Wang Lin spoke calmly, “I will take the Old Holy Emperor’s remains.”

The Azure Dragon Holy Emperor considered for a moment, the icy gaze in his eyes seeming to soften, but just as quickly, it returned. “I believe he would prefer to be interred within the Four Holy Sect.”

“The Old Holy Emperor dedicated his entire life to the Four Holy Sect. In death, he deserves release. I will take him.” Wang Lin’s eyes shone with unwavering resolve. With a flick of his wrist, the stone fragment flew.

The Azure Dragon Holy Emperor caught the stone, examined it closely, and sighed softly. He said nothing more, turning and walking into the distance, followed by the seven elders. One of the two Vermillion Bird elders turned to look at Wang Lin, mouth agape, as if to speak. But at that moment, the Azure Dragon Holy Emperor glanced back at him, and the elder sighed, remaining silent.

Carrying the stone effigy that held the Old Holy Emperor’s remains, Wang Lin departed, leaving the Four Holy Sect far behind, where the awaiting Big Head and the others stood ready.

The Four Holy Sect seemed to fade from his life forever. Yet, the Vermillion Bird elder’s unspoken words lingered in Wang Lin’s mind, a subtle unease suggesting veiled truths.

For, besides the Ancient Jade, the Old Holy Emperor had bestowed other artifacts: the robes of past Holy Emperors and a Vermillion Bird Spirit Token, emblems of his station.

The Azure Dragon Holy Emperor had not mentioned these items. It seemed unlikely that he would simply forget. Similarly, the Azure Dragon Holy Emperor had not inquired about the secret, known only to the Vermillion Bird Holy Emperor, that once ignited a war between the Cultivation Alliance and the Kun Xu Realm.

Only after Wang Lin and his companions were well away did the Azure Dragon Holy Emperor sink wearily into a chair within the Azure Dragon Sect’s grand hall. Before him floated the Ancient Four Holy Relics.

Yet his gaze was not upon them, but fixed upon the hall’s entrance. After a long silence, he sighed, murmured words lost to all but himself.

Leading Big Head and the others toward the New Rain Realm, with no lingering concerns, Wang Lin floated peacefully in the starry expanse. His eyes blazed with a sun-like intensity, and a boundless aura surged from him, cloaking Wang Lin in a palpable battle fervor.

“Larsen, after millennia, you and I will finally clash!” Wang Lin’s resolve soared. He took a step forward in the stars, using the magic of shrinking the earth to travel swiftly towards the familiar Vermillion Bird Star!

Few cultivators lingered around the Vermillion Bird Star. Most had already plunged into the star’s core, entering the Land of the Ancient Gods. Since their entry, they were severed from all external contact. No one knew if those inside were safe.

The Land of the Ancient Gods was a spatial rift, and nothing that occurred within it caused a ripple on the outside.

In the void near Vermillion Bird Star, space twisted and distorted. Wang Lin emerged, gazing towards the Vermillion Bird Star and the cultivators seated in meditation around it. After a moment of contemplation, he stepped forward again, appearing on the moon surrounding Vermillion Bird Star.

Naturally, cultivators occupied this place as well. However, with Wang Lin’s cultivation, no one detected his presence. Finding a secluded peak, Wang Lin vanished into it, creating his own pocket dimension. He formed a sword with his right hand and drew an intricate array on the ground.

This was a Qing Lin Immortal Array, learned from his fusion with the Immortal Emperor Qing Lin, capable of concealing all traces, preventing detection. After completing the array, Wang Lin placed immortal jade in the array’s four corners, sat cross-legged within, and touched his brow with both hands. Instantly, a wisp of his soul separated and drifted from his forehead.

“凝神成形!” “Condense the spirit into form!” Wang Lin formed incantations with his hands, unleashing several hand seals. The wisp of soul transformed into a puff of green smoke, circled around him several times, floated forward, and solidified into a humanoid shape. “凝形成體!” “Solidify into a body!” Wang Lin bit his tongue, spitting out a mouthful of blood, and infused some of his meager immortal power into the blood, directly upon the spirit.

The spirit immediately pulsed with a red glow. Fragments of stone on the ground trembled, seemingly drawn towards it, and flew into the spirit.

Gradually, a vortex formed within the spirit, drawing in countless grains of stone, which merged and solidified the spiritual body. After half an incense stick of time, an identical Wang Lin stood before him. “This Immortal Emperor Qing Lin’s art of condensing the spirit is remarkably lifelike!” Wang Lin closed his eyes. Even with his cultivation, he could not distinguish between this avatar of the spirit and the real thing.

But it was more than mere lifelikeness. In addition to the difficulty of distinguishing between real and fake, this spirit incarnation contained extremely powerful divine powers. This avatar of the spirit was almost indistinguishable from the original. Time was its only weakness. Wang Lin’s spirit could sustain it for ten days!

After ten days, the avatar would collapse. Even if it died in battle, only the main body would be slightly injured.

Also, for those ten days, his true body could not move and would be in a deep sleep. So, it had to be set up with a magic circle to hide his aura.

Wang Lin sat cross-legged and flicked his right hand, instantly creating a storage rift in the void. A flash of silver appeared, and the silver-clad female corpse emerged, wordless. She sat cross-legged within the array beside Wang Lin.

With the array providing concealment and the female corpse as guardian, Wang Lin pondered for a moment and laid down several powerful restrictions before finally feeling at ease. He closed his eyes, as if in seclusion, ceasing to breathe, his heartbeat fading away, as if a corpse.

At the moment Wang Lin’s aura and heartbeat vanished, the avatar of the spirit before him slowly opened its eyes.

Stretching its body, Wang Lin glanced at his true form within the array and at the silver-clad female corpse. With a shift of its form, it vanished from the peak, moving swiftly to become one with Heaven and Earth, weaving past the cultivators outside Vermillion Bird Star to appear within Vermillion Bird Star.

As Wang Lin merged with Heaven and Earth, passing those cultivators outside Vermillion Bird Star, four opened their eyes from their meditation, as if sensing something, but did not interfere. After all, in recent days, solitary old monsters often arrived here from all directions.

Among the cultivators entering the Land of the Ancient Gods, few knew Vermillion Bird Star as well as Wang Lin. After appearing within Vermillion Bird Star, he flew out directly into the Sea of ​​Cultivators of Demons without any pause.

Along the way, he did not use teleportation to quickly reach the Land of the Ancient Gods. Instead, he slowly adapted to his body. Only after he was completely familiar with it did he speed up.

Along the way, he passed by the former Douwu Sect and saw the Canglong Great Array carved from mountain eagles. Wang Lin paused. Vaguely, he seemed to see a woman recording the magic circle on each scale of the Canglong, just to make a defensive jade talisman.

He silently gazed at the millennium-old Canglong. Although most of it was damaged and it only slightly resembled a dragon, the sect had long disappeared from here, and it was a barren wasteland. Retracting his gaze, Wang Lin disappeared without a trace.

After crossing most of the Sea of ​​Cultivators of Demons, he stepped into the area of ​​the Land of the Ancient Gods. It was quiet here, with no cultivators. Obviously, they had all entered the Land of the Ancient Gods.

Without hesitation, Wang Lin directly stepped into the glowing entrance of the Ancient Gods and instantly appeared in the dark nothingness.

As soon as he entered, a strong bloody smell hit him. The nothingness was surrounded by countless fragments of stone floating quietly. On top of them was a patch of blood, as if dyed red with blood.

Corpses floated in the nothingness. There were cultivators and fierce beasts. There was a blue spider hundreds of feet in size, a giant python thousands of feet long, and many unknown fierce beasts of various shapes. There was a creature that looked like a dragon but had wings, and a swarm of flying insect corpses the size of arms.

There were also remaining waves of weakness lingering in the nothingness, obviously due to a shocking battle that had occurred before! Most of the corpses of those fierce beasts had been burned, and some had become icy fragments, while others were oozing pus, apparently poisoned.

The further he flew forward, the more corpses there were, and the more intense the bloody smell was. The ways of death also became more diverse. One giant python was obviously pierced by thousands of swords and collapsed on a piece of rubble, but its opened eyes still had a remnant of ferocity. In the end, there were almost no complete corpses, but only broken limbs…

Even Wang Lin, who was used to life and death, saw his pupils constricted, but he did not stop and continued to fly forward towards the other entrance to the void in his memory.

While flying, a cold shadow suddenly enveloped him. Wang Lin stopped and slowly turned to the right. He saw a huge conical stone thousands of feet away on his right. The stone was covered with many incomplete corpses, of cultivators and fierce beasts.

A black light shrouded the edge of the stone. If you didn’t look closely, it was impossible to see the black light in this dark void.

A strong man squatted in the darkness. The man’s whole body was naked and covered with black hair, looking like a savage. However, no cultivator would mistake this strong man for a person if they saw his head!

More than a dozen branches extended from his neck, and each branch had a head. At this moment, these heads hung down and chewed on the ground.

“Crack, crack…” The sound was very faint in this quiet nothingness, and it was easy to ignore. But when Wang Lin’s gaze fell on the strange person on the stone, the sound grew louder in his ears.

Gradually, Wang Lin saw the source of the sound. The strong man’s many heads were vying to devour the flesh of a fierce beast. Even the bones seemed to have been crushed and swallowed.

The moment Wang Lin saw the strong man, it also noticed Wang Lin. More than a dozen heads slowly raised their heads and looked at Wang Lin. The mouths of each head were covered with blood, and some were still chewing.