Qin Renhuang just became an immortal, and you told me this is the prehistoric time

The old man in the cave gave a brief response in his mind.

"He is currently hovering in the void outside the Big Dipper, doing something unknown. But that magical artifact that can cover tens of thousands of miles... just this one point is enough to show that his underlying strength is no less than that of His Majesty the Stone Emperor, who has not yet reached his ultimate level."

If His Majesty the Stone Emperor does not fully recover and return to the pinnacle of the imperial path, he can at best fight him to a draw. But if it truly comes to the point where His Majesty the Stone Emperor needs to achieve his ultimate sublimation…

The old man paused for a moment, a ruthless glint in his eyes.

"Even if it costs us all our old bones, we will hold him back and wear him down! Even if he can injure His Majesty the Stone Emperor, he will pay an unbearable price, or even... perish in that strange magic weapon!"

Upon hearing this, Li Ruoyu's lips curled into a cold smile, and she sent a telepathic message back.

"Heh...you've certainly got a good plan. But judging from Ying Xuan's actions, he acts solely on his own whims, and he probably doesn't have much identification or belonging to the Beidou human race. He might attack the Undying Mountain today for a deal or on a whim, but who knows if he won't become the new 'Lord of the Forbidden Zone' when he becomes powerful? Perhaps even more unpredictable than the Stone Emperor."

The scene of Ying Xuan indifferently crushing nearly ten thousand cultivators and even briefly suppressing himself seemed to reappear before his eyes, and the chill in his heart intensified.

"I witnessed it with my own eyes. He refined the Purple Mountain as if it were child's play, beheaded the Heavenly Empress as if it were nothing, and wiped out nearly ten thousand cultivators with a wave of his hand. The ruthlessness of his methods and the depth of his strength are probably only a hair's breadth away from those of true ancient supreme beings!"
Such a person, if truly devoted to humanity, is a blessing. But if his intentions are treacherous... your lavish support, seeing him as the hope for humanity's rise, might inadvertently benefit him, causing humanity to completely lose any chance of future prosperity!

His growth might only take a thousand years, or even less! And before that, when the forbidden zones of life were reaping lives, had we ever heard of his name? Have you ever pondered these questions?

The cave fell silent once again.

The withered old man seemed to be touched by Li Ruoyu's words, or rather, he might have had similar doubts in his heart. The forbidden zone of life had existed for too long, and had witnessed far too many conspiracies, schemes, and powerful figures.

A being that suddenly appears, is ridiculously powerful, and acts unpredictably—what it might be hiding behind it is enough to make any old-fashioned person tremble with fear.

After a long while, the withered thoughts slowly returned, carrying a trace of weariness and determination.

“Old Li, what you say… makes sense. This matter is too important for us to make a judgment on. Since that’s the case… let’s observe his actions first. We’ll act according to the circumstances once he actually arrives at the Undying Mountain.”

Regardless, since he came under the pretext of attacking the forbidden zone for the human race, then he... must come! And he must demonstrate a sufficiently clear stance before us! Otherwise…”

The thought was severed, and the connection vanished silently. Li Ruoyu picked up the now-cold cup of coarse tea, drank it all in one gulp, and the complex emotions in his eyes deepened.

Was it right or wrong for him to lead Ying Xuan, this "ferocious beast," to the Undying Mountain? Did he open a glimmer of hope for the human race, or did he open another, even more terrifying gate?

……

Meanwhile, outside the Big Dipper constellation, in that deep void.

The enormous array diagram, covering tens of thousands of miles, still floated silently, like an independent star field, radiating a hazy yet majestic glow.

Such a sight was nothing short of a miracle to the ordinary mortals of Beidou living on the surface of the earth. Many people would look up at the sky during breaks from work and see that distant but definite light and shadow, so different from the stars, which would cause waves of fear and discussion. But for the cultivators of Beidou, this sight brought a deeper sense of oppression and vigilance.

No one dared to probe with their aura or divine sense like the Supreme Being of the Forbidden Zone. The news that the nearly ten thousand cultivators outside Purple Mountain had vanished without a trace had already spread throughout the upper echelons of the Beidou Sect through various clandestine channels.

That was a forbidden zone of death, a place that could not be touched.

All the sacred lands, ancient families, and primordial royal clans were on high alert. The protective mountain formations were quietly activated to their highest alert level, the elders in seclusion were urgently awakened, and the elite disciples dispatched elsewhere were swiftly recalled. A suffocating sense of impending doom permeated the entire Beidou region.

In some of the larger cultivation cities, some low-level disciples breathed a sigh of relief and cheered softly when they saw that the terrifying phantom of the magic weapon seemed to have been inactive for a long time and even began to slowly fade and disappear.

"Gone? That jinx is gone?"

"Shut up!"

Immediately, a division commander shouted a stern rebuke, his face ashen as he looked up at the sky.

"What do you know! It's just the calm before the storm!"

Before the words were even finished!

"laugh--!"

A crystal-clear, pure white line, seemingly tearing the sky apart, suddenly extended straight out of the deep void where the original array phantom had been! At first, it was extremely thin, but its speed of extension was beyond imagination. Almost instantly, it traversed an endless distance and shot towards the direction of the Big Dipper Continent!

At the front of the white line, a tiny light quickly magnified, and a tall figure could be vaguely seen within it.

The figure exuded a terrifyingly powerful aura, like a burning meteor or a celestial blade cleaving through the sky, with a clear target—the Undying Mountain, a deathly wasteland eternally shrouded in black mist at the border between the Central Continent and the Northern Region!

"He's here! He's really here!"

"The target...it really is the Undying Mountain!" "My God! He's really going to attack the Forbidden Zone of Life!"

"Quick! Follow them! In such an unprecedented battle, even just observing from the sidelines might allow you to comprehend the Great Dao and save you from a hundred years of arduous cultivation!"

After a brief silence, the entire Beidou cultivation world erupted in chaos! Countless powerful auras soared into the sky from all directions, transforming into streaks of light of various colors, rushing madly toward the direction of the Undying Mountain without regard for anything else!

There were white-haired rogue cultivators, imposing elders from holy lands, powerful ancient clansmen with soaring blood and qi, and even some mysterious figures with strange auras who clearly did not belong to any open forces.

No one wanted to miss this top-level battle that could potentially overturn the Big Dipper's格局 (geju, a concept encompassing the overall situation and the ultimate principles of Tao) and contained within it! Similarly, everyone wanted to see with their own eyes who this madman who dared to single-handedly charge towards the Undying Mountain was, and what he looked like!
Meanwhile, the "sentries" hidden among the strange rocks and withered trees on the outskirts of the Undying Mountain, whose auras were almost one with the mountain itself, were even more shaken.

The oppressive feeling emanating from that white line, even from a great distance, made them feel as if they were being stared at by a prehistoric beast, chilling them to the bone.

"Quickly! Send a message inside the mountain! Target confirmed! Head straight for the core of Undying Mountain!"

"All outer disciples and servants, immediately abandon your posts and retreat to the designated area inside the mountain! Without the mountain lord's order, no one is allowed to leave their residence or spy on others!"

"Run! At this level of combat, even the slightest aftershock is enough to annihilate us, body and soul!"

Thoughts of panic and fear were rapidly transmitted through the hidden channels.

Those figures disguised as rocks and withered trees, like startled rabbits, quickly shed their disguises and transformed into dim streaks of light, disappearing without looking back into the even denser black mist deep within the Undying Mountain.

Once inside the Undying Mountain, their lives were no longer in their own hands, but they knew all too well that staying outside meant certain death in the face of the impending terrifying clash. The Stone Emperor might not allow these "ants" to waste their energy on the enemy, but the aftermath of battle would not distinguish between friend and foe.

The deepest part of the Undying Mountain is not the rugged rocks and deathly wasteland that outsiders imagine. In a strange valley carved out by a vast and mighty force, there is a babbling spring, fertile soil, and many rare medicinal herbs that have long been extinct in the outside world. The air is filled with the fragrance of herbs and the aroma of spiritual energy. On one side of the valley, there are even a few simple but clean thatched huts.

At this moment, in the center of the valley, a majestic man, about ten feet tall, with muscles bulging like a dragon, a face as resolute as if carved by a knife and axe, and a dark golden aura of blood and qi swirling around him, stood with his hands behind his back, looking up at the blinding white line rapidly approaching in the sky.

He was none other than the Stone Emperor! In his eyes, there was no anger, no fear, only a battle intent that had been rekindled after countless ages of silence, almost fanatical! It was as if a hunter had spotted prey worthy of his full strength.

Not far behind him, an old man dressed in a worn gray robe, with a hunched back, his face covered with age spots, and exuding a strong aura of death, sat quietly on a tree stump.

His eyes were closed, and his chest barely rose or fell, like a corpse that had long since died. Only when he gently stroked a palm-sized, pitch-black tortoise with strange and mysterious patterns on its shell would the tortoise occasionally turn its bean-sized eyes very slowly, revealing a trace of extraordinary spirituality.

This is the Celestial Venerable of Longevity, observing everything that is about to happen in a more profound and reserved way.

Just as the light at the tip of that white line grew increasingly brilliant, and Ying Xuan's figure became almost clearly visible, less than ten thousand miles away from the Undying Mountain—

"Hahahaha! Stone Emperor! Eternal Heavenly Venerable! Returning to your old haunts, yet you don't come to greet us? Are you perhaps afraid?!"

Ying Xuan burst into wild laughter, the sound waves like thunder, rolling in and shaking the black mist surrounding the Undying Mountain, causing it to churn violently! The laughter was full of unrestrained arrogance, and carried an undisguised provocation and oppression!
At the same time, he waved his sleeve!
"Om-!!"

The jade pendant, which had turned black and white and was slowly spinning in his palm, suddenly flew out and swelled in the wind!
In the blink of an eye, a terrifying array, even more solid and larger than the one at Purple Mountain, with the Yin and Yang energies flowing like a tangible millstone and the clear and floating phantoms of 108 star islands, covered the sky and the sun, and fiercely enveloped the towering, continuous, deathly Undying Mountain below!

He never even considered sneaking in or testing the waters! The surging power of his body tempering brought him intense fighting spirit, which, combined with the domineering nature of his primordial spirit and his disregard for the so-called "forbidden zone" of this world, led him to choose the most direct and ruthless method—to subdue the entire field with the strongest means!

Below, the Stone Emperor's eyes flashed with a sharp light, and instead of being angry, he laughed.

"How dare you! This is my territory, not a place where you can run wild! Get out of my way!"

He didn't even move his feet. He simply raised his right hand, clenched his fist, and punched the rapidly falling phantom of the array from a distance!
There was no flashy light, no complex manifestation of Dao principles, only a power that was pure to the extreme and domineering to the extreme! Wherever the fist wind passed, the void was easily torn apart like fragile cloth, emitting a mournful cry of unbearable burden!
The spiritual energy of heaven and earth within a radius of tens of thousands of miles, along with a mysterious "momentum," seemed to be forcibly seized and compressed by this punch, transforming into a condensed, tangible, dark golden fist shadow with a diameter exceeding one hundred feet. It surged upwards, directly shaking the sky-covering array!

The power of this punch was earth-shattering! It was enough to easily shatter stars and shatter continents! The powerful Beidou warriors who were desperately rushing over from afar could feel the terrifying fist intent that made their souls tremble, even from a great distance, and they were all horrified.

"Is this what a casual strike from an ancient supreme being looks like?!"

However, Ying Xuan didn't even flinch when faced with a punch that would make even an ultimate imperial weapon take it seriously.

Even a supreme imperial weapon like the Beginningless Bell, renowned for its offensive and suppressive power, might be hindered by the force of this punch and would require a direct confrontation. However, the Heavenly Gang and Earthly Fiends Grand Formation is simply not that type of "magic weapon"!
The dark golden giant fist slammed into the rapidly falling array, but it was like a mud ox entering the sea, without even causing a ripple!
With a slight shift in the Yin and Yang energies within the array, and a gentle sway of the illusory star island, the attack, which condensed the power of the vast heaven and earth and the domineering fist intent of the Stone Emperor, was silently decomposed, absorbed, and transformed into a driving force for the array's operation!
The array's descent speed did not slow down at all; on the contrary, because it absorbed part of the power of this punch, it became even more solid and swift! Its range expanded rapidly, instantly enveloping the entire main vein of the Undying Mountain, along with the surrounding black mist area spanning thousands of miles!
The world suddenly went dark! All light, sound, and even divine sense probes from the outside world were completely blocked by the huge "light shield" that flowed with yin and yang energies and the phantom images of the stars in the sky!
From the outside, Mount Undying appears to be covered by an enormous black and white millstone! Inside, a deadly secret is brewing, while outside, all is deathly silent. Only the slowly rotating array diagram, emanating a chilling aura, proclaims the terrifying collision that is taking place or is about to occur inside!

All the powerful Beidou warriors who arrived could only stand outside the edge of the array, staring at the massive barrier that isolated everything with bewildered expressions, their hearts filled with shock and helplessness.

They seem to have been deprived of even the right to watch the game!
"Ha ha ha ha--!"

As soon as Ying Xuan's figure landed in the core valley of the Undying Mountain, which was shrouded in an array, his arrogant laughter exploded like rolling thunder, reverberating unrestrainedly in every inch of the space shrouded in Yin and Yang energies and star shadows! The laughter seemed to carry a strange rhythm, resonating with the land beneath his feet that had just "changed hands".

As his laughter echoed, a jaw-dropping upheaval occurred throughout the entire Undying Mountain area!

The rare spiritual herbs in the valley, which had originally emitted a misty, fragrant glow, whether they were newly sprouted seedlings, ancient herbs that had grown for thousands of years, or even a few extraordinary species that exuded a faint aura of law, all transformed in an instant, roots and all, into streams of light of various colors. (End of Chapter)