Chapter 144: The Age of Immortal Silence
Rumble!
The heavens trembled.
Far beyond the worlds, the war raging across the Starsea showed no sign of ending.
Caelum paid it little mind.
Before entering seclusion, he took a step forward and rose beyond the River of Time. Looking toward its distant end, he saw the four terrifying figures still standing there, their presence suppressing the Myriad Daos.
They seemed intent on breaking through Bladeleaf’s blockade.
Buzz!
Even the River of Time shook beneath the pressure of beings at the Dao Extremity Realm.
Yet Bladeleaf remained utterly unmoved.
Its boundless Sword Intent severed all things, sealing heaven and cutting off every path.
Even four Dao Extremity experts could not withstand its edge.
They were forced to remain at the end of time itself, unable to advance a single step.
All they could do was gaze across the ages at Caelum.
Realization dawned on him.
"So you’ve sensed that I’m nearing the Dao Extremity Realm and have come to stop me."
Unfortunately for them, Bladeleaf stood across the end of the River of Time.
No one was crossing it.
Having confirmed the situation, Caelum descended back into the River of Time and returned to Cosmosreach World.
Dao rhythms flowed around him.
The Five Elements transformed and gave birth to all things.
Before him appeared a simple, unadorned estate.
He stepped inside.
Then his consciousness sank into silence.
From that moment onward, he ceased paying attention to the Age of Imperial Calamity.
Not long afterward...
Boom!
Heaven and earth shattered.
The war of the Imperial Calamity spread to Cosmosreach World.
Oblivion Immortal Emperor showed no restraint whatsoever. A single strike shattered the entire Great World, just as Deepheaven World had been destroyed before it.
In an instant, all things fell into oblivion.
Heaven and earth broke apart.
The endless sea remained untouched beneath the protection of the Dao restriction. It became the largest surviving fragment of the destroyed Great World and was hurled deep into the Starsea by the force of the world’s collapse.
The estate where Caelum slumbered traveled with that fragment, becoming a falling star that vanished into the endless void.
Many Immortals, Immortal Kings, and Immortal Emperors sensed that the catastrophe was now unavoidable.
Driven by despair, they began searching for any possible path to survival.
Self-sealing.
Reincarnation arts.
Countless methods and secret techniques.
Each sought a way to endure the Age of Imperial Calamity and leave hope for a future era.
To be fair, there was no shortage of great experts beneath the heavens.
Yet before the destruction of entire Great Worlds, methods such as self-sealing were virtually meaningless.
Unless the one sealing themselves was an Immortal Emperor.
For ordinary Immortals and Immortal Kings, self-sealing merely guaranteed they would perish alongside their Great World.
Even then, survival was far from assured.
Aurelius had once said that the Great Tribulation had already evolved into an Endless Tribulation.
Not even Immortal Emperors could escape its karmic consequences.
Only reincarnation seemed to offer a faint chance.
Yet such a technique required extraordinary power, fortune, and destiny.
If every Immortal Emperor could reincarnate freely, they would never have obsessed over longevity or a second life.
There was a chance.
But only for those blessed with truly exceptional destiny.
A thousand years later.
Violetsun Immortal Emperor failed to persuade the Immortal Emperors of The Infinite Realms.
With two Great Worlds already destroyed, everyone now viewed Longevity Immortal Emperor and his companions as incarnations of the Imperial Calamity itself.
Enemies of all The Infinite Realms.
Soon afterward, vast numbers of Immortal Emperors, Immortal Kings, and even Immortals joined the war.
A colossal campaign began.
From that moment on, the ten disciples stood against the entire cosmos.
More than twenty thousand years passed.
After Deepheaven World and Cosmosreach World, Vastheaven World, Primorigin World, Grandclear World, Moonshade World, Sunflare World, Netherveil World, Skyvault World, and hundreds of other Great Worlds followed.
One after another, they collapsed.
By the later stages of the conflict, nearly half of The Infinite Realms had been reduced to ruins drifting through the Starsea.
The devastation rivaled the final war of the Primordial Age itself.
Over twenty thousand years of warfare.
Hundreds of Immortal Emperors fell.
Countless Immortal Kings were annihilated.
The number of ordinary lives caught in the catastrophe was beyond calculation.
Fortunately, the countless lesser worlds remained untouched and largely escaped the disaster.
Even so, Longevity Immortal Emperor and his fellow disciples had nearly shattered an entire era with only ten people.
Their strength left even the Immortal Emperors of the Great Worlds speechless.
During the endless fighting, Jadewind, Stillwater, and the others broke through one after another.
By the end, all ten had entered the Immortal Emperor Realm.
The casualties among the Immortal Emperors of The Infinite Realms became catastrophic.
Finally, left with no other option, the surviving Immortal Emperors united the power of The Infinite Realms itself.
Together they constructed an unprecedented grand formation.
Drawing upon the might of countless Great Worlds, they launched one final battle against the ten disciples.
Thus, after more than thirty thousand years, the War of the Imperial Calamity finally came to an end.
Longevity Immortal Emperor and the others were grievously wounded by the grand formation.
Whether they lived or died remained unknown.
As for the Immortal Emperors who participated in the war, they suffered an even bloodier fate.
The disciples slaughtered them without mercy.
Fewer than one in a hundred survived.
Those who remained were all heavily wounded.
Their Imperial bodies stood on the verge of collapse.
Even after exhausting every available method, very few managed to hold on for long.
One after another, they eventually perished.
Worse still, the surviving Great Worlds had sacrificed enormous amounts of their origins to sustain the grand formation.
World Essence declined dramatically.
The Great Dao fell silent.
The Immortal Path faded.
The prosperity of the Great Worlds vanished.
Immortal Emperors disappeared.
Immortal Kings sealed themselves away.
Immortals no longer walked the world.
Forty thousand years passed in the blink of an eye.
The Great Worlds sank completely into decline.
Even Immortals became exceedingly rare.
Compared to the flourishing age of tens of thousands of years ago, the contrast was bleak beyond words.
People came to call this era the Age of Immortal Silence.
Clearly, they believed the Age of Imperial Calamity had finally passed.
Tens of thousands of years could be both short and long.
In a flourishing Great World, such a span would pass in an instant.
But in an era where even Immortals had nearly vanished, it felt unimaginably long.
Even Immortal Realm cultivators had long since been replaced by new generations.
As for those in lower realms with shorter lifespans, entire ages had risen and fallen.
The world itself had changed beyond recognition.
Desolateheaven World.
Heavenstar Domain.
A meteor streaked across the sky and crashed into a remote wasteland.
The disturbance quickly attracted numerous cultivators hoping to discover some heavenly treasure.
"If only we could find an immortal weapon!"
Several Ascendants arrived together.
One of them was still speaking when his words abruptly stopped.
His eyes widened.
Within the crater stood an estate.
"An estate? Could this really be a great opportunity?"
An estate often meant treasures.
Spirit herbs.
Divine weapons.
Perhaps even an immortal inheritance.
After all, it had fallen from beyond the heavens.
He was just about to enter when...
Boom!
A beam of Mystic Art light struck the group.
One Ascendant died instantly.
The survivors recoiled in shock and retreated.
Looking up, they saw a black-clad man standing in the sky.
The Ascendant who had spoken earlier darkened his expression.
"A Worldbinder Realm cultivator."
The man in black said coldly,
"Heavenly treasures belong to those fated to obtain them."
"This estate is my opportunity."
"Take one more step forward and I will kill you all."
As he spoke, a sword appeared above him.
Sword qi cascaded downward.
The Voidwalker Realm cultivators immediately felt chills run through their bodies.
Without another word, they fled.
The black-clad man smiled inwardly and entered the estate.
Unfortunately, there were no heavenly treasures.
No divine weapons.
No inheritance.
Only a single figure suspended amid flowing Dao rhythms.
The man’s pupils contracted.
Shock filled his face.
"This..."
Buzz!
Caelum opened his eyes.
Within them, the Myriad Daos intertwined.
A terrifying pressure swept outward.
"Pfft!"
The black-clad man spat blood.
Before he could even beg for mercy, a single strand of Dao aura erased him from existence.
