Volume 1, Chapter 184 – Sovereign

“We should be underground, very far from the surface. I can’t sense the exact coordinates.”

Hearing what Samsara said, Shi Lan nodded to show she understood.

The spiritual qi here was extremely thick, almost visible to the naked eye. Her body fully relaxed and stretched out, almost greedily devouring the surrounding qi as she replenished the true qi she had drained by more than half.

As she recovered, Shi Lan began carefully observing her surroundings.

This place seemed to be a cavern, with excellent visibility. Not far away, a wide passage led off to somewhere unknown.

Shi Lan looked up. Nearly a hundred zhang above her was a rock wall, inlaid with many bowl-sized pearls that gave off a soft glow, illuminating the area.

Top-grade… magic treasures?

Sensing the aura radiating from those pearls, Shi Lan’s expression went blank. She stared at the hundreds of pearls stretching as far as the eye could see, unable to recover for a long while.

Using so many top-grade magic treasures just for lighting—“extravagant” and “wasteful” were no longer enough to describe it.

During the brief moment she’d been in a daze, the emptiness of the true qi in her body had once more filled up.

Feeling that she had almost recovered, Shi Lan moved her true qi and was just about to step into the air when she realized an invisible force was suppressing her movements. She couldn’t take flight at all and could at most leap less than a zhang high.

There was a no-flight formation here.

Shi Lan quickly understood and no longer tried to fly. She strode off the square and stepped into the passage.

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The passage walls were also inlaid with many similar pearls. Shi Lan tried a few times to pry one out, but she couldn’t manage it.

These pearls were linked into a single whole—pulling one would tug on the entire system. With her current cultivation, she was far from being able to take so many top-grade magic treasures at once.

The passage was very long. After walking for nearly half an hour, Shi Lan finally saw light ahead and emerged into another cavern.

This cavern was several times larger than the previous one. The most striking thing was the magnificent palace complex not far away.

The foremost great hall alone stretched nearly a thousand zhang. Under the glow of the pearls, it reflected auspicious clouds and radiant colors.

Around the palace complex, a layer of terrifying pressure seemed to coil, making Shi Lan’s heartbeat involuntarily quicken. Her whole body filled with tension, and her fingertips trembled lightly.

“I can sense the aura of a Supreme. Be careful in all things,” Samsara warned.

“A Supreme?”

“A Supreme is a paramount existence who stands at the peak of the universe. Before the might and heaven-reaching methods of a Supreme, you and I are no different.”

After regulating her breathing for a moment and pressing down her surging thoughts, Shi Lan set her feet in motion and walked toward the great hall.

As the distance between her and the hall shrank, that pressure became even more obvious, unconsciously forcing Shi Lan to slow her steps.

It took her the better part of half an hour just to inch her way to the doors of the hall, a thin layer of sweat dampening her back.

The doors of the great hall were tightly shut.

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“Guiyun Hall…”

Staring at the plaque above the hall, Shi Lan’s expression went blank for a moment. It was as if she saw a vague human silhouette of indescribably terrifying qi…

After a while, Shi Lan came back to herself and shifted her gaze, her face a bit pale. She had no idea what kind of person had carved this plaque, but their cultivation was far too frightening.

Steadying her mind, she hesitated briefly, then raised her hand to press against the hall doors, slowly exerting force. Since she had already reached this place, there was no way she would simply turn back.

“Rumble—creak—”

Shi Lan used all her strength just to push the hall doors open.

As the doors opened, a terrifying pressure surged out, wrapped in spiritual qi that came crashing forth like a sea tide, roaring like mountains and tsunamis!

Shi Lan clung to the doors with all her might, her knuckles turning white. The blood drained from her face as she leaned against the door just to barely steady herself.

In the enormous hall nearly a thousand zhang wide, countless dragon-carved pillars rose up. Shi Lan’s gaze followed these coiling columns forward, quickly landing on rows of jade steps.

Her gaze climbed the steps, and she slowly lifted her head—only to crash into a pair of eyes.

Shi Lan felt a buzzing in her head, as though she saw starfields collapsing, countless stars falling and shattering into dust in a horrifying scene.

The technique she had been using to circulate her blood qi was broken. Shi Lan’s hair changed from purple back to black, and the violet mist in her eyes instantly dissipated, returning her to her original appearance.

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“Thump—thump—”

Forcing her eyes away, Shi Lan felt as if a drum were pounding in her chest. In her ears, only the sound of her own violent heartbeat remained. Her back was slick with cold sweat, and it was a long time before she could somewhat compose herself.

At the top of the jade steps sat a huge jade chair. Upon the seat, a young man who looked about twenty sat quietly.

Shi Lan did not dare look straight at the man sitting high above. She only measured him with the corner of her eye.

The man wore plain blue robes. His sword-like brows slanted toward his temples, and his eyes were like ancient pools, unfathomably deep. His features were so perfect they were nearly flawless, his back straight as he sat upright on the chair.

What allowed Shi Lan to finally breathe out in relief was that the pressure spreading from the man’s body, though terrifying, was like a pool of dead water, devoid of any vitality. Clearly, he had been dead for an unknown number of years.

“Fated junior…”

Just as Shi Lan’s taut heartstrings had begun to loosen, a calm voice suddenly sounded by her ear.

In the silent great hall, another person’s voice suddenly ringing out made it impossible for Shi Lan to remain calm; her heartstrings tightened once more.

A somewhat illusory figure appeared beside the jade chair, then walked down the jade steps, slowly coming to stand by Shi Lan’s side.

Shi Lan couldn’t help but retreat two steps.

The figure ignored her reaction. He turned, pointed at himself, and said,

“This Sovereign’s name is Guiyun. Most people call me the Guiyun Sword Sovereign. This is a wisp of divine sense I left behind when my lifespan neared its end. Since you were able to come here through the teleportation array, it means you are of the human race and possess exceptional aptitude, qualified to receive this Sovereign’s inheritance…”

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Hearing the four words “Guiyun Sword Sovereign,” Shi Lan’s expression shifted slightly. The title “Sovereign” was not something just anyone could use in the Lingyang Realm.

If she wasn’t mistaken, this Guiyun Sword Sovereign should be one of the Human Sovereigns of ages past. But how could the tomb of a Human Sovereign appear deep within the Boundless Demon Domain?

The Guiyun Sword Sovereign’s divine sense did not converse with Shi Lan; he simply continued speaking on his own.

“This Sovereign entered the martial path at the age of seven and grasped the sword at thirteen. By the time I reached thirty, I had swept across an entire Domain. Yet along that road, I had no more than two or three true friends, most of whom fell to demons and devils. I had not a single close kin. In the end, I still could not break free of the cycle of life and death, and I died here alone…”

The divine sense spoke slowly, his tone filled with regret.

“This Sovereign stands alone, with neither descendants nor disciples. I was unwilling to let the insights of my life be buried with me, so I laid down a few backhands here, waiting for a fated person.”

The inheritance of a Sovereign!

Shi Lan’s gaze burned. Even the oppressive pressure swirling around her was temporarily cast aside.

“This Sovereign’s lifetime accumulation is all within the world I carved out. The method to open and control it is included within the inheritance as well, as a small form of compensation to my future disciple.”

The inheritance of a Sovereign, and his life’s Dao legacy—either one alone would be enough to drive the world mad. If the two were combined, even the Human Emperor might lose his reason.

Yet Shi Lan gradually calmed down. From what this wisp of the Guiyun Sword Sovereign’s divine sense had said, her arrival here merely meant she had the qualifications to receive the inheritance.

She had not yet been chosen as the successor. A Sovereign’s inheritance was not something obtained so easily.