Volume 1, Chapter 520 – Secrets

Shi Lan had long expected that there would be signs of human presence on the summit of Tian Mountain.

What she had not expected was a scene this eerie.

More than a dozen figures were wrapped in thick layers of ice, all seated cross-legged on the ground in meditation, with their five centers turned toward heaven. Beneath the clear crystal ice, their faces looked vividly lifelike, their eyelids gently lowered, as if they had merely fallen asleep. But Shi Lan could feel that the blood and qi within their bodies had already dried up, and there was not the slightest fluctuation of soul or spirit.

At the far end near the cliff sat an old man in a straw raincoat. Not a trace of snow or wind clung to him. His eyelids drooped, and he held a long fishing rod in his hand, seated as though angling, looking half-asleep.

At the edge of the sky hung an enormous star, hidden amidst the boundless sea of clouds. It was faintly blue all over and radiated a hazy divine glow. Vast amounts of energy essence rose and fell from within it, and immense divine power descended like rain, bathing all of Tian Mountain.

Under the pouring of that energy, the Extreme Dao Rune Seal deep within Shi Lan’s soul suddenly became extraordinarily active, the amount of energy it drew in surging by several times over.

The entire star was shrouded in a layer of cold mist, chaotic and indistinct, yet with Shi Lan’s current eyesight, she could easily see through it.

What sent a chill through her was that the star was covered in a vast stretch of blood-stained palace ruins. The power fluctuations mixed within that blood reminded her of the God-King essence blood sealed inside her own body.

A level like this had already surpassed that of a Supreme and touched upon the domain of space and time. A Great Emperor-level figure had once shed essence blood here. Clearly, an unimaginable battle had once taken place here.

Shi Lan slowly walked past the row of ice statues and stopped before two familiar faces.

Seeing Tong Yuan and Yan Yun here again took Shi Lan completely by surprise.

After a long silence, she took a few steps back and bowed in farewell to send the two of them on their way.

“Little girl, what have you come here for?”

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A hoarse murmur sounded slowly. The old man seated by the cliff turned his head, and within his cloudy eyes was an exhaustion he could not conceal.

“I have come to find a burial place for a senior,” Shi Lan replied truthfully.

“This place is secluded, cold, and still. It is indeed suitable as a place of eternal rest.”

The old man gave a slight nod and said in a low voice,

“Leave the body here, then go.”

“May I ask Senior’s name?”

Shi Lan did not take out Xiang Yu’s body. Instead, she stepped two paces closer to the old man and pointed at the ice statues beside her, asking in confusion,

“Why are these people here?”

Tong Yuan and Yan Yun were among them, so Shi Lan could not help asking a few extra questions.

“This old man has neither name nor surname, merely an ordinary mortal who has lived on Tian Mountain for a long time.”

The old man glanced at the ice statues beside Shi Lan, then continued,

“These are all people who are already dead. Bathing here in the Taiyin divine light can preserve their bodies forever. If the Immortal Gate should ever reopen in the future, they may perhaps have a chance to borrow a body and return to the world of the living.”

“What is the Immortal Gate? Can it bring the dead back to life?”

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Shi Lan’s heart trembled slightly. Back in Lingyang, she had also heard legends of the dead returning to life. Through the Human Race Chronicle, and with a blood sacrifice performed by a supreme Emperor Dao powerhouse, one could open the road between yin and yang, life and death, retrieve the souls of the deceased, and thus return the dead to the yang world.

If the Immortal Gate the old man spoke of could truly revive the dead, then it would possess a power no less than that of the Human Race Chronicle.

Even a Supreme could not accomplish such a reversal of life and death. The reason the supreme Emperor Dao powerhouses of Lingyang Realm could do so was largely because of the Human Race Chronicle. Only those whose names had been recorded within it had such a possibility.

The Human Race Chronicle was the supreme treasure that stabilized the fortune of Lingyang’s human race. Its power was unfathomable, far beyond that of a Supreme. But the underworld and Yellow Springs were filled with unknowns. To snatch someone back from such a place without a clear trace of their aura was like searching for a needle in the sea. Even something as powerful as the Human Race Chronicle could still fall short.

“Beyond the Immortal Gate lies the Heavenly Court. Within it, immortals and gods are as numerous as the sea. For them, bringing the dead back to life is no more than a matter of lifting a hand.”

The old man raised his eyes toward the void. The exhaustion in his cloudy gaze faded, as though fire were burning within it.

The Heavenly Court…

Hearing that somewhat familiar name, Shi Lan’s expression changed slightly, and she looked toward the enormous star in the sky.

“What is that star?”

“A Taiyin Star. The palace upon it is called Guanghan. It was once the residence of a female immortal. It fell here from the Immortal Realm, and after that, the Immortal Gate closed.”

“That female immortal… was her name Chang’e?”

The moment Shi Lan’s words fell, the old man abruptly turned his head back, the astonishment in his face impossible to hide.

“How do you know that?”

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In his view, Shi Lan was not from this world, and she should not have known such ancient secrets.

“I heard it by chance.”

Shi Lan’s gaze swept across the palace ruins on the distant star, and an odd look inevitably crept into her expression.

The Heavenly Court, Guanghan Palace, Chang’e, together with the ancient history and the heavenly constellations that felt strangely familiar, all bore too many similarities to the star in her memories. It was hard not to think further.

There was definitely some inseparable connection between this world and her homeland.

Looking at the Taiyin Star in the sky, Shi Lan wanted to go up and investigate, but unfortunately the surrounding heaven and earth were suppressed by an invisible force. The star was right there within sight, yet she could not reach it.

“Do you want to ascend and take a look?”

The old man seemed to have seen through Shi Lan’s thoughts and asked.

At once, Shi Lan’s eyes brightened. “Please, Senior, show me the way.”

The old man lifted an arm and beckoned toward the boundless sea of clouds.

After several breaths, an immortal crane burst through the clouds. Its wings stretched several zhang across, wrapped in brilliant rosy light. Its entire body was only black and white, marked with yin-yang totems. Its eyes were clear, and its divine splendor was perfectly concealed.

After studying it for a moment, Shi Lan withdrew her gaze. Judging from the fluctuations of blood and qi coming from this immortal crane, she was no match for it.

“Go. You may stay for at most three quarters of an hour. After that, the Taiyin Star will begin to breathe in and out the essence of heaven and earth. The turbulence stirred up by that energy is more than you can withstand.”

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With that, the old man said nothing more. His eyelids drooped as he stared at the empty fishing rod, and the weary look rose to his brow once more.

“Thank you, Senior.”

Shi Lan bowed respectfully, carefully approached the immortal crane, and climbed onto its back.

Whoosh!

The immortal crane spread its wings. Vast gusts of air swept out as it shot into the sky like a bolt of lightning, streaked across the heavens, and flew straight toward the Taiyin Star.

As the distance closed, an increasingly terrifying pressure became clearer and clearer.

Black-and-white mysterious light flowed over the immortal crane’s wings like a heavenly blade splitting the sky. It cut apart the cold mist shrouding the Taiyin Star and carried Shi Lan down onto a barren plain.

Shi Lan jumped down, thanked the immortal crane, and then swept her gaze across the surrounding world.

The ground was pitted and scarred. Dark-red scabs of blood had congealed there, mixed into the dust and turned into crimson frozen earth. A faint smell of blood lingered in the air.

No one knew how long ago the great battle on this star had taken place, yet its killing intent had still not dispersed even now.

Time was short, and Shi Lan did not waste a moment. She rushed with all her strength toward that stretch of palace ruins. The spatial nodes between heaven and earth were in complete disorder, churned into a mess by the powerful energy tides, so she could only rely on her legs to travel.

As the distance narrowed, the spiritual blood within Shi Lan’s body began to stir. This was an instinctive yearning for great power.