Immortal Martial Emperor

"Th-this is?"

Hong Yu stared blankly at the scene ahead, stunned speechless.

Before him lay a massive mountain range. It stretched on for thousands upon thousands of miles, its end nowhere in sight.

At this very moment... atop this massive mountain range was an enormous chasm.

The chasm was perfectly uniform, splitting the range from its center. The rock faces on either side were unbelievably smooth and flat, obviously sliced open by some sharp blade.

A chasm like this extended for over three thousand kilometers!

The chasm began not far from Hong Yu, about three to five thousand meters ahead of him.

The ground there was sunken deep, far below the horizon, forming a massive basin easily half the size of Qin Royal City.

Within the giant crater, a lone peak more than a thousand meters high stood tall.

In truth, calling it a lone peak wasn’t quite accurate!

It was a pillar of earth and rock, perfectly uniform in width. It clearly hadn’t formed naturally; it seemed the surrounding ground had collapsed, and only this single plot of land had been preserved, leaving behind this pillar of residual earth and stone.

Atop the stone pillar, a figure stood serenely, their form wavering slightly in the wind.

He wore a long black robe, and his long, dark hair drifted as if in a nonexistent wind. Though he stood perfectly still, a potent aura rolled off him, as deep as an abyss and as vast as the ocean, surging forward like a tidal wave.

The figure’s right arm hung at an angle, and in his hand, a translucent longsword glowed with a faint, ethereal light that shifted unpredictably.

A terrifying aura pulsed from the longsword.

Faintly, it seemed a powerful Soldier Soul circulated within, making it a peerless weapon, the likes of which were rarely seen in the world!

GULP!

Hong Yu swallowed hard.

So this chasm, stretching for over three thousand kilometers, had been carved out by this black-robed powerhouse with his sword!

In his mind... he seemed to travel back through time, to gaze upon the cycle of Reincarnation itself!

He saw an incomparably mighty sword master, the Treasure Sword in his hand flowing with an ethereal light. With a single slash, a beam of Sword Gang shot into the heavens, stretching for several thousand kilometers.

It tore through everything in its path, completely unopposed!

The earth split apart, mountains crumbled, and tsunamis raged. Countless living beings lost their lives to this one sword strike, their very forms annihilated, not even their corpses remaining.

And with the impact of this sword strike...

The mountain range, stretching for tens of thousands of *li*, was cleaved in two!

’A powerhouse like this... he must have been at least at the Yin Yang Realm, maybe even the Mystic Realm, right? But...’

Hong Yu took a deep breath. He could sense that this powerhouse was already dead, and that was precisely what confused him. ’Even if an expert of this caliber dies, their Primordial Spirit should be able to escape! What kind of power could possibly have killed him here for good?’

As he puzzled over this, Xu Wudi appeared at his side.

Staring at the scene before them, Xu Wudi was also dumbfounded.

After a moment, Xu Wudi nudged Hong Yu. "Hong Yu, don’t you think there’s something strange about this basin?"

"Hm?"

Hong Yu paused.

He had been so captivated by the massive chasm and the black-robed powerhouse that he hadn’t paid much attention to the basin. But now that she mentioned it, his heart skipped a beat.

As he examined it closely, Hong Yu’s brow furrowed.

A moment later... he abruptly shot into the sky, ascending several thousand meters. As he looked down, Hong Yu froze as if struck by lightning, his face turning pale.

He could barely suppress the mouthful of blood that threatened to erupt from his throat.

BLECH!

Hong Yu stumbled back a full three steps, staring down in horror.

"Hong Yu, what happened?" Xu Wudi asked anxiously.

Hong Yu didn’t answer. He took a deep breath and circulated his Infinite Golden Core, only then managing to calm the churning qi and blood in his body.

’So terrifying... just what kind of monumental power could do this!’

Hong Yu was overwhelmed with emotion.

Down below... on the ground, the thousand-meter-deep depression wasn’t a basin at all.

It was, to his astonishment, a palm print!

The entire landscape had been smashed more than a thousand meters deep by a single palm strike. Only the small patch of land where the black-robed powerhouse stood had been spared, creating the thousand-meter-tall lone peak!

’A single palm, compressing the earth and sinking it a thousand meters... could this be the work of a legendary Venerable Powerhouse?’ Hong Yu swallowed hard, utterly speechless.

Legend had it that Venerable Powerhouses possessed the power to shatter the heavens and extinguish the earth.

With a mere flick of a finger, they could pluck mortal planets from the starry cosmos, and an ordinary planet would simply burst apart in their grasp.

The shock of this scene, the terror, the sheer awe...

left Hong Yu not just amazed, but ecstatic.

The reason he’d just coughed up blood was that the massive palm print in the earth contained boundless profundities. The powerful Mystical Technique circulating within it traced back to the very source—the source of power, the source of the Martial Dao, the fundamental origin of all things.

The aura of this origin was already approaching the Great Dao itself!

For Hong Yu, who was merely at the Primordial Core Realm, it was far too high-level; he was simply unable to withstand it.

And this was the same Hong Yu who was already incredibly powerful, capable of easily slaying experts at the Late-stage Primordial Embryo Realm.

Yet even a Hong Yu this mighty couldn’t suppress the churning of his own qi and blood when faced with the Mystical Technique emanating from the palm print branded on the earth.

It was proof enough of just how terrifying the powerhouse who had delivered that palm strike truly was!

’The Main Combat Zone lives up to its name! I’ve only just arrived and I’m already witnessing the remnants of a duel between such powerhouses!’

As he marveled at the sight, an idea struck Hong Yu. He activated his Shadow Martial ability to study these powerful Mysteries of Martial Arts.

But as strong as Shadow Martial was, these Mysteries of Martial Arts were simply too high-level. The instant the shadow from his ability even slightly attempted to execute them, it exploded with a BOOM and was annihilated, dissolving into motes of starlight.

"I’m still too weak," Hong Yu said with a bitter laugh. "Unless I can reach the Primordial Embryo Realm Level, I have no hope of even attempting to comprehend these Mysteries of Martial Arts!"

Once again, he was struck by how small and weak he was!

He was still just a drop in the vast ocean, a speck of dust drifting with the wind and tide.

Unless he reached the Yin Yang Realm, the Mystic Realm, or even the legendary Venerable Realm!

Only then would he become a true Vast Sea Kunpeng, able to soar freely through the endless ocean of the Martial Dao!

’Forget it. If it’s meant to be, it’s my luck. If not, it’s my fate. There’s no use forcing what isn’t mine.’

Hong Yu took a deep breath, then beckoned to Xu Wudi, and the two flew away from their high vantage point.

Xu Wudi was equally shaken by the unbelievable sight. Strangely, however, she hadn’t suffered any adverse effects like coughing up blood. When Hong Yu asked her about it later, he learned that she hadn’t felt any fluctuations from the palm print at all.

’Perhaps only those with sufficient comprehension can sense it!’ Hong Yu couldn’t help but speculate.

Quickly putting the thought aside, Hong Yu and Xu Wudi flew onward, following the mountain range.

Along the way, they saw the corpses of one powerful being after another. There were experts from the Snow Ape Race, strange, furry snowmen they had never seen before, warriors encased in ice, and even some Exotic Beasts wreathed in flames...

In total, they counted the remains of at least six different races!

’These must be the allied forces of the experts from the first six layers! In that case, the black-robed powerhouse must have been a native expert from the Seventh Layer. But he was also killed by a single palm strike... Could there be an even more powerful being among the forces from the first six layers?’ Hong Yu wondered to himself.

After flying for a full day and night, the two of them finally reached the end of the mountain range.

At the end of the range lay a seemingly boundless lake.

The lake’s turquoise waters were vast and still, likely as large as the entire Qin Kingdom.

All around the lake, on the shores washed by its waters, lay countless pieces of broken armor and abandoned weapons, scattered among innumerable skeletons.

A quick, rough count suggested there were easily hundreds of millions of them.

However... with the erosion of time, the weapons and armor had long since been broken and weathered. The bodies of the powerful warriors they once protected had turned to dust or were now nothing more than skeletons.

’In the vast Red Dust of the mortal world, even if one could transcend the Cosmos and the Primordial Chaos, escaping the Six Paths of Reincarnation, who could truly live on for all eternity, undying and indestructible?’

As Hong Yu mused on this, a fire lit in his heart. ’Perhaps only by reaching the level of the mighty beings who were capable of refining treasures like the Profound Celestial Tower and Rashomon can one achieve true immortality!’

"Hong Yu, look!" Xu Wudi said suddenly.

Hong Yu followed her gaze and couldn’t help but narrow his eyes.

On the lake’s surface were nine massive islands, each one comparable in size to Qin Royal City. They were arranged in a single line, spread out across the water.

A faint light flickered from them, making them seem like nine treasure islands, full and bright with a precious glow.

"Should we go over and take a look?" Xu Wudi asked.

Unconsciously, she had come to see Hong Yu as her pillar of support, deferring to his judgment on everything.

"Let’s go take a look," Hong Yu said after a moment’s thought, nodding.

The two of them shot off, their figures like Fleeting Images skimming across the lake’s surface. But just as they were about to land on the first island...

a startling change took place within the lake!

The entire placid surface of the lake erupted into a stormy maelstrom. The water churned violently, wave crashing upon wave. Energy pulsed from the nine massive islands at the center, kicking up tidal waves hundreds of meters high that crashed toward the shore like colossal palms.

"Quick, get high up! We’ll watch what happens from there!"

Hong Yu pulled Xu Wudi with him, soaring to an altitude of about five thousand meters.

Gazing down at the turbulent lake, his expression grew grave. He could feel a heavy pressure suffusing the entire world.

This horrified Hong Yu!

With his current strength, he shouldn’t feel so utterly suppressed even when facing a Primordial Spirit Realm expert. But now, this inexplicable force was crushing him, making it hard to even breathe.

A powerful sense of unease came with this feeling.

The unknown!

Is always the most terrifying thing!

RUMBLE! RUMBLE! RUMBLE!

The turmoil across the lake’s surface grew more and more violent.

Violent fluctuations emanated from each of the nine islands, and an invisible force began to part the waters of the lake.

The lake was a full thousand meters deep, and its waters parted, flowing to either side.

This formed nine channels, flanked by towering walls of water. And within these channels, powerful entities seemed to be gradually awakening.

ROAR! ROAR! ROAR!

Nine successive, deep, and deafening Dragon’s Roars echoed between heaven and earth.

Then... nine colossal figures erupted from the lake with a tremendous splash. Each figure was over two hundred meters long and ice-blue in color, radiating an ancient and profound aura. A vast, powerful presence pulsed from their thick Scale Armor, stirring the tranquil Spiritual Qi of the world.

The Spiritual Qi, thrown into disarray, howled like a tempest.

"Cold Ice Nether Dragons? Th-these are beings that are incredibly close to the true Dragon Race!" Xu Wudi exclaimed, her face draining of color.

Hong Yu, however, was staring intently at the tails of the nine Cold Ice Nether Dragons. A heavy iron chain was attached to each one. Every single link was dozens of meters tall, forming nine massive iron cables, each hundreds of meters long, that stretched down into the depths of the lake.

’What’s at the end of those chains?’

The bewildered Hong Yu soon found his answer!

As the nine Cold Ice Nether Dragons surged out of the lake, a heavy Ice Blue Copper Coffin slowly rose into their view.

The two of them stared at each other, a dry, bitter feeling catching in their throats...

"N-Nine Dragons Pulling the Coffin?"