The sky above the shattered obelisk burned like a fresh wound.Three pillars of incandescent crimson light shot into the bruised violet clouds, projecting the jagged characters of [SOVEREIGN: LOWER REALM] across a radius of eighty leagues. In the ash wastes, that light was not a banner of honor; it was a feast-fire lit in the middle of a wolf den.The first to breach the perimeter came from the northwest.SCREEECH!A piercing, metallic shriek split the sulfurous air as a two-headed Blood-Falcon, with a wingspan of forty paces and plumage like jagged iron scales, tore through the low-hanging clouds. Atop its broad back stood seven youths draped in bronze scale-mail, their chests bearing the sun-and-talon crest of the Great Roc Divine Dynasty—a dominant empire of the Central mortal planes."Three plaques in one nest!" the lead youth shouted, his voice ringing with Second Layer Earth Origin qi. Across his back hung a pair of jagged bron

The curtain of green corpse-fire fell toward the crater floor like a collapsing emerald cage.Beneath that falling ceiling of necrotic grease, the air turned so foul that the four Heavenly Sword disciples choked, their silver sword-shields warping under the acidic drizzle. Ling Tian’s knuckles bled where his fingers gripped his sword-seal, his Third Layer Earth Origin qi screaming as he prepared to burn his vital essence to shear an opening through the wall of flame.Then Lu Chen stepped forward.He did not plant his feet like a warrior bracing against an avalanche. His white scholar’s slippers moved across the blackened dust with unhurried ease, his posture upright and tranquil, as if he were walking beneath a trellis of blooming wisteria after an evening rain.In his right hand, the green willow branch lifted.It was a motion of absurd simplicity. A single upward flick of the wrist, guiding the slender wood along a rising diagonal

The ash plains ended at the edge of an abyssal rift.Before them, the earth had been torn open by some ancient cataclysm, leaving jagged obsidian cliffs that plunged thousands of feet into a churning ocean of crimson mist. Above the gorge, colossal petrified bones—rib cages large enough to bridge chasms and femurs thicker than fortress bastions—protruded from the stone. Among them stood colossal rusted weapons: halberds with crescent blades as wide as city gates, broken swords thrust into mountain spines, and severed spear-shafts still humming with the dying embers of divine intent.This was the outer rim of the Valley of Fallen Gods.Even ten miles away, the pressure was suffocating. The remnant wills of ancient entities hung in the air like leaden vapor, pressing down upon every cultivator’s spiritual sea. A mortal stepping onto this precipice would have had their heart crushed within two breaths. Even ordinary Qi Condensation cultivators found thei

The descent into the Valley of Fallen Gods felt like wading into the gullet of an ancient beast.Beyond the Gate of Broken Halberds, the trail narrowed to a winding ledge carved into sheer basalt. The crimson mist was thick as curdled blood, clinging to skin and fabric with an oily dampness that smelled faintly of scorched copper and old tombs. Gravity itself felt distorted—pulling downward and inward, dragging every stray pebble and drop of moisture toward the valley’s unseen center.Above their heads, petrified ribs arched across the sky, blotting out the light of the Barren Heavens. Between those titanic bones, colossal chains of blackened iron hung slack, each link coated in dried sacrificial residue."The chains," Chu Qingxuan said, stepping lightly across a fissure where dark vapor seeped. Her boots left crisp geometric patterns of white frost on the stone. "They carry an inscription.""Chain-Binding Soul-Forging," Lu Chen replied. He held the Chain-Suppression Talisman lightly

The blade of black corpse-fire descended like the verdict of a dead heaven.Three hundred feet of screaming flame sheared through the crimson mist, splitting the terrace's stone floor in a smoking trench. Where it passed, the basalt did not merely melt; it burned without ash, its very substance devoured. The freed captives scrambled behind the cliff overhang, and the air itself seemed to shrivel in the flame's wake.Lu Chen did not move.He stood beneath the falling fire with his willow branch lowered, his right arm resting peacefully inside his dark robe, and read the descending blade the way an elder reads a line known by heart.Corpse-fire was not true fire. It was resentful combustion—flame given hunger by the deaths of those it consumed. It burned matter, Qi, and soul alike, defying water, frost, and earth. That was why the central dynasties feared it, and why the Warden's executioners had never met a victim who did not simply stand and