Chapter 118: The Awakening of the Emperor’s Blood (Part 4)
The Awakening of the Emperor’s Blood (Part 4)
Far beyond the reach of mortal cultivators...
Far beyond the countless stars that burned like scattered embers across the endless cosmos...
Even beyond the invisible current of time itself...
There was a forgotten place.
A place so distant that even the Great Laws of the World seemed to weaken upon reaching it.
Here, the laws that governed countless realms no longer held their former authority.
Space was silent.
Time had lost its meaning.
And life...
Life had long since disappeared.
Nothing grew here.
Nothing moved.
Nothing waited.
There was only an endless, suffocating silence.
And within that ancient darkness...
A pitch-black coffin drifted slowly through the boundless void.
It moved without being pushed.
Without being pulled.
It simply floated there, passing through the darkness as though the entire universe had forgotten it existed.
The coffin was completely plain.
There were no ancient carvings etched across its surface.
No mysterious symbols.
No jewels.
No divine inscriptions.
Not even the slightest trace of an imposing aura.
At first glance, it looked almost ordinary.
Almost insignificant.
Yet that ordinary-looking coffin was surrounded by countless ancient beings.
They knelt in silence.
Every single one of them possessed cultivation so profound that ordinary cultivators could never hope to comprehend it.
Their existence alone was enough to shake entire worlds.
A single breath from any one of them could tear apart mountains and shatter continents.
If they wished, they could destroy civilizations that had endured for millions of years with nothing more than a thought.
These were not ordinary cultivators.
They were supreme existences.
Ancient beings whose names had become legends.
Existences worshipped across countless realms.
Existences that countless civilizations had prayed to for protection.
Yet now...
Every one of them was kneeling.
No one dared to stand.
No one dared to speak.
More importantly...
No one dared to raise their head.
They remained motionless before the black coffin, their bodies tense and their expressions solemn.
Some were trembling.
Not because of weakness.
But because of fear.
A fear so deep that even beings who had long since abandoned the emotions of mortals could not completely suppress it.
They were afraid that the slightest movement might disturb the thing sleeping inside.
So they waited.
In silence.
For an unknown length of time.
Then...
Creak...
The sound was quiet.
Almost painfully quiet.
Yet in that dead universe, it sounded like thunder.
Every ancient being instantly stiffened.
Their eyes remained lowered.
None dared to look up.
The lid of the black coffin slowly moved.
Just a little.
Only the width of a finger.
That was all.
No divine light erupted from within.
No terrifying pressure swept through the void.
No ancient law descended upon the surrounding space.
Nothing happened.
At least...
Nothing that the kneeling beings could see.
Instead, a cold breath slowly escaped from the narrow opening.
It drifted into the darkness.
The moment it appeared, the surrounding space seemed to grow even colder.
That breath carried something that could not be described as mere cold.
It carried age.
Endless age.
It smelled of civilizations that had vanished long ago.
Of worlds that had once been filled with life, only to crumble beneath the passage of time.
It carried the faint scent of countless histories that had already been buried beneath the dust of eternity.
It was almost as though time itself had taken a breath.
The ancient beings lowered their heads even further.
No one moved.
No one spoke.
Then...
A weary sigh came from inside the coffin.
"Alas..."
The voice was impossibly old.
Older than kingdoms.
Older than civilizations.
It carried an exhaustion that seemed to have accumulated across countless epochs.
Every word sounded heavy.
As though the one speaking had watched reality itself be born and die more times than he could remember.
Perhaps he had seen too many beginnings.
Too many endings.
Too many worlds reduced to dust.
At some point, even sorrow became numb.
Silence filled the ancient void.
Then the voice spoke again.
"Everything shall one day wither..."
"Everything shall eventually return to dust..."
The words drifted slowly through the darkness.
No one dared interrupt.
"The Ancient Forbidden Ones are stirring."
"They are awakening from the abyss where they were buried."
"They seek to return once again."
A faint tremor passed through the endless void.
"This great era..."
The ancient voice paused.
"...cannot bear their return."
The next words came heavier.
More solemn.
"Before long..."
"Emperor’s blood will stain the heavens."
A cold stillness descended.
"The sleeping horrors hunger for that blood."
"They have waited for it."
"They long to awaken completely."
The void trembled again.
This time, even the ancient beings kneeling before the coffin lowered their heads further.
Not one of them dared speak.
Not one dared even breathe too loudly.
They understood the weight behind those words.
The ancient voice continued.
"The countless realms..."
"The endless worlds scattered throughout creation..."
"The innumerable Heavenly Secret Realms..."
Each word seemed to carry the sorrow of an entire age.
"They are nothing more than ripe fruits..."
"Waiting for unseen hands to harvest them."
The voice fell silent.
There was no anger in it.
No hatred.
Only grief.
Deep.
Ancient.
A grief that seemed to belong to all of creation.
The voice slowly weakened.
"Why..."
The single word echoed through the darkness.
"Why must it begin now..."
Silence followed.
A terrible silence.
Even time itself seemed to freeze.
Nothing moved.
Nothing spoke.
Then, after what felt like an eternity, the ancient existence whispered one final sentence.
"Break free..."
A pause.
"...from these shackles..."
The voice faded.
Then it disappeared completely.
But its final words did not.
They remained suspended within the ancient void.
Invisible ripples spread outward.
Slowly at first.
Then farther.
Farther.
Farther still.
Wherever those ripples passed, space collapsed.
Time unraveled.
The laws of reality trembled.
Worlds hidden beyond perception were swallowed without a sound.
Everything touched by those ripples vanished.
Not destroyed.
Not shattered.
Simply erased.
Until nothing remained.
The kneeling ancient beings stayed motionless.
Their heads remained lowered.
No one spoke.
No one dared move.
Because they all understood the truth.
This was not a warning about something that might happen.
It had already begun.
A storm capable of overturning the fate of countless worlds...
Had already awakened.