Chapter 420

Five immortal beings…

The Jiuzhou Di Yi Xian and Xiang Hong locked gazes; counting Wan De, there were five immortal beings working on this matter.

For a moment, his resolve hardened further—this was likely the Original Battlefield.

"When we return, I'll investigate the whereabouts of the other immortal beings—see if I can find any clues," said Tianxie Jianxian.

In the past, he had always been immersed in cultivation and sword practice, rarely caring about anything else.

Now, faced with the mystery of the immortal beings' disappearances, Tianxie Jianxian's curiosity was stirred.

The dark glow orb continued to shift, changing intermittently, undisturbed by the conversation of Tianxie Jianxian and the others.

During this time, it transformed again into figures and objects familiar to Xiang Hong, the Jiuzhou Di Yi Xian, and Tianxie Jianxian.

Too familiar.

These figures and objects were extraordinary—legendary figures from their world, rare treasures, ancient ruins, structures, and more.

The more they watched, the more curious they became.

What exactly was this dark glow orb? Why could it manifest these great figures and objects?

After watching for a long while, the three—Jiuzhou Di Yi Xian, Xiang Hong, and Tianxie Jianxian—retracted their gazes.

They had not come to the Tianqian Gorge to sightsee or to watch this glowing orb shift endlessly—they came with a mission.

"Let's first search for any life within the gorge."

Jiuzhou Di Yi Xian proposed it; Xiang Hong and Tianxie Jianxian agreed.

At this moment.

Far away on Earth, in a Tokyo apartment in Arakawa Ward.

Kamikawa Mitsu was observing every move of Xiang Hong and the other three; upon hearing Tianxie Jianxian would investigate the immortal beings' whereabouts, he wore a satisfied expression.

In truth, his arrangement of this mission was not merely to have them promote the Initial Realm to other worlds.

There were other reasons.

One of them concerned the mysterious disappearances of the immortal beings in the world of Jiuzhou Di Yi Xian and Tianxie Jianxian.

Kamikawa Mitsu had not selected his members randomly—he had carefully chosen them, investigating their identities and their home worlds.

Precisely because of this, he had uncovered the strange vanishings of the immortal beings in their world; he knew better than anyone that the "Original Battlefield" was merely his script's fabrication, not reality.

In other words, the immortal beings had not gone to the Original Battlefield to fight—they had vanished into nothingness.

He had spent script points trying to uncover the reason behind their disappearances, but the script points were insufficient; these were immortal beings, and more than five were involved—the required script points were enormous.

Kamikawa Mitsu did not wish to waste script points on this unknown investigation.

Thus, he devised this search mission: beyond its indirect purpose of promoting the Initial Realm across the myriad worlds and refining its lore, its primary goal was to guide them to investigate the disappearance of the immortal beings.

In this way, he could save a substantial amount of script points.

…

Passing the dark glow orb, Jiuzhou Di Yi Xian and the others walked forward.

Above them, boundless destruction flowed—no sun or moon visible, no sky discernible; day and night had lost meaning, time itself slipping away.

Having been carried along by Jiuzhou Di Yi Xian and Tianxie Jianxian, Xiang Hong had lost track of time, but the journey had been impossibly long—surely several times around the Earth.

"Could the bottom of the Tianqian Gorge not be a gorge at all, but rather a hidden world?"

Jiuzhou Di Yi Xian noticed the journey's length and suspected this might be a fragment of a previous era, fused with the gorge's depths.

Otherwise, the gorge's bottom was far too vast.

Soon, their suspicion was confirmed; after walking further, they saw a glow ahead.

It was that dark glow.

"We circled back?" Xiang Hong stared at the dark glow, then at a stone on the ground before it.

It was an ordinary stone, carved with the words: "Xiang Hong was here." He had deliberately left it there.

One reason was to prove he had come—so if any great figures ever descended, they'd see it and be impressed; the other was as a marker.

Seeing the stone, Xiang Hong realized the dark glow was the same one they had seen before.

"A ghost wall?"

This was Xiang Hong's first time in another world, and his power was low—he didn't understand hidden worlds until Tianxie Jianxian explained it to him, and only then did he understand.

"No wonder we saw ancient ruined structures and fragments of treasures along the way."

During their exploration, Xiang Hong had encountered ancient, decaying structures—different in style from those in Lord Tianhong's Divine City, and crucially, severely decayed, even with destruction isolating them, the passage of eons had taken its toll.

Suddenly, he realized—they were relics from the previous era.

Too bad they had seen the civilization of the previous era and collected fragments of treasures, yet still had not encountered the Lost One.

"It seems the Lost One either left, or the information was wrong."

They had scoured the entire bottom of the gorge; apart from the dark glow orb, there was nothing unusual—not even a single soul.

"Huh?"

Jiuzhou Di Yi Xian suddenly let out a soft exclamation, drawing the attention of Tianxie Jianxian and Xiang Hong, who were about to leave.

"Look at that glow orb," Jiuzhou Di Yi Xian pointed.

The dark glow continued to shift—now forming a door, ancient in design, not of their world's making.

Looking toward the glow, Tianxie Jianxian and Xiang Hong both felt a strange sensation.

This was the first time the dark glow had evoked such a feeling—they felt… that the door formed by the dark glow could be entered.

Previously, no matter what the dark glow manifested—buildings, palaces—they had never felt they could enter. But this time, something deep within told them the door could be passed through.

"Do you think the Lost One might be inside this door?" Jiuzhou Di Yi Xian asked.

The gorge's bottom was vast, and the dark glow orb was the most peculiar thing there—most likely connected to the equally mysterious Lost One.

"Regardless, I'm going in to take a look."

The Heavenly Evil Sword Immortal gritted his teeth and decided to enter the portal; the dim light shifted endlessly, each transformation lasting a different duration but never enduring forever—hesitating here would be disastrous if the dim light changed again.

By then, you wouldn't be able to enter at all, and you'd have to wait endlessly for the dim light to transform back into a portal—but who knew when it would change? The transformations followed no pattern.

"I've always had good luck, blessed with fortune and longevity—I'll go first to scout the way."

Without giving Jiuzhou Di Yi Xian or Xiang Hong a chance to argue, the Heavenly Evil Sword Immortal flashed into the portal.

The next second.

The Heavenly Evil Sword Immortal's body emerged from within, his face filled with shock as he urgently shouted at them: "Come in quickly!!"

Clearly, he had made some discovery inside and feared the dim light would change again, so he shouted for them to enter at once.

Without hesitation, Jiuzhou Di Yi Xian grabbed Xiang Hong and rushed into the portal formed by the dim light.

……