The Immortal Demon Grotto was not famous in the nine worlds. Few even knew of its existence. The ones who were aware of it had, more or less, something to do with Li Qiye.
In fact, even the privileged few couldn't find it for a visit. The reason was very simple. After escaping the grotto's control, Li Qiye and an emperor worked together to banish the spatial location of the grotto. Thus, even if people managed to find the entrance, they would come to find that it was a dead end.
The grotto's area was banished into deep space. Unless one was able to find the exact coordinates from Li Qiye, it was impossible to enter.
In fact, ever since the banishment, there had only been two instances of people arriving.
The first was the Ancient Ming, tricked by Li Qiye with the story of Gong Yang. The Ancient Ming didn't only use several overlords to make their way in. They even directly drove their Corporeal Zone inside, wishing to suppress the grotto.
Li Qiye was the one who purposely leaked the coordinates to the Ancient Ming. Unfortunately for the Ancient Ming, they weren't ready for the existence they found inside. The confident overlords didn't prepare enough and only got away with grievous injuries due to the Corporeal Zone. This artifact suffered damage as well.
The second intruder was Immortal Emperor Ta Kong, tricked by Gu Zun. He was the leaker of the coordinates this time.
The emperor's expedition alarmed the Black Dragon King's group. Meanwhile, Li Qiye, as the Dark Crow, was very unstable at the time. The Black Dragon King waged war furiously against the emperor before leading his legion inside.
He had unstoppable generals accompanying him. This allowed for him to seize Li Qiye's body from the grotto. However, they paid a grave price as well. The third body of the king fell in this battle along with his generals. The entire legion was virtually annihilated. This once amazing legion from Heaven Suppression was in-name-only henceforth.
It wasn't so easy to steal Li Qiye's body. It required sacrificing the Heaven's Will of Immortal Emperor Ta Kong before obtaining a complete body. Otherwise, his souls and true fate would have been stuck in the crow forever.
In fact, Jian Wenxin exhausted her means to come up with a different method to obtain a complete body without sacrificing the Heaven's Will. Empress Hong Tian also agreed with this plan and felt that she could kill her own way inside. Alas, Li Qiye rejected this method.
He stood before the grotto with old memories resurfacing and stirring his emotions. He didn't know how to describe his current mood.
His youthful-self entering this place by accident has changed his whole life and the nine worlds. The river of time had shifted due to this event.
In the end, he smiled wryly while shaking his head then stepped inside the entrance. It was an empty crater, a scene of destruction.
This was the result of the spatial banishment. The grotto was indeed in front of him. If one didn't have the exact coordinates, they would never be able to enter even if they were to destroy this whole location.
“Whoosh!” Li Qiye raised his finger. A spatial disc emerged instantly with innumerable coordinates that stretched out as wide as an ocean. Finding a banished set of coordinates was akin to finding a needle in a haystack.
Li Qiye quickly locked on to a coordinate and activated his method. With a buzz, he was teleported to a different sphere.
The grotto wasn't actually a type of cave. It was an independent world that was quite large with its own celestials. Continents and oceans could be found here.
Li Qiye was too familiar with this place because he had involuntarily flown back several times as the Dark Crow. He knew the place like the palm of his hand.
However, it was a different scene now with no semblance of the past.
The world had collapsed along with the stars above. Continents and oceans were ravaged, leaving behind a huge void with broken debris floating about. Among the broken geography were many corpses!
He gently sighed at this brutal sight and could easily imagine the battle back then. He walked across this void zone in silence.
He suddenly stopped along the way and stomped down on a broken continent. It cracked and a corpse was revealed. It was completely different from everyone else since it was as black as ink.
“Ancient Ming!” His eyes turned cold. Despite knowing what had happened from the memories of the Black Dragon King, the atmosphere still changed completely when he saw one.
He scowled and threw away the corpse like trash before continuing.
A broken river was before him with water still running down. It was washing a gigantic carapace of a snail. It remained immovable by this river as if nothing could affect it.
Li Qiye's heart fluttered at this sight and quickened his pace. It only took a flash before he was next to it. He couldn't be more familiar with the patterns on this particular carapace.
He patted the shell and murmured: “Such a struggle. This battle had drawn in so many generals and old followers.”
This was the Calamity God from Cleansing Incense, a once invincible existence, praised as the two gods of Mortal Emperor along with the Realm God from the Heavenly Dao Academy. Everyone in this world believed that it was a true deity. [1]
The truth was that this god disappeared before the fight between the dragon king and Immortal Emperor Ta Kong. It meant that after he became unstable, the dragon king and the others have already planned on attacking the grotto. The attack led by the dragon king also had old followers of the Dark Crow, characters on the same level as the Calamity God!
The emperor was only the catalyst to start everything early. His one misstep resulted in his death.
In the end, he put away the carapace while lamenting within.
He went on his way and saw the broken ruins everywhere. One place had countless craters; another was destroyed back to the origin in the form of primordial chaos. This was quite a frightening sight.
Nevertheless, no one should be surprised by this. It was a war between the dragon king and his awesome allies, the Ancient Ming, and the grotto itself.
He eventually made his way to the deepest location. A once supreme peak towered there. It was finished now with great cracks, on the verge of collapsing at any moment.
At the pinnacle was a divine throne, broken as well, only half of it remained. Nevertheless, it was still exuding divinity, showing that it was an amazing artifact.
His eyes didn't linger on this throne but a flower terrace in front of it. The border was made from peerless heavenly immortal jades with an ancient style. The soil inside was surely the finest in this world. Alas, it was completely empty without a single leaf or flower, not even dead ones on the ground.
1. I think in the past, my raw or the author mistyped snail as calamity, 蜗 versus 祸. I suspected this a little bit but the error went on for a bit. Calamity God sounds cooler anyway