Chapter 163: Is This Immortality? A Mess of Chicken Feathers

Light.

Light so pure and extreme it even feels painful.

When Gu Yuan followed his grandfather and stepped one foot into the bronze immortal gate that had been blasted open from within,

What first greeted him was not a rush of immortal vitality, but a stale, nauseating moldy smell.

Indeed, a moldy smell.

Like the pickle jar at home that hadn't been opened for tens of thousands of years, mixed with dust, iron rust, and the sweet‑foul odor of some large creature's decay.

"Is this… the Immortal Realm?"

Gu Yuan narrowed his eyes, waited for his vision to adjust to the harsh white light, then made out the scene before him.

There were no jade towers and crystal palaces as imagined, no cranes bearing lingzhi, and certainly no myriad immortals paying homage.

As far as the eye could see lay a vast yet deathly silent ruin.

Massive land plates floated in the void, yet they had long since shattered into fragments, like a broken porcelain dish.

The dried riverbed resembled a scar on the earth, winding toward the horizon; its bottom held only a few stones that had long lost any spirituality.

The sky was ashen, a few dim great stars teetering on the edge, hanging like the white eyes of a dead fish turned belly‑up.

There truly is immortal substance here.

Gu Yuan drew a deep breath; the pitifully thin longevity factor in the air barely allowed him to maintain bodily functions without decline, even without cultivating.

But this concentration…

"It's not even as rich as the spiritual energy in the well behind our home."

Gu Yuan couldn't help but mutter, idly prying up a floor tile from the ground.

The material is actually not bad—mixed with star‑sand, it could serve as a primary ingredient for forging holy weapons outside, but here it's just rotten road‑stone.

"A scam! This is a scam!!"

In the distance, a mournful howl rang out.

It was the ancient supreme from Burial Heaven Island.

He was now kneeling before a collapsed immortal palace, frantically scraping at the rubble with his hands, hoping to find even a single living undead divine herb or a complete immortal scripture.

But all he found was a pile of bone dust weathered to ash.

"Why?! Why has it come to this?!"

"We severed our own flesh, bore the infamy of ages, regarded all beings as blood food, and clung to life to this day… all for this?!"

"Is this the end of the path to immortality?! Is this the Immortal Realm?!"

That supreme had gone mad.

The collapse of belief is more terrifying than the destruction of the body. To attain immortality he killed his wife to prove the Dao, slaughtered his offspring, and turned himself into an emotionless monster.

In the end, the so‑far shore was nothing more than a larger grave.

Not only him; the other dozen or so supremes who had rushed in now seemed to have had their spines ripped out.

Some stood dumbstruck, some wailed loudly, some swung their fists at the void, venting that meaningless anger.

This is hardly ascension.

This is clearly jumping from one prison into another long‑abandoned place of exile.

"This is the Immortal Realm you've dreamed of."

Gu Cangsheng stood with his hands behind his back on a floating boulder, his gaze sweeping over this desolate world; his eyes held no surprise, only an indifferent clarity that saw through worldly affairs.

"The laws are fragmented, the Great Dao collapsed. This place was indeed once a parcel of immortal land, possibly even a fragment that fell from the true Immortal Realm."

The old ancestor extended his hand, fingertips pinching a wisp of the ashen current.

"But it is dead. It died long ago, cause unknown. The immortal substance here has ceased to regenerate; every bit used is a bit lost. All your painstaking effort to break in merely adds a few fresh corpses as fertilizer to this dead land."

Gu Yuan listened, shaking his head.

Tragic.

Too tragic.

It's like a group of beggars starving for generations who hear that the imperial palace holds a full Manchu‑Han banquet, smash through the walls with their lives on the line, rush in, and find the palace burned to bare earth centuries ago—not even a drop of soup left.

Such a psychological gap could cause even the most steadfast cultivator to drop dead on the spot.

"No… not right…"

Just then, a chilling laugh suddenly echoed in this dead‑silent space.

That laugh sounded like two rusted iron plates scraping together—sharp, unpleasant, carrying a madness that made one's flesh crawl.

"Who said this is a dead land?"

"This… is clearly the best place to raise corpses!"

Boom—rumble—

The entire shattered continent began to tremble violently.

At the forefront, the underworld immortal corpse that had earlier rushed in now stood upon a massive altar.

The altar was built from countless dried bones, each inscribed with eerie black runes. These runes were not the laws of this realm; twisted and evil, they exuded an aura that sought to drag all things into eternal mire.

The underworld immortal corpse's shattered body was actually healing at breakneck speed.

He spread his arms; six rotting bone wings unfurled, shrouding the dim sky, while countless black threads surged from the altar like living things, sinking deep into the continent's ley lines.

"You think I came here to become an immortal?"

The immortal corpse turned; the greenish flame in its hollow eye sockets flared, becoming two solid‑like beams of light that locked onto the Gu grandfather and grandson, as well as the collapsed supremes.

"Wrong."

"I brought you all here on purpose."

"This fragment of the shattered Immortal Realm may have exhausted its spiritual energy, but its world‑wall is a ready‑made furnace! Seal the entrance and this place becomes an excellent pill‑cauldron!"

Using several dozen Imperial Dao Sovereigns as a medicinal primer, and the flesh and blood of one True Immortal as the great medicine…

The immortal corpse's voice grew increasingly shrill, finally turning into a hysterical roar.

"The 'World-Exterminating Altar' left behind by our lord can be fully activated! Then I will be able to reconstruct a True Immortal's body, and even... draw down the lord's will to descend!"

Hum—!

As his words fell, the surrounding space barriers suddenly blazed with blinding red light.

The entrance that had been blasted open actually began to rapidly heal at this moment.

A terrifying refining force came pressing in from all directions.

Those sovereigns who were still collapsing suddenly discovered that the Imperial Dao laws within their bodies were uncontrollably draining away, turning into pure energy that the white bone altar forcibly extracted.

Ah!! My origin!!

Netherworld Sovereign! You've schemed against us!!

Damn it! This is nothing but a trap from start to finish!!

The sovereigns panicked.

They wanted to resist, to push their sublimation to the limit.

But in this special fragment of the immortal realm, the Grand Dao laws they prided themselves on were suppressed to the extreme, and the suction from the altar was specifically aimed at their Imperial Dao origin, leaving them unable even to self-detonate.

Hahaha! Cry out! Struggle!

The netherworld immortal corpse laughed maniacally, its rotting face full of greed.

You defective things, to become sacrifices for the lord's descent is the greatest honor of your lives!

Watching this scene, Gu Yuan didn't panic; instead he pulled out a handful of melon seeds from his pocket and even shared half with his grandfather.

"Grandfather, this plot is a bit cliché."

Gu Yuan munched on the seeds, evaluating vaguely,

"Villains die from talking too much—does this law hold across worlds? If he had attacked right when we were unsteady, he might have caused us some trouble, but instead he insisted on blabbering for half a day."

Gu Cangsheng took the melon seed, leisurely peeled one and popped it into his mouth.

"Try to understand—he's been holding it in for millions of years, finally set up a scheme, not letting him show off a little—how tormented he must feel inside."

The old ancestor brushed off the debris on his hands, looked up at the peerless netherworld immortal corpse, his gaze like that of someone watching a clown putting on a zealous performance.

"However, my good grandson,"

"Our Gu family has never had the habit of being used as medicinal ingredients."

"Since he likes alchemy so much..."

Gu Cangsheng stepped forward.

As that step landed, the space barriers that had been frantically contracting and squeezing let out a groan unable to bear the weight.

"Then let's blow up this furnace, and incidentally, scatter the alchemist as well."