Chapter 1647: Burial of a Generation

"You are the seeds, the hope, our successors. In a sense, you are also our descendants, corresponding to us, the Ten Progenitors. If something were to happen to us one day, you would take our place, transcend the path, and become the ancestors of our race!" a progenitor said.

Beings at the End-of-Path level gasped. Could even progenitors die one day? Who in this world possessed such power? It seemed utterly impossible! In their understanding, progenitors were unequivocally the most powerful beings, having reached the ultimate limit.

The Ten Progenitors said no more. They sat cross-legged on ancient coffins and began their deductions, intent on finding Desolate's true body and then killing him!

***

Ninety years passed. Most mortals had lived their full lives, and Ying Xiaoxiao had streaks of white hair. For many years, she had been peaceful and happy, but recently, she had grown melancholic, realizing she was truly growing old.

In the Yang Realm, the Era of Declining Laws was already terrifying, but now it was transitioning into the Era of Spirit Extinction, a period previously only spoken of in legends!

"Brother Chu Feng, I'm getting old, and I don't want you to see me in my twilight years." She began to actively encourage Chu Feng to leave. Despite her infinite reluctance, she truly did not want her aging body to appear before her beloved.

"I won't leave. I'll stay with you until you're old, until the very end," Chu Feng whispered.

"Your words make me happy, but I don't want that. Please... leave, and come back after I'm... gone," Ying Xiaoxiao said, her voice filled with sadness.

"If you want me to leave, then you must also depart. Here's Dog Emperor's talisman; use it to leave the Yang Realm!" Chu Feng said.

"I..." Ying Xiaoxiao hesitated, torn by reluctance.

"Don't worry, I won't die of old age. I will exist forever, and I will find you when I'm strong enough!" Chu Feng assured her, so they could reunite in the future.

In the end, Ying Xiaoxiao wept, full of sorrowful reluctance, and vanished in a blaze of light.

Chu Feng found it difficult to find peace for a long time. He eventually fell asleep as dawn approached, despite being an evolutionist of his level who typically didn't require slumber. In his slumber, he entered a dream, seeing Zhou Xi and a child they had together. Finally, he dreamt of Ying Xiaoxiao, also holding a little boy, and then he awoke. It wasn't a nightmare, but a light and warm dream, making him reluctant to get up for a long time.

***

The shattered mountains and rivers, and the leveled majestic peaks, painted a desolate picture. For years, the entire Yang Realm had been barren, with cracks everywhere. Often, vast stretches of land lay scorched for thousands of miles, devoid of human presence.

The Yang Realm was bleak and desolate. Over eighty to ninety percent of all living beings had perished. With the sudden onset of the Era of Declining Laws, many elderly cultivators who had barely survived recently died abruptly. What was particularly dire was that the Era of Declining Laws began to transform into the Era of Spirit Extinction. Even evolutionists in their prime faced immense crises and calamities. The path of evolution for an entire generation was mercilessly cut short, completely disrupted.

The original great battle had already caused the myriad realms to decline, and the Yang Realm was almost annihilated, with rivers of blood and countless casualties among all races. Now, as it entered the Era of Spirit Extinction, it would be difficult for evolutionists to be born in the world again. This was a tragedy of an era; history bled, mountains and rivers withered, and the entire great age shattered. After the catastrophe, there was no rebirth, but a much longer period of decay.

Chu Feng could not bear witness to it, seeing too much human suffering. Thinking of the once brilliant grand age and then seeing the desolate remnants before him, his heart ached. The remaining elder evolutionists had passed away one after another in recent years. Some suffered the collapse of their Dao, others lost their vitality and spirit, and some experienced the exhaustion of their lifeblood. As the world transitioned into the Era of Spirit Extinction, their soul-lights rapidly extinguished.

"Farewell to the sages, to my fellow Daoists, to our ancestors. That era has ended!" Chu Feng's nose tingled, filled with endless bitterness. He had also seen familiar faces from the past. Though they hadn't been close, he had met them. Now, they had grown old, their hair white, and had perished in the Era of Spirit Extinction. An entire generation was thus lost, and no one from the new generation could cultivate anymore!

Chu Feng traveled for three full years, walking on foot, wanting to traverse every inch of the land. He searched through the broken mountains and rivers, bidding farewell to the last batch of old cultivators who had passed away. The deaths of all the elderly evolutionists were the tragedy of this era, and he was moved to tears. Looking at the withered Yang Realm, he felt an endless weariness. In an age devoid of hope, none of the young people could evolve anymore.

This was an age of despair. Especially for those who had come from the former grand era and witnessed these events firsthand, the once prominent noble families and great Daoist traditions now looked to the heavens in helplessness, their faces pale. From that point on, the older generation was extinct, completely gone. What would become of the younger generation? They had experienced it, known the old ways, but now, though they held ancient scriptures, they could not cultivate. From then on, they possessed no extraordinary power, destined to endure the hardships of the mortal world like ordinary people, their lives lasting mere decades!

For three consecutive years, Chu Feng remained on the bleeding, shattered land. He yearned to follow the bygone flow of the mortal world, but could not; everything had declined too rapidly and violently. Witnessing the suffering of the ruined world, his resolve grew stronger: he would achieve immortal ascension in an era where cultivation was deemed impossible! He was determined to grow stronger, to change everything!

Suddenly, his heart seized with alarm, a suffocating sensation as if his life were about to end. Chu Feng's hair stood on end. This feeling... it was somewhat familiar, strikingly similar to the day the myriad realms were shattered, bringing a sense of impending doom. In fact, it was many times more intense than the previous time!

Why was this happening? The heavens had fallen, the beings of an entire era buried, and races withered. To this day, less than one in ten survivors remained. What more could possibly happen? In this bleak and shattered era, could something even more terrifying be about to occur?

Fortunately, Chu Feng's ominous premonition lasted only an instant before disappearing. His mind, somewhat dazed, slowly recovered.

***

In the deepest part of the Calamity Land, at the edge of the plateau, the light was dim. The figures seated cross-legged on the ten ancient coffins simultaneously opened their eyes. The entire ancestral land trembled slightly, and outside, numerous dark universes roared, some starscapes even cracking. After nearly a century of deductions, the Ten Progenitors had a progressively clearer direction, having found threads of crucial clues within the long river of time!

"A single leaf obscures the sky, and there's another variable... Is it Emperor Ye Tian, whom evolutionists of all realms speak of? His outer expeditions and bloody battles are also mere avatars; his true body is with Desolate's main body!"

"Our deductions show that this person was already extremely powerful long ago. In the previous epoch, he should have been not far from us. Having bided his time until this era, his accomplishments might be close to ours, or perhaps even surpass them!"

Clearly, this was astonishing news: there were actually two variables!

"That Empress is incredibly strong, growing absurdly powerful at a rapid pace. She is certainly a harbinger of disaster. But is she fighting out there in her true form to cover for that opponent named Ye?"

The Ten Progenitors had emerged. They feared no strong opponent; with the ten ancestors united, who could not be slain?! Their collective revival could bring about the annihilation of all things, the collapse of all realms, and the decay of the river of time. Together, the ten of them were unrivaled, ancient and modern!

Their only concern was the variables, which were hard to predict. They might suddenly erupt in the future, dragging several of them into a great catastrophe. They had even glimpsed reflections in the murky river of time, showing that some of their own progenitors would die, completely withered and truly annihilated. This was intolerable to them. They did not know how many progenitors the variables would cause to perish completely.

Since they had sensed something and found a clue in the great river of time, it was time to act. No mist could obscure the vision of the Ten Progenitors. United, they would see through all illusions and suppress all variables.

"We've found a clue; it's time for us to act."

The Ten Progenitors walked from the edge of the plateau, stepping out of their ancestral land!

The Immortal Emperors of the eerie race all felt their pupils contract, utterly shaken. This was the first time all Ten Progenitors had stepped out of the ancestral land of the plateau together.

"Progenitors, might this not be ill-advised? If all of you depart and Desolate suddenly attacks, would an irreversible catastrophe occur?!" The End-of-Path experts on the plateau cautiously warned, expressing concern about unpredictable chaos if they left.

"It's fine. To enter the ancestral land, one must either be brought in by us personally, or Desolate must become one of us, transforming into one of history's most powerful ominous beings!" one of the progenitors replied, unconcerned. The ancestral land of the plateau was a unique place; for countless epochs, no outsider had ever trespassed into it. To truly delve deep, one either had to become one of them, undergoing a complete transformation of body and mind, abandoning their original self to become a progenitor of the eerie race, or be personally guided in by the Ten Progenitors.

"Throughout the long ages, Desolate has attempted to breach our defenses more than once, but has never succeeded. He has bled profusely on multiple occasions, and several times nearly perished outside our ancestral land," a progenitor, covered in thick fur and terrifying black blood, slowly recounted, recalling old events.

Desolate had nearly died at the edge of the plateau several times. The most severe instance was when his body had collapsed, but at a crucial moment, a peerless woman named Willow God descended, enduring the tribulation in his stead. She was covered in cracks and destructive runes, carrying him as she fled the plateau, her slender feet leaving a trail of blood as she disintegrated along the way...

"Desolate had a large number of followers back then, all peerless beings, but in the end, most of them died in battle."

The Ten Progenitors emerged!

That day, chaotic lightning descended from the heavens, the myriad realms trembled, and crimson whirlwinds swept across the land, accompanied by black rain and ominous lightning. With the progenitors' emergence, countless great worlds manifested bizarre celestial phenomena, utterly demonic and terrifying!

In the Yang Realm, Chu Feng abruptly looked up, observing the black rain and the dense, crimson lightning. He saw a pair of terrifying colossal hands, covered in thick fur and stained with eerie black blood, tearing towards the outer reaches of the world! All surviving beings across the realms were inexplicably shaken, witnessing this incomparably terrifying sight. Those colossal hands, streaked with blood and dense fur, were larger than heaven and earth. They directly tore open a great world hidden in the void, exposing all its contents!