Chapter 9

Chapter 9: Zhu Feng, What a Tragedy

What kind of terrifying battle could destroy an entire realm?

Driven by curiosity, Chen Ansheng continued his exploration.

After another day, Chen Ansheng had visited many relics with unique auras.

He initially hoped to find some treasures left behind, but there was nothing; everything had turned to dust, long weathered away.

However, he did discover quite a few remnants of written messages.

Most were fragments of cultivation techniques from this realm, while others recorded historical biographies.

Having gathered enough scraps of information, Chen Ansheng began to understand the situation.

The destruction of this realm was related to a Demon Cultivator named Zhu Feng. It was said that this person had an unclear background, exuding a terrifying demonic aura upon appearance, unmatched even by the world’s strongest Immortal Sovereign from the Ninth Rank.

“Stronger than the Ninth Rank? That seems unlikely.”

Chen Ansheng felt puzzled.

Logically speaking, there shouldn’t be any cultivator stronger than the Ninth Rank in the cultivation world.

Unless… the Immortal Emperor personally arrived!

“It certainly can’t be the Immortal Emperor. If it were, a mere thought could destroy an entire realm. It wouldn’t be such a fierce battle.”

This made Chen Ansheng even more curious.

“Could it be that the so-called Demon Cultivator came from another realm?”

Chen Ansheng considered this possibility.

“Perhaps the Trans-realm Stones aren’t unique to me!”

He rationalized this thought, convinced that he did not have exclusive favor from the heavens.

If he could find Trans-realm Stones while mining, why couldn’t countless beings in the Immortal Realm have the luck to acquire them as well?

“Keep searching!”

To unravel this mystery, Chen Ansheng continued his exploration.

A few hours later, he arrived at a gigantic pit spanning a thousand miles.

The bones here were not petrified; instead, they were smooth and glossy like jade.

Chen Ansheng assessed that each skeleton in this area was at least at the Eighth or Ninth Rank.

And there were tens of thousands of such skeletons!

This left Chen Ansheng extremely shocked!

This had once been merely a cultivation plane; how could it possibly give birth to tens of thousands of Eighth and Ninth Rank beings?

“What a pity these Immortal weapons are all destroyed.”

Looking at the scattered remnants of Immortal weapons on the ground, Chen Ansheng couldn’t help but feel a pang of heartache, a sense of loss.

However, although everything was ruined, some materials could still be reforged, and selling those should yield a small profit.

After quickly tidying up, Chen Ansheng stuffed all the slightly useful items into his storage bag.

In the center of the pit, he spotted a particular skeleton.

The skeleton was black as jade, and even after countless millennia of death, it still radiated a sinister aura.

If Chen Ansheng were an ordinary cultivator instead of in the Immortal Realm, he would likely be reduced to pus by this sinister energy.

“Dog thief Xuan Ku, if I were to be reincarnated, I would surely crush your bones to dust, hate, hate, hate!”

A line of blood-red characters caught Chen Ansheng’s eyes.

“What…? The ‘dog thief’ he’s referring to can’t be the Xuan Ku Emperor, right?”

Chen Ansheng was momentarily speechless.

The Immortal Realm was vast and boundless; in every major region, there existed Immortal Sovereigns, one of whom was the well-known Xuan Ku Emperor.

This Xuan Ku Emperor was a very young Immortal Emperor, said to have risen to power six thousand years ago, almost appearing out of nowhere, and no one knew his true origins.

If this guy bore a grudge against the Immortal Emperor, that would be terrifying!

“After all, he is just a corpse; there’s no need to be afraid.”

Chen Ansheng patted his chest and began searching for treasures.

After a round of searching, he found nothing useful.

This made him somewhat dissatisfied.

He had spent hours coming here—if he didn’t find Qing’er, it would be acceptable, but to leave empty-handed was truly a loss.

Frustrated, Chen Ansheng kicked the skeleton.

As the skeleton fell, he noticed a blood-colored pearl appear.

“Eh?”

Without a moment’s thought, Chen Ansheng reached out to grab it.

The moment his palm touched the pearl, he felt as though struck by lightning, his entire body stiffening.

Waves of blood surged, and he could not move, completely unable to escape as he watched the blood engulf him.

Before he could even think about regretting it, his surroundings transformed, and he found himself in an endless dark red space.

In front of him floated a tall, cold-faced Black-clad Man.

“You must be curious as to why someone as powerful as I am ended up in this cultivation realm, and why I died.”

A cold, emotionless voice echoed.

“No, you’re mistaken. I’m not curious.”

Chen Ansheng almost wet himself, frantically shaking his head.

But the cold young man ignored him, continuing, “You need not fear. If you weren’t the person I was waiting for, you would have turned to ashes the moment you touched the Blood Wish Pearl. To see me means you qualify to be my disciple.”

Chen Ansheng was baffled. Was he about to gain an opportunity?

But he was nothing, had done nothing, how could he possibly be the person this man had been waiting for? Was he trying to scare him?

“Don’t get too excited; being qualified doesn’t mean you will definitely become my disciple.”

Chen Ansheng was speechless. He wasn’t excited; he hadn’t felt excited at all!

“Before you become my disciple, let me first answer the first question: why I appeared in the cultivation realm and why I died.”

The young man spoke to himself, and the scene before Chen Ansheng changed.

Vivid images flashed before his eyes, filling his mind with information.

About a quarter of an hour later, the images stopped, and the young man reappeared.

Chen Ansheng felt burdened by a long and painful life, his mood utterly depressed.

This was his experience?

This person was named Zhu Feng, a descendant of an ancient celestial family from the Northern Immortal Realm, with parents who were both Immortal Emperors.

A true super rich second generation.

However, a catastrophe began when he was still in his mother’s womb.

He originally had a twin brother, but a scheming soul from an unknown number of years seized his place in the womb.

Even before birth, that entity began siphoning away his imperial essence, allowing him to nearly die in the womb.

After struggling to be born, Zhu Feng was left with decaying sores all over his body, paralyzed in bed and abandoned by his parents before the age of ten, while the Sixth Demon Emperor claimed everything that should have belonged to him and his brother.

Later, over the course of millennia, Zhu Feng endured much suffering, faced countless tribulations, and found opportunities in forbidden zones, eventually becoming an Immortal Sovereign.

That day, he broke out and intended to return for revenge with his fiancée, whom he met in the forbidden zone.

Little did he know, his fiancée had been scheming against him, using him for benefits from the forbidden zone for thousands of years.

Just as Zhu Feng was about to leave, she and her true partner joined forces to wound him, stripping him of his Immortal bones, extracting his Immortal veins, and after squeezing out all his remaining value, they cast him into the abyss.

Drifting in the abyss for hundreds of years, he endured unimaginable physical and spiritual torment, ultimately falling into darkness, ending up in this cultivation world.

Unfortunately, his celestial body had long since rotted, and his celestial power had dissipated; he needed to constantly devour Immortal spirits to maintain his life.

In the end, he clashed with tens of thousands of peak experts from this realm, and at the moment of his Immortal soul’s explosion, the world was destroyed, and everything perished.

“What a tragedy!”

Chen Ansheng’s head throbbed; Zhu Feng had forcibly crammed all his life’s painful experiences into Chen Ansheng’s mind.

That was over ten thousand years worth of hatred, loneliness, suffering, and resentment! A mere commoner from the Immortal Realm like Chen Ansheng could hardly bear it.

Chen Ansheng was on the verge of collapse, nearly teetering on the brink of death.