HSSB772: Heaven Swallowing Sword Box
The projected fiery phoenix was gradually retracted, the figure of a youth revealed within.
That youth looked somewhat gloomily at the palace, wondering, “What exactly is the situation with that person who bears the Extreme Yang Seal? Is he related to the Exalted Solar Luminary?”
He had coincidentally obtained news of this underwater palace which even the major figures of the southeastern Yang Heaven Territory were all unaware of.
Yet, as he saw it now, there were still things that he did not know regarding the underwater palace.
Meanwhile, this information was grasped by Yan Zhaoge.
The youth raised his head and looked at the overhanging great sea up above, “Time is limited. Lin Hanhua’s bunch should be discovering something and rushing over very soon…”
He turned and strode into the palace, his heart next tensing all of a sudden as he felt a pair of eyes focusing intently on him.
“Exactly what else is there in this palace besides the phoenix bone?” The youth snorted as he took out a golden cup from his Shadow Shrinking Pouch.
He squeezed the cup forcefully, directly crushing it.
The shattered cup transformed into streams of light which constructed a glowing sigil in mid-air.
The sigil flew towards the depths of the palace. Still, a moment later, the entire palace shuddered.
The seawater above the palace rotated as it dispersed with a huge vacuum thus being formed.
At this moment, numerous whirlpools were formed above the palace, all being connected to the palace’s interior at their bottom.
At this moment, the gate of the palace seemed to have hundreds of incarnations which all led into different directions.
This youth checked his bearings momentarily before choosing a single gate formed of a whirlpool and stepping into the palace.
A short while later, streaks of radiance shot out from the overhanging seawater up above. These were precisely Luo Zhiyuan, Kang Ping and the others.
Some were fleeing while others were pursuing, all choosing their own gates as they charged within the palace.
Yan Zhaoge who had been first to enter the underwater palace suddenly saw the dark passageway in front of him begin to distort strangely as he was walking through it.
It momentarily seemed as though the heavens were collapsing and the earth caving inwards.
The entire palace distorted and changed form as the paths within were deconstructed and then reassembled, regaining the appearance of a palace.
The next moment, they shattered again before being reassembled once more.
While Yan Zhaoge was able to stabilise his figure, he helplessly discovered that the path before him was already no longer distinct.
The Earth Devouring Burner still accurately guided his way forward. Yet, the changes in space before him distorted his path, hindering his progress.
When the palace had finally stabilised once more, the scenes before Yan Zhaoge’s eyes were already completely different from before.
Golden radiance appeared, illuminating the formerly dark passageway. Yet, as Yan Zhaoge travelled within, it felt as though he was being obstructed and slowed.
As the golden light shrouded the area, it was hindering the footsteps of he and the Northern Ocean Clone.
“Is this due to that person from earlier?” Yan Zhaoge pondered, “From the looks of it, there isn’t just that sword box inside this palace. There is something else as well.”
The other party should be aiming for something else here, having obtained a corresponding clue or being in possession of some treasure that was able to affect the palace.
While Yan Zhaoge had previously seized the initiative with the Earth Devouring Burner, the other party had just used unique methods of his own in retaliation.
While he might not be able to catch up, he had caused changes in the palace and delayed Yan Zhaoge’s footsteps, helping to win more of a chance for himself.
“I’m still a half-step faster now, though,” Yan Zhaoge smiled.
While the golden radiance had obstructed his pace, the variations in space and the flickering golden light did not hinder the Earth Devouring Burner from guiding him towards a destination.
Yan Zhaoge continuing venturing into the depths of the palace as assisted by the Earth Devouring Burner.
The more he did so, the more Yan Zhaoge felt it to be strange as the passageway before him gradually changed its form. It looked to be somewhat like blood, meat, skeleton and bones.
It was as if he had entered the stomach of a huge beast.
“This guy…” Yan Zhaoge frowned, feeling increasingly vigilant.
The shuddering of the Earth Devouring Burner was growing increasingly intense. At the end of it, it actually left Yan Zhaoge’s grasp, flying into the depths of the passageway.
Yan Zhaoge did not forcibly try to hold back the Earth Devouring Burner as he allowed it to break free of his grasp. Instead, he simply accelerated as he pursued the flying Earth Devouring Burner.
After a while, Yan Zhaoge’s nose twitched as a dense bloodthirsty air emanated from nearby.
This bloodthirsty, baleful air was brutal to the extreme as it emitted matchless evil and insanity.
Whether it was in the Eight Extremities World or the World beyond Worlds, this was really the first time Yan Zhaoge had encountered such a dense bloodthirsty air.
It was something the experienced him had not seen before even on battlefields where corpses were piled up like mountains and rivers flowed like blood, with people dying everywhere.
If one were to talk about dead people, how many hundreds of thousands of even millions of people would be needed for such dense baleful qi?
“It is not human blood, but that of some extremely ferocious and tyrannical demonic tribe,” Yan Zhaoge momentarily squinted as he instantly understood, “But this is really…the bottom of this palace is actually connected to the corpse of a demonic beast whose belly contains the Heaven Swallowing Sword Box.”
He pulled back the corner of his lips, “Such dense baleful qi-this must have been an extremely powerful demonic beast which would definitely have dominated an entire region when alive.”
Yan Zhaoge composed himself, instead heading straight for the source of this dense qi and blood.
The golden light within the passageway gradually vanished with only a great amount of qi and blood shrouding the area.
At the end of the passageway, the dense glow of blood could be seen whose lustre was nearly black.
After Yan Zhaoge had walked over, a massive pool of blood appeared before his eyes.
The massive pool of blood stretched far into the distance. Rather than calling it a pool of blood, one might instead call it a lake of blood.
While the dense baleful qi would not dissipate, it was not like the usual stench of blood that assaulted one’s nose, causing them to feel like vomiting.
The smell of this blood pool was extremely strange, fragrant, stinky, sweet whilst also salty.
These various flavours gathered together instead made it even smellier as opposed to just a simple bloodied stench alone.
Still, it was not the smell of this place which Yan Zhaoge paid the most attention to. Instead, it was the bloodied water of the blood pool which actually rose and fell rhythmically that was surprising.
In contrast to the complexity of the smell, the tint of the bloodied water was extremely pure as it was not dark, instead being bright as it seemed to be clear and resplendent as bloodred crystals.
The bloodied water rose and fell in a fixed, regular pattern.
It felt…just like a beating heart.
A huge box that was completely jet-black in colour floated atop the pool, the words ‘Devouring Heaven’ inscribed upon it.
This Heaven Swallowing Sword Box rhythmically rose and fell along with the bloodied water at the centre of the blood pool.
Bloodred streams of light descended from the box, landing within the blood pool.
Yan Zhaoge was able to feel that spiritual qi was being continually extracted from the blood pool in an endless stream before being supplied to the Heaven Swallowing Sword Box.
At this moment, the Earth Devouring Burner had not landed on the Heaven Swallowing Sword Box as it instead hovered in the air above it, regaining its usual silent state.
Carefully observing the surroundings and not finding anything abnormal, Yan Zhaoge leapt up, flying towards that Heaven Swallowing Sword Box.
He kept the Earth Devouring Burner before landing atop the Heaven Swallowing Sword Box.
When the tip of Yan Zhaoge’s feet touched the top of the sword box, his mind instantly wavered.