Legend of Zixia

Chapter 258 Entering the Purple Mountain

"Why have you been gone for so long? Where have you been!" The Black Emperor chatted with Zixia as he led the way, his tail swishing loudly. "I thought you'd been swallowed by some old monster! I was heartbroken for quite a while!"

Zixia chuckled: "We went to another star system."

"What?!" Black Emperor abruptly stopped in his tracks, his ears perked up, and his eyes widened like saucers. "Another... star field? Do you think you're some reincarnated emperor? You talk like you're just going to buy a pancake from the neighbor's!"

"Be careful, even the God-King was trapped and almost died from exhaustion!" Zixia didn't answer, but only slightly raised the corner of her lips to change the subject.
"Don't worry, I'm absolutely confident this time. With my familiarity with this place, I can move around like I'm in an empty field!" For some reason, the big black dog suddenly became more confident and said, "Follow me."

After circling several times, Black Emperor paced back and forth around the outer edge of Purple Mountain, sniffing intensely, making hand gestures with its paws, and constantly sweeping away dust with its tail to examine the earth's vein patterns. It muttered to itself while its dog eyes darted to the sky, seemingly assessing the terrain, and suddenly it pointed with its paw—

"This is it! This dragon vein!"

Before the words were even finished, it suddenly froze, leaned closer to examine the direction of the ley line, and immediately bristled: "Damn! This is the path Ye Fan crawled through back then!"

It slapped its forehead hard, "The way out has become a dead end!"

It shook its head, no longer troubled, and turned around to pull out a crystal-clear tortoise shell from under its belly (hidden somewhere, I don't know), its entire body flowing with ancient Taoist charm, with faintly visible stars rising and falling, and yin and yang rotating.

"Original Heaven Divine Armor, borrow my life to ask for directions!" The Black Emperor chanted incantations, tossing his forepaw. The tortoise shell landed with a crackling sound, rolling around on the ground. Each time it rolled, it revealed a streak of light, eventually settling on a dragon vein in the southeast direction.

Let's move forward.

"Have we arrived in the cosmos? It seems like a star field." Zixia wondered. He couldn't help but think that outside the Ziwei Bajing Palace, there was a star field leading to the ancient star road.

This dragon vein was very difficult to traverse; they didn't know how many array patterns they had to break through, passing through one perilous place after another, until they reached its end.

This is a dazzling starry sky; if you step inside, you will get lost and have no way to pass through, and you will not understand why.

Could it be that this dragon vein is also like this, with its end leading into the star field?
“This isn’t a true star field, but it’s close enough. It’s probably a miniature star field that the Great Emperor Wushi casually refined,” Gouzi said.

“If it’s not a true star field, there must be flaws to be found.” Zixia stood at the edge of the star sea, her eyes calm. “Since the Great Emperor Wushi left a way out in the first few dragon veins, this place—must not be a dead end either.”

Before she finished speaking, the divine purple-gold scroll in her hand slowly unfurled, its purple light illuminating the space between reality and illusion. Within the painting, galaxies swirled, and the positions of the stars appeared one by one. She was using Origin Technique to deduce the structural laws of this miniature universe.

The Black Emperor squatted to one side, scratching his head with his paws, looking utterly bitter and resentful: "Let me think... let me think... I used to follow the Great Emperor around! Every move he made was imbued with divine secrets..."

It closed its eyes and tried to recall every fragment of memory from ten thousand years ago—those few words, those casual steps, even the Daoist aura fluctuations when the Great Emperor coughed…

Suddenly, its eyes snapped open, and it slapped its forehead: "That's it! Spatial node!"

This miniature universe is far more bizarre than imagined. The deeper one ventures, the more time seems to distort—sometimes a day feels like an instant, other times a moment feels like a thousand years; one's sense of direction completely collapses, everything around becomes an illusion, and the positions of the stars constantly shift.

Several days later, they were completely lost.

boom!
Without warning, the void ahead collapsed, and a pitch-black hole, as black as ink, suddenly appeared, shaped like a gigantic maw, devouring everything. It uttered no sound, yet it was more terrifying than thunder; it blazed without flame, yet it was more horrifying than a world-destroying inferno. Space crumbled inch by inch at its edges, and the laws were crushed into nothingness, as if it were the end of the universe.

An irresistible gravitational force suddenly struck, tearing at their souls and pulling at their bodies. Before they could react, they were instantly swept into the depths of the black hole, disappearing into the vast sea of ​​stars without a trace.

"Protect yourselves!" Black Emperor roared amidst the raging turbulence, his voice almost annihilated. "It's this black hole! Only by passing through it can we truly pass through this star field! This is the only 'door'!" But what is a star field black hole? It devours everything and destroys everything. Perhaps only a saint's physical body can withstand it; others simply cannot withstand such annihilation.

Even as the number one dog under the command of Wushi, an old dog who has lived for ten thousand years, "Save me!" cannot withstand this level of crushing power!

At this moment, Zixia's terrifying power was truly revealed. A divine purple-gold scroll hung high above her head, its purple light descending and enveloping her and the Black Emperor. On the scroll, the "spatial Dao patterns" and "fate runes" that had been engraved beforehand lit up simultaneously, forming a barrier.

Immediately afterwards, she raised her hand and unleashed the first of the three strikes—Slaying the Universe—with fierce force!
"Qiang——!"

That single strike cleaved a path, severing the black hole's devouring power, and forcefully carved out a temporary spatial passage in the endless void, like a floating bridge across an insurmountable chasm!
She grabbed the dying Black Emperor, stepped on the flashing blades, went against the current, and passed through the black hole!
The two fell heavily to the ground, covered in dust and breathing erratically.

When Zixia slowly opened her eyes, what came into view was a deep and enormous purple mountain.

The light was dim, and the air was filled with an ancient atmosphere. Jade palaces and pavilions stood silently, their carved beams and painted rafters covered with thick dust, as if they had been asleep for millions of years. Ancient stone paths meandered outwards, leading to caves and altars in all directions, each door seemingly concealing an unspeakable secret.

They succeeded.

We have now truly entered the interior of Zishan Mountain.

Not far ahead, a magnificent platform stood towering a thousand feet high, its entire structure made of unknown black divine jade. Mist swirled around it, like a coiled dragon, exuding a mysterious and terrifying aura.

In the dim light, one could see a tall figure sitting cross-legged atop the platform.

His back was to the heavens and earth, his outline blurred, yet he exuded a chilling aura of power—

It was as if simply existing here was enough to make all spirits submit and the heavens tremble.

"Run! The old zombie has woken up!"

Black Emperor bristled instantly, his tail standing erect, and he turned and charged, cursing as he ran: "Damn it! What bad luck! It's actually a sleeping ancient ancestral king! I thought this place was finally peaceful! This time I'm in big trouble!"

Zixia did not retreat immediately. She narrowed her eyes, her divine sense piercing through the mist, and finally saw the true face of the figure.

It was an ancient being, aged to the extreme, in human form, yet not human in appearance. It possessed twenty-four pairs of wings, and its skin was wrinkled, piled up, and bumpy, making it appear as if it were about to pass away.

He was very tall, sitting cross-legged on the platform, his back ramrod straight, his eyes were frightening and even creepy, staring intently at them.

This is an ancient being, aged beyond recognition, with all its hair gone, yet it is incredibly malevolent, like an ancient demon god, exuding a strong murderous aura.

Suddenly, a deep demonic howl rang out, and the aged ancient being on the platform pounced over, attacking mercilessly with a devastating attack. The overwhelming aura of a saint surged and roared like a star field transformed into an ocean.

The pressure was unimaginable!

The power of an ancient king—who below the level of a sage can rival him?

Black Emperor roared, his soul almost leaving his body. A single drop of a saint's blood essence could kill a powerful being. If they attacked like this, even tens of thousands of dogs wouldn't be enough to kill them!

(End of this chapter)