Stealing the Secret from the Cover of Heaven

Chapter 609 Ancient Road in the Starry Sky
The dilapidated city wall, the closed gates, the unclear statues of gods, and the lack of any green land made it seem as if one had arrived at a lifeless ancient land.

Hangu Pass, this mythical city gate, was originally the front line to resist the invasion of foreign enemies, but now it is in ruins and there is not even a soldier guarding it.

Even the small world in the sky where the city gate is located looks like an abandoned wasteland.

Li Changshou set out from Earth and officially set foot in the starry sky. Hangu Pass was his starting point.

Not only does the prosperous scene recorded in various ancient books no longer exist, even the generals who have guarded this place for generations have disappeared without a trace.

It was as if the door to the earth was completely opened, allowing anyone to come in and out.

Pushing open the dusty stone gate, Li Changshou saw neat streets, which did not look like a ruined city gate due to war.

However, all the buildings exuded an aura of death, as if all the creatures that once lived in this city had withered away overnight.

With curiosity and doubt, Li Changshou climbed up the city wall and saw some bones scattered next to the arrow shelter. The bones had been weathered and were about to turn into dust.

With the arrival of Li Changshou, the air flow blew slightly, and the bones immediately collapsed into bone powder.

Li Changshou suddenly felt something was wrong.

The city gate he entered corresponded to the direction of the earth, but judging from the number of soldiers on the city wall, it seemed to be heavily guarded at that time.

It was not until he walked all the way inside the city tower that Li Changshou saw a relatively intact skeleton.

The skeleton was still wearing armor, sitting behind a stone desk, as if reading a book.

But in his left hand he was holding a sword with a rotten scabbard.

Although no one knows how many years have passed since his death, his bones still emit a white jade-colored glow, which is very similar to the jade bones that only saints have in the legend.

After looking around the layout of the attic, Li Changshou finally saw traces of text.

Generally, on the ancient stone tablet, there are eight big characters engraved in gold: "Loyal and courageous, ready to die"

Apart from this, there is no other useful information inside the tower.

After getting off the tower, Li Changshou walked into the mansion near the city wall and found a similar situation.

There were weathered corpses in almost every mansion, and judging from the appearance of those corpses, it seemed that they had not panicked before they died, and died in an instant.

Walking in the city is like walking into the set of "Earth after Humans Suddenly Disappeared".

Although this way of death was not surprising to Li Changshou.

If he wanted to, he could instantly wipe out the souls of everyone in a city with a population of one million, allowing them to die peacefully.

But the situation in the city is puzzling.

Passing through the city, Li Zhi walked directly from the east gate to the west gate.

However, he saw that the west gate was not closed, but only half-open, and there were no traces of the soldiers defending the city on the city wall.

The entire city gate does not feel like the front line against foreign enemies, but rather like a rear fortress for a great escape.

After searching the city for several days, Li Changshou did not find out the cause of their death, nor did he find out whose generals the soldiers who died on the city wall were.

We don't even know when they died.

Moreover, the small world in the heavenly realm where Hangu Pass is located is obviously similar to those blessed places. They are all relatively independent worlds from the earth, but there is not a trace of spiritual energy from heaven and earth.

However, Li Changshou saw traces of dried-up dragon veins outside the city.

It was as if this independent world had once been baptized by the spirit of the end of the law, completely turning this world into a lawless and soulless place even worse than the earth's environment.

After opening the huge west city gate, a brilliant starry sky appeared before Li Changshou's eyes.

There is also an ancient road covered with mysterious patterns that extends from the west city gate to the starry sky. It seems that the creatures walking on this ancient road in the past could step on an invisible ancient road in the starry sky.

Li Zhi recognized the meaning of those patterns. They were all the base patterns used to construct a super teleportation array that spanned the star field.

From this ancient road leading to the starry sky, we can see that Hangu Pass was definitely a prosperous place with people coming and going.

Step onto the ancient trail and at the end of the road there is a cliff.

The vast sea of ​​stars is right below the cliff, as if you could step into the starry sky by jumping off the cliff.

The stars are shining brightly, like a magnificent painting unfolding vividly.

The sky is filled with stars, as if they are within reach; the galaxy is flowing, as if the world is right before your eyes.

A peaceful and holy breath flows on the starry sky before your eyes, as if by stepping into the starry sky before your eyes you can reach a truly extraordinary world that is suitable for the evolution of living things.

There are no starry sky coordinates, only an ancient road with no visible end.

Li Changshou chose to move forward without hesitation.

Divine power exploded, gushing out from the soles of his feet and directly sank into the ancient road that had been cut off for who knows how many tens of thousands of years.

As the lines on the ancient road were lit up one after another, the starlight in front of the cliff seemed to be drawn and immediately gathered towards the ancient road.

Then, an avenue of stars extended from the ancient road to the depths of the dazzling sea of ​​stars.

Li Zhi didn't hesitate at all and stepped directly onto the temporarily constructed Avenue of Stars.

The scene around seemed to be flowing backwards, with the sea of ​​stars flying past rapidly, as if on an inter-galaxy journey.

However, before Li Changshou reached the real ancient star of life, the Avenue of Stars under his feet shook, and then became flickering, as if it would disappear at any time.

"Not good. Without the support of the dragon vein essence, the ancient starry sky road opened up by the teleportation array cannot be maintained for a long time." Li Zhi thought to himself that something was not good, and then he sacrificed a small boat.

"Wow!"

The sound of ice flakes breaking was heard under Li Changshou's feet, and the Ancient Starry Sky Road shattered directly due to lack of energy.

Fortunately, he stood on the small boat in advance, so he was not strangled by the void force generated after the ancient road was broken.

Instead, under the protection of the small boat, they continued to move forward.

A few days later, the boat under Li Changshou's feet seemed to feel a suction force, and then it carried him towards a dark star field.

After passing through an area covered by interstellar dust, an orange-red sun suddenly came into view.

Moreover, Li Changshou landed towards a life star that exuded rich vitality.

"boom!"

After a loud bang, Li Changshou experienced a ballistic landing, directly creating a huge crater on a piece of land.

In an instant, smoke and dust rose up, obscuring Li Changshou's vision.

However, he could feel the traces of the flow of the essence of heaven and earth between heaven and earth. This ancient star of life was an ancient star that could be used for cultivation.

After waiting in the pit for a long time and seeing no sign of cultivators coming, Li Changshou dusted himself off and flew out of the pit.

Logically speaking, any planet with evolved life would have a magic array to monitor visitors from outside the domain.

However, it was somewhat abnormal that Li Changshou landed on this vibrant planet with such a big fuss but did not attract any attention from the natives.

Then, the small boat that could travel in the starry sky appeared at his feet, carrying him towards the direction with the most vitality.

When he arrived at a dense forest of souls, he immediately discovered many strange-looking creatures. However, those creatures did not have any spiritual intelligence and seemed to be wild beasts.

There is no trace of cultivation civilization at all.

After passing through the deep forest, Li Changshou came to a plain.

There he saw the ruins of many tall buildings and various traces of battle that could only be seen on the battlefield.

In the center of the building complex, Li Changshou saw a broken statue of a centaur.

Like a statue of a god worshipped by the indigenous people living on this land, a trace of faith still remains within the broken statue.

Later, Li Zhi discovered many local characters in the ruins.

But Li Zhi couldn't understand those words.

However, he unexpectedly found a line of words written in bronze on the wall of a building that looked like a temple.

"The soldiers under the throne of the Human Emperor are faithful and will defeat the Centaurs here."

After understanding the meaning of the bronze inscription, Li Changshou instantly understood why the civilization here disappeared.

It turned out that they were destroyed by outsiders.

Afterwards, Li Changshou traveled around the world in a flying boat, and discovered one breached temple after another, as well as one ruined ancient land after another.

It seems that the army of the Human Emperor learned about this ancient life planet ruled by the Centaurs, and abducted all the Centaurs, the only intelligent life on this planet.

This is why this planet, which is home to many species of life, does not have any intelligent race.

It seems that the army of the Human Emperor saw the advantages of the Centaurs as mounts, so they abducted all of them.

In many collapsed temples, Li Changshou saw descriptions of the Centaurs.

This clan seems to have the ability to run in the air.

There are also many murals depicting this tribe running with the galaxy under their feet.

Li Changshou even realized a speed-enhancing magical power from those stone carvings, which could greatly increase a person's running speed.

However, without intelligent races, there would be no living beings that could communicate directly.

After staying on that star for half a month, Li Changshou found the place where the unknown emperor's army retreated that year.

A simple ancient teleportation array.

That ancient formation seemed to be a one-time temporary magic formation, which was scrapped after being used that year.

Fortunately, Li Changshou was not a weakling. He quickly analyzed the structure of the ancient teleportation formation and found enough materials for setting up the formation on this star.

When he opened the ancient formation, he was teleported to an extremely desolate star.

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!"

As soon as he appeared on the star, Li Zhi was greeted by arrows one after another that looked like flowing light.

The arrows, filled with divine power, flew towards Li Changshou like thousands of meteors.

"Dang, Dang, Dang!"

Fortunately, Li Changshou was not unprepared. A layer of golden divine light immediately appeared in front of him, blocking the arrows.

"Certainly!"

Then, Li Changshou uttered the sound of Tao, and the essence of heaven and earth obeyed his command. The void also solidified instantly, imprisoning the creatures that shot arrows at him in place.

"It's another big demon. We can't give up. Keep shooting arrows."

"Princess, we can't move."

Afterwards, the sound of conversation was heard in the distance. Although Li Zhi could not understand their language, he could perceive the meaning of their conversation through his spiritual sense.

"I'm not a bad person, please listen to me." Li Changshou immediately sent a message to them.

Then his figure appeared in front of them like a fleeting shadow.

"The Pegasus is flying in the sky!" Someone exclaimed immediately when they saw Li Zhi's ghostly speed.

"Who are you and why do you know the innate magical powers of our people?" someone else asked.

Only then did Li Zhi see that the creature hiding behind the waist-high stone wall was not in human form, but had the upper body of a human and the lower body of a horse.

"Are you Centaurs?" Li Zhi asked curiously.

"Damned human, let us go, otherwise the old god will not let you go." A Centaur boy who looked like a male immediately shouted at Li Zhi.

"Where is this place? Why don't you live on your ancient planet, but instead reproduce in this place with thin energy?" Li Changshou asked.

At this time, he had discovered that this was not an ancient star with life, but a small world in the celestial realm.

Moreover, the essence of heaven and earth in this small world is far less rich than that on the life star.

"My fellow Taoist, please release these descendants of my clan. If you have any questions, I can answer them for you."

At this moment, a voice familiar to Li Zhi came from a distance, as if speaking the ancient language of Earth.

Then, a tall, old Centaur with white hair and beard and a strong body appeared in Li Zhi's sight.

From the aura on his body, it can be sensed that the other party is only slightly stronger than the cultivators in the Hualong Secret Realm, and is equivalent to the cultivators who have just entered the Xiantai Secret Realm.

Li Zhi waved his hand lightly and released the void confinement, allowing those young Centaurs to regain their freedom.

"Hello, fellow Taoist." Li Changshou greeted the old man.

"You are too polite, fellow Daoist. I have never encountered a human being since I was born, so my reaction was a little excited. I hope you won't blame me." The old man explained hurriedly.

"I wonder if you can tell me where this place is?" Li Changshou asked.

"Did you find this place by following the ancient road left by the Human Emperor's army?" The old man did not answer Li Zhi, but asked instead.

"Yes, I am about to follow the footsteps of the Human Emperor and head to the other side of the starry sky." Li Changshou nodded.

"Fellow Daoist, you are filled with supreme divine energy. Aren't you the new Human Emperor?" the old man asked in surprise.

“Could it be that the senior has met more than one Human Emperor?” Li Changshou asked hurriedly.

"I have never met the Human Emperor. It was only because our ancestors encountered the Human Emperor's army passing through their territory several times that they were forced to move their entire clan to live in this small world in the heavenly domain." The old man shook his head.

Afterwards, the old man told Li Zhi that in the abyss of their ancient star, there was a five-colored altar, which was the node of the ancient starry road.

In order to avoid being captured by the human army and used as mounts, they, the Centaurs, moved here with the remaining members of their tribe.

The one-time teleportation array that Li Changshou saw was also set up by them.

After chatting with the old man, Li Changshou suddenly discovered that the earth seemed different from what he had imagined.

Those ancient emperors seemed to have left the earth along the ancient starry road.

Is there some secret hidden behind this?
(End of this chapter)