Kaiyang said, "Advisor Chen, you have just joined the Advisory Group and are entitled to a sixty-day period of preparation and adjustment. There is no need to assume your duties immediately."
Chen Chuan replied, "I know. Just take me there."
"Understood, Advisor Chen."
The dedicated car drove along the mountain road, winding uphill. Rounding a bend, a deep, sprawling tunnel appeared in the rock face.
As the car entered, the lamps along the tunnel walls illuminated in succession. Several kilometers in, a train stood waiting on the tracks. The car drove straight up the ramp at the rear of the train and into an interior carriage, with two armored vehicles following closely behind.
The car came to a smooth halt inside the compartment. An orderly stepped down and opened the door for Chen Chuan.
Chen Chuan stepped out. The train's officer-in-charge stepped forward, bowed, and said, "Advisor Chen, please follow me."
The security personnel automatically remained behind while Chen Chuan followed the officer to the main carriage. Once he was seated, the train set off, plunging deeper into the mountain tunnel. As its speed picked up, the surrounding fixtures and lights streaked past in a blur.
Ten minutes later, the train burst from the far end of the tunnel with a blast of its whistle.
Chen Chuan looked outside. The tracks on this side ran flush against the cliffside. Below lay a canyon, and opposite stood a fortified stronghold that had hollowed out nearly the entire mountain belly. Various military and engineering vehicles moved back and forth across the area, seemingly still engaged in construction and reinforcement.
According to the dossier Kaiyang had provided, an army of ten thousand men was stationed here, every one of them an elite handpicked from various military units.
This army was deployed here to combat the diverse swarms of creatures that emerged from the immortality fissure.
Aside from entities spilling out of the convergence zone, the majority of the creatures on the other side were formed when spirit entities from the other world entered the material world. They were virtually limitless in number and rarely identical.
Fortunately, thanks to the existence of the Ring of the World and the surrounding rituals, their tier was not particularly high. Modern military weaponry was sufficient to dispose of them. Furthermore, the body tissues left behind by these creatures served as resources from the other world, which were transported to the rear for processing and utilization.
As the train pushed farther ahead, the rumbling thunder of artillery fire reached his ears, shaking the earth and sky—unquestionably the roar of heavy-caliber fortress guns.
Directly ahead, the view was blocked by deliberately leveled cliff faces, but across the sky beyond them hung a shimmering glow of blue and violet twilight.
After passing through three more tunnels, the train finally pulled into a station.
Chen Chuan stepped off the train, only to find Xiao Yuanguang, whom he had parted from not long ago, standing on the waiting platform. He walked over and greeted him:
"Senior Xiao."
Xiao Yuanguang smiled and said, "Advisor Chen, I knew you would come here at the first opportunity. Come, let me show you around outside."
Chen Chuan said, "I'll trouble Senior, then."
The moment he met Xiao Yuanguang earlier, he had sensed that this was likely the person who had arranged for Old Feng to meet him and disclosed the location of Emperor Ying's hidden cache.
He had gained substantial benefits from that cache back then, and he felt deep gratitude toward this man.
For a member of the Purist Faction, Xiao Yuanguang was also a Visage of the Divine martial artist—a rare sight within the faction—and possessed a remarkably detailed knowledge of past history. Clearly, his background was far from simple.
Xiao Yuanguang walked ahead. It was evident that he took great care with his personal appearance; his attire was immaculate, and he wore the retro trench coat issued to the Advisory Group, complete with gloves.
As he walked, he explained, "Our current technology and rituals are already capable of completely sealing off this fissure. Twenty years ago, we attempted it once, leaving only a small opening.
"However, we quickly discovered it wouldn't work. The energy from the other side is like an accumulating tidal surge. If it is merely blocked, its pressure only builds higher and higher until the field can no longer withstand it. Thus, we must open it periodically, releasing the buildup continuously just like venting a flood.
"This has its benefits for us as well. With mature technology, our utilization rate of various foreign materials from the other side is high. We can continuously draw resources from it, and occasionally we even discover relics of relatively high grade."
Chen Chuan asked, "Is the casualty rate high here?"
Xiao Yuanguang said, "Before the Old Era, the conflict here could rightfully be called a meat grinder of flesh and blood. That was why successive dynasties established their national capitals here—to facilitate the concentration of manpower and material resources.
"Back then, however, even during transition periods, the two worlds never drew this close together. The force of their impact was actually far weaker than it is now. In those days, the main force shouldering the defense consisted of Old Era Xuanji martial artists.
"Fortunately, after entering the New Era, the army's equipment was upgraded and phased forward until it had completely transformed into a modern military force. We now possess modern weapons with greater destructive power and longer range, so we no longer have to rely entirely on martial artists.
"Today, only a certain number of elite troops, combined with a handful of martial artists on duty, are enough to hold back the surges from the other side, and casualties have steadily dropped.
"Ah, this way. This is the advisors' dedicated corridor."
With that, he quickened his pace slightly and stepped onto an elevator platform.
Chen Chuan followed him on.
Amidst the grinding clatter of metal winches and chains, the elevator rapidly climbed upward.
"According to the assessments from the Grand Alliance era, there are thirteen immortality fissures in the world. Two of the top three lie right here in our East Continent: one is Liepi Gorge, guarded by our Purist Faction, and the other is this one beneath Chiqiu."
Xiao Yuanguang said, "Since the Old Era, our East Continent has resisted far more entities from the other side than anywhere else. Yet it is precisely because of this that the strength and prosperity of our East Continent's regimes have been unmatched anywhere in the world."
Chen Chuan remarked, "Though there were no rivals abroad, every one of those regimes ultimately collapsed from within."
Xiao Yuanguang nodded slowly. "Advisor Chen, I heard clearly what you said to the few of us earlier. When I first joined the Advisory Group, I held the very same view.
"Advisors wield immense authority. An advisor's actions can directly bypass the laws established by the state. So long as they do not exceed the tolerance of the leadership above, practically no one can hold them accountable. It is likely because of this that some advisors have grown utterly reckless.
"In the past, seniors of our Purist Faction were not without those who sought to bring about change. You may have even met one of them just now. When he was on the verge of taking action back then, he was dissuaded by those above, and in the end, he chose to focus on breaking through.
"Yet others made a different choice. Roughly fifty years ago, a fellow practitioner from Wuyi Academy also encountered obstacles from above when he tried to force a change.
"And even to the very end, he refused to compromise."
Chen Chuan looked up at Xiao Yuanguang and asked, "What happened to him in the end?"
Xiao Yuanguang fell silent for a moment before saying in a somber voice, "In the end, he charged into the fissure all on his own and voluntarily became a fiend of the other side.
"Later, while on guard duty, I crossed paths with him. I asked him what he intended to do. He told me that since change was impossible from within, he would become a fiend to overturn everything. He intended to destroy the old world and build a brand-new one upon its ruins."
At that moment, the lift finally reached the bottom. With a clunk and a shudder, it came to a firm halt.
Xiao Yuanguang said, "We're here. Just ahead."
Once the barrier opened, the two stepped off the lift and walked along the corridor toward the exit ahead.
Two minutes later, they stepped outside. A massive gust of air buffeted them head-on, accompanied by streams of blinding light that sent visible ripples across the fields surrounding their bodies.
Chen Chuan lifted his eyes. Before them lay a vast plain, and not far ahead were jagged rifts that looked as if they had torn straight through the atmosphere, flashing with blinding radiance like molten lava.
Those fissures of light extended and branched upward, stretching all the way into the heights of the firmament. Occasionally, they flashed violently, tearing open deeper and more numerous gaps, but after a short while, they would knit together and mend on their own.
This colossal spectacle occupied nearly half his field of view.
Xiao Yuanguang said, "Back in antiquity, most of the ancient gods emerged from Liepi Gorge, whereas what the common folk refer to as demons and fiends mostly came from here.
"Therefore, starting four thousand years ago, ancient emperors established their dynastic foundations here to hold back the entities from the other side. Later, most dynasties set their capitals here to demonstrate their legitimacy, and with the aid of the Xuan and Chan teachings, they laid down a vast array of esoteric rituals across the land.
"A century ago, when we took over this territory, we found that although the rituals had been reinforced and thickened through additions by successive dynasties, this had also made them exceedingly redundant.
"By the late imperial era, they could no longer be expanded or added to at will; people could only patch and mend on the existing foundation.
"Great Shun therefore mobilized massive manpower and, under immense pressure, systematically untangled and dismantled the convoluted rituals, rearranging them layer by layer. Only then did we arrive at the sight before us today."
Chen Chuan suddenly sensed something and looked upward. Faint, drifting phantoms hovered around the fissure.
To his astonishment, they were scenes of ancient emperors and Xuanji martial artists of successive dynasties engaged in battle against entities from the other side.
In truth, these were spiritual remnants of those martial artists absorbed by the local field, which had now been organized and reconstructed by the active conscious entity Kaiyang.
Xiao Yuanguang said, "Where we stand now is an important node of the Ring of the World. Ahead lies a permanent field. Though still protected by the power of the Ring of the World, that is the front line in defending Chiqiu, and it is also where we stand guard."
As he spoke, he walked toward the other side. Chen Chuan followed close behind, and the two soon stepped directly into the fissure.
The instant they crossed over, Chen Chuan saw blinding light flowing everywhere before them. Mingled within the radiance were countless aberrant creatures born from the collision and fusion between the world beyond and the material world.
These entities swept rapidly past them, yet none caused the slightest disruption. Instead, the moment they made contact with their spirits, they shattered and dissolved one after another, like ocean waves crashing against unyielding reefs.
This continued for a while before the light finally dispersed, and an entirely different world unfolded before his eyes.
Chapter 1478