In the cold, empty, and deathly silence of the grand tomb, the Sun True Flame flickered like inconspicuous stars in the night sky, quietly burning. At a certain moment, Zhang Chen’s Primordial Spirit vanished from the tomb, returning to his physical body in the Material Realm. He sat cross-legged, forming hand seals to absorb the spiritual mechanism between heaven and earth, restoring his strength.
After three full hours, Zhang Chen opened his eyes: "It was a quarter less than the time of one incense stick’s burning as I predicted. The mysterious power inside the tomb is turbulent, sometimes strong, sometimes weak, making it hard to estimate accurately."
"However, my Sun True Flame can resist the eerie forces within the tomb, which is good news for me. I can make more moves going forward. Moreover, with such a presence buried in the tomb, there must be a lot of experience points. Even if I don’t dismember the Corpse Ancestor, collecting those experience points alone would be rewarding." As Zhang Chen thought of this, his Primordial Spirit surged, and his figure vanished from the spot once again.
Inside the grand tomb
The Sun True Flame flashed again, illuminating the dark corridor. Zhang Chen sent out ultrasonic waves, already having a general understanding of the tomb’s structure, and began to walk forward.
There were no experience points on the ground; Zhang Chen simply walked through the darkness. A corridor, hundreds of meters deep, stretched ahead, and after passing through it, he saw the Unplowed Void. In the void, a rotating whirlpool of reincarnation, about ten miles in circumference, was visible. Above the whirlpool floated a pitch-black coffin, from which an incessant stream of black air continually emerged.
"So the black air in the void is corpse energy leaking from the coffin!" Zhang Chen realized the source of the black air after seeing it flow from the coffin.
What is corpse energy?
It is merely the aura emitted from the coffin! That’s it!
"Damn, what level of existence is the Corpse Ancestor in the coffin that its inadvertent aura nearly claimed my life?" At this moment, Zhang Chen felt increasingly insignificant.
There is great terror within the coffin, and Zhang Chen does not wish to provoke it lightly.
"It’s a pity the Princess has already fled; otherwise, if she assisted me, the matter would be done!" Zhang Chen felt a bit of regret in his heart.
His gaze swept across the Asura Dao reincarnation with mysterious forces continuously leaking out, absorbed by the coffin, seemingly undergoing some form of transformation.
"Since I’m inside the tomb, why hasn’t the being in the coffin attacked me?" Zhang Chen cautiously eyed the coffin.
"People don’t pay attention to ants." The Great Freedom Celestial Demon chided from the side.
Zhang Chen was speechless; even though he had mastered the Law of Life, in front of the presence within the coffin, he was still like an ant, unlikely to attract any attention.
Nonetheless, this was good news for Zhang Chen; since he wasn’t noticed, the space for action was ample.
"The Qi mechanism of the coffin is linked with that of the Six Paths of Reincarnation; if I seize the Asura Dao reincarnation, the presence within the coffin would surely be alarmed. Therefore, if I strike, I must do so with lightning speed and then escape to the Twenty-Eighth Heaven." Zhang Chen constantly analyzed the pros and cons in his mind.
"The Corpse Ancestor in the coffin previously battled the Princess, leaking its Qi mechanism, detected by the world’s will. Now, it’s in a self-sealed suppression state, its perception of the outside world plunged into chaos. If you act well, you might achieve something." The Great Freedom Celestial Demon Dao commented. Its sensitivity to the fluctuations of Essence, Qi, and Spirit allowed it to sense that the Corpse Ancestor had entered a state of dormancy, to conceal its aura from the vast world.
Upon hearing the Great Freedom Celestial Demon’s words, Zhang Chen was overjoyed: "It’s practically heaven’s help!"
His gaze fell on the coffin, seeing large piles of experience points stacked around it, resembling small mountains hovering above the Asura Dao reincarnation.
Zhang Chen’s eyes scanned the heaps of experience points, a hint of delight flickering in his eyes. However, he did not act rashly but silently activated the Soul Hooking and Soul Stealing skill, causing the Golden Finger Interface to flicker:
[No markable target found]
[Please remark]
"As expected, the old fellow has no soul! The Corpse Ancestor is a peculiar life birthed from death, leaping beyond the Three Worlds and not within the Five Elements, although it is life, it lacks a soul." Zhang Chen felt somewhat disappointed but did not force the issue or hurriedly make a move. Instead, with a flash, his Primordial Spirit appeared outside the grand tomb.
He’s not only interested in the Six Paths of Reincarnation but also the tomb bricks; he hasn’t forgotten that the tomb bricks were nurtured from the essence of countless supreme experts, they’re treasures indeed. Once placed into the Devouring Space, they could be transformed into a vast number of points, compensating for his losses.
"The tomb bricks are also valuable, serving a great purpose for me; they can be silently digested and converted into experience points. If I seize the Six Paths of Reincarnation, it’ll surely awaken the Corpse Ancestor. Should it wake, I would never again have the chance to take the tomb bricks." Zhang Chen took out the Immortal Slaying Sword, looking hopefully at the tomb bricks, ready to pry them off one by one.
As for the burial items?
Zhang Chen found no burial items inside the great tomb.
"Even if there are burial items, they must be within the coffin. Is that something I could covet?" Zhang Chen scrutinized the tomb bricks before him. The entire tomb’s bricks had been sacrificially refined by innate restriction into a single entity, making the task of prying them out as easy as it was difficult.
The difficulty lies in that each tomb brick of the great tomb is fused with innate restriction, turning into a complete whole. Moving one part affects the whole, making it as immovable as Mount Tai.
The simplicity is that, as long as one can suppress the tomb’s innate restriction, separating a tomb brick from the tomb’s complete innate restriction is no big deal for Zhang Chen.
"The whole tomb’s innate restriction is a unified entity. Even though I have mastered the Law of Life and wield an innate spiritual treasure, I can hardly shake this grand array. Even though the Sun True Flame is domineering, dreaming of refining the copper wall and iron wall of this array is futile! Perhaps if a Dao Fruit Realm cultivator were here today, they might leave empty-handed. But coincidentally, the Corpse Ancestor met me." A trace of triumph flickered in Zhang Chen’s eyes.
The grand array before him was constructed by the Corpse Ancestor to suppress his own Qi mechanism and celestial secret, spending vast efforts and utilizing all means. But the Corpse Ancestor happened to encounter Zhang Chen. Although Zhang Chen’s strength was weak, his methods were numerous. His Buzhou Seal could suppress ten thousand techniques, and while it might lack the strength to suppress the entire grand array, separating a single tomb brick was not difficult for him.
"This grand array is flawless; how can you break it?" The Great Freedom Celestial Demon inquired.
"I have the Buzhou Seal. What is such a mere array worth mentioning?"
With a wave of his hand, Zhang Chen summoned the Buzhou Seal, and then his Eye of Devouring flickered. The Law traces of the grand array before him imprinted in his eyes. Zhang Chen pressed the Buzhou Seal onto a key node; the node trembled slightly as if sensing a disruption, attempting to mobilize the array’s power for correction. But at this moment, Mysterious Power flowed over the Buzhou Seal, extinguishing all laws. The laws within a foot of the node turned into nothingness, transforming from the extraordinary to the mundane, creating an end of Dharma domain that severed a whole tomb brick apart.
"Heh heh heh, it’s done!" Zhang Chen emitted a strange laugh.
"When the Corpse Ancestor built the tomb, he would never have thought someone could wield Mysterious Power, and shamelessly apply it to his own grave, digging up his own tomb bricks." The tone of the Great Freedom Celestial Demon carried an indescribable flavor.
A being who could cultivate Mysterious Power is of such a caliber that they could create worlds. In their eyes, even the Corpse Ancestor is but an ant. How could they shamelessly dig up their own grave?
Moreover, considering the few worthless items in his own grave, such a being wouldn’t even glance at them.
How could such a powerful being stoop to pick up scraps in a ’waste heap’? It doesn’t make sense!
A strong being who values his tomb bricks can’t contend with the innate grand array connected to them. And a being capable of breaking his innate grand array won’t care for the scraps in his grave.
Who would have thought there would be a freak like Zhang Chen in this world?
With a burst of strange laughter, Zhang Chen approached a tomb brick with the Immortal Slaying Sword, and stabbed the half-sword into the crack of the brick.
The Immortal Slaying Sword, truly deserving its reputation as the all-piercing Immortal Slaying Sword, indeed penetrated the gap. Zhang Chen used the power of the Law of Life to activate the Immortal Slaying Sword, surprisingly unleashing an unbelievable force. With a pry, a tomb brick dropped ’pop’ from the tomb wall, and Zhang Chen immediately stored it into the Ba Snake Space.
"Good lad, you actually pulled it off!" Seeing Zhang Chen’s methods, the Great Freedom Celestial Demon showed a curious expression in his eyes.
Zhang Chen ignored the words of the Great Freedom Celestial Demon and continued as before, prying tomb bricks continuously from the great tomb.
The great tomb was constructed enormously, with countless thousands of tomb bricks. Zhang Chen found the prying quite exhausting.
As time passed and one tomb brick after another was pried loose, the array’s flow began to stall, losing fluidity and power started to diminish.
However remarkable Zhang Chen’s methods were, he only managed to pry off two thousand tomb bricks in a day.
When his Primordial Spirit grew tired, Zhang Chen stopped, letting his Primordial Spirit return to his physical body in the Material Realm, and began to sense the tomb bricks in his Ba Snake Space.
With the activation of the Devouring Space’s power, the tomb bricks stood unyielding like mountains, proving even trickier to refine than when he sacrificed the Dragon Pearl initially.
"Is the tomb brick refined by the Corpse Ancestor really so difficult to refine?" Zhang Chen murmured in surprise, wondering aloud, "Could it be that the Corpse Ancestor is even stronger than that of the straw hut’s owner?"