NOVPUBThis type of Ghastly Bleak Tree originally belonged to the dark series of trees.
But now the Ghastly Bleak Trees here seem to have a much deeper color.
Moreover, the trees are much taller than the average Ghastly Bleak Tree.
Xu Zimei was surrounded by desolation.
With Tyrant Shadow, he sliced open the bark of the tree before him, and black sap flowed out from the inside.
"It seems they have mutated," Xu Zimei muttered to himself.
Normal Ghastly Bleak Trees would not be like this.
Looking around, Xu Zimei found that almost all of the Ghastly Bleak Trees here have mutated.
And it wasn’t just the trees— even the shrubs and flowers underfoot had mutated as well.
As he continued forward, he couldn’t shake this very gloomy feeling.
It wasn’t just because of the weather, it was as if countless pairs of eyes were watching him from the shadows.
......
Annihilation Ridge was once just a perilous place.
It was said that after The Great Emperor of the Three Blades’ battle to bear Destiny,
the resentment of living beings was so great that every life here was cursed.
In the end, it became one of the Forbidden Lands.
Xu Zimei himself did not believe this claim.
Although he had not been to Annihilation Ridge in his past life, he knew of it from various documents and rumors.
He had used the Chaos Pearl early on to traverse the River of Fate to observe the evolution of Annihilation Ridge.
Some things were beyond his expectations, and he had been prepared for them for quite some time.
But what needed to be guarded against were the more detailed things.
......
Walking inside the dark, gloomy forest, all the surrounding trees were the same.
After walking for most of the day, Xu Zimei found that he still couldn’t get out of the forest.
And he had the illusion that he was marching in place.
There was a mysterious force suppressing the sky above, making it difficult for Martial Artists to fly.
Continuing forward, Xu Zimei spotted a large clearing not far away.
In the middle of this clearing, there was a stone table.
Beside the stone bench sat a figure in a black robe.
Only when Xu Zimei entered did he realize that a chessboard was set up on the stone table.
And next to him, the figure in the black robe was thin and skeletal.
His whole body was skin and bone, his eyes lifeless, like a walking corpse.
His frail body was enveloped in a large black robe.
Seeing Xu Zimei’s arrival, the black-robed figure slowly began to arrange the chessboard on the table.
An elderly voice emanated from within.
"Win the chessboard, and you can leave this place," said the voice.
"And if I lose?" asked Xu Zimei.
"Then you’ll end up like him," the figure in black pointed to a chess piece on the board as he spoke.
"Interesting," Xu Zimei smiled and sat down on a stone bench on the other side of the stone table.
His gaze fell on the nearby chessboard.
Within the chessboard, there was a void, too many scenarios and contents.
It seemed to contain a whole world.
When Xu Zimei looked again attentively, he saw the chessboard suddenly return to normal.
"Are you ready?" asked the black-robed figure calmly.
"Shouldn’t you tell me the rules first?" Xu Zimei asked.
This chessboard was unlike any that he knew of, and there were many aspects he couldn’t understand.
"You’ll know when you enter."
The figure in black waved his right hand, and suddenly, a boundless dark energy surged from his hand.
The scene in front of Xu Zimei shifted, and when he came to his senses, he found himself standing in a starry space.
......
"Close your eyes, and you will understand," said the black-robed figure indifferently.
Xu Zimei smiled and slowly closed his eyes.
At this moment, he discovered that his Spirit Perception was incredibly clear.
The chessboard itself constituted a world.
Moreover, the outline of this world was established based on Yuan Central Continent.
Inside, there were many places identical to those in Yuan Central Continent.
However, it differed from Xu Zimei’s True Fate World.
The world he currently found himself in was illusory.
Nothing truly existed here.
When Xu Zimei opened his eyes once again, he had come to understand the situation here.
The chessboard world he was in was designed after Yuan Central Continent.
It’s just that there were too many incompletenesses.
The starry sky he stood upon was crowned by the firmament.
At this moment, the firmament was in turmoil, with a vortex appearing right in its center.
This boundless vortex spanned the entire firmament.
At the source of the vortex, it seemed that something was being nurtured.
"Destiny," Xu Zimei’s pupils contracted as he said somewhat breathlessly.
"No, it is also an illusion."
Destiny was converging, and beneath it, countless people had already begun to rush toward it frantically.
Xu Zimei couldn’t make out the faces of these people; they seemed to be shrouded in mist.
There was no blood, nor any grandiose momentum.
The bodies of these people who died in combat would simply dissipate.
The only thing that caught Xu Zimei’s attention was the person at the very front, carrying three blades on his back.
He was closest to Destiny and suppressed everything in the vicinity.
The moment the Three Blades were drawn, no one around him could rival even a single one of his moves.
At this time, that man, standing above Hengyu, was invincible and supreme.
An eternal and elegant presence.
...
Despite not being able to see that person’s face clearly, Xu Zimei was certain that it was the Great Emperor of the Three Blades.
The scene now before him was precisely that when the Great Emperor of the Three Blades bore the weight of Destiny.
However, the current scene omitted many details and failed to reflect the bloody cruelty of that time.
At this moment, Xu Zimei turned his head to look at the robed figure before him.
...
The world he found himself in reminded him of someone.
Someone ancient, or rather, someone who should have died long ago.
As Xu Zimei’s gaze settled, the robed figure remained silent for a long time before finally saying, "Please break the game."
With the robed figure’s words coming to an end, the scene in the sky instantly transformed.
All those contesting for Destiny vanished without a trace.
Only two people remained beneath the vortex.
One was the person at the forefront with three blades on his back.
The other was a person on the ground, draped in a starry robe.
...…
The faces of these people were indistinct, like chess pieces frozen in place.
"You remind me of someone," Xu Zimei said.
"Please break the game," the robed figure, ignoring Xu Zimei’s words, repeated flatly.
"Starry Ancient God, right," Xu Zimei said.
Upon hearing Xu Zimei’s words, the robed figure slowly lifted his head.
Looking at Xu Zimei, he fell silent for a while before repeating, "Please break the game."
...
The Starry Ancient God, once a legend of the same era as the Great Emperor of the Three Blades.
Perhaps in that era, his fame was significant.
But after several epochs of transition, once the dust settled,
the names of many ancient powerhouses had long been forgotten in the silent flow of time.
Xu Zimei only knew of such a person while paying attention to Annihilation Ridge.
After all, people always remember the final victor.
Back then, the Starry Ancient God entered Annihilation Ridge to compete for Destiny and never returned, not once making his way back.
He was the most distinctive among all the contenders of Destiny.
Everything stemmed from his cultivation of the Starry Ancient Realm.
