's eyes suddenly turned crimson, and the rocks on his body emitted an unbearable "crack" sound—not out of fear, but out of extreme excitement and greed, triggering a riot in the deepest part of his Bloodline!

"Our race's... ancient secret records... the Lord of Burials' 'True Body of Burial Dao,' can bury the heavens, bury the earth, and bury the myriad Daos! Attain immortality, and exist alongside the tribulation!"

"It is actually true..."

"It is actually here!!"

"The Legacy of the Lord of Burials..."

The youth of the Illusion Sea Race breathed heavily, his fingertips digging deeply into his palms, oozing azure blood, yet his eyes were completely swallowed by fanatical flames.

"If obtained... why would our race need to be trapped in the Illusion Sea? In the Myriad Heavens and Worlds, where could we not be kings?! Where... could we not be supreme?!"

"The Legacy of the Lord of Burials... it actually exists..."

The terror in the eyes of the Void Realm Insect Race woman had turned into a scarlet storm; for the first time, her cold voice revealed an absolute, even crazed, possessiveness.

"Doesn't this mean... other supreme Legacies... might also be buried here..."

The figure of the Ghost Face Race assassin twisted imperceptibly in the shadows.

Silent, soundless.

But that fleeting, near-tangible cold killing intent already explained everything.

Burial Son remained silent.

The gray Qi currents around him had become as thick as a cocoon of death, wrapping him layer by layer.

Only a pair of eyes, through the gaps in the Qi currents, stared fixedly at the figure in white ahead, as well as the boundless, terrifying Burial Land awakening behind him.

In these eyes, there was no longer the usual gloomy calculation.

There remained only a near-maniacal, pilgrimage-like yearning, mixed with the roars and wails of a Bloodline spanning hundreds of millions of years, almost bursting out of his eye sockets.

"Lord of Burials... Legacy..."

He chewed on these four words hoarsely, one word at a time.

Every syllable carried the bloody taste of rust, as if it had been forcibly ground out from the depths of his internal organs.

"Our race... has waited... for countless epochs..."

Greed.

Naked, unmasked, enough to devour reason, blind spiritual perception, and burn away all bonds—

Extreme greed.

Like the sweetest poison, seeping into the bone marrow, injecting into the Divine Soul, instantly igniting the flames hidden deep within the five people's eyes.

In the face of the "Legacy of the Lord of Burials," this supreme temptation that surpassed all imagination and stood above all Opportunities in the Myriad Heavens and Worlds...

Whatever restraint of a Prodigy among peers,

Whatever responsibility for the future of their race,

Whatever vigilance against life-and-death crises...

All were like a candle in the wind, extinguished in an instant.

In their eyes, only that path remained—

The only path that must be paved with each other's corpses, soaked in blood, and leading to the supreme throne.

Survive.

Then...

Seize everything.

This thought, like a spark falling into oil, in an instant—

Set the heavens ablaze.

However—

Just as this poisonous flame of greed was about to completely swallow the last shred of clarity, driving them to pounce on their companions, or pounce on that unfathomable man in white—

"Boom—"

This was not a sound, but a tremor from the Foundation. It was the palpitation of resentment buried for countless epochs, being forcibly dragged awake from the deepest slumber.

This tremor crawled up along the soles of their feet, burrowed into their bones, and seeped into their Souls. It was not a sound, but a proclamation—malice toward "life," a negation of "existence" itself.

"What is beneath?!"

The Rock Demon giant A-Pan roared, stomping down with his right foot like a mountain, the might of the "Dominator of Earth" poured into the scorched earth, attempting to suppress it.

The moment his Divine Power touched the earth, it was like a drop of water falling into a bottomless abyss, not even causing a ripple. Immediately after—

A power, cold, deathly, and unimaginably vast, rushed upwards!

"Pfft—!"

A-Pan's massive body shook violently, and the rock armor on his body, reputed to be impervious to all Laws, instantly cracked, and golden magma-like blood sprayed wildly from the cracks.

He staggered backward, each step creating a deep pit, and for the first time, horror appeared in his eyes.

"It is not underground... it is 'beneath'..."

The azure water light at the fingertips of Cang Ming of the Illusion Sea Race shattered silently, his face as pale as paper—the warning from deep within his Bloodline was screaming; it was the instinctive trembling of a lower-level creature facing a top-tier predator.

"That aura..."

"Crack—!!!"

Before the words had even faded, the earth a hundred zhang ahead was torn open.

It was not a crack.

It was a wound, viciously gouged open from the depths of the earth's core by an invisible giant claw.

Evil Qi, thick as ink, mixed with corpse rot and resentment, erupted violently, like pus and blood that had been suppressed for eternity.

The light of the sky was swallowed.

A radius of a thousand miles fell into viscous darkness.