What a Pleasant Surprise, the Leading Figure of That Realm
What a Pleasant Surprise, the Leading Figure of That Realm
“They’ve already gone in. Should we follow them in too?”
Just after Chu Hao and the others from Supreme Cave Heaven entered that hazy, mist-shrouded land.
Lin Wu, Lu Luo, and the rest emerged from the forest off to the side.
The one who spoke was a young man named Huo Rong.
He had a head of crimson-red hair, like a ball of burning flame.
Even his eyes glowed with a faint crimson light, for the blood of the God of Fire flowed within him, blazing with incomparable heat.
“No rush. Given how cautious they are, they’ll most likely wait at the entrance for a while first.”
“It’s better for us to stay careful. In this short amount of time, there’s no way they’ll find anything.”
Hearing this, Lin Wu shook his head, in no hurry at all, appearing extremely prudent.
The reason he had made it this far, aside from the mysterious Martial Arts Space, was his caution that set him apart from ordinary people.
So he felt it was better to wait a little longer.
“In that case.”
“We’ll do as Brother Lin Wu says.”
She was tall and slender, dressed in a pale green gown, and breathtakingly beautiful.
Her eyes carried a faint inky hue, and her whole body exuded a fresh, natural aura.
Hearing her words, the other young men and women nodded as well, saying nothing more, and remained hidden where they were.
The few elders present looked at Lin Wu with approval.
Having come this far, he showed not the slightest impulsiveness, planning before acting in all things, utterly composed.
Among the younger generation of the Eight Wastelands and Ten Domains, those who could compare with him were vanishingly few.
“If Lin Wu doesn’t fall, he is bound to stand at the peak of our Eight Wastelands and Ten Domains one day, sweeping aside all opposition.”
As they sighed with emotion in their hearts, they suddenly saw, on the distant horizon,
an enormous black shadow, massive as a mountain, streaking toward this place like a falling meteor.
“What is that?”
The elders frowned, first stunned, then their faces filled with shock as they felt a terrifying pressure rolling down from the edge of the sky.
Some of them trembled in heart and soul, unable to keep from shaking.
The young men and women turned pale, nearly suffocating, their legs going weak.
Fortunately, one of the elders waved his sleeve, runes flickering out to shield them from the sweeping pressure.
Otherwise, at that moment, they all would have been unable to resist prostrating themselves in worship toward that direction.
It was a matchless, overwhelming might. Just spreading out from such a great distance, it was enough to make one’s skin feel like it would split apart.
“A vicious beast of the Sacred Emperor Realm...”
Lin Wu’s expression was graver than it had ever been, and he practically forced the words out one by one.
“The Three-Headed Black Flood Dragon... how could such a terrifying beast come to a place like this?”
They were deeply shaken, carefully concealing their own auras, not daring to let the slightest bit leak out and draw its attention.
Atop that black flood dragon,
sat a cross-legged figure.
The goddess Lu Luo spoke, a faint divine light in her eyes, her voice incomparably grave. “I cannot see his true face. I can only sense his terrifying vastness. He is absolutely not someone we can contend against.”
Lin Wu nodded, a strange feeling rising in his heart.
That blurry figure seemed to share a great karmic tie with him, even though he had never once seen the other’s true face.
Weng!
A mysterious pattern formed within his eyes, as if transforming into strands of law.
He activated his Heavenly Eye ability, wanting to see clearly who the figure sitting cross-legged atop the Three-Headed Black Flood Dragon was.
But apart from a hazy, blurred silhouette, he could make out nothing at all.
The other party seemed to stand in another world entirely, the one and only god between heaven and earth—powerful, unfathomable.
He tried to look more clearly, but couldn’t hold back a muffled groan as he suffered a backlash. His eyes stung painfully, and blood trickled down from them.
“Lin Wu!” The goddess Lu Luo looked at him with some concern.
Lin Wu waved a hand. “I’m fine.”
“What a terrifying figure. Who knows how many times stronger than that group that went in just now.”
“If this old man’s eyes do not deceive me, that Three-Headed Black Flood Dragon should be the fearsome overlord of the Boundary Marker Sea region... and yet now it has actually been captured and made into a mount.”
One elder spoke heavily, stormy waves surging in his heart, his dread reaching its peak.
The others also wore expressions of disbelief. To encounter such terrifying figures one after another in this place—this person’s strength had absolutely reached beyond the Sacred Emperor Realm.
“I feel that the person just now... may share a great karmic tie with me.”
Lin Wu’s voice was heavy, his heart sinking.
The goddess Lu Luo knew what was weighing on his mind and couldn’t help but comfort him. “Don’t think like that. We’re still young...”
In their eyes, that figure seated atop the Three-Headed Black Flood Dragon had vanished without so much as a glance back—or perhaps he simply didn’t care, treating them as a colony of ants.
“I’ll contact my clan’s uncle. He’s nearby as well. Let’s go in first—if we run into danger later, he can come support us.”
One young man suddenly spoke up at this point, his expression heavy, feeling a kind of fear, deeply uneasy and worried, even wanting to stop right there.
Hearing this, the others nodded and began planning their way out.
No matter what, after witnessing the terror of that figure with their own eyes, no one could remain calm any longer.
That person was clearly a terrifying figure from the Beyond. Though they didn’t know what reason had brought him here,
if they ran into him, they would be in mortal peril, with little chance of escaping alive.
“Let’s go.”
Then, one elder, his face grave, only dared to reveal himself after sensing that terrifying aura fade away.
Afterward, the group cautiously approached that violet space. With a bout of dizziness and spinning,
their figures slowly disappeared into it.
“The leaf from the Spirit Gourd Master’s Mysterious Gourd back then is in my hands. As long as I follow the direction this aura drifts from, I should be able to quickly find the place where the Spirit Gourd Master fell.”
Landing once more, Lin Wu gazed at the vast, boundless wilderness before him, and his heart gradually calmed.
Although the other party’s strength surpassed his own, that person clearly didn’t know the exact location of the treasure here.
As long as he seized the initiative and obtained the Spirit Gourd Master’s inheritance, he could quickly leave.
At that point, who could possibly find him?
“Gongzi, you’re just going to leave those ants alone?”
On the back of the Three-Headed Black Flood Dragon, Gu Changge sat cross-legged, his robes stirring in the wind, his figure towering and unmoving, wisps of brilliant divine radiance interweaving with Chaos Energy, mysterious and profound.
Hearing the Three-Headed Black Flood Dragon’s words, he opened his eyes and said indifferently, “Since they’re all ants, is there any need to pay them mind?”
“Yes.”
Hearing this, the Three-Headed Black Flood Dragon lowered its heads and continued onward toward the vast wilderness ahead.
Though that group of young men and women had hidden themselves well, they could not escape its powerful senses.
And naturally, they could hide even less from Gu Changge.
But since Gu Changge paid them no mind, it would not overstep its place to bother with such trivial matters.
The mountains here stretched on endlessly, ancient trees lush and verdant, every divine mountain and ancient peak towering magnificently, flowing with rosy light.
Many powerful vicious beasts also dwelled here, each dominating its own territory.
But upon sensing the Three-Headed Black Flood Dragon’s aura, they all fled in terror, not daring to draw near.
This was the way of vicious beasts—attracting good fortune and avoiding calamity.
In the distance, colored mists flowed and immortal fog curled; one could hardly tell this was the Mysterious Space left behind by the aftershocks of a past battle.
A so-called Mysterious Space was a small world of unknown location, hidden within nothingness, extremely hard to find.
Such worlds were generally quite barren, with little sign of life manifesting.
For they had all been destroyed in the battles of the past.
“The Fortuitous One of the Eight Wastelands and Ten Domains has shown up. Is he planning to answer the call in a time of crisis, to prop up a collapsing edifice?”
“Both Fortuitous Ones rushing to this place... it seems they’re going to give me quite a pleasant surprise.”
Gu Changge’s gaze swept across the land ahead, a faint trace of interest appearing at the corner of his mouth.
Before coming here, he had only intended to deal with Chu Hao.
But just now, with a casual sweep of his senses, he had discovered something else that intrigued him.
Besides Chu Hao, another Fortuitous One had actually appeared. Judging by the degree of blue in his Fortuity, he was no simple character either.
For Gu Changge, this could be called an unexpected delight.
However, he didn’t want to startle the snake in the grass. He wanted to see just what kind of surprise this Fortuitous One could bring him.
If he simply seized him outright, that would be far too boring.
Every Fortuitous One, besides being a qualified leek to harvest, could also serve the role of a treasure-hunting rat.
Within this vast Mysterious Space, quite a few good things were clearly hidden.
Among the many mountain ridges, one could see numerous Heavenly Herbs that were exceedingly rare in the outside world, their ages considerable as well.
Of course, Gu Changge had no interest in such things.
He merely deduced from this that, since the birth of this Mysterious Space, this was likely the first time living beings from the outside had barged in, breaking the peace and quiet of this place.
Afterward, Gu Changge followed the aura Ah Da had left behind.
Chu Hao probably still didn’t know that among the people he had brought, an unfamiliar face had slipped in.
With Ah Da’s cultivation, unless he ran into a true True Daoist, no one could detect him.
Just then, an enormous rumbling came from the distance, as if a great stretch of mountains had collapsed.
Dust and smoke billowed into the sky as the mountain ranges on both sides crashed down, revealing a jade-green lake, its shimmering waves boundless and vast.
Deep within the lake, rosy light blazed and divine radiance surged skyward, as if some treasure was about to emerge into the world.
A mighty aura instantly swept out in all directions. Crimson light pierced through heaven and earth, startling the many powerful vicious beasts of this place.
Faintly, one could see a diagram of interwoven black and white, like two fish of black and white, like a curtain of heaven itself, manifesting above the Heavenly Palace.
Dao rhythms intertwined, as if the myriad wonders of a world were evolving within—one begets two, two begets three, three begets all things.
It was a staggering sight. One could even see, beneath the illumination of the black-and-white Dao diagram,
a gateway emerging within the lake, immortal mist billowing, treasure light soaring to the heavens, dazzling beyond compare, like a land of inheritance.
Yet beyond the radiance, a terrifying killing intent also permeated that place.
Some vicious beasts, greed in their eyes, charged forward swiftly, trying to seize that Dao diagram.
But they were pierced through by the horrifying blade qi slashing out from within it, cut down into mists of blood.
With a series of pupupu sounds, bone fragments and blood splattered everywhere—a truly dreadful sight.
Runes densely covered the area, blade qi sweeping across the land. Even enormous, terrifying vicious beasts were left a mangled mess of flesh, sliced apart.
Beneath this Dao diagram stood several figures with powerful auras.
The one at their head was none other than Chu Hao, his face showing traces of excitement.
Behind Chu Hao, the rest of Supreme Cave Heaven’s people warily watched their surroundings, on guard against any living being suddenly charging out.
“The Supreme Dao Diagram is right before my eyes!”
The excitement in Chu Hao’s eyes was impossible to conceal.
At this moment he stood there, his whole body glowing, ancient scriptures droning from his mouth.
One after another, brilliant symbols emerged, interweaving continuously, attempting to soothe the black-and-white Dao diagram high above.
It was Supreme Cave Heaven’s Supreme Dao Diagram.
It had been lost here long ago, but after they entered, they had awakened it with a secret technique.
The mystery and power of the Supreme Dao Diagram were beyond question. Though it had not fully awakened, the aura emanating from it alone could easily slay any living being that approached this place.
The Ancestor of old had never fully comprehended the true essence of the Supreme Dao Diagram either, yet even so, he could roam unhindered across the lands. However, never did he expect that after coming to this realm, he would encounter an opponent he could not overcome, dying with his strength exhausted, and the Supreme...
The Supreme Dao Diagram had been left behind in this place. The reason Supreme Cave Heaven had kept such a low profile and hidden from the world all these years was, in large part, precisely because the Supreme Dao Diagram had been lost.
Rumor had it that the Supreme Dao Diagram was an innate treasure, containing unimaginably profound mysteries.
In ancient epochs past, even Immortals had come to Supreme Cave Heaven to borrow this diagram, attempting to comprehend the essence within it.
However, having slumbered in this place for many years, now that it had been awakened today, the Supreme Dao Diagram’s state was very strange.
Vast and boundless scenes evolved within the Dao Diagram—rivers, streams, grasses, trees, and stars all emerged, and then with a shua shua they transformed into blade qi, stretching across the sky and slashing down. Under such terrifying pressure, even a Sacred Emperor Realm being would change expression, not daring to approach carelessly.
Chu Hao had not expected that the Supreme Dao Diagram of today would pay no heed whatsoever to the scriptures of their sect.
“It seems I can only find another way to make contact with the Supreme Dao Diagram, then think of a way to subdue it.”
“I must have the Supreme Dao Diagram.”
Chu Hao’s expression darkened, and he quickly transformed into a divine rainbow, charging toward the portal in the lake. Just moments ago, the Supreme Dao Diagram had emerged from within it, and today, suddenly stirred by someone’s secret technique, it was slaughtering any vicious beast that tried to approach it.
Hualala!
The Supreme Dao Diagram unfurled continuously, transforming into a mighty force of a world, within which suns, moons, and stars sank—a terrifying sight.
Chu Hao’s expression grew grave. Resplendent runes bloomed one after another across his body as he exerted his full strength, attempting to soothe it.
At the same time, he brought out a supreme treasure from Supreme Cave Heaven.
The Supreme Furnace.
The moment it was opened, its lid shot skyward, releasing a radiance like an Astral River.
It was a crimson-blue flame, containing terrifying destructive power.
It even seemed capable of refining all things in existence.
The moment this furnace appeared, it hovered above Chu Hao’s head, withstanding the vast blade qi surging out from within the Supreme Dao Diagram.
At the same time, the furnace’s three legs glowed with incomparable brilliance, transforming into hazy alchemy-dao phantoms that devoured the shockwaves rushing toward it.
It had to be said, this was an extremely terrifying defensive artifact. Its exact grade was unclear, but it absolutely surpassed ordinary Nirvana Grade Artifacts.
Then it erupted with mighty, vast fluctuations, as if great stars were falling one after another from the Outer Territory.
In an instant, the destructive power caused the Supreme Dao Diagram to tremble. The mountains, star fragments, and all the exploding matter that flew out were completely annihilated.
The entire world instantly turned pitch black—this was the world-within-a-painting contained inside it. Under such a terrifying method, even the other experts of Supreme Cave Heaven rapidly changed expression.
They knew full well the vast divine might of the Supreme Dao Diagram. Once drawn inside it, one would absolutely be unable to escape death, and would be refined away.
“The sky over there has gone dark. Could some rare treasure be emerging?”
Lin Wu, Lu Luo, and the rest of the group from the Eight Wastelands and Ten Domains, who had entered this place afterward, all watched that scene in the distance with shock.
They could feel terrifying fluctuations interweaving.
It was more like a black sun rising between heaven and earth, constantly sinking and floating, and a single wisp of aura falling from it was enough to make stars explode, overturn the earth, and reroute mountains and rivers.
“Is that the supreme treasure of the expert who fought the Spirit Gourd Master back then?”
Goddess Lu Luo stared fixedly at the distant sky, where a black-and-white interwoven Dao Diagram could be seen sinking and floating at the edge of the heavens, continuously expanding, as if it would swallow the entire world into itself.
The other young men and women also nodded one after another, their gazes carrying more or less greed and fervor. Lin Wu turned to look at her and asked in a deep voice, “How confident are you that we can snatch it?”
Goddess Lu Luo fell silent for a moment, then shook her head. “Unless we can find the Spirit Gourd Master’s Mysterious Gourd before this, we don’t even have a ten percent chance.”
“What a pity. A supreme treasure like this—if we could obtain it, it would surely play a crucial role in the coming war against the Beyond.” Lin Wu felt some unwillingness in his heart. The grade of this treasure had clearly already surpassed Nirvana Grade Artifacts.
Although it had been lost in their world, no one had obtained it in all these years. And now, seeing it emerge once more, only for it to be claimed by someone from another world—how could he accept this?
The others also fell silent. They naturally knew what a supreme treasure like this meant.
If the Spirit Gourd Master had not intervened back then, the experts who died miserably on their side would likely have been far more numerous. Any cultivator who knew anything about that battle understood how terrifying that treasure was.
It encompassed heaven and earth, and could refine the entire universe.
A black long spear appeared, accompanied by black radiance, and with a qiang it swept fiercely across the world.
Many people of Supreme Cave Heaven were caught off guard, their faces filled with terror and fury as they instantly exploded, swept apart by this spear, their pale bone fragments scattering in all directions.
Even more people broke out in cold sweat, wounded by the shockwave and falling into the lake.
A tall figure clad in Dark Iron Battle Armor strode out of the void, his eyes gleaming brilliantly, like a peerless war god standing there, his entire body exuding a terrifying aura that made one’s soul tremble—utterly cold and indifferent.
“Who are you?” The remaining people of Supreme Cave Heaven turned cold in expression. They had never expected someone to be following them in secret, and to kill several of their people by surprise.
Moreover, this person’s aura made them involuntarily shudder. This was actually a Quasi-Nirvana Realm existence, with terrifyingly powerful strength.
“My Master has ordered that all of you be suppressed and killed.”
Ah Da’s voice was extremely cold, without the slightest emotional fluctuation. He stepped forward once more, attacking the remaining people of Supreme Cave Heaven.
“Master?”
The people of Supreme Cave Heaven were stunned. They had not expected there to be someone behind this man—someone addressed as Master by such a supreme expert?
“Kill him! This guy is here to snatch our Supreme Cave Heaven’s Supreme Dao Diagram!”
“We can’t let him disturb the Mansion Lord!”
They quickly reacted. An old man roared in fury, displaying his Sacred Emperor Realm strength.
Crossing the Boundary Marker Sea had already cost them dearly; existences beyond the Sacred Emperor Realm had not come over to this side.
Facing a Quasi-Nirvana Realm existence like this, they were still somewhat uneasy and flustered.
But at this moment, when Chu Hao was at the critical juncture of pacifying the Supreme Dao Diagram, they would not allow anyone to interfere with him.
Ah Da was extremely cold. The long spear in his hand slashed down, and a swath of runes flew out, submerging everything before him like falling stars, making everyone cough up blood and explode.
However, the people of Supreme Cave Heaven were utterly unafraid of death. They employed all kinds of Forbidden Techniques and charged at him again, contending with Ah Da and holding him back.
“Damn it, to disturb me at a time like this!”
Chu Hao’s expression was equally ugly. He was furious, his killing intent boiling.
The furnace hovered above his head, resisting the pressure of the Supreme Dao Diagram, while he continuously chanted ancient scriptures, intending to calm it down.
“This person’s strength is so great too. But he’s not from our world—when did he get in?”
“The cultivators of the other world are said to be extremely warlike, endlessly fighting among themselves, rarely united. Seeing it today, it really is so.”
Lin Wu, Lu Luo, and the others hid behind a mountain peak, closely watching this battle.
Although they were also very curious about who this figure in Dark Iron Battle Armor was, the two sides slaughtering each other suited their purposes perfectly.
If the Beyond had been a bit more united, they would have broken through their defenses long ago—how would there be so many complications?
Compared to the Beyond, the Eight Wastelands and Ten Domains were indeed much more united. Of course, that was not to say there was no strife among them.
Roar!! At that moment, a terrifying dragon’s roar resounded through heaven and earth. A pitch-black Three-Headed Black Flood Dragon descended from the sky. Its body was incomparably enormous, as if cast from molten iron, a hundred zhang long like a Devil Mountain, its eyes black-red like blood, brimming with bloodlust and ferocity.
The moment it appeared, one claw reached toward Chu Hao, blooming with black divine light containing unparalleled power.
Chu Hao was in the middle of chanting ancient scriptures and had not expected to be ambushed so suddenly. His expression shook with fury—it could be said he was caught completely off guard. “You’re courting death!”
His gaze turned icy. Setting aside the Supreme Dao Diagram, he turned to face the Three-Headed Black Flood Dragon behind him, his fists glowing as he charged at this terrifying giant beast.
It had to be said, his strength was formidable. His golden fists radiated endless dao light, brilliant as if cast from divine gold, and with a dong the space before him exploded.
“This strong?”
The Three-Headed Black Flood Dragon was also startled. It had not expected this man, whose cultivation was inferior to its own, to possess such strength. Within this punch was a vast, world-purifying power.
This was clearly some kind of supreme fist technique.
It had no choice but to take this seriously and began exchanging blows with Chu Hao.
For a time, dazzling radiance erupted across this place. Above Chu Hao’s head, the furnace rose and fell, resisting the pressure of the Supreme Dao Diagram.
The two fought here, locked in fierce combat, their divine power surging like waves of tens of millions of jun, vast and boundless, crashing down in all directions.
“That Three-Headed Black Flood Dragon—isn’t that the mount of that figure we saw back then?”
“Could that black-clad figure also be a subordinate of that figure?” Lin Wu, Lu Luo, and the others were incomparably shocked, looking around in all directions, wanting to find that mysterious figure from back then.
After all, that single distant glimpse had left them with a terrifying impression.
And just as Ah Da was being held up by the people of Supreme Cave Heaven, and Chu Hao was locked in great battle with the Three-Headed Black Flood Dragon—
Beneath the lake shimmering with divine light, before that portal, a young man had appeared at some unknown moment.
His white robes outshone the snow, untouched by a speck of dust, with an immortal bearing and divine bones, like a banished immortal from the heavens, transcendent and otherworldly.
He seemed to be quietly comprehending the mysteries of this portal of light, giving off a sense of unparalleled tranquility.
Divine light shrouded the young man’s body, with Chaos Qi coiling around him. He merely stood there, yet it was as if he were the center of all the worlds in existence.
The Supreme Dao Diagram in the firmament seemed to sense something, letting out a hua hua sound, as if about to slap down.
“He’s there.” Lin Wu’s voice rang out, carrying unconcealable shock.
Faintly, everyone felt that within the Supreme Dao Diagram, endless scenes were evolving, as if an ancient scripture was reviving, expounding the dao.
It was an incomparably shocking and astonishing sight. The portal of light manifested dao sounds, and the Supreme Dao Diagram descended.
Specks of divine light, incomparably hazy, shrouded in chaotic mist—or perhaps three thousand worlds—enveloped that young figure.
Chaotic divine flames burned, each wisp carrying a supreme, peerless intent, dazzling and resplendent, so that many dared not look directly, tears streaming from their eyes as they hurriedly shut them.
How similar this scene was. Lin Wu’s expression changed drastically once more, then turned somewhat pale, hatred surging up as he practically gnashed his teeth. “It’s him! He’s the one who killed my brother!”
His voice carried bone-deep hatred, his eyes nearly red. The scene of his brother’s miserable death back then was still fresh in his memory—it had been recorded by many people with Photographic Stones and transmitted back.
So it was this young man before him who had killed his brother.
“Could it be... this is the leading figure of that world?”
“He... actually came here? And in his true body?”
Lu Luo and the others finally grasped the meaning of Lin Wu’s words, and their expressions all changed drastically, turning somewhat pale.