94: Chapter 94 The Fallen Heavenly Soldier

The zhou tian star boat approached.

The legendary Southern Heaven Gate and its scene of ruin and desolation shocked Li Xuan and his family.

This was no longer something that could be described as majestic.

The zhou tian star boat was claimed to be a Small World, but before this boundless gateway, it appeared insignificant.

Two pillars supported the sky.

The sun, moon, stars, Dragons, Phoenixes, and Qilins carved upon them had lost all their spirit.

Spiderweb-like cracks covered the pillars, as if they could collapse at any moment.

On the lintel, the three ancient Dao characters for "Southern Heaven Gate" were dim.

The character "Heaven" was even cleaved in half by a terrifying slash, with only half remaining, exuding ominousness and dead silence.

Silence reigned on the deck of the zhou tian star boat.

The children who had been chasing and playing just a moment ago stopped their movements.

On their little faces, for the first time, confusion and perplexity appeared.

From behind that broken gate came an aura that made them feel extremely uncomfortable.

Death, decay, unwillingness, and despair mixed together, turning into a foul stench that polluted this world which should have been a fairyland.

"Husband, what... what has happened here?"

Consort Xiao Yu turned pale and hugged Li Lunhui tightly in her arms.

She was a Saint, but before that pervasive aura of dead silence, she felt even her Divine Soul growing cold.

This was too far from the Immortal Realm they had imagined.

There were no auspicious clouds or Auspicious Beasts.

There was no music played by celestial maidens.

And certainly no myriad rays of golden light.

All that remained was endless ruin.

A massive ruin that had just experienced an apocalyptic war.

Li Xuan did not answer.

His gaze had long since locked onto the figure leaning against the pillar at the very bottom of the white jade steps.

"There is someone there."

The eldest prince, Li Changsheng, who had been staring outside, spoke in a milky voice.

In his pure eyes, the figure wearing tattered silver armor was reflected, and his little brows were tightly furrowed.

In his perception, that person was sitting there, yet did not exist.

The aura was weak, as if it would extinguish at any moment.

What shocked him even more was the broken halberd leaning beside the person.

The lingering Battle Intent on it was sharp, overbearing, and full of an unyielding determination.

"Daddy, that uncle's clothes are all torn, is he very poor?"

The third prince, Li Yuanbao, also discovered that figure.

He sniffed, his double pupils swirling with divine light as he tried to see through the other person's "value."

But in his double-pupil vision, there was no aura of any valuable Magic Treasure on the old soldier; there wasn't even a complete Spiritual Artifact.

He was just a beggar who had crawled out of a trash heap in the mortal world, having nothing.

However, Li Yuanbao's double pupils saw a different scene.

He saw that beneath the old soldier's hunched body, something heavier than divine gold and immortal iron was deposited.

That was "Time" and "Persistence."

This was a Treasure Trove that no wealth could measure.

The zhou tian star boat stopped, hovering above the square filled with cracks in front of the Southern Heaven Gate.

Perhaps the arrival of this ship broke the dead silence of this place that had lasted for billions of years.

Perhaps it was the vibrant life aura on the children on the ship, which was out of place here, that stimulated him.

The old soldier, who was leaning against the pillar and seemed to have passed away while meditating, felt his eyelids tremble with difficulty beneath his withered, straw-like long hair.

Then, he slowly raised his head, his movements as stiff as if an eternity had passed.

His face was covered in deep wrinkles, eroded by wind and sand for billions of years.

His skin was a grayish, decayed color, covered in dust, making it impossible to see his original appearance.

A pair of eyes, turbid to the extreme, opened.

His eyeballs were like dusty gray glass beads, hollow and devoid of spirit.

The mere act of "opening his eyes" exhausted all his strength.

His gaze first swept blankly across this world he had seen until he was numb.

Then it locked onto the shimmering zhou tian star boat in mid-air.

His turbid eyeballs turned stiffly.

His gaze swept over the curious toddlers on the ship and the women who wore expressions of vigilance.

Finally, it fell upon the man standing at the bow of the ship.

The man's eyes were deep and calm.

In that instant.

A flash of brilliance suddenly erupted in his deathly gray eyes.

The light was incomparably sharp.

A powerful pressure flashed and vanished from that hunched, weak body.

That was the aura of an "Immortal," surpassing Great Emperors and transcending the mortal realm.

Although it was only for a moment before it returned to silence, it still made Consort Xiao Yu and the other consorts tremble in their Divine Souls, their expressions changing drastically.

If not for Li Xuan, they would have likely knelt down on the spot.

Even those little ones who knew no fear shrank back, their eyes wide with shock.

This was the first time since they were born that they had felt a trace of "danger" from someone other than their father.

"Alive... alive..."

A hoarse, dry voice, like iron plates scraping, was squeezed out with difficulty from the old soldier's cracked lips.

He hadn't spoken for so long that he had almost forgotten the instinct to vocalize.

"From... from the Lower Realm... Ascenders?"

His gaze was fixed tightly on Li Xuan and his family, and his eyes, which had just erupted with divine light, were now filled with unbelievable shock and confusion.

"How is it possible... in this era... how can there still be Ascenders?"

He muttered to himself, his voice full of the absurdity of having his understanding overturned.

He saw that the man's Qi was perfect and smooth, seemingly completely unaffected by the Laws of this filthy Immortal Realm.

He saw that those toddlers were all vigorous in Qi and blood, like the cubs of ancient wild beasts, and the strength of their life Origin also made him feel shocked.

This family had actually arrived at the Southern Heaven Gate by riding a complete, undamaged Void Realm divine boat of such high grade that even he couldn't see through it, swaggering in without a scratch?

Had they not encountered the "Dark Remnants" wandering in the Void Realm?

Had they not been eroded by the "World Sea Turbid Qi" capable of corrupting Immortal Artifacts?

This was unreasonable.

This completely overturned his understanding.

The old soldier's chest heaved violently; his emotions were too excited, triggering a fit of coughing.

"Cough... cough cough cough..."

He coughed violently, his voice hoarse.

After a long while, he calmed down.

He raised his head again to look at Li Xuan; the brilliance in his eyes had long since faded, returning to a turbid, dead silence, even more desolate than before.

A stiff smile pulled at his dust-covered face.

"What a pity, truly a pity."

He shook his head, his voice full of sorrow and regret.

"Such good talent, such good natural constitution... why come here?"

"You have come to the wrong place, and at the wrong time."

As he spoke, he turned his head and used his scarred, broken helmet to point at the huge, equally broken gateway of heaven behind him.

That hoarse and desperate voice clearly echoed in everyone's ears, and the fantasies about the Immortal Realm in their hearts were completely shattered.

"The Immortal Realm..."

"It has long since ceased to be the Immortal Realm you imagined."