"Kid Gu, you know about that Desolate Ancient Era ruin that manifested in the Great Desolation a while back, right?"
"I've heard of it."
Gu Qingfeng asked, "Are you saying this ruin is the one that manifested in the Great Desolation?"
"If my guess is correct, it should be. Look at the people we saw earlier—most of their cultivation levels are pretty average, completely incapable of traversing the Primordial Black Hole. I reckon there's a ninety percent chance this is the ruin that manifested in the Great Desolation."
"Wasn't it said that many people from the Great Desolation entered at the time? I haven't seen many of them here."
"Nonsense! We've only just entered. How many people do you expect to see? Besides, Desolate Ancient ruins have been constantly devouring and merging with each other. After all this time, who the hell knows how many ruins have been swallowed up and fused together? The area is terrifyingly vast. What's more, with so many people, they're not going to stand around like idiots waiting for you to come and have a look, are they?"
"Ah, I forgot about that."
Gu Qingfeng and Da Xing the Mad Monk continued to wander through this Desolate Ancient ruin. Perhaps it really was as Da Xing had said—this ruin might indeed be the one that had manifested earlier in the Great Desolation, because along the way, they did run into quite a few people.
Some traveled in groups of three or five, others in larger teams. Sometimes it was this Ancestral Patriarch leading the way, sometimes that one; sometimes it was this great immortal sect, sometimes that major clan.
All of them were hurrying along, looking frightened and unsettled, each holding immortal swords as if they had just been through a fierce battle. Many bore visible injuries.
Extending his divine sense to probe, Gu Qingfeng learned from their conversations that these people had indeed encountered danger. He had initially thought they, like him earlier, had accidentally stumbled into a ruin that had suddenly manifested in the Desolate Ancient. But upon listening, he realized that wasn't the case—they had run into demons.
Demons, to be precise.
Something called the Three-Eyed Demon Lord, by the sound of it, and he seemed formidable.
Gu Qingfeng had no impression of the Three-Eyed Demon Lord and had never heard the name before. Da Xing the Mad Monk, however, seemed quite familiar with him.
"It's normal you haven't heard of him. This Three-Eyed Demon Lord is a bloodthirsty and brutal fiend who emerged during the Present Era. I hear he's very powerful."
"How powerful?"
"Heavenly Demon physique, Original Sin body, plus a Present Era Heavenly Destiny. Tell me, is that powerful or not?"
Da Xing the Mad Monk continued, "A Heavenly Demon's existence is already extraordinary. Add an Original Sin body to that, and it's simply unparalleled. And I've heard that this Three-Eyed Demon Lord is not only an innate Original Sin being but also a rare Original Sin Avatar—extremely formidable. But the most terrifying thing is his Heavenly Destiny."
"Since he's a Demon Monarch, it should be a Present Era Star Monarch Heavenly Destiny, right? What's so scary about that?"
"Ordinary Star Monarchs aren't particularly frightening."
Gu Qingfeng didn't press further, waiting for the rest. He was also very curious about what kind of Star Monarch could be described as 'terrifying' by Da Xing.
"Kid, do you know why he's called the Three-Eyed Demon Lord?"
Gu Qingfeng asked, "What, does he have three eyes?"
"Exactly. He really does have three eyes. They say that when his third eye opens, it's like a blood moon descending upon the world, bringing a rain of blood."
"Really? Is it that bizarre?"
"Should be true. Although I haven't seen it with my own eyes... some of my friends have witnessed that third eye of the Three-Eyed Demon Lord."
"A blood moon descending, a rain of blood falling?" Gu Qingfeng rubbed his chin, pondering. "That does sound pretty bizarre."
To be honest.
In the myriad heavens and worlds, those with three eyes weren't common, but there were quite a few. Never mind three eyes—Gu Qingfeng had even seen beings with nine eyes, eighteen eyes. It wasn't anything rare. Any demon or monster who knew transformation magic could conjure up a hundred and eight thousand eyes without much difficulty.
However.
They were just conjured.
Aside from scaring those with weak nerves, they were pretty much useless.
But as for a third eye opening being like a blood moon descending—that was the first time Gu Qingfeng had heard of such a thing.
"What's the connection between that Three-Eyed Demon Lord's third eye and his Heavenly Destiny?"
"Let me put it this way: that third eye of his is his Destiny Eye."
"Destiny Eye?" Gu Qingfeng frowned. "What do you mean?"
Da Xing the Mad Monk didn't answer directly but instead asked, "How much do you know about the Present Era Heavenly Destiny Star Monarchs?"
"Not much." After a pause, Gu Qingfeng shook his head and added, "You could even say I know nothing at all."
"You should at least know a little about the legendary Thirty-Six Heavenly Chiefs and Seventy-Two Earth Fiends, right?"
"I know of them, yes."
"The Three-Eyed Demon Lord's Present Era Heavenly Destiny is one of the Seventy-Two Earth Fiends, and one of the most terrifying ones at that—the Blood-Corroding Fiend Star."
"So that's how it is."
The Present Era had been open for over ten thousand years, and Gu Qingfeng alone had been asleep for nearly that long. Thus, he wasn't very clear about many events of the Present Era. He hadn't seen many of the Heavenly Destinies born in this era either, and hadn't encountered a single one of the legendary Thirty-Six Heavenly Chiefs or Seventy-Two Earth Fiends.
"How many of the Present Era Heavenly Destinies—the Thirty-Six Heavenly Chiefs and Seventy-Two Earth Fiends—have appeared so far?"
"Hard to say, can't say for sure." Da Xing the Mad Monk took off his tattered hat, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and rubbed his bald head. "From what I know, there should be quite a few."
"Heh, things really are lively."
"Lively?" Da Xing looked at Gu Qingfeng's somewhat gloating expression, not knowing what to say. He shook his head and sneered, "When those beings from the heavens above and the earth below come to erase you, it'll probably be even more 'lively'."
Gu Qingfeng shrugged, appearing indifferent, as if he didn't care.
Da Xing couldn't stand seeing Gu Qingfeng like this. Every time he saw Gu Qingfeng's attitude of not caring about anything, it made his teeth itch with annoyance, and he couldn't help but knock some sense into him. "I advise you, kid, not to be so confident. Don't think you're so amazing, invincible under heaven. To be honest with you, I heard you wiped out over a hundred Desolate Ancient Ancestral Patriarchs with one move earlier. That's nothing special."
"What you destroyed were just the avatars of those Desolate Ancient Ancestral Patriarchs. If they wished, a single thought could create countless avatars. You could spend ten thousand years destroying them and never finish. Don't think that just because those Desolate Ancient Ancestral Patriarchs are dead, they're like toothless tigers. If you think that, you're gravely mistaken. Those Desolate Ancient Ancestral Patriarchs are the progenitors of the Great Daos. A wisp of their spirit, a single thought, is terrifying beyond measure!"
"And..." Da Xing said very seriously, "There's probably something else you don't know, kid. Do you know how many experts the Nine Heavens Immortal Dao has sent down this time?"
"Do tell."
"I won't even mention those so-called Star Monarchs or Throne Kings. I'll just talk about those few whose achievements and accomplishments might even surpass yours. There's Fusheng Dijun, Xuanyang Diwang, Changfeng Dadi, Wuyue Dadi, plus two more—the Twin Extremes Emperors."