Standing at the entrance to the Myriad Heavens Battlefield, Ning Xuanyuan did not immediately enter. He stood firmly in place. At that moment, all the suppressive force in this space was concentrated on him alone. It bore down not only on his will, but also on his body!
The dual suppression of body and will was enough to crush a person completely. Yet overcoming it would be a baptism that shed the old body and exchanged the bones.
The blood in Ning Xuanyuan's body seemed to churn and roar as an unrivaled power erupted from him. He was now using the Evil Emperor Inheritance in a different way.
During the battle outside the Ancestral Land that day, Ning Xuanyuan had not used the three forms of the Sword-and-Saber Divine Art. It was not because he had failed to comprehend them, but because his own cultivation had held him back.
Unlike a simple saber or sword technique, the Sword-and-Saber Divine Art had extremely stringent requirements for the user's cultivation realm. Without a sufficient realm, one simply could not use it.
Sever Wind and Clouds, Destroy the Mortal World, Shatter Heaven and Earth!
Each of the three forms of the Sword-and-Saber Divine Art could unleash the power to destroy heaven and earth. Without enough spiritual power to sustain them, how could he use them?
After all, Ning Xuanyuan was still only in the Soul Sea Realm. His cultivation was too low. If he forced himself to use the divine art, not only would he fail to unleash its true power, but he would also injure himself.
Now, however, he was using the Sword-and-Saber Divine Art in a manner akin to "meditation" to resist the suppression of that will, so it naturally posed no problem.
In his mind, the god's figure seemed to grow incomparably sinister, seeking to erase him from the world and denying his right to exist. Yet the force of Ning Xuanyuan's presence was transforming and growing stronger at a furious pace.
At last, an unimaginably fearsome will was born. The Evil Emperor's figure defeated the god's form, crushing it utterly and driving it from Ning Xuanyuan's mind.
Ning Xuanyuan opened his eyes, a spirit that looked down upon heaven and earth shining in them. Countless people gazed at the young figure, their hearts trembling uncontrollably.
This was the Asura Domain's new-generation Blood Scion, the next Asura Emperor!
He deserved the title!
A moment later, Ning Xuanyuan withdrew his presence. Without looking back, he strode into the passage and vanished within.
"Let's go." At the other end of the bridge, Ye Xuankong concealed the astonishment in his eyes and took a deep breath before leading the warriors behind him onto the bridge.
The people standing on either side of the bridge hurriedly released their presence, blocking the pressure of the will in the space and shielding the group on their way.
Ning Xuanyuan emerged from the passage and raised his head to look ahead.
At a glance, the Myriad Heavens Battlefield gave him a strange sense of disorientation. The space ahead was slightly distorted, caught in a peculiar state of turbulence.
The farthest reaches were hazy, but he could dimly make out an ancient city standing upon the earth, vast and magnificent.
After carefully sensing his surroundings, Ning Xuanyuan discovered that this space held none of the terrifying power of will found on the bridge outside. It was as though that power existed only at the entrance.
There was, however, another power drifting through this space. It was everywhere, yet impossible to touch or grasp.
At that moment, Ning Xuanyuan suddenly discovered that the Chaos World inside him was giving off a faint fluctuation. It was more like an emotion: sorrowful yet full of excitement, contradictory and complex.
"What's going on?" Ning Xuanyuan's eyes flickered. The Chaos World inside him had never shown such a strange phenomenon before.
Just as Ning Xuanyuan was wondering about it, a group appeared beside him. It was Ye Xuankong and the warriors of the Night Watch Army.
"This is the Myriad Heavens Battlefield. What do you think?" Ye Xuankong asked. Ning Xuanyuan raised an eyebrow and said, "It's not quite what I imagined."
"Oh? Did you imagine the Myriad Heavens Battlefield would be covered in corpses, with blood flowing in rivers?" Ye Xuankong asked with a smile.
Ning Xuanyuan nodded without speaking.
"That's because you're currently within the area guarded by our Asura Domain." Ye Xuankong smiled and pointed ahead. "That city is Asura City, the city our Asura Domain built here on the Myriad Heavens Battlefield."
"Of all the territory on the Myriad Heavens Battlefield, our Asura Domain occupies the greatest expanse." Ye Xuankong's expression was sharp as he stood with his hands behind his back, his disdain for all others plain to see.
"The many factions of the other ancient domains have also built cities here on the Myriad Heavens Battlefield. But very few can occupy a city all by themselves. Some weaker factions even have to join forces to build a city together."
Ning Xuanyuan nodded, unsurprised. After all, unlike the Asura Domain, the other ancient domains were not unified. Though their factions belonged to the same domain, each governed its own affairs.
Moreover, important as it was to conquer cities and seize territory, holding a city was even harder.
Voids were everywhere on the Myriad Heavens Battlefield. Without sufficient strength, how could anyone hold a city? They would likely have been wiped out long ago.
Without the strength to suppress those Great Voids, how could anyone speak of reaping benefits?
This alone showed how formidable the Asura Domain's overall strength was.
Though Ye Xuankong had not said any of this, Ning Xuanyuan could guess it for himself. He admired his elder brother from the bottom of his heart.
"After years of exploration by the eight domains, the currently known areas of the Myriad Heavens Battlefield are the Sword Mound and Saber Tomb, Flying Heaven Cave, the Land of the Lost, the Eight Directions Hell Ghost Gate, the Yin-Yang Realm, the Wasteland, the Soaring Firmament Palace, the Sea King Palace, the Withering Forest, and the Ancient Imperial Mausoleum," Ye Xuankong told Ning Xuanyuan as he walked forward.
As he listened to Ye Xuankong's introduction, Ning Xuanyuan's expression grew rather strange. The Eight Directions Hell Ghost Gate? The Yin-Yang Realm? The Soaring Firmament Palace? The Ancient Imperial Mausoleum? Damn, are all these names so full of Eastern flavor?
Uh, right, I transmigrated into an Eastern fantasy world...
"Brother, the Voids in those places are different too, aren't they?" Ning Xuanyuan asked as they walked.
"Mm." Ye Xuankong nodded. "The Voids in each area have their own distinct characteristics, and the terrain in each has its own distinctive features as well."
Pointing southeast, Ye Xuankong said, "The area closest to our Asura City is the Ancient Imperial Mausoleum. Its defining terrain feature is, in fact, a genuine ancient imperial tomb. The Voids living there also look remarkably similar to us human martial artists."
"From what I've learned so far, the Ancient Imperial Mausoleum has nine levels in total. Only Bronze Voids roam the outermost three levels. Levels four through six have Silver Voids, levels seven and eight have Golden Voids, and level nine has Platinum Voids. As for what lies deeper, we haven't ventured farther in yet, to be safe."
Ning Xuanyuan's eyes flickered, and he nodded slightly. Ye Xuankong had only just broken through to the Saint Realm, so the strongest experts in the other cities were probably around the same level, or perhaps even a realm lower, in the Heaven and Earth Realm.
As for Human Emperors, experts of that level would not easily take action unless something major happened. After all, Human Emperors needed to hold down their own territories. Compared with the Myriad Heavens Battlefield, the Ancient Eight Domains were the foundation on which they stood.