Volume 1, Chapter 422 – Extreme Dao Rune Seal

Boom!

Golden divine light pierced through the void as a great seal came crashing down, shattering the rune-light covering the black flood dragon’s body and smashing it into the mountainside. Flood dragon blood sprayed everywhere.

The entire cavern trembled, nearly on the verge of collapse. Broken stones fell like rain, sending wave after wave across the icy pool.

Shi Lan moved in step with her golden body of the Nascent Soul. The Scarlet Crow War Halberd dropped from the air, rapidly shrinking in size before she caught it in her hand.

Boom!

A snow-white arc of halberd light fell like a hanging river of stars, cleaving straight down. In the span of a spark, the flood dragon’s head was severed by Shi Lan. Its blood carried violent surges of energy as it poured forth like a raging river, dyeing the icy pool red.

Shi Lan was extremely sensitive to the bloodlines of the demon race and immediately sensed that something was off.

This flood dragon was far stronger than the vicious beasts she had slain before, yet the bloodline power within it was far from pure, and its runes were not especially profound. It should not have possessed such strength.

“This flood dragon must have undergone a tremendous transformation. There may be some rare treasure here.”

Shi Lan’s gaze shifted slightly. She put away the dragon corpse, recalled her golden body of the Nascent Soul to protect her physique, then plunged into the water and dived downward like a fish.

The pool water was unimaginably cold, filled with biting chill. Even an ordinary Myriad Phenomena Realm martial artist, without a spirit treasure to protect the body, would not be able to remain here for long before the flesh froze and split apart.

The icy pool looked plain and unremarkable, yet it was bottomless.

Shi Lan dived down tens of thousands of zhang. The surrounding water became colder and colder. Even with the protection of her golden body of the Nascent Soul, she had to begin circulating her blood and qi to keep her body from freezing stiff.

The rock walls around her were already covered in a thick layer of ice.

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Between those layers of ice, rune-light flowed faintly, almost on the verge of condensing into rune stones.

Any being who cultivated the Dao of runes would gain enormous benefits from training here. It was no surprise that the flood dragon had undergone a transformation after living here for so long.

Shi Lan dived several thousand zhang deeper before she finally reached the bottom of the pool. The ice on the surrounding rock walls had already completely transformed into ice-aspected rune stones, and they were all of extremely high grade.

The surrounding rock walls were entirely covered in ice, yet the pool bottom itself showed no change. A thin layer of silt lay over it, and there was also a discarded molt left behind by the flood dragon.

A transparent ice crystal the size of a fist floated silently within the water. Inside it was a snowflake-shaped rune, condensed into tangible form, radiating a soft divine light.

The rune power around it was so dense it was almost about to materialize.

A chill ran through Shi Lan’s golden body of the Nascent Soul. The runes that had previously tangled together within it were gradually merging, slowly condensing into a single ice crystal and rapidly transforming toward the form of that rune.

“It’s an Extreme Dao Rune Seal!”

There was a ripple in Samsara’s voice.

Shi Lan’s pupils contracted. In the books and records she had read in the Rune Tower, she had once seen some descriptions of the Extreme Dao Rune Seal.

The Extreme Dao Rune Seal was also a rune stone. It represented the absolute limit of a certain category within the Dao of runes, a peerless treasure capable of helping someone ascend to the rank of Supreme, possessing incomparably terrifying power.

All runes around an Extreme Dao Rune Seal would be assimilated by it. Naturally, the runes within Shi Lan’s Nascent Soul were no exception.

At a glance, this rune seal clearly belonged to the ice branch. Once fused with and absorbed, it would be enough to let someone touch the domain of an ice-aspected Supreme.

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“This rune seal has not fully matured yet. Otherwise, everything within several hundred thousand li of this place would already be frozen over and turned into a land of permafrost. It would have drawn the attention of peak experts long ago.”

Samsara felt some regret, but could not help feeling a bit fortunate as well. If this rune seal had fully matured, Shi Lan would never have had the chance to reach this place. It might already have been taken by someone else.

Shi Lan came back to herself and carefully sensed the changes within her golden body of the Nascent Soul, thoughtful.

As Molen had said earlier, the strength of the vicious beasts in this area had been slowly increasing all along, and it was inseparable from this rune seal.

That black flood dragon possessed extremely high intelligence and ambitions as lofty as the heavens. It had clearly intended to wait until the Extreme Dao Rune Seal had fully matured before swallowing it in one gulp.

If it had succeeded, it would undoubtedly have transformed into a true dragon in a single stroke. The Qiongluo Realm might well have gained an Ice Dragon Supreme.

Shi Lan slowly stepped forward and reached out, cautiously testing the rune seal with her fingers. The moment her fingertip touched it, a prompt suddenly sounded in her mind.

[Unknown item discovered. Item rank: Nine-Star. Absorb?]

“If you fuse this rune into your Nascent Soul, an enormous transformation will definitely occur. It will bring a qualitative leap in your strength.”

Samsara gave its advice. A heavenly treasure like this would be far too wasteful if it were simply converted into energy. That would truly be a squandering of a divine gift.

…

On the other side of the vicious beast nest, a group of more than ten people slowly entered the secluded valley.

Among the group was a young woman with blond hair and blue eyes, dressed in a tight leather outfit, and also a middle-aged Daoist priest with black hair, black eyes, and a blue-gray robe. Their styles were completely different.

At their head was a powerfully built man with a buzz cut, dressed in a sky-blue short outfit. A scar ran across his face from forehead to jaw, giving him a cold and severe appearance.

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The skeletons spread across the ground and the large splashes of blood scattered everywhere made the group tense up involuntarily, each of them holding their breath.

“Relax. If this mission succeeds, it’ll be worth more than all the hard work we’ve put in across more than a dozen worlds.”

The leading man glanced back over his shoulder and smiled, trying to ease the tension.

“Exactly. Who knows what kind of mood the Main God is in? It issued so many missions this time, and the rewards are so generous too.”

“This poor Daoist heard some news from a few high-level reincarnators. It seems the Main God suddenly released so many missions related to the Qiongluo Realm because it’s preparing to open the world gate and launch an inter-realm war to completely crush the Qiongluo Realm.”

“Seriously?”

“So more people are going to die again…”

Someone let out a quiet sigh. War missions were mandatory. They could not be refused.

In a massive war on this scale, no one could be absolutely certain of surviving to the end.

After walking for quite a while, everything remained unnervingly calm. Aside from the increasing bloodstains, even the skeletons had disappeared. The atmosphere, which had loosened slightly, became even more oppressive.

“Could we have gone the wrong way?”

A woman in fitted combat clothes could no longer endure the stifling atmosphere and finally spoke.

The leading man stopped. A transparent light screen unfolded before him. After staring at it for a moment, he shook his head slightly.

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“No mistake. This is exactly where the Main God’s coordinates point.”

One person stepped forward from the rear, crouched beside a patch of blood, observed it for a moment, and then said,

“There are traces of battle nearby. The blood hasn’t even gone cold yet. Someone got here before us.”

“Pick up the pace!”

A trace of impatience flashed through the burly man’s eyes as he spoke in a low voice.

“If someone beats us to it, this whole trip will have been for nothing!”

The group said no more. They all accelerated at once, breaking the sound barrier as they rushed deeper into the valley.

…

Outside the secluded valley, Molen paced back and forth, unable to suppress his unease.

It had been a long while since any sound had come from the valley, and it was hard not to let the mind wander.

“Lord Molen, should we go in and take a look?”

“Be careful. There shouldn’t be any danger.”

The guards were also growing increasingly anxious from the wait.