The Northern Ocean Clone descended to the bottom of the sea through the tunnel at the centre of the jet-black light pillar.
As that dilapidated palace appeared before Yan Zhaoge, the Earth Devouring Burner which he held pulsed slightly.
Gazing over, Yan Zhaoge saw that jet-black light pillar gradually dissipating with that fiery phoenix descending towards the palace as well.
Apart from him, powerful auras were also descending from up above as they should probably be Luo Zhiyuan, Kang Ping and the others.
Yan Zhaoge smiled, immediately turning and walking towards that dilapidated palace.
Still, the instant Yan Zhaoge stepped into that palace, a chill suddenly arose within his heart as it was as though there was a pair of eyes gazing intently at him from up ahead.
Yan Zhaoge frowned. After halting momentarily, he continued striding forward, entering the palace.
The interior of the palace was similarly dilapidated as there were many abstruse runes inscribed on the surface of its architecture as well.
After observing them carefully, Yan Zhaoge felt them to be somewhat related to the demon race.
Yet, it could still be seen that these should have been left behind by human beings, just that the profundities of the demon race had been merged within.
Yan Zhaoge paid greater attention to the fact that while these runes appeared deficient and incomplete, a complete concept was continued within them.
It was just that this concept appeared distorted as well as strange and sinister.
It seemed as though the person who had left the runes behind had intentionally left this place dilapidated, somehow achieving their intended goal through this.
It was like intentionally making something look old in the forging of antiques.
Yan Zhaoge inhaled deeply before continuing deeper into the palace’s interior.
The light of fire quickly appeared outside the palace as a fiery phoenix descended before its gate.
The fiery light was retracted, revealing the figure of a youth whose face was gloomy as he gazed at the palace before him.
History's Strongest Senior Brother Chapter 772: Heaven Swallowing Sword Box
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 fero
cious 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.
History's Strongest Senior Brother Chapter 773: Myriad Phenomena Transformation Sword Pool
HSSB773: Myriad Phenomena Transformation Sword Pool
Like when he had previously entered the Earth Devouring Burner with his mind in the past, Yan Zhaoge descended into a mental world as everything before him now turned dark.
It was not just light. The deep blackness devoured even noise and smell, being filled with a strange aura which enticed one’s soul.
Yet, unlike how it had been with the Earth Devouring Burner, a cold light quickly flickered before Yan Zhaoge’s eyes, bedazzling them as he felt dizzy.
Gazing over, there were actually countless white, dense streaks of sword-qi, enveloping the heavens and covering the earth as they shot towards him!
Despite feeling surprised, Yan Zhaoge was not flustered as he consciously communicated mentally with the Earth Devouring Burner.
A pitch black vortex instantly appeared within his mental world.
The black vortex erupted with a shocking suction force, blocking the area before Yan Zhaoge and devouring these countless streaks of white-sword qi.
It was just that the white sword-qi seemed to be limitless as they shot towards him in an endless stream.
While the black vortex seemed like a bottomless hole which devoured all that arrived before it, it was still unable to completely devour the sword-qi as both sides thus descended into a stalemate.
Yan Zhaoge observed whilst pondering on the situation at hand.
While these white sword-qi existed within his consciousness, only being targeted against his mind and soul, this did not entail that they were intangible from start to end.
This meant that the Heaven Swallowing Sword Box was able to release such an oceanic amount of fearsome sword-qi amidst real and illusory.
As compared to the Earth Devouring Burner, the Heaven Swallowing Sword Box possessed greater offensive power as befitting of the name of a sword box.
Making use of the black vortex manifested of the Earth Devouring Burner, Yan Zhaoge resisted the attacks of these myriad swords, yet was unable to continue advancing.
He did not want to make use of other treasures for such might hinder him from refining the Heaven Devouring Sword Box as he so desired.
Yan Zhaoge raised his brows slightly, “I really don’t believe that this sword qi is infinite and endless.”
The sword-qi was indeed not infinite and endless. Yet, they did exist in massive, shocking amounts.
The assaulting sword-qi battered down like a tempestuous storm for nearly fifteen minutes before their momentum gradually deteriorated.
Still, they did not vanish completely, simply becoming less violent and more scattered than before.
If they had resembled a merciless landslide before, they were more like a calm, flowing stream now.
Yan Zhaoge nodded. Things should rightly be progressing this way. Earlier, it was because sword-qi which had been accumulated for a long time in the sword box had been instantly released that this had resulted in their vast momentum as they had seemed infinite and endless.
The sword qi within the mental world had been vented. Yet, the sword qi still existed in the sword box of the actual world, just that all their sharpness which had been suppressed had just erupted.
If Yan Zhaoge’s consciousness retreated from the sword box now, when he entered it again, he would still have to face the eruption of an all-encompassing rain of swords.
With the black vortex protecting him, the dense rain of swords was already unable to obstruct Yan Zhaoge’s advance now.
Yan Zhaoge strode forward, a towering silvery mountain now appearing before him.
The mountain peak had originally not been silver. Yet, its exterior was currently covered by a layer of flickering silvery light.
Those were countless sharp swords embedded in this mountain peak.
The swords were embedded densely within such that the silvery sword-lights all seemed connected as they enveloped the entire mountain peak, hiding its original appearance.
These sharp swords that flickered with silver light would shoot into the sky once in a while, changing into silver-white sword qi which spun in mid-air before heading straight for Yan Zhaoge down below.
Gazing carefully over, Yan Zhaoge saw that silvery light flickered on the other side of the mountain as well. Still, it was from some swords descending from the sky and landing on the mountain peak.
With this, while sharp swords would transform into sword-qi and attack Yan Zhaoge, the amount of swords embedded in the mountain peak was never reduced.
The increment and the reduction had attained an equilibrium.
Feeling interested, Yan Zhaoge went over to the other side of the mountain where what appeared before him was a massive pool which appeared as wide as a lake.
Gazing downwards, there was no water within the pool. Instead, there were various different kinds of spiritual qi within that were all congregated there as they ceaselessly circulated all over the place.
Yan Zhaoge paid some attention to this, finding that the sit
uation here was somewhat similar to that of the blood pool that existed outside in reality.
Various complex smells had emanated and intermingled from the blood pool, also resembling many different existences all congregated together.
“The spiritual qi within the blood pool has been drawn over to support this place all along,” Looking downwards, Yan Zhaoge saw a massive whirlpool in the middle of the pool that rotated unceasingly.
The various kinds of spiritual qi outside were all drawn towards the depths of this whirlpool before vanishing without a trace.
Next, sharp swords which emitted silvery light flew out from the centre of the whirlpool, drawing arcs through the air as they landed on the mountain peak next to the pool, becoming a part of the myriad swords.
Seeing this, Yan Zhaoge nodded slowly.
The devouring ability of the Heaven Swallowing Sword Box was not as powerful as that of the Earth Devouring Burner. However, the forces it swallowed would be transformed into piercing sword-qi.
The owner of the sword box should be able to externally emit all this sword-qi to harm the enemy.
The concept possessed by this Myriad Phenomena Transformation Sword Pool would transform the myriad phenomena which it had swallowed into sword-qi.
Yan Zhaoge’s heart grew solemn. He calculated the power possessed by the sword-qi in reality. One of them might be nothing at all, but when there were these many of them exerting their might all at once, such would truly be terrifying.
This would especially be so if the other party did not know of the ability of the Heaven Swallowing Sword Box and attacked rashly. Their own attack would be swallowed and alleviated by the Heaven Swallowing Sword Box before they would be simultaneously assaulted by the myriad swords, likely being unable to react in time.
Battles between experts of the same cultivation level would often be decided with a single exchange of note. With one side possessing the Heaven Swallowing Sword Box, almost all opponents faced by them would be meeting tragedy.
Yan Zhaoge appraised the surrounding area. With the sword-qi still continuing to assault him, this entailed that he had still yet to pass the Heaven Swallowing Sword Box’s trial, still being unable to refine this treasure.
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