Eternal Tale

”Roar!”

It let out a startled cry, its fur standing on end, heart pounding with fear as its flame aura flared up, countering the blood-red light! With a loud ”hum,” everything shattered. Little Red’s pupils were constricted into pinpoints; the scene it just witnessed was merely an illusion—too eerie to comprehend.

It raised its head and glanced down. The two elder brothers were still resisting the endless purple mist, which seemed to emanate either from the ancient ship or the depths of the sea itself.

Little Red took a deep breath, deciding not to observe the filthy bloodstains any longer. Instead, it began searching for corpses and storage rings.

Meanwhile, Chen Xun and the big black ox were on edge, as one ancient will after another dissipated, carrying sorrow, regret, and a sense of unwillingness.

”Old Ox, use the Power of Destruction to send these ancient seniors on their way!” Chen Xun frowned deeply. In all his years of life, he had never felt such overwhelming sadness. ”Send them off to immortality!”

”Moo!!”

The big black ox opened its spiritual apertures wide. Threads of dark light rose from the shadowy figure behind it, falling toward the purple mist, the scene growing ever more terrifying!

Chen Xun snorted coldly and stopped holding back. He fully unleashed his spiritual apertures, letting the Power of Destruction surge wildly, emitting dark beams that shot out in all directions, targeting the surrounding will and purple mist.

Boom! Boom!

Waves surged as the power raged, exceeding their expectations. Like a sea of thunder intertwined, it violently dispersed the purple mist, and the ocean surface boiled furiously.

The purple mist, attempting to rise again, was completely obliterated by the dark beams, no longer slowly dissolved by the Five Elements Force.

Chen Xun squinted slightly, realizing this was only a temporary solution. Unless they destroyed the ancient ship, the purple mist would continue to regenerate, though it no longer posed a threat.

”Moo?”

”Old Ox, this ship is strange. It doesn’t seem like it returned from a cultivator’s battlefield. That dried black blood is definitely not human blood,” Chen Xun remarked while still channeling the Power of Destruction. ”This ancient ship is massive, but we’ve managed to suppress it. The rest is up to Little Red.”

”Moo!” The big black ox glanced up, feeling that everything was under control.

Suddenly, a deep and thunderous hum echoed from within the ancient ship. The entire vessel seemed to come alive as if a terrifying will were awakening.

”Brother Xun, Brother Ox, run!” Little Red squealed slyly with excitement, dropping from the air. ”I got a storage ring!”

”Damn it! Old Ox, Little Red, run!”

”Moo!!”

Hum! Hum!

The big black ox caught Little Red as they instantly disappeared from the sea’s surface, the giant boat accelerating, leaving massive waves in its wake as it sped away at full throttle!

Boom!

Just as they escaped, the ancient ship emitted a ghostly glow, boiling and evaporating the surrounding seawater with an overwhelming aura of killing intent and battle fury.

A terrifying will began to awaken, but unable to locate its target, it slowly fell back into silence. The ancient ship resumed drifting in the Forbidden Sea as a lonely vessel lost on its way home.

In the depths of the Forbidden Sea’s demonic nest, a massive boat crashed through the waves, frantically sailing across the surface. Three excited voices echoed from its deck.

They sat under the Crane Spirit’s Five Elements Tree, their eyes fixated on a storage ring, unable to look away. The ring, evidently ancient, bore markings unseen in modern times.

”Little Red, how did you get this?”

”Brother Xun, that storage ring was hidden deep. I found it in the hand of a skeleton inside the ship’s cabin.”

”A skeleton inside?”

”Moo?”

Chen Xun and the big black ox exchanged glances. They had only seen the filthy bloodstains but no bodies.

”There were indeed some in the outer area, but I didn’t dare go deeper. After I took the storage ring, something terrifying started to awaken.”

Little Red shrank its neck, still shaken by the thought. He worried he might have touched upon some massive karmic cause. ”Brother Xun, I did my best...”

”Well done, Little Red! How is your flame aura so useful in this Forbidden Sea?”

Chen Xun fell into thought, gazing deeply at Little Red. ”Is the Flame Light Red Ancient Lion an indigenous species of this immortal cultivation world?”

The big black ox was confused, wondering what Brother Xun meant by that.

”Isn’t that the case, Brother Xun?”

”Do you know that beyond this world, there are greater worlds?” Chen Xun’s brow furrowed deeper. ”And as for these remnants of will here, they don’t seem to be from a battle between cultivators. People say this is an ancient battlefield, but no one really knows what happened.”

Little Red’s mouth dropped open, and its eyes shrank into tiny points. What is Brother Xun talking about?

”Your spiritual sense is quite special. After refining it, you’ve surpassed your own limits. Just your ability to pierce through illusions puts you ahead of us, even though we also cultivate our spiritual senses.” Chen Xun smiled slightly. ”The talent gap between species—it’s really not something that can easily be learned or caught up with.”

Little Red nodded in half-understanding. The spirit beasts of the Tian Duan Plains indeed couldn’t cultivate spiritual sense, and its own race had always been unique, but that also meant they faced much more hardship than ordinary spirit beasts.

Chen Xun turned to the big black ox, shifting the conversation.

”Old Ox, about that last will in the ancient ship—do you think we can take it on?!”

”Moo!”

The big black ox hesitated, nudging Chen Xun. If they could win, they wouldn’t have rushed to escape.

Their strength was still somewhat suppressed here, and this wasn’t the Qian Nation, where they were invincible.

”Brother Ox, what should we do with this storage ring?” Little Red blinked, unsure whether there were traps or dangers inside.

”Moo~”

The big black ox stared intently at the ancient storage ring. The restrictions on it had been eroded by time, so it could be opened directly.

Together, they extended their spiritual senses into the ring, and instantly, a collective gasp escaped them.

The space inside was vast, much larger than the storage rings given to them by Jin Yu. But it was also nearly empty, with much of it filled with ashes.

”A war camp.”

Chen Xun muttered as he pulled out a token, cast entirely in blood-red metal. He had no idea what material it was made of, yet it had remained perfectly preserved through the ages.

”Brother Xun, what is this?”

”Moo?”

Little Red and the big black ox looked at Chen Xun with puzzled expressions. This clearly belonged to humans.

”It seems to be from a human military camp, but I’m not sure.” Chen Xun shook his head and spoke aloud, ”Let’s check the rest of the items. This is all in the past, long buried in time. There’s no need to dig deeper—it has nothing to do with us.”

The big black ox and Little Red nodded in agreement without overthinking it and continued inspecting the storage ring.

There were no spirit stones inside, but there was an unsent blood-stained letter, written with essence blood, though much of it had become unreadable.

Chen Xun read each word carefully:

”Brother Yue... the path of the Immortal Realm, the future of the Great Li Realm, we need to...”

The short message seemed hurried as if there hadn’t been time to send it. Only this much was still legible.

Despite its brevity, it carried a heavy sense of sorrow and grief. Even after thousands or perhaps tens of thousands of years, that emotion had transcended time and resonated deeply within Chen Xun’s mind.

His pupils contracted slightly, and he remained silent for a long time, carefully stowing the blood-stained letter away.

Little Red let out a deep sigh. There wasn’t anything of value in the storage ring—he felt like the risk they took had been a loss.

”Moo?” The big black ox nudged Chen Xun, sensing that something was off with him.

Chen Xun patted the big black ox, smiled, and shook his head, his expression somewhat distant, as if his interest in the storage ring had waned.

”Brother Xun, aside from being scary, this ancient ship didn’t really have any treasures.”

”You don’t know anything! Can experience be compared to spirit stones?” Chen Xun laughed and playfully scolded Little Red, lifting him up and tucking him under his arm. ”Take it slow, no rush. Now that we’ve figured out how to deal with this purple mist, all the stuff here is ours.”

”Moo!” The big black ox raised its hind legs in agreement—the Power of Destruction was the perfect counter to the purple mist.

”Brother Xun, Brother Ox, you’re amazing!” Little Red cheered.

”Alright, brothers, let’s go! Time to clean up!”

Chen Xun, one hand behind his back, gazed into the distance. ”Little Red, lead the way...”

”Roar!”

”Moo!”

The big black ox and Little Red got to work, one leading the way and the other powering the giant ship, while Chen Xun began recording their experiences in his little notebook, surveying their surroundings as they pressed forward.