As Han Yi materialized in the Void, his gaze swept across the surroundings, and his expression changed dramatically, his heart pounding with terror.
Before him, countless colossal corpses floated in the Void—mangled limbs, fragmented bodies, and various remains stretching as far as the eye could see, without end.
There was a thousand-meter-tall war god, clad in battle armor and wielding a heavy halberd. Its head had vanished without a trace, leaving the headless body lying motionless, the halberd clutched tightly in its grip.
A ten-thousand-meter-long demon serpent lay split in two, its blood splattering the Void, dark internal organs drifting in the empty space.
A hundred-million-meter-long arm gripped a glass lamp with its wick extinguished. Mysterious spots dotted the arm, and even a Dao Realm expert would feel dizzy and intensely uncomfortable just looking at it.
This was a battlefield, a brutally savage one.
Having suddenly arrived in this eerie environment, Han Yi dared not risk emitting his Dao Thought.
He first tried using Dao Techniques and Divine Arts again, discovering that this Void battlefield suppressed them just as much as the previous space had.
His thoughts racing, Han Yi quickly understood.
The first level of this mysterious Witch Tower was designed to acclimate them to a space with entirely different rules, serving as preparation for the second level.
No wonder the first level was so simple: all they had to do was charge from their landing point to the Purple Phantom Tower and pass through its entrance to reach the second level.
The true assessment of the Mountain Lord Selection began on the second level.
Instead of drawing his Dao Sword, Han Yi took out the Taosi Divine Axe. This Divine Axe, a peak Immeasurable Realm artifact equivalent in power to a high-grade Dao Artifact, was his most powerful weapon after the Yueguang Divine Spear.
In this rule-defying land, the Divine Axe could unleash far greater power than the Dao Sword.
Han Yi slowly approached the thousand-meter-tall headless armored corpse. Upon it, he saw peculiar runes engraved on both its body and the heavy halberd it wielded.
These runes were peculiar, so strange that even Han Yi couldn't decipher them. In his millennia of cultivation, across the Primordial era, the Ancestor God Star, the Myriad Journeys Palace, and Demon Witch Mountain, he had never encountered anything like them.
Han Yi gripped the Taosi Divine Axe, preparing to scrape the runes off with the Divine Axe for study.
However,
the moment the Taosi Divine Axe touched the runes, they disintegrated into dust, vanishing inch by inch. The thousand-meter corpse and its Heavy Halberd also disappeared before his eyes at a visible speed, as if the entire scene had been an illusion.
Han Yi's heart trembled.
Although the rules here forbade Dao Techniques and Divine Arts, his powerful Dao Soul naturally allowed him to discern truth from falsehood. The corpse he had seen was undeniably real.
But this corpse had existed for an eternity so vast that only its essence remained, devoid of form. The slightest touch caused this formless essence to dissipate, resulting in the scene he had just witnessed.
He tightened his grip on the Taosi Divine Axe and tried touching other corpses, but they all vanished like the first.
After that, he refrained from touching any other corpses, instead observing the distinctive features on their bodies. He discovered that, apart from the runes, the corpses represented a diverse array of races. Shockingly, seventy percent of these races were entirely unfamiliar to him.
It was worth noting that Han Yi had spent considerable time on the Ancestor God Star, poring over the ancient texts of the Nangong Divine Clan. He believed he was well-acquainted with the races of the entire Primordial Chaos World.
Whether it was during his travels at the Myriad Journeys Palace or his recent arrival at Demon Witch Mountain, ninety-nine percent of the races he had encountered fell within his existing knowledge.
Yet, the presence of these unfamiliar races struck him as deeply unsettling.
Could they not belong to the Vast Heng Dao Domain?
No, that couldn't be right. The Ancestor God Star belonged to the Ancestor God Dao Domain, and the Nangong Divine Clan's records should have encompassed all Nine Great Dao Domains, not just the Vast Heng Dao Domain.
In that case, there could only be one explanation...
These races existed beyond the Nine Great Dao Domains.
The moment this possibility struck him, Han Yi felt a sudden constriction in his chest, as if his breath had been stolen away. After a long pause, he slowly exhaled.
He shook his head, pushing aside these chaotic thoughts. Whether these races truly existed beyond the Dao Domains or not, it was not something he could concern himself with at present. He was still just a fledgling in the Dao Realm, having barely scratched the surface of even the Eastern Fuhang Realm, let alone the Nine Great Dao Domains.
The vastness of the Chaos still felt immense to him, filled with countless mysteries and unknowns.
As Han Yi explored the Void battlefield, he encountered several other Dao Realm cultivators. However, they maintained a respectful distance, slowly passing each other without engaging in combat.
The assessment method for the second level of the Witch Tower remained uncertain, and it wasn't yet time for direct confrontation.
Just after the time it takes an incense stick to burn since entering the Void battlefield, a gray light suddenly materialized out of nothing, enveloping the entire Void Land, including Han Yi.
Han Yi raised his vigilance to its peak, knowing that the critical moment was approaching.
As expected.
With the emergence of the gray light, the surroundings began to transform.
Time was flowing backward.
Indeed, Han Yi observed that except for himself, time around him was wildly reversing, like a river flowing uphill—a complete reversal of the natural flow of time.
The reversal accelerated rapidly, causing sea changes in the blink of an eye.
As a Dao Realm cultivator, one could briefly reverse a pristine patch of unbroken spacetime within the Chaos, tracing back to a specific moment and location to witness past events.
This was the first time Han Yi had ever witnessed a Dao Realm cultivator being carried into the river of time and flowing against its current.
He could tell that this was different from merely recalling memories of the Primordial Age, or extracting fragments of spacetime. Instead, he was truly traveling back in time with this piece of spacetime to a specific point in history.
As these thoughts flashed through his mind, the multitude of corpses around him vanished in an instant.
In their place stood countless figures, standing silently with awe-inspiring auras. This time, they were not corpses, but living beings, surrounded by an air of extreme solemnity and lethal intent.
Han Yi could see that these figures were not at the Dao Realm, but rather at the Grand Unity and Great Luo cultivation realms.
At the same time, the surrounding time stabilized, no longer flowing backward.
His thoughts raced, and he realized that he must be at a point just before a great battle.
It was this very battle that, in the distant future, would lead to the vast void battlefield strewn with corpses that he had just witnessed.
Just then, a wild roar echoed from afar, followed by a terrifying beam of destructive light that swept across the area. Nearly ninety-nine percent of the figures were struck and instantly perished. Only a few survived, but they were all severely injured.
Simultaneously, the destructive light slammed into Han Yi. He raised the Taosi Divine Axe to block the attack, but the force of the impact forced him back several steps.
This attack was roughly equivalent to that of someone newly entered the Dao Realm. However, in this Void Land, the rules differed greatly from those of the Vast Heng Dao Domain. His Four Origins Dao Technique and Immeasurable True Realm were useless here. Forced to rely solely on the Taosi Divine Axe for defense, he was still driven back.
Han Yi's expression shifted slightly. He could sense that everything here was real; if he died on this battlefield, he would truly perish.
Yet before entering the Witch Tower, he had been assured that the Mountain Lord Assessment posed no risk of death.
What was happening here?
Before he could ponder further, a sudden thought materialized in the space, then resonated within his mind:
Slay ten enemies of equal rank to escape the Nest of Time and Space.
Along with this thought, a peculiar black symbol appeared on his retinal display. Though he had never seen it before, he immediately recognized it as a counting symbol. If the enemies he killed met the required conditions, the symbol would change. Once the count reached 'ten,' he would be able to escape the Nest of Time and Space.
From this realization, Han Yi deduced that the temporal realm he was in, flowing against the current of time, was the Nest of Time and Space.
Furthermore, he surmised that once he escaped this Nest, he would likely gain access to the third level of the Witch Tower.
In other words, his next task was clear: eliminate ten Cultivators at the First Step of the Dao Realm, and he would complete his mission.
Moreover, the moment he appeared, he found himself aligned with one of the two warring factions on this battlefield.
Han Yi's resolve hardened.
While other Dao Realm entities might struggle against peers due to restricted means, Han Yi faced no such limitations. Even relying solely on his physical body, he stood a chance of overpowering a First Step of the Dao Realm cultivator.
Just as he prepared to strike, however, he paused. Before him, the panel—motionless for millennia—began to change in a way it never had before.
All previous information vanished, leaving only faint crimson characters that flickered repeatedly before disappearing entirely.
Han Yi was puzzled, but with the battlefield raging around him, he couldn't investigate the panel's transformation. A Venerable enemy had already lunged toward him.
This was a three-eyed Giant Demon, hundreds of meters tall. The third eye had just unleashed the destructive light that had just been here.
Realizing it hadn't killed Han Yi, the Giant Demon lunged forward, sweeping its razor-sharp claws through the air. The claws sliced through space itself as they aimed to crush Han Yi.
In that split second, Han Yi transformed into a hundred-meter-tall Divine Race body. He swung the Taosi Divine Axe, unleashing a single, mighty strike.
On this bizarre Void battlefield, where Immortal Arts and Dao Techniques were ineffective, Han Yi's Chaos Divine Clan form remained unaffected. This form was innate to him, not dependent on external Great Daos.
Though the Six Forms of the Gluttonous Sacrifice were unusable, the sharpness and durability of the Taosi Divine Axe remained intact.
Forged from the finest materials, the Divine Axe struck first despite being thrown later, severing the Giant Demon's claw in a single blow. The Giant Demon roared in pain, its third eye beginning to gather destructive light.
But what awaited it was Han Yi's second axe strike, which slammed directly into the Giant Demon's skull, suppressing the destructive light before it could erupt.
The Divine Axe cleaved straight down, splitting the Giant Demon's corpse in two.
Black, foul-smelling blood splattered in all directions, instantly corroding nearby corpses until they dissolved into nothingness. Yet when this toxic blood splashed onto Han Yi, it couldn't harm his skin in the slightest.
As he slew the Giant Demon, two changes occurred on the retinal display before his eyes. The first was a shift in the black numerical symbol. Han Yi understood immediately: it had changed from '0' to '1'.
The second change was the reappearance of the panel, which had previously vanished. A line of pale red characters flashed across it, but they disappeared too quickly for him to read, especially in the chaos of battle. Han Yi didn't panic. He remained calm, knowing he could examine the panel's changes once he left the Witch Tower.
Gripping the Taosi, he pressed forward, slaughtering his way through the battlefield.
The battlefield stretched endlessly, its vastness defying the eye.
Eternal slaughter unfolded across this land.
Han Yi's second enemy was a Giant Demon resembling a divine being. This colossal figure glowed with golden light, radiating immense power.
The giant was also three hundred meters tall, wielding a massive gray stone hammer. The hammer was incredibly sturdy; Han Yi had to strike it twelve times with his Taosi Divine Axe before it shattered. With a final swing, he severed the giant's head.
Golden blood spilled into the void.
Simultaneously, the black counter symbol and panel updated, just as before, changing to '2'. The characters on the panel flashed momentarily.
Han Yi was about to engage his third enemy when he suddenly saw a pair of blue eyes. They belonged to a six-armed being over three meters tall.
The moment the thought flashed through his mind, Han Yi's head rang, and his consciousness plunged into darkness.
When he regained awareness, he was still standing in the same spot, but the six-armed being with the blue eyes had vanished.
At the same time, a belated wave of dread and terror surged from the depths of his heart, flooding his body and chilling him to the bone.
His breath caught, then he gasped like a fish returning to water after glimpsing some great terror, the lingering fear of narrowly escaping danger.
"Harmonization with the Dao?"
"No, it's far beyond that. Anyone who could overwhelm me with a single glance is at least a Heavenly Venerable—and a formidable one among them."
"Hiss."
Han Yi quickly checked himself and found no other changes except for the black symbol on his retina, which had changed from 'two' to 'one'.
"This means that dying in this Void Space won't truly kill me; it only reduces the number of same-tier cultivators I've slain by one."
"This confirms what I'd heard before: entering the Witch Tower won't result in my demise."
With no fear of death, Han Yi let loose. Wielding the Taosi Divine Axe, he relied on the formidable physique of the Divine Race to wreak havoc across the battlefield.
When the black counting symbol reached 'six', he encountered an External Dao-level powerhouse. After exchanging three brutal blows, his Divine Body shattered, and he was crushed by his opponent.