Chapter 158: Magic Rune Records (Flashback)

Damn it, this cave is incredible! Skeletons are scattered everywhere, and some of them are even fixed to crosses. It looks like these people were nailed to death alive!

The lighting at the bottom of the cave is rather poor, but one can faintly make out that some of these skeletons are emitting a strange, ghostly glow.

The eerie light illuminates the bottom of the cave like hell, yet each skeleton pinned to a cross exudes an aura of profound peace.

Right on the stone walls behind those skeletons, one might inadvertently spot a few demonic inscriptions not yet buried by dust—to be precise, the written language of the Demon race!

There are many small caves of various sizes within this cavern, and no one knows where each of them leads. Even the old village chief has long forgotten the first cave he entered a thousand years ago.

Later, Barks and I discovered that all the areas with skeletons were relatively flat, while the rest were uneven and undulating like hills. It seemed these people had been moved here only after death.

However, if they were ordinary mortals, their skeletons could never possibly glow. This indicated that the owners of those glowing skeletons were certainly no ordinary beings, and quite possibly deities!

Yet, just who possessed such terrifying might to dare butcher gods in such a manner, allowing them to perish with zero dignity?

Gazing at the demonic inscriptions on the stone wall, I figured this must be the work of a single individual. As for the culprit, it was very likely the Ancestor of Demons, Chen Zu, who had broken through the Six Paths just a few million years ago!

"Swish, swish, swish!"

I pulled a specialized archaeological brush from my backpack and swept away the dust on the walls. The sound of the brush frictioning against the stone wall echoed throughout the entire cave for a long time before finally fading!

As the dust gradually dissipated and all the demonic inscriptions on the stone wall came into full view before my eyes!

I felt my heart skip a violent beat, and my mind kept repeating to myself: "I actually recognize these powerful, vigorous demonic inscriptions! How, how is this possible!!"

The characters formed by the demonic inscriptions surged rapidly into my mind, and I felt as though the scenes from a million years ago were unfolding before my eyes once again!

There were two factions confronting each other in mid-air. One consisted of the Demon Ancestor, shrouded in billowing demonic energy, followed by several robust and courageous Demon Emperors!

The other consisted of a man in white clothes enveloped in immortal mist, accompanied by ten battle-armored Divine Emperors and several formidable Divine Monarchs, locked in an intense standoff in the skies above this very place!

According to the records of the demonic inscriptions, this was the final battle on the verge of the Demon race's annihilation, led personally in a punitive expedition by the true deity of the Lord of the Six Paths!

Right here, a heaven-shattering, earth-shattering war of gods and demons erupted between him and the Demon Ancestor alongside his remaining forces.

Perhaps this battle did not boast the largest numbers—the two sides combined totaled no more than thirty-odd people—yet it was the most fierce and brutal decisive battle since the inception of the War of Gods and Demons!

The strength of the two factions was vastly disproportionate to begin with. The Demon race's martial experts at the Demon Monarch realm had all perished in previous wars of gods and demons, whereas the Divine race's Divine Monarch experts continued to emerge endlessly.

The reason was that the Divine Realm's divine ascension cultivation program had been meticulously plotted long ago. Divine Monarch experts could be mass-produced endlessly using celestial pills; although their quality was comparatively inferior, a single Demon Monarch could still hold his own against two Demon Emperors.

Once the battle commenced, the Demon Emperors fell one after another. Before their demonic souls even had time to leave their physical bodies, they were incinerated by divine fire, their souls scattering and bodies turning to ash, never to transcend!

Until only the Demon Ancestor himself remained in the fight. At that time, wielding the realm of the Six Paths Demon Lord, he single-handedly crushed four Divine Emperors who had murdered the Demon Emperors with his bare hand, and then advanced all the way, brandishing his demonic blade toward the Immortal Lord of the Six Paths.

Leaving behind a fierce declaration between heaven and earth: "Ask the vast and boundless earth, who commands the rise and fall? Only I, the Demon Ancestor!"

Shortly thereafter, heaven and earth suffered some inexplicable fit; winds and clouds churned drastically, and the Demon Ancestor was enveloped by a dark power descending from the heavens, his strength soaring to perfection in a split second!

Then, breaking through the realm of the Six Paths Demon Lord, he fortuitously attained the ethereal realm that transcends the Six Paths, becoming the very first person in the ethereal realm, shaking off the shackles of heaven and earth, transcending the Six Paths of the Cosmos, and remaining unbound by the Five Elements. In that realm, there was only a single law: "He who submits prospers, he who resists perishes!"

In this final battle, the Demon race was truly battered and battered by the Divine race's onslaught. After his breakthrough, the Demon Ancestor basically slaughtered all the Divine Monarch experts of the Divine Realm.

He beat the Immortal Lord of the Six Paths, the Jade Emperor, into critical condition, and then shattered the divine alchemy artifact used to manufacture Divine Emperors with a single kick!

Finally, he laid down a barrier within this demonic cave connecting the remnants of the Demon race, utilizing the power of the bones of all the Divine Emperors to operate the grand hidden array of gods and demons deployed a million years ago, completely severing the remaining Demon forces from the outside world and making it impossible for the Divine race to ever find the descendants of the Demon race again.

After accomplishing all this, the Demon Ancestor channeled the purest dark demonic power of heaven and earth to repair the demonic roots within the barrier, ensuring that the Demon race would not decay over a million years, but instead grow stronger day by day!

...

Following the guidance of the demonic inscriptions, I gradually and clearly comprehended certain principles—specifically, the Eight Trigrams among the Five Elements and Yin and Yang of heaven and earth!

The Eight Trigrams are also commonly known as Taiji. Extreme yang gives rise to yin, and extreme yin gives rise to yang. The powers of darkness and light are likewise the same: black represents yin, and light represents yang!

Only through mutual equilibrium within heaven and earth did the holy spirits of the Divine and Demon races, which transcend all living creatures, come into being. To break free from the shackles of this natural universe, one must transcend the Six Paths, surpass the Five Elements, reach the ethereal realm, and forge one's own unique laws.

How distant the ethereal realm truly is! How could an ordinary person ever attain such a state? Across the entire world, probably only the Demon Ancestor had ever reached it.

However, everything the Demon Ancestor left behind thereafter were merely avatars. As for where his true body went, no one knows; even the Immortal Lord of the Six Paths could not fathom the whereabouts of the Demon Ancestor!

"What is happening? Why is my head spinning a little?" No sooner had I spoken than I nearly collapsed, saved only by Barks, who caught me from behind, preventing me from crashing onto the pebble-strewn ground.

"Oh man, it's happening again! That scene which so often appeared in my dreams has surfaced once more. Everything has become much clearer than before; the general outlines of people can roughly be made out. But what on earth is going on? Why must I sink into memories of the past at a time like this? No, I mustn't!"

"Ugh, argh!"

I shook my head desperately, trying to drive that vision out of my mind, but my head felt as though it were about to split open with pain. Although Barks kept shouting at me, I simply could not hear a single word he was saying!

This episode lasted for about half an hour, delaying everyone for over thirty minutes, yet none of them harbored any resentment toward me. Instead, they carried me into a temporarily erected tent, bringing me water and keeping watch over me.

Even that mysterious young master of prominent birth had come inside to check on me, and though he merely spoke a few words to me and patted my shoulder before walking out of the tent.

Still, I felt that everyone possessed a strong team spirit and genuinely cared about their teammates, which was completely different from any team I had ever encountered before!