First Immortal of the Sword

Chapter 2530 – The True Nature of the Great Extinguishing

Lin Jinghong’s message spoke of just one thing——she’d discovered the reason that the Central Divine Continent had been reduced to a land forbidden to all life!

Everyone knew that in the earliest days of the God Domain’s history, there had been five great Divine Continents.

The Central Divine Continent had had the deepest foundations. It was, as the name implied, the center of the God Domain, its very heart!

Ancient rumors sang the Central Divine Continent’s praises.

“Of the five Divine Continents, the Central is supreme!”

“Better to be a dog in the Central Divine Continent than to live in the sticks of the other four Divine Continents!”

“Only the Central Divine Continent can decide the course of the God Domain’s future!”

“If you cultivate outside of the Central Divine Continent, you can forget about striving for the Grand Dao!”

It was obvious from the surviving rumors alone how vibrant and flourishing the Central Divine Continent had once been. It was a continent of cultivators.

Back then, the Eastern Victory, Ancient Nirvana, Southern Flame, and Spirit Firmament Divine Continents had only survived to highlight the Central Divine Continent’s supremacy!

But now, the Central Divine Continent was no more. It had become a forbidden zone devoid of all life, a land of certain death!

A Divine Continent covered an enormous amount of territory and was home to trillions of living creatures. Countless ancient orthodoxies and divine clans had roots there.

But all of them were destroyed during the cataclysm. The cataclysm swept the entire continent, reducing it to a forbidden zone devoid of life!

Even incomparably mighty factions were annihilated!

This cataclysm was known as the Great Extinguishing.

But even now, no one knew just what triggered it, or how it had destroyed the Central Divine Continent.

Throughout the ages, there had been numerous rumors, but nothing more.

Some said that the Great Extinguishing originated from the River of Destiny to target the cultivation factions of the Central Divine Continent.

Others said that it arose from beneath the nine abysses.

In the God Domain, two places were considered unsurpassed danger zones: beyond the clouds of the nine heavens, and beneath the nine abysses.

And the nine abysses were located in the Central Divine Continent.

There were also rumors that said the Great Extinguishing’s appearance had something to do with a Five Elements Battle.

The Central Divine Continent was considered the heart of the God Domain because the chaos source that had given rise to the God Domain was located there.

The chaos source was located deep below the Central Divine Continent’s greatest divine mountain, Red Pine Mountain.

There was a Five Elements Altar born of that chaos source on the slopes of Ren Pine Mountain. It was imbued with the Laws of the God Domain’s chaos source.

A long time ago, Master Gods saw the Five Elements Altar as a sacred ground for proving one’s Dao and breaking through. There was nothing else like it!

Rumor had it that in the earliest days of the God Domain’s history, a few experts who’d stepped onto the River of Destiny fought over good fortune on the Five Elements Altar.

It was for this reason that, prior to its destruction, the Master Gods of the Central Divine Continent frequently went to the Five Elements Altar on Red Pine Mountain to compete over good fortune. These battles were known as Five Elements Battles.

According to the rumors, the Great Extinguishing was connected to a Five Elements Battle. They said that a particularly fierce battle had destroyed the chaos source that gave rise to the Five Elements Altar, triggering the Great Extinguishing.

Notably, one of the greatest danger zones in the God Domain, the Nine Abysses, had once laid beneath Red Pine Mountain!

In summary, there were all types of rumors with varying degrees of substance, but they were all ultimately just rumors. Even now, no one really knew what had caused the Great Extinguishing and the destruction of the God Domain’s Central Divine Continent.

Yet now, the spearwoman, Lin Jinghong, had sent him a message saying she’d discovered the reason for the Central Divine Continent’s destruction.

Apparently, the Great Extinguishing indeed originated from beneath the nine abysses!

And it really was a battle fought on the Five Elements Alter that triggered it.

During that battle, numerous terrifying factions of the River of Destiny fought to seize a cauldron!

The combatants were Eternals, so their battle severely damaged the God Domain’s chaos source. This in turn led to the cataclysm later known as the Great Extinguishing!

In the end, the Great Withering swept across the entire Central Divine Continent, leaving it in ruin and utterly devoid of life.

How could Su Yi not have been surprised after learning these secrets?

Only now did he realize that many of the fragmented rumors floating about had, in fact, come close to the truth!

Red Pine Mountain, the Five Elements Altar, beneath the Nine Abysses, and the Great Extinguishing… Back then, all of those Eternals got involved simply to fight over a cauldron? Just where did that cauldron come from?

Lin Jinghong’s letter didn’t say anything about the cauldron’s origins. All it said was that recently, there had been numerous striking developments around Red Pine Mountain.

It was these changes that had let her find those leads and uncover the truth of the Great Extinguishing.

That aside, Lin Jinghong said that when the Dark Days of Legend arrived, the Central Divine Continent would undergo an earth-shaking transformation.

But she didn’t advise Su Yi to come. There was too much danger lying in wait in the Central Divine Continent, and it was too unpredictable. When the Dark Days of Legend arrived, all of these dangers and unpredictable variables would erupt at once.

When that happened, the Central Divine Continent would be the most dangerous place in the entire God Domain!

The first group to go there would effectively just be throwing their lives away.

Had anyone else issued such a warning, Su Yi likely would have laughed it off, but this was coming from Lin Jinghong, the daughter of Demon God Lin. He naturally wouldn’t dismiss it.

At the end of her letter, Lin Jinghong said that she and A’Cang had gone deep into hiding, and that they wouldn’t venture outward lightly, not even after the Dark Days of Legend began.

She urged Su Yi to lie low and avoid getting complacent, too.

Su Yi put the jade slip away, then sank into thought. It had been years since they’d last spoken, yet now, Lin Jinghong had sent him this letter out of nowhere. That surely meant that she’d realized how incomparably terrifying and dangerous the Central Divine Continent would become, and she’d taken it upon herself to warn him.

After learning the truth of the Great Extinguishing, Su Yi now knew that the ruins of Red Pine Mountain would soon transform in unpredictable ways. After all, that was the site of the Five Elements Altar, the God Domain’s chaos source, and the unsurpassed danger zone beneath the Nine Abysses!

The only thing Su Yi couldn’t quite wrap his head around was why all those Eternals of the River of Destiny would enter the God Domain just to fight over a cauldron. Just what were that cauldron’s origins?

This question was of the utmost importance, as in a sense, it was the cauldron that had led to the destruction of the entire Central Divine Continent!

When the Dark Days of Legend, perhaps all of these truths will come to light, thought Su Yi.

……

Time slipped by, and soon, another three years had passed.

The atmosphere throughout the God Domain had grown stifled and oppressive to the extreme.

Everywhere cultivators gathered, no one was in any mood to discuss the Dark Days of Legend any further. All of them were fraught with worry, and all of them were busy planning and preparing.

Some people sighed. “Argh! This is torment. Time has slowed to a crawl; every day feels like a year. I can neither eat nor sleep in peace!”

Others were wistful. “The ordinary mortals of the mundane world are fortunate. The ignorant are without fear; they have nothing to be concerned about.”

Dark currents were flowing beneath the surface of the God Domain. A storm was brewing.

But the ordinary mortals knew none of this. They lived as before, experiencing life with all its ups and downs, birth, death, aging, and sickness.

“But when the Dark Days of Legend arrive, how many of those ordinary mortals will survive?”

“Argh! I can’t take this anymore! I wish the Dark Days of Legend would hurry up and begin already!”

Similar discussions played out throughout the God Domain.

A dramatic change was soon to befall the world, and everyone knew it. The closer it got, the more agonizing the waiting became.

It wasn’t just the ordinary cultivators; as the Dark Days of Legend grew closer and closer, the world’s top factions felt increasingly frantic and uneasy, too.

No one could truly stay calm!

And during this time, Sunset Perch Island became increasingly lively, as a steady stream of old monsters came to see Su Yi.

These included Divine Priestess Celestial Rains, the Heaven-Swallowing Toad Ancestor, and Ancestor Blood Lake, among others.

“The Dark Days of Legend will be upon us within a year. How could we possibly remain calm? Thus, we’ve all come here to seek refuge with you, Brother Fuyou,” laughed the Heaven-Swallowing Toad Ancestor. “A towering tree provides ample shade. We’ll feel safer if we stick with you.”

The other old monsters thought similarly. All of them had long since reached the end of the Undying Realm, and they understood the Dark Days of Legend far better than most. They naturally understood that when the Dark Days of Legend began, it would affect all of them, too.

Thus, they’d decided to take action before that happened and seek refuge with Su Yi.

Su Yi naturally wouldn’t turn them away.

Later, the “old man who refused to die” and Xu Zuizhen, the leaders of Clear Breeze Daoist Temple and Purplemist Grotto, came to Sunset Perch Island with their disciples.

“Fellow Daoist Su, you needn’t worry. We’ve chosen to join your cause. That means we’re all in the same boat, and we’ll advance and retreat side by side. Whether we live or die, we’ll do it together!”

This was the old monsters’ unanimous stance.

“If even you are uneasy, just… how anxious must the rest of the God Domain be?” sighed Su Yi.

Just one year remained until the Dark Days of Legend began. Everyone knew that this last year would be the most agonizing of all.

But none of them could have guessed that the Dark Days of Legend would arrive even earlier than anticipated!

Just half a year later, thunder rumbled and boomed beneath the dome of heaven. It continued for three days and three nights.

The entrance to the Boundless Battlefield lay beneath the firmament. It was the first to split into pieces and fall apart!

Countless pieces of the Boundless Battlefield fell down to earth like a meteor shower, tearing through the sky and slamming into the world below.

No one knew how many mountains and rivers were destroyed, or how many cities were laid to ruin overnight.

And no one knew how many living beings died brutally before they even knew what hit them.

This disaster shook the entire God Domain. The whole world descended into upheaval.

On that day, the God Domain’s cultivators realized that the curtains had now opened on the Dark Days of Legend!!