Chapter 1 An Opportunity in the Star Palace

Within this vast Star Palace, Jiang Xuan quickly found an ancient heavenly ladder, like one leading to an immortal throne, with a full three thousand steps.

When he reached the top, he saw the three kinds of opportunities within this celestial palace.

The first was a top-tier True God-level spiritual treasure, but it was a long spear.

The second was a cultivation technique called *Shenxiao Tiangong* (Divine Firmament Celestial Art), also at the True God level, and it was a Qi Gathering system, which was of great use to Jiang Xuan.

As for the third opportunity, it was a secret technique codex, which recorded a forbidden technique of the Qi Gathering system.

Jiang Xuan directly ignored the third opportunity, not because he looked down on it, but because no matter how strong this secret technique was, it could not compare to a Ten Ferocious-level precious technique. There was no need to waste the opportunity here.

Therefore, he directly took away the True God spiritual treasure and the True God-level cultivation technique.

He was about to enter the Dark Abyss, so compared to secret techniques, the True God spiritual treasure and the *Shenxiao Tiangong* were more useful.

…

Several days later, Jiang Xuan arrived at the central area of the Primordial World. Here, he could see sinister and eerie black mist churning, as if the netherworld had descended, causing discomfort and fear.

Within it, there were even intertwined black lightning bolts, continuous rumbling thunder, and raging storms. Dimly, it seemed as if massive demon gods resided within, exuding a terrifying aura.

"The entrance to the Dark Abyss..." Jiang Xuan's eyes flickered with light, and he thought of many things as he looked at the boundless black abyss entrance before him.

Thinking, he also headed towards that dark abyss. As he went deeper, the eerie black mist surged more violently.

"Boom!"

When he truly reached the entrance to the abyss, the black mist in front of him, like black tides, surged and roared towards him.

The black mist was滔天(tao tian, overwhelming), a boundless expanse, and when it surged, the entire world echoed with the impact. Its power was vast and mighty, as if it could shatter a universe.

Jiang Xuan felt a pressure for the first time since entering the Primordial World ruins. The black mist contained an irresistible, immense power. There were remnants of a supreme expert's aura within, and this powerful aura was not just one. It felt as if there were thousands upon thousands of True Gods engaged in a frenzied slaughter.

All warriors who came here had to endure such pressure. Those below the Heavenly Venerate level would be annihilated without a doubt.

Even among Heavenly Venerates, only the top existences could withstand this pressure. Even the top Heavenly Venerates could be injured if they were not careful!

After carefully observing for a moment, Jiang Xuan had a plan in mind, and then he walked towards the black mist.

"A strange space-time..."

Jiang Xuan could clearly sense that the Dark Abyss entrance was a strange space-time. Everything here was distorted and deformed, including time and space. If one did not have a deep understanding of the laws of space-time, they could get lost in this chaotic maze and never come out.

It was precisely because of this that this mysterious Dark Abyss, just its entrance, was a life-forbidden zone for all the weaker members of the human race, let alone its more dangerous internal world.

However, Jiang Xuan could easily find the path forward and headed directly into the depths of the black mist.

As he descended, he could see many fragments flashing with divine light, like rain of light. They were the remnants of ancient peerless experts. Each such fragment of bone represented an ancient clan hero who had sacrificed himself here.

The broken bones and remains of formerly supreme experts had transformed into divine storms in this Dark Abyss. Even after hundreds of millions of years, they still guarded the Thirty-Three Heavens in this way, blocking the passage between the Thirty-Three Heavens and the Dark Abyss.

Jiang Xuan also deliberately avoided them, turning into a stream of light, shuttling through space-time cracks, heading straight into the depths of the Dark Abyss. He did not know how long it had been before he finally stepped on a black land.

This land was vast and boundless, with no end in sight.

However, Jiang Xuan knew that this was not land at all, but the Eternal Wall jointly laid down by the Lord of the Asura Road and the Immortal King hundreds of millions of years ago. This Eternal Wall had stood at the entrance to the abyss for hundreds of millions of years and had gradually evolved into the appearance of land.

On the Eternal Wall, there was a passage leading to the depths of the abyss. Only the lives of the Thirty-Three Heavens could pass through it. The abyss demons would be blocked.

Traveling along the Eternal Wall, Jiang Xuan felt as if this road was a river of time. From time to time, he could see unfathomable corpses lying on the side of the road.

Some of these corpses came from abyss demons, and some came from peak experts of the Primordial Era. They were relatively complete, rather than broken into small bone fragments, which also meant that the masters of these remains had been unbelievably powerful in life. Even after death, time could not erase their bodies.

Jiang Xuan did not remember the auras of those Primordial experts, but instead remembered the auras of the abyss demons. Entering the Dark Abyss, he had to hide himself. The inside was not like the outside world. There were many True God-level forces there.

Moreover, as far as Jiang Xuan knew, among the abyss demons, there were six super demons. Their peak strength was between the limit of True Gods and beyond True Gods, second only to experts of the level of the Lord of the Asura Road and the Immortal King.

They were also the totems of the many demons in the Dark Abyss, incomparably terrifying. Each demon had a line of power under its command. These six forces were extremely powerful and contained countless abyss demons. Among these abyss demons, there were many equivalent to middle-level and high-level True Gods of the human race.

However, as far as Jiang Xuan knew, only the three totem demons "Ming," "Hong," and "Xie" were still alive in the abyss. "You" and "Zhou" were killed by the Lord of the Asura Road and the Immortal King in the great war hundreds of millions of years ago.

As for Huang, it broke into the Thirty-Three Heavens tens of millions of years ago using a special method, but it also suffered heavy damage as a result, and even its realm declined. But even so, it could still easily destroy True Gods.

Later, under the leadership of the Saint Clan's Ancient Saint Emperor, it was suppressed, its strength cut down to less than ten percent, and eventually became the Saint Clan's sacred beast. Now it had fallen into a deep sleep and had not yet awakened.

But even though the Dark Abyss suffered heavy losses in the great war hundreds of millions of years ago, its true foundation was still several times that of the Thirty-Three Heavens. Even the number of True Gods exceeded sixty!

Jiang Xuan's transformation technique could not temporarily hide from the detection of True Gods, but as his cultivation broke through, even if he only broke through to the middle-level Heavenly Venerate level, he would be able to hide from the detection of True Gods. Apart from this method, if he could obtain the origin power of a Heavenly Venerate-level abyss demon, he could now fundamentally transform into an abyss demon.

So he was not in a hurry for the time being. He would not come into contact with the True Gods among the abyss demons until he had absolute certainty.

Thinking, Jiang Xuan also came to the center of the Eternal Wall, which was where the passage on the Eternal Wall leading to the depths of the abyss was located.

Here, Jiang Xuan saw the only complete building after entering the Primordial World ruins.

This was an altar. The altar looked gray and hazy from a distance, and its edges could not be seen at all. It was incomparably grand, ancient, and heavy, as if it was suppressing this world.

Although it was just an altar, it had a feeling of天地万灵唯我独尊(tiān dì wàn líng wéi wǒ dú zūn, all living things in the world are inferior to me), as if a Celestial Emperor was looking down on the universe, seeing through the past, present, and future, causing people to feel a sense of insignificance involuntarily.

In addition, the altar was completely shrouded in chaos. Here, chains of laws crisscrossed, with the faint sounds of true dragons roaring, true phoenixes dancing, and *Kun Peng* (a mythical bird) striking the water for ten thousand *li*...

All kinds of wonders were within it. It had existed for an unknown number of years, standing on the Eternal Wall, as a barrier guarding the Thirty-Three Heavens.

Jiang Xuan walked towards the depths of the altar. There, he saw a bronze hall, incomparably ancient, covered in layers of scale-like copper rust.

In the bronze hall, he also saw a skeleton. Unlike the scattered bones outside, this skeleton was complete, crystal clear, and as beautiful as an art piece carved from jade, without any damage. The skeleton was in a standing posture, with its hands crossed and clasped together, placed in front of its chest, as if in prayer.

This was the remains of a goddess from ancient times, perhaps the previous life of a certain living being in this world, but these were not important to Jiang Xuan, and he did not pay attention to them.

What he cared about was the countless mysterious runes on this divine bone. Those runes, each one more profound than the last, originated from the Immortal King and recorded traces of the Supreme Law, the *Sheng Dian* (Holy Canon).

Jiang Xuan naturally could not understand them now, nor did he want to comprehend them immediately. Instead, he recorded them all, to be carefully studied later.

After this, he also came to the other end of the bronze hall. There, there was a slowly rotating purple vortex. This purple vortex was part of the Eternal Wall and also the passage on the Eternal Wall leading to the Dark Abyss. By passing through this purple vortex, one could reach the true Dark Abyss!

Walking into the vortex, Jiang Xuan felt as if he had passed through a river of time flowing for hundreds of millions of years. He did not know how long it had been, perhaps thousands of years, perhaps just a moment. Even his mind was a little confused. When he woke up, he was already on a black land.

This land was extremely desolate, with exposed rocks everywhere, stretching as far as the eye could see. Floating above this land gave people a feeling of incomparable heaviness and desolation.

In the sky, there were nine suns suspended, and these nine suns were aligned in a line, all without exception appearing blood-red. The sunlight emitted from them caused people's blood to resonate faintly.

After observing for a moment, Jiang Xuan's body began to change. Layers of scales and bone armor appeared on the surface of his body, and jagged bone spurs protruded from his elbows and knees. Even horns began to grow on his head.

At this moment, unless it was a True God-level abyss demon, no one would be able to recognize his identity. However, his current transformation was still not perfect. After he truly came into contact with the abyss demons, he could further improve it and make this transformation even more perfect.