Boom!
A massive tremor surged forth, shaking the earth and mountains.
Even a large section of the volcanic crater wall was blasted apart. Fortunately, Li Yu had collected the magma; otherwise, it would have spilled everywhere and flooded the surrounding building ruins.
"Whew! I finally made it through."
Li Yu panted heavily, cold sweat beading on his forehead. "Good lord. I had to use nearly the power of three Saint-level forces just to block that energy."
"System, scan the source of that energy."
Now that he had energy, Li Yu was no longer as miserly and tightfisted as before.
"The energy originated from a sealing formation."
"A seal?"
Li Yu froze for a moment, then suddenly remembered that the Azure Emperor's Tomb would only emerge a few months later, when the sealing energy had been exhausted.
Li Yu had arrived early this time, so energy still remained within the seal. He had just happened to encounter that burst of energy.
"Damn it!"
Li Yu wore a depressed expression.
This seal had likely been set by the Azure Emperor's descendants or subordinates back then.
Even after countless years, its residual energy could still rival the Saint-level. Just what kind of cultivation had the person who laid this seal possessed?
Fortunately, after that energy erupted, the seal had already shattered.
Still shaken, Li Yu withdrew the Mystic Gold Armor and looked up at the magnificent, brilliantly colored hall.
"The entire hall is forged from Five-Colored Divine Jade. What a damn rich man."
Standing before the hall, Li Yu did not move closer. Instead, he came up with another idea.
"System, can you collect the entire hall along with everything inside it?"
That was Li Yu's plan.
After being scared so badly, how could he vent his resentment without packing the whole thing up and taking it away? Besides... ahem, thrift was a virtue. Waste was unacceptable!
"The designated item exceeds the user's authorized volume."
"Uh?"
Li Yu stared blankly. "Seriously? That can happen?"
"Hmm? Wait. The system only said it exceeded my authority. It didn't say it couldn't be collected. That means..."
Li Yu's eyes lit up. "System, what price must I pay to collect the entire hall?"
"Consume five hundred energy points to temporarily open a recovery channel. Open it?"
"Open it! Of course, open it!"
It was only five hundred energy points. Collecting the magma earlier had caused the system energy count to soar to five thousand. Li Yu did not care about such a small expense.
Whoosh...
An invisible ripple swept across the entire hall. In an instant, the enormous five-colored hall vanished.
"Hahahaha! I struck it rich! I really struck it rich this time!"
Seeing the five-colored hall appear in the System Resource Library, Li Yu was overjoyed.
The Azure Lotus Emperor Weapon! The Heart of the Demon Emperor! Countless weapons and secret treasures! Even the Wheel Sea Chapter of the Dao Scripture and the Green Bronze Chunk, a fragment of the Immortal Ascension Cauldron, were inside! He had truly packed everything up and taken it away!
A streak of escape light shot upward as Li Yu rushed out of the volcanic crater and landed before the hall at the foot of the mountain.
"Patriarch, you have returned."
Seeing Li Yu come back, Zhou Yi hurriedly stepped forward and bowed.
"Mm."
Li Yu nodded, then glanced at Zhou Yi. He found that Zhou Yi's blood and vital energy were churning throughout his body, with faint divine light flickering around him.
"You purified your bloodline with the Supreme Heavenly Book? Mm, your bloodline has improved quite a bit, but it still cannot be considered a divine body."
"Patriarch, your insight is flawless."
Zhou Yi answered with a smile, "This disciple exchanged some demon clan corpses for energy and enhanced his bloodline. But the energy was insufficient, so it is still far from becoming a divine body."
"I see!"
Li Yu smiled. "In that case, this patriarch will lend you a hand."
Having just made such a huge haul, Li Yu was in an excellent mood. Seeing that Zhou Yi was still lacking, he naturally did not mind giving him a reward.
He put on a show of waving his hand and scattering a little spiritual light, but he was actually exchanging for a divine body through the system and designating Zhou Yi as its recipient.
The spiritual light descended, and the divine body transformation began.
"Your Majesty, by the grace of the Dao Ancestor, your bloodline has been comprehensively enhanced. You have obtained a complete divine body bloodline. Divine body transformation is beginning. Please prepare yourself, Your Majesty."
"Ah..."
A scorching current like molten lava surged into Zhou Yi's body in an instant. Zhou Yi felt as though his entire body had been crushed apart, then gradually reconstructed bit by bit.
The intense pain made Zhou Yi cry out uncontrollably.
"Haha! I was in so much pain I nearly died back then. Now you can have a taste of it too."
Watching Zhou Yi scream in pain and roll about endlessly on the ground, Li Yu secretly laughed.
A moment later, the divine body modification was complete.
Zhou Yi flipped himself up from the ground. Seeing his own body, he was utterly dumbfounded. "So this is a divine body?"
Divine radiance silently rose, like moonlight spilling down.
Life essence boiled within his body like crashing waves. His entire body was flawless and immaculate, gleaming with divine splendor. His skin shimmered with flowing light, as though it was not flesh at all, but divine jade instead.
"The Ji family's divine body truly is extraordinary. With this, your foundation is firmly established."
Li Yu looked at Zhou Yi and nodded with a smile, though he secretly shook his head. A divine body was certainly remarkable, but compared to the Innate Sacred Body Dao Embryo, it was vastly inferior.
"Thank you, Patriarch! Thank you, Patriarch!"
Zhou Yi was overjoyed and hurriedly bowed to Li Yu in thanks.
"Mm. Now that your divine body is formed and your Bitter Sea has opened, you can be considered initiated."
Li Yu nodded and waved his hand. A short sword roughly one foot long appeared in his palm.
It was one of the countless weapons stored within the Azure Emperor's Tomb. A spiritual weapon of the Wheel Sea realm was junk among junk in the Azure Emperor's collection.
Handing the short sword to Zhou Yi, Li Yu said, "You already have a foundation. From here on, you must cultivate continuously and fight continuously. The nearby mountain forests are perfect for your training."
"Yes."
Zhou Yi accepted the short sword, acknowledged the order, and left.
Watching Zhou Yi's departing figure, Li Yu smiled. "I've already given you beginner equipment and a beginner reward. Now let's see just how far you can go."
He glanced around the hall and saw that it was covered in dust and looked utterly dilapidated. Li Yu frowned.
"I'll be staying here for a while, so I should tidy it up."
Li Yu waved his hand and used the system to recycle the dust inside the hall. The entire hall immediately became clean and orderly.
"This looks much more comfortable."
He took out a meditation cushion from the Azure Emperor's Tomb's collection, sat down, and began examining his gains from the Azure Emperor's Tomb.
"System, extract all items from the Azure Emperor's Tomb and store them by category."
Li Yu gave the order, and the system instantly sorted and stored the various items in the Resource Library.
"There are actually this many things?"
Seeing all sorts of physical resources suddenly appear in the Resource Library, even Li Yu, despite being mentally prepared, was still startled.
"As a Great Emperor of his generation, the Azure Emperor did not place everything here, but even this is terrifying."
"I'm rich. Haha. I'm rich!"