Quinn Shepherd led Myles Jiang out of the World Bridge, glanced around, and couldn't help showing his surprise.
Set in the heart of the Great Ruins, the World Bridge was flanked by two stone highways, each thirty-six zhang wide. Ancient temples, shrines, and palaces clustered around it, forming a city two or three times larger than Dragoncrest City, bustling with people.
All these temples and relics had been moved here from the Great Ruins to ward off its darkness. Countless stone statues were enshrined inside, incense burning endlessly.
Many villagers from the Great Ruins had settled in the city, no longer risking their lives as before; some had become merchants linking the Central Lands and Western Lands.
There were also schools—elementary and university—teaching cultivation techniques and divine arts, though none matched the sanctity of the Imperial Academy or Four Great Academies.
Outside the city, vast clusters of ancient ruins served as shelters for nearby Ruins beasts to escape the darkness—a considerate arrangement.
In this new city, old and new buildings were harmoniously interwoven. Even at a glance, Quinn sensed the builders' high cultural literacy and architectural talent, and their appreciation of beauty.
"Old trees sprout new branches, the new highlighting the ancient charm—truly admirable. Maybe it's just that after seeing so many crooked buildings and artificial suns in High-Emperor Heaven, coming back to the Great Ruins feels so familiar..."
The Taotie Bone Box came clattering out of the World Bridge behind him. Quinn shook his head—the box had been sticking to him ever since Bruno the Dragon-Qilin and Lina the Spirit Fox went off to train with Black Tiger God, refusing to leave his side.
"Cult Master, I can feel the dragon's call again."
He had once sailed the Moon Ship through this area, entering the folded-space seal that imprisoned the Other Shore Ark from nearby.
The Moon Ship's tracks vanished here, leaving behind several small lakes in front of the gorge.
Here, too, he'd encountered many monsters and even demon gods, all crazed as they attacked the Moon Ship—he'd slain countless of them.
Yet now, returning to this place, he saw not a single corpse or bone.
The gorge before the lakes was filled with fine, powdery sand—so fine that not even a fingernail-sized pebble could be found among it.
The cliffs on either side were covered in enormous characters—not human script, but runes, extremely complex.
Quinn did not enter the gorge, but stood outside, studying the runes on the cliff. "It's a kind of divine script, used for sealing," he said.
He activated All-Gods Natural Art, conjuring a small whirlwind atop the sand in the gorge, trying to awaken a sand giant.
But the sand only shifted briefly, then settled back into stillness.
"Impossible! All-Gods Natural Art can awaken the spirit in all things—why can't I awaken the sand here?"
But these magic creatures in the darkness of the Great Ruins were different—they were truly present, solidly existing in the dark.
"There are so many secrets in the Great Ruins..."
Quinn sighed as Myles Jiang pointed out the path, and they pressed onward.
Two days later, they reached the northwest edge of the Great Ruins. The sun rose as usual. Quinn looked around and laughed, "We're not far from the Other Shore Ark. I once sailed here on the Moon Ship—look, those are its footprints."
The marks left by the Moon Ship had turned into small lakes, with strange fish swimming about inside.
"The dragon's call is close by!"
Myles Jiang glanced around, then suddenly soared into the air, searching in all directions before heading west.
Quinn hurried after him. They arrived at a canyon, and suddenly all fell silent—no sound at all. Quinn frowned, scanning the area, and grabbed Myles Jiang, who was about to follow the dragon's call into the gorge. "Wait a moment."
Myles Jiang didn't understand.
Quinn inspected the area, his gaze falling on the Moon Ship's footprints. "This is where the Other Shore Ark is sealed—very close to the seal itself. The Other Shore Ark was a divine ship built by the Heaven-Craft Clan for migration. They intended to carry the living beings and gods of the Pioneer Age to Carefree Haven, but the ship was shattered here. The dragon's call nearby could mean trouble; it's odd that not even a single Ruins beast is around..."
He crouched down, scooped up a handful of yellow sand, and suddenly grunted, struggling to lift his hand.
Myles Jiang, puzzled, stepped forward to try grabbing some sand himself, but couldn't lift it—every grain was impossibly heavy. A handful of sand weighed as much as a mountain!
Quinn let go, and the fine grains streamed down, thundering against the sand below with a sound like rolling thunder.
"This isn't ordinary sand—it's spirit weapons!"
Quinn kept one last grain in his palm, blew a breath of yuanqi over it, and the speck shot into the air, spinning and swelling until it was dozens of acres across, roaring as it sliced through the sky with a deafening sound!
When the energy from Quinn's yuanqi was spent, the boulder shrank back into a grain of sand and dropped to the ground.
Myles Jiang stared in shock at the sand filling the gorge.
There were countless grains of sand here—possibly billions. If every grain could become as massive as the one just now, the weight would be unimaginable.
"The divine script on both sides of the canyon is a seal, but it's designed to trigger the power of this sand. Step inside, and the formation will activate."
Quinn opened his divine eyes and gazed up at the sky. Suddenly, he exhaled, and mist boiled overhead, condensing into rain.
The rain fell, but none of it reached the gorge—instead, it was blocked by an invisible barrier, the droplets forming cubic cells in midair.
"The seal here is linked with the Other Shore Ark's seal. There's no way to enter from above."
He flew higher, peering deep into the canyon and frowned. The gorge stretched for just over ten li, then abruptly ended—as if cut off.
"The back half of the gorge must be hidden away."
Quinn grew troubled. "If Blind Grandpa were here, he might be able to break the seal. But with my strength, trying to crack a god-level sealing and killing formation like this is extremely difficult and dangerous... Myles, let's head back. We can't step into this place."
Myles looked disappointed, but his strength was far below Quinn's. If Quinn said it couldn't be done, he had no choice but to accept.
Suddenly, Quinn froze. In front of the lakes, space rippled as if a folding fan were unfurling sky and earth, revealing a gateway.
Sky and earth kept unfolding. The sky seemed unchanged unless you looked closely, but the ground trembled as new sheets of land appeared, pushing them farther from the gate—within moments, they were a hundred li away.
Then, Quinn saw a familiar figure step through that gateway.
As soon as that familiar figure appeared, Quinn knew things had taken a turn for the worse. He spun around, trying to escape with Myles Jiang and the Taotie Bone Box, but the sky and earth folded again, dragging him rapidly back to stand before the familiar figure.
"Great Doctor Qin."
The familiar figure spoke in a familiar voice, surprised and delighted. He laughed, "The world is small, isn't it? And you've brought a dragon... and my box. Don't turn around. Keep your back to me."
Quinn felt the killing intent radiating from behind, his smile freezing. "Brother Starr, you must have found the origin of that jade pendant, right? I didn't lie to you, did I?"
"You didn't lie. I did find many ruins shaped like jade pendants."
Starr produced the mirror Lady Lurien had given him, keeping his back to Quinn as he raised it. "You didn't lie, but you deliberately lured me here and let that scheming mute trap me for half a year. If I hadn't ascended to godhood and forced him to retreat, who knows how long I'd have been stuck! The Ghost-Ear Witch God's Book of Life and Death is in your hands, isn't it?"
Quinn was pinned by Starr's aura, his heart pounding, but he kept his composure. "A youth robbed me of the Book of Life and Death. I was no match for him—he took it by force."
Starr's gaze fell on the mirror. At first, Quinn's reflection was normal, but then, slowly, the mirrored Quinn turned his head.
Starr's eyelids twitched violently. In the mirror, the youth's body began to change—a demonic eye, brimming with malice and annihilating desire, appeared on Quinn's forehead, opening slowly and drawing in souls.
Starr's hands trembled; suddenly, the mirror shattered.
Starr whirled around, only to see Quinn still standing with his back to him; he hadn't turned at all, though the Quinn in the mirror clearly had.
His mind reeled, his aura fluctuated. Quinn seized the opportunity, grabbed the Taotie Bone Box and Myles Jiang, and dashed into the gorge!