A lot can change in 3,000 years. As the new generation of Darkheaven Archmages grew, they reached great heights. The grand steward’s leadership abilities became apparent. His governance made his species strong. Powerful experts cropped up like bamboo after a spring rain. Although their species hadn’t reached the same level as the past, when taking in Revered Ancient as a whole, they were in good shape.

But outside the God-Rejecting Mage Formation, the war continued. The spider god was asleep, and though all the other subordinate gods were strong, Antemage Ninedawns actually surpassed his father in terms of talent. With him in command, the various archmages fought hard and even gave their lives to finally force the invading gods to retreat from the God-Rejecting Mage Formation. It was a victory to go down in the history books.

While other species in Revered Ancient were experiencing catastrophe because of the gods, the Darkheaven Archmages successfully repelled an invasion and kept their homeland safe.

In order to celebrate the victory, the grand steward ascended the Revered Ancestor Altar and offered worship to the dome of heaven. His expression was one of piety and excitement as he invited the antemage and all the archmages back home. In preparation to receive the antemage, he worked with famous people from numerous species to prepare a great feast in the Steward’s Lands.

On that day, members of countless species joined the grand steward in shouting the words ‘come home.’ Those words shook the sky and spread through the lands, reaching outside of the God-Rejecting Mage Formation to be heard by Ninedawns and his subordinates. Everyone was feeling emotional. After 3,000 years of war, all combatants had lost comrades in the fighting, and the survivors were weary to the bone. Normally speaking, they would have remained steadfast and not retreated an inch. But they had won an amazing victory. The gods were in retreat, and they were deeply homesick. They all had family in the mortal world, and all of them wanted to return to their homeland to see the people they had been keeping safe for 3,000 years.

But in the end, Ninedawns said no.

It wasn’t the time to lead the archmages home. For all he knew, the gods might strike back. As long as he was alive, he wanted to do his best to make sure his species was safe for as long as possible. With an approving glance at his people inside the God-Rejecting Mage Formation, he sat down cross-legged to guard the formation.

Nine dragons manifested outside his body, which constantly swirled around him. That was his mage state. The other archmages suppressed their longing to return home and entered their own mage states. From a distance, it was like a host of huge beasts, guarding over their home with unswerving determination.

Everyone dies, and they wanted to die fighting for their people. And if they perished, they wanted their souls to become part of the God-Rejecting Mage Formation, just like their comrades who had fallen over the years.

In life, they defended their species. In death, they would do the same.

Time passed. This time it was 2,000 years. During that time, gods would occasionally cause trouble. But with Ninedawns and the other archmages on guard, not one god made it through the formation. The whole world was in chaos, but the lands of the Darkheaven Archmages were like a forbidden region to the gods.

Around then, the grand steward led his officials and the commoners to the Revered Ancestor Altar. From there, they offered worship to the dome of heaven. And they asked the antemage to come home.

Countless voices echoed out into heaven and earth. They contained the passion and hope of all the people.

Outside of the God-Rejecting Mage Formation, the archmages slowly opened their eyes. Behind them, on the other side of the formation, was their home. In that home were numerous statues. Statues that depicted them.

5,000 years….

In the end, they looked at their leader, Ninedawns. Ninedawns maintained silence for a long time. Then he opened his eyes. He wanted to say no, but when he looked at his companions, and sensed how tired they were, he couldn’t say the words. Sighing, he nodded and stood up. Taking most of the archmages with him, he went home.

It was the first time since his father died and he left the God-Rejecting Mage Formation that he returned home. As he arrived at the Steward’s Lands, cheering filled heaven and earth. Countless people bowed, and looks of excitement could be seen everywhere.

The sight of it stirred Ninedawns’ heart. He was exhausted after the last 5,000 years, but at the same time, felt warmth. How could he ever have imagined that the people who he trusted more than anything, that he had safeguarded for 5,000 years, and especially the successor he had personally picked, would prepare a blood-soaked reception for him?

He never came out of the Steward’s Lands….

The reality was that the Steward’s Lands were a trap prepared specifically for him and his subordinate archmages. They were actually a burial ground.

The people he had trusted ended up making a deal with the gods. And over the thousands of years that had passed, they had secretly constructed a god formation. It was a formation that could kill, that could seal, and that could summon gods.

Once Ninedawns and his subordinates arrived, the formation was activated. On that day, the Steward’s Lands became soaked with blood. On that day, the God-Rejecting Mage Formation that had protected the Darkheaven Archmage people… was breached. On that day, the spider god, who had largely recovered, returned, along with a host of subordinate gods. On that day, howls of anguish and screams of rage echoed out from the Steward’s Lands.

Death became the prevailing theme. Ninedawns’ heart filled with grief, indignation, and madness. He had been stabbed in the back by the very people he had been keeping safe. It left him bitter, confused, and enraged. But his fate had been sealed!

There was no God-Rejecting Mage Formation to offer protection. And the betrayal had been effected from both outside and in, with the help of his own people. All of his subordinate archmages died horrifically. Ninedawns fought ferociously, but all he could do was injure the spider god.

Ninedawns himself ultimately died on the blood-soaked field of betrayal. His corpse was sealed in the depths of the ground, with the spider god suppressing him and slowly feeding on his flesh to recover.

The flesh, blood, and mangled souls of his dead subordinates were piled into the Steward’s Lands. The spell formation that had been set up stayed there for all time….

The ancient wind slowly blew away, taking with it the dirge of betrayal.

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Xu Qing opened his eyes. His heart was still full of the rancorous energy from the memory fragments, as well as the pain of betrayal by one’s own trusted people. They were not his emotions, but they were strong nonetheless. He could tell that they actually came from Ninedawns.

It took a long time for Xu Qing to regain his composure. Eventually, he suppressed Ninedawns’ memories, but afterward, he still had a complicated expression on his face. Although he had suspected much earlier that the story ended like this, to experience it through the memory fragments gave him a much deeper understanding of Ninedawns and the surrounding lands.

Although Ninedawns’ memories ended with his death, Xu Qing could imagine what happened after that. In the years after his death, the remains of his archmages became food for the beasts that appeared there.

They were bizarre in appearance, vile in behavior, and were completely and utterly vicious. And it was because they were all full of rancorous energy. It didn’t matter their physical form. The reality was… they bore similarities to the archmages who had died years ago. Their mage states inherently involved looking like a beast.

Later, the ‘Steward’s Lands’ got a different name. The Mountain and Sea Region. At long last, Xu Qing understood the background of the beasts in the Mountain and Sea Region. Looking around, Xu Qing knew that this very place had once been the Steward’s Lands.

After a long moment passed, Xu Qing took a deep breath and got rid of the last scrap of emotion from Ninedawns.

He was Xu Qing. Not Ninedawns. His thoughts and emotions were back in order, but he still had a question. Based on the history from the memory fragments, the spider god ultimately chose to seal Ninedawns’ corpse and absorb his flesh and blood to recover. But from what Xu Qing had seen, that spider god was eventually sealed by the three gods of sun, moon, and star.

There’s more history involved here…. When did those three gods come along?

After a while, he decided not to worry about it. It wasn’t important right now. What he needed to do now was get that final skull.

With eight skulls, he was already in the position to leave. He could even absorb the gray fog. But if he could get eight… then he didn’t want to give up on the ninth. When you do something, do it all the way.

His eyes glittered as he performed a double-handed incantation gesture. The violet crystal thrummed, light spilled out, and eight skulls swirled out to form the Captain’s formation. This time, he wasn’t using five items to acquire his target, but eight!

Ripples spread out from the eight skulls, combining to make a black hole that revealed the ninth skull. Xu Qing performed another incantation gesture, activating Fishing the Moon in the Well. A watery surface formed, and he extended his hand to fish something out of it.

However, just as he was about to grab the ninth skull, a terrifying fluctuation erupted from 3,000 meters down in the muck. The shrine had begun vibrating, and was now emitted a horrifying aura. That aura shook everything. The Ninedawns Forbidden Lands began to tremble, and the fluctuations quickly spread out to fill the entire Mountain and Sea Region.

In the blink of an eye, the entire region was shaking. Wild colors flashed in heaven and earth, mutagen levels skyrocketed, and everything blurred. It was just like when the broken face’s eyes opened!

The countless beasts in the region shivered. Eyes crimson, they began to exude rancorous energy and howls of anguish.

Hundreds of thousands of Firemoon cultivators participating in the Great Hunt, regardless of the level of their cultivation base, felt intense dread rising up within them. They looked around with wildly flickering expressions as they wondered what was happening.

Master Stillwinter was among them. As he flew through the sky, the sudden upheaval occurred, and he stopped in place. Breathing heavily, he turned to look in the direction of the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands. He could clearly sense that the source of fluctuations was that very location! Normally speaking he wouldn’t have thought much of it. But right now, he couldn’t stop thinking about Xu Qing entering the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands. A sudden sense of unease rose up within him.