Chapter 348

"Thank you, Your Majesty." Qin Yang gave his thanks.

"No need for formalities."

Huangdi's voice sounded as if it rolled out of a bronze bell chime.

"You're not bad, worthy of being my descendant."

Huangdi praised Qin Yang repeatedly.

Qin Yang froze.

He had thought the third gate would be a fierce battle like the previous two gates against the female warrior and Responding Dragon, but the gatekeeper before him showed no fighting spirit at all.

"Junior is dull," he said after pondering, "I don't know when the third gate will open; our sparring..."

"Sparring?"

Huangdi suddenly laughed, his wrinkles seeming to hold eight thousand years of time.

"Don't talk about sparring; I won't fight a junior. Just by coming, you've passed the gate."

Qin Yang was dumbfounded; he never expected such a result.

"The avatar of Xuanyuan Huangdi, guarding this place for thousands of years, has been waiting for someone like you."

A mountain wind rose suddenly, and the scene shifted to a battlefield.

Qin Yang suddenly realized that what he had passed was not an ordinary gate, but the relics of an ancient battlefield, the battlefield of ancient deities.

The bronze shards embedded in the stone cracks still retained lingering killing intent at their edges; the sword marks on the cliff wall faintly showed a pale gold immortal spirit circulating.

That is an aura only beings at the Golden Immortal level or above can leave behind.

"That third gate..."

"You have already passed."

Huangdi's voice suddenly softened, like a spring breeze brushing over an ice-covered river.

"This gate was never about winning or losing; it's about recognizing bloodline."

Qin Yang stared blankly. The spiritual energy inside his body suddenly turned scorching, as if something had been awakened.

The vortex at his dantian spun wildly, spontaneously condensing into a phantom of a golden rice stalk.

That was a phenomenon he had never seen before.

"You mean..."

"Descendants of Yan and Huang, bloodline connected."

Huangdi smiled slightly, his gaze falling on Qin Yang's chest.

"The bloodline mark inside your body is more effective than any clearance document."

He suddenly sighed, the sigh carrying both relief and regret.

"Senior," he said, taking a deep breath to suppress his surging emotions, "you have guarded this place for thousands of years—why? Is it merely to wait for a descendant of the Yan-Huang bloodline?"

"Not only that."

Huangdi gazed eastward, where the clouds and mist were dissipating to reveal a vast blue sky.

"I want to know how the later generations are faring; is the land I protected still well? How are my people living now?"

Qin Yang's heart gave a violent jolt.

He had never imagined that an avatar of an ancient deity would care so much for later generations.

He organized his thoughts and related everything he knew in detail.

"After your departure, the world split into the Nine Provinces; later came the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties, followed by the Qin, Han, Tang, and Song dynasties."

He tried to describe it in simple language.

"There have been prosperous ages, when envoys from all nations came and went without cease on Vermilion Bird Avenue in Everlasting Peace City; there have also been chaotic ages, when bones lay exposed in the fields and not a crow could be heard for a thousand li."

"But no matter how difficult, there always stood someone who stepped forward: scholars who wrote 'Since ancient times, who can escape death?' with their brush, generals who brandished their blades to defend Xiangyang, officials who led the people in waterworks, and farmers who cultivated high-yield rice on the field ridges."

Huangdi listened silently; when he heard "high-yield rice," his eyes suddenly glimmered with a faint light—this was the concern of agrarian civilization etched into his bones.

"And what about that place called Lan Xing?"

He pressed further.

"Lan Xing still exists."

Qin Yang's voice unconsciously softened, as if he were relating a most precious secret.

Now Lan Xing has skyscrapers taller than any palace you've ever seen, horseless carriages that can travel a thousand li in a day, and iron birds that can fly into the sky.

People no longer rely on heaven for food; they can grow crops in the desert and build houses in the deep sea.

The old man's jade pendant suddenly trembled violently: "Really? No need to fear floods anymore? No need to fear fierce beasts?"

No longer afraid.

Qin Yang nodded firmly.

There are dams to hold back floods; children can study in schoolhouses, no longer needing to worry about being abducted by demons.

He suddenly recalled the Si Mu Wu Ding in the museum, and the bricks on the Great Wall.

Moreover, no one has forgotten their roots; every Qingming, people still go to the Yellow Emperor's Mausoleum to pay respects.

"Good, good!" the Yellow Emperor laughed heartily.

Jue Tian Di Tong, that his people could still come this far, brought him comfort.

This avatar of the ancient deity now resembled an elder who had just received good news.

The Yellow Emperor placed a hand on Qin Yang's shoulder, and a thread of qi surged into his body.

"This thread of immortal qi, I give to you."

When the old man withdrew his hand.

"It can protect your soul and spare you some suffering on the road ahead."

I'm leaving; my lingering consciousness won't last much longer.

Where are you going?

Qin Yang asked instinctively.

Return to the Immortal Realm and resume your place.

The old man's figure began to turn translucent, and the dragon patterns on his black dragon robe faded gradually.

Perhaps one day you can come to the Immortal Realm, and we'll share a drink of celestial wine in the Heavenly Court.

His voice grew fainter, yet it carried a clear expectation.

Remember, the bloodline in your body is the hardest bone under heaven.

As the last word dissipated in the wind, the Yellow Emperor's figure completely merged into the void.

Qin Yang stood where he was and bowed toward the direction the Yellow Emperor had departed.

This place still looked like an ancient battlefield; not far off, a deep passageway appeared, its stone walls on both sides covered in intricate runes that flowed with dark red light.

Qin Yang gripped his changdao, fixed his gaze on the Ten Thousand Souls Banner, and stepped into the passageway.

The runes on the stone walls suddenly lit up, forming a light curtain behind him that completely blocked outside light.

The passageway was silent, save for the echo of his own footsteps, each step feeling like treading on his heart.

After an unknown amount of time, a wide open space suddenly appeared ahead.

It was a huge circular stone chamber, a hundred zhang in diameter, with thirty-six night pearls set into the walls, illuminating the entire space like daylight.

In the center of the stone chamber floated a formation composed of countless runes, shaped like the Eight Trigrams, with chains wrapped around each line.

They were not ordinary iron, but chains forged from meteoric iron and dragon bone, their surfaces covered in golden runes, continuously sending spiritual energy to the formation's core.

And at the formation's center floated a skull.

Qin Yang's breath halted instantly.

That skull was three times the size of a normal person's, its bronze skin covered in wrinkles, with a pair of curved horns on the forehead, the horns engraved with ferocious beast patterns.

Beneath its closed eyes stood a high nasal bridge and thick lips.

Even though it had lost all vitality, its jawline remained tense, exuding an undissipated arrogance.

Black killing qi swirled around the skull, but the formation held it tightly within three feet; any qi trying to escape would hiss upon touching the runes, then be sucked back into the skull.

"Chiyou..." Qin Yang whispered the name instinctively.

The formation suddenly began to turn, the Eight Trigrams lines rotating in reverse.

Qin Yang felt a mighty pressure wash over him, more overbearing and wilder than the aura of the Yellow Emperor's earlier avatar.

It was the power of a war god; even reduced to a single skull, even sealed by the formation for five thousand years, it could still make heaven and earth change color.