Volume 1, Chapter 431 – Unsealing

Ignoring the smoke of war, the elder took a single step and walked straight into a secret chamber.

A young man sat cross-legged within the chamber. Sensing something amiss, he abruptly opened his eyes. Once he saw the elder clearly, he hurriedly rose to his feet.

“Grand Elder.”

The elder gave a slight nod in response, then asked in a low voice:

“Hanyan, have you gained anything from the path of runes?”

“A little.”

Zhao Hanyan nodded slightly, stepped forward, and opened up his sea of consciousness.

A nascent soul more than ninety zhang tall sat cross-legged at the center of the sea of consciousness. A layer of rune-light covered the nascent soul, condensing into a suit of dusky-yellow battle armor.

“This disciple used runes to construct a layer of protection over the nascent soul. It can increase the power of my nascent soul by fifty percent, and its defensive strength is roughly more than ten times stronger than before.”

At this point, a trace of shame appeared on Zhao Hanyan’s face.

“This disciple is dull-witted. I have spent nearly ten years on it, yet I have still found it hard to fully comprehend many runes. The prospects for my growth on this path are not great…”

“It does not matter. Runes are, in the end, a minor path.”

The elder examined the nascent soul for a few moments, then nodded in satisfaction.

“If your nascent soul can break through the hundred-zhang mark in this realm, your chances of stepping into the Supreme realm in the future will increase by another thirty percent.”

Hearing this, Zhao Hanyan could not help feeling somewhat excited.

“Grand Elder, is the hall going to take in Qiongluo?”

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Rune stones gave an immense boost to the power of the nascent soul. With his talent, if he had a sufficient supply of high-grade rune stones, breaking through a hundred zhang would only be a matter of time.

“The man outside is no weaker than I am. In a one-on-one fight, this old man would find it difficult to do anything to him.”

The elder shook his head slightly. Recalling the scenes reflected earlier in his divine sense, a sneer flashed through his eyes, and there was a hint of schadenfreude in it.

“But at this moment… he has stirred up a great deal of trouble.”

The peculiar nature of rune stones had attracted quite a few heavenly prodigies from immortal sects and Divine Sons from great factions. Among them were powers that even Huanyu Divine Hall was unwilling to offend.

Now, with so many favored sons of heaven and even the chief true disciples of major powers all having died in Qiongluo, the consequences were undoubtedly extremely grave—so grave, in fact, that “grave” was far too mild a word.

…

In a stretch of sea far from the continent, Shi Lan was submerged in the seawater, while within her sea of consciousness, the Extreme Dao Rune Seal was undergoing a rapid transformation.

She could sense that the surrounding sea had already been sealed by formations. One heaven-reaching aura after another lingered around her without the slightest concealment. The nearby world had already become a giant cage.

Although she did not know why those people had stopped in their tracks, Shi Lan would not let such a good opportunity go to waste. She drew in her five senses, cast aside distracting thoughts, and began refining the rune stones with all her strength.

From time to time, enormous black shadows swam past Shi Lan, stirring up surging undercurrents.

But once those violent undercurrents entered the ten-zhang radius around her, they were smoothed flat by an invisible force.

Streaks of rosy light flickered across Shi Lan’s body, within them flowing the endless mysteries of runes.

With the help of the Extreme Dao Rune Seal, her understanding of runes had almost no bottlenecks at all, and her rate of progress was terrifying.

The golden body of her nascent soul manifested as a phantom and enveloped her. A layer of transparent black-ice armor gradually formed over the surface of the nascent soul.

Shi Lan sat quietly in the seawater without moving in the slightest, as if she had turned into a jade statue, flowing with strange auspicious radiance.

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Crack—

A crisp, peculiar sound exploded through the silent deep sea, and an incomparably dazzling cold light suddenly flashed forth.

The seawater around Shi Lan froze instantly. One breath later, the ice had spread a thousand li outward, and it showed no sign of stopping as it continued to expand at high speed.

…

“What is that?!”

A commander of the Dragonblood Army abruptly lowered his head to scan the deep sea, and his expression changed at once.

A terrifying energy fluctuation had appeared in his senses with extreme abruptness.

“Supreme might…”

The towering waves rising on the surface of the sea were frozen at a speed visible to the naked eye. After only a few finger snaps, the frozen expanse had already spread to hundreds of thousands of li away.

In just a few breaths, a continent of black ice had appeared upon the sea surface, exuding a biting chill even greater than that of ten-thousand-year cold jade.

Accompanying the appearance of the icy island was also an invisible ray of rune-light, which swept across the entire world in an instant, as if proclaiming its arrival.

It had been born by gathering the fortune of heaven and earth, and from birth it was meant to take charge of the mountains and rivers of this world.

At the same moment, countless rune masters far away in the far west, tens of millions of li from this place, all sensed something and were instantly overjoyed.

“A new Extreme Dao Rune Seal has been born!”

“Heaven has not abandoned Qiongluo—there is still a chance of life!”

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“If we can obtain this rune seal, Qiongluo will be able to produce another flawless Supreme. Even if we cannot drive back the invaders, we can at least protect ourselves and seek out a sliver of hope.”

A middle-aged man’s eyes instantly brimmed with hot tears, and he could not help roaring aloud:

“Quick! The Extreme Dao Rune Seal must absolutely not fall into the hands of outsiders from beyond the domain!”

Even as he spoke, more than ten rays of light had already shot into the sky around him, tearing through the heavens and vanishing in an instant.

Not one of those people was anything less than a terrifying master on the path of runes, with mental scale values of at least seventy or above, comparable to Emperors.

In a Qiongluo Realm where no Supreme had emerged, they were already the pinnacle of battle power.

…

Above the icy island, the Dragonblood Army wore solemn expressions as they gathered in one place, joining together into a military formation as if facing a great enemy.

Shi Lan’s expression showed neither joy nor sorrow. She sat cross-legged within layer upon layer of cold ice, her long hair falling smoothly behind her, her skin crystalline, like a divine maiden sealed here since ancient times.

Within her sea of consciousness, the golden body of her nascent soul had already swelled to more than three hundred zhang, and a snowflake-like ice crystal rune was glowing faintly within it.

Not enough…

Far from enough…

The power of her nascent soul had surged greatly, and her combat strength had improved by leaps and bounds, yet Shi Lan still was not satisfied. Her nerves were stretched taut to the limit as she rapidly refined the Extreme Dao Rune Seal.

Her current power was still not enough to break this deadlock.

The rune stones she had accumulated earlier began to melt away, and the golden body of her nascent soul began growing once again.

Four hundred zhang…

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Four hundred and fifty zhang…

Five hundred and ten zhang…

[The host’s cultivation has reached the required level. Some elements are hereby unlocked.]

[Congratulations, host. You have obtained 800 lesser thousand world coordinates, 147 middle thousand world coordinates, and 23 great thousand world coordinates.]

[Congratulations, host. You have obtained the star maps of the Nine Heavens Star Domain, the Niguang Star Domain, the Ruyi Star Domain…]

[Congratulations, host. You have obtained the Heavenly Net Sword Scripture, the Five Spirits Embryo-Nurturing Art…]

[Congratulations, host. You have obtained one nine-star Dao Fruit.]

At the instant the golden body of her nascent soul crossed the five-hundred-zhang mark, a series of notifications rang out in Shi Lan’s mind, pulling her out of her closed-door cultivation state.

She slowly extended her palm. A tiny pale-cyan sword was rising and falling within it. It looked completely ordinary, but it was indeed the Dao Fruit of the Sword Emperor Guiyun.

Within it were carried a Sovereign’s lifetime of insight into cultivation, as well as a small part of his cultivation.

This was undoubtedly a trump card.

But unless she was truly left with no other choice, Shi Lan still did not wish to touch this Dao Fruit.

…

In the starry sky beyond the domain, several world gates reaching from heaven to earth opened one after another. Warships sailed out in succession, battle banners fluttering, while Supreme might filled the starry sky.

Emperor Yuan stood upon his war chariot, his expression turning involuntarily grim.