Chapter 1690 — Seeking the Gate's Trail in the Abandoned Land

Shen Mu drifted through the Abandoned Land. This foul dumping ground of the Ultimate Void was vast beyond measure, as though everything that had survived sixteen cosmic eras without being destroyed had been cast away here.

He passed a withered dao tree, utterly dead, yet from it Shen Mu still sensed a faint thread of consciousness. He wished to examine it closely, but that consciousness was exceedingly crude and dull, giving him no response at all, as though sunk in a state of chaos, offering him no information whatsoever.

"This Dao Achiever's consciousness must have been beaten into a chaotic state during the Kalpa of Destruction," Shen Mu thought. The consciousness hiding within the dao tree could no longer survive; it could never awaken again.

Shen Mu left.

The things in the Abandoned Land of the Ultimate Void were not fixed; they drifted at all times, and his wish to find that gate which hid the obelisks was no different from fishing a needle from the sea.

Moreover, divine sense could not be used here; it would be dissolved by the Ultimate Void into nothingness. He could only search with his eyes.

Day after day passed. Shen Mu encountered no end of inconceivable things, and even came upon the ruins of the Heavenly Capital several more times, yet still he could not find that gate.

In these days his legs gradually grew, until they were about as tall as before, though still somewhat thin and weak. His primordial spirit likewise grew steadily stronger, though of course restoring it to its peak would require far longer and harder cultivation.

At his peak, his primordial spirit had been vast; pushed to its utmost, it could cover an entire heaven. Though it could not compare to the terror of You Tianzun's primordial spirit, it was by no means a small thing. Now his primordial spirit stood only some ten zhang tall, not even equal to a divine ability user of the Life-Death realm or the Heavenly River realm.

Even so, he remained one of the most powerful beings in the world today! His body and primordial spirit were both forged from Primordial qi, following the path of the Master of Miluo Palace, while his path of cultivation secretly accorded with that of the Lord of the Heavenly Capital, combining the strengths of both houses.

"I will search two more years.

If I cannot find that gate within two years, I will return to Jingping!

" Shen Mu endured loneliness alone, searching bitterly through the Abandoned Land. He saw a head impaled upon a banner, and a woman combing her hair in a bronze mirror, and a broken divine weapon that bled without cease.

He also saw a dao fruit that endlessly grew human heads, only for them to be endlessly dissolved away by the cold, silent wind.

Beyond that, he came upon a host of coffins, whole swaths of them bound by chains, linked into rows, drifting through the boundless void. This Abandoned Land was filled with strange and bizarre things. Earlier Shen Mu had intended to collect some treasures from the Abandoned Land, but after seeing these bizarre things, he abandoned the notion.

These things were filth to him as well; not only useless, but exceedingly dangerous.

Several times he had been hunted by monstrous heads and broken ships. When he tried to take that mottled bronze mirror, he had nearly been dragged into the mirror by the hair-combing woman, and as for the head hung upon the banner, it had already grown together with the banner, inseparable!

More terrifying still, everything here concealed hidden mysteries.

They were trapped in the Abandoned Land, buffeted by the cold, silent wind, unable to leave. If Shen Mu were to carry them out of the Abandoned Land, he would likely be doing these things a favor, bringing immense calamity upon the world!

"The things in the Abandoned Land conceal many undead. " The more Shen Mu saw, the more certain he became of his guess: certain beings who had not died in the Great Kalpa of Birth and Destruction hid within various treasures, awaiting the moment of their revival. They were undead, whom even the Ultimate Void could not erase. The Abandoned Land was a natural cage, imprisoning them here, leaving them no way to escape.

To carry these treasures away would instead be to grant them their wish! The two-year term gradually drew near. Shen Mu's state of mind shifted from agitation to calm.

The door plank came to rest upon a massive coffin; Shen Mu sat upon the plank, and from within the coffin came thumping knocks, as though a living person were suppressed inside.

The door plank was very heavy, enough to suppress whatever was in the coffin. Shen Mu rapped on the plank and laughed.

"Brother inside, I am only hitching a ride. Why so restless?

" From the coffin came a muffled roar, and the thumping grew more urgent, as though some monster were butting its head against the coffin lid.

Shen Mu laughed aloud and looked up ahead. Ahead were rows upon rows of coffins bound in chains, head to tail, drifting toward the darkness in the distance. Shen Mu meant to rest his feet on these coffins for a while; as for what was buried among them, he had no wish at all to know.

These years of long travel had worn him down somewhat; his legs had still not fully recovered, and he needed to stop and rest.

Just then, the smile on Shen Mu's face slowly faded, and he rose to his feet.

He saw that the foremost coffin was turning, veering away from its appointed course, and ahead of the coffins stood a door frame without a door plank! Within that frame, one could faintly make out huge obelisks, one after another!

Exceedingly smooth, like countless flawless bright mirrors!

The giant steles stood in a forest, towering in the world beyond the gate.

Those obelisks mirrored the void, mirrored these coffins drifting past before the gate, and dimly, Shen Mu even saw that upon the surface of the obelisks, the things within the coffins could actually be reflected!

These coffins were filled with dao blood, and soaking in the dao blood were one shaggy monster after another, half corpse, half zombie, with long teeth and sharp nails, frantically clawing at the coffin walls! The corpses of these prehistoric Dao Achievers, soaked in the dao blood of the coffins, had become a strange and uncanny form of life!

Shen Mu was startled, then gradually set his heart at ease.

These coffins must belong to another faction of Dao Achievers besides Miluo Palace and the Heavenly Capital, one that walked a different path from Miluo Palace and the Heavenly Capital. These Dao Achievers were weaker than those of Miluo Palace and the Heavenly Capital, so they carved coffins from the wood of the world tree, and then locked themselves inside.

In the end the Great Kalpa of Birth and Destruction erupted.

With the coffins refined from the world tree, they survived the Kalpa of Destruction, but they did not survive the Kalpa of Creation.

In the great kalpa of the cosmos's creation, they dissolved into blood and water, their corpses soaking in the blood they themselves had become, turning into corpse demons.

"The blood may not have been their own. More likely they killed other Dao Achievers and used their dao blood as a vessel, lying within it in the hope of surviving the Great Kalpa of Birth and Destruction.

" Shen Mu seized the door plank, leaped up, and trod from coffin to coffin straight toward the door frame. Beneath his feet, threatening roars rose from the coffins; clearly the things inside were not docile.

"But after the kalpa of birth and destruction passed, why could they not come out?

" Shen Mu blinked and smiled.

"Clearly they went too far, and someone, while the Great Kalpa of Birth and Destruction was erupting, sealed their coffins, so that they could not escape after the new cosmos arrived. Well done!

" His mood improved greatly. He laughed aloud, sprang from the foremost coffin, and landed within the door frame.