Chapter 44: The Strand That Severed Everything, Chen Changsheng Trapped in the Desolate Ancient For
Chapter 44 – The Strand That Severed Everything, Chen Changsheng Trapped in the Desolate Ancient For
Having dispatched the hollow bronze armor, Emperor Zuo swung his blade once more, unleashing supreme sword Qi to cleave through the Formations of the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Land.
Swish!
The previously Peerless and lethal cosmic scars instantly became as brittle as dry clay before the True Martial Sword.
Witnessing this martial display, Chen Changsheng, huddled in the corner of the war chariot, felt a brief surge of relief.
But before that fleeting joy could take root, a heavy, freezing scoff echoed from the depths of the black mountain range.
“Hmph!”
Accompanying that cold scoff, a single, slender strand of hair drifted upon the wind.
Snap!
A sharp, crisp fracture echoed across the battlefield. The heirloom treasure of the Xuanwu Kingdom, the divine artifact capable of severing Peerless Dao Patterns…
…was effortlessly cleaved in twain by that single strand of hair.
The True Martial Sword, Emperor Zuo’s iron flesh, the million-strong army of the Xuanwu Kingdom—everything was severed in two.
It was as if that drifting strand of hair was the true divine artifact.
Even with his lower half cleanly shorn away, Emperor Zuo forcefully commanded his remaining torso, roaring in absolute madness.
Hum!
A massive ancient bronze hall materialized above Emperor Zuo.
As he summoned the bronze hall retrieved from the Boundless Secret Realm, a faint, almost imperceptible resonance rippled from within the black mountain range.
Driven by Emperor Zuo’s burning lifeforce, the Formation within the bronze hall erupted with a blinding light.
Just as the spatial Formation prepared to activate, another entity manifested from the black mountain range.
To be precise, it was merely a single golden character.
Clang!
The golden character crashed heavily onto the bronze hall. A violent tremor swept through the ancient metal, eradicating the remaining flesh and blood of Emperor Zuo into utter nothingness.
Thus, the tyrant Emperor Zuo Perished, completely erased from the world as the bronze hall vanished into the void along with the activated Formation.
Drip-drop!
Fresh blood slid down Zuo Xinghe’s cheek and dripped from his chin.
The shattered pieces of the bronze armor reformed. The hollow visage stared at Zuo Xinghe for a silent moment before turning its skeletal steed back into the black mountain range.
Dead. All of them had become dust.
The grand crusade that drained the entirety of the Xuanwu Kingdom’s martial foundation ended in total annihilation.
Zuo Xinghe did not survive through his own martial might, but because the Great Terror within the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Land desired a living witness.
They spared him so he could crawl back to the mortal realm, letting his terrified whispers remind the world that the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Land remained untouchable.
……
Within the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Land.
Boom!
A bronze hall crashed heavily against the barren earth. Not far away sat another, nearly identical bronze hall.
The two ancient structures rested silently within the black mountain range, while what little remained of Emperor Zuo’s bones scattered like meaningless dust upon the soil.
With the Emperor’s demise and the bronze hall’s descent, the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Land returned to its primordial, heavy stillness.
Time crawled forward, turning the myriad things of Heaven and Earth to dust and rebirth, yet the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Land stood eternal and unchanging.
However, three months later, a faint disturbance rippled through the deathly silence.
The heavy grinding of stone echoed as a sarcophagus, half-buried in the cursed earth, shifted.
The heavy stone lid pushed open a mere crack, revealing a pair of eyes that warily swept the desolate surroundings.
These eyes belonged to Chen Changsheng.
The moment that single strand of hair descended, he had recognized the suffocating weight of true death.
Faced with such an unfathomable Great Terror, Chen Changsheng executed a perfectly pragmatic decision.
He sealed himself within the stone coffin left behind by the Hundred Defeats Immortal Venerable and swallowed a specialized Pill, plunging his body into a state of absolute false death.
Only after confirming the absence of immediate destruction did Chen Changsheng slowly climb from his self-made grave.
“Ancestors preserve me.”
“Is this the true weight of the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Land?”
“This world is simply far too dangerous.”
Though a full season had passed, the memory of that slaughter still left a lingering chill in Chen Changsheng’s marrow.
Calming his ragged breathing, he began to carefully survey his surroundings.
He possessed no certainty that feigning death could deceive the unfathomable laws of this place, but his beating heart proved his continued existence.
Since he lived, it proved the Great Terror would not harvest his soul—at least, not yet.
Perhaps he survived because the domain showed a sliver of reverence toward the legacy of the Hundred Defeats Immortal Venerable.
Or perhaps the entities within simply found him too insignificantly weak to bother crushing.
To such primordial existences, his meager cultivation held less weight than the dust on the wind.
Such a fragile mortal, even if they miraculously stumbled into this graveyard, would soon rot away naturally. There was no need to hasten the inevitable.
After standing vigil for a full hour, Chen Changsheng failed to detect any immediate threat.
This absolute absence of hostility only deepened the dread in his stomach.
In the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Land, tranquility was merely the guise of total annihilation.
With this grim thought, he patted down his robes, eventually plucking a loose thread from his hem.
“Hoo—”
He exhaled softly, sending the weightless thread drifting away from his palm into the desolate expanse.
Swish!
The mundane thread instantly vanished, vaporized as a flash of golden light momentarily traced the earth below.
Though the manifestation was fleeting, Chen Changsheng perceived it with absolute clarity.
Chen Changsheng: “……”
“Well, isn’t this a dead end.”
The golden light sent him pacing back and forth in frantic realization.
He had witnessed the Peerless Dao Patterns surrounding the black mountain range; deciphering those cosmic scars was entirely beyond his limits.
Furthermore, the exterior Ward possessed mere silver patterns. Here, within the heart of the mountains, the laws manifested as gold.
While he could not fathom the true depths of these supreme Formations, Chen Changsheng knew with grim certainty that the golden manifestations harbored a destruction far heavier than the silver.
Refusing to accept his burial here, he carefully probed his surroundings in every direction.
The result was absolute: he was imprisoned on all sides by a cage of golden Dao Patterns.
He stood unharmed not through heaven-defying luck, nor by discovering a flaw in the trap.
Rather, the golden Dao Patterns directly beneath his feet had been suppressed by the crushing weight of the bronze hall.
Had he stepped anywhere else, he would have been reduced to nothingness the very moment he departed his stone coffin.
“System, how do I resolve this? Am I meant to be entombed here for eternity?”
Bereft of all mortal options, he turned inward, seeking deliverance from his inner interface.
“Why does the Host assume he shall remain confined here forever?”
“Is that a joke? These Formations are impossibly profound!”
“Then why does the Host not attempt to Comprehend these Dao Patterns? Dissecting Formations has always been your preferred occupation.”
“These unfathomable laws are far too complex. With my meager boundary, even if I spent a thousand years staring at them, I wouldn’t Comprehend a single stroke!”
“And what of ten thousand years?”
“Does time still hold any meaning for the Host?”
The realization struck Chen Changsheng like a physical blow.
Of course!
Time was a currency he possessed in infinite supply. If a thousand years proved insufficient, he would simply spend ten thousand!
His cultivation was pitiful by the standards of this abyss, yet attaining Inedia was entirely within his grasp. He required neither food nor water.
He had spent decades seeking a silent sanctuary, completely severed from worldly karma and slaughter.
Where in all the Heavens could he find a tomb quieter and more isolated than the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Land?
As long as the Great Terrors slumbering within this domain ignored an insect like himself, he could live in absolute peace.
His existence here would be nothing short of serene.
At this thought, a genuine, relaxed smile spread across his dusty features.
“My thanks for the reminder, System. Wading through mortal affairs for so long, I nearly forgot my own nature.”
With his path clear, Chen Changsheng strolled casually toward the adjacent ancient bronze hall.
Zuo Xinghe had gifted him a copy of every scroll within the Xuanwu Pavilion. He had long desired a quiet eon to pore over those ancient texts.
As for Comprehending the golden Dao Patterns…
That could wait a few decades. The cosmic scars were etched into the very earth; it wasn’t as if they were going anywhere.
……