Everything vanished!
The fierce battle, the clash between the strongest Emperor and the Immortal King—all of it disappeared, impossible to record.
All that remained was a single scene, documenting the various events concerning the Immortal-Slaying Ship from endless eons ago, its decline after battling in the Primordial Immortal Realm, an outcome both sorrowful and helpless.
Great Emperor Hantian, that generation's strongest Emperor, most likely fell as a result, becoming a vanished myth, his blood staining the Chaos Sea. From then on, one could only witness the records of this strongest Emperor in the annals of history, eliciting a soft sigh.
Ye Chen, watching Great Emperor Hantian's resolute determination, felt a sense of empathy.
Wouldn't he be the same in the future?
He recalled those scenes—his future self, peerless and invincible, facing the unknowable existence on the other side. Wasn't that also filled with sorrow and despair, willing to sacrifice everything to reverse the past?
Great Emperor Hantian seemed like a cautionary tale for him.
Yet, what made one feel even more helpless for Great Emperor Hantian was that despite his immense power, his invincibility, his status as the strongest Emperor, he was ultimately manipulated like a pawn, ending up in such a pitiful state. How could one not feel helpless, not feel sorrow?
After all, this was a generation's strongest Emperor, an existence on par with the likes of the Great Sage Emperor and the Time-Space Great Emperor, yet he did not meet a fitting end.
Involuntarily, the Great Powers of the myriad heavens recalled a saying of Great Emperor Hantian—
To die in battle is the best destination for our kind!
Perhaps that was indeed true.
A long time later, everyone finally snapped out of their reverie from the earlier epoch projections. They discovered that what was within the Ghost Stone was not some terrifying great evil. On the contrary, it was a fragment, about the size of a palm, bearing the vicissitudes of time, covered in mottled patterns, and etched with supreme Emperor marks, stained with vividly bright blood.
It was an Emperor Weapon Fragment, a fragment of Great Emperor Hantian's Emperor Weapon, recording everything from that year, which had now been projected.
Now, this Emperor Weapon Fragment, carrying the most terrifying Supreme Emperor Blood—perhaps Great Emperor Hantian's Emperor Blood, perhaps the opponent's supreme Immortal Blood—projected all the events of that time, allowing the world to learn of them.
Although the supreme powerhouses of the myriad heavens felt some disappointment, more than that, it was a sigh of emotion, a lament for a strongest Emperor like Great Emperor Hantian.
"Death is not the final destination; perhaps it is merely a new beginning..."
Suddenly, Ye Chen's expression changed drastically, as if he heard an ethereal voice echoing, traversing the long river of time, crossing past and future, resonating by his ears.
Yet, when he listened carefully, there was nothing.
"Seniors, did you hear anything?"
Ye Chen spoke up, only to see the others looking utterly bewildered. He immediately composed himself, his face expressionless, yet a tempest of the most terrifying thoughts raged within his heart.
Because this was not the first time he had heard these words. The last time was at the Tenth Emperor Pass, when the Heaven's Gate Master burned himself, performing a sacred sacrifice. Those same words now echoed by his ear once more.
What did this similar phrase represent?
Death is not the final destination; perhaps it is merely a new beginning!
What did this sentence even mean?
Could it be that death was not the true end?
Harboring these doubts, Ye Chen spoke: "Seniors, I humbly ask a question. This junior once heard a phrase: 'Death is not the final destination; perhaps it is merely a new beginning.' May I ask if the various seniors know what it means?"
Upon hearing this, the expressions of all the Great Powers present changed instantly, especially Dan Chen, Qin Jiuyou, and that ancient Undying Great Sage.
Seeing this, Ye Chen became even more convinced that they must know some secrets.
"Please enlighten me!" Ye Chen clasped his fists.
After a moment of silence, it was ultimately Dan Chen who spoke. As a member of an Emperor Clan, he naturally knew more hidden secrets unknown to others.
"According to the legacies of my clan's Ancient Emperor and records from some ancient ruins, within the Chaos Sea, there actually exists a most ancient source, the origin of everything, even the origin of the boundless Chaos Sea itself. It is called the Origin Land!"
The Origin Land!?
Ye Chen was shocked.
Dan Chen continued slowly, "That's right, the Origin Land. Moreover, the Origin Land gave birth to everything, nurtured everything. The Chaos Sea emerged from it, and the various ancient universes initially erupted from this Origin Land before being nurtured and growing to their extremes within the Chaos Sea."
"In the past, I heard fragments of words left by another Ancient Ancestor, an Imperial Son of my clan. The Origin Land is the source of all. All true spirits that dissipate within the Chaos Sea ultimately return to the Origin Land, where they can obtain a new beginning."
"There is another saying, specifically for the most powerful existences within the Chaos Sea, such as Emperors, Supreme Immortals, and Supreme Ones. For them, death is not the final destination. They will be reborn within the Origin Land, living out a new beginning."
"However, there is also a more widely believed theory: transcending eternity and achieving Great Perfection of Chaos is one path; the Origin Land is another. It holds the greatest secret to transcending eternity."
"Yet, in this world, apart from Emperors and Supreme Immortals, perhaps no one knows whether the Origin Land truly exists, because no one has been able to find any trace of the Origin Land."
Dan Chen said much, mentioning many secrets, some of which he learned from the mouth of that clan's Imperial Son Ancient Ancestor, who was a sibling of the Imperial Daughter but was born earlier and often accompanied the Alchemy Emperor, thus learning enough secrets.
However, some secrets were also gleaned from the most ancient ruins, ruins whose age even predated the entire ancient universe.
"The true secret can only be understood by reaching the Origin Land," the ancient Undying Great Sage spoke up. He had lived for an extremely long time and had once successfully stepped into the realm of the Ancient Monarch, thus also knowing enough secrets.
"But there are also some unverifiable rumors. In the deepest part of the Primordial Immortal Realm, there is a vast, boundless uninhabited zone, also called the Emperor Burial Zone, the Immortal Burial Zone. There lies a path leading to the Origin Land."
In just a few sentences, the ancient Undying Great Sage also revealed a great secret that shook the ages.
Within the Emperor and Immortal Burial Zone in the deepest part of the Primordial Immortal Realm, there was actually a path leading to the Origin Land.
Ye Chen suddenly thought of many things.
He knew that the Mythological Emperors did not all perish in the Great Mythological Cataclysm. Among them, the strongest Emperor, the Great Sage Emperor, was suspected to have entered that vast uninhabited zone. Other Mythological Emperors were also battling there.
He had also learned from the Time-Space Great Emperor that one of the main battlefields of the ultimate future war stained with blood was in that Emperor and Immortal Burial Zone. Could that also be pointing distantly to the Origin Land?