Chapter 578: Headless Man

“We’ll withdraw from this place immediately. Tell the other disciples in the other realms to quickly leave the grave; no one can stay behind. After exiting, all disciples must return to the sect at once and stay there!” A great power felt something bad was going to happen and ordered for all their disciples to retreat.

After the arrival of the Divine Guard’s captain became known, all the great powers that didn’t belong to the ghost race immediately left the grave. This news made people uneasy, especially for those of the other races.

The Ancestral Realm would not carelessly send someone down, so this signaled the coming of a big event. Now, when a captain was personally coming, it had to be a catastrophic event.

Of course, after the other races left the grave, there were still some ancestors who lingered behind to wait for the next event.

***

While the outside was chaotic because of the Divine Guard’s descent, Li Qiye had reached the end of the path of death.

Other people wouldn’t have a method for penetrating so deep into this place, not even Godkings, True Gods, or other deities. Even the most powerful would die on this path.

As for Immortal Emperors... They also did not wish to take such a risk because there was a terrifying existence in this place, a taboo existence that even emperors didn’t want to provoke since there was no benefit in doing so. If others thought that the aura of death at the end of the path would be more dense, then they would be completely mistaken. There was not the slightest bit of ghastly energy or aura of death at all.

This place resembled a courtyard that was now tattered with broken structures.

A slight breeze signified the coming of autumn, creating a comfortable and relaxing feeling as if one was in one's own backyard.

Inside these ruins was a little pond. It seemed to be man-made but was actually crafted by the natural order of life. The occasional bubbles that emanated from the water’s surface proved that there was a flowing source of water.

Whether it was man-made or natural was not important since it was just a very ordinary pond, but looking at the existence inside the pond would instill chills into spectators. There was a person walking around in this pond. This person had a tall stature with an ancient and untraceable dressing style. He quietly walked laps around the pond; each step traveled the exact same distance as if they had been measured to perfection.

And the most dreadful part wasn’t the person walking around the pond like a robot, it was that this person had no head on his neck!

A headless man trod around the pond step by step with extreme precision without stopping. He had been doing this for countless years through the shifting of eras.

Anyone would break out in a cold sweat when they saw this mysterious and frightening scene. The cowardly ones would be wetting their pants.

Upon further reflection, it made sense since this was the end of the path of death. Not to mention a headless man walking around, it wouldn’t be outrageous to see evil devils in this place.

Li Qiye was neither disturbed nor frightened by the scene ahead inside these ruins. He still had his always-calm demeanor.

“The endless years...” Li Qiye looked at the headless man and murmured: “Millions of years to wash away the aura of destruction and cure the eternal wound.”

After looking at the headless man for a bit, he shifted his eyes towards the ordinary pond as if it was a supreme treasure, or as if the most peerless beauty was about to appear from the water.

However, there was no bathing beauty or supreme treasure here, it was only a common pond. And yet, it was more precious than anything else in Li Qiye’s eyes. Even Immortal Emperor True Treasures or supreme immortal scriptures were not comparable to this pond.

Li Qiye looked at the pond for a long time before whispering: “Whether it is that thing or not, I need help this time. If you don’t help me, then even if you were the heavens, I would still destroy you!”

Li Qiye walked closer but was repelled by an invincible force when he got close to the pond.

It was the headless man who exerted an unbeatable force with an aura that encompassed the entire pond, deterring all trespassers.

Li Qiye slowly raised the Origin Sealing Spear and said: “My prayer has been answered in the Kingdom of Heaven, I need to borrow the water in this pond!”

The headless man suddenly halted his steps and seemingly looked at Li Qiye despite not having eyes or a head.

After looking for a bit, he began to take equidistant steps around the pond again.

Li Qiye then stepped inside the pond, but this time, the headless man didn’t stop him and allowed for his approach.

Li Qiye then sat in a meditative pose on top of the water as his chest lit up. He was not hiding anything as he let go of his Soaring Immoral Inner Physique.

“Whoosh!” As the inner physique was let go, space suddenly shivered and time flowed faster.

“Xshhh!” Sizzling sounds appeared. Once the inner physique reached its brightest point, this brilliance became infected and turned into darkness as evil light started to emanate from Li Qiye’s body.

Bolts of lightning then flashed on top of Li Qiye’s head as the sky darkened, heralding an apocalypse.

This was the physique tribulation of a minor completion physique. The Soaring Immortal Physique’s tribulation should have come earlier, but it had been constantly suppressed by Li Qiye. Now, however, he chose to tackle it.

“Boom!” Strings of energy that wished to stop Li Qiye appeared as his minor completion inner physique emanated waves of light. Waves of universal laws appeared to crush these strings of deathly energy birthed by the tribulation.

However, these strings of energy were not willing to go down so easily as sizzling sounds kept on ringing to battle against the universal laws that came from the inner physique.

But this level of energy was not enough to cause trouble for a minor completion Immortal Physique.

“Whooosh!” In the end, the strings of deathly energy were defeated, and this signaled the second step of the tribulation as a dark figure came out from Li Qiye’s body. The physique devil had been born.

“Bang!” But the moment this physique devil came out, the Hell Suppressing Godly Physique didn’t shy away from crushing it. Nevertheless, the physique devil was unwilling to give up as its evil energy surged repeatedly in order to escape the godly physique’s control.

Li Qiye didn’t care for this physique tribulation. To him, surpassing the Soaring Immortal minor tribulation was not an issue and was only a matter of convenience at this moment.

His goal was the thirteenth palace, the true reason for coming to this pond. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have come here. A minor tribulation was nothing to him as it didn't require the help of an external item.

Having thirteen Fate Palaces was something that had never been done before in history. Only Immortal Emperor Jiao Heng achieved twelve palaces, but no one had ever heard of successfully creating the thirteenth palace.

Because of this, Li Qiye’s true ambition was in his thirteenth palace. Since the start of time, countless cultivators had assumed that twelve palaces was the ultimate limit. Even someone with an invincible Immortal Physique could only stop at twelve.

The truth was indeed just that, the world had never seen the next palace before.

Even the most brilliant genius that was completely peerless in all manners would be derided as a madman if they told anyone that they wanted to open the non-existent thirteenth palace.

But Li Qiye knew that such a thing existed; the hard part was the ability to open it since it was an accomplishment as difficult as becoming an Immortal Emperor.

However, to Li Qiye, opening it was even harder than reaching the throne. Since the start of time, there had been around one hundred Immortal Emperors, but none had thirteen palaces. Li Qiye had trained invincible existences before, and he knew that opening this next palace was one of the biggest challenges in life!

Because of this, he came to this place since his strength alone was insufficient because his Nigong meridian had reached its limit.

[spoiler title='578 Teaser']“We’ll withdraw from this place immediately. Tell the other disciples in the other realms to quickly leave the grave; no one can stay behind. After coming out, all disciples must return to the sect at once and stay there!” A great power felt something bad was going to happen to it and ordered for all their disciples to retreat.

After the arrival of the Divine Guard’s captain became known, all the great powers that didn't belong to the ghost race immediately left the grave. This news made people uneasy, especially for those of the other races.

The Ancestral Realm would not carelessly send someone down, so this signaled the coming of a big event. Now, when a captain was personally coming, it had to be a catastrophic event.

Of course, after the other races left the grave, there were still some ancestors who lingered behind to wait for the next event.[/spoiler]