Chapter 1906 - Return
A mysterious aura circulated. s.h.i.+ Hao stood there, living here in seclusion for a hundred thousand years. Could he truly leave?
The void was distorted, twisting about. He saw a stone room that wasn’t far, a bit blurry. He could see that it should be the stone room that he previously entered.
That rough stone wall had a drop of blood sliding down, precisely that mysterious drop of ancient blood.
Embodiment Transformation Great Method, it was profound and mysterious after all. Were all ages transformed, or did he just experience a great dream?
It was hard for s.h.i.+ Hao to say and it was a bit difficult to determine clearly.
He walked forward. However, when he approached, he saw that the stone room was warped, there was another path. It actually led to a tomb!
What kind of place was that?
s.h.i.+ Hao was shocked. Next to the stone room were dark red graves, towering one after another, completely unknown what kind of creatures were buried underneath.
“Embodiment Transformation, I will return one day…”
s.h.i.+ Hao could vaguely make out this sound, echoing through the land of Emperor Collapse. It rang through the indistinct stone room not far away, also sounding in the similarly hazy graveyard.
When s.h.i.+ Hao walked forward, stepping on the path of return, he felt something inside, indescribably shaken. He looked towards this graveyard.
Time fragments danced about, time flowing like water. Multicolored light was dazzling here, the rain of light concentrated, extremely mysterious, surrounding the entire cemetery.
“It seems like the residence of undead knights, seems a bit familiar.” As s.h.i.+ Hao continued, he said quietly to himself.
Hong!
Suddenly, he saw a chest that was not made from metal, stone, or wood, the material special. It released nine-colored brilliance, dazzling to the point of making the heavens lose radiance.
“Origin Ancient Artifact!”
s.h.i.+ Hao’s pupils contracted. He had seen this thing before. When he headed into a darkness abyss with Sanzang and Shenming, he had seen this chest.
The brilliance it released was nine-colored, the radiance resplendent!
s.h.i.+ Hao walked forward. When he really entered this place, everything changed, all of it disappearing.
Heaven and earth became quiet, this place lacking all sounds.
The ancient grave disappeared, the Origin Ancient Artifact also long disappearing without a trace.
Where was this? s.h.i.+ Hao looked, feeling like it was extremely familiar.
Then, his body shook, his pupils widening, in utter disbelief. He actually came to this place! He wasn’t in Immortal Domain?
He came here before. It was a place outside the Desolate Border, a branch of Ancient Burial Region. Back then, a female undead knight had accompanied him here, the place where the rotten wooden chest first appeared was nearby.
Meanwhile, this place was one of the undead knights’ three great sacrificial holy lands!
s.h.i.+ Hao walked out, feeling the aura of Desolate Border. There was no mistake, he mysteriously left Immortal Domain, returning, directly arriving in Desolate Border outside the Nine Heavens Ten Earths.
En?
In that instant, he sensed something. There were powerful bones underground, but at the same time, it made his heart tremble slightly, producing a reaction.
“My bones!”
He found this inconceivable, difficult to believe.
Peng!
Earth and stone splashed in all directions, exposing some ruined bones. Then, he understood. By defying and living eight lives, the past rebirth, the divine core transformations…
Among them, there were several times when he severed his old bones, ruined bones that he personally buried.
He returned, but those bones were buried underground. They were actually here, underneath this great earth.
He remembered that back then, when that female undead knight came with him, he previously experienced a strange dream. In that instant, he had an out of body experience, as if his soul turned into b.u.t.terflies.
At that time, the female undead knight had said that he was already dead, the bones perhaps buried here, that he was an imperishable will that turned into primordial spirit b.u.t.terflies, roaming the world.
…
Immortal Domain, the ancient cave, outside the stone room.
The restricted region lord, crystal skull, and others were currently staring at the stone wall. In the end, they were stunned. The scenes stopped, the final place they pointed at was a Burial Region.
“This is outside Desolate Border!”
“How is this possible?” Even the golden arm bone released divine awareness fluctuations, carrying many questions. In the end, Huang left, yet he did not come back to the stone room, but instead arrived in Desolate Border.
The rough stone wall only recorded the direction s.h.i.+ Hao went. The last part didn’t belong to that great era, so it didn’t have any recordings.
“This really is strange, too strange!” The bleeding eyeball released divine will fluctuations.
It really was strange, some things too sinister.
They looked at that drop of blood together, the drop that was stuck to the rough stone wall.
“All of this definitely has to do with this thing!” The restricted region lord said.
The stone room became quiet. All of the rough recordings disappeared, completely vanis.h.i.+ng. In the end, this drop of blood was also absorbed by the stone wall.
Bark! The little dog barked.
This stone room even became quiet without any fluctuations, without them having any reactions. Even the surging chaotic energy decreased, about to dry up.
…
Desolate Border.
s.h.i.+ Hao walked forward, every step seemingly disillusioned. His magical force was world shocking, dao skills immeasurable. He directly left.
However, after leaving this region, he saw a boundless formation that covered heaven and earth, cutting off the relations.h.i.+p between the other side and Imperial Pa.s.s, blocking the creatures of the other side from crossing over into this world.
Even this region was affected. Formations separated him from that place. He could see Imperial Pa.s.s in the distance, but it was hard to return there.
In the past, after the final battle, Heaven Abyss surged, endless dao laws descended. An unmatched dao law great formation descended, forever sealing the paths out of Desolate Border, preventing the other side from invading.
Originally, it could block them for five hundred years, but it had already been supported for an endless amount of time.
If nothing unexpected happened, not even a great era might necessarily be able to break through this place’s seal.
Of course, that was the most ideal situation.
Ever since the creatures of darkness invaded, s.h.i.+ Hao felt like this region likely couldn’t serve as an eternal seal. Anlan, Scarlet King, Shutuo, Wushuang, and others, they would slaughter their way back one day.
s.h.i.+ Hao’s eyes flickered endlessly. He examined this region, searching for a way back.
Fortunately, what the unmatched formation cut off was the path the other side took to reach Imperial Pa.s.s.
This region was just affected. Even though it was covered, it wasn’t completely cut off.
In that other world, he cultivated bitterly for hundreds of thousands of years, becoming proficient in great formations, so his knowledge was great, reaching great heights. It advanced even more vigorously than his dao skills.
After hundreds of thousands of years, s.h.i.+ Hao already deduced formations to an unrivaled degree!
Several decades later, he stopped his deduction, finding a difficult path. He paused after each step, gradually walking out, heading towards Imperial Pa.s.s.
“Good, this is not the main path that was sealed off!” s.h.i.+ Hao said with a sigh. Otherwise, he most likely wouldn’t be able to return!
“Huang, when did he leave the pa.s.s?” When he arrived under Imperial Pa.s.s, s.h.i.+ Hao shouted out. When he wanted to borrow a path to go in, the creatures guarding the great city were shocked.
They really went through a huge deal of effort. Only after using several decades of time to repeatedly confirm that it was really him, was he allowed to enter the city.
“What year is it now?” After returning, s.h.i.+ Hao immediately asked this.
The experts in this city were immediately a bit shocked. What was going on with Huang?
When he learned that the years hadn’t changed, that he didn’t miss out on this great era, s.h.i.+ Hao released a breath of relief, completely relaxing.
These people had a type of illusion. Huang possessed a type of tremendous presence, more astonis.h.i.+ng than the past undying beings. Just what happened to him?
Immediately afterwards, s.h.i.+ Hao disappeared from this place, truly returning to the Nine Heavens Ten Earths.
“Master?!” The crimson dragon cried out, the first one to discover him.
s.h.i.+ Hao returned to Imperial Court, triggering great alarm.
“You… why did you change?” These people immediately sensed that there were great changes in s.h.i.+ Hao’s eyes, carrying a type of weariness. This was clearly the result of being baptised by endless time.
Just what did he experience? Could it be that he encountered a setback in Immortal Domain?
“Are you alright?” Yun Xi was worried. During these few decades, she was always looking into the distance, worried that he wouldn’t be able to return safely, leaving her inwardly tormented.
“I am extremely well!”
s.h.i.+ Hao entered seclusion. He needed to calm himself down.
It was because he experienced several hundred thousand years. Was this real? Now that he thought about it, it was too real, not an illusion. Moreover, his strength clearly increased, there was no way to argue against this.
Then, s.h.i.+ Hao’s primordial spirit shone. A dazzling long blade left his body, hacking at himself.
What he wanted to sever were distracting thoughts, the trifling matters of the hundreds of thousands of years. He wanted to maintain a bright and clear mind, be aloof and free. Otherwise, those hundreds of thousands of years of memories would be just too shocking.
In the end, s.h.i.+ Hao’s primordial spirit was translucent like crystal, just like the past.
In order for cultivators to still maintain a pure heart, when one’s age became extremely great, this type of self baptism was unavoidable.
s.h.i.+ Hao recovered. He was once again surging with vigor.
His experiences during those hundreds of thousands of years, what he retained were his insights regarding cultivation and other things. Towards insignificant matters, he completely severed them.
His heart was like crystal, still full of vigor, like a twenty something year old delicate and pretty youngster, not a hint of change visible.
The Heavenly Horned Ant and Cao Yusheng arrived. Mu Qing, s.h.i.+ Zhong, Emperor b.u.t.terfly and the Divine Striking Stone, when they heard of s.h.i.+ Hao’s return, they also all immediately hurried over.
s.h.i.+ Hao brought them back to the lower realms, arriving in Stone Village, holding a celebration.
When the others saw that he could safely return, they were all overjoyed, feeling like it was worth celebrating. However, no one could truly understand his current thoughts.
A single separation and it was for several hundred thousand years… For him to still be able to reunite, meet with all of them, this feeling truly was great.
This was especially the case when he saw the old clan chief, his parents, saw his white-haired childhood companions Dazhuang, Ermeng, Pihou, and the others, s.h.i.+ Hao’s eyes became a bit sour.
However, he completely hid all of these emotions.
Being able to meet again was good enough!
Ten years later, the restricted region lord and the others returned. They waited for s.h.i.+ Hao’s return in Immortal Domain’s ancient cave for ten years. Only when they were sure that there was no activity there, unable to wait for s.h.i.+ Hao’s return any longer, did they return.
“Bark! How did you come back ahead of us?!” The little dog was shocked. It also came back to this realm.
That day, s.h.i.+ Hao and the restricted region lord discussed things in detail, talking about what happened, chatting for a very long time.
Time flowed about, a hundred years pa.s.sed. s.h.i.+ Hao got up. During these hundred years, he was always seated in place, not as bitter cultivation, but rather sensing this world.
He was comparing what the difference was between this world and that one.
“Why do I feel like you are already impossible to surmise? Compared to when true immortals descended, you are only better than them, not any inferior?” The Heavenly Horned Ant said.
When the creatures of darkness invaded, he had seen more than a single true immortal.
“My dao skills have advanced, I found a path.” s.h.i.+ Hao nodded.
“When can we search for the later part of the Imperishable Scripture?” The Heavenly Horned Ant mentioned this issue.
Imperishable Scripture, this was originally the Heavenly Horned Ant’s inheritance, but he had innate deficiencies. Later on, the little Heavenly Horned Ant and s.h.i.+ Hao went to Immeasurable Heaven, finding the Imperishable Scripture hidden in the northern sea.
Unfortunately, this scripture was still not complete.
It was divided up, the final portion was inside of a restricted region.
A thousand years ago, the Heavenly Horned Ant already learned which restricted region it was.
“We’ll head to that restricted region right now!” s.h.i.+ Hao said.