Chapter 1818 912: Secret Realm Lost Trail (Part 3)

What was revealed was a scorched earthen basin.

The ground was cracked like a tortoise shell, black smoke seeping from the fissures, a pungent burnt stench thick in the air.

At the center of the basin stood a giant tree long since dead.

Its trunk was so thick three people could barely encircle it; the whole thing was coal-black, bark split and curling, and in the cracks one could see dark red wood, like congealed blood. The crown had long been burned away, leaving only a few twisted branches stabbing at the sky, with shriveled black fruits the size of a baby's fist hanging at their tips. Whenever the wind blew, the fruits knocked against each other, making hollow "thud-thud" sounds.

At the roots of the tree, white bones were piled up.

Beside the giant tree stood a stone statue.

A human body, leopard's tail, hoopoe crest upon its head; the face was blurred beyond recognition, one could only make out a female outline.

The surface of the statue was covered in cracks; the left arm was broken off at the shoulder, yet the fracture was not the rough grit of stone.

Li Yan's pupils constricted.

The Pantao Conference ruins.

Back then, when he had followed Luo Mingzi in investigating the case of missing children, he had once slipped into this place and seen with his own eyes that evil tree watered with children's blood. Later, when the case was solved, the tree had been burned to ash by the Mystical Sect's Thunder Fire, and the statue smashed to pieces. But the scene before him now…

"Not the original." Five Dao General stepped forward.

He paused, then added, "Wait… something's off."

Looking at the statue again, its blurred features seemed to have grown a shade clearer.

Five Dao General fixed his gaze on the statue, his expression growing increasingly dark.

"What did you find?" Li Yan asked.

Five Dao General was silent.

"General," Li Yan took a step forward, "still playing dumb with me?"

"In the Ancient Times…"

Five Dao General finally spoke, his voice parched. "Humans and gods lived together."

Li Yan was taken aback.

Chen Yuanlu had said the same thing—Four Divine Woods, Flat Peach, Jianmu Organization… the things the Mystical Sect was searching for all seemed to point toward some era long since buried.

"You mean," Li Yan said slowly, "within all this… there really are traces of the Four Divine Woods?"

Five Dao General shook his head.

"Far more terrifying than that."

He turned away, no longer looking at the statue, and instead gazed toward the deeper part of the basin.

There, the grey mist churned even more violently; within the fog one could vaguely see huge shadows writhing, like the spine of some colossal beast.

"Jianmu reaches Tongtian, Fusang perches the sun, Ruo Wood shines on the netherworld, Xun Wood measures the earth—those four things, at least, are Spirit Roots born of heaven and earth." Five Dao General's voice was so low it was almost inaudible. "But some things… are 'made' by human hands."

Li Yan's heart gave a jolt. "'Made'?"

Five Dao General did not answer.

He strode forward, his long spear dragging across the ground, carving a deep furrow.

Li Yan followed, wanting to press him further, but the other only walked faster.

Clearly, there were some matters he was unwilling to speak of for now.

Li Yan suppressed his doubts, gripped the Hook Paper, and kept up.

Crossing the basin, the spatial distortion ahead reached its peak.

Sometimes, with a single step taken, the ground beneath his feet would suddenly turn into a bluestone path, flanked by towering vermilion palace walls, the ridge-beasts squatting on the eaves twisting their heads to look his way, green flames pulsing in their eye sockets.

Sometimes he would sink into waist-high wild grass, the blades cutting into his Yin God and actually sending a tangible stab of pain; looking down, he would see rusted broken swords tangled around the roots of the grass.

The sights along the way were no longer reflections of the past hundred years or even the previous dynasty.

Li Yan was seeing things from far more ancient times—

The faded image of a pavilion, with two people playing go within.

Both wore deep robes with wide sleeves, one in a high mountain crown, the other with his hair bound into a topknot by black cords; their faces were shrouded in a hazy radiance, impossible to see clearly. The black and white stones on the board moved of their own accord; each placement made no sound, yet set the surrounding air rippling.

It was merely a residual image, but the Qi circulating around those two was ethereal and lofty, utterly different from the Gang Qi of Mystical Sect Cultivators today.

"They are people who have already attained Ascension." Five Dao General said only this, without slowing his pace.

His expression grew ever gloomier; he already seemed somewhat absent-minded.

A chill ran through Li Yan's heart.

He had no time to think it over; ahead came a deafening roar of battle.

The two of them quickened their steps, tearing through the final fold in space.

Their vision opened up wide.

Before them lay an Ancient Battlefield stretching beyond the horizon.

The sky was locked in perpetual dusk, dark red clouds sagging low, as if they might drip blood at any moment.

The earth was saturated with blood; the soil was not dark red, but a viscous black that stretched into threads when trodden upon.

Tattered banners were planted in heaps of corpses; the faces of the flags had long since rotted away, leaving only a few strips of cloth being torn at by the wind.

Both sides in the battle wore ancient armor.

One side bore Mysterious Armor, Beast-faced Helmets, wielding Long Spear and Halberd;

The other side wore Red Armor, topped with Copper Armor, gripping Bronze Sword Shield.

Both sides had slaughtered each other into gourdfuls of blood; their armor was ruined, exposing white bone and writhing viscera beneath, yet they still charged and hacked without the slightest fatigue.

More grotesque still was the sight at the center of the battlefield—

There were no soldiers there, only two vast masses of Qi entangled in a vicious struggle.

"The Five Directions Fierce Soldiers!"

Five Dao General's tone clearly relaxed a great deal. "So there's still such a fine thing left…"