Chapter 1726: The Heaven-Bearing Domain

In the rock centipede just now, the Second Hall felt a terrifying aura full of destructive power.

Such an aura made even him, who had already stepped into the eighth order, feel frightened... The most important thing was that from beginning to end, Chen Ling hadn't even lifted a finger, and he couldn't even see how he had summoned such a rock centipede. The Second Hall found that he couldn't see through Chen Ling at all, and this precisely showed that Chen Ling's strength might be far above his own.

Just a brief exchange, and the Second Hall realized that relying only on himself and Lu Liangren, they definitely couldn't stop this figure in theatrical robes...

But...

What was an "old friend of the Red Dust"?

The abstract eyes on the picture frame stared at Chen Ling. Suddenly, he seemed to remember something...

An old friend of the Red Dust Lord was mostly also an old friend of the Chief... Big red theatrical robes, super strong strength, mysterious origin... Could he be...

"It's you... it's actually you?!" The Second Hall's voice trembled slightly.

"You know me?"

This time it was Chen Ling's turn to be surprised.

"I've heard him mention you..." A complex look appeared in the Second Hall's abstract eyes. "When the Red Dust base was first established, legends about you were always circulating... It's just that now, I'm afraid no one remembers anymore."

Chen Ling's heart trembled.

He took a deep breath and spoke slowly:

"So, you are a person from the Great Catastrophe period."

"Back then, it was the Chief who saved me... When he established the Floating Life Painting, I was by his side."

The young Lu Liangren looked at Chen Ling and the Second Hall in a daze, seemingly unable to understand how the people who were just at daggers drawn could suddenly start reminiscing like old friends who hadn't seen each other for years?

Hearing the Second Hall's answer, Chen Ling's eyes lit up.

"Then you should know what happened over the years, right?"

"You... don't know?" The Second Hall looked at Chen Ling, his tone somewhat strange.

"It's a long story... I disappeared from this world for more than three hundred years." Chen Ling replied. "These three hundred years... no, everything that happened from the beginning of the Great Catastrophe to now, I don't know."

The Second Hall was one of the few people who had existed since the Great Catastrophe and had lived to this day in a clear state. From him, Chen Ling might be able to know what had happened during the time he disappeared.

The Second Hall was silent for a long time before slowly speaking:

"After the Great Catastrophe, the world fell into chaos, the original order completely collapsed, and the eight doomsday bases became the last shelters for humanity..."

"After these eight bases appeared, they took in a large number of people, and even some survivors who fled from overseas. Everyone found a safe place and had enough resources, thinking that this catastrophe was about to end..."

"But subsequently, the Gray World began to converge with Earth, and a large number of Calamities poured into this world, constantly attacking the eight bases."

"And in this process... a person appeared."

"He called himself the Ninth Lord, the human [Emperor] from the past. He didn't know where he recruited a group of powerful subordinates, and in that era when all eight domains could only barely survive in the tide of Calamities, he carved out a large piece of pure land... and then established a brand-new domain."

"They called it... [The Heaven-Bearing Domain]."

"In that era, the Heaven-Bearing Domain possessed two demigod [Dukes], nine eighth-order [Marquises], and countless seventh-order [Heavenly Lieutenants]. They became the strongest pillars against the Gray World Calamities... They recruited a large number of Craft God Path powerhouses, built wide city walls, rushed to repair the domain train tracks, and stabilized the chaos of humanity."

"At that time, everyone pinned their hopes on [The Heaven-Bearing Domain], feeling that the Ninth Lord would definitely be able to lead humanity to repel the Gray World Calamities and take back the territory... And in that process, the other eight Lords were also growing rapidly, and everything was flourishing."

"But what the Emperor did next was beyond everyone's expectations."

"He secretly guided the eight major bases and the last human top brass to promote the hibernation plan. When the other eight Lords were about to fall into a slumber, he suddenly launched a mutiny, slaughtered people in the major bases, and took control of the political power of the eight major bases by force while taking advantage of the panic and chaos..."

"Because the other seven Lords had already entered a semi-hibernation state at that time, even if they could vaguely perceive the situation outside, they couldn't easily wake up. After all, once they woke up, they could never fall into a slumber again, and humanity would lose a place to live in a few decades... They could only watch helplessly as the bases changed hands, and after being shackled with some kind of lock, they fell into a complete slumber and lost consciousness."

"But the Red Dust Lord was an exception..."

"She had just fallen into a slumber when the Red Dust base suffered a nuclear strike. The people who had just completed the mutiny were forced to have no choice but to actively release her hibernation state. After the Red Dust Lord resisted the nuclear strike, she was furious and killed all the Heaven-Bearing secret agents who had long been hidden in the base."

"She wanted to ask the Emperor for an explanation, but was besieged by the two demigods of the Heaven-Bearing Domain, and finally, the Emperor, who had also stepped into the demigod rank, took action himself and forcibly suppressed her together."

"After they suppressed the Red Dust Lord, they forcibly injected her with a hibernation drug, but because there was no way to extend her lifespan, she just fell into a deep coma."

"The Emperor seemed to have foreseen it. He had the Chief, who was not yet fully fledged back then, brought over and told him that if he wanted to save the Red Dust Lord, he could only sacrifice himself for human embroidery. This was the only way to save her..."

"Although the Chief hated the Emperor to the bone, in order to save the Red Dust Lord, he still did it..."

"After that, the Heaven-Bearing Domain took back the political power of the Red Dust base. They spent a long time building insurmountable high walls around the eight domains and named it 'Prison'..."

"Then they constantly reinforced the concept of 'Prison' among the domain residents, guiding the people to walk out of the domains and take root in the outer cities they built."

"Time passed, and the domain residents who once followed the faith of the eight Lords died one after another. Their descendants also gradually left their respective domains and became residents of the outer cities. The status of the Heaven-Bearing Domain in their hearts became heavier and heavier, and they didn't care much about the eight major domains that once sheltered them..."

"In a sense, the Heaven-Bearing Domain successfully 'instrumentalized' the eight Lords, using them only to maintain the domains... And the residents of the original eight major domains had already been assimilated by the Heaven-Bearing Domain spiritually. They didn't understand the distinction between domains; in their eyes, they were just subjects of the Heaven-Bearing Domain in different cities."

A hand was outlined on the Second Hall's painting, pointing to the Red Dust beneath his feet:

"Nowadays..."

"This Red Dust Domain is just a 'ruin' that no one cares about."