Primordial Era: A man at the mouth of the Guanjiang River marries the Third Holy Mother.

I don't know how much time passed.

Chen Changsheng landed after his thirty-seventh spatial jump, having already consumed nearly forty percent of his magical power.

The golden roadmap in my mind is gradually fading, leaving only the last segment.

Ahead, the chaotic grayness is fading away.

Instead, something he had never seen before in the chaotic void appeared—light.

Sea surface.

It really is the sea.

The moment Chen Changsheng stepped out of the chaotic rift, he found himself standing on solid water.

It was not an illusory object formed from spiritual energy, but real seawater, carrying a salty and damp scent, spreading out endlessly.

He hovered above the sea, looking around.

Empty and desolate.

There are no islands, no sacred mountains, no legendary landscapes teeming with innate spiritual roots. Only this eerie sea is eerily quiet.

There were no sun, moon, or stars overhead; the sky was a strange mix of chaos and azure, like the boundary between the primordial world and the chaotic void.

"arrive?"

Chen Changsheng frowned.

The golden path in my mind has completely vanished; all guidance has come to an abrupt end here.

This is the outer perimeter of Penglai Immortal Island, the endpoint deduced by Emperor Fuxi based on the fate of the human race.

"Screw you, 'outer circle'..."

Chen Changsheng muttered a curse under his breath.

Looking around, there was nothing within a radius of tens of millions of miles. Where was Penglai Island? Underground? Or hidden in some dimension he couldn't see?

Fuxi said that he could only deduce the outer reaches of Penglai; as for how to find the real Penglai, that was up to him.

Row.

Chen Changsheng took a deep breath, circulated his magical power, and the Eye of Heavenly Punishment suddenly opened.

Golden vertical pupils appeared between his brows, and his thunderous eyes, piercing through all illusions, swept across the surroundings.

Under ordinary divine sense probing, this sea area was indeed empty.

But the Eye of Divine Punishment is different.

It can see through cause and effect, discern sins, and even capture the deliberately concealed trajectory of fate.

The golden vertical pupils slowly rotated, scanning the sea area inch by inch, from the microscopic to the macroscopic.

There was nothing there.

Chen Changsheng's heart sank.

Are we going to use a treasure-digging shovel? But this vast ocean, we can't just dig it down shovel by shovel, can we?

Just as he was about to try again from a different direction.

The Eye of Heavenly Punishment suddenly twitched.

Chen Changsheng's hair stood on end.

Directly to his north, about three million miles away, the Eye of Heavenly Punishment spotted a... enormous thing.

The aura emanating from that thing was absurdly strong.

To put it another way, it's like walking into an empty house and suddenly finding an elephant crouching in the corner, something you hadn't noticed before.

It's not hidden; it's right there.

However, all conventional means of perception, whether it is divine sense, aura detection, or magic power scanning, will automatically bypass it, as if it does not exist in this space at all.

Only the Eye of Heavenly Punishment can detect its existence.

"That's it!"

Chen Changsheng withdrew the Eye of Heavenly Punishment and shot out, flying rapidly in that direction.

For him, a late-stage Hunyuan Golden Immortal, the distance of three million li was merely a matter of a few breaths.

When he stopped, all he could see was a vast, empty sea.

But Chen Changsheng activated the Eye of Heavenly Punishment again, and that enormous aura was right beneath his feet—to be precise, three zhang in front of him.

There's a trick to it.

He stretched out his hand and reached into the void ahead.

What did my fingertips touch?

It wasn't air, but a thin, membrane-like barrier. The moment a finger pressed against it, the barrier indented itself, like a highly elastic water curtain.

Chen Changsheng's heart burned with excitement; this must be the world barrier of Penglai Immortal Island!

However, the barrier's behavior was completely different from what he had imagined. There were no terrifying restrictive formations, no surging killing power; its reaction was more like…

I'm testing him.

who cares!

Without hesitation, Chen Changsheng unleashed his full magical power to protect himself and stepped inside.

"puff!"

It was like passing through a film of water; the scene before me changed dramatically in an instant.

The sea has disappeared.

Instead, it is—

A shattered continent.

Chen Changsheng hovered in mid-air, looking down, and felt a chill run down his spine.

This is not some kind of fairyland.

The earth beneath my feet was riddled with holes, mountains were fractured, rivers had dried up, and everywhere there were collapsed ruins and scorched earth. The sky was shrouded in a layer of dark red mist, and the air was filled with an aura of decay and death.

This place is more like a... dead realm, destroyed by some force.

"What's going on?"

Chen Changsheng was stunned.

Where is the promised Penglai Immortal Island? Where are the promised places teeming with innate spiritual roots? Where are the promised auspicious energy fields?

This place is so shabby, it's not even fit to be a burial ground, let alone a wedding room!

Before he could figure out what was going on...

"I—hate—it!!!"

A sound suddenly exploded from the sky!

The sound didn't come from any one direction; it surged in from all directions simultaneously, causing the entire shattered earth to tremble violently. The layer of dark red mist in the sky was dispersed, revealing an even deeper darkness behind it.

The void beneath Chen Changsheng's feet was shaking. He lost his balance and fell dozens of feet before regaining his footing.

"Holy crap..."

What's going on?

The emotion carried in that voice stung Chen Changsheng's very soul. It wasn't anger, nor sadness, but a hatred so intense it almost solidified.

It was even purer and more extreme than the murderous aura of the Demon Ancestor Rahu.

who is it?

The moment this thought flashed through Chen Changsheng's mind, he felt a sudden increase in pressure on his head.

He looked up sharply.

At that moment, his pupils suddenly contracted.

In the sky, dark red mist surged, and a huge outline was emerging from it.

Its outline was so vast that it exceeded the limits of comprehension. A single foot spanned hundreds of thousands of miles in circumference. Its entire form almost filled the dome of this shattered world, giving Chen Changsheng the illusion of facing the very essence of the Heavenly Dao.

But it is not a physical entity.

Chen Changsheng's Eye of Heavenly Punishment immediately made a judgment—this was a soul body.

An incomparably vast and ancient soul.

It had no clear face, and its body was wrapped in countless fragments of dark gold chains, exuding an ancient and unchanging aura of resentment.

"Foreign... beings..."

The enormous soul slowly lowered its head.

Two dim lights shone on its "face"—its eyes. When those eyes fell on Chen Changsheng, the surrounding temperature seemed to drop to absolute zero.

"die."

There is only one word.

As soon as he finished speaking, the giant of souls raised one hand.

He turned his palm down and aimed it at Chen Changsheng.

boom--

An overwhelming pressure poured down at that moment!

Chen Changsheng reacted with lightning speed. He didn't even have time to think about what that thing was; his survival instincts allowed him to make a judgment in a fraction of a breath.