Inside the Coffin

Inside the Coffin

Inside the bronze coffin, only a single green lamp swayed with its faint light, illuminating everyone's bleak expressions.

Some of the female students sobbed, while some of the male students sighed. The road ahead was vast and uncertain. It was late, and everyone was exhausted and listless, soon drifting into a heavy sleep.

Zhou Tong also sat cross-legged quietly within the coffin, restoring his divine power.

Within the divine rings formed by his Ten Heavenly Caves were many Treasure Herbs picked from Kunlun Mountain. Just a single leaf was enough to easily restore his divine power.

A moment later, his divine power had recovered. Zhou Tong suddenly had an idea and poured his divine power into the Purple Sun Lamp within his Sea of Wheels Realm. At once, a faint, ghostly light emerged from the lamp and imprinted itself upon Zhou Tong's eyes.

For a time, a trace of purple also glimmered in Zhou Tong's eyes.

He slowly turned his head and looked over the entire bronze coffin. Its interior was calm, with nothing unusual.

"Looks like the Divine Thought of the Great Accomplishment Sacred Body... No!" Zhou Tong's pupils contracted, and the purple in his eyes deepened. He suddenly looked toward a corner of the bronze coffin, where a black shadow stood half-concealed behind the others.

At first, Zhou Tong had thought it was one of the students, but on closer thought, the number of people was wrong. This person was extra!

At that moment, the black shadow seemed to notice Zhou Tong's gaze as well. It turned its head and gave a sinister smile.

In that instant, Zhou Tong's heart nearly stopped. That figure was hideous and terrifying—snow-white teeth, dead-fish eyes, a pitch-black body devoid of even a trace of life, suffused with the aura of death!

"The Divine Thought of the Great Accomplishment Sacred Body really came!" Zhou Tong's heart pounded wildly. This was a genuine Evil Ghost, one of the most terrifying things in the world.

"This Divine Thought's cultivation definitely isn't high. Shakyamuni cut away ninety percent of his cultivation, extracted his Dao root, and suppressed him for countless years. This Evil Ghost probably doesn't even possess the strength of the Immortal Platform now!" Zhou Tong encouraged himself. "I still have a Great Sage Artifact. This Evil Ghost definitely won't dare provoke me."

But after calming down, Zhou Tong's eyes suddenly lit up. "Reincarnation Mirror! Reveal him!"

As divine power flowed into it, the Divine Thought's past life was immediately awakened and reflected within the Reincarnation Mirror.

The Divine Thought of the Great Accomplishment Sacred Body—there was no doubt about his past life. He had naturally been a Great Accomplishment Sacred Body, a Great Accomplishment Sacred Body who had achieved Alternative Dao Attainment, one of the nine Sacred Bodies invincible throughout the world in his era.

But time was limited, and Zhou Tong had no mind to examine the Great Accomplishment Sacred Body's experiences. He merely searched rapidly for the Great Accomplishment Sacred Body's secret arts.

Just as the divine power Zhou Tong had poured in was nearly exhausted, he finally found it—the Six Paths Reincarnation Fist!

"The Six Paths Reincarnation Fist, a technique from the Path to Immortality. It was definitely a technique left behind by the Desolate Heaven Emperor!" Zhou Tong silently contemplated its Dao and laws, committing them to memory before once again using a Treasure Herb to restore his strength.

A moment later, once his divine power had recovered, he used the Reincarnation Mirror to look at the Divine Thought of the Great Accomplishment Sacred Body again, and immediately saw more things.

Zhou Tong restored his divine power while using the Reincarnation Mirror to examine the Divine Thought. He spent a full five or six hours, restoring his power more than ten times before finally stopping.

"The Six Paths Reincarnation Fist, the complete scripture created by this Great Accomplishment Sacred Body, and several ancient scriptures he obtained during his cultivation journey... I've truly struck it rich!" Zhou Tong was beside himself with excitement.

He had seen more than one or two Emperor Scriptures alone. Though they were all incomplete scriptures, they were already extraordinarily precious.

The Four Extremes and Dragon Transformation scrolls of the "Indestructible Heavenly Merit," the Sea of Wheels, Dao Palace, and Four Extremes scrolls of the "Emperor Zun Scripture," the Dragon Transformation and Immortal Platform Scrolls of the "True Sun Scripture," the Dao Palace, Four Extremes, Dragon Transformation, and Immortal Platform Scrolls of the "Carefree Immortal Scripture," and the Immortal Platform Scroll of the "Demon Emperor Scripture."

There were also countless secret arts, such as the Sacred Body lineage's method of cultivating a single secret realm, secret arts and techniques contained within certain ancient scriptures, as well as the secret arts and Array Patterns created by that Great Accomplishment Sacred Body.

Most importantly, Zhou Tong saw the Nine Secrets. This Great Accomplishment Sacred Body had learned two of the Nine Secrets in his past life.

"The 'Qian' Secret of the Nine Secrets, the 'Zu' Secret of the Nine Secrets... This Divine Thought of the Great Accomplishment Sacred Body truly is a priceless treasure. The memories of his past life are unimaginable. I've probably only explored a tenth of them. My cultivation is still too weak to support so many explorations..." Zhou Tong felt somewhat regretful.

What he regretted most was that he had not seen the battle between this Great Accomplishment Sacred Body and a Hegemon Body. Otherwise, he might have seen several secret arts of the Hegemon Body lineage.

"Forget it. With so many secret arts and ancient scriptures, I already have enough to comprehend! I'll leave that alone for now. Next, I should study the Hundred Character Ancient Scripture within this bronze coffin!" Zhou Tong no longer paid attention to the Divine Thought of the Great Accomplishment Sacred Body and immediately sat down cross-legged.

The seed of the Bodhi Tree rested quietly within his Ten Cave Heaven Divine Rings, radiating waves of Pure Qi that left his mind utterly clear. Gradually, a strange sound began to ring in his heart.

Moreover, the sound grew ever more majestic, like the Great Dao Heavenly Sound and yet like some profound, wondrous truth.

"The way of Heaven diminishes the excessive and replenishes the insufficient..."

The first sentence of that mysterious voice came from the "Tao Te Ching," but what followed was an unheard-of, profound scripture whose meaning even Zhou Tong could not understand.

Those vast, mysterious, and profound sounds seemed to pierce through space and time from the ancient Primordial Desolation. At the same time, like a Great Bell and Large Lyre, they trembled beside Zhou Tong's ears and entered his heart.

The Great Dao Heavenly Sound was as deep as an abyss and as vast as the sea. Every word that rang out was like the heavens collapsing and the earth splitting, echoing throughout the universe. It shook the sea of his heart, sending his thoughts surging until he no longer knew where he was.

At that moment, Ye Fan, who had been watching Zhou Tong, also noticed that something was unusual about his state.

He subconsciously walked over to Zhou Tong's side, but the instant he arrived, an unfathomably wondrous Great Dao Heavenly Sound shook Ye Fan to his core. He looked at Zhou Tong in shock, then looked at a small coffin not far away. So there was actually an inheritance here as well?

Without thinking further, Ye Fan also immersed himself in the inheritance of this scripture.

This scripture did not contain many words, only several hundred in all, yet it echoed repeatedly in their hearts. In the end, both of them completely memorized it.

At that moment, they both opened their eyes again.

"Ye Fan, you too..." The moment Zhou Tong saw Ye Fan, he was immediately astonished.

The Bodhi Seed was clearly already in his hands, so how had Ye Fan heard that sound?

Or had the Ruthless Great Emperor done something here long ago, ensuring that Ye Fan would definitely hear such a sound?

"Could it be that the Nine Dragons Pulling Coffin coming to Earth was truly the Ruthless Great Emperor's doing? Was it all to bring Ye Fan over?" Zhou Tong found it difficult to understand. The Ruthless Great Emperor should currently be half-mad and half-awake. She should not have had the ability to arrange something involving the Nine Dragons Pulling Coffin...

"Or did the Ruthless Great Emperor foresee everything happening now back then, and leave behind some preparations?" Zhou Tong then recalled that, in order to oppose the Nine Heavens Venerables, the Ruthless Great Emperor had created nine secret arts, including one specifically meant to counter the 'Qian' Secret.

"Could it really have been that secret art meant to counter the 'Qian' Secret that allowed her to foresee this more than a hundred thousand years ago?" Zhou Tong did not even dare continue thinking about it. This brother-obsessed woman was truly terrifying.