I transmigrated to a chaotic world and became the sole player.

The colossal bronze gate stood majestically, its dark red light emanating from the cracks like the breath of a sleeping beast, carrying a chilling rhythm.

Lu Zhao pressed his palm against the cold door, feeling the hardness of the metal and an indescribable heaviness, as if what was pressing down on him was not a door, but the dust of ten thousand years and the obsessions of countless dead souls.

He didn't immediately try to force it open. This door was clearly extraordinary; it was riddled with cracks, yet remained as solid as a mountain, impossible to open by brute force. Moreover, the secret passage and token left behind by the Diyuan Sect might be the "key" to opening this door.

With a thought, Lu Zhao took out the broken token from his robes, which still emitted a warm, earthy yellow light. The token felt warm to the touch, and its light flickered, seemingly resonating faintly with the bronze gate.

"The guardian of the Earthly Origin Sect...is this the secret behind this door?" Lu Zhao's sharp gaze swept over the blurry reliefs and cracks on the surface of the bronze giant door. His divine sense, mixed with a trace of annihilating dragon energy, was like the most intricate tentacles, slowly brushing over every inch of the door.

The aura of annihilation, possessing both destruction and devouring power, is extremely sensitive to energy fluctuations. The faint dragon's might sensed by the "Pact of the Reverse Scale" allows him to detect special auras related to the dragon race.

As his divine sense swept across the area, the seemingly chaotic cracks, in Lu Zhao's perception, faintly formed a fragmented array diagram. The core of the array diagram seemed to be located slightly below the center of the giant gate.

Lu Zhao stared intently. There, at the intersection of countless cracks, was a palm-sized, relatively flat area with a faintly visible recessed pattern. Due to the cracks and the erosion of time, the pattern was blurred, but its general outline bore an eight or nine-tenths resemblance to the shape of the "Earthly Element Token" in his hand!

"A keyhole?" Lu Zhao's heart skipped a beat, and he no longer hesitated. He carefully pressed the "Earthly Element Token" in his hand into the recess according to its shape and orientation.

"Click..."

A soft, mechanical sound rang out. The tattered token fit perfectly into the recess, and its earthen-yellow light suddenly brightened, flowing and spreading along the cracks in the door like ripples. The dim, long-ineffective array patterns, now seemingly infused with a faint glow, began to shimmer with a dim light.

"There's hope!" Lu Zhao thought with delight.

However, the light lasted only a few breaths before it began to flicker rapidly and erratically. The token itself also made a cracking sound as it struggled to bear the weight, and the cracks on its surface seemed to be widening. At the same time, the array patterns on the door that had been "lit up" only lit up for less than a third before losing momentum and quickly dimming.

"The token is too damaged to fully activate the restrictions on the door..." Lu Zhao immediately understood the reason. The Earthly Token is a key, but after a long period of time and unknown damage, it can no longer exert its full power.

Just as most of the array patterns were about to completely extinguish their light, a sudden change occurred!

Above the bronze gate, among the array patterns that had just lit up and then gone out, a few specific patterns suddenly reversed their flow in the instant before the light disappeared, bursting out an extremely condensed beam of light with a dark yellow and turbid color, like a venomous snake emerging from its hole, shooting straight at Lu Zhao in front of the gate!

The beam of light was incredibly fast, and it carried a strange aura as heavy as a mountain and as filthy as mud. It seemed to have gathered the most sinister and heavy evil energy and resentment from the depths of the earth's veins, and there was also a faint trace of ancient and desolate dragon might in it!

"Not good! It's a remnant of a protective or testing restriction!" Alarm bells rang in Lu Zhao's mind. This wasn't the killing formation being activated at full power; it was more like a restriction failing to open correctly, an energy backlash, or a counterattack triggered by some force behind the door sensing that the "key" was incomplete!

There was no time to dodge. Lu Zhao roared and the Annihilation Dragon Qi within his body circulated wildly at an unprecedented speed. Gray-gold light emanated from his body and instantly condensed into a semi-material shield covered with fine dragon scale patterns in front of him! At the same time, the Refining God Technique was activated to its limit, and his divine sense was concentrated in an attempt to interfere with that strange beam of light.

"boom!!!"

The dark yellow, murky beam of light slammed into the gray-gold dragon scale shield!

There was no earth-shattering explosion, only a dull, muffled roar, as if the earth itself were collapsing. Lu Zhao felt an indescribable force surge through him, containing the weight of the earth's pulse, the filth and corrosive power of the earth's evil energy, and a trace of domineering and boundless dragon soul impact!

"Pfft!" Lu Zhao's body trembled violently, as if struck by a heavy hammer, and he couldn't help but spit out a mouthful of blood, staining his chest red. The condensed dragon scale shield vibrated violently, and countless fine cracks appeared on its surface. The gray-gold annihilation dragon aura and the dark yellow earthly dragon soul power collided, annihilated, and devoured each other wildly.

That force not only impacted his physical body but also directly invaded his consciousness! Heavy resentment, overwhelming hatred, the pain of betrayal, and a sense of desolate annihilation, like the return of all things to nothingness, surged against his soul like a tide! If his soul had not been strong to begin with and had not just consumed the "Soul-Purifying Jade Marrow Mushroom," which had stabilized and solidified his soul, he would probably have suffered a mental breakdown and become an idiot!

"Suppress it...!" Lu Zhao's eyes were bloodshot, his gums bleeding from biting them. He frantically circulated the "Refining God Technique," and the "Sword of Divine Consciousness" in his sea of ​​consciousness, formed through visualization using the technique and existing between reality and illusion, shone brightly, slashing at the negative thoughts invading his sea of ​​consciousness. At the same time, the battle intent of the "Earthly Fiend Dragon Soul," which had recently merged with his body and belonged to an ancient war general, seemed to be stirred by this same but even more ancient and violent dragon-fiend power. It surged spontaneously, fighting against, merging with, and even... devouring the earthly fiend power that had invaded his body!

This was an extremely painful process. Lu Zhao felt as if he were sandwiched between millstones, his physical body and soul simultaneously subjected to crushing and erosion. But he persevered, and the domineering nature of the Annihilation Dragon Qi was fully revealed at this moment. Although it seemed to be slightly inferior in quality to the more ancient and pure "Earth Vein Dragon Qi", its characteristics of "annihilation" and "devouring" made it like a bone-deep ailment, stubbornly wearing down and transforming the invading power.

"Betrayal...all shall be annihilated..."

"I hate... I hate..."

"Locked away for ten thousand years... devouring my bones and soul..."

In the process of resisting and dissipating the impact of the "Earth Vein Dragon Fiend," extremely faint, chaotic fragments of will filled with madness and resentment, like shattered dreams, intermittently flooded into Lu Zhao's perception. These wills seemed to originate from the "Earth Vein Dragon Fiend" itself, or rather, from the remnants of the sealed ancient dragon soul behind this bronze giant door!

"Betrayal? Who betrayed these ancient dragons? Was it the one who set up the 'Ten Thousand Dragons Devouring the Heavens' formation? Or... is there another hidden story?" Countless thoughts flashed through Lu Zhao's mind in an instant. The secrets of the ancient times seemed to be more complicated than he had imagined.

It's unclear how much time passed—perhaps just a moment, perhaps an eternity. The dark yellow beam of "Earth Vein Dragon Fiend" finally exhausted its power and slowly dissipated. The dragon scale shield in front of Lu Zhao also shattered with a "bang," turning into specks of gray-gold light that entered his body.

"Cough cough..." Lu Zhao staggered back a few steps, his face pale, his breath weak, and blood trickling from the corner of his mouth, clearly suffering from serious internal injuries. But his eyes were brighter than before, with a faint gray-gold light flowing through them, carrying a sharpness honed by hardship.

Despite his injuries, enduring the impact of the "Earthly Vein Dragon Fiend" not only made his annihilating dragon energy more refined in the confrontation and gave him a deeper understanding of the characteristics of the "Earthly Fiend" power, but also allowed him to capture fragments of resentment and unwillingness from ancient dragon souls. Although these fragments were chaotic, they contained valuable information.

"The existence behind this door... is filled with pain and resentment. The 'Ten Thousand Dragons Devouring the Heavens' formation is probably not just a simple seal..." Lu Zhao pondered, his gaze towards the bronze giant door becoming even more solemn.

Just then, the bronze gate, which had been briefly activated by the embedded token and then completely dimmed by the counterattack of the restriction, suddenly changed again.

It wasn't that it was opened, but rather that wisps of strange, almost transparent "qi"—which seemed to contain countless colors—began to slowly seep out from between the cracks in the door, especially from the crack from which the "Earth Vein Dragon Fiend" beam had just shot out.

This "qi" was completely different from the cold, filthy, and violent earth vein energy he had sensed before. It was purer, more ancient, and more desolate, as if it were the most primordial spiritual energy of heaven and earth left over from countless ages ago! Within it, there was even a faint trace... almost imperceptible dragon energy, of the same origin as the "Pact of the Reverse Scale" and the annihilating dragon energy within Lu Zhao's body, yet even more noble and more majestic!

Although the aura was faint, its mere appearance invigorated Lu Zhao, and his injuries seemed to heal a little faster. The "Reverse Scale Pact" in his arms emitted an unprecedented longing and throbbing!

"This is... the aura leaking from behind the door? Could it be that the sealed space behind the door still contains the pure spiritual energy from ancient times and... the original energy of the dragon race?" Lu Zhao's pupils shrank slightly, and his heart began to beat faster uncontrollably.

Danger often comes with opportunity. The massive, unopenable bronze door seemed to have cracked slightly due to the counterattack of the restriction and the brief activation of the token, revealing a trace of the aura behind it.

Should we continue trying other methods to open the door and risk going inside?

Or should we retreat immediately, take the people we rescued, and return along the original route to escape this increasingly dangerous "Dragonbone Hill"?

Lu Zhao wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, his eyes flickering as he looked at the strange and alluring scent slowly seeping from the crack in the door.