Chapter 590: Chapter 551: Here, She Had Been Before

The back of the giant turtle—it was the sky!

When the Corpse Demon stood up on the edge of the giant turtle’s shell and gazed down from her lofty perch, the entire experience felt different.

The world below the heavens looked so distant, so minuscule.

The high and low had swapped places. At this moment, she was no longer the pitiful Corpse Demon who had groveled on the Ancient Starry Road, begging for mercy. She was a pioneer who had set foot in the heavens!

The Corpse Demon even felt a strong impulse at that moment. ’I should turn back right now, leave, and rush into that Sky City behind me. I’ll explore the mysterious ancient city before the Human Race’s Celestial Pride gets here, take all its treasures, and then come back to kill her.’

All sorts of evil thoughts churned in the Corpse Demon’s mind, but no matter how many there were, she ultimately made no move.

She only dared to think it; she didn’t dare to act.

She even had to pray and hope that the Human Race’s Celestial Pride could also pass through the Ancient Starry Road as quickly as she had and arrive in the heavens.

The Corpse Demon raised her hand and shouted, "Xing Lan Fairy, hurry up!"

Below, at the entrance to the pitch-black passage, Song Ciwan once again used the Great Derivation Birth Skill to perform a Divination on the path ahead.

The conclusion was: a mix of good and bad fortune, where disaster and blessing were intertwined.

It wasn’t a path of certain death, so it was worth a try. She would see what this Heaven-Reaching City was all about. ’I just hope Du Xingheng is in this city,’ she thought, ’and hasn’t died in some passage along the way.’

Song Ciwan took a step forward with her ten Daoist Soldiers. With that step, she set foot upon the silk-like Ancient Starry Road.

And then she discovered that the scene before her had changed.

Just as the Corpse Demon had said, stepping onto the Ancient Starry Road was like being adrift in the Void.

Except for the extremely narrow path of light beneath her feet, everything else in the Void was pitch-black, deep, and terrifying!

The most terrifying part was the chaotic, whispering murmurs that echoed through the Void—evil, twisted, and brutal...

Indecipherable, chaotic roars collided in the Void, as if tens of thousands of evil wills were tearing at each other and screaming within. They wanted to break out of their cage, to go on a rampage, to devour, to grow, and to destroy everything!

Only the path of light underfoot carved out the world’s sole sanctuary in this Void.

Song Ciwan’s heartstrings trembled. Unlike the Corpse Demon’s vague perception, this scene before her was actually familiar to Song Ciwan!

She had been here before...

She really had been here before!

Just... just a few months ago, when her lifespan broke through its first great cycle, her Divine Thought had shot into the heavens at that very instant.

Passing Beyond the Heavens, she had seen this very Void, filled with endless malevolence, from outside the world.

But unlike now, where she could only hear the sounds but not see their source, the last time her Divine Thought had broken through the world’s boundary, she had seen where those chaotic, twisted voices came from.

They were giant insects, crisscrossing the Void, monstrously huge and ferocious, gazing down upon the world below with infinite greed.

That was the Ancient Divine Insect Race!

So, this Ancient Divine Palace, although people called it an Earth Palace and its entrance was underground, was in reality located in the heavens.

It was clearly related to the Ancient Divine Insect Race, but its allegiance—

It seemed the Ancient Divine Palace’s allegiance did not lie with the Ancient Divine Insect Race. Or to be more precise, the original builders of the Ancient Divine Palace were likely enemies of the Ancient Divine Insect Race.

This Ancient Starry Road and that Heaven-Reaching City stood in the Void as if they were suppressing something!

Song Ciwan felt a thrill, as if she were once again touching upon an ancient truth. Stepping onto this Ancient Starry Road was just as the faint, ethereal voice in the Void had said: "Wayfarer, I am the Ancient Starry Road. Walk this road to reach Heaven-Reaching City and witness the secrets of the past and present."

The voice was androgynous, with a calm, cold, and mechanical quality.

It addressed Song Ciwan as "Wayfarer"!

"Wayfarer, you must answer questions to walk this road. One question, one step. Are you ready?"

Song Ciwan calmed her emotions and scanned her surroundings.

The path of light at her feet was barely half a foot wide, only allowing one person to pass. The chaotic voices in the Void exerted a strange tearing force, as if trying to pull Song Ciwan off the narrow path at any moment.

This must have been what the Corpse Demon had experienced earlier.

No wonder she had looked so shaky and unstable.

However, Song Ciwan was at the Fourth Layer of Body Refining and also possessed the Cultivation of the Innate Fourth Transformation Acupoint Fusion Realm Great Perfection. She had opened all three hundred and sixty acupoints, so the tearing sensation in the Void couldn’t shake her in the slightest.

The ten Daoist Soldiers formed a line pressed tightly behind her. They looked rather comical, like a string of chicks following a mother hen.

Song Ciwan said calmly, "I am ready."

The mechanical voice in the Void then said, "A traveler of old went on a journey of 108,000 leagues. If he traveled seventy-five leagues per day, how many days would it take for him to complete the round trip?"

Another math problem!

This type of question was extremely easy for Song Ciwan to answer. Compared to vague, mystical questions with no standard answer, arithmetic would not deceive anyone.

Without much thought, she immediately answered, "A one-way trip would take 1,440 days, which is four years. The round trip would take 2,880 days, for a total of eight years!"

After she answered, an inexplicable sense of restraint seemed to loosen. Song Ciwan took a single step, and instantly covered a distance of about thirty yards.

For answering that one question, she had advanced thirty yards!

Soon, the emotionless voice from the Void spoke again, asking the second question: "In a deep valley of ancient Ghost Spirits, there is a furnace. The old and weak can enter it to live another life, but the price is to endure immense torment, return to the mortal world, and slaughter all their friends and family. Would you rather be the one reborn from the furnace, holding the butcher’s knife, or be an innocent friend or family member who dies with a clear conscience?"

This question was both strange and tricky.

At first glance, it seemed similar to the questions the Corpse Demon had faced, but its substance was completely different!

Song Ciwan’s eyes brightened slightly, her speculations about the Ancient Divine Palace growing clearer.

She declared, "I would be the one to destroy the furnace!"

WHOOSH!

A spark of fire fell from the sky and instantly merged into Song Ciwan’s body, causing the energy in all her limbs and meridians to boil in an instant.

Her long-stagnant Body Refining Technique’s experience suddenly surged by a large amount.

Thunder Fire Body Devouring Technique, Fourth Layer of Opening the Universe (Masterful Skill 1,602/1,000,000).

Before this, her experience in Opening the Universe had been at the Mastery Realm. Just like that, she had skipped a minor tier, jumping directly from the Mastery Realm to the Masterful Skill Realm!

This leap in levels was a clear indicator of just how resource-intensive the Body Refining Technique was.

At the same time, Song Ciwan’s body advanced several hundred yards.

The mechanical voice in the Void began to slowly state the third question: "There is an Immortal Island in the world. If the island is opened, the people of a certain region will surely come to harm. If the island is not opened, a great villain from beyond this world cannot be eliminated. This villain’s evil is so great it could plunge the world into misery, shatter nations, dehumanize its people, and bring about an inescapable global catastrophe! May I ask, Wayfarer: this Immortal Island... do you open it, or not?"

The third question was more difficult than all the previous ones.

This was the trolley problem!

At that moment, every nerve in Song Ciwan’s body hummed, fully engaged.

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