Chapter 80 The Three Thousand Years Have Arrived

The Law of Thunder had not yet dissipated when it was suppressed by a purer, dark-red Devilish Qi, turning into purple spots and vanishing into the Void Realm.

The sky over the Central Continent lost its color, leaving only a field of blood-red light.

"Who dares touch the offspring of me, Li Tiantu?"

A low voice echoed from a crack in the void.

As the voice fell,

a figure stepped out from the sea of blood.

Beside him,

the void twisted, and five demonic shadows, all carrying an aura that could destroy heaven and earth, appeared one after another.

Six Devil Emperors, plus the previous three, meant there were now nine Emperor Realm experts from the Demon Race, matching the nine Immortal Emperors of the Human Race.

The Thunder Emperor let out a muffled groan and took half a step back, a hint of wariness flashing in his eyes.

"Li Tiantu..."

The Thunder Emperor spat out the name through gritted teeth.

The number one battle maniac of Demon Emperor City. A madman who once charged into the Immortal Domain alone, slaughtered three Immortal Kings, and severely wounded an Immortal Emperor.

"Father!"

Li Tianqiong saw that figure, and wild joy erupted in his eyes.

He scrambled over on his knees, tears mixing with blood as they fell. "Father, save me! They want to kill me! They want to search my soul!"

Li Tiantu looked down at his wretched son, his brow furrowing slightly.

Before he could speak, a thin Devil Emperor beside him with a strange smile on his face burst into laughter.

"Hehehe, Old Monster Li, this is truly a sight to behold."

The Smiling Face Devil Emperor toyed with a string of skull beads. "You, Li Tiantu, claim to be invincible in Demon Emperor City, yet your precious son is being pinned to the ground like a dead dog in this godforsaken lower scrap world, about to have his soul searched?

If word of this gets back to the Demon God Realm, where will you hide your face?"

Li Tianqiong was overwhelmed with shame and buried his head in his chest.

Li Tiantu ignored his colleague's mockery. His blood-red eyes swept across the scene.

He saw the nine Human Race Immortal Emperors who looked as if they were facing a great enemy, saw the uncertain expressions of the White Bone Demon Emperor and the Red-Eyed Demon Emperor, and finally, his gaze landed on the group of Myriad Races Geniuses in the distance, who were trembling under the Emperor's pressure.

"The Yin and Yang Qi of the Taiji Dao Sect? The Sword Intent of the Sword Pavilion? And people from the Spirit Race and Yao Race?"

A hint of surprise flashed in Li Tiantu's eyes. "Why have the geniuses of the Place of Origin come in droves to this Original Realm with its fragmented Laws?"

He withdrew his gaze, looked at the ashen-faced Thunder Emperor, and then glanced at the trembling Divine Envoy nearby, who was clutching the Deputy Hall Master's token.

"White Bone."

Li Tiantu placed his hands behind his back, his voice overpowering the surrounding void storms. "Tell me briefly what happened. In all these years, this is the first time this Emperor has encountered such a situation."

The White Bone Demon Emperor stepped forward, the ghostly green soul fire in his eye sockets flickering as he recounted the entire story: the theft of the heaven-reaching tower, how everyone was toyed with, the pursuit to the Lower Realm, the discovery of the heaven-reaching tower's Origin aura on Li Tianqiong, and the Divine Court token hidden in his Sea of Consciousness.

After hearing this, the scene fell into a dead silence.

Everyone stared at Li Tiantu, waiting to see how he would react.

Li Tiantu did not explode in rage. Instead, he began to laugh softly.

"Hahahaha! The essence of the heaven-reaching tower? A Divine Court token? Just happened to fly into my son's Sea of Consciousness?"

Li Tiantu abruptly stopped laughing, his blood-red eyes staring intently at the Thunder Emperor and the Divine Envoy. "Thunder Emperor, you nine Human Race Emperor Realm experts have lived for millions of years—has your brain been eaten by dogs? Or has being comfortable for too long made you lose even your common sense?"

"What do you mean!" the Thunder Emperor roared, the lightning around him surging again.

"What do I mean?"

Li Tiantu sneered and took a step forward, closing in on the Thunder Emperor. "Such an obvious frame-up, such a crude attempt to kill with a borrowed knife, and you actually believe it?

That thief could play tricks with the heaven-reaching tower right under the noses of twelve Emperor Realm experts, and even dared to snatch food from a tiger's mouth during the gap between the Demon God Emperor and the Imperial Preceptor's battle. Would someone with such heaven-defying methods be stupid enough to use a Devil Emperor's son as a scapegoat?"

"He gave the heaven-reaching tower Origin to Tianqiong and shoved the token into his head specifically to provoke you and make the Immortal and Demon Races go to war in this Lower Realm.

He's playing you for fools, and you actually bit the bone he threw out."

Li Tiantu's words were like a heavy hammer slamming into the hearts of the Star Immortal Emperor and the others.

They had also harbored doubts, but the evidence on Li Tianqiong was too conclusive, and their urgency to complete their mission had made them overlook these flaws.

"The facts are right before us!"

The Divine Envoy stepped forward and snorted coldly. "The token is in his head! The heaven-reaching tower Origin is on him! Regardless of whether it's a frame-up, he has touched a treasure of the Divine Court, so he must die!

Better to kill by mistake than to let him go!"

Li Tiantu turned his head and looked at the shouting Divine Envoy with eyes that seemed to be looking at a corpse.

"A dog of the Divine Court dares to bark before this Emperor?"

Li Tiantu raised his hand slightly, Devilish Qi swirling around his fingertips. "Since your minds aren't clear, then this Emperor will help clear them for you."

...

Deep within the heart of the Central Continent.

Gu Heng had already taken the Old Dragon King and descended to a certain depth along the pitch-black crack of the God-Falling Abyss.

The surrounding darkness was like thick ink, and the space Laws here were twisted to the extreme.

Gu Heng's body was enveloped in the light of the Laws of a Peak Immortal Emperor, keeping the pressure three feet away.

"Master, the aura here... is getting stranger and stranger."

The Old Dragon King followed closely behind Gu Heng, his golden pupils shining in the darkness. "Although this old servant is of the Dragon Clan, in this darkness, I smell an extremely ancient, even decaying scent. It's like... a giant tomb."

"A tomb?"

Gu Heng raised an eyebrow but did not stop.

He was about to pull up the System panel to check if there were any available Passing By points nearby.

“Crack—”

A crisp cracking sound echoed in the darkness, like something shattering.

Gu Heng was slightly taken aback, and his Divine Sense expanded.

"Interesting. In a broken Lower Realm like the Original Realm, at the very bottom of the God-Falling Abyss, there's actually a Restriction hidden that would take even an Immortal Emperor some effort to break?"

Without hesitation, he gathered the power of a Peak Immortal Emperor at his fingertip and tapped the membrane.

Boom—

The darkness was torn open.

Spiritual Qi with a five-colored glow gushed out from the rift, engulfing Gu Heng and the Old Dragon King.

The suffocating darkness receded, replaced by a blinding light.

Gu Heng squinted his eyes, and once his vision adjusted, he looked at the scene before him and fell into deep thought.

This was a Small World embedded at the bottom of the God-Falling Abyss.

Looking up, the sky was a magnificent purple-gold, with no sun or moon, yet it was as bright as day.

Countless floating spiritual mountains were faintly visible in the sea of clouds, with waterfalls and springs pouring down from a height of tens of thousands of feet.

Exotic flowers and rare herbs were everywhere.

Pulling any one of them and taking it to the Central Continent outside would be enough to cause a frantic slaughter among the ancestors of established families.

"My goodness..."

The Old Dragon King was stunned.

His mouth hung open, saliva trickling down the corner of his mouth. He took a deep breath of air, and every dragon scale on his body stood up in comfort.

"This... this is a freaking wonderland! Compared to this, those immortal blessed lands in the Central Continent are just sewers!" The Old Dragon King was so excited he was incoherent. "Master, in this Spiritual Qi... there's actually the purest True Dragon Qi! Could this be an ancient ruin of our Dragon Clan?"

Gu Heng ignored the Old Dragon King.

He closed his eyes and sent out his Peak Immortal Emperor Divine Sense, sweeping through this Small World like a storm.

One breath.

Two breaths.

Gu Heng opened his eyes, his brow slightly furrowed, his expression somewhat strange.

"No Formation traps, no Restriction left by Upper Realm experts, even..." Gu Heng stroked his chin, "not a single human."

"No humans?"

The Old Dragon King was taken aback.

"Correct."

Gu Heng looked toward the floating spiritual mountains in the distance. "The creatures living here are all from your Dragon Clan. Fire Dragons, Ice Dragons, Horned Dragons, and even a few atavistic Five-Clawed Golden Dragons."

The Old Dragon King trembled with excitement.

"But—"

Gu Heng's tone shifted. "Although the environment is like a wonderland, the cultivation of these Dragon Clan Cultivators is simply pathetic."

"The highest one is only at the Mahayana Stage. Most are at the Nascent Soul or Soul Transformation stages, rolling around in the mud. There isn't even a single Loose Immortal at the Tribulation Transcendence Stage."

Gu Heng sighed and shook his head. "Sitting on a mountain of treasure without knowing it. With so much True Dragon Qi and Heaven And Earth Treasures, even if you were feeding a pig, it should have become a True Immortal after a few thousand years, right?

How did these loaches manage to keep their cultivation so low?"

The Old Dragon King rolled his eyes at the word 'loaches', but under his master's pressure, he could only laugh dryly and agree. "Yes, yes, Master is right. These clansmen are indeed a bit too disappointing."

Gu Heng's eyes shifted toward the massive building surrounded by purple Qi at the very center of the Small World.

"Regardless, since we're here, let's go ask that old fellow with the highest cultivation about the situation. Perhaps we'll find some interesting clues."

Gu Heng looked at this Small World, a hint of mockery curling at the corner of his mouth.

"A Mahayana Stage expert isn't even enough to fill the gaps between my teeth. This place has such abundant Spiritual Qi and fairly complete Laws, yet it can't produce a single Immortal Realm being. It's almost like..."

Gu Heng narrowed his eyes. "A petri dish intentionally fenced in by someone, or, or just a greenhouse existing for a certain moment."

He no longer hid his presence.

Gu Heng took a step forward.

Just his Immortal Emperor Physical Body alone, the moment he stepped into this Small World, broke the balance that had been maintained for untold eons.

“Buzz—”

A boom rang out above the Small World.

The purple-gold sky, like a glazed mirror, was instantly covered in cracks.

The ground of the entire Small World began to tremble.

The ground cracked inch by inch, the floating spiritual mountains teetered, the waterfalls flowed backward, and the Immortal Plants withered.

"Roar—!"

"Ang—!"

Panic spread instantly.

Countless dragons woke from their slumber and rushed out of their Immortal Caves.

Fire Dragons spat weak sparks, Ice Dragons trembled in mid-air, and those juvenile dragons were paralyzed on the ground, terrified by the phenomenon in the sky, letting out shrill wails.

Though they possessed the True Dragon Bloodline, in the face of absolute Realm suppression, their dragon prestige was not even a joke.

Gu Heng stood at the center of the collapsing sky, one hand behind his back, coldly watching the chaotic dragon town below.

With a sweep of his Divine Sense, he directly locked onto the place with the densest Spiritual Qi at the very center of the Small World.

It was a luxurious Dragon Palace.

The entire hall was carved from Deep Sea Profound Ice, and the nine coiled dragon pillars supporting the hall were embedded with top-grade spirit essence.

Even in the outside Central Continent, such a hall would be enough to cause frantic competition among various Holy Lands, but here, it was just a residence.

Gu Heng's figure flashed, and he disappeared from the spot with the Old Dragon King.

...

Inside the Dragon Palace.

The vast and luxurious hall was already crowded with Dragon Clan Elders. Each of them looked ancient, with cultivations ranging from the Body Integration Stage to the Tribulation Transcendence Stage.

At this moment,

these Elders, who could summon wind and rain in the Small World, were all kneeling neatly on the ground, their bodies trembling violently.

In the deepest part of the hall,

on the throne,

lay a massive but emaciated old dragon.

His dragon scales had lost their luster, appearing a dull gray; one of his two horns was broken, and his whole body emitted an aura of decline.

This was the Mahayana Stage being Gu Heng's Divine Sense had detected, and the sole king of this Small World.

"Old Ancestor! It seems... an unknown, terrifying being has descended!"

A Dragon Clan Elder at the Body Integration Stage slammed his head heavily against the ground. "That pressure... is definitely not something we can withstand! We beg the Old Ancestor to take action and save our clan!"

"We beg the Old Ancestor to take action!"

Hundreds of Dragon Clan Elders below wailed in unison.

On the throne, the old dragon ignored the cries from below.

His cloudy eyes just stared at the cracking sky outside the hall, and his dragon body began to tremble violently.

“Boom!”

The old dragon suddenly straightened his upper body, an astonishing light erupting in his eyes as he muttered hoarsely and neurotically:

"It's finally here..."

"The ancestor's prophecy did not deceive me... This day... has finally come!"

At the moment the old dragon muttered, the space in the center of the Dragon Palace twisted without warning.

Two figures appeared out of thin air in the middle of the hall, as if they had been standing there all along.

Gu Heng's expression was indifferent. He had just stood still and hadn't even had time to look around the luxurious Dragon Palace.

“Thud!”

A muffled sound.

Before the Dragon Clan Elders could react to what had happened, or even focus their gaze on the two people who had suddenly appeared,

the Mahayana Stage old dragon on the throne, whom they regarded as a god, actually rolled down from his white jade throne without hesitation.

He didn't even bother to maintain his transformed state, prostrating himself heavily on the floor before Gu Heng and the Old Dragon King in a comical manner.

His dragon head pressed against the ground,

humble to the point of being in the dust.

Immediately after,

a roar, uttered with all his strength, echoed through the wide Dragon Palace:

"The 372nd generation Clan Chief of the Sin Dragon lineage kowtows to the Lord!"

"The three-thousand-year period has arrived. We welcome the return of The Chosen Son!!!"

“???”

Gu Heng looked at the old dragon kneeling on the ground with utter devotion, and the corner of his mouth twitched.

These lines... why do they sound so familiar?