At the speed of an Immortal Monarch and Immortal Sovereign, traveling from the first sight of Ancient Mirror Mountain to its base would normally take only half a day at full speed.
However, this group of seven cultivators from the Town Ancient Dao Sect took a full three days to reach the mountain's foot, demonstrating the extreme caution they exercised during their journey.
Upon arriving at the base of the mountain, they ceased using Immortal Sense for communication and suppressed all traces of their aura, ensuring not to emit even the slightest disturbance.
The Great Elder leading the group swept his gaze over the group, gave an almost imperceptible nod, and then slowly began to ascend the mountain.
The Ancient Mirror Mountain Range stretched in a long, narrow strip, but their current position was on the side of the range. To truly enter the heart of the mountains, they needed to cross the ridge before them.
Normally, without any unusual discoveries, they would need to traverse three such ridges to reach the other side of the range. However, if the recent tremors originated within the Ancient Mirror Mountain Range, this number might change.
As they climbed, the Great Elder noticed that the backside of the ridge showed no signs of any living creatures.
Moreover, as he ascended, an indistinct pressure began to envelop him.
No, it wasn't just enveloping him; it permeated the entire mountain range, and he had merely happened to enter its sphere of influence.
He glanced at the other Immortal Sovereigns and Immortal Monarchs of the Dao Sect, noticing their solemn expressions. This confirmed that the overwhelming pressure wasn't merely his imagination, but a tangible force.
He said nothing, but his caution intensified. He resolved that if any sudden changes occurred, he would immediately use the fastest means possible to lead all the sect's cultivators to safety.
If the situation turned dire and the danger became overwhelming, he would stay behind to cover their retreat, allowing the Dao Sect's cultivators to escape.
However...
What puzzled him was that as they ascended, the pressure grew increasingly intense. Normally, the master of such a force should have detected their intrusion by now.
Yet, even after so much time, there had been no sign of the master's appearance.
There must be something they didn't understand.
He forced himself to remain calm. The situation hadn't yet reached its worst.
Half a day later, he finally led the six other cultivators of the Dao Sect to the summit of the mountain ridge. As they looked over the crest and gazed at the other side, his face paled with shock, and his pupils constricted sharply.
For instead of another mountain ridge, as they had expected, they found an enormous, bottomless pit.
"As expected, the source of the tremors lies here," the Great Elder thought with conviction.
Forcing himself to remain calm, he continued forward, his vision gradually descending as he advanced until he finally saw the bottom of the pit.
Suddenly, a shudder ran through him, and he instinctively retreated several steps. The movement caused his feet to brush against loose pebbles, emitting a faint clatter.
The sound was incredibly soft, softer than the rustle of a gentle breeze in a normal environment. Yet this barely perceptible noise caused the Great Elder's face to pale, his entire body trembling with shock.
"Damn it!"
He turned to look at the six cultivators behind him, seeing their faces twisted with terror and bewilderment.
Their terror stemmed from the Great Elder's extreme reaction, indicating he had witnessed something profoundly disturbing. Their bewilderment arose because nothing seemed out of the ordinary; they couldn't understand what had happened.
For three breaths of time, their gazes remained locked. In a critical moment, even for low-level cultivators, three breaths felt like an eternity, let alone for Immortal Monarchs and Immortal Sovereigns.
The Great Elder's fearful expression gradually returned to normal, though he remained perplexed. He took two steps forward, looking down the slope, then turned to face the cultivators behind him.
Seeming to have reached a conclusion, he gave a slight wave, signaling them to approach.
The four Immortal Sovereigns and two Immortal Monarchs cautiously stepped forward, standing at the edge of the mountain ridge and gazing ahead.
After a moment of shock, a wave of confusion washed over them. However, they remained vigilant, refraining from speaking to one another.
Finally, the Great Elder shook his head slightly and broke the silence. "It's safe," he said. "The entity below likely can't sense us."
"Or perhaps it's in a special state—unconscious or even dead."
From their vantage point at the ridge's edge, they looked down at a massive crater below. At the bottom lay a cultivator, covered in blood, eyes closed.
The cultivator's condition was gruesome, clearly the result of a brutal, unimaginable battle. A long spear was lodged in the ground beside him, its shaft protruding upward.
The seven cultivators stared silently at the unknown cultivator at the bottom of the crater, separated by miles of distance.
Another Immortal Sovereign in the group pondered for a moment before asking, "Great Elder, what should we do next?"
Before the Great Elder could respond, a third Immortal Sovereign's eyes flickered as he whispered, "This being doesn't seem to be from the Void Profound Continent. Could he be from the Chaos Beyond the Realms? His cultivation realm might even be the Dao Realm, or perhaps even that of a Heavenly Venerable."
"If we could obtain his belongings, it would undoubtedly greatly benefit our Town Ancient Dao Sect."
"At the very least, that long spear is undoubtedly a powerful Dao Artifact."
These few words from the Immortal Sovereign stirred the thoughts of all the cultivators present. Their expedition into the Yin Ancient Great Swamp had two purposes: to investigate what had occurred and to seek out fortuitous encounters that might yield rewards.
The current situation was precisely such a fortuitous encounter, and one that might far exceed their wildest imaginations.
The Great Elder nodded slightly. He wouldn't retreat until he had ascertained the identity of the cultivator below.
He refrained from using Immortal Artifacts for remote sensing, knowing such actions could easily alert the target.
After a moment's consideration, he instructed the others, "I'll descend first to investigate. If everything is normal, you can follow. If anything seems amiss, retreat immediately."
The other six cultivators nodded in agreement. The Great Elder was known for his strong sense of responsibility within the Dao Sect, not for being selfish. They weren't worried that he would secretly keep any benefits for himself.
Seeing that all the cultivators had agreed, the Great Elder stepped forward, walked a few paces, then descended hundreds of meters down the mountain ridge to the edge of the deep pit. He then slid down along the pit's edge.
During this process, he inevitably made a considerable noise, but the figure lying in the pit showed no reaction whatsoever. This secretly relieved the Great Elder.
However, halfway down, his expression changed again. After crossing a certain distance, the pressure weighing on him suddenly surged, so violently that it began to affect his movements.
It felt as if a Boundary Heaven were crushing down on him, making it incredibly difficult to continue sliding down.
He hesitated. Even the Sect Leader of the Town Ancient Dao Sect, at his peak power, couldn't produce such overwhelming pressure. The Sect Leader's cultivation had already reached the first step of the Dao Realm. This meant that the entity before him, whose condition was unclear, was at least a powerful Dao Ancestor who had surpassed the first step of the Dao Realm. Moreover, this pressure seemed to be unconsciously emitted due to the entity's special state, not deliberately unleashed.
He steadied himself, suppressing the chaotic thoughts swirling within him under the crushing pressure, and continued sliding downward.
Moments later, he reached the bottom of the pit, now only a few hundred meters away from the prone figure.
From this distance, he could examine the figure more closely.
It was a young man covered in blood. Though he hadn't witnessed the battle firsthand, the youth's horrific condition—torn Daoist robes, severed right arm, and mangled flesh—clearly testified to the brutal ferocity of the fight.
Just as the Great Elder was about to advance for further investigation, the seemingly lifeless figure suddenly opened its eyes. In that instant, the Great Elder's mind exploded with shock.
Without hesitation, he waved his hand, summoning two Ninth-Tier Immortal Artifacts: a Ninth-Tier Immortal Sword and a Ninth-Rank Immortal Pagoda. The sword shot forward, while the pagoda hurled itself with explosive force toward the target.
This was an instinctive reaction born of extreme vigilance in the face of imminent danger.
Then, to the Great Elder's astonishment, the sword he had refined for tens of thousands of years—once peerlessly sharp—failed to pierce the figure's forehead, unable to even scratch the skin.
The Ninth-Rank Immortal Pagoda, which had been suppressing the immortal, was sent flying with a flick of a finger. The tower arced over the mountain ridge and vanished into the distance in an instant.
At that moment, the Great Elder's hair stood on end, and a thought flashed through his mind:
This level of power transcends the simple Dao Realm. Even if this entity is in an abnormal state, our seven combined efforts would be like ants trying to shake a tree.
The moment the thought crossed his mind, he abandoned any hope of success. As he retreated explosively, he roared:
"Quick! Retreat!"
His shout was a warning to the other cultivators of the Town Ancient Dao Sect who stood on the mountain ridge behind him.
On the ridge, the six cultivators had witnessed the mysterious entity open its eyes and effortlessly send the Great Elder's Ninth-Rank Immortal Pagoda flying. They immediately turned and fled down the mountain at breakneck speed.
Meanwhile, in the deep pit below, the Great Elder frantically scrambled upward until he cleared the ridge and sprinted downward, catching up to the fleeing Dao Sect cultivators. They ran for another half-day before gradually slowing to a stop.
Doubt gnawed at the Great Elder, and the other cultivators shared his confusion.
"Great Elder," one of them ventured, "could that cultivator have been merely bluffing? Was his forceful strike meant to scare us away?"
"Exactly, it was all bluster. With those injuries, he was likely just making a desperate last stand."
"So, should we return?"
The Immortal Sovereigns and Immortal Monarchs discussed the matter, but none had a definitive answer. Their gazes eventually settled on the Great Elder, whose word carried decisive weight.
The Great Elder's eyes flickered with indecision before he finally shook his head.
"No, we cannot go back."
"It's too risky. Only when we got closer did I realize the opponent's cultivation realm far surpasses the Sect Leader's—by a wide margin."
"Moreover, let's not forget we're in the Yin Ancient Great Swamp. Even in such a severely injured state, that entity could still launch an attack powerful enough to send my Immortal Tower flying and render my Ninth-Tier Immortal Sword utterly ineffective against him."
"That opponent still has considerable reserves of strength."
"To go back now would mean certain death."
The Great Elder's words caused the faces of the other six cultivators to shift through a range of emotions. Then, one of them voiced a lingering doubt:
"But if the opponent still had strength, why let us escape? Why not eliminate us?"
The Great Elder shook his head. "I don't know either."
"Perhaps, to him, we're just inconsequential cultivators. Whether he strikes or not makes no difference."
"Alright, let's return to the sect and report to the Sect Leader. We'll leave the next steps up to him."
The six other cultivators still harbored doubts, but since the Great Elder had reached a conclusion, they didn't protest. Following behind him, they swiftly departed the Ancient Mirror Mountain Range and fled beyond the Yin Ancient Great Swamp using escape techniques.
Meanwhile, deep within the Ancient Mirror Mountain Range, Han Yi's eyes opened. However, this wasn't a true awakening; the finger snap that sent the Immortal Tower flying was an involuntary reaction of his physical body.
The Ninth-Tier Immortal Sword, which had pierced his forehead, hadn't broken the skin at all. It fell to the ground, plunging into the earth. The Sword Spirit sensed an overwhelming Divine Might weighing down on the sword, forcing it to retreat deep within the blade, too afraid to emerge.
Silence settled over the deep pit once more.
The Great Elder's attack, however, had triggered an instinctive reaction in Han Yi's Divine Race physical body. Unconsciously, this stirred the long-dormant divine power within his Divine Aperture World, setting it in motion.
This movement, like a chain reaction, gradually began to coalesce his consciousness.
After an indeterminate amount of time, Han Yi, lying motionless at the bottom of the pit, slowly opened his eyes.
This time, his eyes held emotion, rather than the blankness of before.
The emotion shifted from confusion to sudden realization.
He slowly mobilized his body's strength, startled to discover that his Divine Aperture World was not severely damaged, but had already repaired itself by nearly half.
He instinctively attributed this to the automatic repair function of the Immeasurable Realm.
Then, he extended his Dao Thought into his inner Dao Realm. Beyond it, he sensed a web of destructive aura blocking his probe.
He understood this was the result of severe damage to his Immortal Dao cultivation.
He sighed inwardly. He hadn't anticipated that this brutal battle would leave his Immortal Dao cultivation so severely damaged, while his Divine Race cultivation had recovered first.
He didn't realize that the activation of the Profound Xuan Dao Stele had consumed the Boundary Force within his body, allowing him to reconstruct his Divine Aperture World and recover.
Without this, the damage to his Divine Race cultivation would have been even more severe than that of his Immortal Dao, and his awakening would have been much slower.
He slowly sat up, his gaze settling on an Immortal Sword before him. With a slight movement of his will, he summoned the sword. Then, with a swift motion of both hands, he extracted the Sword Spirit. As his divine sense stirred, the Sword Spirit attempted to struggle, but its Spirituality suddenly trembled, merging into Chaos.
By the time the Sword Spirit regained consciousness, Han Yi had already resealed it within the sword.
Han Yi murmured:
"Void Profound Great World, Town Ancient Dao Sect, Yin Ancient Great Swamp."