Start from a baby to become a Taoist

Chapter 552 Ancient Battlefield

Chapter 560

However, once the sword intent entered the area of ​​the Tomb of Soldiers, it vanished without a trace, like a mud ox sinking into the sea, without causing any ripples.

"Ok?"

For the first time, Xu Ran's gaze turned serious.

To be able to so easily neutralize his sword intent, the opponent's strength must be extraordinary! Perhaps even... far superior to his!

Just as he was about to unleash even greater power, an aged sigh, as if he were about to breathe his last, drifted out from the depths of the tomb.

"Sigh... How many eons have passed... Finally, another one has been found... someone 'it's' acknowledgment..."

The sound, though intermittent, clearly reached the ears of the three.

As the sound rang out, the mountain of broken divine weapons began to slowly part to both sides, revealing a path leading into the depths of darkness.

A hunched figure, leaning on a cane made from a broken spear, slowly emerged from the darkness, step by step.

That's an old man.

An old man so old that he seemed ready to turn to dust at any moment.

His skin was withered, like the bark of an old tree, clinging tightly to his bones. His hair and beard had all fallen out, leaving only a bald scalp and chin. He wore a tattered gray cloth robe, the fabric so worn and weathered that its original material was unrecognizable, covered in dust and the marks of time.
trace.

The only thing that set him apart was his eyes.

Those were eyes that defied description.

It was murky, as if it carried all the wreckage and death in the boundary sea.

It is so clear that it seems to reflect the first ray of light at the beginning of the universe.

It was filled with weariness and vicissitudes, yet upon seeing Xu Ran, a glimmer of hope shone through...

"Who are you?" Xu Ran asked in a deep voice, his internal power already operating at its maximum.

This old man gave him an extremely dangerous feeling. He was clearly standing there, but in Xu Ran's divine sense perception, he seemed to be nothingness, a non-existent "void".

“Me?” The old man grinned, revealing a toothless smile, and said in a hoarse voice, “You can call me… the gravedigger.”

"A gravedigger?" Xu Ran raised an eyebrow. "Whose grave are you guarding?"

"Hehe..." The old man chuckled and pointed with his cane at the god-slaying blade that reached the heavens and the earth behind Xu Ran.

"For it, and for... all the 'rebels' buried here."

Upon hearing this, Xu Ran was deeply shocked!

He instantly understood many things!

No wonder the malevolent energy here forms tides; it is probably the tomb keeper who is secretly manipulating it, using a special method to maintain the existence of this ancient battlefield and prevent the will of the God-Slaying Blade from completely dissipating in the long river of time!
"How long have you been waiting for me?" Xu Ran asked.

“I don’t remember.” The gravedigger shook his head, a trace of confusion appearing in his cloudy eyes. “Time has long lost its meaning for me. I only remember that the last person 'it' acknowledged, his name… I think it was ‘Wilderness’. He walked out of here and stirred up a huge wave, but unfortunately… he still lost in the end.”

"shortage!"

Xu Ran's mind was once again shaken by these two words!

He seemed to have seen this name before in some ancient fragments! It belonged to a forbidden being who once swept through an era, possessed unparalleled combat power, and even shook the very order of heaven and earth!
Unexpectedly, that legendary supreme expert also came from here, just like me!

"Senior, who exactly are you...?"

"I'm just a loser clinging to life." The gravedigger waved his hand, interrupting Xu Ran, his eyes, which seemed to see through everything, staring intently at Xu Ran.

“Young man, you have gained ‘its’ approval and embarked on this path. This is both your opportunity and your… tribulation.”

Do you know what lies at the end of this road?

Xu Ran remained silent for a moment before slowly saying, "Either shatter the Heavenly Palace, or perish and your soul vanishes."

"Well said!" The tomb keeper's eyes gleamed with an unprecedented light, as if he were experiencing a final burst of energy before death. "But do you know that since that first swordsman, no one has ever reached the end? Including 'Wilderness,' countless brilliant talents have fallen halfway!"

"Why?"

Xu Ran's voice echoed across the desolate, ancient battlefield, carrying a hint of solemnity that even he himself hadn't noticed. He vaguely sensed that the answer to this question would determine every step he would take in the future, and even his ultimate fate.

The sharp light on the gravedigger's deeply lined old face slowly faded, returning to its stagnant, murky state. He didn't answer immediately, but turned around and gently tapped the mound beneath him with his broken spear-like cane.

thump.

A dull thud resounded, as if striking a point in the annals of time.

"Because they are all 'rootless' people."

The old man spoke slowly, his voice hoarse as if two pieces of rotten wood were rubbing together: "'Rebellion,' in its essence, means severing all ties with 'Heavenly Principles.' You severed the path it bestowed upon you, severed the destiny it planned for you, severed the order of reincarnation it established. You transcended the Three Realms, were no longer bound by the Five Elements, and became... a lonely soul adrift outside the entire world order." He paused, raising his eyes, which seemed to see through the river of time, and gazed at Xu Ran: "Why can a tree reach the sky? Because it has roots, deeply rooted in the earth. Why can stars hang eternally? Because they follow a predetermined trajectory, held together by the gravity of the entire universe. But the 'rebellious ones,' they severed their own roots, uprooted their own trajectory. They certainly gained unparalleled freedom and power, but they also became... fragile."

"Vulnerable?" Xu Ran frowned.

With a flick of the finger, three peak Dao Lords were wiped out. Even the legendary forbidden being "Huang" once embarked on this path. How can such power be described as "fragile"?

“Yes, fragile. A kind of…essential fragility.” The gravedigger sighed. “What is the law of nature? It is not a living being, not a will, but a whole set of rules that has been running for countless epochs… It is that earth, it is that starry sky. And those who defy it are like trees trying to grow in the void, stars navigating in chaos. When your power is not enough to form your own world, to create your own set of ‘defiant laws,’ the law of nature will obliterate you, without even needing to resort to so-called judgment and divine punishment.”

The old man's voice carried a chill that seemed to emanate from the depths of his soul.

"It only needs to... modify the 'rules'."

"Modify the rules?"

“Not bad.” The gravedigger nodded, drawing a line on the dusty ground with his cane. “This is the river of time. Every living being, from birth to death, is a drop of water in this river, with its own trajectory. And the laws of nature are this river itself. When you choose to ‘go against’ it, you leap out of this river.”

He then clicked a dot next to the online icon.

“You stand here, watching the river flow. You are powerful, capable of creating giant waves and even changing the river's course. But…”

The old man stretched out his withered fingers and gently erased a small section of the line representing the river of time, which happened to be the position corresponding to Xu Ran's "point".

"The laws of nature only need to 'dig' out the 'time period' in which you existed from the entire river of time. Then, where did you come from? Your past, your foundation, all traces of your existence will vanish into nothingness. How can an existence without a 'past' talk about a 'future'? You are like a paradox that appears out of thin air, instantly corrected and completely erased by the causal laws of the entire world. This is not death, but something more terrifying than the annihilation of the soul... 'returning to zero'."

"That's how it is, Huang." The old man's voice became incredibly low, filled with endless sorrow. "He had become powerful enough to confront the Heavenly Principle head-on, even severing countless chains of order that extended from it. But in the end, the Heavenly Principle did not fight him anymore, but instead activated its supreme authority. It altered the past, turning the era in which 'Huang' was never born into a blank slate. And so, this unparalleled powerhouse, this almost successful rebel, simply... vanished. Silently, as if he had never existed."

"If it weren't for my remnant soul being entrusted to this god-slaying blade that doesn't belong to the karma of this world, I'm afraid no one would even remember the name 'Wilderness'."

Xu Ran remained silent for a long time after listening.

A chill ran from the soles of his feet straight up to the top of his head!
This is no longer a contest of strength; it's a... dimensional crushing! It's the absolute control of the creator over its creations!
He finally understood the immense sorrow and resentment that the broken sword carried! It wasn't the humiliation of repeated defeats, but the eternal loneliness that had been "erased" from the root time and again, a loneliness so profound that even a cry couldn't be uttered!
“Then… senior…” Xu Ran looked at the tomb keeper.

“Me?” The tomb keeper chuckled self-deprecatingly. “I was originally a ‘Dao soldier’ under the command of the first sword wielder. In that ultimate battle that spanned several chaotic eras, my master was defeated. He sacrificed himself, casting this sword into the depths of the Boundary Sea, and also diverting his last wisp of power to protect my remnant soul. I and this sword have long since become one. I am both the tomb keeper and… part of this tomb.”

“My existence is not recorded by the laws of nature. Therefore, I can remember everything that has been erased. My mission is to wait. To wait for the next person, like you, to appear who is recognized by ‘it’.”

Xu Ran took a deep breath, suppressing the shock in his heart, and his eyes became firm again: "Since you have told me all this, senior, there must be a way to solve it."

He wasn't someone who would easily despair. Since this path existed, there must be a possibility of it being successful!

“Yes.” A glimmer of hope rekindled in the gravedigger’s eyes. “Even the laws of nature are not omniscient and omnipotent, and the rules are not without loopholes. If you don’t want to be ‘reset to zero,’ you must, after jumping out of the river of time, set up a new… ‘anchor’ for yourself!”

"anchor?"

“An ‘anchor of existence’ that is not governed by the laws of nature and is not bound by the cause and effect of this world!” the gravedigger said, enunciating each word clearly. “As long as this ‘anchor’ remains, no matter how the laws of nature modify the past or erase your traces of existence, you can redefine yourself and return from nothingness by relying on the connection between you and the ‘anchor’! You will become a truly ‘creation from nothing’ existence! Only then will you be qualified to talk about… creating your own ‘reverse law’!”

Xu Ran's heart began to pound violently.

He understood! This was the true core of the "reverse" path!
It's not about indiscriminate destruction and severance, but about establishing a "new order" of one's own after the destruction!
"Senior, where should we look for this 'anchor'?"

"Search for it?" The gravedigger shook his head. "Such an 'anchor' cannot be found. It needs to be... forged by yourself!"

After saying that, he slammed his cane down heavily.

"follow me!"

Rumble!
The entire ancient battlefield began to tremble violently. The mound of weapons, made up of countless broken divine weapons, split open in the middle, revealing a bottomless dark staircase leading to the depths of the earth.

An aura even more desolate, ancient, and deathly than the murderous aura of an ancient battlefield swept over us from the end of the steps.

It was an aura of… “end.” As if everything, having reached its end, would return to that darkness.

"Where is this..." Zhenshan and Cangshi trembled in fear before this aura, and even the Dao Lord's body became somewhat unstable.

"The blade that slays gods is the beginning of 'rebellion.' And buried beneath it is the end of 'rebellion.'"

The tomb keeper didn't offer much explanation; with his body hunched over, he was the first to go down.

Xu Ran followed without hesitation.

Zhenshan and Cangshi exchanged a glance, gritted their teeth, and followed. They had already staked everything on Xu Ran, and now there was no turning back.

The stairs were very long, seemingly without end.

It was pitch black all around, so dark you couldn't see your hand in front of your face. Even divine sense was suppressed to a very small area.

But Xu Ran could clearly "see" that on both sides of the stairs, in the endless dark void, there were scenes of bizarre and terrifying sights floating around.

He saw a magnificent civilization where everyone was like a god or demon, their breath forming clouds and their hands reaching for the stars. They disrespected heaven and earth, believing only in their own power. In the end, the entire civilization, along with their world, was gently wiped away by an unseen giant hand, turning into a meaningless jumble of code that slowly dissipated into the darkness.

He saw a colossal beast, towering above the heavens, its body larger than a galaxy, feeding on the shattered universe. It attempted to defy the laws of nature, wanting to turn the entire Sea of ​​Boundaries into its sustenance. Ultimately, its concept of "existence" was reversed; its massive body transformed into countless tiny specks of dust, becoming nourishment for the new world.

(End of this chapter)