After tens of thousands of years of secluded cultivation, his cultivation had reached a bottleneck, and he was in need of opportunity and external pressure to seek a breakthrough.
The ruins of the Era of Emperor’s Fall were undoubtedly an enormous temptation.
Moreover, Immortal King Wuzhong’s personal invitation also represented the Ancient Realm’s great sincerity and trust.
After pondering for a moment, he instructed Jin Qing.
“Inform the envoy of the Ancient Realm that I will go in person soon.”
“Yes, Immortal King!” Jin Qing answered respectfully, then showed a trace of concern.
“Immortal King, on this journey…”
“No matter.” Lu Xuan waved his hand. “The clan is protected by the Ten-Sun Grand Formation; ordinary enemies will find it difficult to invade. During my absence, seal off the ancestral land and focus on development.”
He looked toward the ten True Immortals and encouraged them, “Guard our home well. When I return, I hope to see further progress in the formation.”
“We respectfully obey the Immortal King’s decree! We will not fail the Immortal King’s expectations!”
The ten answered in unison, their voices shaking the clouds.
After making the proper arrangements, Lu Xuan took a single step forward, his figure already merging into the void as he headed toward the coordinates agreed upon with the Primordial Ancient Realm.
Lu Xuan crossed endless star domains and once again arrived at that Primordial Ancient Realm.
Compared with tens of thousands of years ago, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth here had recovered considerably. New greenery had appeared among the shattered mountains and rivers, but that sense of vicissitude and tragic grandeur had not diminished in the slightest.
Immortal King Wuzhong personally received him outside the realm and led him to a hidden valley at the core of the Ancient Realm, sealed off by layer upon layer of spacetime restrictions.
Within the valley, Immortal King Six Paths of Reincarnation, the True Dragon King, the Immortal Monk King, and the Ancestral Sacrificial Spirit were all present.
After tens of thousands of years of recuperation, Immortal King Six Paths of Reincarnation’s injuries seemed to have stabilized somewhat, but the cracks on the Reincarnation Cave remained shocking to behold. Clearly, wounds to the source were difficult to heal.
The Ancestral Sacrificial Spirit was still in the form of that heaven-reaching willow tree, emerald divine radiance flowing through it as it silently kept watch.
“Fellow Daoist Lu Xuan, I trust you have been well since we last met.”
Immortal King Wuzhong cupped his hands. The others also offered their greetings one after another, their expressions carrying a trace of gravity and expectation.
“Fellow Daoists.”
Lu Xuan returned the courtesy, his gaze sweeping toward the center of the valley.
There was no grand structure there, only a seemingly ordinary stone wall.
On the stone wall, the vague outline of a portal could be faintly seen.
The portal was tightly shut, without the slightest gap, as though it had fused with the stone wall itself. If one did not perceive it carefully, it would be almost impossible to notice its existence.
Yet this seemingly unremarkable stone wall emitted an ancient aura that even made Lu Xuan’s heart palpitate, carrying a trace of… ominousness.
The Chaos Bell within his body even gave off an extremely faint warning hum!
“This is the place.”
Immortal King Wuzhong pointed toward the stone wall, his tone solemn.
“We spent several thousand years and combined the oldest records of the Ancient Realm before we were able to confirm this location.
According to the deductions from fragmented stele inscriptions, the portal on this stone wall is very likely the legendary—Primordial Gate!”
The Primordial Gate!
This name caused the eyes of the several Ancient Realm giants present to burn with fervor.
In the oldest legends of the Ancient Realm, the Primordial Gate was the entrance to a supreme secret realm connected to a lost era, containing the secrets of becoming an Emperor and even the origins of the Realm Sea!
“The restrictions on this gate are exceedingly strange,”
Immortal King Six Paths of Reincarnation spoke weakly, his Eye of Reincarnation fixed on the stone wall.
“It cannot be broken by force. It seems to require a specific key or… some kind of Great Dao resonance pushed to the extreme before it can be stirred and opened. We have tried for many years, yet all attempts have ended in failure.”
The clear voice of the Ancestral Sacrificial Spirit sounded.
“The aura behind the gate… I sense a trace of familiarity, yet it is incomparably distant and dangerous. It seems to be connected to some source on the far shore of the Realm Sea.”
Immortal King Wuzhong looked toward Lu Xuan with anticipation.
“Fellow Daoist Lu Xuan’s inheritance is special, and you command chaos. Perhaps you can attempt to stir this gate.”
Everyone’s gazes gathered on Lu Xuan.
Lu Xuan did not speak. He slowly stepped forward, approaching the stone wall.
The closer he drew, the more distinct the Chaos Bell’s warning became. At the same time, the inheritance imprint of Donghuang Taiyi within his body also grew faintly warm, as though it had produced an extremely weak resonance with some Dao charm upon this gate.
He extended his palm, but did not touch the stone wall. Instead, he held it suspended before him and slowly closed his eyes.
His divine sense was like the finest tendrils, carefully probing toward the vague outline of the portal, sensing the ancient Dao patterns flowing across it.
In an instant, what appeared before Lu Xuan’s eyes seemed no longer to be a stone wall, but an endless, vast ocean!
At the end of that ocean, an even darker and more terrifying far shore could be vaguely seen!
This feeling… came from the same source as what he had sensed back then at the edge of the Realm Sea, and as the faint warning of the Chaos Bell! It was even clearer, even more direct!
He abruptly opened his eyes. Golden flames burst within his pupils, and an unprecedented solemnity appeared on his face!
“This is not a gate leading to some secret realm!”
Lu Xuan’s voice carried certainty as it echoed through the silent valley.
“This is… a passage between realms! A passage that directly crosses the Realm Sea!”
“What? Cross the Realm Sea?!”
“Directly reach the far shore of the Realm Sea?!”
The expressions of Immortal King Wuzhong and the others changed drastically!
The Realm Sea was boundless and filled with unpredictable dangers. Even giants such as them did not dare say they could cross it safely.
This gate could actually cross it directly?
“Not only that!”
Lu Xuan’s tone was grave. He pointed toward the vague outline of the portal, his voice carrying an unprecedented sense of warning.
“The place connected behind this gate is absolutely no blessed land! I sensed ultimate darkness, chaos, and… a terrifying source capable of corroding and assimilating everything! That aura is purer than the darkness of the Foreign Realm, older, and more… despairing!”
“If my guess is correct, behind this gate lies the source of the dark turmoil on the far shore of the Realm Sea! It is the place where the great terror that brought about the Era of Emperor’s Fall resides!”
“The Era of Emperor’s Fall… the source of darkness…”
Immortal King Six Paths of Reincarnation murmured to himself, his Eye of Reincarnation filled with shock and fear.
“Fellow Daoist, are you certain?”
Immortal King Wuzhong’s expression was more serious than ever before.
“I am certain!”
Lu Xuan’s words were decisive and categorical.
“My inheritance is especially sensitive to such auras. This gate is no opportunity, but… a gate of disaster! If it is forcibly opened, what it draws in may not be a chance to become an Emperor, but a dark flood that destroys everything! When that time comes, let alone the Ancient Realm, the entire myriad heavens and worlds may be swept into it!”
Lu Xuan naturally knew what lay behind the Primordial Gate. In the original work, it was precisely after stepping through this gate that Willow Deity and the little pagoda entered the Realm Sea.
Willow Deity had even abandoned the physical body and entered with the primordial spirit.
In the end, they entered the ancient land.
His words extinguished the fervor for exploration that had just ignited in everyone’s hearts, replacing it with a bone-piercing chill!
The opportunity they had searched for over several thousand years actually led directly to that most terrifying source of destruction?!
The valley fell into deathly silence. Only the broken stone wall stood quietly there. The vague outline of the portal upon it now seemed, in everyone’s eyes, to have transformed into a ferocious maw that chose its victims to devour, emitting an ominousness that made the heart tremble.
After a long while, Immortal King Wuzhong slowly exhaled a turbid breath, his eyes regaining their profound, unruffled stillness.
“Many thanks to Fellow Daoist Lu Xuan for resolving our doubts. If not for your clarification, we would have nearly caused a great disaster.”