Chapter 1225 Narrow Escape from Death

Chapter 561

He saw one individual after another, all humanoid creatures. Some wielded flames, some commanded thunder, some bodies were Immortal, some Divine Souls undying… They were all prominent figures of their times, all had once roared, “My fate is determined by me, not the heavens.”

But now, they all transformed into silent imprints, sealed alongside this path to the end, becoming epitaphs warning those who follow.

These are all failed “rebels”!

Xu Ran’s Heart Spirit was struck with an unprecedented impact.

For the first time, he felt so directly the cruelty of this path. Behind every imprint was a remarkable story, a song-worthy and tear-inducing history of struggle, yet the final endings were all the same.

“Afraid?”

The Tomb Guardian walking ahead asked without turning his head.

“No.” Xu Ran shook his head, his gaze growing even more resolute, “I am only grateful, grateful to witness their existence. To be forgotten is the true death. As long as someone remembers, they haven’t completely failed.”

“Well said!” The hunched silhouette of the Tomb Guardian seemed to straighten a bit, “Remember what you said today. Also remember their forms. This road is lonely, but you… are not alone.”

After walking for an unknown length of time, a faint glow finally appeared ahead.

They exited the stairway and arrived in a space that could not be described in words.

There was no sky, no ground.

Beneath their feet lay an endless expanse of gray-white plains, seemingly paved with ashes.

Overhead was a chaotic void, no stars, no sun or moon, only colossal, law-like scars sluggishly creeping.

And in the center of the plains stood something.

It was… a “mountain” constructed from countless corpses!

The corpses varied in form. Some humanoid deities clad in tattered War Armor, some demonkind with wings sprouting from ribs, some Ancient Beasts immense like stars, and even some bizarre life forms comprised purely of Energy and Law…

Without exception, they all lost the breath of life, but their bodies remain immortal through eternity, emitting a daunting dao charm.

These corpses weren’t like the “imprints” Xu Ran saw beside the stairway, but… entities!

“They…” Xu Ran’s pupils contracted.

“They are entities more ancient than ‘wilderness’, older than those failed ones you saw,” the Tomb Guardian spoke solemnly, “They were stripped of their Dao and soul after defeat alongside the original Swordsman, leaving only immortal bodies, suppressed here as trophies, warning of existence across eternity.”

“Their Dao and Soul were obliterated by natural law, transformed into nourishment for this world. Yet their ‘resentment’ and ‘contrary thoughts’ permeated these shells and the land, unable to be completely extinguished.”

The Tomb Guardian pointed his cane towards the corpse mountain.

“Young man, do you see? That is where you must forge your ‘Anchor of Existence’.”

“This ‘Corpse Mountain of Ten Thousand Paths’ is your… ‘furnace’!”

Xu Ran followed his guidance, his Heart Spirit shaken once more.

He saw that upon the corpse mountain, every interval was marked by a strange plant.

The plant was blood-red throughout, shaped like a blooming lotus, but its petals were etched with eerie dao patterns, exuding aura of ominousness and destruction.

“This is… ‘Rebellious Blood Lotus’,” explained the Tomb Guardian, “It roots in the residual ‘Rebel Thoughts’ of these divine and demonic corpses, and uses their immortal shells’ Origin Power as sustenance, painstakingly bearing the ‘fruit’ over countless eras.”

“Each Blood Lotus contains fragments of Dao Principles from an ancient rebel, along with their purest obsessions. And what you need to do is climb that corpse mountain to pluck, devour, and integrate!”

“Ignite your ‘Dao Fire’ with their ‘resentment’! Fill your ‘Foundation’ with their ‘remnant Dao’! Ultimately, amidst these myriad failed corpses, condense a singular… exclusively yours, undying Immortal… ‘True Seed of Reversal’!”

“This True Seed is your ‘anchor’!”

The Tomb Guardian’s voice, akin to a dawn bell or evening drum, thundered in Xu Ran’s Sea of Consciousness.

Using the corpses of countless ancient rebels as a furnace, and their resentful obsessions as fuel, to forge his own Dao Foundation!

What audacity is this? What madness is this?

This is not merely cultivation; this is akin to… desecrating gods and demons! Defying myriad paths!

“Senior, this corpse mountain…” Xu Ran astutely sensed the situation was far from simple.

“Heh, you felt it?” The Tomb Guardian chuckled, “Indeed, this corpse mountain is cursed by natural law with the most venomous curse—’Dao Transformation’.”

“All beings approaching it will be corroded by the chaotic countless remnant Dao within. Your Dao will be assimilated, torn, and overlaid by their Dao; ultimately, you’ll lose your self and become a ‘Dao Corpse’ that only knows slaughter and destruction, a new part of this corpse mountain.”

“To reach the peak, you cannot rely on Mana to resist, nor use the Divine Soul to isolate. You have only one reliance.”

The Tomb Guardian glanced deeply at Xu Ran.

“That is your brow, the ‘Reversal’ imprint bestowed by the Godslaying Blade!”

“Use its will to rule over the multitudinous chaotic remnant Dao! Use its ideology to persuade the myriad resentful obsessions! Tell them you will inherit their legacy, to walk the path… they never completed!”