Chapter 849: Chapter 848 Night Sky from Afar, The Harsh Truth_1
The deeper they ventured into the cave, the clearer a certain power within became, causing the Demon Bone inside Shi Xiaole’s body to also start stirring restlessly.
This piece of Demon Bone was initially unremarkable.
After being empowered by the force of a Demon Crystal, its impurities were removed, and it had successively absorbed the force of both the Demon-suppressing Cold Bed beneath the Cold Pool in the deserted island of Redbud State and the Heaven-devouring Devil Bone in the Daze Wall, transforming it into a dark gray color.
It had been dormant for many years, but unexpectedly, it began to change here.
If the City Lord of Four Directions City was indeed Shi Xuanzhong, and the Demon Bone was hereditary, and now that he was related to the Demon Bone, could it be that the City Lord entered the Mirage Mountain Range because of this place?
Shi Xiaole thought of a possibility, and his steps into the cave became more determined.
Afterward, he encountered several Array Systems and traps, narrowly escaping death multiple times. Relying on his strong mental and reactive abilities, he eventually managed to reach a stone chamber unharmed.
Inside the stone chamber was nothing else but a stele.
This stele was three feet wide and ten zhang tall, each zhang marked by a recessed groove, dividing it into ten segments. Beyond the stele were four passages, each marked with a character above them, from left to right, they read: Yellow, Mysterious, Earth, Heaven.
Shi Xiaole tried to cross the stele only to find that an invisible force pushed him away violently. Surveying his surroundings, he decided to unleash a strike against the stele with his sword.
The stele flashed brightly, its light climbing to the seventh groove.
Indeed, when Shi Xiaole walked towards the passage with the character for Yellow, the repelling force disappeared immediately.
"Since there are four levels, Heaven must be the highest."
Gathering all his power, Shi Xiaole lunged towards the stele with a second sword strike.
Boom!
This time the glow was dazzling, quickly ascending from the first groove to the seventh, followed by the eighth, then the ninth, and finally the tenth groove.
With the repelling force gone, Shi Xiaole walked toward the Heavenly-level passage.
At the same time, Madam Xi stood in front of a stele as well, except this one only had eight segments. Despite her best effort, she could only reach the seventh segment.
"Is it measuring attack strength, or potential?"
Madam Xi shook her head, glanced at the profound Heavenly-level passage, and walked into the Earth-level passage.
Pei Qiuyan and the other three women were on par with her, but it was An Rumei who entered the Heavenly-level passage after the eight-segment stele.
...
The Heavenly-level passage was extremely long, and Shi Xiaole proceeded with his heart in his throat, yet he encountered no danger until he came upon an old and mottled stone gate.
After observing for a long while with nothing to show for it, and with no results from using his mental power, Shi Xiaole’s Sword Qi also disappeared without a trace when attacking the gate, as if sinking into the sea.
After hesitating for a long time, he finally gritted his teeth, took hold of the stone gate handle, and pulled back forcefully.
The arrangement within the cave was far beyond Shi Xiaole’s understanding. If it were truly a death trap, he would have perished long ago. The ordeal he had gone through seemed more like a selection process; it made no sense for it to fail him here.
As the stone gate was pushed open inch by inch, an eerie night sky unfolded before Shi Xiaole’s eyes.
Indeed, a night sky!
Stars twinkling in the boundless expanse, set against a blackness that could even devour souls; Shi Xiaole extended his left hand but immediately retracted it with lightning speed as he circulated his power.
Had his reflexes not been quick, his left hand would have exploded!
Turns out this night sky was in a peculiar state, more terrifying than a vacuum, creating a pressure imbalance inside and outside the human body, making it easy to burst and perish.
"There’s no turning back; I might as well see what lies ahead," he decided.
Pushing his Dragon Gate Divine Skill to its limit, Shi Xiaole stepped into the night sky.
He found himself floating weightlessly, speeding up from an instant hundred meters to a kilometer, then ten thousand meters, with stars that seemed close but were actually far away streaking past, leaving trails of eternal light.
Shi Xiaole was horrified to find that he could no longer turn back or even control his body; he could only keep moving forward.
After what seemed like an eternity, just as the pressure inside his body was swelling to the point his Dragon Gate Divine Skill could barely contain it, an ancient hexagonal pavilion suddenly appeared in front of him.
Sitting inside the pavilion was a man, as big as two ordinary people, his face concealed by a thick beard as he drank. Noticing Shi Xiaole, he gestured and pulled him into the cool shade of the pavilion.
"Guarding this place for over six hundred years, you are the sixth alien to reach here," the man said, giving Shi Xiaole only a brief glance before continuing to drink.
This short sentence struck Shi Xiaole with immense shock.
Divine Border Earth Immortals only have a life span of five hundred years; did that mean this brawny man with a thick beard was a Void Origin Martial Emperor?
But in this vast world, who could command a Void Origin Martial Emperor to sit idly in this dark place for over six hundred years just to guard the gate?
Shi Xiaole initially thought the cave was created by a Void Origin Martial Emperor. Now, it seemed that the truth was far more terrifying than he had imagined.
"Senior, what is an alien?" Shi Xiaole asked.
The bearded man seemed surprised and snorted, "You don’t even know your own origin? The bloodline aura on you is different from the people of the East Victory continent. You’re clearly an alien as well. Only aliens are qualified to enter here; otherwise, at most, they could only enter the Night Sky of Eight Elements."
Boom!
It was as if a hundred atomic bombs had exploded in Shi Xiaole’s brain, making stars burst before his eyes and the world spin, nearly making him stumble and fall to the ground.
He said what, that I am not from the East Victory continent, that I am an alien?
Despite his vague guesses from the series of objects in the Hundred Flowers Celestial Domain, Shi Xiaole still found it hard to accept when he heard the truth.
"You seem quite shocked, hehe, you should feel fortunate instead, for not being a lower being of this world! This place is one of the three outer heavens’ night curtains. As long as you can pass the challenge, you will be able to return to the outer heavens. However, getting through my checkpoint is not going to be easy."
The bearded man laughed.
"If I am from the outer heavens, why was I born on East Victory Continent?"
Sitting on the stone chair opposite, Shi Xiaole suppressed the palpitations and followed up with a question along the lines of what the other party said.
"Of course, it’s because you have missions that remain incomplete and transgressions that have been committed. You are detained here as punishment from our tribe!"
"What mission, what crime?"
"You don’t know?"
The bearded man raised his thick eyebrows, seemingly very surprised, "The first group of people from the outer heavens came here to conquer this place, to make this world our tribe’s backyard. For this, our ancestors waged wars that swept across the whole world. But nobody expected that despite our people’s glowing talents, they would fail in the first major decisive battle!"
"The people from the outer heavens were extremely furious, they cut off the route back home and reprimanded the ancestors who stayed here, saying they would only be allowed to return on the day they conquered this piece of heaven and earth."
"Later, for some unknown reason, they set up three of these outer heavens’ night curtains, allowing the most astonishingly talented among us to return. As a guardian, one only needs to wait here for eight hundred years to obtain the qualifications to return. I have less than two hundred years left."
Longing filled the bearded man’s eyes.
Since childhood, he had heard the elders describe the outer heavens, its prosperity and martial arts civilization, which were far beyond compare to the East Victory Continent. That was the true paradise for warriors.
How could one go through life without experiencing it?
After a long silence, the bearded man looked at Shi Xiaole and saw him sitting there, dazed, as if possessed, and couldn’t help but chuckle.
"Are there many people from the outer heavens?"
After an unknown amount of time, Shi Xiaole finally spoke up, his voice a bit somber.
"The first batch, ninety percent died in battle. The survivors are hidden in various places of this world. Due to clan rules, unless it’s for a second major world war, even people from the outer heavens cannot reveal their habitats or related information. Therefore, I cannot answer your question." (Chapter 289)
Shi Xiaole didn’t know how to describe his feelings at this moment.
The bearded man had no reason to lie, and the various hints from the past also seemed to corroborate his identity.
So it turned out that after all this time, he was actually a descendant of invaders and conquerors. Was his very purpose of being born to harm the land that raised him and to subjugate its people underfoot, paving the way for the conquest of the outer heavens with their blood?
What was the purpose of Shi Xuanzhong’s travels around the world, forming friendships with heroes from all quarters? Was it truly to enjoy the freedom of the world, unwilling to be restrained by orders, or was there an ulterior motive?
If Shi Xuanzhong was from the outer heavens, then what about his mother, Ling Yujie?
Although the bearded man didn’t make it clear, Shi Xiaole could tell that people from the outer heavens looked down on this land, so how could they tolerate their bloodline being sullied?
One question after another troubled Shi Xiaole, leaving him feeling confused and unsure of his own position. He wished he had never come to this place, never learned of such cruel truths.
"You said I’m the sixth person to get here, what about the previous five?"
Shi Xiaole asked again.
"Of the first five, one did not return, perhaps they succeeded, or perhaps they died. Three fled back halfway through, and as for the fifth, he just moved on to the next checkpoint a few 2-hour periods ago."
Shi Xiaole suddenly looked up, "Is he the one wearing the golden mask?"
"You know him?"
Shi Xiaole closed his eyes, then reopened them, his tone solemn, "What are your requirements for passing the checkpoint?"
The bearded man let out a hehe and held up two fingers, "Simple, as long as you can complete one of two tasks, you’ll pass."
"The first task, tell me a secret you think is most important."
"The second task, do something you least want to do."
"Remember, either task must gain my recognition, don’t even think about deceiving me, you’ll only pass if I think you’ve passed."
Shi Xiaole was stunned again.
Because he realized he might not even be able to pass the first challenge.
His biggest secret, undoubtedly, was soul transmigration.
There were many things he least wanted to do, but he surely wouldn’t be able to do them.
Given the bearded man’s cultivation and insight, Shi Xiaole didn’t think he could fool the other party.
"How did the fifth person pass?"
"His conditions for passing the challenge were different from yours. After all, he was an Earth-level Martial Emperor who had already realized his potential."
After a long silence.
Shi Xiaole let out a long sigh, picked up the small cup in front of him and took a sip of wine to ease the gloom, only to spit it out as soon as the wine went down. He started coughing uncontrollably, his clothes soaked and his face slightly contorted.
"Hahaha... This wine is specially blended by me, and I’m the only one in the whole world who enjoys it."
The bearded man laughed heartily, "I bet I’m the first person to see you in such disarray. Alright, you’ve passed."
What?
"Because I know the thing you least want to do right now, is to drink my wine, and yet you did it."
The bearded man’s face beamed with a smile.
