Chapter 3368: The First Ancestor

When they saw that piece of information, even the nine experts of the Wood Spirits suddenly felt their hearts sink. Some of their faces became rather ugly.

Clearly, they still were not prepared to offer up themselves to awaken the artifact spirit just yet.

In reality, they were completely clueless about everything in here before they entered. They did not know that several generations of seniors lay in rest here, nor did they know that the artifact spirit of the ancestral god artifact had already entered a state of slumber countless years ago.

Now, as soon as they entered here and learnt a little about the Wood Spirits' history, they were told that none of them could leave unless they awakened the spirit of the ancestral artifact.

How were they supposed to accept this?

After all, seven of them had only just become rulers. They had not even managed to bring glory to their ancestors yet and they would be trapped to death in here. How could they accept it?

"W-w-we can't leave anymore?" One of the newly-broken-through rulers turned rather pale as his lips trembled.

"Dammit, we still have our organisations outside. Are we really just going to meet our ends here before we could even make some arrangements?"

"Our race has indeed been declining with each generation. For the sake of our race, we're also willing to sacrifice our lives and offer everything to the spirit of the ancestral artifact, b-but at least let us make some arrangements before this."

"We're all critical figures to our clans. Once we die, what's going to happen to our clans?"

......

…

After a period of silence, the seven experts who had all broken through recently began to grumble. They found this difficult to accept.

They were not afraid of dying. They were all willing to offer up themselves to awaken the ancestral artifact, but they did not want to go in such a quiet fashion.

To them, even if they were to die, they wanted their names to go down in history, to be remembered and honoured by the future generations.

"Sigh, these predecessors probably didn't end their lives so quickly either and were actually trapped in here, forced to do that with no other choice." The Heaven Fighting Ruler glanced past the predecessors and sighed.

Jian Chen remained silent the entire time as he studied this world. He was already certain that this world resided in the ancestral god artifact and was extremely tough. Let alone him, even Grand Primes were not capable of forcing their way out.

Then he began to recall what he saw earlier closely. He discovered that from the moment he set foot through the stone door and entered this world, the path behind him was already gone.

That was because this world and the maze where the stone door existed resided in two different spaces.

The maze would teleport them out forcefully after a century, but that would not happen here.

"Let's continue onwards and see if any of the predecessors ahead have left anything behind." A while later, the Jade Heaven Ruler broke the stifling atmosphere again. She spoke very softly with an extremely despondent tone.

Clearly, she had also realised that she would probably never be able to leave here again.

Awaken the spirit of the ancestral artifact?

None of them were that hopeful. There were so many generations of predecessors in front of them and every generation was more powerful than them. Despite that, over a dozen generations had failed, let alone their generation.

The ten of them continued onwards. Before them were four more generations of predecessors.

Very soon, they made their way past three generations. Each generation was composed of nine people, having reached Grand Prime at the very least.

They had also left behind messages, but it was not particularly helpful.

Very soon, they arrived before the first generation of predecessors.

Of course, whether they were actually the first generation was not something they could be certain about. They just happened to be the ones standing at the very front among all these generations.

They also happened to be the ones closest to the small wooden hut on the hill.

However, the first generation of predecessors were not nine people but just one!

She was a woman, standing with her back towards everyone. As such, they could not see her face, only her back.

However, unlike the other predecessors of the Wood Spirits, she sat on the ground while the others all knelt towards the wooden hut.

Jian Chen and the nine experts of the Wood Spirits all stopped behind the woman, unable to advance any further.

Despite having perished countless years ago, the woman's presence was still extremely startling, like it shocked the heavens and rocked the world. Even Jian Chen felt shivers as he stood behind her, feeling his own insignificance.

As for the nine other experts, they all trembled, about to kneel down uncontrollably.

The presence obstructed everyone, preventing them from making it past the woman.

"This person's strength has already surpassed the Seventh Heavenly Layer of Grand Prime. She's at the Eighth Heavenly Layer at the very least, or maybe even the Ninth Heavenly Layer…" Jian Chen shuddered inside. Even in the Saints' World, experts like that were mythical existences. Every single one of them was a significant figure that ruled over an entire region of the Saints' World.

"When the Wood Spirits left the others, they should not have possessed such a powerful expert. As a result, it's extremely likely that this first ancestor's strength had increased further after separating from the others, which allowed her to reach the Eighth Heavenly Layer," Jian Chen thought. He had learnt a little about the Spiritsages' history from the Wind Venerable.

The Wood Spirits were very powerful during their prime, having a Grand Exalt. However, after the Spirits' World had shattered, all the races in the Spirits' World migrated to the Saints' World. The Wood Spirits gradually declined, growing weaker with each generation.

Suddenly, Jian Chen noticed a single sentence engraved in the ground in front of the first ancestor. Countless years had passed, which blurred the words and left many of them incomprehensible, but there were still three that could be clearly read.

"Was I wrong…"

Those three short words seemed to contain a boundless amount of information, like they were filled with far more than could be put into a message, as well as her internal conflict and pain.

For some reason, when he saw those three words, Jian Chen immediately confirmed the woman's identity.

It was extremely likely that she was the leader who led the Wood Spirits to break away from the others in the past.

In the endless history of the Wood Spirits, she could not be regarded as an ancestor. There were probably experts even more ancient than her.

However, when it came to the Wood Spirits who dwelled in the world created by the sovereign god artifact after breaking off from the Spiritsages, she was definitely the first ancestor.

"You're finally here…" At this moment, a sigh seemed to ring through history, slowly echoing out from the space there.

Everyone immediately shivered inside when they heard the voice. They all became tense.

In the next moment, a streak of green light from the first ancestor condensed into a blurry figure. Her face was blurred, such that it was impossible to make out any facial features.

"A-are you the first ancestor?" Everyone looked over immediately in great shock.