Gazing upon the ancient god’s severed head, its eyes still shimmering with pain and fury, Wang Lin stood rooted to the spot. Through his years of cultivation, through countless trials and tribulations, he had come to understand that even the ancient gods were not eternal. Yet, they remained the mightiest of all races under the heavens.

The ancient god race of old was now nearly extinct. Wang Lin refused to believe that mere cultivators were responsible. Even the formidable Thunder Celestial Realm had to expend its entire force, countless celestials laying siege, to achieve a Pyrrhic victory against a weakened eight-star ancient god.

What manner of power, then, could sever the head of this ancient god, even after he had shattered all his star points in defiance?

The power of an eight-star ancient god, even if it fell short of the ninth star, was still a terrifying force capable of destroying worlds.

Lost in thought, Wang Lin slowly descended, drifting toward a block of ice in his path. He reached out, placing his right hand upon it. The power within him stirred, flowing into the ice with a resounding roar.

Instantly, flames erupted across the ice, consuming it from within. In moments, it was reduced to a swirling mist that ascended into the heavens.

The corpse of the celestial entombed within the ice was engulfed by the flames and crumbled into dust, scattering to the winds.

Clearing a path, Wang Lin drew closer to the colossal head of the ancient god. The pressure emanating from it, as if he stood before a living eight-star ancient god, was overwhelming.

With a silent sigh, Wang Lin descended, tracing the contours of the god’s head until he reached the point where it had been severed. The head was encased in thick layers of ice, through which the clean, unjagged wound was visible.

Wang Lin’s gaze fixed upon the neck wound, and despite his composed expression, his pupils contracted, and a wave of shock washed over his mind.

From the evidence of the wound, the ancient god’s head had been severed in a single, swift stroke, without hesitation, with terrifying precision!

The implications of this wound sent a chill down Wang Lin’s spine. He could not fathom who possessed the power to cleave an ancient god’s head in such a manner! “Could it be Qing Lin?” Wang Lin’s eyes flashed, a look of horror crossing his face. If Qing Lin wielded such power, he was far stronger than Wang Lin had imagined.

Wang Lin’s face darkened. He cautiously unleashed his divine sense, flooding the interior of the head. After a thorough sweep revealed nothing amiss, he scrutinized the wound on the neck once more. After a long while, he let out a soft exclamation. In a blur of motion, he pressed close to the ice, his eyes like lightning, piercing the wound.

Deep within the wound’s edge, he spied minute crystalline particles. They were a dark red color, easily mistaken for congealed blood without a keen eye.

“This is…” Wang Lin hesitated. He raised his right hand, placing it upon the ice, and cautiously channeled his power. As it spread through his arm, a cloud of white mist arose from the ice beneath his hand. Carefully manipulating the flames, he slowly melted a gap in the ice.

This gap formed a tunnel that led to the wound on the ancient god’s neck. With a sharp intake of breath, Wang Lin drew out a single crystalline particle, letting it fall into the palm of his hand.

Pinching the dark red particle between his fingers, Wang Lin unleashed his divine sense, enveloping the particle, cautiously probing its depths. As he observed, he gradually discerned a colorless, formless wisp of energy within the tiny particle. This energy swirled within, seemingly on the verge of dissipation.

Wang Lin circled the formless energy with his divine sense, pondering for a moment. Without hesitation, he moved his divine sense to merge with the energy, seeking to explore it further.

But the instant his divine sense made contact, Wang Lin felt an indescribable pressure, a roaring presence that erupted from the formless energy. It was as if Wang Lin had been torn from the heavens and earth, the entire world dissolving into darkness, leaving only the oppressive presence within the energy.

The power of this aura, though but a remnant, caused Wang Lin to gasp. He instinctively recoiled, but managed to suppress the urge, his eyes flashing as he scrutinized it once more.

The more he observed, the deeper Wang Lin’s brow furrowed. Even with his millennium of cultivation experience, he had never encountered such strange, formless energy. It was neither celestial energy, nor spiritual energy, nor even related to the primal energy within cultivators.

Yet, upon closer inspection, it seemed to contain celestial energy, spiritual energy, and primal energy, as well as other energies that Wang Lin could not identify.

It was as if it were a hodgepodge, yet perfectly integrated, a unity that defied understanding.

Even more terrifying to Wang Lin was the fact that this remnant of formless energy contained the very essence of laws. It was these laws that caused the hairs on the back of his neck to stand on end.

Not just one law, but countless! Innumerable, almost every law that Wang Lin had observed through the power of the Heaven Defying Bead was present within this formless energy. And there were also many laws that Wang Lin had never seen before, existing within it as well.

Wang Lin cautiously withdrew his divine sense, his face paling. He stared at the crystal between his fingers, feeling as if he held not a mere insignificant particle, but a source of cataclysmic power that, once unleashed, could shatter the very foundations of existence.

“This power is what severed the ancient god’s head. One who possess this power, is definitely not Qing Lin!” Wang Lin stared at the crystalline particle in his hand, and the image of his battle on Vermillion Bird Star against the Celestial Dao to save Li Muwan began to flash through his mind.

The Celestial Dao Avatar that formed in the sky was actually an Ancient God, and one who had its star points sealed. Wang Lin was shocked then, but he was nothing compared to how he was now. As he now looked back, that moment was more than just shocking, it contained a world-shaking secret!

What force can seal an Ancient God and then control the Ancient God to become a Celestial Dao Avatar! The answer was about to come out!

“Celestial Dao!” Wang Lin stared at the crystalline particle in his hand. When he saw that wisp of formless energy inside the crystalline particle, he had an intuition that this object and the Ancient God who was the Celestial Dao Avatar were somehow connected!

But the Celestial Dao was an ethereal being, how could it have done all of this? Wang Lin pondered, and he recalled what the Ancient Demon Bello had once said, the secret of the Ancient Race and the words about Inverse Cultivators.

Closing his eyes, an image appeared in Wang Lin’s mind. In the endless starry sky, an eight-star ancient god raged, but suddenly, an indescribable force descended from the heavens. To resist this force, this eight-star ancient god shattered all of his star points, but ultimately failed. His head was brutally severed!

Then the severed head was acquired by the celestial realm. How it ended up here was unknown, but the power remaining at the ancient god’s neck had not dissipated over time. Instead, it was transformed into particles that contained a trace of that power.

Wang Lin didn’t know if this was true or false. He was merely making a rough guess based on the information he had gathered so far. He opened his eyes and pondered for a moment before carefully placing the particle in his storage bag.

Looking at the ancient god’s neck inside the ice, there were still some particles left. Wang Lin’s right hand reached out through the gap he had made earlier and sucked up those particles, carefully placing them in his storage bag.

He was very careful during this process, and counting the one from before, he collected a total of twenty-three particles.

After doing all of this, Wang Lin stared at the wound on the ancient god’s head, there were no more particles inside. After pondering for a bit, just as Wang Lin was about to leave, his eyes narrowed and he stared into the depths of the wound on the ancient god’s neck. Just now, he vaguely saw a flash of red light. He swept his divine sense over it, but there was nothing.

After pondering for a moment, the power of Wang Lin’s right finger permeated it, and as it landed on the ice, flames surged out. As the cracking sounds echoed, the gap began to extend inward.

As the gap continued to extend, Wang Lin stared ahead without blinking. Soon, the passage inside the ice was greatly opened and directly extended to the depths. At that instant, Wang Lin saw the thing that had flashed red light earlier!

It was an iron sword that was covered in countless red threads. The red threads were slowly wriggling and tightly wrapped around it.

This iron sword was very ordinary, without any outstanding features, but the moment Wang Lin saw the iron sword, he felt a sense of familiarity. He vaguely remembered seeing an object exactly the same as it somewhere.

Before he could remember where he had seen this iron sword, Wang Lin felt a terrifying sense of crisis from the red threads wrapping around it.

Wang Lin’s expression changed. When he swept his divine sense through the ice earlier, he didn’t detect the existence of the iron sword and red threads, but now that he had opened the gap, he could clearly see it.

Out of caution, Wang Lin released his divine sense again and slowly swept forward. In his divine sense, there were still no threads or iron sword, just like before. This ancient god’s head wasn’t abnormal, but the fact that he could clearly see the threads and iron sword made Wang Lin very vigilant.

Without showing any expression, Wang Lin slowly retreated. In his opinion, the iron sword and the red threads around it were too strange, so it was best not to touch them easily.

While retreating, Wang Lin kept his eyes on the iron sword. There were a few rusty spots on it that made it look like an object from the mortal world.

“Very familiar…” Suddenly, Wang Lin’s retreating steps stopped. It was as if a bolt of lightning had struck his mind and he was remembering something. Wang Lin’s eyes suddenly widened and he stared at the iron sword and gasped. He remembered!

Back on Vermillion Bird Star, inside the Vermillion Bird Tomb, he had seen an iron sword that looked exactly the same, only the rust spots were different! Back then, that iron sword was taken away by the To-Sen envoy. Even now, Wang Lin still remembered the look of ecstasy on the envoy’s face when he obtained the iron sword!