“ROARRR…!”

A thunderous roar, like a massive hammer slamming into every person’s heart, somehow penetrated through the formation array sealing the ancient city, causing many people’s blood and qi to surge violently, nearly toppling them to the ground.

Everyone was stunned. This stone giant was extraordinarily powerful — its entire body was suffused with a surging aura of blood and qi that blanketed the heavens, piercing straight through the sky, like a boundless ocean flooding upward without end.

The fist it swung down was like a small mountain crashing down upon the Human Race’s Tenth Holy City, shaking it with a thunderous rumble, its divine might unrivaled under heaven.

The Tenth Holy City was protected by two layers of formation arrays. Being a place of special significance, it hovered above an ancient life-bearing star with extremely powerful living beings dwelling below. Thus, both layers of formation arrays were of the Great Sage level — arrays that had existed since antiquity and had never once been damaged. Yet now they shook violently, as if on the verge of being shattered.

“This is terrifying — what realm has this stone giant reached, to be able to shake this city?!”

“A stone giant, summoned here by that Saint-King-level Tyrant Dragon — it came from the depths of the universe. What is its origin?!”

Everyone was deeply shaken, their faces filled with dread. This stone giant was impossibly powerful; the blood and qi it radiated was vaster than a river of stars, enough to rattle one’s very soul.

Every strike it landed was earth-shattering and sky-rending. The ancient Great Sage formation arrays — both of them — were being battered to the brink of collapse, making everyone’s scalps tingle with shock.

In that moment, every person in the city was alarmed. Countless native inhabitants, along with thousands of trial participants, all stood with their mouths agape, breath coming in short, rapid gasps.

“Is it a Holy Spirit?! How can this be — who could ever subdue it?!”

Throughout history, the legends surrounding Holy Spirits were too numerous to count. Their terror and might were ingrained deep in people’s bones — they were practically synonymous with invincibility.

From ancient times to the present, apart from the Ancient Great Emperors, what other existence could suppress them?

And there were endless accounts claiming that a true Holy Spirit, upon reaching perfect completion, would be completely unafraid of even the Ancient Great Emperors — for at that point it would exist at the same level, unmatched across all of history!

In that moment, many people felt ice run through their veins. If such an absolutely peerless existence was truly attacking, the Tenth City would absolutely be unable to hold — every person in the city would be buried alongside it, dying in the void of space.

No one had anticipated that such a catastrophe would befall them today. In particular, the batch of trial participants who had just entered the city each felt their scalps go cold, as though they had been plunged into a freezing cellar.

“This is not a fully matured supreme Holy Spirit. It came into the world prematurely due to an accident. If it hadn’t — even with the most intricate Great Sage perfect-level formation patterns as protection, this city would surely have been breached beyond all doubt!”

An elderly cultivator murmured to himself, still managing to hold onto a measure of confidence, believing that even though this stone giant was ferocious and its magical power was overwhelming, it absolutely could not break through.

“Though it is not an invincible Holy Spirit, this is still a tremendous calamity. There is more than one stone giant in the depths of this star domain — someone has reportedly seen an even more powerful one before.”

This was a known fact, and the reason why so many people’s faces had gone pale. An elderly law enforcer, before passing away in meditation, had claimed to have seen an absolutely terrifying stone giant of peerless magnitude — one that continued to fill people with dread to this day.

“ROARRR…!”

The stone giant bellowed, swinging its mountain-like fist down upon the space above the Tenth City. Layer after layer of formation patterns emerged, ancient seal marks manifested one after another, blazing like clusters of immortal flames. The Great Dao thundered and rumbled, its breath swallowing the heavens whole.

The Summoning Envoy was alarmed. He stood upon a ceremonial platform and gazed up at the sky, saying, “This creature is truly fearsome. One foot has long since stepped into the Great Sage realm, and the other is only a heel’s breadth away.”

The Tyrant Dragon was also shrieking, diving down again and again to launch its attacks. It was a supreme-level Sacred Beast King, with a devastating attack power that was utterly horrifying, as it roared on without pause.

“Humans, hand over my child at once — otherwise I will bathe your ancient city in blood, and not a single person will be left alive!” the barbarous and domineering dragon bellowed furiously.

Just as the cultivators inside the city had surmised, someone with extraordinary abilities had stolen the divine egg this Tyrant Dragon had laid, enraging it.

This had been like opening a demon’s box, bringing down a tremendous catastrophe and drawing a terrifying Sacred Beast King to attack the city.

Yet it also revealed from another angle just how extraordinary the trial participants who had remained were — that any one of them could steal away the offspring of a Saint-King-level Tyrant Dragon meant their own cultivation must be staggeringly impressive.

“Who did this? What an extraordinary feat — to plunder the divine egg of a Tyrant Dragon. They’ve brought great disaster down upon an entire city and made themselves into a catastrophe.”

“Damn them — they’ve put all of us in a completely vulnerable position. One person has implicated this entire ancient city. The one who stole that divine egg truly has some nerve.”

The reactions among the city’s powerful cultivators varied greatly. Some were filled with admiration, while others were so furious they ground their back teeth in rage, watching the tense situation unfold in silence.

“Tyrant Dragon Tuolan — why do you come here making such accusations?” The Summoning Envoy rose into the air. He clearly recognized this Tyrant Dragon and addressed it directly, asking about the cause and circumstances.

The Tenth Holy City floated in the space above this ancient star, orbiting the land below like a satellite. Naturally, the cultivators residing within the city were well acquainted with the names of some of the more powerful beings living below.

Tuolan was a particularly dangerous Sacred Beast King with a considerable reputation. Ordinarily, neither side would interfere with the other.

“You humans have gone too far. Seeing that my clan’s lord has passed away in meditation, you now bully us — the widow and the orphan!” the Sacred Beast King Tuolan roared.

The lord she spoke of had once been an invincible presence on the ancient star below — a Great Sage-level Tyrant Dragon who had looked down upon all under heaven and dominated this stretch of cosmic space for seven or eight thousand years.

Yet no matter how powerful a being may be, they cannot withstand the passage of time. Four years ago, the lord had finally passed away in meditation, its body growing cold and its life force extinguished.

The divine egg that Tuolan had laid was the offspring of that Great Sage-level lord — and now it had been stolen, naturally sending Tuolan into a towering rage.

After nurturing the egg for decades, perhaps even a century, the young Tyrant Dragon lord was finally about to be born into the world — only for things to end like this. How could Tuolan not be shaking with fury?

The stone giant was a quasi-Great Sage, and in a few more decades, it would very likely successfully advance to that level. It had been an old friend of the late Tyrant Dragon lord, and had come charging to the scene after Tuolan’s tearful pleading and request for aid.

The cause was as simple as this: the divine egg had been stolen, a human cultivator had crossed a fundamental line, and the Sacred Beast King had been sent into a frenzy — willing to attack the city at any cost to reclaim what was hers.

The Summoning Envoy frowned and said, “I just used the Mysterious Heavens Precious Mirror to illuminate the entire city — the divine egg is absolutely not within it. There must be some misunderstanding here.”

He patiently explained that while some human trial participants were bold beyond measure, most would not dare to act so recklessly and without restraint.

“This ancient star has some very old and unfathomably deep beings lurking in its primordial wilderness — even the late lord himself could not claim with certainty that he was absolutely supreme here. There may still be powerful beings from his own generation who have yet to pass away in meditation.”

The Summoning Envoy analyzed the situation with patience, urging Tuolan not to act in anger. He suggested it was possible that some ancient beast with profound cultivation dwelling on the ancient star had caused the mischief, perhaps even framing and shifting the blame onto the humans.

“I don’t believe you. Over all these years, how many Sacred Beast offspring has your human race taken away? Would you not know? This time, someone must have taken a desperate gamble!” Tuolan roared.

Its body was that of a Tyrant Dragon — like a massive bluish-green mountain peak — and every time it unleashed its divine power, the ancient city shook and rumbled thunderously.

As for the stone giant, it was even more terrifying, declaring that if no satisfactory explanation was given, it would summon old friends to launch a punitive expedition here and demand answers.

Many people inside the city were deeply uneasy. This was a storm of rampaging beasts — if mishandled, the city would be destroyed and every member of the human race within it obliterated, for those attacking were simply too powerful.

Many people believed it was most likely the work of a trial participant. After all, that divine egg was extraordinary beyond measure — if raised as a mount, it would undoubtedly be capable of sweeping through an entire star domain in the future.

Its parents were, on one side, a Great Sage-level lord, and on the other, a Saint-King-level Tyrant Dragon. Such a bloodline was truly astonishing — an ideal divine beast offspring.

Anyone would be tempted, and some even speculated that the theft might have been carried out by someone at the Summoning Envoy’s own level.

“Sacred Beast King Tuolan, would you please calm your anger for now? I will give you an answer.” The Summoning Envoy stood upon his weathered stone platform, conducting his negotiations with the two powerful beings, persuading them to cease their assault. He spoke with them in secret for a very long time.

Tuolan said, “Very well. I will trust you for now and give you people some time. But if you cannot return my child to me when that time comes, I will fight you to the death!”

The stone giant also gave a stiff nod and said, “If my nephew, whom I have never had the chance to meet, comes to any harm, I will certainly raise my banner and summon old friends to come here and demand an accounting.”

After hearing the Summoning Envoy’s analysis in private, neither of them could determine with certainty whether it was the work of the humans or that of other powerful beings on the ancient star.

They were also reluctant to fall out with the human race — after all, the Great Sage-level Tyrant Dragon lord had passed away in meditation, making it genuinely difficult to oppose the humans. On this ancient path, the overall strength of the human race was something every star domain held in awe.

After all, in a certain sense, this was territory claimed and managed by the human race.

The stone giant withdrew, and Tuolan returned to the ancient star below. The crisis was temporarily quelled — but it was far from over.

Shortly after, the Summoning Envoy issued a command, directing the many trial participants to set out and find the root cause of this crisis — to investigate whether it was ancient beasts stirring up trouble, or simply a case of a human cultivator having stolen the divine egg.

Whether it was the cultivators who had arrived here decades ago or newcomers like Ye Fan who had only just arrived — all of them were to undergo this trial and probe for the truth.

For the Summoning Envoy and those with him had sensed a faint stirring of crisis. This might not be a simple isolated incident — perhaps it was the prelude to a much larger upheaval.

“Mmm — one of our human race’s powerful figures once caught sight of an ancient ship in the depths of the cosmos, hauled along by several Sacred Beasts serving as its draft animals. Truly terrifying. This may well be connected to that.”

“Before the elderly Law Enforcer Xu Yan passed away in meditation, he truly did witness a supremely powerful stone giant in the depths of the star sea — its terror was boundless, its aura of blood and qi capable of splitting the sun and moon asunder. It also appeared in that same star domain. Most likely the two are connected!”

Inside the Tenth City, within a sealed chamber, the Summoning Envoy conversed with two elderly figures, discussing the incident, all three of them frowning deeply.

“I have heard that some disturbances have also occurred further ahead. I fear that some dreadful existence is orchestrating all of this — linking point after point together before triggering an explosion. If so, it will be a crisis of absolutely catastrophic proportions!”

“We truly must be vigilant. We should report all of this upward, and then do our best to dispel the shadows of danger on our own end.”

The Tenth Holy City was majestic and imposing — vast and grandiose, its walls like mountain ranges, towering and thick, radiating an air of immense and solemn power.

Ye Fan and the others had been in the city for only a single day, without time to familiarise themselves or learn its ways, and yet they were already being sent out alongside those cultivators who had been stationed here for decades. They would be heading into the depths of the ancient star to investigate the strange and ominous situation.

This was a dangerous trial — and at the same time, a tremendous opportunity and challenge.

Everyone knew that this ancient star was shrouded in mystery, containing countless rare and precious heavenly treasures, immortal scripture stele engravings, secrets left behind by the Ancient Great Emperors, divine artifacts left by the human ancestors…

Ordinarily, many regions were strictly off limits. First, to protect trial participants from being attacked by Sacred Beasts; second, because many areas involved ancient and secret inheritances that could not be disclosed.

But this time, the Summoning Envoy announced that everyone could act according to their own capabilities. Should any trial participant feel able to venture into the restricted zones, they were fully permitted to do so — no one would block their path.

Some of the more powerful cultivators were rubbing their hands together in anticipation. Many had been stationed here for decades without moving on, specifically waiting for this rare opportunity that came only once every several years — hoping to seek out an Emperor Scripture, a human ancestral divine artifact, and other such things.

It was said that in the past, young Great Emperors, beings with the Human King Physique, those with the Holy Body, and other supreme and invincible bloodlines had all obtained extraordinarily heaven-defying items in this very place — objects so remarkable that even such people had held them in high regard and spoken of them with admiration afterward. Naturally, others were even more eager to pursue them.