Top enlightenment at 100 years old Chapter 653 - 635: Black Snow, Cultivation World’s Winter

A subtle sigh of relief escaped deep within Ji Haoyuan's heart.

To him at this moment, confronting such a being posed no great challenge.

Yet without doubt, any regular Immortal or True Immortal would have met certain doom.

And this appeared merely as an "appetizer."

In the moments after, Ji Haoyuan faced three additional waves of those same humanoid entities.

Furthermore, each successive wave consisted of beings that grew slightly more powerful.

After Ji Haoyuan dispatched every one of those assaulting waves of entities, he and his companions at last entered the cabin of the Forsaken Ark.

Within the cabin, just like the exterior, everything lay in devastation.

Signs of a past ferocious clash littered the area.

Sword slashes, blade wounds, punch imprints, blood splatters, and scorched black spots all testified to the savage combat that had raged here long ago.

Yet amid all these lingering marks, the carvings on the cabin walls drew Ji Haoyuan’s focus above all else.

Stretching from left to right, front to back, these carvings appeared to chronicle a monumental clash from antiquity.

Initially, black snow drifted down from the heavens.

This black snow bore a profoundly sinister force, swiftly eroding—or more precisely, solidifying—the spiritual energy across heaven and earth.

At the outset, folks sensed little difference.

They only instinctively perceived a shift in the heavenly rules.

However, realization soon dawned on everyone.

With heavier falls of black snow, the alterations to the world's laws grew fiercer, and spiritual energy's erosion deepened.

To such an extent that sustaining their realms became impossible.

Cultivation levels started plummeting for many.

The decline hit Immortals first, spreading to Mahayana, Harmonization, and Void Refining stages.

In the end, not even Celestial-level Immortals could hold their forms.

This strange phenomenon triggered chaos throughout the cultivation world at once.

Cries erupted from all sides.

The Era of Decline had arrived.

The black snow symbolized the icy winter gripping the cultivation realm.

Against this abrupt "winter," escape proved impossible for anyone unscathed.

Barring Sect Hierarch-level powerhouses, be they geniuses, divine maidens, or holy sons, all were doomed to mortal frailty.

It marked a catastrophe and a turning point of ages.

The splendid, radiant era of cultivation neared its end.

Still, the true calamity was only starting.

Once black snow blanketed both Lower Realm and Upper Realm entirely, horrifying entities burst forth from its depths.

These seemed to cross infinite time-spaces, invading this realm to unleash savage, blood-hungry slaughter on every Immortal and cultivator.

Right then, Ji Haoyuan’s pupils narrowed faintly.

For he abruptly spotted among those emerging horrors the very humanoid figures he had battled before.

He knew all too well the headaches those humanoid entities brought.

Especially given their vast hordes in the carvings, swarming like locusts to blanket the globe.

Later carvings showed blood—rivers of it—dyeing the ground red and soaking the skies.

Only then did Sect Hierarch-level powerhouses arrive, clashing in a legendary war against those dreadful foes.

Multiple Sect Hierarch-level experts brandished forbidden artifacts.

The conflict almost obliterated the whole Immortal Realm.

Myriad dimensions and realms crumbled in the strife.

Innumerable lives vanished because of it.

Sect Hierarch-level experts and numerous forbidden artifacts fell or shattered in that fight.

The final carving depicted blood-drenched Sect Hierarch figures guiding survivors, shattering the divide between Upper and Lower Realms, and vanishing into a fresh Immortal Realm.

Ji Haoyuan’s heart trembled profoundly now.

He struggled to fathom the horror if those carved events played out for real.

Not even Sect Hierarch-level giants could endure such apocalypse.

For minor players like himself, far below Celestial Star Immortals, the danger loomed far larger.

Was the Forsaken Ark beneath him that very shattered forbidden artifact from back then?

After endless ages, had it evolved into the mythic taboo entity?

Ji Haoyuan had no answers, yet a primal dread stirred within him.

For his thoughts turned to their current vast world’s condition.

Might the dreaded black winter and cultivation calamity soon strike their own great world too?

Should that come to pass...

Ji Haoyuan didn't dare let his wild thoughts go on.

Ding!

Right then, a sharp, clear chime rang in Ji Haoyuan's ears, or so he believed.

The sound yanked him from his deep musings, urging him to whip his head toward its origin.

Yet when he scanned around, nothing met his gaze.

Instead, a faint bloody scent began to tease his nostrils.