Chapter 769 - 699: Land of Abundant Herbs_1
At that moment,
In the western frontiers of the Divine Realm, vast mountains and rivers stretched far and wide, with mighty rivers surging and towering ranges extending unbroken.
This was a paradise for birds and beasts.
Among each towering mountain, one could see the figures of rare birds and strange animals, with white cranes gliding through the peaks enveloped in golden light, fierce tigers with wings on their backs soaring through the vast sky, and gigantic blood-red ants as large as oxen, gnawing at the corpses of jiaolongs…
Here, was the Sacred Beast Mountain!
The Sacred Beast Mountain had an ancient history.
It’s said that since the creation of the Yang Realm, this land had been the ancestral grounds of divine beasts, where only creatures with the rarest and most powerful bloodlines could survive.
Claiming to possess traces of rare ancient blood, the Fire Phoenix, the Yinglong with real dragon scales, the giant serpent with its nine undead heads…
Since ancient times, this place had been one of the strongest forces in the Divine Realm.
Even the Imperial Court had never established true dominion over this land; the mighty ones of the past Imperial Court held a degree of fear for the Sacred Beast Mountain!
Since the Divine Realm entered what’s called the “Age of Grey Mist,” the Sacred Beast Mountain had likewise acquired the Origin of the Grey Mist.
The first to acquire the Origin of the Grey Mist were not the titans like the Fire Phoenix, the Yinglong, or the Nine-headed Serpent.
It was a rat—a Gold-Devouring Rat Ancestor of the Gold-Devouring Rat Clan!
Since the Gold-Devouring Rat Clan obtained the Origin of the Grey Mist, in less than half a year, the era where many kings coexisted came to an end.
The Gold-Devouring Rat Clan dominated the whole Sacred Beast Mountain.
The Gold-Devouring Rat Ancestor was even revered as the King of Ten Thousand Beasts!
At that moment, on Sacred Beast Peak of Sacred Beast Mountain, the highest peak!
Sacred Beast Peak, formerly the common ground of the Fire Phoenix King, the Yinglong King, the Nine-headed Serpent King, and other kings.
Now, it was the ancestral court of the Gold-Devouring Rat Clan.
Atop Sacred Beast Peak, a massive statue of a golden rat stood erect before the ancestral shrine of the Gold-Devouring Rat Clan.
At that moment, within the ancestral shrine.
A middle-aged man draped in a golden robe was indulging in a luxurious banquet.
Sacred drinks, prized Spirit Fruits, and the like go without saying, and the main dishes at the banquet even included delicacies such as dragon liver and phoenix gallbladder!
All were tributes from the Fire Phoenix Clan, the Ying Dragon Clan, and others!
The middle-aged man, eating, revealed a satisfied smile, his aura incredibly terrifying, but he sported a pair of thick, eight-character mustaches, lending him somewhat of a sneaky and rat-like appearance.
He was the Gold-Devouring Rat Ancestor of the Gold-Devouring Rat Clan, the current King of Ten Thousand Beasts, Shule Haorong!
—Emperor Haorong!
“Fire Phoenix? Yinglong? Nine-headed Serpent? Heh… in the end, they all submitted to me,”
Shule Haorong’s mouth curled into a satisfied smile.
He understood very well why the Fire Phoenix King, the Yinglong King, and others tried so hard to please him.
The Origin of the Grey Mist!
Throughout the entire Sacred Beast Mountain, only their Gold-Devouring Rat Clan had received the Origin of the Grey Mist.
It was the key to crossing the Divine Path, the key to eternity.
He couldn’t help recalling that half a year ago, while he had been searching for Spirit Fruits in a certain forest, he suddenly encountered a mysterious old man.
The bizarre old man captured him and took him to a secret land.
That secret land was teeming with numerous sacred Spirit Grasses!
However, among those sacred Spirit Grasses, poisonous plants were mingled.
The bizarre old man was preparing to use him to test the poison!
At that time, Shule Haorong was extremely terrified, the old man was very dreadful, giving off a sinister and disastrous scent; he dared not resist and could only eat a few stalks.
Fortunately, he was incredibly lucky, they were medicinal herbs rather than poisonous weeds.
Afterwards, the bizarre old man started to consume the same type of herbs that he had ingested.
As a result, that mysterious old man was actually poisoned, died on the spot, leaving behind some scattered Origins of the Grey Mist!
Shule Haorong absorbed those various Origins of the Grey Mist, becoming increasingly powerful, staying concealed until he reached the Grey Mist God Emperor Realm, then emerged to shock the entire Sacred Beast Mountain.
The Gold-Devouring Rat Clan ascended to be an Imperial Clan, and he himself, became Emperor Haochi!
Recalling all that had transpired, Shule Haorong couldn’t help but laugh. All of this was destined by the heavens!
The heavens decreed that he would unite the world!
He, was the rat of destiny!
At the same time, he also understood that the secret land growing both the poisonous weeds and medicinal herbs held great secrets.
Only, it was too terrifying; medicinal and poisonous plants were indistinguishable, and even the same plant could be medicinal at one moment and poisonous at the next!
Lured by the chance for great fortune, he spurred the Gold-Devouring Rat Clan to explore that region.
Luckily, their Gold-Devouring Rat Clan had many offspring; each rat ate one plant, if it was a Divine Medicine, they would bring it back; if it was poison, they would discard it.
After many attempts, the Gold-Devouring Rat Clan lost nearly ten million descendants, and they still weren’t enough!
But relying on this method, the Gold-Devouring Rat Clan made significant progress into the depth of the secret land, almost forging out a small path.
Especially, sometime ago, when they discovered a member of the Human Race within Sacred Beast Mountain unintentionally.
The Gold-Devouring Rat Clan treated that human as cannon fodder, throwing him into the secret land.
Yet, that human was also incredibly lucky; the rats of the Gold-Devouring Rat Clan that followed perished, but he alone came back alive!
Again and again, the Gold-Devouring Rat Clan continued to send their kin with that human into the secret land.
And each time, all of the Gold-Devouring Rat Clan would die off, while that human returned alive!
Quite the peerless lucky star…
Thanks to the existence of this peerless lucky star, their Gold-Devouring Rat Clan’s exploration of the secret land progressed even faster!
Not long ago, they extracted a few drops of deadly poison from somewhere within the secret land!
At that very moment, messengers from the Lin Family came by, actually attempting to persuade Sacred Beast Mountain and the Gold-Devouring Rat Clan to surrender.
Shule Haorong ordered his clan to pretend to agree and sent a few drops of that deadly poison, revealing to the Lin Family that they had discovered a secret land harboring great opportunities.
It wanted to lure the Lin Family’s Grey Mist God Emperor into a trap and kill him!
Only if the other Grey Mist God Emperors died, could it become the sole one!
As it pondered, a loud cry from outside had already sounded:
“Report!”
Outside the great hall, a Gold-Devouring Rat Venerable walked in joyfully and said:
“Your Majesty, God Emperor, Ao Wushuang has returned!”
Upon hearing this, Shule Haorong couldn’t help but look up and said:
“Let him in!”
Immediately, a middle-aged man stepped into the ancestral hall of the Gold-Devouring Rat Clan. He was dusty and travel-worn, but his face bore an expression of joy.
This person… was none other than Ao Wushuang!
——Ever since he had been frightened away by the Big Black Dog in the ancestral lands of the Six-Eared Macaque Tribe, he had been fleeing non-stop.
With the Venerable Grade Treasures obtained from various Great Demon clans during the coalition period, he had managed to tear through the Realm Wall and enter the Divine Realm!
During that time, when the Grey Mist Forces erupted into chaos, Ao Wushuang was full of longing. He went to seek refuge with the Lin Family with great enthusiasm.
But the Lin Family said his legs were peculiar, able to affect the Grey Mist, and called him a demonic being, wanting to kill him!
At that time, the Lin Family dispatched more than a dozen Ash Mist Divine Kings, and it was tremendously dangerous.
Ao Wushuang was scared out of his wits and fled from the Lin Family in a hurry, escaping to this mountain range.
Those Ash Mist Divine Kings arrived at Sacred Beast Mountain, only to be viewed as a provocation by Sacred Beast Mountain. Some Grey Mist beasts took action and killed those Ash Mist Divine Kings from the Lin Family.
This allowed Ao Wushuang to escape disaster…
Then, he encountered the Gold-Devouring Rat Clan and was captured to be a strong laborer, taken to a certain secret realm.
In that secret realm, various medicinal herbs grew abundantly!
During the exploration of the secret realm, Ao Wushuang felt… utterly blissful!
He consumed Spirit Fruit and Divine Medicine continuously, and his Cultivation Level was piled up to the Great God-King Realm, almost reaching Venerable status!
“Your Majesty, God Emperor, I have carved out a path in that secret realm!”
At this moment, Ao Wushuang spoke to Emperor Haochi, his face filled with pride.
In his heart, he was filled with happiness.
He had finally escaped that cursed small mountain village and clung to a real powerhouse!
The Grey Mist God Emperor was the strongest existence across the entire Yang Realm.
From today onwards, he could finally bid farewell to a vagrant life and live in peace and stability!
Upon hearing this, Emperor Haochi was immediately overjoyed.
“Take your Emperor to see it!”
Ao Wushuang and Emperor Haochi immediately left Sacred Beast Peak.
They traversed the void, and in a short while, they had already arrived in a valley.
This valley, at a glance, was filled with various medicinal herbs.
Now, among the densely packed herbs, a small path had already been made.
“God Emperor, these herbs grow very quickly, in just a few days, they might be overgrown again.”
“We need to be quick, follow me.”
Ao Wushuang spoke and led Emperor Haochi further into the valley.
…
After many twists and turns along the way, they finally reached the ultimate place of this valley.
Shule Haorong was shocked by the scene before him!
At the end of this secret realm stood a door!
“No… beyond this door… lies the supreme opportunity!”
Emperor Haochi stared at the door, his eyes emitting an unparalleled greed.
He raised his hand and struck at the door!
Boom!
At that moment, the door seemed to tremble lightly, and from the world behind it, an essence seeped through.
It seemed wild, primordial, as if it transcended all things in this world!
This wisp of essence directly shook the entire Sacred Beast Mountain.
At this moment, all beings felt apprehensive, as if sensing something more terrifying than a God Emperor!
Suddenly, the entire western frontier of the Divine Realm, as well as the forces outside Sacred Beast Mountain, were wholly on alert.
…
Within the secret realm.
“Beyond the door lies eternity; one could surpass the Divine Path!”
“But… with my own strength alone, I cannot break open this door…”
“It must be done like this, just like that!”
Emperor Haochi immediately made plans and issued an imperial edict.
…
That day, news spread from Sacred Beast Mountain:
“A secret realm has been discovered within Sacred Beast Mountain, containing secrets of a higher level of the Grey Mist Path!”
“If the God Emperor acquires it, he could reach higher planes of the Dao!”
…
As the news broke out, the Divine Realm was greatly shaken!