Volume 1, Chapter 343 – Reawakening

Terrifying divine might churned in the sky, and the void let out groans as though it could no longer bear the strain, as if it might collapse at any moment. High above the nine heavens, the red light of the blood moon grew ever stronger, and the baleful aura surged wildly.

The powerful yin spirits entrenched all across the land were in an extremely agitated state. The ancient formation they had condensed rumbled continuously, as though it could be shattered at any moment.

Shi Lan led Tianwu Yangyu and Tianbai in retreat for tens of thousands of miles before finally stopping when they reached Shen Tianlan’s hiding place.

It was not only her. The other martial artists were fleeing frantically as well. The so-called Human Emperor clans had lost every trace of arrogance and pride, wishing only that their parents had given them two extra legs.

A god king that had survived since the Primordial Age had completely shattered these people’s mental defenses. This was no enemy that human strength could contend with.

“There’s really no way out?”

Suppressing the agonizing pain in her soul, Shi Lan looked at Tianwu Yangyu and frowned.

Tianwu Yangyu shook his head, his mood unbearably heavy.

Thoughts raced through Shi Lan’s mind. She pulled up the Empress-raising System’s interface and opened the world coordinates section.

Hundreds upon thousands of coordinates appeared in her mind, all of them far beyond the endless heavens.

[Current Coordinates: Lingyang Starfield, Langya Grotto-Heaven.]

“Construct a spacetime passage. Destination coordinates: Lingyang Realm, Vast Land of Shenzhou, Central Heaven Domain,” Shi Lan silently said. She was deeply uneasy as well, unsure whether it would succeed.

[Constructing spacetime passage requires 5 units of nine-star energy. Current energy reserves are insufficient.]

[Current host possesses one nine-star Dao Fruit. It can be decomposed into 15 units of nine-star energy. Decompose?]

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“Why does it need so much energy?” Shi Lan inhaled sharply.

Nine-star energy was something one could only encounter by chance, never seek by will. It was far too precious.

[The current coordinates are under a spacetime seal. Energy is required to maintain the stability of the spacetime passage.]

The Langya Grotto-Heaven had been blood-sacrificed by Great Emperor Linglong. As far as the Lingyang Realm was concerned, it had already become a land beyond the world, a heaven beyond heaven. Breaking through the seal of a Great Emperor would naturally consume an enormous amount of energy.

Samsara’s current state was even worse now, and it was all the more impossible for it to construct a passage that could cross worlds.

Unless it was absolutely unavoidable, Shi Lan truly did not want to touch the Dao Fruit of the Returning Cloud Sword Emperor.

“Shi Lan, you’d better decide quickly. I don’t think the seal in this place can suppress that God King a second time,” Samsara warned.

Shi Lan fully agreed. From where she stood now, she could no longer see the altar, but that god-and-devil-like aura was like a blazing sun rising and sinking at the end of the earth, growing stronger and stronger, impossible to ignore.

Shi Lan took a breath and was just about to speak when a black-haired youth came through the sky and drew her attention.

What attracted her attention was not the youth’s appearance, but the fact that there was not a trace of true qi fluctuation on him. His blood and qi were pitifully weak, even inferior to that of an ordinary mortal. Yet at this moment he was flying through the air. Moreover, he did not avoid the territories of those powerful yin spirits, instead cutting straight through them without harm.

The youth’s speed was terrifying. With a single step, he covered hundreds of miles, far faster than the instantaneous movement of a Myriad Phenomena Realm martial artist.

In the span of a few breaths, the youth passed directly over Shi Lan’s head and headed straight for the altar.

“Wait for me here.”

Whenever something is abnormal, there is usually something behind it.

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Shi Lan narrowed her eyes, instructed Tianbai, and quietly followed after him.

…

Beneath the altar, two more divine chains on the Ancient God King had already snapped. Of the three dragon gates on his back, two had already been freed, allowing him to wield even more shocking power.

“What is that thing? Why didn’t I see it when I came here back then…?”

The youth stopped several thousand miles from the altar and looked at the frantically struggling Ancient God King beneath it, uncertainty and shock flickering across his face.

A few breaths later, wild joy appeared on his face.

“What terrifying power. If it were at full strength, it would probably rival the Immortal Kings and Immortal Exalts of the Immortal Ancient Era!”

Suppressing the excitement in his heart, he took out a piece of ancient jade from his robes, amber-like in appearance.

The instant the ancient jade appeared, a violent storm erupted throughout the Langya Grotto-Heaven. Heaven and earth changed color, and bloodlight shot into the sky.

Shi Lan, following not far behind, suddenly felt heat in her chest. Looking down, she saw that it was the Three-Life Stone.

The distant altar seemed to have sensed something and actually began to crack apart inch by inch.

At that moment, the Ancient God King below instead stopped struggling, and the savage aura around him turned incomparably cold.

“Linglong…”

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The two words emerged dryly from his throat, filled with piercing killing intent.

Layer by layer, the altar peeled away and turned into countless fragments. The ancient bronze dagger-axe hung silently in the air, its blade aimed straight at the Ancient God King’s head.

Another piece of ancient jade, similar to the one in the youth’s hand, emerged from the altar’s wreckage. Both pieces of jade were naturally flawless, without the slightest crack, yet now they were drawing toward one another, as though they wished to merge into one.

The youth’s gaze grew even hotter. Once the Linglong Ancient Jade was made whole, he would receive unimaginable empowerment within this realm and might even be able to wield a fraction of Great Emperor Linglong’s power.

With that power, he could completely suppress the mysterious existence below and refine it into a powerful battle-immortal puppet to guard his path for life.

Buzz—

The two pieces of ancient jade merged into one. Brilliant radiance soared ten thousand zhang high, and dazzling divine radiance shone throughout heaven and earth, purifying the baleful aura that reached the sky and suppressing the blood moon above the nine heavens.

Amid the altar’s wreckage, an utterly inconspicuous blue stone suddenly burst with magnificent light. The Three-Life Stone in Shi Lan’s possession rose of its own accord and fused into that blue stone, fitting seamlessly, becoming one complete whole.

Time itself seemed to flow across the surface of that blue stone. In an instant it slipped into the river of time, and light that illuminated past and present was cast upon the ancient jade.

A vague, ethereal figure emerged from the ancient jade. The figure was not especially tall, yet it seemed to stand astride the endless ages of time and space, with all travelers from past to present beneath her feet.

Shi Lan stared at that figure, her eyes filled with confusion. Blurred fragments flickered in her mind like sand slipping through her fingers, impossible to grasp.

The youth’s expression changed slightly. The empowering force he had expected did not appear. The Linglong Ancient Jade had already slipped free of his control. He looked toward Shi Lan, his gaze complicated. This was an unforeseen variable.

The figure stood atop the ancient jade and slowly opened her eyes. Her gaze pierced through the void and fell upon the Ancient God King standing upon the earth.

Her eyes rested on the Ancient God King for only an instant before sweeping outward. In a single glance she took in the whole of the Langya Grotto-Heaven. Looking upon those powerful yin spirits, there was faint guilt in her eyes.

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Everyone present knew clearly that the figure before them could be no one other than Great Emperor Linglong, the master of the Langya Grotto-Heaven.

“In the span of a thought, the ancient era has already passed…”

She let out a sorrowful sigh and made a light beckoning motion. The bronze dagger-axe, webbed with cracks, gradually shrank and fell into her hand.

Buzz!

The dagger-axe swept through the void, its blade piercing the heavens. A divine light punched through a thousand layers of realm walls, shaking heaven and earth. A pitch-black vortex appeared in the air, and from the far end of the vortex came the distant aura of the Lingyang Realm.

“It’s the exit!”

“Many thanks for the Great Emperor’s mercy!”

The gathered martial artists were ecstatic. They rushed toward the vortex in a wild scramble, not daring to linger in the slightest.

The aura of the Lingyang Realm’s laws seeped into the Langya Grotto-Heaven. The Ancient God King drew in a light breath and absorbed all of that infiltrating aura into his body, causing his blood and qi to surge explosively.

“So it is only a remnant soul, and yet you actually opened the seal for a swarm of ants…”

His divine sense rippled through the void. The Ancient God King casually tore apart the divine chains on his upper body, straightened his back, and with the three dragon gates unsealed, his aura swelled with every breath, as though it would never come to an end.

Linglong’s gaze was like divine swords, cold as ice. The bronze dagger-axe in her hand trembled, its blade pointing toward the heavens.

“Xia, since I defeated you once, then for the rest of your life, you must lower your head when you see me!”