Imperial God Emperor

A bleeding head with a savage look placed on an ancient tombstone...

This was a sight that was simply too hair-raising.

Following along the edge of the spirit path, Ye Qingyu drew near to carefully examine it.

It's indeed that Immortal Step realm pinnacle expert whose strength was unparalleled. How did he die here? This was the first thought to pop up in his mind. Unfortunately, he was unable to determine the cause of death, for he had only the head and a messy wound on the neck to go on. However, after a close inspection, he noticed that the mouth corners were askew and the other facial features were angulated as if someone had squeezed them together, resulting in an awfully hideous visage.

He scrutinized the expression on the expert...

Both of his eyes were wide open with frozen pupils and looked terrified like never before at first glance. Together with the other facial features, the expression looked like that of a fierce ghost.

However, after studying the eyes for a while longer, Ye Qingyu discovered an even stranger phenomenon.

A tinge of extreme fury and disbelief seemed to remain in their depths.

Finding this odd, Ye Qingyu went into thought.

The Celestial Phoenix Maiden, who had been following behind him all this time, also looked at the eyes without saying anything.

Because she had warned not to step off the spirit path, Ye Qingyu did not go right up to the head to examine it. After some consideration, he eventually turned his body and left.

However, seeing this head caused the riddle in his heart to grow even bigger.

Several kilometers later.

The smell of blood that pervaded all around the Void did not dissipate at all, and instead became even more intense than before.

That's a... a severed limb...

Ye Qingyu's gaze suddenly froze.

He again discovered a few broken arms and fragmented bodies among the tombstones beside the spirit path.

These limbs seem like they were ripped off by a wild beast...

As he observed the body parts scattered everywhere, he realized that the ends of the broken limbs were awfully hideous, as if they had been ripped apart by some frightening power. All of the essence and blood that flowed out of these body parts followed a highly bizarre route and seeped into the tombstones, giving the impression that a force was absorbing them. The bloodied and torn pieces of clothing that were wrapped around these limbs and parts indicated that they belonged to the same person as the head.

The Immortal Step realm expert died a truly tragic death.

The physical body of an Immortal Step realm being should be relatively tough and comparable to a divine weapon, yet this expert was torn apart like a piece of rag. Exactly what kind of assailant could have done this?

Ye Qingyu then discovered something which perplexed him even more  - while the head, limbs, and body fragments of the expert had been found, the viscera had strangely disappeared.

The military medal in his hand became increasingly hot, as if it had detected something.

Clutching what seemed to have become a ball of flame, Ye Qingyu hesitated for a while before following its directions.

By now, the spirit path had become very narrow and could barely allow one person to pass through at a time.

Two hours later.

Ye Qingyu suddenly paused his footsteps and stared astoundedly at a large stretch of tombstones to the left of the spirit path.

There was, once again, a head with a ferocious and terrifying expression and eyes which revealed anger at their depths placed on top of one of the black tombstones that stood tall in the distant stele forest.

It’s him... Yet another dead Immortal Step realm expert. Ye Qingyu recognized the owner of the head at first glance.

Priest Yu Sheng, the [Wisdom School] sect master who had defeated seven Immortal Step realm experts with one flick of his knife in the arena of the Fierce Beast Peak and thereby obtained one of the precious spots given out by the Sinful Pit, had also died in this plane.

Ye Qingyu was very shocked.

There hasn’t been any battle vestige along the way, so how exactly did these two Immortal Step realm experts die?

He felt that the situation had become even stranger than before.

However, unable to pause any longer, he continued on his way.

Several kilometers ahead, he found the broken limbs and body parts of the priest scattered on the roadside.

The situation was practically the same as the previous time.

Even more eerily similar was that the priest’s body had also been dug hollow such that all of his viscera were missing, leaving not even a smidgen.

What exactly has happened? The death states of these Immortal Step realm experts are simply too odd. They almost look like ordinary humans who were dismembered by wild beasts... but how can there be wild beasts here? This whole place is so empty and doesn’t even have any breath of life... and there doesn’t seem to be any murderous spirit either.

Ye Qingyu was even more bewildered.

After walking for another hour or so.

The sights of the ancient fiendgod city finally began to change as the black ocean-like forest of tombstones gradually became rare.

After another thirty minutes.

The black forest of tombstones completely disappeared.

Not a single black tombstone could be seen within several hundred meters, to be replaced by... a sea of flowers?

As he walked forth rapidly, Ye Qingyu could not believe his eyes.

The spirit path, which became as narrow as a piece of string, finally reached its end.

Having left the sea of tombstones behind, the terrain ahead was visually comfortable and relaxing to an extreme. Growing on the gentle terrain were many slender, upright small flowers whose petals curled like the claws of an angry dragon. In full bloom, the petals of these densely packed flowers appeared red, as though they had been soaked in fresh blood.

Ye Qingyu trotted off the spirit path.

All of the tombstones had completely disappeared. Within Ye Qingyu’s field of vision, the ground on both sides of the spirit path instead became endlessly and densely filled with red flowers.

As he looked across, the sea of blossoming flowers resembled tens of thousands of connected red clouds which colored the plains into a luxurious red brocade.

The originally gloomy and spiritless environment thus became fresh and lively in a twinkling.

Crouching down, he revealed yet another astonished expression on his face after carefully examining the red flowers.

Are these... hurricane lilies?

Hurricane lilies were the flowers of death.

According to legend, these were the reception flowers that bloomed on the banks of the Sanzu River and the opposite bank of the Lethe in the underworld to guide and comfort the souls that left the human world.

Why are there so many flowers of death growing here? Could this place actually be Hell?

It should be known that this kind of flower was said to only be capable of surviving in Hell.

Ye Qingyu felt his entire being turn ice-cold.

Could the 18th district of the Black Demon Abyss actually be the world of death?

Hell is actually real?

He felt utterly mind-boggled.

Was... the road we walked upon... the Yellow Spring Road?!

He laughed bitterly.

What does it mean when a living person walks through the road of death?

A gentle wind blew, causing the red flowers to sway and flutter.

The sea of hurricane lilies was full of demonic charm and strange blood-colored beauty.

“Let’s proceed forth.” The Celestial Phoenix Maiden’s voice broke the silence. “There won’t be any danger here for three days. We have to hurry, there seem to be people ahead of us already.”

She urged Ye Qingyu.

The latter peered at her, not knowing what he should say.

You were the one who dawdled like a tourist all the way.

The military medal in his hand continued to emit a scorching hot energy as if it was a ball of fire. This degree of heat was even more distinct than when he was heading toward the priest temple of the Snow Empire, and was simply too abnormal. Remaining silent while following the military medals directions, he increased his speed and trodded on the hurricane lilies as he advanced frenziedly. 

There were doubts in his heart.

He hoped that the military medal would eventually provide an answer to everything.

Another thirty minutes passed.

The duo had surprisingly made several thousand kilometers worth of progress.

Throughout this journey, all they saw was a vast and hazy sea of blood-red hurricane lilies, a beautiful sight indeed.

A tombstone was standing tall on a gentle mountainous region at the end of this sea of hurricane lilies.

Ye Qingyu was flabbergasted by what he saw.

This was because the tombstone was simply too large.

Unimaginably large.

To use a simple analogy, if the previous tombstones in the ancient fiendgod city and the tombstone forest were the size of a toothpick, then the tombstone in front of him could be considered a ten thousand foot tall building.

This giant tombstone was at least tens of kilometers tall, such that its top was concealed within the blood-red mist. Resembling a giant red sword, it seemed to be bearing down on the two figures standing on the spirit path, causing them to look on in awe.

Its aesthetic style was no different from the outer appearance of the smaller tombstones. Its body was also completely black with a blood-red mist wound around, as if it was coated in a layer of flowing blood. One could vaguely see through the mist that the tombstone was bestrewn with curious Fiendgod Age lines which were primitive and seemingly knife-carved. The rough texture on all of its sides suggested that it had experienced many years of vicissitudes and was heavily weathered. There were no special patterns or totems engraved on it, albeit there seemed to be a few vague, strange black veins like those of a vine or a spiderweb.

From afar, the black rock tombstone could be seen to be emitting a trace of an extremely weird aura.

We’ve already walked through the sea of hurricane lilies, but there’s still no sight of the Yellow Spring Road... hmm, could this tombstone be the Temple of Hell? Even though Ye Qingyu had experienced countless weird stuff, he nevertheless began to feel nervous after seeing the scene in front of him and connecting it with everything that had happened earlier.

Since ancient times, the 18th district of the Black Demon Abyss had been one of the most inauspicious and dangerous places in the universe. Numerous ambitious notables had perished here, and even Quasi-emperors had been unable to get out after entering. Ye Qingyu was suddenly a little regretful for coming here and putting himself at risk.

“On that tombstone... seem to be words...” The Celestial Phoenix Maiden sounded like she was muttering to himself.

A strange radiance circulated on her Phoenix mask, emitting bouts of mist that suffused toward the giant tombstone. Resembling colorful Phoenix wings, they looked as though they wanted to bring the giant tombstone over, and also seemed like they were absorbing something from within. An extremely weird power, vast and boundless in vigor, emanated from the mask.

There are words?

Ye Qingyu was briefly dazed.

Purple lightning coiled around his eyes as he used his chaotic thunder liquid to enhance his vision. Looking across, two beams of purple light which were wrapped in electric current perforated the Void and shot toward the peak of the mountain range in the distance.

On the black stone tablet that stood tall on the mountain top.

The mist split apart.

Two lines of a strange script gradually appeared...

“If Heaven did not send Qin Ming, the ages would have been like a long night.”