Chapter 3076: We Were Once Here

Lu Yin was amazed by what he saw. Unless he was mistaken, Da Huang had perished without even bringing out his sequence particles.

Who had attacked him?

"Bai Mu?" Wang Fan’s startled voice echoed.

He had been mostly passive since arriving at the Immemorial Citadel. His strength was not very impressive within the group of participants in the Divine Selection, but he could not stop himself from speaking up.

Lu Yin stared off into the distance. The person who had attacked Da Huang was a young man who was holding a giant gourd of wine, which he was drinking out of. While the man appeared to be quite young, it was impossible to count the number of years he had lived.

Bai Mu was a name Lu Yin was familiar with. He was connected to Void Rip, and he was someone quite important.

He had been the sect leader of the Celestial Frost Sect, as well as the first patriarch of the Bai family.

The Celestial Frost Sect had been a formidable faction even during the Heavens Sect era, and they had been second only to the Lu family in the Fifth Mainland. Bai Mu had founded the Celestial Frost Sect, and he was from the same era as Forgotten Ruins God, Wang Miaomiao.

Lu Yin had only learned about Bai Mu after he defeated the Celestial Frost Sect, but he had not expected that this ancient powerhouse would still be alive at the Immemorial Citadel.

It was no wonder why the man was able to use Void Rip. With just one attack, he had effortlessly cleaved through Da Huang.

Bai Mu held his gourd of wine as he glanced over at Wang Fan. "You recognize me? Are you from the Fifth Mainland? It looks like we’ve got a traitor."

Wang Fan blanched. He had never imagined that Bai Mu would still be alive. Who would have thought that Bai Mu had survived for so many years? Wasn’t it known that he had died in a war during the Heavens Sect era? That was what was recorded in the Celestial Frost Sect's history.

Damn it, all of them faked their deaths before coming here to the Immemorial Citadel.

Aeternus had done everything possible to prevent humans from reaching the Immemorial Citadel, which meant that only the strongest human powerhouses could make the trip. Even so, people had continuously found ways to strengthen the Immemorial Citadel.

Regardless, Wang Fan could see death in Bai Mu's eyes, and he retreated. Wang Fan would not fight this man. No matter how confident Wang Fan might be in his own abilities, he did not believe he could defeat Bai Mu, the founder of the Celestial Frost Sect. This was a man who had lived for eons.

"Brother Bai Mu, is that fellow another person from our Fifth Mainland?" Chen Laogui’s voice rang out.

Bai Mu took another sip of wine. "He recognized me, and he also looks familiar. Let me think... I think... he must be someone from the Wang family?"

Sequence particles condensed around Old Chen, forming more tentacles. Nearly ten of them suddenly shot towards Wang Fan. "A traitor from the Fifth Mainland should be dealt with by our Fifth Mainland. Remember, my name is Jin Chen!"

Wang Fan was startled. "Jin Chen? The Daosource Sect elder? One of the previous generation’s Nine Mountains and Eight Seas?"

"So, he really is from our Fifth Mainland. We came to the right area. Die!" Old Chen's tentacles furiously lashed out at Wang Fan.

Only one tentacle stayed behind to attack Lu Yin, as all the rest were all aimed at Wang Fan.

Wang Fan was quite unlucky. It was not always a good thing to know too many people.

However, Wang Fan had not expected to find Bai Mu at the Immemorial Citadel, or for Old Chen to be one of the former Nine Mountains and Eight Seas.

The Heavens Sect had been destroyed, and the Fifth Mainland and the Sixth Mainland were all that remained of the original six Mainlands. As for the Nine Mountains and Eight Seas, they had always been in the Fifth Mainland after the fall of the Heavens Sect.

The amount of time that had passed between the Heavens Sect and Progenitor Chen’s era was significant, and many peak powerhouses had appeared during that period. While it was not clear why there were no records of that time or those people. It was not surprising to find previous generations of the Nine Mountains and Eight Seas at the Immemorial Citadel.

Lu Yin had already faced one of the previous Nine Mountains and Eight Seas from the Heavens Sect era during his initial assessment for the Divine Selection, and Qiu was much, much older than Old Chen.

The Forgotten Ruins appeared beneath Wang Fan's feet, and they spread out to form a land that reached Jin Chen and Bai Mu's feet. However, before the Forgotten Ruins could fully manifest, one of the many red umbrellas fell and broke through the land mass. The red umbrellas all looked quite ordinary, but not even the Forgotten Ruins could endure an attack from one of them.

Death energy emanated from Wang Fan's body, and black trees sprouted around him as a dark forest spreading across the Forgotten Ruins.

"Death energy?" Jin Chen was surprised.

Bai Mu lowered his gourd of wine and raised a hand. Two points appeared, and a line formed between them: Void Rip.

It was at this moment that Shao Yin raised his own hand, and he pointed a finger at Bai Mu. A beam of light that formed from the merging of Extreme Yin and Extreme Yang shot forth, and it split the Void Rip in two. The beam continued on towards Bai Mu, who threw his wine gourd. There were sequence particles attached to the gourd, and Shao Yin’s beam was absorbed, stunning the former Sovereign.

After that, the gourd pointed at Shao Yin, and the same beam shot back at the man. While the strength of this attack was no different, it was formed from entirely different sequence particles, and it completely overpowered Shao Yin’s attack.

Lu Yin was stunned. Everything happening here was only one small corner of the battle raging around the Immemorial Citadel. Far away, an even more fierce battle was taking place, but it was beyond Lu Yin’s sight, even with Heaven’s Sight, due to the absurd number of sequence particles present. This was truly the greatest battlefield in the war between humanity and Aeternus. The Sixverse Association would struggle to kill any of Aeternus’s participant on this battlefield, and yet they somehow seemed weak before the Immemorial Citadel. Shao Yin's sequence particles were no longer invincible. The Pupilless Transformation was no longer quite so terrifying, and even attacks at Senior Brother Mu Ke’s level were being blocked.

Da Huang’s innate gift had been sliced in two by a Void Rip.

It was no wonder why the Divine Selection was held at the Immemorial Citadel. This place was a millstone that ground away at the lives of even sequence powerhouses.

Up above, a giant fist was still hammering at Qi, the being of black cloth, and the odd creature was doing its best to restrain the fist. Jian An kept attacking with his tentacles, but he failed to notice that a figure had appeared right behind him. Emotionless eyes gleamed beneath a conical hat as a sword flickered.

"Jian An, watch out!" An old woman saw the assassin, and she screamed in anguish.

She was too late. Ji Luo's sword slashed across, and it sliced through sequence particles as it decapitated Jian An.

The man had not even seen who had struck him down.

The old woman stared at Jian An's corpse in a daze. They had been friends for countless years, knowing each other since they had first started cultivating. They had supported each other through family, foes, and had even harbored unspoken feelings for each other. The old woman’s eyes flushed red at the sight of Jian An’s death. More and more red umbrellas appeared, each formed from sequence particles, and all of them moved towards Ji Luo.

Sequence particles fell from the red umbrellas like strings of beads. It was a beautiful sight, but also deadly.

Ji Luo suddenly disappeared. He moved with a speed that not even sequence powerhouses could see. Once speed reached a certain level, there was no longer any need to travel through the void.

Ji Luo's sword appeared right in front of the old woman's forehead. Mysteriously, a wine gourd appeared there as well, and it blocked the black sword. Bai Mu's expression had turned serious. They were facing a true expert.

Above, Qi’s black cloth moved towards the old woman as well.

At that moment, a hand suddenly stretched out from inside the Immemorial Citadel, reaching for a corner of the battlefield. Qi was instantly grabbed, as distance meant nothing to this hand. "An Aeternus weapon? A weapon that has gained sapience? I need to study this."

With that, Qi vanished. He had been captured and dragged into the Immemorial Citadel.

The sight of one of their peers disappearing terrified the Magician and the others.

Even Ji Luo froze for a moment. While his facial expression could not be seen beneath his conical hat, it was easy to sense his shock.

Of course, Lu Yin also saw the hand take Qi away. In fact, everyone on the battlefield around the Immemorial Citadel had seen the hand reach out from the city, and everyone fell silent for a moment.

Lanlan, who Lu Yin had barely even noticed, had already slipped away. He had never seen her release any attacks, though she had fought against some enemies. She had faced off against one of Old Chen’s tentacles, but the girl’s battle had been so silent that Lu Yin had not caught so much as a glimpse of it.

She had fled the battlefield quite quickly.

In short order, of the eight participants of the Divine Selection, one had died, one had been captured, and one had fled. Each of these individuals was a powerful elite expert of Aeternus. They were competing for the chance to replace the Three Pillars and Six Skies. They were among the best, even among sequence powerhouses, but in front of the Immemorial Citadel, they were completely unremarkable.

In this place, sequence particles were as ubiquitous as air, and life and death were determined by luck.

That hand could grab anyone, and no one could fight back against it.

Flames blazed in the starry sky, incinerating the red umbrellas. The Magician had taken action.

His usual smile was gone. Of Aeternus’s six Scourges, the First Scourge dealt with the Sixverse Association, and the other five each had their opponents. For Aeternus, just like the humans, not all of their powerhouses would go to the battlefield at the Immemorial Citadel, and those who did rarely left.

The same was true for both humans and Aeternals, and none of the participants in the Divine Selection had ever witnessed the war at the Immemorial Citadel before.

These few moments of battle not only shocked Lu Yin, but it also shook the rest of the participants.

None of them had expected to stand on the brink of death the moment they arrived at the battlefield.

Lu Yin's expression fell. He had not been forced to reveal his true strength, and he had instead been constantly releasing divine energy. He did not dare to hold back or stop, as he feared being ambushed.

Da Huang had been killed by a Void Rip, and while the technique was undoubtedly powerful, the man had been killed because he had been caught off guard. Otherwise, Da Huang might have been able to use his own sequence particles to fight back.

This place was a battlefield, not a place for duels.

Despite Lu Yin’s caution, he still managed to catch Old Chen's attention.

Ye Bo’s usage of divine energy was too conspicuous. He was constantly releasing it, which was completely unlike anyone else from Aeternus. None of the other newcomers had used their divine energy yet, and this made Lu Yin a target. Suddenly, ten tentacles moved to attack him.

𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

He was instantly placed under immense pressure.

In the distance, more and more red umbrellas appeared. The old woman had locked onto Ji Luo, whose sword was terrifying. If not for Bai Mu, the old woman would not be able to block any of the slashes.

After fighting fiercely for a time, Old Chen sighed and said with resignation, "Sisi, when we decided to come to the Immemorial Citadel, we never thought that we would return alive. We’re already considered dead back home, and we have been ever since we left. It's just a matter of whether we die sooner or later. Leave this one to me. Go deal with the others."

The old woman’s voice grew heavy. "Do you wish to die?"

"So do you."

"Chen, I hope to see you in the next world."

Old Chen was momentarily stunned, but then his pupils suddenly shrank, and his eyes turned bloodshot as he roared, "Stop!”

A pair of slitted scarlet eyes had appeared behind the old woman. A corpse king had arrived, but by the time she noticed the monster, it was already too late. The corpse king’s hand pierced through her abdomen, though she seemed to have anticipated it. She shot a smile at Old Chen. "As I walked down the path of cultivation, it was truly wonderful to have all of you by my side."

A red umbrella then appeared beneath her feet, and it enveloped both her and the corpse king before it shot into the flaming lotus of the Immemorial Citadel.

Old Chen stared blankly as the red umbrella entered the flames. All that remained was a wisp of smoke that drifted upwards.

Bai Mu closed his eyes and sighed. "The goddess of an era has fallen. No matter how brilliant one is in life, who will remember them in death?

"I merely hope that we will be able to leave a gravestone here in Immemorial Citadel, not to leave our names, but simply to acknowledge that we were once here. A sign of those who have been here."

Lu Yin struggled to fend off the tentacles, but then they suddenly vanished. He turned to see Chen Laogui raging and shouting madly. He was surrounded by all eighteen tentacles, and he shot away. The Hollow erupted, and a massive white ship appeared.

Lu Yin stared intently. This was the Ossis Ark.

"Three of the eight are already dead. Now it’s my turn, hahaha! I'm coming! You two won't shake me off."

A blade swept out, and before Jin Chen could even reach the Ossis Ark, his body was split in two, and the Hollow devoured his body.

It happened in just a single moment, a fleeting incident, but that was all it took for an ancient sequence powerhouse to perish.