Inside the carriage.
*Crack…*
A sharp shattering sound rang out. The jade pendant hanging at Ye Chen's waist broke apart, dissolving into countless specks of starlight that poured straight into his body.
In the instant Ye Chen slipped into unconsciousness, a pair of invisible, colossal hands tore through the void. The pitch-black darkness was suddenly pierced by dazzling beams of light.
In the blink of an eye, Ye Chen's consciousness was completely swallowed.
The next moment.
Ye Chen opened his eyes.
What he saw stretched out like an entire galaxy—endless starlight everywhere. Every now and then, a few actual stars streaked past right beside him, rippling the space with gentle waves.
"Where… where the hell am I?"
"How did I end up here?"
"Is this… the place souls go after death?"
Staring at the surreal scene, Ye Chen was just starting to think he had actually died when something in the distance caught his eye.
Without hesitation, he started walking toward it.
Not long after, an ancient, sacred-looking mausoleum appeared before him.
At a glance, four enormous black dragons coiled around the perimeter of the mausoleum, as though they were holding the entire structure aloft, preventing it from falling into the abyss.
Inside the mausoleum stood several heaven-piercing pillars that stretched across the cosmos, seemingly intent on enveloping every star in the firmament.
"This… this is a graveyard…"
"I'm really dead, aren't I…"
Ye Chen glanced at the uneven mounds inside the mausoleum. A sudden chill swept over him; goosebumps rose across his skin as cold, ghostly winds brushed past.
After a long moment of hesitation, he decided—since he was already here, might as well go in.
A few steps later, two gigantic heaven-supporting pillars loomed directly ahead.
The left pillar was inscribed:
"Buries Heaven, Buries Earth, Buries the Gods and Demons of the Ten Thousand Heavens!"
The right pillar read:
"Suppresses the Dao, Suppresses Demons, Suppresses the Immortals of Ten Thousand Realms!"
Looking up, Ye Chen saw an ancient, pitch-black plaque hanging between the two pillars. Four huge characters were carved vertically upon it:
**Eternal Heavenly Tomb**
The words struck him like thunder. For a long moment, his heart refused to calm.
He couldn't even begin to imagine what kind of place dared to call itself the "Eternal Heavenly Tomb."
And those couplets on the pillars… they shattered everything he thought he knew.
What kind of beings could possibly be buried in a place like this?
Still reeling, Ye Chen pressed forward into the depths of the mausoleum.
Everywhere he looked, tombs filled his vision.
Some were only knee-high. Others towered over him.
At the very center of the mausoleum stood a flight of stairs that shot straight toward the heavens. Though he couldn't see what lay at the top, the moment he entered he had already felt an overwhelming pressure radiating from that direction.
The deeper he went, the heavier the pressure became. He had the distinct feeling that if he tried to climb even a little farther, his body would explode in an instant.
Realizing this, Ye Chen stopped wandering carelessly and began carefully scanning his surroundings.
"Hm? Isn't that… the Void Sword Sovereign? The one who dominated the Heavenly Martial Continent for hundreds of thousands of years and suppressed an entire era?"
"How is his grave here?"
"And that's the Heavenly Demon Ancestor… Millions of years ago he single-handedly founded the Demon Kingdom, forcing every sect, ancient clan, and immortal family of his time to bow their heads for tens of thousands of years. A figure who crushed an entire era… and he's buried here too?"
"What… what in the world is going on?"
Ye Chen stared in shock at a tombstone half-buried under weeds nearby, his mind reeling.
After standing in stunned silence for a long while, still unable to make sense of it all, he walked over to the Void Sword Sovereign's grave and gazed at it for a long time before moving on to wander through the rest of the area.
Along the way he saw graves belonging to many powerhouses who had once stood at the pinnacle of the Heavenly Martial Continent.
But there were also plenty of tombs belonging to figures he had never even heard of.
He simply couldn't understand—how had all these supreme experts suddenly ended up buried here, reduced to nothing more than a mound of yellow earth inside the Eternal Heavenly Tomb?
Unable to comprehend it, Ye Chen looked around again and muttered to himself:
"What kind of place is this? Why are so many powerhouses buried here?"
"Could this be… the final resting place for all the strongest beings?"
Just as he was lost in speculation, a deep, resonant voice suddenly boomed from every direction:
"Seals the Heavens, Suppresses the Earth, Buries the Immortals. Becomes the tomb itself. Suppresses Immortals with absolute power. The Eternal Heavenly Tomb… seals the myriad heavens…"
As the voice faded, a beam of golden light fell from the distant sky. Before Ye Chen could react, it plunged directly into his body.
At the same time, a flood of information about the Eternal Heavenly Tomb exploded inside his mind.
In an instant, Ye Chen's head felt like it was splitting open. Within a few breaths, he collapsed unconscious inside the Eternal Heavenly Tomb.
At the very top layer of the Eternal Heavenly Tomb lay several enormous graves, each stretching across hundreds of billions of miles.
The moment Ye Chen fainted, those colossal tombs began to stir restlessly.
From time to time, furious roars echoed out.
"Eternal Heavenly Tomb! You've imprisoned me for billions upon billions of years! Do you really think a mere human brat can suppress me?!"
"So many years… you've sent several so-called Demon-Suppressing Generals, yet not a single one ever reached this place…"
But no matter how savagely they roared, the Eternal Heavenly Tomb remained emotionless. Chains of divine law materialized from the void and swiftly locked down those massive graves.
After finishing that task, as though sensing that Ye Chen's dantian had been crippled, the tomb displayed an almost human-like thoughtfulness. It began channeling the divine laws of the Eternal Heavenly Tomb directly into Ye Chen's body.
First layer of the Eternal Heavenly Tomb.
When Ye Chen woke up again, his body had already been restored to perfect condition.
"This… this is… I'm healed…"
The moment he sensed that his dantian had recovered completely, Ye Chen cried out in wild joy.
He had thought he wouldn't live much longer. Yet in such a short time, his dantian was whole again.
More importantly, after absorbing the information that had flooded his mind, Ye Chen finally understood what the Eternal Heavenly Tomb really was.
Buried within it were countless supreme experts from across the ages—even those peerless powerhouses from the Primordial Era, the Desolate Era, and the Age of Chaos.
And not only their corpses, but also their inheritances and treasures had all been gathered here.
To Ye Chen, this place was nothing less than an untouched treasure vault waiting to be claimed.
He even learned that hidden within the Eternal Heavenly Tomb was an earth-shattering secret. But the exact nature of that secret could only be uncovered by reaching the topmost layer.
With his current strength, he was still far from being able to touch that mystery.
After all—what use was knowing a secret if you didn't have the power to claim it?
Right now, what Ye Chen needed to do was become stronger—much, much stronger.
Before this incident, he had already reached the peak of the Ninth Layer of Martial Disciple, only one step away from breaking through to Martial Master.
Although his dantian had been restored, his cultivation base had been completely wiped out.
Fortunately, the spiritual energy inside the Eternal Heavenly Tomb was several times denser than the outside world. If he cultivated here, Ye Chen was confident he could return to his peak state in no time at all—and perhaps even use the opportunity to break through into the Martial Master realm.
Thinking this, Ye Chen wasted no more time. He sat cross-legged, closed his eyes, and began to cultivate.
Meanwhile, outside—
Ye Lin was driving the carriage at full speed toward the Lin family estate.
Before Ye Chen had been injured, he had been Lin Xian'er's fiancé.
Ye Lin was betting on that relationship—surely Lin Xian'er wouldn't stand by and let him die.
But she had overlooked one crucial fact:
Ye Chen was now a cripple.