Chapter 804: The Ten-Thousand-Year Path

Immediately following this, Chen Yan began to inspect the origin spaces of these people.

After a thorough search, there was quite a harvest; a dark green fruit appeared in Chen Yan's hand.

Engraved upon it was the character 【Realm】.

This was the Realm Fruit unique to the Evil Realm.

One only needed to consume it to directly raise one's realm.

Of course, one must consume Realm Fruits one level higher than one's current level step by step.

Chen Yan unearthed ten Realm Fruits from the origin spaces of the Octopus-Head and the others, three of which were of the Creation Realm level.

Carefully rubbing the Realm Fruit in his hand, Chen Yan examined it for a moment.

It looked like a Saint-Breaking Fruit, yet it was not; it lacked a sense of fullness and did not have that throb that was familiar to Chen Yan.

Chen Yan pondered for a while, then swallowed this Realm Fruit, which was overflowing with blood energy and a fifth-rank aura, into his belly.

The next moment.

Chen Yan only felt a strange energy explode in his belly, like a clenched firework suddenly blooming within his body cavity.

A scorching stream of light raced along his blood vessels, and every inch of his sinews and bones was soaked in a rustling, hot, star-like warmth.

The thick blood energy instantly filled Chen Yan's entire body, and the powerful energy instantly merged into Chen Yan's limbs and bones.

Immediately after, however, it suddenly converged toward the center of his brows.

"Hm?"

Chen Yan gave a light exclamation; he had not advanced.

He had consumed a fifth-rank Realm Fruit, and logically speaking, he should have promoted to the fifth rank, but he had not.

What was going on?

Chen Yan looked to the side at the man with a deer head who was already half-dead:

"Why did I not promote?"

The deer-headed man looked at Chen Yan as if he were seeing a ghost:

"Big brother... stop messing with me; it is useless for a high-realm cultivator to eat a low-rank Realm Fruit."

Chen Yan frowned; this person clearly mistook Chen Yan for a Creation Realm martial artist.

But Chen Yan was not that at all.

"Are there any cases of low-realm martial artists consuming a higher-rank Realm Fruit and not promoting?"

The deer-headed man opened his mouth, wanting to cry but having no tears:

"How could that be? Such a situation simply does not exist."

Chen Yan's heart stirred slightly.

The Realm Fruit that could allow others in the Evil Realm to advance had no promotion effect on him.

He was special.

Why?

Could it be that this world had a Saint-Breaking Tree, and it was connected to his own Saint-Breaking Tree?

Therefore, would his consumption of the Realm Fruit produce an alternative effect?

Chen Yan felt his physical body again; a wondrous feeling emerged.

After consuming the Realm Fruit, his physical body had grown stronger in another wondrous direction.

It was as if a fire had suddenly ignited that should not have been burning within him.

Chen Yan sensed the center of his brows; deep within, a wisp of faint, almost imperceptible azure energy had suddenly appeared.

Like primordial clouds steaming, like the Great Beginning being first cleaved.

Feeling this wisp of blue energy carefully, Chen Yan only felt the world's energy resonating with him, as if he heard the faint chanting of ancient Dao sounds.

What was this?

Blood Energy Status!

This name suddenly appeared in Chen Yan's mind, and for an instant, Chen Yan's eyes widened a fraction.

After consuming the Realm Fruit, a wisp of Blood Energy Status had actually appeared within Chen Yan's body.

This was a fortuitous encounter from the Saint-Breaking Tree of this world.

Boom!

Chen Yan only felt a throb from ten thousand years ago crash into his heart.

Sadness, confusion, courage, fear, endless emotions...

At this moment, he seemed to see endless years, countless living beings kneeling on the ground, praying to the heavens.

He seemed to see countless echoes, countless wishes condensing at this moment.

He seemed to see that he had already been walking for a long, long time in the long, endless years, with no end and no future.

"Brother..., walk a little slower."

A familiar yet strange, blurry voice rang out in Chen Yan's mind.

Whose voice was this?

But this voice only appeared for an instant before it vanished.

He could feel that there were many people behind him calling out, yet he could not see his own back.

What he had promised could not be fulfilled.

There were people, so many people waiting for him, yet he could not turn back, could not go over, could not hold hands and laugh.

The promises he had made, he himself could not fulfill.

Everything he was obsessed with in his heart was, in the end, let go by him.

Just because.

Before the Great Dao of the human race, any slight stirring of emotion within one's own heart is far too extravagant.

For some reason, he raised his head, gazing at the murky, dark zenith, tears appearing in his eyes:

"Contemplating the vastness of heaven and earth, I am alone and sorrowful... and tears fall."

A strange feeling emerged just like that, then vanished.

A sense of oddity rose in Chen Yan's heart, but he slowly shook his head:

"Is this feeling that shouldn't have appeared because of the Realm Fruit?

Or is someone plotting against me?"

Chen Yan looked around; the sea of murky, chaotic malice was crashing against the edges of this small pure land.

He always felt that someone was plotting against him.

When he came to the Evil Realm, only Chen Zhu knew, but Chen Zhu would not notify the living beings within the Evil Realm.

Chen Zhu had no need to.

But why would the Ancient Divine Beasts within the Evil Realm know that a Will Martial Artist had come to this world?

Or could it be that when he entered the Evil Realm, someone else noticed?

And that person used some method to inform the Ancient Divine Beasts within the Evil Realm?

Coldness appeared in the depths of Chen Yan's eyes, and many figures emerged in his mind.

Finally, he locked onto one person.

Ji Chen.

Ji Zhu had taken Zhao Zhugui to see Ji Chen, and Ji Chen had used the divine artifact, the Retrospective Mirror, to calculate Zhao Zhugui's karma.

This was what Ji Zhu had told Zhao Zhugui later.

Ji Zhu did not reveal other details, but at this moment, Chen Yan felt that Ji Chen had also plotted against the Master of Will at that time.

Perhaps Ji Chen knew he had come to the Evil Realm, but how could he convey this news to the Ancient Divine Beasts of the Evil Realm?

Chen Yan pondered.

There is a membrane between the Evil Realm and the outside world.

Both worlds are built upon the physical bodies of Ancient Gods, yet they have no connection, and apart from Ninth-Order existences, no other living beings can enter the Evil Realm.

According to Chen Zhu, almost all Eighth-Order beings do not know of the Evil Realm's existence, unable to bear the consequences of knowing it.

These two worlds are so close, yet so far apart.

Thinking of this, Chen Yan suddenly paused.

No.

There is something that both of these worlds possess.

Malice!

Chen Yan's brows knit into two deep furrows; his mind raced, and he formed his own conjecture.

Could it be that malice can permeate this layer of membrane?

Perhaps Ji Chen told the Ancient Divine Beasts of the outside world the news of his entry into the Evil Realm, and the outside Ancient Divine Beasts permeated this news into the Evil Realm through malice.

Chen Yan shook his head.

This person is quite a character; since he is so highly valued by Ji Zhu, his own strength might rank among the top of the human race.

But what does it matter how top-tier he is? To go and become an Immortal, to Chen Yan, this is an act of seeking death.

It is just that, within the Evil Realm, he cannot easily expose his power of Will.

It is fine in times of crisis, but it must absolutely not be exposed in ordinary times.

If discovered by the Ancient Divine Beasts of this world, Chen Yan might face a disaster he cannot overcome.

Chen Yan pondered, waved one hand, and knocked out the deer-headed man who was still wailing in a low voice.

Chen Yan took out the remaining nine Realm Fruits from his Origin Space.

He exerted his Qi and blood to crush these fruits into juice and consumed them.

"Brother..., walk a little slower."

This soft voice sounded in Chen Yan's mind once again, only to vanish.

Gradually, that strand of blue energy deep in Chen Yan's mind grew slightly sturdier.

And on the other side of the blue energy, there was also a wisp of red energy.

The Qi and Blood Status and the Hard-Refining Status.

The appearance of these two statuses did not increase Chen Yan's strength much, because Chen Yan did not know how to use them at all.

"Strange, why is there no Thought Power Realm Fruit?"

Chen Yan spoke in surprise.

Thought Power, the most ancient physical martial path.

The Master of Thought Power is even the founding master of the human martial path.

In some respects, without the Master of Thought Power, there would be no human martial path.

But Chen Yan was too unfamiliar with Thought Power; from beginning to end, he had never practiced Thought Power.

The Thought Power martial artists closest to Chen Yan were only his younger sister, Chen Yu, and Xia Weimin.

The Master of Arrays of this world had also not created a Status Divine Array related to Thought Power.

Thought Power seemed not to exist in this world at all.

Chen Yan shook his head slightly and sat down cross-legged.

This pure land, although also in the shape of a green leaf, was still too small compared to White Village, with an area of only about thirty square meters.

It can be thought of as a small boat.

In the mouths of the creatures of the Evil Realm, this tiny piece of Jing Tu used for ferrying is called a Boat Leaf.

Chen Yan exerted his Qi and blood, molding the dust on the ground into palm-sized earthen bricks.

Immediately after, Chen Yan sank his wrists and retracted his stance, his hands forming complex array seals, a deep blue halo rising from his palms.

The moment he pressed them onto the earthen blocks, the array marks moved across the surface like living things, instantly condensing into a closed loop, accompanied by a faint humming of earth and stone.

Explosion Array Disk.

He did not know if there were any ancient divine beasts in the base camp of the Law Enforcers, and Chen Yan would not use the Power of Will precisely because he was worried he would not kill them cleanly and let the ancient divine beasts escape.

Therefore, Explosion Array Disks and Spatial Array Disks were necessities.

Manufacturing these Morning Star-grade Explosion Array Disks and Spatial Array Disks was, for Chen Yan, who was already a Divine Venerable of Arrays, nothing more than a simple task.

It only took a little time.

Chen Yan molded a total of thirty Spatial Array Disks and one hundred Explosion Array Disks.

Morning Star-grade was still too simple for Chen Yan.

Martial Grade, Earth Vein Grade, Azure Vault Grade, Morning Star Grade, Bright Moon Grade, Sun Radiance Grade, and Divine Grade.

Compared to Divine-grade arrays, the simplicity of the Morning Star-grade was not even one ten-thousandth.

As this Boat Leaf drifted, the outline of a massive object gradually emerged within the pitch-black, dense world.

It was a mountain stronghold built upon a piece of Jing Tu.

The stronghold was like a dormant ferocious beast, its low walls covered in withered vines like hangman's nooses, with wind-dried human bone wind chimes hanging under the eaves, clattering with a strange sound whenever the wind blew.

Dim light leaked from the black houses inside the stronghold, and shrill wails mixed with hoarse, ferocious laughter could be vaguely heard.

Chen Yan woke the deer-headed man, used his Immortal Will to repair all the injuries on the other's body, and cast 【Corruption Control - Holy Will Delusion】 to alter the other's cognition.

He handed all the array disks he had molded to the other.

"Go."

Chen Yan jumped into the ocean of malice, while the deer-headed man rode the Boat Leaf toward the stronghold.

"Green Ghost, how come you are the only one who returned?"

The stronghold gate opened, and a man draped in tattered black armor with an eagle's head walked out, his pitch-black tongue flicking out like a tentacle as he spoke.

"The big brothers are over at White Town, hehe..." the deer-headed man let out a strange laugh.

The eagle-headed man's eyes instantly turned sharp:

"Slaughtering a village?

I tell you, regardless of whether you slaughtered the village or not, the people and things harvested must be brought back to the stronghold!"

"Understood." The deer-head waved his hand and stretched:

"I just came back to report, I'm going back to rest first, I'm exhausted."

The deer-headed man walked into the stronghold.

He would follow Chen Yan's orders and place the Spatial Array Disks and Explosion Array Disks in various places throughout the stronghold.

In a distant place.

A green leaf drifted on the sea of malice, where several people stood quietly, each possessing an extremely powerful aura.

"We have been waiting for the rabbit to hit the stump for two days, why haven't the people from Black Ancient Stronghold all arrived yet?"

At the very front, a woman in green clothes with no obvious strange features frowned and spoke:

"Should we spread some news and let those from Black Ancient Stronghold who went out come back?"

As her voice fell, a man behind her whose arms were pitch-black tentacles said:

"Wait a little longer; according to previous experience, the people of this Black Ancient Stronghold are guaranteed to gather in full every seven days.

It will be within today or tomorrow.

Since we want to kill, we must wipe them out in one go; if we let one scourge escape, the villagers of the nearby Jing Tu will continue to suffer."

Cold light appeared in the green-clad woman's eyes:

"When we kill our way in, remember to leave survivors.

And we must search thoroughly; I would like to know why this Black Ancient Stronghold always robs the village-level Pure Lands under the jurisdiction of my Luo Town and White Town.

Yet they never go to the village-level Pure Lands under the jurisdiction of Dust Town even once!"

As the green-clad woman's voice fell, the few people behind her stopped speaking, intense cold light appearing in the depths of their eyes.

White Town, Luo Town, and Dust Town were three nearby town-level Pure Lands.

But in recent years, Dust Town had rarely suffered from the incursions of the Law Enforcers.

This could not help but make the higher-ups of Luo Town and White Town suspicious.