"This spirit herb was originally offered to me by someone during the days of southern conquest and northern wars. Back then, I stumbled into a Cave-Heaven Paradise, a place with no flames of war, only a peaceful village and a hundred or so villagers."
"To persuade me to withdraw my troops and leave, the villagers presented this spirit herb to me, claiming it held the secret of immortality."
The man on the Dragon Throne slowly spoke, his voice hoarse and tinged with a sigh, as if recalling a moment from the distant past. His eyes grew dim, gazing through countless years of the long river of time.
"Cave-Heaven Paradise?" Evan Lin raised his brow slightly.
Once one's cultivation reaches mastery, it’s possible to use certain formations and items to open up a personal micro-world. On the Immortal Martial Continent, these micro-worlds are also called Cave-Heaven Paradises.
"That's right. My army only entered that realm by accident. We’d passed that way more than ten times before, but only that once did we stray inside."
"This spirit herb wasn’t withered at first—it was a golden blossom. When I first received it, nothing seemed special, until one night I dreamed of someone who taught me how to use it."
After speaking, the man sighed a few times, sounding deeply exhausted.
"So you built this Road of the Dead because of it?"
Evan Lin’s brow lifted. To him, the man before him, no matter his strength or anything else, showed no real brilliance. In Evan’s eyes, he was just kept alive by the blood qi constantly leaking from the Silver Hellgate and the blood pool.
This could be considered a kind of half-immortality, but it means being imprisoned here forever. The moment I step outside, I'll be reduced to ashes in an instant.
"This Road of the Dead wasn't made by me. In fact, when I arrived, it was already like this. All I did was use Thornridge Mountain as the foundation to build a tomb for myself."
"The only reason I'm sitting here before you is for one person." At this, the withered face on the Dragon Throne softened for once, revealing rare tenderness. "She met me only in dreams, and only in dreams could we meet. I hoped that in this life, I might see her just once with my own eyes, even if only once."
"All this, just to see one person?"
Evan Lin was slightly stunned.
"Yes. She was a handmaid of the Queen Mother of the West. It was because of her that I started this massive construction, building a mausoleum here."
"She told me how I could meet her. So I followed her instructions, summoned countless wandering warlocks, and mobilized countless soldiers to slightly reshape Thornridge Mountain."
"She originally resided within that spirit herb in your hand. One day, she said she was leaving for a distant place, and promised to meet me again in three thousand years. From then on, the spirit herb completely withered, and I was left with a constant sense of anxiety and unease."
"So, not long ago, when a Mojin Tomb-Raider Captain broke into the tomb where I’d trapped the warlocks, I simply let him take the withered spirit herb."
"But that man was greedy. Besides the spirit herb, he also took a ginseng root and a piece of blood jade. That blood jade was once a corpse-dao warlock who survived here by feeding on yin energy. Now, I suppose it's become a scourge in the outside world." The man on the Dragon Throne looked lost in thought.
"So from beginning to end, you were nothing but a puppet. That so-called handmaid of the Queen Mother only wanted to use you to hijack reincarnation and descend into the world again."
Evan Lin spoke coldly.
Hearing this, the man on the Dragon Throne hung his head in thought. His face, gaunt as bare bone, looked especially grim.
He did not reply, and the atmosphere around them suddenly grew heavy.
Nearby, the Ox-Head and Horse-Face Wardens who had just dumped all the corpses from the Great Bronze Sarcophagus into the blood pool raised their eyes to look at Evan Lin, their gazes cold and sinister.
Outside the Silver Hellgate, the ghost-faced men who had been bowing and kowtowing silently crawled on all fours inside the gate, watching from afar.
Their eyes turned to the high platform, staring at the emperor on the Dragon Throne with his eyes half closed, their bodies trembling.
"I am not a puppet! I spent a hundred years with her—a hundred years!"
The man on the Dragon Throne rasped, his eyes toward Evan Lin filled with murderous intent.
He kept waiting, waiting for that woman to return as promised. But in the lonely years that followed, he often found himself longing for his old life as an emperor.
He had doubted her promises before, but no matter what, he refused to believe Evan Lin's words.
If that was really true, then he had been nothing but her pawn all along!
"You only knew her for a hundred years. Do you know how long it would take to build this Road of the Dead?" Evan Lin shook his head, his expression indifferent. "I've seen the terrain map here—there are eighteen yin nodes, basically piles of corpses. How many warlocks and tomb-builders did you bring?"
"Just look at the beast bones in the blood pool—they've been dormant for thousands of years at least. In other words, before you, others came here, fell under her influence, and forged a fake Road of the Dead for her!"
"Apparently, the last person failed for some reason, so she chose you. Now the Road of the Dead is self-sustaining—all it needs is time. In other words, you're no longer useful to her, so she abandoned you."
"You're clinging to life here, still hoping she'll come find you? If she did appear, the first thing she'd do is refine you completely."
"A puppet is a puppet—why not admit it? If I'm right, there should be four ancient beasts in the blood pool: White Tiger, Vermilion Bird, Black Tortoise, and Azure Dragon."
"Did she ever tell you this blood pool is actually called the Four Spirit Blood Array?"
Evan Lin spoke coldly.
The moment he stepped through the Silver Hellgate and saw the blood pool, he understood everything.
The Four Spirit Blood Array—Evan Lin had only glimpsed this ancient formation once in an old scroll. It uses the power of the array to imprison the corpses of the Four Guardian Beasts, keeping their souls bound even after their flesh dissolves. Fresh corpses are constantly thrown in to keep the beasts' spirits alive, their essence endlessly siphoned into the formation.
Even in the Immortal Martial Continent’s most ancient secret places, no one had ever truly seen this array. If Evan Lin hadn’t studied it deeply, he might never have understood its secrets.
"The White Tiger is usually a tiger or leopard, the Vermilion Bird is a spirit bird wreathed in fire, the Black Tortoise must be a tortoise over five hundred years old, and the Azure Dragon requires a serpent over three hundred years old."
As Evan Lin finished speaking, the man on the Dragon Throne suddenly opened his eyes wide, staring at Evan in disbelief and murmuring, "How do you know all this?"
As Evan Lin spoke, a long, pale bone rolled through the blood pool.
Even without flesh, the bones of that three-hundred-year-old serpent still radiated a chilling aura.
Those ancient beast bones, from ages long past, floated quietly in the blood pool. Their bleached skulls rose from the blood, all turning to stare at Evan Lin.
No eyes, no flesh—just pale bones, all that remained was an icy coldness.