Weird Immortal

Ye Chuan continued forward. With every step he took onto the cyan-black stone stairs, the entire central altar trembled, as if a behemoth that had slumbered for countless years finally realized an uninvited guest had intruded.

The blackish-red flesh entwined around the surface of the altar also slowly opened eyes amidst the tremors, staring densely at him.

Su Rui and Lin Xi followed behind him. Even though they were protected by a black-gold chaotic barrier, they still felt it was somewhat difficult to breathe. Neither of them dared to pant loudly.

"Is this... what the Outer Gods left behind?"

A stone coffin. There was a stone coffin on the altar.

Along the way, Ye Chuan couldn't even be bothered to spare a second glance at those fused monsters. A casual wave of his hand was like wiping dust off a screen. But now, he actually looked up at that stone coffin.

This meant that whatever was inside was at least qualified to warrant a serious look from him.

At the very least, looking at it wouldn't cause it to explode.

"What's inside?"

"Who knows?" Ye Chuan said. "Open it up, and there might be a Kun inside."

"Uh..."

The surrounding space became increasingly unstable.

Lin Xi didn't dare to look around, but she still couldn't help muttering a complaint.

"This place is seriously too creepy."

She wouldn't even want to watch a scene like this in a horror movie on a normal day.

But now she had to experience it firsthand.

Ye Chuan didn't turn his head, merely continuing his way up. "The fact that you two still have the mood to complain means it's not a big problem."

Lin Xi looked eagerly at his back. "That's because Mr. Ye is in front. Otherwise, I'd already be writing the second draft of my will."

Su Rui fell silent for a moment, actually finding that perfectly reasonable.

A large number of shattered immortal artifact fragments were scattered across the altar's floor. However, without exception, they had all lost their spiritual essence, leaving behind only empty shells entangled with blackish-red blood veins.

Ye Chuan casually waved his hand, and a broken golden jade slip flew out from the pile of fragments.

A faint immortal light still lingered on the surface of the jade slip, but a wisp of eerie black mist was mixed within the light.

Looking at the jade slip, Su Rui asked softly:

"Can it still be read?"

Ye Chuan gently tapped his fingertip on the jade slip. The surviving immortal runes were forcibly activated by the power of chaos, and a fragmented passage of text floated in midair.

"Do not listen."

"Do not dream."

"Guard your mind, then seek immortality."

Ye Chuan raised his hand and crushed the jade slip, his expression unchanged.

"In the beginning, they merely wanted to reconnect the severed path to immortality. Later, they discovered that this method could genuinely increase their cultivation base. Even knowing there was a problem, they still continued to try it."

Su Rui felt a chill in her heart as she listened. "So it's not that they didn't know the danger, but rather, after knowing the danger, they still felt they could control it?"

Ye Chuan said indifferently, "Which immortal cultivator who reaches this realm isn't arrogant and proud? Especially those in the Ascension Realm. A single thought from them could destroy a hundred thousand mountains, and a raise of their hand could pluck the stars. Of course they would feel they could control everything."

"Let's go. Up ahead is the source with the thickest aura of pollution," Ye Chuan said.

The group continued upward, and the sealed residual thoughts around them began to awaken bit by bit.

Countless blurry figures appeared in the air.

There was a young man in a Daoist robe kneeling on the ground, holding his own eyes in his hands, constantly muttering, "I have seen the Heavenly Gate."

There was a white-haired elder hovering in midair. A crack opened in his chest, from which countless tiny arms reached out, as if desperately trying to pull something into his body.

There was also a female cultivator draped in a golden Daoist robe standing on a shattered cloud terrace. Her face was covered in tears, yet she swung her sword at the thousands of disciples kneeling and begging for mercy behind her.

None of these were living people; they were the final afterimages recorded by these ruins.

But even if they were just afterimages, that sense of despair and madness still made Su Rui and Lin Xi's chests feel tight.

The further up the altar they went, the fewer corpses and bones appeared. Replacing them were mounds of blackish-red flesh, nailed dead to both sides of the stone stairs by golden chains.

It was no longer possible to tell whether those mounds of flesh were originally humans or monsters. One could only judge from the remaining Daoist robe fragments and magic treasure shards that they were probably all once powerhouses in this immortal cultivation civilization.

One mound of flesh suddenly opened countless eyes. All the eyeballs turned toward Ye Chuan simultaneously, and then a hoarse voice echoed in everyone's minds.

"Latecomers, the path to immortality is severed. Why not enter the dream?"

"In the dream, there is the Heavenly Gate."

"In the dream, there is eternal life."

"In the dream, there are true immortals."

Su Rui and Lin Xi's eyes glazed over for a moment at the same time.

Before Su Rui's eyes appeared the grand hall of the Federation's Supreme Council. Everyone who had once looked down on her was kneeling on the ground, bowing and submitting to her.

Before Lin Xi's eyes appeared a scene of her parents standing under warm lights waiting for her to come home. Steaming hot food was set on the table, as if she only needed to take one step forward to return to the place she wanted to go back to the most.

But in the next instant, the power of chaos on Ye Chuan's body trembled slightly, and all the illusions dissipated like torn paper.

Ye Chuan raised his eyes to look at the mound of flesh. "This little parlor trick can only fool the likes of you."

The mound of flesh seemed enraged. Countless eyes oozed black blood simultaneously, and its body swelled violently, as if trying to break the golden chains pinning it down.

But Ye Chuan merely gave it a single glance.

Just one glance.

That monster, capable of polluting an entire planet, began to collapse from the inside. All its eyes exploded at the same time, and the blackish-red flesh was burned by an invisible fire, turning into a pile of flying ash in the blink of an eye.

Watching this scene, the bit of fear in Su Rui's heart suddenly vanished by half.

It wasn't because she had grown braver.

It was because she finally realized that no matter how terrifying this place was, it was only terrifying to them.

A person's fear stems from the unknown nature of the enemy and their own weakness.

For example, you go to a mysterious small town to look for your uncle. Every resident here gives you an eerie smile. Each of them has an ashen face, they don't speak, and they even peek at you through the window at night.

And then they reveal a bone-chilling smile.

Yes, it is very terrifying, but you also found your uncle.

Your uncle is named Yang Jian.

At home, there is also a Hairy-faced, thunder-beaked monk holding a staff, and a little boy playing with a piece of red cloth.

Then would you still be afraid?

...

The three of them finally reached the middle level of the altar.

The space here was completely distorted. Even though the path ahead was clearly only a few hundred meters, it felt like it was separated by countless overlapping worlds.

With every step forward, different scenes would emerge around them.

There was an immortal city submerged in a blood-colored ocean. Countless cultivators in the city looked up at the sky, but there was no sky above them—only an eye so massive that its edges couldn't be seen.

The more Su Rui looked, the more stifled her chest felt. She couldn't help but whisper, "Is this the ascension they saw?"

"Who knows, they were infected by the eerie Outer Gods."

Right at this moment, a shrill, miserable scream suddenly came from the other side of the altar.

The group turned their heads to look and saw that the several teams that had entered the ruins earlier had fled here. Many of them had grown tiny eyes on their bodies, evidently having already been polluted, though they hadn't completely lost control yet.

They supported each other as they ran forward, their faces written with fear.

But a snake clan expert from the Myriad Races Alliance, who was running at the very front, suddenly stopped.

His snake-like pupils contracted sharply. Then, he slowly raised his head to look at the stone coffin resting at the peak of the altar.

"I hear it."

A look of ecstatic joy surfaced on his face, his voice growing shrill. "It says that as long as I surrender my heart, I can attain eternal life."

Sensing something was wrong, his companion immediately tried to pull him back.

But in the very next instant, the chest of the snake clan expert violently split open.

There was no heart inside.

Only a giant eye covered in black scales.

The moment that eye opened, the dozen or so explorers around them froze simultaneously. Then, their flesh and blood began to attract one another, melding together like melting wax.

Some were still screaming in agony.

Some were laughing maniacally.

Someone yelled that they had seen the Immortal Realm.

Another person cried while tearing off their own arm and attaching it to a companion's body, muttering endlessly, "We will ascend together."

Su Rui's face turned pale as she watched, completely dumbfounded.

This Outer God was far stronger than any she had ever seen.

Ye Chuan waved his hand, and black-gold chaotic energy swept out like a tidal wave. The fusing monsters were instantly crushed into nothingness, and the polluting whispers lingering in the air were completely erased along with them.

"Because the thing inside the stone coffin has awakened."

Lin Xi looked toward the top of the altar, keeping her voice very low. "So is it deliberately amplifying the pollution to turn everyone into monsters?"

Ye Chuan nodded. "It is testing the seal, and it is testing me."

Su Rui's heart tightened upon hearing this. "Testing you?"

Ye Chuan said, "To see if I will be affected by it."

Lin Xi couldn't help but ask, "And the result?"

Ye Chuan didn't stop walking. "It should be quite disappointed. After all, I am the strict father of all Outer Gods."

Does it not understand the true value of magic immunity?

Su Rui and Lin Xi exchanged a glance. They suddenly felt an urge to laugh, but felt it would be impolite to do so in such a setting.

The further up they went, the clearer the aura of the golden chains became.

Those chains were no ordinary magical artifacts. They were forged from the Dao principles of countless Ascension Realm cultivators. Every single rune bore enough power to suppress mountains and seas.

Yet even so, those chains were still trembling.

The entity inside the stone coffin had been suppressed for countless years, yet it was still not dead.

Its pollution had even begun to creep back up the chains, slowly dyeing those originally radiant immortal runes a dark, blood-red hue.

Ye Chuan stopped in front of a stone pillar.

Dense clusters of names were carved into the pillar, with the most eye-catching one written in a glaring scarlet red—

"Seventh Generation Sect Master of Wenxian Sect, succumbed to demonic deviation, sealed within the central sacrificial coffin by burning the divine souls of sixteen elders."

Su Rui felt a shock in her heart upon reading the last line. "The sect master of the Wenxian Sect is the one inside?"

Ye Chuan looked at that line of text and said slowly, "It should be him."

Lin Xi asked softly, "Was he very strong in the past?"

Ye Chuan didn't answer immediately. Instead, he looked at the constantly vibrating stone coffin above the altar.

"To have so many Ascension Realm experts burn away their cultivation just to seal him means he was at least a Half-Immortal back then, only one step away from true immortality. Furthermore, he willingly allowed himself to be sealed."

"Becoming an Immortal—" Lin Xi looked at Ye Chuan. "Becoming an Immortal... is that very powerful? If he really became an Immortal, Mr. Ye, could you handle him?"

Ye Chuan glanced at Lin Xi. "He might have also become an Immortal... no, a monster similar to an Immortal."

"So... you can't?" Lin Xi asked worriedly.

"I became an Immortal a long time ago," Ye Chuan said with a single sentence, leaving Lin Xi completely speechless.

Lin Xi: "..."

If your level is that high, you should have said so earlier!

However, even an existence like this had still been polluted by the Outer Gods, turning into the half-immortal, half-eldritch monstrosity currently inside the stone coffin.

Su Rui suddenly felt that the so-called destruction of the cultivation civilization wasn't because they were too weak.

Quite the contrary.

They were too strong.

It was just that the path to immortality had been severed, so they sought out other, unorthodox methods.

At the top of the altar, the stone coffin suddenly shook violently.

Nine golden chains pulled taut simultaneously, emitting a deafening roar.

In the next second, a hoarse, ancient voice slowly echoed from within the stone coffin.

"Latecomers..."

"Since you recognize the immortal script..."

"Why do you not kneel?"

Su Rui and Lin Xi felt as if a thunderclap had exploded right beside their ears. Even with Ye Chuan's protection, their legs nearly gave out.

If it hadn't been for Ye Chuan shielding them, just this single sentence would have been enough to shatter their souls.

Ye Chuan looked up at the stone coffin and suddenly laughed. "What kind of thing are you to be worthy of making me kneel?"

The entire altar instantly fell dead silent.

The entity inside the stone coffin didn't seem to expect that after slumbering for countless ages, the very first response it received would be so impolite.

A moment later, low laughter emanated from the stone coffin.

At first, the laughter sounded like a single person. Then it became ten people, a hundred people, and finally, it sounded as though all the dead souls within the entire ruins were laughing together.

"Arrogant."

"I was once the sect master of the Wenxian Sect, the number one person in the mortal realm, a half-step away from ascending to immortality."

"With a single thought, I could reduce mountains to ash; with a single finger, I could sever the starry river; with a single breath, I could suppress myriad races."

"If the Heavenly Gate had not been broken, I would have long taken my place among the immortal ranks."

"And you..."

The voice suddenly became sticky and viscous, like whispers squeezed out from rotting flesh and blood. ")(*(*...*)(*(...%&*..."

"No... I am an immortal...)(*￥...%..."

Ye Chuan didn't reply; he merely took a step onto the final stone stair.

Boom!

The entire altar sank downwards simultaneously.

In truth, it wasn't that the altar couldn't bear his weight.

Rather, this sealed space and time could not withstand the single wisp of coercive aura that Ye Chuan actively released.

The voice inside the stone coffin was finally no longer composed.

"You..."

"You are not a person of this realm."

Ye Chuan stood in front of the stone coffin and raised his right hand, black-gold chaotic energy condensing in his palm. "A bit late to figure that out now."

The stone coffin vibrated violently, and the tyrannical aura inside finally erupted completely.

A giant black eye opened on the surface of the stone coffin.

Within the eye, a man wearing an ancient Daoist robe could faintly be seen.

He sat cross-legged in endless darkness. Half of his body was radiant with immortal light, while the other half was rotting flesh and blood. Behind him was the phantom image of a towering immortal gate, but there were also countless twisted tentacles reaching out from beyond the gate.

That was the sect master of the Wenxian Sect.

And also the monster he became after being corrupted by the Outer Gods.

He slowly raised his head, looking at Ye Chuan through the stone coffin. "I am an immortal..."

"No, you are not." Feeling the other party's tyrannical aura, Ye Chuan merely said indifferently, "You are just a half-immortal, half-eldritch thing."

"Half-immortal, half-eldritch... hahahahahaha." The entity began to laugh wildly, and the entire space started to tremble violently.

"If it weren't impossible to ascend, who would want to use this kind of method?"

"You simply do not understand my pain!!!!!"

The stone coffin could not suppress his fury. In the next moment, every single chain shattered into pieces!