Wang Lin’s heart hammered against his ribs, a frantic drumbeat echoing the audacity of his conjecture. He fixed his gaze upon the final rune sealing the gate, and with a deep, steadying breath, sought control.

This sealing rune pulsed with a fused power – the celestial grace of immortals intertwined with the primal essence of the Dao Ancient. It seethed with a chaotic, repelling force, yet, contained within the artistry of a perfect circular design, this very repulsion was not destructive. Instead, it was harnessed, bound and made the heart of the seal.

Such ingenious yet uncanny crafting sent a shiver of awe through Wang Lin.

This rune was a doorway, a path revealed to him alone – a means to quell the internal war of opposing energies raging within his very being!

“A rune-forged ward like this, born of immortal grace and Dao Ancient essence… few indeed could ever hope to breach it… unless, perhaps, one exists as I do, poised upon the very knife edge.”

Reflection glimmered in Wang Lin’s eyes as he delved into arcane calculations. A long sigh escaped him, tinged with complex feelings of wonder and bewilderment. It seemed as though a wheel of fate had been turning, its intricate cogs meshing flawlessly.

His journey began upon the Vermilion Bird planet. Had he not ventured to the Land of the Demons, he would never have slipped through the rift to the Star System of Luo Tian. And without Luo Tian, he would remain ignorant of the Nether Beast, never to venture within its abyssal depths.

Ignorance of the Nether Beast would deny him the impulse to forge it into his Destined Beast. Without this crucial step, he would never have been swallowed by the beast during the first battle of the Cloud Sea, never healed within its belly, and therefore never met the Madman. Without this encounter, he would never have acquired the blood of an immortal, never borne the burden of conflicting energies.

Now, he returned to Vermilion Bird, to the place where his path first diverged, back to the very beginning.

Yet here, at this origin point, he understood that a single deviation, a single shift in the fabric of his past, would have barred him forever from unlocking the nineteenth level of the Rune Clan…

In all the vastness of the heavens, it seemed that only he possessed the means to unravel this seal. A revelation that left Wang Lin both humbled and lost in contemplation.

After a long while, he shook his head, banishing the thoughts that danced on the edge of madness. His eyes narrowed with resolve. Slowly, he raised his right hand, not invoking the power of his Immortal bloodline, nor channeling the strength of the Dao Ancient. Instead, he coaxed the inner conflict itself – the tempestuous dance of Immortal and Ancient – to coalesce within the tip of his right index finger!

In that instant, a searing agony ripped through Wang Lin. It felt as though a whip made of liquid fire twisted within him, snaking through his veins and sinews, shattering muscle and tendon, making even bone tremble as it channeled this raw, untamed energy into his fingertip.

His finger twitched, beads of sweat plastered to his brow. With monumental willpower, he stilled the tremor, held his hand steady, unflinching in the face of unimaginable torment.

Slowly, Wang Lin extended his right index finger towards the circle on the gate, gently pressing it against the glowing rune. The moment of contact unleashed a cataclysm within him. The repressed energies, sensing a kindred spirit, roared into furious life.

Wang Lin’s face drained of color, but his right index finger remained unyielding.

His gaze remained fixated on the very tip of his finger, ignoring the chaos within. He guided his finger, tracing the curves and lines of the circle with exquisite care, compelled to complete the pattern, line by line.

Only then, could he unlock the ward.

With each minuscule movement, the internal storm intensified. He felt tendrils of the rune’s repelling power snaking back through his finger, invading his body, adding fuel to the fire within. Mere breaths brought waves of nausea and blinding pain, causing blood to trickle from the corners of his mouth. His very organs felt as if they were being twisted and torn apart.

The sundering of his immortal vessel from his mortal flesh, the agonizing rending of his soul from his being – a pain beyond mortal comprehension.

Time trickled by. A half-incense stick had burned away, and the stone chamber echoed with Wang Lin’s ragged breaths. His finger had traced nearly the entirety of the rune; only a fraction remained unfinished.

His eyes were bloodshot, his right arm a grotesque tapestry of bulging veins, looking like a vine choked by thorns. Veins pulsed and writhed across his face and body, straining to contain the chaotic energies yearning to burst free.

Teeth gritted, Wang Lin focused with every ounce of his will. He guided his numb finger, inching forward. As he drew nearer to completion, the turmoil within him reached a fever pitch. The very air crackled with destructive energy, and deafening thunder ripped through the chamber, drowning out his gasps for air.

“Just… a little… more…” His right hand was almost entirely numb, the effort of absorbing the rune’s power equivalent to battling a Third Step celestial.

Perhaps even more difficult!

This ward could only be opened in this way. Pure Immortal power was not enough, nor was the essence of the Dao Ancient. Even if one were to obliterate the very planet Vermilion Bird, nothing would disturb its integrity!

Time stretched. The final fragment took the span of a full incense stick. At long last, his right index finger completed the circle, returning to its origin point. In that instant, an immense power erupted from the rune, striking Wang Lin directly.

A deafening roar filled the chamber as Wang Lin was thrown back. His 彩光盾 (Cǎiguāng dùn) Light Barrier activated instantaneously, yet shattered a moment later.

Wang Lin spat blood. As the Light Barrier splintered, the ancient god star point on his brow flared to life, transforming into the 天皇爐 (Tiānhuáng lú) Heavenly Emperor Furnace, which appeared before him. The furnace warped and twisted, briefly resisting the power before being blasted back, returning in a flash of dark light to the star point.

Weakened by the dissipation of the 光彩盾 (guāngcǎi dùn) and 天皇爐 (tiānhuáng lú), the power unleashed by the rune still slammed into Wang Lin. More blood spilled from his lips as he crashed into the wall, sending tremors through the stone chamber. Cracks splintered out from the point of impact, spiderwebbing across the stone.

The circular rune on the stone gate pulsed with blinding light, engulfing the entire chamber. The first cracks spread across the surface of the stone, the gate splitting in half and creaking open.

From behind the gate, a wave of ancient energy spilled forth, permeating the air.

Wang Lin wiped the blood from his lips, his gaze snapping up to meet the darkness that lay beyond. The entrance to another world.

There, lay the greatest secret of the Rune Clan, the nineteenth level!

As the gate opened, a fragment of Dao Ancient essence rode the wave, stirring something in Wang Lin’s soul. Without hesitation, he thrust his hands against the wall behind him.

With a thunderous boom, Wang Lin rocketed forward, a lightning bolt aimed at the open doorway. He flew into the nineteenth level of the Rune Clan, a place sealed since the dawn of time.

The stone gate slammed shut behind him.

Wang Lin didn’t look back. He was stunned by the sight before him.

He was not yet in the true nineteenth level, but within a strange corridor that led to it.

This corridor consisted of a series of increasingly larger rings, spaced out and leading forward. If it was merely this, it would not have shocked Wang Lin, but each of these rings were the same rune as on the gate.

They were constructed of a fused Immortal power and Dao Ancient essence!

Because of their connection with the stone gate, the runes of the stone gate had always remained hidden.

“How was this place created?” Wang Lin asked, unable to reconcile the scope of what he saw.

The rings continued forwards, growing larger and more powerful. A killing aura filled the hall, pressing down on Wang Lin like swords ready to strike.

Around the rings was a blanket of darkness. But Wang Lin focused his gaze, and then realized.

“Dirt surrounds these rings…” he said, unsure of how to feel. Though he was in the deep of the Vermillion Bird planet, something felt off about this place.

Wang Lin’s eyes flared. He came here, he should see this place! He moved forward into the corridor.

Gradually, the rings grew larger, expanding to hundreds of feet wide, with their immortal powers and ancient energy growing stronger. Wang Lin then realized the full scope of the ancient and deathly aura coming from this place.

After what felt like hours, Wang Lin came to the last ring. He had come to the end of this corridor. The final ring was thousands of feet wide, like a sky in of itself.

From where he stood, he could no longer see where he had come from, only the shrinking rings.

Wordlessly, Wang Lin stepped into the final ring.

He saw…