Chapter 81: Grave and Audience

The Bai Qi Token had a reaction? A flicker of doubt crossed Chen Ling's mind. He held the Bai Qi Token in his hand and continued forward.

The appearance of the Bai Qi Token had always been extremely strange, as if someone had passed it to him from the depths of the Ancient Tomb through the Way of Military Gods. Now that Chen Ling had entered the depths of the Ancient Tomb, the token reacted again. Was it trying to guide him somewhere?

As Chen Ling delved deeper into the Ancient Tomb, the colossal sword that pierced through heaven and earth slowly drew closer to him. An inexplicable chill permeated his surroundings, seemingly capable of freezing him to the bone.

This chill wasn't a physical cold, but an indescribable sensation, like the eerie feeling of being watched when walking through a mass grave late at night.

Chen Ling suddenly realized that, in a sense, he was walking within a vast tomb...

A colossal war tomb that had existed since the dawn of humanity.

Chen Ling's gaze swept across his surroundings. Large trenches were scattered everywhere... No, they weren't mere trenches, but "pits." Each pit contained hundreds, even thousands, of figures, motionless like sculptures, similar to the Terracotta Army he had once visited.

In the trial zone, the largest trench Chen Ling had seen could hold no more than fifty people. But here, a casual glance revealed pits starting with a hundred figures, and as he went deeper, pits containing a thousand figures were commonplace.

Chen Ling's brows furrowed. "It's getting colder."

Just as the surrounding chill became unbearable, the Bai Qi Token in his hand grew increasingly hot, like a miniature sun grasped in his palm. Waves of heat pushed all the cold air half a meter away.

Despite holding the scorching token, Chen Ling felt no burn; instead, a strange sense of security washed over him.

Where exactly was it trying to guide him?

Chen Ling's pace unconsciously quickened. As he drew closer to the black colossal sword, he seemed to vaguely catch glimpses of something flickering around him... A feeling of being watched crept into his mind.

Yet, whenever Chen Ling turned his head to look, he saw no shadows, as if it were merely his imagination.

There's something in the depths of the Ancient Tomb!

Chen Ling's brows furrowed deeper and deeper. Just as he was about to turn back, an incredibly massive pit appeared before his eyes.

It was a circular pit several kilometers in diameter. Under the dim sky, its depths were lost to sight. Chen Ling, standing at its edge, felt as tiny as an ant.

Shock surfaced in Chen Ling's eyes.

How many people could such a massive pit hold? Tens of thousands? Hundreds of thousands? Or even more?

This was the largest pit Chen Ling had seen since entering the Ancient Military Tomb. All the previous pits that refreshed soldiers, combined, weren't as large as this one... But strangely, this colossal pit was empty.

There were no regularly refreshed projections of killing intent within it. In the center of the vast, empty pit, only a desolate tomb stood solitary.

Bone-piercing cold emanated from the pit. Even with the token in hand, Chen Ling couldn't help but shiver... His eyes couldn't discern anything within the giant pit, yet he seemed to hear the wails of countless vengeful spirits, steeped in murderous intent, hovering above it.

Chen Ling suddenly recalled reading in history books that the Qin general Bai Qi had buried 400,000 Zhao soldiers alive after the Battle of Changping. It was this act that earned Bai Qi the timeless moniker "God of Slaughter."

Chen Ling's gaze fell upon the solitary desolate tomb in the center of the colossal pit, his eyes narrowing slightly.

Unlike the other pits, this one didn't generate projections of killing intent... Instead, there was a desolate tomb. Did this mean that this tomb alone was powerful enough to contend with hundreds of thousands of such projections?

"Could that be..."

Chen Ling glanced at the scorching token in his hand. After a moment of hesitation, he entered the giant pit and walked directly towards the desolate tomb.

As Chen Ling approached, he slowly made out the full appearance of the desolate tomb. Rather than a grand burial mound, it was more like a half-person-high grave mound... There was nothing in front of it, resembling the mass grave Chen Ling had buried before.

How could Bai Qi, the esteemed God of Slaughter, be buried in such a place?

Doubt filled Chen Ling's mind. He stopped before the desolate tomb, and the heat from the token in his hand slowly receded, as if guiding him here was its sole purpose.

At the same time, an eerie chill surged around him. On the ground before the desolate tomb, a line of blood-red characters slowly seeped up from beneath the soil, gradually appearing:

—Bow thrice and kowtow nine times, and I shall bestow upon you divine abilities;

The moment he saw the characters, Chen Ling's brows involuntarily furrowed.

Before he could react, an even colder aura erupted from the void behind him. Countless scarlet eyes suddenly opened, their gazes piercing through the theater's boundary, as if invisible world-destroying beasts were roaring!

A fierce wind erupted from Chen Ling's body, slamming violently into the desolate tomb opposite him.

Almost simultaneously, a solidified black aura of killing intent, nearly corporeal, surged forth from the earthen mound, as if the master of this desolate tomb, standing at the dawn of time, was also casting a gaze filled with chilling murderous intent towards this spot!

Boom—!!

Two terrifying auras collided within the colossal pit, exploding outwards like circular waves. The aftermath tore away the surrounding sand and soil, revealing eerie blood-red earth and piles of white bones beneath.

On the ground before the desolate tomb, a single, monstrous character, formed by seeping blood, appeared:

—Calamity

Chen Ling stood at the edge of the colliding auras, his large red opera robe flapping wildly. He shielded his eyes with his hand as black killing intent swirled around him, the terrifying pressure nearly suffocating him.

The Audience was fighting Bai Qi?

This thought flashed through Chen Ling's mind, and a sudden joy welled up within him.

If Bai Qi could contend with the Audience, then perhaps he could completely destroy them? If the Audience perished here, he would finally regain his freedom!

Once this thought arose, it was hard to dispel. Unfortunately, things did not go as smoothly as Chen Ling hoped. Through his fingers, Chen Ling could see the desolate tomb trembling, appearing as if it would soon shatter.

The scarlet eyes behind Chen Ling gradually faded into the void, and the 'world-destroying' pressure receded. Simultaneously, the killing intent surging from the tomb also retreated back into the bottom of the pit.

The enormous pit fell into a deathly silence once more.

The clash between the two sides came and went suddenly. Had the surrounding ground not been stripped of its surface layer, revealing the crimson blood-red earth beneath, Chen Ling might have believed everything that just happened was an illusion.

Chen Ling's gaze returned to the desolate tomb. Indeed, many cracks had appeared on the surface of the earthen mound... It seemed Bai Qi had not gained the upper hand in the recent confrontation.

Just as Chen Ling felt a sense of regret, another line of blood-red characters seeped from beneath the ground:

—Help me revive, and I shall fulfill your wishes.