673: Chapter 673 The Trial Ends

Aochen's heart trembled violently, as if an ancient bell had struck within his chest. The booming sound exploded, shaking his Qi and blood, causing even his Primordial Spirit to shiver intensely.

He abruptly raised his head, locking his gaze in the direction the Demon Lord pointed—not far away, Chu Zhanxiao's figure sat quietly in meditation, golden light flowing around his body as he silently refined that wisp of Legacy power.

Chu Zhanxiao sat with his back to them, his spine as straight as an unparalleled divine spear. His aura was restrained to the extreme, showing no signs of anything unusual.

He couldn't even sense any obvious spiritual energy fluctuations from him, as if he were a stubborn stone polished by eons of time, sitting there quietly and inconspicuously.

But the more it was like this, the more turbulent the waves in Aochen's heart became—he could not see through him.

Not even a sliver, he could not see through him at all!

Aochen considered his own vision to be quite high.

As an Awakened of the Chaos Origin Dragon Bloodline, he had been hailed as the "hope of the future" by the Elders of various departments of the Ten Thousand Beasts Mountain since he was in the womb, growing up surrounded by endless exclamations and praise.

Among his peers, he had never met an opponent. Whether it was the Prodigies of the Yao Race's direct lineage or the Saints and Saintesses of the Human Race placed on pedestals, they were nothing in his eyes.

He had the qualifications to be arrogant, and even more capital to be wild.

But this Chu Zhanxiao before him...

This person just sat there quietly, like a bottomless ancient well.

The surface of the well was like a mirror, calm and unruffled, but deep within the bottom lay an entire starry sky—profound, vast, and cold, making one's back turn cold just by looking at it for an extra moment.

Aochen finally couldn't help but speak, his voice suppressing a trace of repression and confusion he hadn't even noticed himself:

"Senior Demon Lord... this Junior dares to ask, what exactly is his background? What Realm is he in now?"

The Demon Lord did not answer immediately.

He remained silent. On that old face, plowed by time into thousands of ravines and having witnessed the rise and fall of countless Dynasties and the changing of eras, a complex and contradictory expression emerged—

It was amazement, regret, admiration, and even deeper, it hid a trace of... apprehension that even he was unwilling to admit.

"His Realm?"

The Demon Lord finally spoke, his voice like ancient cold wind passing through a wasteland of withered bones, "If you ask about his current cultivation, it is merely Peak Soul Transformation, still one step away from Void Refining."

Peak Soul Transformation?

Aochen was stunned.

In the younger generation, this Realm could indeed be considered a leader, enough to crush ninety percent of his contemporaries—but that was just it.

For someone whom the Demon Lord himself had judged as having "achievements far exceeding your own"... this Realm was too low.

Abnormally low, low enough to make one's heart hair-raising.

The Demon Lord seemed to see through the doubts in his heart at a glance. Deep within those aged pupils, a faint glow suddenly appeared, as if piercing through layers of Chaos fog, reaching a truth that no Mortal could touch.

"But his roots,"

The Demon Lord's voice suddenly deepened, as if bearing the weight of an entire sky, "are not in this world."

This sentence was like a ten-thousand-foot thunderbolt, crashing down onto Aochen's Primordial Spirit, making his scalp explode and every hair on his body stand on end!

"His True Dragon Dao Body is the first one to be born in the world since the Primordial era."

"His Ancestral Dragon Dao Seed is something this seat could not even beg for back then."

"With these two things combined in one person—do you understand what that means?!"

Aochen's pupils suddenly contracted to the size of pinpricks.

Of course he understood.

The True Dragon Dao Body meant that the Physical Body could be tempered to the supreme Realm of the Dragon Clan's ancestor—this was a Domain that only the ancestor of all Dragons could step into.

The Ancestral Dragon Dao Seed was formed from the very first wisp of Dragon Qi when the world was first created; it was the source of all Dragon Clan Cultivation Techniques and Legacies.

Theoretically, obtaining this Dao Seed meant one could trace the roots of all Dragon Legacies and reverse-engineer them one by one.

Either one of these things, if taken out, would be enough to turn the Myriad Heavens and Worlds upside down, making countless old monsters break their heads trying to snatch them.

And yet, at this moment, they appeared on the same person...

From the beginning of Chaos until now—it had never happened before!

The Demon Lord's voice continued, carrying a dreamlike sigh, as if he were talking to himself:

"If it were just that, it would be fine."

"What truly leaves even this seat unable to fathom is that there is another thing within his body... something even this seat dares not touch."

"What?!"

Aochen exclaimed, his eyes wide open, filled with disbelief.

To make a Demon Lord who had lived for eons and stood at the very top of this world say the words "dare not touch"—what on earth could that be?!

"Nothing is impossible."

The Demon Lord shook his head candidly, his lips curling into a self-deprecating arc, "This seat has lived for eons and has seen more Karma threads than there are stars in the Nine Heavens."

"But that one hanging on him... this seat cannot touch, cannot see clearly, and cannot grasp."

He paused, as if struggling to find an appropriate metaphor, and after a long while, he continued in a low voice:

"It is like something alive... and also like a rule born of heaven and earth. It is coiled in the deepest part of his Divine Soul, sleeping, not yet awakened."

"But this seat can feel—once this thing wakes up, the entire world will have to make way for it."

Aochen gasped, a chill shooting straight from his tailbone to his crown, exploding all the way up his spine!

Something even the Demon Lord cannot see through?!

Something even the Demon Lord dares not touch?!

This person... what exactly is his background?!

The Demon Lord suddenly laughed, a laugh that carried a touch of mischief, like an old fox that had lived for who knows how many years, teasing an inexperienced Junior with great interest:

"What, are you afraid?"

Aochen pressed his lips together, silent for a moment, before saying in a deep voice: "It is not fear... it is that I cannot understand. Why would a person like him appear here? Why would he step into this stone hall together with me?"

"Fate is something that no one has been able to explain clearly since ancient times."

The Demon Lord gently closed his eyes, his voice becoming distant and vast, as if piercing through endless time and space, "But remember—today, you and he both received my Legacy, so this Karma has been forged. In the future, no matter what step you reach, how high you stand, or how far you fly—he will be the person you cannot bypass."

The Demon Lord slowly raised his hand, pressing it vaguely onto the top of Aochen's head.

This withered hand did not actually descend, but Aochen clearly felt a will as heavy as a mountain and as vast as the sky pressing down, almost crushing him until he couldn't breathe, his bones creaking.

The Demon Lord's voice suddenly turned solemn, each word like a hammer being brutally struck into the depths of Aochen's Soul:

"Therefore—either you become life-and-death friends with him, and the Yao Race will be worry-free for eons; or you become fated Mortal enemies with him, and the Yao Race will be doomed forever."

"Choose for yourself!"

Aochen shook violently, as if struck on the crown by a world-destroying thunderbolt!

These two sentences were like two red-hot branding irons, searing fiercely into his heart, burning until his Soul was wailing and trembling.

He abruptly raised his head, looking once more at that back figure sitting not far away.

Chu Zhanxiao was still sitting there motionless, his aura without waves or ripples, as quiet as an immovable mountain from ancient times.

But this time, the look in Aochen's eyes when he watched him had completely changed.

The confusion was gone, the unwillingness had dissipated, and in its place was an unprecedented gravity, as well as a... determination that was growing wildly in his heart like a prairie fire.

After a long time, Aochen slowly exhaled a breath of turbid air, his gaze like tempered black iron, indestructible.

He turned to the Demon Lord, solemnly cupped his hands, his voice steady as a mountain:

"Thank you for your guidance, Senior Demon Lord. This Junior... understands."

The Demon Lord watched the determination that had settled in his eyes, slowly nodded, and a gratified smile appeared on his withered old face.

It had been eons.

He had waited for eons, enduring endless loneliness and waiting, experiencing countless disappointments and failures—

Finally, he had waited for someone to whom he could entrust the foundation of the Yao Race for ten thousand generations.

Three months later.

The sky of the Taiqing Secret Realm suddenly split open with a massive fissure that spanned ten thousand miles!

The fissure came without warning, just like an invisible giant hand tearing down from above the Nine Heavens, ripping a hideous wound into the curtain of this world.

At the edges of the fissure, ancient runes flashed wildly, and obscure light surged like a tide, each rune exuding a heart-palpitating pressure, as if the Seals of the Primordial Gods were disintegrating.

A vast will, bearing the weight of eons of time, slowly descended from the depths of the fissure—like an invisible divine mountain, crashing down upon the sky of the entire Secret Realm!

All the trial-takers still in various parts of the Secret Realm felt their hearts tremble simultaneously!

Some stopped their bloody battles on the spot, their weapons clattering to the ground; some were jolted awake from their Cultivation, spraying a mouthful of blood three zhang away; some were even pressed down by that pressure until their knees went weak, "thumping" to the ground, only able to steady themselves by holding onto stone walls.

Immediately after—

A voice, grand enough to shake the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths and tear apart the ancient firmament, rolled out from the depths of the fissure, resounding in every corner of heaven and earth:

"The trial ends."

"All trial-takers—exit the Secret Realm immediately!"

This voice was cold and ruthless, like the Heavenly Dao itself pronouncing judgment, or like the decree of the God of Fate descending. Every word carried majestic heavenly might, leaving one unable to even muster a shred of resistance, unable to even turn a single thought.

The next moment, those young Prodigies who were still struggling, fighting to the death, and fighting for Opportunities in various trial grounds simultaneously felt a soft yet extremely domineering force surging in from all directions—like an invisible giant palm, steadily supporting them all, pushing them irresistibly toward the exit of the Secret Realm.

Some exclaimed, some struggled, some roared with red eyes, wanting to grab the treasures at the very last moment—

But, it was all in vain!

This force was irreversible, irresistible, and unstoppable.

It was like time itself was pushing you along—whether you wanted to or not, it was not up to you.

The collapse of the Taiqing Secret Realm began with a single fissure.

At first, it was just a tiny crack, as thin as the ice patterns inadvertently left on porcelain, silently spreading at the highest point of the sky.

No one noticed it; everyone was immersed in the frenzy or regret of the Opportunities they had obtained, and no one looked up to see the anomaly brewing above the firmament.

But immediately after—

The entire Secret Realm emitted a dull rumble that seemed to come from the deepest part of the earth.

This rumbling was not as explosive and ear-piercing as thunder; it was more like an ancient giant beast that had slept for endless eons, turning over in its dream and letting out a long, heavy sigh—in this sigh was wrapped the weariness of eons, and also the verdict of the end.

And then—the sky shattered!

This ancient space, which had carried Legacies of countless eras and witnessed the rise of who knows how many Prodigies, began to crack and crumble inch by inch!

The sky was like a precious mirror smashed fiercely by a Primordial giant, with cracks spreading crazily in all directions at a speed visible to the naked eye!

Every crack burst forth with blinding white light, scorching everyone's eyes!

The earth split, mountains collapsed, and rivers flowed backward!

The air was filled with an aura of destruction, like the apocalypse descending, scorching everyone's lungs and bowels!

Fragments flew across the sky, turning into countless firefly-like points of light, scattering into the endless Void Realm, like a grand and poignant farewell—

An era, thus came to an end.