213: Chapter 213 Descendants of the Divine Dragon

Accompanied by a tooth-aching sound of shattering, that Skeleton Legion, powerful enough to drive one to despair, was swept away by the golden light. Like weathered sand sculptures, they crumbled inch by inch, turning into a floor of ink-jade-colored bone powder devoid of any energy fluctuations, covering the entire square.

Tyrannical killing intent, chaotic energy, piercing cold... everything vanished in an instant.

The entire world returned to that deathly silence.

The faint blue bone staff torch still burned stubbornly in Song Yiqing's trembling hand, illuminating this scene of survival like a scroll from hell.

"Xiaoge!!"

Fatty rushed to Zhang Qilin's side on all fours. Seeing him kneeling on one knee, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth, and his eyes hollow, he was scared out of his wits.

"Xiaoge, what's wrong? Don't scare me!"

Zhang Qilin didn't respond; he just gasped heavily, like a fish thrown onto the shore. His face was as pale as paper, and his eyes, which were always as calm as an ancient well, were now filled with unprecedented confusion, struggle, and a hint of... deep pain.

The word from before seemed not to have been spoken by his own will, but by some older existence sleeping in the deepest part of his soul. Touched by the environment here, it had forcibly borrowed his body to issue an unquestionable "divine decree."

And the backlash brought by this "divine decree" almost turned his sea of consciousness upside down. Countless broken memory fragments that didn't belong to him flashed, collided, and then vanished in his mind like a violent storm.

There were scenes of iron cavalry and clashing weapons, gods and demons shedding blood, stars falling, and... a massive golden dragon pierced by chains, letting out a silent wail of grief.

"He... overexerted himself."

Song Yiqing walked over with difficulty, leaning on his bone staff. His voice had become somewhat hoarse due to extreme shock.

He looked at Zhang Qilin in horror, then at the altar in the distance that had regained its calm. An incredible yet only logical thought began to grow wildly in his mind.

Zhang Qilin... who exactly is he?!

Why can he command the... array here?

What did that ancient syllable, which didn't belong to this era, actually mean?

Could it be that there was some... unknown connection between him and this ancient ruin that had been sealed for endless ages?

"Don't worry about that for now!" Lin Tianyi held his military knife, still looking around warily. "This place is too eerie; we must leave immediately! Song Yiqing, didn't you say the formation eye was over there? Is that the exit?"

Song Yiqing's gaze returned to the towering altar in the center of the square.

Although the threat of the skeleton soldiers was removed, that altar stood before them like a larger, more dangerous mystery.

"I don't know." Song Yiqing shook his head, a trace of bitterness appearing on his face. "My 'Qi Sense' tells me that is the endpoint of all energy. It could be the exit, or it could be... the root of all this, an even more dangerous place."

"Who cares what the hell it is!" Fatty hoisted the nearly exhausted Zhang Qilin onto his back and said through gritted teeth, "It's better than staying here and waiting to die! Xiaoge needs a place to rest in this state! Let's go and check out that broken platform!"

Having no other choice, the group supported each other, staying alert as they stepped over the bone powder on the ground, walking toward the massive altar in the center of the square.

The closer they got, the clearer the supreme majesty emanating from the altar became.

It was an ancient "Dao Rhyme" that stood above all living beings, as if it were as old as heaven and earth, and as eternal as the sun and moon. In the face of this "Dao Rhyme," these mortal lives even felt a soul-deep urge to prostrate themselves in worship.

Finally, they arrived beneath the altar.

Only at close range could they truly see the magnificence of this altar.

It was carved from a single piece of unknown black rock, standing a hundred meters high, covered in patterns even more complex and mysterious than the reliefs on the stone doors.

These patterns seemed to be the manifestation of the ultimate truths of heaven and earth. Just looking at them made one feel dizzy, as if their soul was about to be sucked in.

A steep stone staircase, only wide enough for one person, spiraled toward the top of the altar.

"I'll go up and check first."

Wang Xianzhi volunteered.

She was light on her feet and had the fastest reactions, making her the best candidate to scout the way.

She gripped her longsword and, step by step, set foot on the stone staircase leading to the unknown.

It was quiet on the stairs, with no mechanisms or traps.

When Wang Xianzhi's figure appeared at the edge of the altar's summit, she froze.

She seemed to see the most incredible and shocking sight of her life. She was stunned, and even the longsword in her hand almost slipped from her grasp.

"Xianzhi? What's wrong? What's up there?"

Lin Tianyi shouted anxiously from below.

Wang Xianzhi didn't answer. She just slowly turned her head and made a gesture for the others to come up and see. Her face was filled with a shock that words could not describe.

Everyone's hearts tightened. Supporting each other, they quickened their pace and climbed to the top of the altar.

When they stepped onto the flat summit of the altar, everyone was as completely stunned as Wang Xianzhi by the sight before them.

The top of the altar was a circular platform about fifty meters in diameter.

In the center of the platform, just as Song Yiqing had "seen," nine massive bronze chains, thicker than an adult's thigh, extended from nine positions on the platform, piercing deep below and converging at a single point.

And what they were collectively locking...

Was a heart.

A massive, still slowly beating... golden heart!

The heart was as large as a small car, its entire body presenting a pure, brilliant gold like molten metal.

Its surface was covered with layers of dragon-scale-like cuticles. Every contraction and expansion seemed to drive the energy of the entire space to ebb and flow with it.

And those nine bronze chains, like the fangs of nine venomous snakes, pierced deep into this heart, pinning it firmly to the center of the altar.

On every chain, countless mysterious runes flickered, greedily absorbing the energy from the heart to maintain the operation of the entire grand array.

That supreme majesty and the sorrowful echoes of dragon roars originated from this heart!

This was a dragon's heart!

A Dragon Heart that had lived for endless ages, suppressed here as the energy source for the entire "South Heaven Gate" array!

"My... god..."

Fatty felt his brain had completely stalled looking at this mythical scene. The moment he neared this Dragon Heart, Zhang Qilin's body on his back trembled violently, and unconscious, painful low growls came from his throat.

"Is this... the truth?"

Lin Tianyi murmured to himself. He finally understood why there were so many traces of dragons here.

It turned out they had been inside a massive seal centered around a Dragon Heart all along!

Meanwhile, Song Yiqing's gaze was drawn to a skeleton quietly leaning against the chains next to the heart.

It was a humanoid skeleton.

Unlike the previous skeleton soldiers, this skeleton was a warm, jade-like white, as if carved from the finest mutton-fat white jade. It wore a set of ancient Taoist robes that were already tattered but still showed their magnificent style.

Its posture was peaceful. One hand was placed gently on the beating golden Dragon Heart, as if comforting it or perhaps drawing from it. The other hand held a... brush.

A brush with a pitch-black barrel, yet its tip still shimmered with specks of golden light.

At the feet of this skeleton, on the ground, two lines of words were carved in dried, dark-red handwriting.

The handwriting was wild and scribbled, yet it exuded a sense of indomitable pride and unwillingness.

"He... left his last words here."

Song Yiqing walked forward with a trembling voice, identifying the ancient script.

His pupils suddenly constricted!

"I hate that Heaven is without Dao, imprisoning my Divine Dragon Bloodline as the formation base!"

"I hate that the Earth is heartless, locking my thousands of comrades to turn into withered bones!"

"I use my broken body as the formation eye and my soul as the ink to alter the formation pivot of the 'South Heaven Gate,' leaving a sliver of hope for future generations."

"He who comes holding the 'key,' if of the same race, shall inherit my will, break this heavenly prison, and return freedom to our Divine Dragon!"

"If an... outsider..."

The last few words were destroyed by a massive claw mark, becoming blurred and unclear, but the sharp killing intent seemed to pierce through the ages, straight into one's heart!

These few short lines revealed an earth-shaking secret!

Countless years ago, a group of 'people' possessing the Huaxia Divine Dragon Bloodline were imprisoned here by a terrifying existence called 'Heaven'! Their comrades were refined into immortal skeleton soldiers, and their tribe's totem—the Divine Dragon—had its heart ripped out alive to serve as the energy core of this massive cage!

And this ancestor who left the testament had, at the moment of his death, used his own body and soul as the price to forcibly alter the core of the 'South Heaven Gate' grand array, leaving a gate of life in what was originally a death array!

Moreover, he seemed to have anticipated that someone would come in the future and left clues about the 'key'!

"The key... the key is Xiaoge's blade!" Fatty reacted instantly. "Then... then Xiaoge, he is..."

"A kinsman."

Song Yiqing took over his words, glancing with a complex expression at the unconscious Zhang Qilin on Fatty's back.

Everything made sense now.

Why Zhang Qilin's blood could suppress those monsters, why his blade was the key, why he could command the array...

Because, deep within his bloodline, flowed the same blood as the 'people' who created this place and were imprisoned here!

He is a descendant of the Divine Dragon Bloodline!

Just then!

As if to confirm his words.

The jade-white skeleton leaning against the Dragon Heart seemed to have completed its final mission the moment they finished reading the testament.

Its hand holding the brush slowly rose, pointing toward another direction of the altar.

And then...

Clatter...

The entire skeleton, like the finest porcelain, shattered inch by inch, turning into a handful of crystal-clear, diamond-like dust that vanished with the wind.

In the direction it pointed, on the hard black rock ground, a teleportation array emitting a soft white light and composed of countless runes slowly emerged.

That was the sliver of hope this ancestor had left for them at the cost of his life!

The exit! The real exit!

"Go!"

Without any hesitation, the group immediately ran toward that teleportation array.

However, just as they were about to step into the teleportation array!

Another change occurred!

Boom!!!!

The entire altar, and even the entire 'South Heaven Gate' space, began to tremble violently and crazily!

The beating frequency of the massive golden Dragon Heart suddenly quickened! The runes on the nine bronze chains flashed wildly, seemingly trying their best to suppress it!

And from the center of the heart pierced by the chains, where the last few words of the destroyed testament were, a pure, viscous black energy—as if from the bottom of the abyss—burst out like venom!

That black energy quickly polluted the golden Dragon Heart and turned into black tentacles, shooting toward the group about to enter the teleportation array with the force of a thunderbolt!

"Not good! It's the backup plan left by 'Heaven'!"

Song Yiqing's face changed in horror!

Although that ancestor had altered the array, he hadn't completely cleared the most vicious curse left by 'Heaven'!

This curse was triggered the moment they were about to escape!

The black energy tentacles were extremely fast, reaching behind the group in an instant!

It looked like they were about to be swallowed by that ominous energy!

In this life-and-death moment!

Zhang Qilin, who had been unconscious, suddenly snapped his eyes open!

His eyes were no longer pitch black at this moment, but had turned into two dazzling, burning... golden vertical pupils!

"Begone!!!"

A roar of extreme majesty, as if from an ancient dragon god, issued from his mouth!

A pure, golden Dragon Might, like a physical shockwave, erupted from his body!

The several aggressive black energy tentacles, upon contact with this Dragon Might, were like meeting their nemesis. They let out a shrill scream and were instantly shattered!

After letting out this roar, the gold in Zhang Qilin's eyes quickly faded, and he fell into a deep coma once again.

The group seized this critical moment and, without hesitation, plunged into the teleportation array emitting the soft white light!

A flash of white light.

Their figures disappeared from the altar.

And that massive 'South Heaven Gate' space, with their departure, returned to its eternal... deathly silence.

...