Chapter 1 The Beginning

The spherical aircraft carrying Hao Ren and his party steadily approached the massive, pale purple rift. As they drew closer, the sheer scale of the fissure revealed itself with astonishing force. It resembled a horrifying scar across the fabric of space, the spatial barrier torn asunder by the Demon Hunters' light cannons still bearing a shocking testament to the battle. Irregular, jagged lines marked both sides of the hundreds-of-kilometers-long tear. Spatial distortions caused the starlight from afar to form chaotic streams of light around the opening, while the interior shimmered with floating lights and illusory images, the landscapes of Asgard faintly visible behind them.

Sinking into the rift felt like plunging into a bottomless abyss, the twisted and chaotic light streams forming sheer cliffs on either side. Hao Ren felt the aircraft rapidly descend, the scenery outside becoming increasingly bizarre. Looking up, he saw the last glimmer of starlight in the universe quickly engulfed by an ethereal mist of unknown origin. As the dense fog closed in, the team finally plunged completely into Odin's realm, lost for over two thousand years.

Half a minute later, clusters of floating lights began to appear around the spherical aircraft.

At first, these floating lights were scarce, but they quickly multiplied, swirling around the group like fireflies on a summer night. In the next instant, the lights transformed into continuous flames and storms. The aircraft seemed to plummet into a massive fire tornado, spiraling out of control. Then, the fire tornado turned into a sky full of lightning and thunder, rivers flowing upside down, a cataclysmic meteor shower... It was as if the arrival of uninvited guests had enraged the guardians of this place, endless illusions filling the heavens and the earth almost instantaneously, threatening to completely overwhelm their vision!

In the next moment, Hao Ren felt the platform beneath him tremble violently. The aircraft seemed to have lost control, the entire spherical capsule spinning towards a cloud-covered mountain not far away. The transparent shield on the upper part of the aircraft shattered with a bang, and an icy wind carrying sharp blades filled the entire cockpit. He thought he could hear the strained groaning of certain mechanisms inside the aircraft, a series of explosions coming from deep within the platform—

"The airship is fine!" Anthony shouted above the storm. "We're still in the illusion!"

Hao Ren grabbed Lily, who looked tense and was about to jump up, while trying to focus his mind. The influence of the illusion immediately lessened, and he felt the sphere return to a stable position. The transparent barrier above his head seemed to rewind like a movie, restoring itself. Behind him, Nangong Sanba and Nangong Wuyue were covered in cold sweat. Wuyue had even transformed into her sea serpent form amidst a cloud of mist: "Sc... scared me to death!"

The aircraft continued to descend through the illusion-filled mist, and more supernatural power began to gather from all directions, blindly hostile and angrily trying to hinder the intruders. Seeing this, Gala卓尔 (Jia La Zhuo Er) whispered a magical draconic word. Suddenly, her eyes were shrouded in a layer of golden-red light, and fine, pale golden scales emerged from her cheeks and forearms. A powerful aura emanated from her, spreading in all directions – she carefully controlled her dragon might to prevent it from spreading too far, lest it provoke Yggdrasil. Within the range of her dragon might, the illusion was suppressed once more.

The group descended rapidly through a thick layer of clouds, thunder and whirlwinds swirling menacingly outside the aircraft's barrier. Rolling thunder constantly echoed from all directions, mixed with some kind of roar that humans could not understand. Hao Ren noticed that the surrounding clouds began to brighten, and the thunderous roars gradually faded away - the illusions had failed. The heroic spirits and souls who had merged with Asgard's barrier uttered futile cries in the sky but could not stop these uninvited intruders from continuing their advance. The fur on Lily's tail slowly settled down, and she peeked out of the aircraft, seeing a pale golden light coming from ahead, and began to shout, "I see land! I see land! It's Asgard!"

"Don't rush! Let me see," Vivian immediately stepped forward and pushed Lily aside. She stared intently at the land below, carefully distinguishing it before letting out a soft breath, her tone filled with nostalgia, "That's right, it's Odin's realm."

Just as Mimir had said, the wandering souls in Asgard revered their master's power, and their illusions would not affect the Asgard area. As the spherical aircraft gradually descended and completely left the clouds, Hao Ren saw a glorious but desolate land stretching out before him. He saw a ring of majestic mountains surrounding the area, the majestic mountains shimmering with never-ending aurora borealis. Surrounded by the mountains were the magnificent ruins, with palaces and towers like forests. The ancient halls, so large as to be unbelievable, formed a city-like architectural complex, yet it was completely different from cities built by humans.

The palaces of the Aesir gods seemed to be cast from gold and silver, reflecting a dazzling light under the sourceless sky. Although most of the buildings were severely damaged, even the fallen ruins were still imposing and awe-inspiring.

This was once the residence of the Norse "gods," the heavenly paradise built by the ancient "gods" under Odin's leadership. This city was called Asgard, and in the chaotic era thousands of years ago, it was once one of the most magnificent cities on Earth.

A city forbidden to humans.

Hao Ren had once visited an Olympus secret realm in the Athens Sanctuary, and the cloud temples in the secret realm were already astonishing, but compared to the ruins before him, that temple paled in comparison.

"All destroyed..." Vivian stood at the edge of the aircraft, her hands pressed against the transparent shield, gazing in a daze at the magnificent ruins below. "Thor's palace... that's Frigg's garden... oh, Odin's Golden Palace, how beautiful it was, now it's collapsed, leaving only half of it."

"This is Asgard..." Lily also widened her eyes. Unlike Vivian, she wasn't lamenting the past, but was very interested in the ancient city itself, which only appeared in human myths. "So beautiful! I've only seen it in stories before!"

"It seems that a mythical version of the story is circulating on your planet?" Anthony looked at Hao Ren curiously. "About this place?"

Hao Ren nodded. "You also know about the 'aberrant' phenomenon. Due to historical factors, the deeds of these supernatural creatures are now almost all circulating in the form of myths on my planet. In the myths of the Nordic region of Earth, people believe that the entire universe is supported by a towering giant tree, which is called 'Yggdrasil.' It is the world tree, and the world tree branches into nine branches, which support the nine kingdoms or 'worlds' in the universe. They are Asgard, Vanaheim, and Alfheim in the upper layer, Midgard in the middle layer, Jotunheim, Vanaheim, and Alfheim, Niflheim and Muspelheim in the lower layer. These nine kingdoms are actually nine different dimensions. Odin, the leader of the ancient aberrant, united with the Vanaheim family, linked these nine different dimensions to the earth, creating their mythology and belief system. Among them, Asgard is the kingdom where Odin and his 'Aesir gods' lived. They built a 'divine city' called Asgard within the barrier of Asgard. Finally, when Ragnarok came and the mythical era on Earth ended, the Norse gods encountered the doomsday war, and the last battle was fought on the Vigrid Plain in Asgard. Well, that should be it over there."

Hao Ren pointed to the edge of the ruins. At the end of the pile of resplendent rubble, there was a scorched earth, and on the scorched earth, you could still see countless huge explosion pits and molten slag all over the ground, with various wreckage scattered across the land.

"Ah, a 'myth' story," Jia La Zhuo Er shrugged. "We are actually talking about this - it's really fortunate that our goddess is broad-minded."

Anthony asked while controlling the aircraft to circle over Asgard, "Where to next? Go to the ruins? Or look for the branches of Yggdrasil?"

Hao Ren looked up at the distance. In the sky above the mountains, you could see many huge tentacles extending towards the sky, but he shook his head, "We'll look for Mimir's starship later, but before that, we should check this battlefield. It's rare to come here, maybe we'll find something. Terminal, can you receive the Gungnir induction signal here?"

The data terminal floated out of his pocket: "Locating... the direction has been indicated, a straight line distance of thirty-seven kilometers. Very close."

The direction indicated by the terminal was on the Vigrid Plain, the scorched earth ravaged by war.