Chapter 1177: The New King

"You may also enter the hall."

Upon hearing Bai Ze's words, Han Li's eyes flickered with surprise.

The various tribes of the Barren Wasteland could hardly believe their ears, bursting into an uproar.

To them, the Barren Wasteland Sacred Hall was even more sacred than the Holy Mountain, the very heart of their faith. Allowing a human like Han Li to climb the mountain was already a violation of their beliefs, but letting him enter the Sacred Hall was nothing short of desecration.

This was something they absolutely could not accept.

Even Li Qima's expression shifted slightly, a trace of confusion in his eyes.

"My king, this cannot be..." At that moment, the chieftain of the Huntun tribe changed color and shouted loudly.

"The Barren Wasteland Sacred Hall must not be entered by a human..." The other chieftains also cried out in succession.

"A human stepping into the Sacred Hall defiles the bloodline of our ancestors—absolutely not!"

"Think twice!"

The young master of the Zouwu tribe and Qingdian also changed expressions, their gazes becoming extremely complicated. They had never expected the True Spirit King to value Han Li so highly, and they hesitated inwardly about whether they should still seek revenge against him.

Hearing the fierce opposition, Han Li's expression shifted repeatedly, and he too grew hesitant.

"This Barren Wasteland Sacred Hall was built by me and the other seven True Spirit Kings. I decide who may enter and who may not," Bai Ze said indifferently, merely glancing at them with a frown.

"My king..." The crowd's cries continued, but Bai Ze had already turned and walked away.

Li Qima and the others immediately followed. After a brief hesitation, Han Li also followed.

By the time they had entered the stone hall, the clamor behind them still had not ceased.

However, once the heavy doors of the stone hall closed, all sounds were shut outside.

Inside the hall, the light was dim, with only a single brazier in the center, its flames flickering, casting shadows all around.

Han Li looked around and saw towering stone statues standing nearby. Counting from his side, there were eight: Taowu, Zhu Yan, Rahu, Bai Ze, the Mountain Ape, the Roaming Kunpeng, the Nine-Tailed Celestial Fox, and the Ink-Eyed Pixiu.

In front of each statue was a stone chair, but all were empty, having been vacant for an extremely long time.

Liu Le'er gazed at the statue of the Nine-Tailed Celestial Fox, looking at its nine tails and sensing the faint connection between it and herself, a trace of confusion flickering in her eyes.

Xiao Bai stared fixedly at the statue of the Ink-Eyed Pixiu, observing its resemblance to himself, yet he could not feel the slightest closeness—no matter how he looked, it seemed so distant, so unfamiliar.

The others also turned their gazes to their respective bloodline ancestors, their expressions a mix of curiosity, reverence, excitement, and supplication.

"The statues you see now are the eight True Spirit Kings of the Barren Wasteland since ancient times. Some were my close friends, others were once my mortal enemies. But for the peace of the Barren Wasteland Realm, we built this Sacred Hall together as a seal for the Shura Blood Gate. Now I have gathered you here again because I need the True Spirit King bloodline within you to serve as the key to activate the seal," Bai Ze said, sweeping his gaze over the statues one by one.

"We await your command, my king," the crowd shouted in unison.

"Among the eight True Spirit Kings, aside from Rahu and the Roaming Kunpeng, who left the Eight Desolate Mountain to roam beyond the void shortly after the Sacred Hall was built, the rest have mostly encountered misfortune. Their fates are now unknown—they may have all perished. So once the Sacred Hall is formally opened, we will know how many of them still survive," Bai Ze said, not shying away from Han Li as he revealed these secrets of the Barren Wasteland True Spirits.

For those present, the ancestors who had bestowed their bloodlines were already like figures from myth and legend. Accepting that these ancestors, who had brought them supreme glory, might no longer exist was still very difficult.

Thus, after hearing this, almost everyone's expression turned somber.

"But you need not be disheartened. As beings born from heaven and earth, we are endowed with various innate abilities and laws of nature. Even if we perish, all our bloodline power will merge with the laws of time, gradually consumed by the Heavenly Dao but never completely disappearing. So once the Shura Blood Gate opens, these powers hidden within the great Dao of heaven and earth will return to the Sacred Hall. As their bloodline heirs, you may inherit their power and become new True Spirit Kings!" Bai Ze continued.

At these words, it was as if thunder had struck in everyone's hearts, their minds shaken with excitement.

Become new True Spirit Kings?

For all the Barren Wasteland clans, this was perhaps the ultimate temptation in the world.

Their minds were now in turmoil, unsure whether they should hope for the return of the True Spirit ancestors or hope that they had already perished.

Bai Ze's gaze was calm as he took in the changes in everyone's expressions, his own face showing no reaction.

In truth, he was fully aware of all their thoughts and feelings, but they stirred no emotion in him.

None of these things mattered to him.

"The flame in the brazier before you is the essence fire kindled by the eight of us. It has already weakened considerably, indicating that some have truly perished in this world. All descendants of the wild lands, step forward and receive your orders." Bai Ze commanded.

Hearing this, the crowd stepped forward one after another, surrounding the brazier in the center.

Only Han Li kept a slight distance from them, standing not far behind Little Bai, silently observing everything.

Seeing Han Li so tactful, the others' hostility toward him lessened slightly, but in their eyes, the presence of this human here was still superfluous and a disgrace to the holy hall.

However, with the True Spirit King present, none of them dared to show it openly.

Bai Ze's gaze swept over the crowd, then suddenly focused. He clasped his hands before him, and from his palms ripples of golden light spread outward like stones thrown into a lake, expanding layer by layer.

Starting from beneath the brazier, the golden light spread across the ground as if lotuses were blooming everywhere, opening into large golden flowers.

Seeing this, the crowd instinctively stepped back to avoid it.

Han Li's eyes narrowed as he looked down and saw that the golden flowers were actually formed from dense clusters of runic patterns.

The aura emanating from the runes was very peculiar, making everyone feel as if their own bloodline was connected to them the moment they sensed it. Their feet then seemed to take root, merging closely with the earth.

Han Li's legs stiffened, and he realized that he, like the others, had his legs bound to the earth.

After the initial shock, Han Li quickly discovered that this force was not an externally imposed binding, but an attraction force triggered by his own bloodline connecting to the earth.

Forcibly severing this bloodline connection was not impossible, but after a moment's hesitation, Han Li decided to maintain it, as he could clearly feel that his true spirit bloodline was quite fond of this connection.

As the runic flowers bloomed, specks of fluorescent golden powder rose from the ground, soon filling the entire hall and casting a hazy glow all around.

The eight statues of the True Spirit Kings were coated with a layer of fluorescent golden powder, each enveloped in a bright light, standing like divine manifestations.

Seeing this, Bai Ze's eyes flickered with a trace of reminiscence. He walked to his own statue and slowly sat down.

"Now, each of you take a drop of your origin blood essence and cast it into the brazier," he said.

Without any hesitation, the crowd extended their hands and forced out a drop of origin blood essence.

"Pata," "Dida," "Pata."

The hall was silent; the sound of dripping blood was clearly audible.

As drops of blood essence containing the bloodlines of the eight True Spirit Kings fell into the dark red brazier, the gently burning golden flame suddenly leaped up, and within it, illusory shadows began to appear.

Han Li's gaze swept over and saw that the shifting forms in the flame were precisely the true body projections of the eight True Spirit Kings.

Before he could finish being astonished, light flashed in the brazier, and eight flame projections shot out, each darting toward the surrounding eight statues, entering directly into their brows and vanishing.

Immediately after, the eight statues trembled violently, their surfaces radiating dazzling lights of various colors, illuminating the entire stone hall in a riot of colors.

At the same time, on all the climbing paths of the Eight Desolations Mountain, beams of treasure light soared into the sky, filling the heavens.

In the night sky above, eight enormous true spirit projections appeared in the void, occupying the eight directions. Some raised their heads as if roaring, others galloped and barked at the sky, each one unruly and majestic.

The people of various races remaining on the mountaintop square and those cultivators halted halfway up the mountain, upon seeing this, all knelt in prolonged prostration, their mouths uttering prayers.

The Bell that Strikes Heaven at the peak and the Kui Beast Drum at the foot of the mountain, though no one played them, began to sound on their own. Suddenly, an ancient and distant wild war song resounded through heaven and earth, and a majestic aura surged from the mountaintop, spreading for millions of miles.

In the town of Zhenhuang at the foot of the mountain, lights were already twinkling. At this moment, whether in the streets or in the mansions, millions of wild tribespeople, like those on the mountain, knelt and prayed.

Just as everyone's minds were stirred and emotions hard to calm, a sudden change occurred!

The projection of the Mountain Ape True Spirit floating above the night sky of the Eight Desolations Mountain suddenly blurred and then directly dissipated.

Correspondingly, within the Wild Holy Hall, the sacred flame that had flown into the brow of the Mountain Ape statue flickered and then directly dissipated.

The fluorescent golden powder gathered on its body also scattered, and it completely dimmed.

Then, a chain reaction followed. The flames in the brows of the other statues in the hall flew back one after another, falling into the dark red brazier, and the statues dimmed one by one.

Seeing this, the crowd on the square was struck as if by lightning. They glared angrily at the long-browed elder of the Mountain Ape tribe. The collapse of the True Spirit King's manifestation starting from the Mountain Ape was enough to show that the bloodline successor it had chosen was utterly unqualified.