Chapter 1036: Bronze ancient palace

The Image Stone seemed to be recording its own demise. In the end, he still achieved nothing, gained nothing, touched nothing—utterly laughable.

But in his final moments, Feng Jinyu seemed to find peace. Like the countless ordinary cultivators in the Three Thousand Great Worlds, he was always just one of them...

He never had a grand immortal path, no extraordinary talent for the immortal dao, nor a remarkable background. He always lived a life of obscurity, doing things that seemed meaningless to outsiders, and ended his life in a daze.

In the last moment of his chaotic consciousness, Feng Jinyu finally smiled, as if he had fully accepted his mediocrity and incompetence, content to die in a place where no one would notice.

This immortal journey, as long as it felt meaningful to him, was enough.

His weak divine sense surged, activating the Image Stone to view the most beautiful scene of his immortal journey. He had done his best, with no regrets.

As Feng Jinyu's eyes grew dim, a figure in a black robe approached him. It was a skeleton, its eyes flickering with ghostly fire, looking quite eerie, like a soul reaper...

At this moment, he feared nothing. With a cold laugh, he weakly said, "My eldest brother and Heling live in the underworld, take me there."

However, before he could finish speaking, the black-robed figure took him away, and the image cut off.

Chen Yanshu's eyes flickered. That black-robed figure was an Eastern Wilderness ghost cultivator.

The scene paused momentarily.

Then slowly unfolded a new scene, showing Feng Jinyu with a dull expression, gray eyes vacant, yet still looking at a map. He had prepared many immortal dao resources to send back to his clan.

By this time, he had entered the Unity stage and was still alive.

But his legs were skeletal, neither human nor ghost.

From then on, Feng Jinyu never spoke another word, his face full of indifference, guarding outside a bronze ancient palace, gazing into the unknown distance.

The scene shifted, years later.

He crawled out of an immortal tomb, surrounded by skeletal cultivators. By then, his hands had also become skeletal, holding a giant stone as he left. Yet, a spark of wisdom suddenly flashed in his vacant gray eyes.

His lifespan was nearing its end, his only fate to become a Bronze Ghost Fiend, mindlessly guarding the bronze ancient palace...

Upon returning to the Eastern Wilderness, he quietly merged his head's essence blood into the Arm Ghost Stone unearthed from the immortal tomb, intending to escape!

But this was the Wild Heaven Region, a place of survival of the fittest, not a playground. He was suppressed and killed by a powerful ghost cultivator with a single palm, not even escaping a hundred miles, which was quite ironic.

Yet the Arm Ghost Stone, carrying the Image Stone, flew towards the Fallen Heaven Islet, seemingly imbued with Feng Jinyu's last essence blood and spirituality, as if his final thought was to escape there!

The second-grade immortal tomb spirit fled far away, and the ghost cultivator couldn't catch up, only watching helplessly as it disappeared.

Years later.

Outside the bronze ancient palace, a skeleton wandered aimlessly, its hollow eyes gazing into the unknown, gradually blending into the surrounding skeletons.

...Day after day, year after year.

No one knew how long it had been when the Wild Star Sea trembled, and magnificent immortal light shocked the world. A cultivator who dominated the heavens proved the dao and became immortal in the star sea!!!

The vast immortal light shone for billions of miles, illuminating mountains and rivers. The endless ghost cultivators of the Eastern Wilderness bowed in salute, their gestures full of respect.

Even the ghost cultivator who once killed Feng Jinyu almost prostrated in worship of the supreme Immortal Venerable!!

Outside the bronze ancient palace.

The skeletons' movements halted, the pressure of heaven and earth rolled in, as if a majestic immortal spirit was overlooking the world, coldly questioning: Why do you not bow?!

Boom! Boom! Boom!

One by one, the skeletons knelt in worship, honoring the immortal!

Suddenly, one skeleton seemed to be blessed by the immortal, rising with a roar. The Arm Ghost Stone, far away on the Fallen Heaven Islet, also received the blessing of the immortal light, fleeing madly with this skeleton.

However, the group of ghost cultivators only watched coldly. A peerless powerhouse became immortal, the Immortal Venerable descended upon the world. Today, no slaughter would be wrought, so what if they let this little ghost go?!

Leaving the bronze ancient palace, it was nothing more than a pile of bones.

They merely glanced at it briefly, then saluted in the direction of the burgeoning immortal light, for that was the truly earth-shattering event.

Later, these powerhouses learned who this newly ascended immortal was, the founder of the Forbidden Immortal Path, Dao Ancestor of the Five Elements—Chen Xun!

Within the Fallen Heaven Islet.

The Arm Ghost Stone carried the skeleton into the center of the thunderstorms, its spirituality rapidly fading, as if fleeing, yet also heading towards a certain direction.

No one knew how long it took.

The Arm Ghost Stone's spirituality finally vanished, slowly resting deep within the thunderstorms, seemingly etched into the world, standing immovable.

The skeleton mechanically picked up an Image Stone, preserved perfectly by the Arm Ghost Stone. It had no consciousness, nothing at all, as if acting on instinct.

The light screen slowly unfolded:

"With me here, at least you have someone to talk to!"

"Today... the weather is so nice!"

"Why don't we... take a picture?"

"Heling... I picked this casually, it's not precious, but it's for you."

"Jinyu, thank you!"

...

Scenes flashed, showing a serene, smiling immortal spirit woman holding a bouquet of flowers, smiling as she looked on. Of course, beside her stood a simpleton.

The skeleton mechanically watched, its hand bones inexplicably lifting slightly, as if trying to touch something. It had lost its emotions, its expression, everything.

It merely repeated mechanical actions, perhaps not even knowing what it was doing.

"Young master, the Immaculate Immortal Ridge and the garbage recycling plant have issued obituaries... Miss Nangong and others fell in battle outside the human domain..."

Suddenly, a voice came from nowhere, causing the skeleton to tremble violently, yet it only trembled, having no thoughts, understanding nothing.

For a long time.

The skeleton seemed to lose its last bit of strength, collapsing powerlessly onto the stone platform of the Arm Ghost Stone, its hollow eyes still vacantly staring into the unknown.

But its skeletal hands tightly clutched the Earth-rank Image Stone, as if it were its most precious treasure...

Long after.

The skeleton remained motionless, regardless of the changing world outside, regardless of the Dao Ancestor of the Five Elements leading an army into the Milky Way, regardless of the secular changes in the Three Thousand Great Worlds, it lay quietly here.

...Unnoticed.

It seemed to have walked through an ordinary yet tumultuous life, ultimately accomplishing nothing meaningful, drifting with the vast world of immortals in the Three Thousand Great Worlds.

No one knew its name, no one cared about its past.

Its final identity seemed to be merely a skeleton guarding the bronze ancient palace within the Five Ghosts Extinguishing Heavenly Dao.

It did not rise like the Shi Rong Immortal, nor mature late like Yin Tianshou, nor make a miraculous comeback like Dao Ancestor Chen Xun, shining gloriously.

This skeleton was merely an obscure passerby in the vast immortal history of the grand world, eventually seen by outsiders by chance.

...

Chen Yanshu remained silent for a long time, deeply gazing at the skeleton, solemnly performing an immortal dao salute, and softly said:

"Junior Chen Yanshu, pays respects to Senior Feng Jinyu..."