The Blood Sword howled, its speed rivalling the wrath of a caged thunder beast. In a breath, it plunged towards the earth. At the instant of its descent, a guttural roar echoed from the depths below.

The ground fissured and split, a spiderweb of cracks erupting outwards. From these rents, a violet light pulsed, swiftly permeating the air. From afar, it appeared as if a violet sun lay buried beneath the very soil!

With a thunderous crash, earth and stone erupted skyward, shattered by the Blood Sword’s power, carving a colossal, concave wound. The hollow burrowed deeper and deeper, until, with a final, blinding flash of purple, the earth seemed to break open, revealing a glimpse into the abyss below.

Wreathed in the violet glow, a serpentine beast, hundreds of feet in length, erupted from the depths. It possessed no head, save for a gaping fissure at its fore. From this chasm, a torrent of violet ichor spewed forth, seeking to engulf the descending Blood Sword.

With a resounding boom, the Blood Sword pierced through the toxic stream, plunging into the beast’s cranial fissure, burrowing hundreds of feet into its grotesque form with irresistible force.

A piercing shriek reverberated from the earth’s core as the Blood Sword continued its relentless assault. Wang Lin, hovering above, formed a hand seal and unleashed a colossal, ethereal palm, hurtling towards the ground.

This all transpired in the blink of an eye. The moment the palm materialized, it absorbed the ambient essence, summoning a maelstrom of wind that roared as it struck the earth.

The ground trembled, and ancient trees were reduced to dust, swept away by the impact. The palm slammed down with a deafening roar, unleashing a powerful counter-force that surged into the depths.

“Emerge!” Wang Lin’s eyes glinted with icy resolve.

As the palm made impact, the earth groaned and began to crumble. Soil turned to ash, and layer by layer, the land gave way, forming an immense crater.

At the crater’s base, a fragment of grey bone was visible – the skeletal remnant of a gargantuan right eye socket!

The skull was of such immense proportions that it filled the very bedrock of the forest. Within the revealed eye socket writhed four serpentine beasts of violet hue, locked together in a desperate struggle.

From his vantage point, Wang Lin could discern, within the gaps between the writhing forms, a colossal, pulsating sac hidden within the skull’s cavity.

The four serpentine tendrils were, in truth, mere appendages of this abominable mass!

It was reminiscent of a Wang Yue, yet it was something altogether different.

Earlier, while examining the withered trees, Wang Lin had sensed the presence of this titanic skull buried beneath the forest, the lifeblood of the very trees themselves drawn from its ancient bones.

Within the skull, he had felt a savage life force, one that had lashed out with a potent attack when his divine sense had brushed against it. Thus, he had launched his counter-offensive with the Blood Sword.

With his current cultivation, Wang Lin was capable of challenging even a Wang Yue of the Luo Tian Star Region, let alone this bizarre, inferior creature!

Even a Spirit Severing cultivator had become his ancient slave, a testament to Wang Lin’s growth and power.

His mind calm, Wang Lin descended with the speed of lightning, approaching the writhing tendrils. As they lashed out, his left eye ignited with nine-colored flames. With a sweep of his right hand, he unleashed a tempest of fire, engulfing the four appendages in a searing inferno.

The crackling flames consumed them.

Piercing screams filled the air as the flames burrowed through the tendrils and into the skull’s eye socket, seeking to devour the monstrous core. The Blood Sword flashed within, relentlessly tearing through the beast.

As the screams reached their crescendo, a burst of violet light erupted. The tumorous core, nestled within the skull, diminished in size until, with a final surge, it burst forth from the eye socket and streaked towards the heavens, attempting to escape.

The full horror of its form was revealed: a monstrous, pulsating sac, adorned with a multitude of writhing tendrils, exuding an aura of nauseating corruption. It was eerily similar to a Wang Yue, but it lacked any trace of the ancient god’s essence. Were it not for this absence, Wang Lin might have mistaken it for a mutated Wang Yue!

His gaze hardening, Wang Lin’s right eye flashed with a thunderous sigil, and the sky above the forest quaked. A colossal vortex of lightning formed, the thunderous sigil replaced the very sky, descending upon the fleeing tumor.

Bolts of lightning rained down, striking the tumor with blinding force.

Three breaths later, the sigil collapsed, completely engulfing the tumor. A final, agonizing shriek echoed through the ravaged forest as the monstrosity imploded, leaving nothing behind.

With the gruesome tumor vanquished, Wang Lin’s gaze fell upon the skull. He landed upon its surface, and with a wave of his hand, the surrounding earth vanished, revealing nearly half the vast forest had been growing upon the head of a giant.

The ground shifted and rolled, as if swept by a hurricane, exposing a colossal skull that had been buried for countless ages!

The skull was of tremendous size, only half of it was revealed. At its brow, nine star-shaped imprints were visible, but the ninth star was faded.

“A Nine-Star Ancient God…” Wang Lin murmured, inhaling deeply. It was the first time in his life that he had witnessed the remains of such a being. He saw that the site where the seven-colored statue was placed was the philtrum of the skull. The seven-colored statue existed there to suppress and seal the skull. Sadness filled Wang Lin as he saw this nine-star ancient god skull.

“Even a Nine-Star Ancient God has fallen?” Wang Lin said as he squatted down at the skull’s brow. He placed his hand on the star imprints. There was no ancient god aura here, it had been lost over the years. He could faintly imagine that the ancient god had been decapitated by a cultivator in seven-colored robes.

Wang Lin frowned. He took a closer look at the skull.

“The might of a Nine-Star Ancient God is unimaginable and their bodies were massive. Their heads can’t be this small, unless the god had suppressed and shrunk his true form…” Wang Lin said as he entered the skull. After a moment, he came out with a bone fragment the size of his palm.

“He was killed when undergoing his second calamity during his Tribulation Seeker Stage…” Wang Lin murmured as he sat in the skull’s brow.

“What is the Ancient Tomb? What is its purpose?” Wang Lin muttered as he recalled everything that had happened inside the tomb. He pondered a scene he saw with Dao Ling.

“It is not easy to nourish the Heavenly Dao with Dao pills. I need to think of a way to allow this Heavenly Dao I stole to grow quickly.” Wang Lin pondered this. From this statement, the Heavenly Dao was stolen by the Seven-Colored Daoist. Where did he steal it from? He focused on “another method.”

“Another method…” Wang Lin looked at the skull and a guess appeared.

“Suppose the Seven-Colored Daoist is the Ancient Immortal Emperor and he obtained a stolen Heavenly Dao before the All-Seer Compass. He felt nourishing it with the Dao Spirit was difficult, so he set up a trap…” Wang Lin recalled that the Vermillion Bird said that there were ancient gods in his world and they could still fight cultivators at the Spirit Void Stage.

“And the Vermillion Bird mentioned the Dao Ancient Ye Mo…”

“Why not the Ancient God Ye Mo, the Ancient Demon Ye Mo, or the Ancient Devil Ye Mo? Does this mean that Ye Mo was not a god, demon, or devil, but ancient?”

“Also, when I saw the Ancient Demon Ta Jia in the demon spirit land, this demon said that the ancient was the first generation Tribulation Seeker who died fighting the heavens. This also means that they are fighting the heavens!”

Wang Lin’s breathing became rushed and he vaguely guessed what was going on.

“Destroy the Dao… They all say the Heavenly Dao is dead. If that’s the case, then what is the Heavenly Dao? Is it related to this world? Is that what we’re cultivating?!” Wang Lin’s eyes revealed confusion.