Chapter 56: The Uncanny

Waves of energy tore through the sky, which seemed to wail in sorrow, as if all living things were weeping.

“A Saint has fallen!”

Deep within the cosmos, a Saint had perished, felled by another formidable Saint King. Even beings of such exalted rank could not withstand the inevitable fate.

With the demise of this Saint King, the divine herb finally found its rightful owner.

Inside, Master Jin trembled with emotion. “Senior Luo’s prophecy has come true… a Saint has truly fallen!”

His bloodline was half human, half demon; the demonic part traced back to the lineage of the Golden Tortoise. Though shallow, he had cultivated the clan’s techniques, treading a steady path.

“The era of chaos is upon us. Where should I go from here?”

Not only Master Jin but many cultivators without backing began to worry deeply about their futures.

Those who had ventured into the Emperor’s Tomb scoured far and wide for medicinal herbs, exploring every corner, even risking clan extermination disasters to find a means to delay death.

Those who had never entered the tomb worried about the future. Chaos was already manifesting; even ancient noble families and sacred lands were becoming restless. The influence of the crimson curse was terrifying, irreversible, and fatal—only the divine herb could postpone the end.

Those closest to the source had the advantage, and defending their own was most convenient.

News kept breaking out: many sacred lands’ divine herb storages were raided by thieves. Whether these were insiders or outsiders remained unclear.

Though vast, sacred lands had limited stocks of divine herbs.

Most of these herbs were preallocated by ancient ancestors, leaving many cultivators hopeless. Facing the crimson curse crisis, they had no choice but to take desperate risks.

Otherwise, how could the intricate formations protecting the sacred lands be so easily breached, allowing divine herbs to be stolen?

Many sacred lands had begun to guard against internal theft; without sufficient force to suppress it, chaos would have erupted long ago.

If even the sacred lands were in such turmoil, what of other factions?

Rumors frequently circulated that a certain sect had secretly cultivated a divine herb, originally reserved for their ancestor to extend his life. Yet, for unknown reasons, the secret leaked.

That very night, several powerful figures appeared outside the sect. Within a single night, thousands of sect members were beheaded without exception; the sect was utterly massacred. The herb garden was looted bare, and the legacy manuals were plundered by various forces.

There were even whispers that a Saint might have been involved!

The strongest cultivator of that sect, the ancestor, was only a Great Power realm cultivator. The newly matured divine herb, carefully nurtured from the ancestor’s seed, was stolen, and the entire sect wiped out without survivors.

Similarly, some audacious cultivators ventured into forbidden life zones, barely surviving countless dangers to seize half a divine herb. But they were ambushed by other powerful cultivators, who robbed them en route.

The thieves, quarrelling over their spoils, turned on each other. The herb changed hands multiple times before finally disappearing without a trace.

In short, for the divine herb—the only known remedy against the crimson curse—cultivators across the land fought with bloodshot eyes, recklessly abandoning all else. Even brothers betrayed each other, loving couples schemed against one another, and once-honored master-disciple relationships fell into treachery and patricide.

The cultivation world was descending into chaos!

Yet this was not the end. Soon, it was discovered that the corpses of those slain by the crimson curse were reanimating, turning on their former friends and family with murderous intent.

At first, these were skeletal remains from the Wheel Sea realm, then from the Dao Palace secret realm, and later from the Four Extremes secret realm…

Their methods of killing resembled the monsters within those secret realms.

Unlike the monsters, which could not leave the realms and only roamed the outskirts, these cursed corpses were unbound by such restrictions.

Moreover, these corpses were impossible to kill. Even shattering their bones caused them to reassemble. Lacking souls, they moved by a strange red mark, inheriting the memories of their former selves and hunting down their closest kin one by one.

…

Within a secret realm, the Emperor’s Tomb.

The situation for the Azure Emperor was grim. Deep in the tomb, all the strange phenomena outside originated from a single corpse.

That corpse was suppressed by the Wild Tower, being gradually extinguished and restrained.

It was also a skeleton, but its skull held a dark crimson flame, containing the consciousness of the deceased. Now only a flicker remained; barring unforeseen circumstances, it would be completely annihilated by the Wild Tower.

“You need not resist, boy. No matter what, you cannot escape my control. Having fallen under my curse, unless you are an Emperor alive, you will obediently become my new body!” The flame’s spiritual voice echoed.

“Rest assured, I will never let your body become a mere skeleton like the others! I will inherit all of you, including your memories, becoming a new you!

I am very satisfied with this body! Deeply rooted, it will one day attain the Emperor’s path and become a peerless Demon Emperor!”

Killing intent gleamed in the Azure Emperor’s eyes. The divine Azure Lotus weapon on his chest suppressed the red mark on his forehead.

The Azure Lotus’s power was terrifying, capable of breaking myriad laws and erasing rules, yet it failed to extinguish the red mark and was currently at a disadvantage. The red mark continuously eroded the Azure Emperor’s spiritual sea.

“What exactly are you?”

“My origin… heh… I am the supreme and unfathomable Strange Clan! Lords of all heavens and worlds, eternal and indestructible supreme rulers!” the dark crimson flame declared.

“Strange Clan? Never heard of it! Arrogant beyond measure!” the Azure Emperor scoffed.

The crimson flame was unperturbed. “Of course you haven’t! Mortals in this world are shallow and ignorant, foolish beyond belief. How could you have heard of the sanctity of our Strange Clan?

One day, our brilliance will illuminate this land; our footsteps will tread across this universe. You will all be our prey, our sacrifices!”

The Azure Emperor sneered, “If you were truly so powerful, why have you fallen to this state? Why do none of your so-called Strange Clan kin come to your aid?”

The crimson flame’s tone shifted to anger. “You know nothing! I am merely the inheritor of the Strange Clan’s legacy, not a true member! Should a true supreme ruler descend, not only this tower, but even the so-called ancient Emperors would be their prey!”

He spoke no lies. From the memories he inherited, the destroyed sect had once been an agent of the Strange Clan, and its cultivation method evolved from their techniques.

“As for this tower, if you knew its origin, you would not speak so lightly!” the crimson flame said. He had been suppressed by this tower for tens of thousands of years. From fragmented memories, he guessed its origin was linked to an indescribable existence.

Because of this, he was confident.

A mere cultivation technique had kept him alive under this tower for tens of thousands of years, evidence of how terrifying the root of the crimson curse truly was.

(End of chapter)