“Are we going to enter the world?”
The speaker was an enormous, hideous beast covered in bony spikes. Its pupils were bestial and bloodthirsty. He was the eleventh of the twelve Lich Ancestors, the Lich Ancestor of Rain: Xuanming.
The liches were born along with this era, and not even they knew where they came from.
They’d appeared with the new era along with its first gods, demons, and yao.
But unlike the others born at the beginning of the era, their consciousnesses contained a message, one they could never defy.
Take the twelve Lich Ancestors. From the moment they were born, they possessed peerless divine power, and they knew exactly what they had to do in the future.
The liches transcended the God, Yao, and Demon Realms. They hadn’t made an appearance in hundreds of millions of years.
Only the Lich Ancestors had once wandered throughout the countless words, leaving behind legends as if announcing their existence. However, their ordinary clansmen spent their entire lives within lich territory.
The Transcendent Mausoleum had already appeared. Everything was just as the admonishment, the mission that filled their consciousnesses upon their birth said.
It was time for them to enter the world!
“Hey, getting to go out and take a look sounds pretty good.”
This time, the speaker was a tiger-bodied monster with eight heads and ten tales. He was ranked sixth out of the twelve Liche Ancestors. His name, Tian Wu.
“You? Forget it. If you appear, the people will think you’re some sort of demon beast and kill you.” A lich with green snakes wrapped around his arms laughed. He was the Lich Ancestor of the Northern Waters, and he had a cobra head on a human body, skin covered in black scales, and legs like a dragon.
“You’re not much better off than me, are you?” said Tian Wu’s sixth head. He was right, too. Shortly after, his third head chimed in. “Boss Dijiang, tell us. Which of us will go out this time?”
Every lich on the platform’s gaze landed on a figure shaped like a yellow bag, as red as pill fire, with six legs and no face at all.
Green smoke drifted slowly around him. Before long, a handsome youth stepped through the smoke.
“This time, it shall be Houtu and Zhu Jiuyin.”
Houtu was the last of the twelve Lich Ancestors. He had a human torso on a snake’s body, with seven arms growing out of his back and two arms clutching a flying serpent growing from his chest. He was the Lich Ancestor of the Central Lands.
Zhu Jiuyin was ranked ninth. She had a human face on a red snake’s body, and she was the Lich Ancestor of Time.
The two Dijiang called upon rose simultaneously from their thrones. Suddenly, the two seemingly half man, half yao Lich Ancestors transformed, one into a tall, stalwart man, the other into an adorable little loli.
“Zhu Jiuyin, you’ve got terrible taste,” said Goumang, the Lich Ancestor of the Eastern Woods. He was as green as fresh bamboo, with a bird body and a human face. He rose on two dragons, one beneath each foot.
The little, adorable loli was none other than Zhu Jiuyin in human form. Houtu looked at her. He was stunned too, but he didn’t say anything.
“I’m just playing. Isn’t this way fun?” Adorable loli Zhu Jiuyin laughed, then cupped her fist at the other Lich Ancestors. Finally, her gaze landed on Dijiang.
“Shall we go now, then?”
“First, take them with you.” Dijiang waved his hand, and two people walked up from below the platform. One was a youth with a longbow, while the other was a curvy woman who created lotuses with every step she took.
When they strode onto the platform, they nodded at each of the Lich Ancestors in turn. Then, Dijiang said, “They’ll be going with you. However, their goal is different from yours, and you needn’t go out of your way to look out for them.”
“They’re coming too?” Zhu Jiuyin’s eyes flashed with gloomy light, but then she laughed. “It seems this time, our excursion will be even more interesting. If I’m not mistaken, these two have a rather ambiguous relationship with a certain someone.”
“You needn’t concern yourself with that,” said Dijiang without the slightest change in tone. “On this outing, all you must do is evaluate this generation’s Emperor Stars. There is no need to do anything beyond that, with one exception. Keep an eye on them for me.”
“Them? Are you saying…”
“That’s right. Them!”
…..
Crack! Boom!
Reddish purple lighting pierced through the clouds. The sky, set eternally in place in the sky, was now obscured by dark clouds. The entire Immortal Region and Endless Beast Region were now enveloped in darkness.
Beneath this terrifying, pitch-black sky, the Divine Mausoleum was like a blood-colored mountain.
The protective layer around it seemed intent on chasing off the darkness. It relentlessly released its power.
Unearthly winds howled, and lightning flashed overhead.
The nine figures in funerary robes separated, each taking a different direction, then bowed towards the floating mausoleum.
Gu Li, who stood before its entrance, clutched a half-meter golden key. This was the key he’d condensed out of the fragments, as well as the source of the unusual phenomenon darkening the skies.
Kssh! Ksssh!
The barrier isolating the mountain flashed. White lightning crashed into it like waves, then scattered upon impact.
Gu Li closed his eyes in silence, then stood there, waiting, for a full hour.
“What is he doing?”
Yang Jian and the others positioned before the mausoleum couldn’t help but mutter. The various heavenly and earthly phenomena had been there for quite some time already, but even after condensing the key, Gu Li just stood there for a long time without doing anything.
They couldn’t help but worry, and they were all getting impatient.
“He’s waiting for the right time!” said Venerate Spirit Treasure. “You all say the barrier around the Transcendent Mausoleum. It exists to protect the place. If we don’t wait for the heavenly lightning to disperse it, not even a transcendent could force their way inside.”
“The barrier is that strong?” The Great Sage’s expression changed. The barrier looked thin and weak. And here he’d assumed that, so long as he swung his staff, he could shatter it without a doubt.
He’d refrained only for fear that after breaking the barrier, he’d accidentally damage the mountain, too.
“What did you think? This is a mausoleum containing good fortune capable of granting one transcendence. If the barrier were so easy to break, would it be worthy of housing such good fortune?” laughed Venerate Spirit Treasure.
It seemed that even though they had the key, they couldn’t simply open the door to the mausoleum.
They had to wait for the barrier to disperse first. Only then could they insert the key and go inside.
But who knew exactly how long they’d have to wait? Gu Li had said that numerous people would come here for the mausoleum. Ye Zichen didn’t want to see those fateful faces before even going inside. Especially since if they arrived before Ye Zichen and his friends entered, all that work they’d put into keeping his identity a secret would go to waste.
Despite their tension and impatience, they could only wait.
Fortunately, they’d already sent the immortals of the Immortal Region Packing. Ye Zichen had also sent his people to talk to the experts of the Endless Beast Region. If he weren’t mistaken, before long, there would be few if any immortals and yao remaining in these lands by the time they inevitably became a battlefield.
Crack-a-boom!
Thunder rumbled overhead. Everyone stared intently at the skies above the Divine Mausoleum, but at that moment…
Gu Li’s eyes finally popped back open. A streak of red gold lightning cleaved down upon the mausoleum, then surged down continuously. Lightning overflowed, so bright, they couldn’t bear to look directly at it.
