Covering the Heavens: Starting from the First Great Emperor

Chapter 100 The Dead
Even cultivators, when they are close at hand, cannot see each other's faces clearly, and can only barely make out their general outlines.

"The ruins are strange. After midnight, a thick fog covers the ruins. Although it prevents some unknown dangers, for some reason, everyone becomes sleepy and cannot resist it, and they all fall into a deep sleep."

Fu Ling yawned, and before she could finish speaking, she collapsed to the ground and quickly fell into a deep sleep.

Without exception, everyone else succumbed to the urge and collapsed to sleep, seemingly already accustomed to this bizarre phenomenon.

Xu Yuanming was filled with dread. For some reason, his supernatural senses were automatically triggered, and a strong sense of foreboding sent chills down his spine, instantly spreading goosebumps all over his body.

He immediately activated the "Destiny Sutra" in an attempt to combat the intense drowsiness and icy chill.

However, half an hour later, a chill ran down Xu Yuanming's spine.

He looked around and found that everyone around him, all the extraordinary beings in the entire ancient city ruins, had fallen into a deathly silence—there was no sound.

The hearts of all living beings cease to beat, their primordial spirits are completely extinguished, and all vital signs disappear.

They...are all dead!

Among them were beings from the Supreme Realm, but they all died without anyone noticing.

Xu Yuanming was shocked. He rushed to check and confirmed that it was not an illusion—these people were really all dead, without a trace of life left behind.

The thick fog seemed to block out all divine senses. Even extraordinary individuals, except for those with spiritual insight, would find it difficult to see their surroundings clearly under such conditions.

Those people seemed to have simply fallen into a deep sleep, but in reality, they had already lost their lives.

Another half hour passed, and Xu Yuanming's supernatural senses became even more acute, making him feel that this place was increasingly eerie.

However, the area at the edge of the fog, outside the ruins, seemed even more unusual.

Pairs of eyes pierced the darkness, gleaming with a cold, eerie light, before gradually fading into the distance.

Soon, Xu Yuanming smelled a nauseating stench of decay. He looked down and saw that the bodies of those lying on the ground had begun to rot in such a short time.

These people are at least at the Sendai level of cultivators, and some are even at the saint level.

He could be considered a minor expert in the myriad realms, his lifelike appearance filling him with fear.

This ancient city, these ruins, are permeated with a suffocating sense of oppression. People who were laughing and talking with him not long ago are now dead, their bodies rapidly decaying.

Xu Yuanming circulated his primordial spirit, silently reciting scriptures, striving to remain conscious. He recalled the spirit he displayed when confronting the True Saint's Blood of the Dead Ridge, and focused all his efforts on fighting against this eerie fog.

Fortunately, he himself did not suffer any accidents.

In the latter half of the night, the situation worsened. He discovered that everyone was rotting beyond recognition, with some bodies even revealing their bare bones.

The stench of decay permeated the entire city, suffocating everyone.

"Is this the strange phenomenon formed after the deaths of several powerful figures?" Xu Yuanming's heart was heavy.

Here, annihilation is commonplace, with entire cities dying tragically.

Before dawn, the thick fog gradually dissipated. Then, at the break of day, as the first rays of dawn pierced the horizon and the sun slowly rose, the trees covering the mountains and fields began to sway.

They greet the brilliant sunrise, bursting forth with fragrance. Crystal-clear petals dance in the air, like a dreamlike rain of blossoms.

Xu Yuanming suddenly remembered that Fu Ling had once said that the ruins were beautiful, and that divine flowers would flutter everywhere in the morning glow.

At the time, he was still wondering if it was just a hallucination. However, at this moment, he finally understood that Fu Ling's words had come true.

With golden sunrise illuminating the horizon, the ruins appeared exceptionally radiant and beautiful.

The petals, carrying a faint fragrance, drifted across the ruins, as if adding a touch of life to this land of death.

"Huh?" Xu Yuanming's pupils suddenly contracted, and a look of horror instantly appeared on his face, illuminated by the morning glow and amidst the falling petals.

At this moment, the already rotten human bodies on the ground began to tremble slightly.

He stared wide-eyed at the corpses in disbelief—their hearts began to beat again, their rotting skin rapidly regenerating, regaining its vitality and luster.

As the sun rose higher, the nauseating stench of decay gradually dissipated.

The moment the first ray of sunlight pierced through the mist and leaped completely above the horizon, everyone miraculously came back to life and slowly opened their eyes.

Xu Yuanming's back was instantly soaked with cold sweat, and a chill ran through him. Were these still the same people?

They were clearly dead, yet they awoke in this bizarre scene. Were they monsters?

As day turns to night, do they always experience this cycle of life and death? What kind of people does he belong to?

"Fellow Daoist Destiny, did you sleep well?" Fu Ling's voice rang in my ears, his tone still gentle, with a familiar smile on his face.

"Not bad," Xu Yuanming replied with a forced smile, but his voice trembled slightly, and a chill ran down his spine like a tidal wave.

These people were clearly dead, but when they woke up, their words and actions remained perfectly normal, as if nothing had ever happened.

At Outpost 1, everyone was already dead, yet no one knew it.

Xu Yuanming turned and left, glancing back one last time. Upon closer examination, it's a chilling story.

These people are dead, but life goes on "as usual" without their knowledge, repeating the daily routines that should belong to the living, yet unable to escape that terrible vicious cycle.

It must be that this place is special, like stepping into hell.

"Is this due to the fall of a giant? Even if one doesn't look at the sky, they will still die, or is there something wrong with the fog in the ruins?" Xu Yuanming walked away, filled with doubt.

He unfolded the map and followed the paths opened up by the various "advance teams".

However, as he walked, Xu Yuanming's brows furrowed tightly again.

Is this really safe? Everything you see consists of people who are already dead, and their experiences have proven to be the source of the problem.

Following the path of the dead, will one's final destination also be that of the dead?
The jungle is dense and teeming with diverse species. Snow-white, fluffy mutant Relic Cats, brightly colored five-colored Fairy Birds, and various small animals and monsters roam the mountains and plains from time to time.

During the day, the ruins appeared so normal, with everything thriving and full of life.

Xu Yuanming stopped and asked Fu Ling, "Why is it like that here? Are there no living people left in the ruins? How did this happen?"

Fu Ling remained silent for a moment, and even he showed such an expression, which startled Xu Yuanming—was this an extremely serious and terrifying topic? "There are two answers, which one do you want to hear?" he finally said.

“I want to hear them all.”

Xu Yuanming said in a deep voice.

He followed the path cleared by the advance team, traversing a vast plateau, using his ability to shrink the distance between land and land, moving like lightning at an extremely fast speed.

At this time, Xu Yuanming had already approached other nearby strongholds.

Fu Ling's voice rang in my ears: "One answer is acceptable to the extraordinary ones—there are indeed problems in some areas of the ruins. After all, the death of a Celestial King is a major event in all the heavens, let alone the deaths of multiple giants..."

He did not elaborate further.

Xu Yuanming was taken aback. Was there another answer that even extraordinary people couldn't accept?

Instantly, a host of terrifying and absurd associations flooded his mind.

Xu Yuanming had a vague premonition that Fu Ling's earlier silence probably involved some extremely heavy topic.

As expected, Fu Ling continued, "Another answer, one that the extraordinary world would never accept, and which could even be called 'toxic,' came after the strange entity re-invaded."

His words carried a hint of seriousness, as if he knew that if these words were to reach the outside world, they would cause a massive earthquake, enough to shake the very foundation of the entire mythical world.

He continued, "Those who fail to preserve their original physical bodies when they transcend tribulations to become immortals are actually dead. They only remain as remnant spirits, existing in fused with mythological elements."

Xu Yuanming's eyes widened instantly, staring at Fu Ling in disbelief. These words were undoubtedly a complete subversion of the established theories of the extraordinary world.

Fu Ling slowly said, "This ruin involves the rules of life and death. There are immortal kings in the Heavenly Court who suspect that these giants are actually manifestations of the Dao of a supreme being, which can make the true form of everything involving life and death manifest."

"Those physical bodies reconstituted by mythological factors will decay when they perish under the impact of the rules of life and death, and their true spirit will dissipate. But when the extraordinary conditions improve, the mythological factors will recombine, and they will 'come back to life'."

Xu Yuanming was shocked, but not by the statements themselves—this wasn't the first time he'd heard similar speculations. What truly shocked him was...
Fu Ling also interpreted it that way. His perspective was unimaginably high, as if he were standing outside the myriad realms, looking down on everything.

This viewpoint is indeed "toxic." If it were to spread, 99% of the people in all the realms would go mad, especially those who have transcended tribulations to become immortals.

Their existence has been disproven, they are dead, and they will manifest themselves within the true rules of the ruins.

Fu Ling continued, "Those who possess original physical bodies are still alive, and even in the ruins, they don't decay. So, the appearance of someone like you seems to confirm that some people are not real."

"Won't people who don't accept this 'toxic' viewpoint think I'm a public enemy?" Xu Yuanming asked self-deprecatingly.

"More or less." Fu Ling said calmly, as if stating a very simple fact.

"You don't really interpret it that way, do you? All the immortals are dead?" Xu Yuanming asked in a low voice, his voice carrying a hint of unease that he could hardly hide.

"It's just a viewpoint, not a definitive conclusion," Fu Ling replied.

Xu Yuanming finally breathed a sigh of relief. Although he himself was unharmed, he had achieved immortality through his physical body.

There are many angles, paths, and viewpoints on the analysis of spiritual practice. The one I'm talking about is just an extreme and biased path. But if you study it in depth, it can indeed support a complete system.

At this point, Fu Ling added, "All things carry yin and embrace yang, and are not immutable; they can transform into one another. Just like those rotting people you see, they can revive and still believe they are alive. In fact, there are indeed ways to truly break free."

"How so?" Xu Yuanming pressed.

Fu Ling said, "After becoming a Celestial King, that is true revival and rebirth. No matter what your past was like, as long as a Celestial King comes to the real ruins and enters the special zone, under the supreme foundation of the rules of life and death, you will not rot and your vitality will still be strong."

Xu Yuanming nodded. He also felt that the earlier interpretation was indeed somewhat extreme, but it did have some merit.

Fu Ling continued, "The ruins of giants are real and special. Life and death, yin and yang, the richness and decay of mythological factors can all be found here."

Xu Yuanming pondered for a moment and said, "In the myriad worlds, there are worlds rising and falling, brilliance and prosperity and cold winter and darkness every moment, in an endless cycle. The day and night of the ruins also have certain essential shadows."

Then he asked, "Is there any hope for those people at the outpost?"

“Essentially, they entered the problematic zone and are indeed dead. Now they're trapped in a vicious cycle, and it's up to them to deal with… the fragments of rules governing the afterlife of those bizarre giants,” Fu Ling replied.

"Fragments of rules? This area is so strange and terrifying, it's all related to it?" Xu Yuanming was taken aback.

"Hmm," Fu Ling uttered only one word.

"Can I find it?" Xu Yuanming muttered to himself.

“Perhaps someone has already beaten us to it,” Fu Ling said, a hint of regret in his voice.

Before long, the two arrived at a nearby stronghold, which was still a fairly large ruin.

They stayed overnight at the outpost, only to find that the same problem was repeating itself.

The terrifying spectacle that followed the fall of the giants reappeared: the two supreme beings rapidly dissolved under the true blood dripping from the giant's eyes, a truly horrifying scene.

Being in this area of ​​the ruins, it seems impossible to escape this strange sight; every night one must endure this torment.

Moreover, in this ruin, everyone rots and dies in the latter half of the night, and the situation becomes complicated in the early morning.

Xu Yuanming's mood grew increasingly heavy.

After sunrise, he tried to find out if the people at the Secluded True Saint Dojo had also been infected, but found that none of them had.

He was told by a great sage that the advance team from beyond the world had already scouted ahead, leaving no one behind.

Afterwards, Xu Yuanming went to all the surrounding strongholds and personally experienced them all.

The situations here are exactly the same; they all face the same problem: there isn't a single living person.

"There's a situation!"

Suddenly, Xu Yuanming's Heavenly Eye opened, and he proceeded along the path marked on the map, temporarily avoiding venturing into unknown territory—because it was far too dangerous.

"Strange object!"

During his exploration, the lines of destiny flowed in his eyes, and he keenly sensed an unusual phenomenon beneath a mountain not far away.

Xu Yuanming discovered that yin and yang energies were rising from beneath the soil. He walked over, and the moment he dug through the mountain, black and white light shot into the sky.

(End of this chapter)