128: Dust to dust, ashes to ashes!

"Ashes to ashes, dust to dust... it has been a hundred thousand years!"

Lu Chen regained consciousness.

He solemnly recited this phrase known to every man, woman, and child in Huaxia, summoning the golden compass to dismantle and reassemble; three hundred and sixty copper coins transformed into the stars of the firmament and embedded themselves into the coffin lid.

The moment the crystal sarcophagus opened, the flow of time within the entire Guixu Secret Realm suddenly slowed, and the splashes from swimming fish wagging their tails solidified into translucent glaze.

The woman in the coffin—or perhaps the corpse—now slowly opened her eyes.

The instant she opened her eyes, everyone saw mountains, rivers, and the passage of time within her pupils.

They even witnessed scene after scene of the vast changes over a hundred thousand years.

A golden pattern in the shape of the Kunlun Mountain Range appeared on her forehead.

When her gaze swept over Ning Xiwei, the bone Talisman in Ning Xiwei's hand actually spontaneously combusted.

Any Power of the Undead, before her Aura...

...instantly turned to ash!

And as Ning Xiwei stared at her face, it was shockingly her own face.

The female corpse in the coffin sat straight up.

Yet, she was an existence devoid of life.

In this world, within this part of the sea...

...it was deathly silent.

Lu Chen gently caressed an ice coffin, his gaze falling upon this female corpse he was reuniting with after a long separation.

If Ning Xiwei was her present life...

...then this was Ning Xiwei's past life from a hundred thousand years ago.

A sword tempered through nine Reincarnations, a thousand years of withered sitting waiting for the lord's return.

Searching through the Yellow Springs and the azure heavens, only to see an old friend returning under the moon.

"Efang Palace..." Lu Chen murmured in a somewhat sorrowful voice, calling out to the person from the past.

No one had survived back then.

Just like a hundred thousand years ago.

But fortunately, he had set up this Heaven-Slaying Game.

And at the last moment, he had allowed Efang Palace's soul to return to Reincarnation.

Even becoming Ning Xiwei to summon him here.

Lu Chen's knuckles touched the ice coffin, making a crisp sound like jade clashing.

This was the first time in a hundred thousand years that someone had awakened his more detailed memories from before his Transmigration.

He even remembered why he had come to this world a hundred thousand years ago.

That was the first Transmigration.

The floodgates of memory burst open; he remembered that he was originally just an archaeology student who had accidentally touched a bronze sarcophagus during an internship at Mount Li, transmigrating to a hundred thousand years ago in this world—an ancient era where gods and demons coexisted.

Just as Lu Chen was still silent in his past sorrow...

...the seawater around the Secret Realm began to slowly turn black.

Shelley's ice Phoenix suddenly let out a mournful cry, black ice crystals condensing on its wings.

Morning Dew immediately unfolded a Holy Light Barrier, only to find that the purification power was flowing backward. She hurriedly shouted:

"Watch out! This seawater is devouring spiritual power!"

Ignis swung her sword to cut through the encroaching black tide, her lava-like blood dripping into the sea with the sound of a branding iron being quenched. "Stop playing tricks!"

She suddenly bit the tip of her tongue and drew the Balrog Ancestral Rune on the blade, shouting coldly:

"—Raging Flames Burn the Three Thousand Realms!"

The fire dragon cleaved by the demon sword dissipated three feet before the crystal coffin. The woman in the coffin merely raised her hand slightly, and the twelve bronze pillars lowered a light screen containing the mysteries of the river map and book of luo.

The contract within Ning Xiwei's body with Lu Chen automatically manifested the same memories as the person in the coffin.

She said with some surprise:

"So my summoning contract... was signed a hundred thousand years ago?"

Ning Xiwei looked at Lu Chen's back and suddenly noticed that his skeletal true body was covered in fine cracks.

"Watch your back!" Sun Feifei's peach wood sword suddenly flew out, blocking a bronze chain that reached out from a crack in time for Lu Chen.

The Daoist girl stepped in the Yu Steps, and seventy-two yellow Talismans flew from her sleeves. "Mystic Sect of Heaven and Earth, the root of all Qi—Settle!"

The inescapable net formed by the Talismans was easily torn apart by the chains. Those bronze links engraved with oracle bone script were the missing parts of the twelve golden men from the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor that the Chu family had been searching for.

It seems the Chu family has never truly mastered the power of the Great Qin Immortal Dynasty from the ancient era!

A strange power emerged from the woman in the coffin, and her voice resonated with the hum of metal and stone clashing:

"A hundred thousand kalpas of fire are hard to burn away. Do you all know that you are but pawns in a game? Lu Chen, you think you deceived the heavens by leaving behind such a corpse, but you don't realize that even through Reincarnation, you and she are still unable to escape a true death!"

She tapped her fingertip, and a giant Formation map covering the entire Pacific Ocean appeared beneath everyone's feet, with each Formation eye corresponding to the burial site of an ancient Divine Artifact.

"Hahaha!" Lu Chen suddenly burst into loud laughter, the tianwen sword drawing down thunder from the nine heavens to cleave the illusion. "What a grand game of a hundred thousand years! So you're just using a corpse to confront me? Ridiculous, this is merely the shell left behind by Efang Palace. The real her is right by my side now. You've still lost to me by half a move!"

Lu Chen suddenly struck out with a palm, blasting the ice coffin back!

He turned to face the somewhat stunned crowd, his skeletal palm stroking the spine of the sword. "What are you looking at? Who says a pawn can't overturn the chessboard? Playing against the heavens, I, Lu Chen, will win by half a piece!"

Where Lu Chen's sword pointed, the frozen magic began to flow again. Within the surrounding sea, billions of water droplets amidst streaks of lightning seemed to transform into a sky full of stars.

The black tide wanted to devour them.

Lu Chen forced the black tide back!

Shelley also thrust her ice staff into the Formation eye, her sixth-tier magic fully unleashed!

"Frozen Throne—!"

Her absolute zero chill instantly froze the spreading Formation map.

Morning Dew also tacitly spread her six wings and softly chanted:

"Holy Light Guidance—!"

The golden pillar of light penetrated the ice, illuminating the throbbing black heart at the core of the Formation lines.

Ignis and Ning Xiwei leapt up simultaneously, the demon sword and bone scythe slashing down in a cross!

"Break for me!"

"Spirit Extinction!"

Amidst the torrent of intertwined fire and ice energy, Sun Feifei sacrificed her natal Magical Artifact, the Yin-Yang Mirror.

"Heaven and Earth Reversed, Five Elements Unified!"

The ancient ultimate technique passed down through the Zhao family displayed its full power.

The ancient Eastern immortal arts were infinitely profound.

The beam of light reflected from the mirror precisely struck the black heart of the Formation, and the entire grand Formation let out a wail like a prehistoric beast.

The woman in the coffin—this ancient remnant corpse identical to Ning Xiwei—saw that strange power upon her body instantly vanish!

And this corpse, at the moment it was about to dissipate, actually revealed a gratified smile. Her form began to turn into points of light, and within the afterimage, a recorded voice from a wisp of ancient remnant soul sounded: "The true enemy is hidden in even deeper darkness."

Before the words had even faded, a shock from an earthquake came from beneath Lu Chen and the others' feet!

"An undersea earthquake?"

Sun Feifei asked somewhat nervously.

Lu Chen shook his head and said coldly:

"Everyone be careful, there's something in this abyss!"

Along with Lu Chen's words, the undersea earthquake split open a bottomless abyss.

At the very end of this abyss, a blood-colored vertical pupil suddenly opened!

In an instant, the pressure of the Heavenly Dao crushed Morning Dew's Holy Light Barrier into powder.

Lu Chen threw the golden compass into the air, and the three hundred copper coins formed the shape of an armillary sphere!

"Not good! It's the Heavenly Eye! Everyone, it's time to go!" Lu Chen quickly drew a teleportation Formation in the Void Realm with his fingertip. Within the blood runes, the phantom of Kunlun Academy's bell tower appeared. "Quickly, everyone jump in!"