The Era of Gods-Chapter 697: The Trapped Ancient Powerhouse

The straight corridor ahead was cloaked in darkness, with only the area around him illuminated by the light naturally emanating from his body, lighting up a radius of five or six meters.

Within the illuminated scope, one could see countless tiny dust particles floating in the darkness, invisible to the common eye. But upon closer inspection, they weren’t particles of dust but minuscule insects, swarming in clusters through the air, frenziedly rushing towards him the moment they made contact with his light, only to be obliterated into even finer dust by an invisible force as they drew near.

Looking closer at the ground, he discovered that the gray floor was actually a thick layer of insect carcasses, spread out like a carpet of gray snow.

Lin Xiao took a big step forward, treading on the layer of gray snow, faintly hearing countless tiny screeches as if in response.

His body slowly lifted off the ground, speed up, and he flew forward along the corridor.

Unconsciously, two years had passed, and just as Lin Xiao was accelerating his flight, he abruptly stopped and gazed ahead at the eternally dark passageway before him, muttering to himself:

"How can this corridor be so long? It’s been two years, and I still haven’t seen the end?"

Even with the strength of a rank 2 wizard, one would’ve crossed from one end to the other of a not-so-large world within two years. This was merely a corridor leading to God’s Tomb; no wonder the Emperor of Myriad Forms had suggested that it’s best for those above rank 8 to enter—as a rank 7 could be suppressed into an ordinary human, who would probably struggle to just pass through this corridor.

After a brief rest, Lin Xiao continued forward.

He refused to believe that this corridor was endless.

Another run, and another four years had gone by. Lin Xiao flew non-stop through this seemingly endless passage, not knowing how many kilometers he had covered, and just as he was reaching the limits of his patience, he finally saw a bright light emerge amid the darkness that hadn’t changed in years.

His spirits lifted immediately as he continued forward. The light grew brighter, soon filling the entire passageway, until another portal of light appeared at the end.

Lin Xiao stopped to rest for a bit, waiting for his physical and mental energies to recover to their peak before he stepped through the portal.

"Creak!"

A crisp sound of a door opening echoed through the space, attracting the attention of more than a dozen gazes towards a large hall, reminiscent of a cathedral, where a large wooden door embedded in the wall was pushed open by a hand, and a bald head appeared in the view of those watching.

The gazes crisscrossed back and forth, and Lin Xiao, keeping his posture of pushing the door open, looked surprised at the more than a dozen figures in the hall, his eyes flickering rapidly as he hesitated to enter.

The hall was like a grand cathedral, with a vast arching dome overhead, lined with windows sculpted in a fashion similar to those often seen in churches, with beautiful yet strange images. The walls around were adorned with bizarre reliefs that seemed commonly monstrous, yet extremely distorted.

Lin Xiao glanced past these strange decorations and quickly focused on the figures at the center of the hall, who were looking back at him with eyes full of various and ambiguous intentions, or perhaps monsters is a more fitting term.

Eyes filled with delight, hunger, anticipation, hatred, greed, desire, and other differing emotions appeared in the sights of various figures, making Lin Xiao extremely vigilant. He slowly jumped down from the door set in the wall, which disappeared as he landed.

These dozen or so figures clearly came from different races, with two that seemed akin to the Human Race.

The reason he says seemed is because they only looked like humans on the surface, but it was hard to determine their true nature because their auras felt incredibly distorted to him, teetering constantly between sanity and madness, creating an impression of normalcy veiling hidden insanity.

Beyond that, the floor of the cathedral was littered with gray-white bone fragments and withered skeletons, with the majority being clearly non-human, indicating that countless Other Races had died here.

And now came the question.

Wasn’t this the Ancestral Tomb of the Emperor of Myriad Forms? Why were there so many of other races here?

Could it be that during this time, the Ancestral Tomb had been exposed, with outsiders entering?

Lin Xiao did not know, but his guard was up even more.

The dozen figures seemed equally wary of him, watching him with eyes full of greed and hunger since he arrived, yet not launching any attack, just observing him from a distance, like Lin Xiao was observing them.

After a while, one of the two figures that resembled humans stepped forward a few paces, asking loudly and with a smile:

"Hey, do you have any food?"

He spoke in the ancient universal language commonly used by traditional wizards, a dialect typically employed only among ancient high-ranked wizards for communication; it was seldom used in modern times. Clearly, this unknown being from an unknown world was once a traditional wizard and had likely been a rank 8 wizard to have traversed the length of that dark corridor to reach this place.

Although Lin Xiao did not know what use he had for food, as their strength should have made eating unnecessary, considering that he knew nothing about this place and rarely encountered someone who seemed capable of communication, he nodded and took out a chunk of energy-rich meat from his bosom and threw it over.

The man quickly caught the meat chunk, his mouth opened wide, and to Lin Xiao’s shock, it split beyond normal limits, reaching his ears, forming a monstrous gaping maw that stuffed the entire piece of meat inside, chewing vigorously as blood oozed from between his teeth, his insane eating manner combined with the madness hidden beneath the surface made Lin Xiao subconsciously frown.

After gobbling down the meat chunk, the man looked at Lin Xiao with longing and asked expectantly:

"Got any more?"

Lin Xiao pondered for a moment, then shook his head:

"No more."

The man’s face instantly fell with disappointment, a touch of melancholy as he lowered his head. A strange aura made Lin Xiao subconsciously want to say something, but he saw droplets of viscous fluid fall from the man’s bowed head. The next second, the man’s head snapped up furiously. His mouth, now split to the ears revealing two rows of interlocked sharp teeth, yelled crazily:

"No, you do have it!"

It burst into insane laughter, the inexplicable aura infecting the surrounding figures, all of whom opened their wide mouths, split to the ears, and moved to encircle him.

"So tell me, are these people or monsters?"

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Lin Xiao sighed, raised his hand, and pressed down on the head of the humanoid monster that pounced quickest, a horrifying suction emanating from his palm. The creature let out a scream as its head rapidly contracted and imploded, within a second being inhaled into his palm, its body quickly following suit.

"Burp!"

Lin Xiao belched involuntarily, a look of satisfaction spreading across his face.

"It’s been a while since I was this full."

Though the figure didn’t seem all that powerful, its true form was a Rank 8 strongman, its essence still present, giving a satisfying sense of fulfillment with each swallow.

The remaining figures were undeterred by the death of their companion and continued to rush at him.

Lin Xiao punched one after another, sending each emaciated exotic strongman, trapped here for who knows how long, flying. He grabbed one with his hand, a miniature black hole opened in his palm, and he swallowed it whole.

Following the same method, he devoured a dozen figures one by one, replenishing the vitality he had expended, until only one remained.

After the digestion was complete, he had a moment to look around.

Scanning the room, he quickly noticed something unusual about the carvings on the walls of the circular hall. He approached one, which depicted a monster with a triangular head like an insect and yet a body like that of a graceful woman. The creature was facing outward, so that one could see its prominent fierceness and deep valleys.

Lin Xiao’s gaze fixed on the gigantic compound eyes atop the insect-like triangular head, his keen perception sensing something odd about the relief. Yet his perception was insufficient, and he was unable to apprehend the nature of its oddity at the moment.

After contemplating for a moment, he turned and approached the humanoid monster he had left half-devoured, pointing at the carving, he asked:

"What is this place, and how do I leave?"

The humanoid monster opened its serrated mouth to bite at him but was backhandedly slapped to the ground by Lin Xiao. He wound up a punch and smashed it hard against the creature’s forehead, the crisp ’crack’ sounding as its skull was shattered by his bare hands.

"What is this place, and how do I leave?"

The humanoid monster struggled to open its mouth, its tongue, which had split into more than a dozen thin strips like a snake, shot out at his face but was blocked by an invisible barrier.

Lin Xiao, ignoring the forked tongue plastered and sucking powerfully on the shield, gave the carving a thorough look and then shook his head:

"It seems communication is impossible."

He reached out and grabbed the monster’s skull, the powerful suction deforming the head as it was absorbed into the black hole in his palm.

After dealing with these matters, he clapped his hands and returned to the relief on the wall, mumbling to himself:

"My dear, can you spot the anomaly?"

A moment later, Tishar’s surprised voice echoed in his mind:

"How did you end up in the Lost Realm?"

Lin Xiao wondered aloud:

"I entered those coordinates and passed through a passage until I reached the end, and here I am."

Tishar’s soothing voice sounded again:

"It seems that the All-Embracing Progenitor placed his Ancestral Tomb within the Lost Realm. You need to find the correct door that leads into the Lost Realm to enter."

"Can you find the right door?"

It was clear that this place was the first challenge set by the Divine Emperor of All Forms. If one couldn’t even find the door to enter, it was best to head home and get some sleep.

Although the three of them were rightful heirs, the inheritance wasn’t guaranteed for them. The greatest benefit for the three rightful heirs was omitting the last and most difficult and dangerous hurdle of getting the Ancestor’s Mark; they still had to rely on themselves to pass the previous tests. If they couldn’t even overcome the initial challenges, the inheritance would surely elude them.

According to what his girlfriend, Xie Yufei, had told him during a casual chat, if none of them could access the inheritance this time, the Main World would intervene according to the rules. They would then open the Divine Emperor of All Forms’ inheritance to all the Sons of the Divine Realm in the Main World, allowing anyone to descend into the Wizard World to vie for the inheritance.

Naturally, they would have to start from scratch, without the privileges granted to the three of them. Not only would they have to overcome the earlier trials, but they would also directly face the final challenge posed by the Divine Emperor of All Forms, which was much more difficult than what they faced.