3: Chapter 3: The Venerable God Zhulong, Obtaining the Divine Thoughts of Zhulong!

The light dissipated.

Lin Ye opened his eyes. Before him was a vast, boundless, desolate, and ancient wilderness. In the distance, mountain ranges undulated continuously, their ridgelines winding like the spine of a giant dragon and piercing straight into the clouds.

Any of those mountains, if casually picked up and thrown onto Blue Star, would be a terrifying mass that crushes all mountain ranges.

Above the waist of the mountains, clouds and mist swirled, and colossal trees towering into the sky could be faintly seen!

The air was permeated with a strange aura.

Lin Ye took a breath and felt every pore all over his body open up, greedily devouring the energy in the air.

"This is… Spiritual Energy?!"

Lin Ye was both shocked and delighted.

He stepped forward and found that the soil was mixed with tiny golden sand grains, sparkling under the sunlight.

Just at that moment…

Boom!!!

A roar exploded from the horizon.

It was like ten thousand bolts of thunder exploding in the ears simultaneously, or the sound of the entire sky being torn apart.

Before he could recover…

Screech!!!

It was another ear-piercing, stone-splitting cry.

This sound was sharper and more vast than the previous roar, seeming to come from above the nine heavens.

Lin Ye instinctively raised his head.

Above the firmament, a black shadow flashed past.

That black shadow was too huge.

So huge that Lin Ye couldn't even determine how far it was from the ground for a moment.

Its wings spread out, covering half of the firmament, and the shadow it cast covered an unknown number of mountain peaks.

Every time its wings flapped, they whipped up violent air currents, tearing out two visible airwaves in the sky and churning all the clouds along the way into pieces.

"...Kunpeng?"

Lin Ye's pupils constricted.

In the Northern Darkness, there is a fish, and its name is Kun. The Kun is so huge that no one knows how many thousands of li it stretches!

This sentence was practically engraved into his DNA!

"Wait… No, that's not right…"

Lin Ye suddenly realized a serious problem.

Even the Kunpeng had appeared; what level of area was this?

Where was the Kunpeng?

The East!

The Classic of Regions Beyond the Seas: East?

Or the Classic of the Great Wilderness: East?

Lin Ye bit his nails, his brain spinning rapidly, and just as he was thinking…

Rumble!!!

The ground beneath his feet suddenly shook violently, the tremor being ten times stronger than the Kunpeng's roar just now.

And it was definitely not an earthquake.

Because the rhythm of this vibration… was too regular!

Boom… Boom… Boom…

It was as if some colossal behemoth was moving toward him.

Lin Ye's face turned pale bit by bit. He slowly raised his head and looked toward the horizon.

Two suns rose.

No… not the sun, but a pair of eyes!

Exuding a scorching glow, they hung above the earth like two burning stars.

As that thing approached, its outline gradually became clear.

That was a dragon.

A dragon so huge that it would make anyone's mind go completely blank.

Its body spanned across the earth, entirely crimson, with scales so large that every single one of them was like a public square.

Dark red halos flowed across its surface, like magma surging beneath its skin.

Its body length… was completely incalculable.

Because its head was in the sky ahead of him, while its body extended all the way to the end of the horizon, disappearing into the clouds and mist.

Let alone several thousand li.

The distance from this thing's eyes to its nose alone was probably more than several thousand li!

Lin Ye's brain completely crashed at this moment.

A record from an ancient text suddenly surfaced in his mind…

The Classic of Mountains and Seas: Great Wilderness North Classic states: Beyond the northwest sea, north of the Red Water is Mount Zhangwei, where an ancient true god resides!

The ancient text sketched its form in a few sparse strokes: human face, snake body, entirely crimson!

The book wrote that when it closed its eyes, it was endless night; when it opened them, daylight appeared. It neither drank nor ate, and a single breath could stir up wind and rain. Its name was Zhujiuyin, and the world called it Zhulong!

It was an absolute ceiling-level existence in the Classic of Mountains and Seas!

Lin Ye had been wondering earlier why not a single challenger who previously chose the Classic of Mountains and Seas had made it out alive.

Now he understood.

With the spawn point refreshed right on Zhulong's face, who could survive?

Mount Zhangwei and Mount Zhong were both Zhulong's territory!

This was directly landing inside someone's living room!

Zhulong's head slowly lowered.

That pair of eyes, even more dazzling than the sun, aimed at the location where Lin Ye was.

Lin Ye felt the blood all over his body freeze at this moment.

That oppressive feeling was indescribable, like the entire sky had collapsed.

An invisible heavy pressure crushed his entire body, his bones creaked, and fine blood veins split across his skin, as if his physical body would shatter in the next moment.

He couldn't die!

He couldn't die here!

Knowledge from his past life flashed frantically in Lin Ye's mind.

Deities in the Classic of Mountains and Seas, especially existences of this level, tended to have extreme and eccentric personalities.

Some were gentle and magnanimous, refusing to bicker with ants.

Others were fickle and would crush you casually if they found you displeasing.

Which kind did Zhulong belong to?

The ancient texts didn't say.

But Lin Ye remembered one thing.

His instructor had once said that most of the supreme existences in ancient Chinese mythology shared a common trait…

They valued etiquette.

They placed importance on titles and proper addressing.

The ancients were extremely particular about names and forms of address, even believing that knowing someone's true name was a form of power in itself.

In mythology, being able to call out a name and know one's origins often meant respect and awe.

Lin Ye didn't know whether this judgment of his was right or wrong.

But he had no choice.

This was the only way he might survive.

He gritted his teeth, took a deep breath, and respectfully cupped his hands.

"Junior Lin Ye!"

"Greetings to Venerable God Zhulong!"

"I have long heard that the Great God guards Mount Zhong, opening eyes for day and closing eyes for night, blowing for winter and breathing for summer, with a body a thousand li long and monstrous might!"

"Junior has admired you for a long time, and it is my absolute honor to behold your true face today!"

As soon as his words fell, the pressure that was about to crush him suddenly paused and slowly weakened.

In Zhulong's pair of eyes, which were even more dazzling than the sun, a strange light flashed.

"You recognize this deity?"

Lin Ye's heart pounded wildly.

He had bet right!

"I recognize you!"

There was a bit more certainty in Lin Ye's tone. "Although Junior comes from another world, the Great God's mighty reputation is like thunder piercing the ear! Senior governs day and night and oversees the four seasons; you are one of the supreme gods of the ancient primordial times!"

The light in that pair of eyes flickered again, seeming very satisfied with this answer.

"For tens of millions of years, you are the first person to see this deity and still calmly speak these words. Everyone else either cries, screams, or flees—so noisy."

Zhulong continued to speak, but its tone gained a trace of teasing, "Since you know that when this deity closes its eyes, it is pitch-black night, would you like to experience it?"

Lin Ye's heart tightened.

Was this testing him?

"The alternation of day and night rests in the hands of the Great God; how could a mere mortal like Junior dare to pry into it presumptuously? If the Great God is willing to open your eyes, Junior shall see dawn; if the Great God closes your eyes, Junior shall enter the night. Everything is determined solely by the Great God's will."

These words were airtight.

They expressed awe without directly answering, completely returning the initiative to the other party.

"Interesting."

Its voice carried a hint of profound meaning.

"Do you know that among the tens of millions of living creatures in this world, those who can call out this deity's name are already considered to have an affinity with the Dao. Those who can say that this deity governs day and night and oversees the four seasons are even fewer."

"With a mortal body like yours, your courage, insight, and respect are all complete. Based solely on this sincerity of 'knowing my name', you are worthy of this deity looking at you with high regard."

The books were right; these ancient deities indeed valued etiquette!

It fell silent for a moment, as if examining an interesting little trinket.

"Are you here for a trial?"

"Yes."

"Very well, the Great Wilderness is perilous, and your physique is too weak; if you walk out, you won't survive three days. This deity bestows upon you a trace of divine sense; whether you can refine it and how far you can go depends on your own fortune. If you die outside, that is also your destiny."

Having spoken, Zhulong slowly closed its eyes.

The entire world plunged into utter darkness.

Lin Ye felt an indescribable energy suddenly surge into his body.

That energy was violent and scorching, like a torrent of magma drilling directly into his limbs and bones.

Then, deep within his sea of consciousness, it condensed with a boom.

A mark!

Entirely crimson, shaped like a dragon, with black flames lingering around its body.

This is…

The zhulong seal!