Rumble rumble rumble— But even as the ground shook, ten more stone tablets soon emerged.
However, compared to the previous eleven tablets, these ten not only lacked the name Chu Xuanyan but also appeared noticeably newer in comparison.
"Why have ten more Ancestor Worship Sacred Tablets appeared?"
At this moment, the people of the Ancient World were equally puzzled. Only eleven people had entered their world, so where had ten extra come from?
Swish swish swish— Just as everyone was grappling with their confusion, ten chains shot up from underground, each one wrapping around one of the ten newly appeared Sacred Tablets.
At that point, the glow beneath the ground faded, and everything seemed to come to a stop.
"They're locked down. These ten extra Sacred Tablets can't be used for ancestor worship, can they?"
The people of the Ancient World were almost certain that these ten additional Sacred Tablets were not meant for ancestor worship.
But if they weren't meant for that purpose, then what was the point of their appearance?
Something was strange. Very strange. This time around, the Ancient World was riddled with oddities—not only were outsiders confused, but even the people of the Ancient World themselves were bewildered.
Though they were inhabitants of the Ancient World, every time invitations were distributed, it was done according to the guidance of the Ancient World's Ancestral Statue. This time had been no different—they had followed the Ancestral Statue's instructions and sent out multiple invitations. But every step that followed had also manifested automatically from within the Ancient World itself, none of it under their control.
The entrance to the Ancient World, the Sacred Tablets that had appeared—these things.
They could discover them in advance, but in truth, they had no control over any of it.
"Leader."
The elders of the Ancient World all turned their gazes toward the Ancient World's leader.
The trials for entering the Ancient World were one thing they could afford to leave unattended, but the Sacred Tablets were a matter of grave importance. The slightest mishap could cost them their lives. They wanted to find out what these ten extra tablets were for.
"Summon the Ancestor," the leader of the Ancient World said.
The moment he finished speaking, several elders departed. When they returned, they carried a palanquin.
The palanquin was opened, revealing an old man seated inside. His entire body was shrouded in a radiance of runic light—a light of a peculiar nature, not only visually striking but carrying with it an ancient aura.
Yet this old man was crooked of mouth and askew of eye, looking for all the world like an imbecile.
"Greetings to the Ancestor." The leader of the Ancient World and all the elders together performed a full kowtow to the old man in the palanquin.
The leader then proceeded to relay the questions he wished to ask. But the so-called Ancestor they spoke of offered no response whatsoever—only an endless stream of drool, looking every bit like a man suffering from advanced dementia.
"Sigh… how did it come to this? It's been five years already, and the Ancestor still won't speak?"
"Leader, could the prophecy from back then have been wrong? Could it be that there is no Ancestor reincarnation to speak of?"
At this, one elder spoke up in a low voice.
"Insolent! Can you not see the runic radiance surrounding the Ancestor? Could that be false? If he were not the reincarnation of our Ancestor, how could such a light manifest around him?" the leader demanded angrily.
Hearing this, the questioning elder hurriedly kowtowed in apology.
But despite that, the other elders present exchanged looks of doubt.
The Ancient World's lineage stretched back countless ages, yet its records contained no information about their founding ancestor—even their forebears had known nothing of him. Their generation knew only that they were trapped within the Ancient World and that the power they cultivated was derived from the Ancestral Statue.
The Ancestral Statue would periodically produce Sacred Hall Pearls and, at the same time, issue instructions telling them in which direction to invite certain people.
Those who were invited to the Ancient World would need to undergo a simple trial, and those who passed the final test would receive the finest Sacred Hall Pearls.
But before receiving their Sacred Hall Pearls, they were required to undergo a test before the Ancestor Worship Stone. The people of the Ancient World cloaked this in a pretty name, calling it a "talent assessment."
In truth, during this test, a portion of the test-taker's power was devoured. While this power could be recovered and would not cause permanent harm to the tested individual, the people of the Ancient World knew full well that this… was in fact ancestor worship.
Naturally, the Ancient World would never tell outsiders that this was ancestor worship—otherwise, who would ever come?
After all, their very survival depended on the power bestowed by the Ancestral Statue. If the ancestor worship failed and the Ancestral Statue ceased granting them power, they would all die.
Truth be told, the people of the Ancient World did not enjoy this way of life. But they had no choice—they could not leave. Put another way, they could not leave the Ancestral Statue, so they could only drift along with the Ancient World.
From the outside, they appeared to be the masters of the Ancient World. In reality, they were nothing more than servants of the Ancestral Statue, devoid of any freedom to speak of.
But five years ago, a turning point had come. The Ancestral Statue delivered a prophecy: one of the Ancient World's earliest ancestors still possessed a remnant soul and would soon be reborn within the Ancient World, carrying his memories with him.
This had set the people of the Ancient World ablaze with excitement. If it was indeed an ancestor's reincarnation—and one who retained his memories at that—then surely he would provide them with guidance.
Following the prophecy, one of the elders within the Ancient World had suddenly gone mad. At first, people assumed he had fallen ill.
But before long, a peculiar runic radiance appeared upon his body.
The light was not only sacred but also exerted a bloodline-based suppression over the people of the Ancient World.
And so everyone became convinced that it was the old ancestor reborn, having possessed this elder's body.
They therefore began to venerate the old man as the Ancestor.
Yet more than five years had passed, and this elder remained in his foolish state. Setting aside guidance, the man couldn't even form words anymore.
This had plunged the people of the Ancient World into confusion once more.
Until the Ancestral Statue delivered a new set of instructions. This time, not only were a large number of Sacred Hall Pearls provided, but a clear list of invitees, a method for distributing the Sacred Hall Pearls, and a framework for the trials were all given as well.
Such a thing was exceedingly rare—something on this scale had happened only once before, over eight hundred years ago.
And that attempt over eight hundred years ago had failed to proceed smoothly due to certain reasons.
So this ancestor worship had rekindled their hope and made them treat the matter with exceptional care.
Perhaps this was their chance to leave the Ancient World.
But the current situation was different from what had occurred over eight hundred years ago.
This left them unable to follow the precedent of the last attempt, and so they were in a state of panic.