In the wilderness, the golden-eyed youth leaned his head back against the stone wall, blood from his forehead and face flowing down his neck and seeping into his collar.

There was no need to do anything more – his breath was already rapidly dissipating. Having offered himself to the Xiaoyuan Pearl, which had absorbed most of his demonic essence, his body had already been struggling to contain those remnant souls. Now, this vessel was about to shatter.

In the silence, Gu Caiyu let out a gentle sigh. He looked at Gui Diao Tang and shook his head disapprovingly: “The Demon Lord ultimately doesn’t understand the human race. When a woman tells you to leave, nine times out of ten, she’s speaking in anger – how can you take it seriously? If it were me, I would certainly stick around shamelessly, wearing her down with persistence until she softened, then explain seriously after she calmed down.” Whether this was adding fuel to the fire or showing off, he glanced at Gu Baiying and chuckled softly: “Qinghua and I would never have such misunderstandings, giving others opportunities to take advantage.”

“That’s because you have no shame,” Bujiang said with a cold laugh.

“Everyone has reminisced quite enough,” Rongshuang said coldly. “But we didn’t come here today to listen to the Demon Lord’s reunion with his long-lost son.”

Gu Caiyu widened his eyes: “Oh? Then what did you come here for?”

Zanxing said: “Outside Duzhou, rain falls continuously, floods overflow, the spiritual veins of major sects have dried up, bringing disaster to the mortal world. I heard that a thousand years ago, there was a flood like today’s, and a cultivator entered the Golden Gate Ruins, found the Emperor’s Chess Platform, gambled a game of chess with an immortal, and won the immortal method to solve the great flood.” She looked at Gui Diao Tang. “We came here today to find that immortal method.”

“You mean the flood from a thousand years ago?” Gu Caiyu paused. “I’ve heard that legend too. You took it seriously?”

Shaoyang Zhenren said indifferently, “The Immortal Divination Hexagram revealed that the Golden Gate Ruins are the only path to survival.”

“Immortal Divination Hexagram?” Gu Caiyu looked at him with some surprise. “Zhenren, your losses this time are truly significant. But using even the Immortal Divination Hexagram shows the situation outside is very serious.”

“Demon Lord,” Bujiang only looked at Gui Diao Tang, “why is there nothing here? No Emperor’s Chess Platform, and no other way out visible.”

Gui Diao Tang was silent for a moment before speaking: “This is not the Golden Gate Ruins.”

“What?” Everyone looked at him in shock.

They had struggled through countless hardships to reach this place, some even getting injured fighting Gui Yansheng, only to be told this wasn’t the Golden Gate Ruins?

What kind of joke was this!

“But back then you gave me the key…” Bujiang frowned.

“I found the Xiaoyuan Pearl here back then. Legend says the Xiaoyuan Pearl was hidden within the Golden Gate Ruins, but” he looked up at the sky veiled by white mist, “it fell from above.”

Above?

Everyone looked up overhead. In the wilderness, the vast sky was piled with endless snow-white clouds and mist, making this place seem like a black isolated island floating in the clouds. The sky stretched endlessly. A Yinfeng Sect cultivator tried to fly upward on his sword, but as soon as the sword left the ground, it seemed to be brushed down by an invisible hand.

The disciple got up from the ground, his face full of confusion: “Master, sword flying doesn’t work here.”

Gui Diao Tang seemed to have expected this. He spoke indifferently: “The Golden Gate Ruins are above our heads.”

Zanxing’s heart stirred.

Legend said the Golden Gate Ruins were where the human and heavenly realms connected. The entrance being at the bottom of the Netherworld River was already outrageous enough, but now the Demon Lord said the real Golden Gate Ruins were in the sky above – that didn’t seem impossible to accept either.

But the problem was, this place didn’t allow sword flying or wind riding. How could they ascend to heaven?

“How do you know that above is the real Golden Gate Ruins?” Rongshuang asked. “Just because the Xiaoyuan Pearl fell from above?”

“No.” Gui Diao Tang stood in the wilderness, his long eyes taking on a misty hue, as if recalling scenes from long ago. “At that time, I briefly glimpsed the palace halls above.”

“But only for a very brief moment.”

Everyone was stunned. White mist accumulated in layers at the horizon. Could there be palace halls in the depths of that long smoke? What did the immortals’ dwelling place look like? A wave of anticipation rose in everyone’s hearts. A cultivator’s life was spent climbing upward, and now with the immortal realm within reach, their hearts couldn’t help but surge.

“But how do we get up there?” Zanxing looked troubled. “Even the former… The Demon Lord couldn’t reach the long ruins. We can see our destination right before our eyes, but there’s no path.”

“There is a path,” the Demon Lord said.

Zanxing looked at him: “What do you mean?”

Gui Diao Tang spoke: “To reach the Golden Gate Ruins, one needs to climb the Heavenly Ladder.”

“Heavenly Ladder?” Gu Baiying frowned and looked around.

There was nothing nearby except wilderness and gray cliff walls. Where was the Heavenly Ladder? Surely that gray cliff wall couldn’t be the Heavenly Ladder – but there weren’t even steps on the cliff wall. How could people find footing on it, let alone climb upward?

Tian Fangfang couldn’t help but speak: “This… where is there any Heavenly Ladder?”

Gu Caiyu laughed with a “puchi” sound and casually pointed: “Isn’t that it?”

Everyone was stunned.

The direction Gu Caiyu pointed was exactly where the huge deep pit containing the Menghun Halberd and Suihua Sword was located. Mimi ran over, calling out, rushing so hastily that it nearly tumbled. It stopped before the deep pit and peered down into it.

Zanxing had a sudden realization: “Is it that seed?”

“That is the Heavenly Ladder,” Gui Diao Tang said.

That black, enormous seed was the Heavenly Ladder?

Ancient texts said: “At humanity’s beginning, heaven and earth were connected, humans ascended, morning to heaven, evening from heaven, heaven and humans, morning had words, evening had words.”

The interconnection between human and heavenly realms was already legend, and now the bridge between the two realms – the Heavenly Ladder – was not the stairway form everyone imagined. It had become a silent seed, buried in this desolate wilderness.

Gu Caiyu said, “To restore the Heavenly Ladder requires primordial qi to activate it. Let me think, in the cultivation world, one must set up the Ancient Qiankun Formation to summon ancient power. But with just your few people…” His brow furrowed tightly: “It seems Duzhou’s spiritual qi has become quite thin over the years. With so few people wanting to form the Ancient Qiankun Formation, I’m afraid it’s still rather difficult.”

“Things being as they are, we can only try,” Fu Ronghua said, looking at Shaoyang Zhenren. “What does Zhenren think?”

Shaoyang Zhenren lowered his eyes and said indifferently: “Set up the formation.”

The Ancient Qiankun Formation hadn’t appeared before everyone’s eyes for many years. This formation was difficult to establish, requiring not only a large number of disciples to form the array behind, but also extremely high-cultivation masters to seal each formation entrance.

Many of Duzhou’s masters had perished in the great battle years ago. Even those who hadn’t perished in that battle had long since disappeared without a trace over the years.

This Ancient Qiankun Formation – the formation diagram remained, but whether the formation could succeed was uncertain.

A golden-red light instantly enveloped the entire wilderness.

Each disciple took their position. Shaoyang Zhenren said: “Form the array.”