Baby with Daoist Monarch System

Chapter 1175: Chapter 535: My Lord_2

Xu Ran suddenly looked up, the chaotic light in his eyes flashing, instantly cutting off that invading will.

He coldly stared at the heart that was pounding faster and faster, not only unafraid, but rather rising with a strong fighting spirit and… greed.

“Nourishment? Well said.”

Xu Ran’s lips curled into a cold arc.

“You are indeed nourishment, but mine.”

He could feel that the origin power contained within this heart was billions of times more refined and vast than that trace of demonic qi he had refined before!

If he could completely refine this heart, how terrifying would his Chaos Furnace Body and “Primeval Dao Bone Scripture” reach?

Perhaps, it could allow him to break through the shackles of the Divine Fire Realm in one fell swoop, glimpsing the scenery beyond!

Of course, he also knew clearly that with his current strength, forcibly refining this heart would be tantamount to striking a stone with an egg, with only one outcome—being blown apart and assimilated.

“No rush, one day, I will return to throw you, this rotten-hearted thing, into my furnace and refine it into an unprecedented grand pill!”

Xu Ran left these harsh words, hesitating no longer.

He reached out his hand carefully, putting the bronze fragment that carried the secret of the “Ancient Divine Court” into his divine furnace, using chaotic qi to envelop it layer by layer, isolating its aura.

Then, he deeply bowed again to the golden skeleton.

“Senior, I accept your path, your unwillingness. If I ever reach the peak, I will certainly uncover the truth of the ‘War of the Burial Heaven,’ and let the name of the ‘Divine Court’ once again shine upon all heavens!”

This was both a promise and another marker set for himself.

Having done all this, he turned and left without reluctance.

The black heart seemingly agitated by his words, throbbed more violently, with terrifying black lightning appearing on its surface, attempting to break the seal.

But those ancient bronze chains, sensing the crisis, suddenly burst out with their last brilliance, countless ancient divine scripts lighting up, firmly suppressing it back.

Xu Ran’s figure quickly vanished into the rising darkness.

He knew that he had only just uncovered the tip of the iceberg of the Demon Suppressing Abyss’s secret.

The information within the bronze fragment, the so-called “War of the Burial Heaven” and “Ancient Divine Court,” opened a door for him to a grander, more brutal world of ancient history.

Compared to these ancient secrets, the Celestial Kingdom’s “Heavenly Dao Pursuit Record” seemed not so important.

When Xu Ran returned to the surface, three days had already passed.

Zhen Shan and Purple Lightning had been guarding the rift’s edge, and upon seeing him return safely, they were overjoyed.

“My lord!”

Xu Ran nodded to them, indicating that he was fine. His aura was more restrained and profound than before, like a peerless divine soldier sheathed, not revealing its edge, yet more dangerous.

“Give my order,” Xu Ran’s voice was steady and powerful.

“From today, the Gui Xu Domain enters the highest war preparedness. All wayward souls, regardless of root bone or origin, must cultivate beneath the Dao Transmission Stele. Within ten years, I want to see a formidable ‘Returning Ruins Dao Soldiers’!”

“Within a hundred years, I will personally nurture ten ‘Bone Kings’!”

“Within a thousand years, I want a Divine Fire Realm expert to be born under my banner!”

His series of orders made Zhen Shan and Purple Lightning’s heart spirits tremble. They heard an unprecedented urgency in those words.

“My lord, but beneath the Abyss…” Zhen Shan couldn’t help asking.

Xu Ran shook his head, his gaze looking towards the deep sky as if penetrating the barriers of time and space.

“The things beneath the Abyss cannot come out for now.”

“Our real enemy, our real battlefield, is not here.”

He opened his palm, a faint and fleeting ancient aura from that bronze fragment appearing and disappearing.

“This world is a cage, and also a… springboard.”

“I must gather enough power in the shortest time, then… break out!”

In his eyes, what was reflected was no longer just the shadow of the Celestial Kingdom, but the vast and darker star sea where the “Ancient Divine Court” was buried.

This is a new beginning, also an unbearably heavy shackle. Xu Ran realized that from the moment he accepted that bronze fragment and made that promise, his path became entangled with that buried ancient history and the tragic civilization named “Divine Court.”

The Celestial Kingdom would pursue him, the Abyss would devour him, and now, the ghosts of history have also turned their eyes on him.

The road ahead is a deep abyss, yet also a Heaven-Reaching Path.

“Transmit my decree.” Xu Ran withdrew his gaze, his voice returning to a mirror-like calm, but beneath that calm was a volcano-like power about to erupt, “Gui Xu Domain, seal the domain for a hundred years!”

“Within a hundred years, apart from the Dao Ascension Ladder and Martial Training Grounds, all conflicts must cease. Violators, regardless of status, shall be dealt with by Left Envoy Zhen Shan according to the law, soul fire refining path, as a warning!”

“Right Envoy Purple Lightning, responsible for overseeing resources, establishing merit system. Anyone climbing the Dao Ascension Ladder, breakthroughs in cultivation, or progress in combat skills, can exchange merit for cultivation resources. Resources are reserved for those who strive to advance!”

One decree after another was issued from his mouth, clear, ruthless, yet full of a sense of order.

Zhen Shan and Purple Lightning solemnly accepted the orders; they could feel their lord’s undisputable determination. This wasn’t a temporary expedient but a centennial preparation concerning life and death!

As Xu Ran’s will spread throughout the Gui Xu Domain, an invisible tension enveloped this newborn land. The Dao Transmission Stele suspended at the center became the only faith and goal for all living beings. The nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine steps of the Dao Ascension Ladder seemed like a stairway to heaven, attracting every soul unwilling to sink.

Soon, the first climber appeared.

It was a hunchbacked figure, with a soul fire so weak it seemed ready to extinguish at any moment. He had once been the lowest scavenger in the Dragon Elephant Domain, struggling to survive in endless despair for thousands of years. When Xu Ran bestowed the grand path, for the first time, a flame called “hope” ignited in his murky consciousness.

He stepped onto the first level with great difficulty.

Buzz!

A vast resonance of the Dao instantly rushed into his body, cleansing his body already riddled with holes by death qi. The excruciating pain almost made his soul fly apart, but he gritted his teeth, eyes bursting with unprecedented brilliance.

“I can… I can do it!”

He saw the possibility of changing his fate!

Under his lead, more and more wayward souls gathered the courage to step onto the Dao Ascension Ladder. Some fell after a few steps, washed away by the Dao resonance, while others persisted longer.

The entire Gui Xu Domain formed a peculiar landscape.

Tens of thousands of beings, like a band of devout pilgrims, ceaselessly climbed that stairway to heaven. They were no longer confused, no longer in despair, and in each person’s soul fire burned a flame called “progress.”

Xu Ran’s figure then disappeared on the peak of that ten-thousand-fathom fractured summit he named “Gui Xu Palace.”

He needed to retreat, to digest the enormous impact from the journey to the Demon Suppressing Abyss, and more importantly, to pry open a crack leading to the ancients from that bronze fragment.

…

Time passed silently, the years ebbed away.

For mortals, a hundred years is like turning seas into mulberry fields, but for cultivators, especially in this Gui Xu Domain without the rotation of the sun and moon, time seemed to have lost its meaning.

The only record of time passing was the Dao Ascension Ladder.

Thirty years later.

The Gui Xu Domain had already dramatically transformed.

The once one hundred thousand wayward souls, cleansed by “The Primeval Gui Xu Scripture” and tempered by the Dao Ascension Ladder, had long since been reborn. The death qi, demonic qi, grievances, and other heterogeneous energies within them were all refined into pure “Gui Xu Source Power,” their soul fire became solid and bright, and their bodies transformed from decaying bones into bodies called “Bone Soldiers” that shimmered with metallic luster.