Chapter Sixty: Neither Demon nor Mortal

Luo Longyu walked alone through a sea of black mist. Deep within the haze, he glimpsed fleeting shadows, ghostly forms that flitted past like specters. Yet, amidst the endless fog, Luo Longyu did not lose his way. Since crossing the seal, he had sensed a powerful spiritual energy here—corpse energy, to which he was acutely attuned.

After walking for about two minutes, a vast abyss suddenly blocked his path. The chasm was filled with deadly mist and the wind whistled mournfully, making it impossible to see clearly. Luo Longyu activated his ocular wheel and saw, with stark clarity, the countless corpses below—the Tomb of Ten Thousand Corpses. Yet the number of bodies far exceeded ten thousand.

With the corpse energy within him, Luo Longyu could distinctly sense the immense force field in the abyss. Flying was utterly impossible, and the flow of time within the force field was completely out of sync with the outside world. If not for his silicon-based genes, any carbon-based life form would have aged to dust in the span of a few breaths.

He wandered along the edge of the abyss and eventually found a stone bridge. On one side stood a crooked stone tablet, inscribed with a string of characters—ancient script unfamiliar to Luo Longyu. He used the corpse energy’s linguistic records to translate it.

It was a phrase in Hebrew: "Towards death, forsake the light."

A European holy sword was thrust into the tablet, seemingly suppressing the area. The blade was studded with gems, and the hilt bore the mark of "Three," shrouded in mystery.

Luo Longyu withdrew his gaze and looked to the other end of the bridge, lost in the boundless black mist. Steeling himself, he stepped onto the bridge. Midway across, he noticed garments left by ancients—a Hebrew robe, alongside scattered armor, clearly unlike any ancient Chinese armor.

The robe had rotted with age, and the armor was covered in dust, bearing the passage of time. Luo Longyu reached out into the empty air and sensed a barrier—a veil between life and death. Crossing it meant stepping into death, forsaking the light. The owners of these garments must have passed through here, their bodies falling into the abyss below, becoming part of the endless remains.

What sort of magic did the Tomb of Ten Thousand Corpses possess? Throughout history, so many had abandoned life for it. The Tomb at home was the same as here—Luo Longyu could not fathom it.

As he crossed the barrier of life and death, a sudden brilliance exploded before his eyes. Blood-red light drowned all; the heavens burned, the earth sank. His ears were filled with immense lamentation. Fierce flames fell from the sky, oceans surged, then came endless snow and ice. One by one, enormous dinosaurs died—a massacre.

This slaughter lasted hundreds of millions of years, until every branch of the dinosaurs was extinguished.

During this era, Luo Longyu caught a glimpse of a moment in history: several figures in battle robes, with dragon horns and reversed scales on their foreheads—the Dragon Clan.

They struggled to save the dinosaurs, rescuing less than a hundred winged dragons whose eyes shone with intelligence—clearly evolved dinosaurs. Finally, Luo Longyu saw some Dragon Clan members break through the clouds, reach the stars, and shatter a starship, battling with clusters of light within.

The scene shifted. The Dragon Clan was gone. Luo Longyu saw dozens of light clusters surrounding the corpse of a dead dinosaur humanoid. The body had been dissected; its genes were being extracted. In a massive glass container nearby, Luo Longyu saw various life forms, all with intelligence, just like the dinosaur humanoid.

The image shifted again. A white light cluster fused the extracted gene fragments, creating a new perfect gene. Perfection here meant satisfaction for the light clusters. They implanted the modified gene into a new life form. Time passed; the being grew—a lively boy. But soon, the unconscious boy was returned to the container. After some time, a mass of flesh split from his body and burst, revealing a little girl. She was recreated based on the boy’s genes.

The boy and girl were placed on a stretch of land—a beautiful continent with blue skies, clear waters, and fruit trees everywhere. They grew up, eating wild fruit when hungry, drinking spring water when thirsty, occasionally rendered unconscious by light clusters for research.

One day, a black serpent arrived, prompting the now-adult man and woman to pick two fruits. These were not ordinary fruit, but the latest genetic creations of the light clusters. After eating them, their genes mutated and fused once more.

The light clusters began to disdain the man and woman, casting them to the earth. They fell into dust, broken down by the light clusters, but their genes spread across the strange land, and humanity began to appear.

In the ensuing history, humanity emerged from the primordial continent, spreading across the world. The light clusters appeared several times—one pair with divine wings guiding humanity toward their intended destiny. During this process, countless humans were destroyed for disobedience.

Yet in the East, the light clusters suffered repeated defeats. The Dragon Clan, who once saved the dinosaurs, and the gods fought the light clusters in great wars—from the deep sea to the earth, from the clouds to the stars. Some battles reached nuclear levels of destruction, devastating human tribes in the fallout.

The dinosaur humanoids saved by the Dragon Clan appeared in the wars. They had changed dramatically—two meters tall, winged, armored in scales. The light clusters called them demons.

Afterward, the light clusters genetically modified the captive demons, making them huge and savage. They threw them into battle against the Dragon Clan, and among humans, causing catastrophic harm—humans prayed for divine mercy.

The light clusters returned, slaughtering the modified demons, calling them evil dragons.

"This... is the truth of history you lack." The vision vanished, the surroundings drowned again in gray mist, and a voice echoed, sorrowful.

Luo Longyu emerged from his shock, realizing he had crossed the stone bridge and those dark, bloody histories. He looked up at a dinosaur humanoid bound by a beam of light—a so-called demon, the gigantic shadow from earlier.

"Those light clusters... are the legendary angels? The Fourth Era—these histories... are the wars of the Third and Fourth Eras..." Luo Longyu murmured, dazed.

The demon lifted his head, skeletal and frail. "Yes. You humans are a fusion of excellent genes. But the true Fifth Era belongs to us—or rather, in a sense, you humans are our continuation. Part of your genes are ours."

"Were humans of the Fifth Era created solely by angels?" Luo Longyu asked incredulously.

The demon shook his head with a bitter smile. "Not entirely. Angels are light—they have no carbon-based genes. The real genes came from the gods of the Third Era, who implanted them in new life in the Fifth Era. In its early days, we were the strongest, but the light refused to give up Earth. One day, they will return, so they needed vessels both satisfactory and adapted to Earth’s new environment. They stole the fruits of the Third Era, dissected and amended them again and again, becoming new life forms—the legendary Adam and Eve."

"So we’re all descendants of Adam and Eve?" Luo Longyu frowned.

"No, not all of you. Most humans today are, but you are not. Your bodies contain more Dragon Clan genes and Third Era god genes, evolved on your own. Thus your civilization, your way of life, differs greatly from other human races," the demon explained.

Luo Longyu stared at the demon, finally realizing that what he knew as history was truly manipulated—victors rewrite history.

Above the Fifth Era, the Third and Fourth Eras clashed fiercely. Should not two Earth-born civilizations unite against the threat of the Void Spirits? Luo Longyu’s thoughts were clear to the demon, who managed a strained smile. "The First Era of Earth, by all signs, was likely silicon-based life. It makes sense—a newly born planet, harsh ecosystems, only silicon life could survive. Then, from the Second Era onward, carbon-based life appeared; the Third Era continued with carbon-based life. Where did the Fourth Era’s light clusters come from? They quickly rose to dominate Earth, yet the light matter forming them does not exist in the solar system. So, where did these angels come from?"

Luo Longyu was shocked. The demon continued, "The cosmic deep is not inhabited only by Void Spirits. Five hundred million years ago, I realized this was a grand game. Those obsessed with the Dao are not limited to the Void Spirits. Watch—however chaotic the solar system becomes, however turbulent the stars, your Xuanyuan Clan inherits genes from the gods, and those genes are even older, closely tied to the Dao. Your mother’s corpse will be coveted by many forces."

"But the ones who took my mother’s body are you demons," Luo Longyu said, frowning.

The demon shook his head. "No, they are not. They are new life forms created on our genetic foundation. As for who created them, I do not know. If not for that Burial, my last energy would have been drained. I have a favor to ask—when you leave, tell that Burial Clan: whether in science or self-cultivation, to grow strong, there is no shortcut. He is gifted, but misused."

Suddenly, the demon’s face tensed; his gaunt features bulged with veins. A black scale shot straight into Luo Longyu’s right hand, merging instantly with his flesh. As Luo Longyu looked on in confusion, the demon, barely alive, said, "This is all I can do for you. The Third Era’s gods saved us; you are their continuation, and you, especially, are the result of their painstaking efforts—the corpse energy. That scale is the most precious core gene of our dinosaur clan. The corpse energy will absorb it into your gene chain. If you meet surviving members of our clan, they will treat you as kin—if any still survive..."

Listening to the demon, Luo Longyu’s mind conjured the image of the old man who once risked his life to merge with Luo Longyu, helping him unlock the potential of corpse energy. Regrettably, he had never learned the old man’s name. Today, in this demon, he saw the old man’s shadow—a body turned to earth, nurturing hope for the future.

"I’ll get you out," Luo Longyu said gravely.

The demon shook his head. "No need. I’ve been trapped for half a billion years; all my power is spent. Besides, I cannot leave this seal. Remember, corpse energy, the stars are perilous, factions abound, trust no one—myself included. Many things you must judge for yourself. Follow your instincts and keep going."

As he spoke, rolling black mist surged and enveloped Luo Longyu completely...

Outside the stone cliff, Bai Li Chasing Souls was meditating, eyes closed, when he suddenly opened them, staring into the void nearby, frowning, then shouted, "Void disturbance at three o’clock!"

Before his words finished, a black arrow erupted from the void, trailing bloody mist straight for the seal diagram.

Burial Lifeless’s face darkened, crying out, "They want to activate the seal sequence! Stop them!"

Everyone present turned pale—if the black arrow disrupted the seal’s light-dark balance and triggered the sequence, all rune codes would be scrambled and reformed, trapping Luo Longyu inside forever.

Froya, disregarding all danger, threw himself at the seal diagram. A shield of light appeared before him, but the black arrow pierced straight through, impaling Froya and hurling him onto a rock beside the seal diagram. Blood gushed from Froya’s mouth—his situation was dire!