Chapter 649: Chapter 649: Land of Heaven’s Abomination

“Apologize to them immediately!” Du Haoming ordered.

Stubborn, Du Bei shook his head, “No!”

He wanted to plead his case to the ancient ancestor, because the ancestor doted on him most. As long as he spoke up about this matter, the ancestor would surely take his side.

“Unfilial son, dare you disobey my words?” Du Haoming leapt over in a single bound, picked up Du Bei, and transmitted through divine sense, “Fool, that Shi Hao is the junior brother of our ancestor; do you still expect the ancestor to take your side?”

What!

Startled, Du Bei began to realize why Du Haoming was so biased towards Shi Hao.

This should not be happening, but if Shi Hao was the junior brother of the ancestor, then it wasn’t strange at all.

Yet, how could this be possible?

What kind of person was the ancestor, and how could he have such a young disciple with such a low realm?

His face filled with confusion, but he was brought back to his senses with a not-too-gentle slap from Du Haoming.

Now was not the time to figure this out–if he disrespected his “junior uncle,” and the ancestor found out, how miserable would his fate be?

“I’m sorry,” he said, wishing he could bury his head in his crotch from shame. It was truly humiliating.

For a young person like him, pride was of utmost importance.

Yet he had lost to Shi Hao both in winning over a woman and in a fight, and now he was being forced to lower his head–his reputation was completely ruined.

Shi Hao smiled faintly, patted Du Bei’s shoulder, and said, “Work hard, I still have high hopes for you.”

This was the tone of an elder.

Almost snorting with anger, Du Bei didn’t dare to talk back, and had to respectfully reply, “Thank you for your praise.”

Shi Hao turned and strode away.

Whoosh, the Purple Gold Rat leapt onto his shoulder and said, “Kid, why didn’t you bring along those two chicks when you went to the Elemental Cave?”

“Stop talking nonsense, Senior Sister Xia is my confidante!” Shi Hao quickly corrected.

“Tsk, there’s no such thing as pure friendship between men and women. Back in the day, I–eh?” The Purple Gold Rat looked puzzled, “It seems I just remembered something, but as soon as it came to the tip of my tongue, it’s gone again.”

Shi Hao looked at it; this rat came and went unpredictably, and he couldn’t tell which of its words were true.

“Do you know anything about Elemental Creatures?” he suddenly asked.

Maybe this rat knew something.

The Purple Gold Rat said with pride, “You’ve come to the right person. I guarantee no one knows more than me here.”

“Oh, then do tell,” Shi Hao said, interested. He had never thought to ask the rat about this.

The Purple Gold Rat said, “Elemental Creatures do not belong to this realm.”

“What?” Shi Hao was taken aback. “You mean, they come from the Immortal Realm?”

“As far as I know, that’s correct,” the Purple Gold Rat nodded.

“The Immortal Realm!” Shi Hao contemplated, “Brother Gu said that the Immortal Path had broken, and we cultivators can no longer enter the Immortal Realm. But now, has the Immortal Realm really opened a path and sent Elemental Creatures to us here?”

“Eh, how could the Immortal Path possibly break? By building the Heaven Building Ladder, one can construct a pathway to the Immortal Realm, which one can follow to enter,” the Purple Gold Rat claimed, but after sensing a bit, its expression changed, “Damn, the Immortal Path here has indeed broken!”

“How is that possible–”

“That’s it!”

“It suddenly dawned on me,” “There must be an Almighty from the Immortal Realm who intervened, sealing off this Celestial Body and cutting off the Immortal Path here! But that’s not right, unless this is the Land of Heaven’s Abomination, otherwise, to seal such a vast star, the Almighty would have to endure an unimaginably terrible karmic retribution, even an Immortal King would not dare to act so recklessly!”

Shi Hao, however, had a thought and said, “Maybe, this really is a Land of Heaven’s Abomination.”

He shared the situation of the Cursed Land, causing the Purple Gold Rat to bare its teeth.

“There’s no escaping it, this is indeed a Land of Heaven’s Abomination, targeting this Celestial Body would involve far less karmic retribution than normal,” the rat nodded in agreement.

“But what is all this for?” Shi Hao was still puzzled, “If the Almighty from the Immortal Realm loathed this Celestial Body, why not just erase it? Why seal the Immortal Path and even send Elemental Creatures to attack?”

Does this Almighty have such leisure?

First, they cut off your Immortal Path, then they send Elemental Creatures to launch an attack, destroying the entire Celestial Body.

Isn’t this superfluous and utterly pointless?

The Purple Gold Rat spread its little paws and said, “This master doesn’t know, but if I accompany you to the Elemental Cave, perhaps we might obtain more information and figure it out.”

In no time, the man and the rat arrived at the campsite, and after a brief rest, they entered the grotto.

Several groups had their sights set on Shi Hao, but once they entered the grotto, Shi Hao broke into a sprint and quickly shook them off.

He wreaked havoc within the Elemental Cave, amassing a significant number of Elemental Cores, and his strength soared as he devoured copiously with the Black Hole Physiognomy.

He ventured deeper, and with the Immortal Abode at his disposal, he had nothing to fear. This time, he intended to reap his fill.

…

Days later, outside the campsite, on the summit of a small mountain.

Nine men and women stood solemnly. The eldest appeared to be in their seventies or eighties, while the youngest was only in their thirties, but each exuded an imposing presence that seemed to suppress the heavens and earth, distorting the air and refracting the light around them.

If someone knowledgeable were present, they would be frightened out of their wits.

For all nine were Heaven Building Ladder Almighties!

Nine of them!

It could be said that all the well-known Heaven Building Ladder Almighties of the South Wood Continent were gathered here.

“Is that thing really useful?” Feng Yiqi spoke up.

A green-robed elder nodded: “In my dream, an Immortal imparted to me a treasure, explaining its use in detail, and when I awoke, this Divine Phoenix Furnace appeared at my bedside.”

He paused for a moment: “To deliver a divine object to my very presence without my noticing–what else could it be if not the deed of an Immortal?”

The others all nodded slowly, as they were all Heaven Building Ladder Almighties, confident that such an event was impossible.

–Otherwise, wouldn’t it be a trivial matter for someone to take their lives?

Hence, it was impossible for the Heaven Building Ladder to achieve this.

The only possibility was that an Immortal had acted.

“With the aid of an Immortal, we will surely annihilate those Elemental Creatures and put an end to this war once and for all,” the green-robed elder declared with full confidence.

Feng Yiqi, however, frowned and said, “Don’t you find it strange? The invasion of the Elemental Creatures is baffling, we still have no idea why they would invade our world, and now the Immortals have intervened inexplically, offering to help us deal with the invaders.”

“We have long since built the Sky Ladder, yet it leads to The Void, nowhere near the Immortal Realm.”

“This even makes me wonder whether the Immortal Realm exists at all.”

“Why would someone from the Immortal Realm suddenly intervene now?”

This question plunged several of them into deep thought. Who among them wasn’t a supreme genius capable of reaching the Heaven Building Ladder, and Sword Emperor’s question indeed struck at the heart of their doubts, compelling them to ponder.