Chapter 1436: Jiuli

Chapter 1436: Jiu Li

Amidst the clamor, the rumbling sounds never ceased. The chase and the escape turned the world upside down.

The night had silently faded away. The rumbling only stopped when the first rays of dawn broke through, revealing a scarred and ravaged landscape. The empty sky was shrouded in a thin mist of blood.

On a mountain peak, Bei Sheng landed, her frustration evident. She had chased throughout the night without catching that scoundrel, Ye Chen. What was even more absurd was that she still didn't know who he was.

As she thought about it, she couldn't help but stomp her foot, covering her flushed cheeks.

"How embarrassing."

Meanwhile, that scoundrel, Ye Chen, had already slipped out of the ancient ruins and reappeared on the Hong Lian Ye Huo Sea. His sacred body was badly battered. Who said women weren't terrifying when they were angry? Her attacks had been vicious.

"That woman must be furious." As he popped a healing pill into his mouth, he couldn't help but imagine her frustrated expression. Not only had she lost her treasures, but she had also lost face.

"I didn't know you were a woman." Soon after, he smugly shook his head, giving himself a perfect excuse. He pulled out Bei Sheng's storage bag, a shameless grin on his face.

That was why she was Bei Sheng. Her storage bag was like a treasure trove, far beyond what someone like the Tian Fa Shen Zi could compare to. Robbing her once was equivalent to robbing many others.

He gathered the treasures but kept one item clutched in his hand: a token made of Bai Yu Xian Jin, radiating immortal energy. On the back of the token, the characters "Jiu Li" were engraved.

"She must be from the Jiu Li clan," Ye Chen murmured, his tone laced with deeper meaning and surprise.

The Jiu Li were an extraordinarily ancient race, tracing their origins back to the Honghuang era, contemporaneous with fierce Honghuang beasts like Tao Tie and Qiong Qi. They were one of the great overlords of that primordial time.

This was precisely why Ye Chen was surprised. It was said that the Jiu Li lineage had long been extinct in the annals of history, yet here was evidence of its survival. If word got out, the entire Xuan Huang Continent would be in an uproar.

"Did I stir up trouble I shouldn't have?" Ye Chen coughed dryly, feeling an urge to return the treasures. This lineage was too formidable; it wasn't something he could afford to provoke.

In the end, though, he dismissed the thought. He believed he had hidden himself well, and Bei Sheng wouldn't be able to uncover his identity. With so many people in the ruins, who could say for sure who the robber was? Thinking that way made it all seem justified.

As he pondered, he stowed away the Jiu Li token and popped another pill into his mouth.

He had already decided: after resting a bit, he'd head back in for more looting. The Shen Zi, Shen Nu, and various elders inside were all loaded, and with their cultivations suppressed, it was a prime opportunity.

Just as he was thinking about it, another figure entered the Hong Lian Ye Huo Sea. The man had a full beard, vacant eyes, and a dull expression, as if he had emerged from a distant era, covered in the dust of ages, ancient and weathered.

Ye Chen narrowed his eyes and immediately recognized the newcomer. Wasn't it Liu Dao?

As he spoke, Liu Dao had already stopped at the edge of the ancient ruins, seemingly unaware of Ye Chen's presence. He stood like a statue, motionless, his dull eyes quietly fixed on the ruins.

Ye Chen stepped forward and halted three zhang away from him. "Do you still remember Ye Chen?"

A flicker of confusion and pain flashed in Liu Dao's eyes, but it quickly faded back into dullness.

Ye Chen didn't give up. He mentioned many more people and events—Chu Xuan Er, Chu Ling Er, Da Chu, Heng Yue Sect—hoping to awaken some fragment of Liu Dao's memory through these.

Yet, Liu Dao remained as he was, utterly still. He never turned his body or uttered a word, like a puppet or a walking corpse, devoid of any human emotion.

Ye Chen fell silent. Defying the heavens and altering fate, Liu Dao had suffered the backlash of time and space for too long. He had clearly forgotten who he was and lost all his ancient memories, left only in a daze.

Like Hong Chen, Liu Dao had reversed time and space, losing sight of his own purpose. He wandered the world endlessly like a ghost, until the ages wore him down and he truly faded away.

Finally, Ye Chen circled around to face Liu Dao. The sight of Liu Dao's weariness pained even him. With a wave of his hand, he handed over a secret scroll. "This is from the senior in Dong Huang Gu Cheng for you."

Liu Dao, though wooden, stiffly raised his hand and took the scroll. The moment he did, it turned into a wisp of ash, and the ancient information sealed within merged into his Shen Hai.

Only then did Liu Dao's body tremble slightly, and a hint of confusion flashed in his vacant eyes.

He turned silently and walked away, step by step, his back figure desolate and lonely. Who knew how many years he had wandered this world? He was the true passerby of the human realm.

Ye Chen followed, but he couldn't keep up with Liu Dao's steps. His movement technique was eerily strange; as he walked, he faded into nothingness, leaving only faint shadows behind.

Ye Chen stopped and stood there for a long time, his heart filled with melancholy. Perhaps, many years from now, he too would end up like Liu Dao and Hong Chen, defying the heavens for some belief and becoming a mere walking corpse.

With a sigh, he turned and stepped across the sea, entering the ruins for the second time.

Re-entering the ruins, he moved with familiarity, heading straight for the depths. Many people were leaving in groups of three or five, cursing as they went—they were the ones who had been robbed and just wanted to escape this cursed place.

Among them were Sheng Wang and Da Sheng, yet even they couldn't escape being plundered. This trip had utterly shamed them; as seniors, they had been humiliated by a bunch of young upstarts, unable to hold their heads high.

They were the lucky ones—at least they were alive. Some Sheng Wang and Da Sheng had already perished in the ruins, all because they had overestimated their strength and underestimated the ruins' suppression.

Outside, Sheng Wang and Da Sheng were incredibly powerful, but in the ruins, they were all suppressed to the Zhun Sheng level. Under equal cultivation, it didn't matter if you were Sheng Wang or Da Sheng—what ruled was sheer fist strength.

Ye Chen glanced at those people but didn't strike; instead, he activated his Xian Lun Yan to scan the surroundings.

He noticed that mysterious marks had been imprinted in various spots throughout the ruins, such as on towering ancient trees, collapsed palaces, and massive rock walls, hidden with profound subtlety.

He recognized those marks as spatiotemporal seals, and it wasn't hard to guess who had placed them—aside from the Ji Mie Shen Ti, who else could it be? Through these seals, he could teleport instantly.

"Ji Mie Shen Ti, you've certainly left yourself plenty of escape routes!" Ye Chen sneered, erasing them as he went along. Whenever he spotted a spatiotemporal seal, he wiped it out without hesitation.

When he reached the depths, the place was buzzing with activity. He climbed to the top of a mountain and gazed out as far as he could.

In the depths, beams of Buddhist light radiated everywhere, illuminating the entire region. All that light emanated from a single golden Buddhist bead—or more precisely, a Buddha's relic—hovering in the sky.

Faintly, one could hear the tolling of grand bells and the resonant, ancient chants of Buddha, as if performing salvation.

The Buddha's relic was a supreme divine object, the purified body of an ancient Buddha, drawing frenzied抢夺 from all directions.

From his vantage point on the mountain peak, Ye Chen's vision was extraordinary, allowing him to see clearly. There were no fewer than a thousand people vying for the relic. He spotted Nan Di, Xi Zun, Zhong Huang, and the Xian Clan Shen Zi.

Besides them, there were many other Shen Zi and Shen Nu, as well as veteran cultivators. They fought fiercely for the relic, with numerous casualties, the sky stained with fresh blood in a gruesome scene.

Perhaps because so many were competing, their combined forces exerted immense pressure on the Buddha's relic. It suddenly exploded with a boom, scattering into thousands of golden lights, its fragments dissolving into the void.

But that wasn't the end. Although the Buddha's relic had shattered, dazzling Buddhist light rained down and converged, surging like a vast river or sea, vast and boundless, containing infinite power.

Ye Chen understood: this was the collective faith energy that the Buddha had accumulated from the worship of sentient beings during his lifetime. Within that surging sea of faith, one could almost see a Buddha seated in meditation, receiving the devout prostrations of all living beings.

The power of Buddhist faith was a mysterious force, sometimes even surpassing secret techniques. Its magnitude could shatter flesh and bodies, obliterate primordial spirits, and if channeled into artifacts, its might became even more dominant.

Thus, even though the Buddha's relic had burst, no one ceased their struggle; instead, they fought even more fiercely. They all summoned their life-bound divine weapons and vessels, desperately absorbing the Buddhist faith energy.