Qiu Dragon Ancient Palace

"Secret Solar Inheritance..."

At the mention of that book title, Xu Yan's heart jolted.

How could such a treasured inheritance book of the Li Clan be inside the Horned Dragon Demon Tomb? And the Li Ancient Secret Repository had yet to fully emerge—how could Master Yuan be so certain that the Secret Solar Inheritance was here?

He frowned, deep in thought.

Then he suddenly recalled that the original text of the Ancient Solar Record had first been translated by the founding patriarch of Pursuing Sun Academy. Could it be that the Yuan family's ancestor had concealed part of the information back then?

It was not impossible. The original Ancient Solar Record had been discovered by the Yuan family. At the time, Great Yin had not yet been founded, and Great Yin's founding ancestor had merely been a feudal lord in the central Eastern Continent.

Great Yin had only been established for six hundred years. Some aristocratic families and lineages were far older than Great Yin, with inheritances stretching back thousands, even tens of thousands, of years.

Roar! Roar! Roar—

As he was thinking, muffled roars rose from beneath the great lake. This time, they came faster and more urgently, like the bellowing before something awoke. Enormous waves churned across the entire lake, divine light glimmering as tyrannical demon aura sent chills down everyone's spine.

The dark-red ancient palace was shoved and battered sideways again and again by the towering waves, gradually rising and sinking toward the surface.

It was far larger than Xu Yan and the others had imagined!

Its ancient, weathered gates stood a full thousand zhang tall, densely covered in runes and engraved with intricate sacred script of the Demon Race.

For a moment, divine radiance shot into the heavens like sharp swords, tearing even the clouds apart. Dark, blood-red demon aura blanketed the sky and blotted out the sun, howling without end!

In an instant, it split the battlefield apart.

Everyone turned their eyes toward the ancient palace, their faces filled with dread.

The Bat King of the Demon Race was the fastest. As gales tore through the air, he flashed past like a startled swan, crossing several thousand zhang in only a few breaths.

He fiercely swung the trident in his hand at the palace gates, trying to seize the lead and become the first to enter the ancient palace.

But the dark-red ancient palace gave him no such chance. The densely packed Demon Race runes upon its gates gleamed, and tyrannical blood-red spiritual power spread outward like a flood.

The Bat King was forcibly blasted away. He staggered in the sky before steadying himself, nearly falling into the mountains below, his expression utterly unsightly.

"Hahaha... It seems your Demon Race's holy ancestor does not welcome you very much!" Flame-Treading True Person laughed with narrowed eyes.

"You bastard, what business is it of yours?!"

Humiliated and enraged, the Bat King felt his cheeks burn hot. In a fit of fury, he wrapped his trident in crackling lightning and blasted it directly at Flame-Treading True Person.

Flame-Treading True Person was unafraid. He brought forth a spiritual alms bowl, from which endless heavenly flames seemed to surge forth. The two clashed head-on before the palace, their divine powers' radiance incomparably tyrannical, sending waves a thousand feet high soaring from the lake.

"Xu Yan... can you decipher the Demon Race script on that ancient palace?" Qin Nishang suddenly raised her brows and turned to ask him.

"Your Highness thinks too highly of me. I only know the human race's Primordial Script. I cannot decipher demon script," Xu Yan replied casually.

Over the great lake, the cultivators had begun fighting again.

Those who found an opening continued charging toward the gates, trying to blast open the palace.

White Bone Madam struck the palace gates with one palm and nearly got thrown into the lake by the backlash. Instantly irritated, she turned to look at the gathered demons and shrieked, "Damn it! Who can decipher the demon script on this thing?!"

A crowd of demons, monsters, ghosts, and freaks looked at one another. From each other's faces, they saw nothing but utter ignorance.

They knew how to eat people. Asking them to learn this ancient demon script—was that not asking for their lives?

"Madam, I can decipher it."

At that moment, a five-zhang-long Nine-Colored Sky Centipede flew out from among the demons.

Swinging its countless little legs, it rode demon aura into the air and revealed a deathly pale human face.

"You?" White Bone Madam raised a brow and glanced at the centipede.

"This demon script is not complicated. Give me half an incense stick's time, and I can decipher it. But with those human experts here, I fear we would merely be handing it to them." The Nine-Colored Sky Centipede spoke in a sinister tone.

White Bone Madam paused for several breaths, then told the white-boned demoness beside her, "Go back to the stronghold and summon Xiaofengzi here at once!"

Then she said to the Nine-Colored Sky Centipede, "You decipher the script. I will ensure your safety!"

"This lowly one obeys." The Nine-Colored Sky Centipede smiled grimly.

With that, vast yin energy burst from White Bone Madam's body.

Her jet-black hair flew wildly. Amid rolling demon aura, her body directly transformed into a gigantic skeleton dozens of zhang tall—terrifying beyond measure and immensely oppressive.

Her sharp skeletal claws came crashing down upon the human cultivators.

In an instant, a scream rang out!

An elder of Pursuing Sun Academy was immediately disemboweled, his blood scattering through the air as his organs and intestines splattered across the ground.

The battle grew ever fiercer. Even the air around them was shaken again and again, as though it were about to be torn apart.

The Nine-Colored Sky Centipede shook its demon body and directly transformed into a handsome young Confucian scholar. On the human cultivators' side, Yan Qing stared wide-eyed at that scholar, his face filled with shock.

The Nine-Colored Sky Centipede moved with practiced familiarity, curling his fingers as threads of demon aura tapped against the ancient palace.

The twisted Demon Race characters upon it continuously shattered, dispersing into the air like ripples.

Yan Qing desperately wanted to flee through the air, but White Bone Madam and the other Demon Race experts blocked the way. They could not get anywhere near the palace gates.

"Third Senior Brother..."

Yan Qing's eyes trembled. The aura emanating from that centipede felt both familiar and strange.

Elsewhere, Xu Yan also sensed something amiss.

He discovered that the Literary Gold Shuttle within his universe pouch was trembling slightly, as though it wanted to fly away on its own.

"What is going on..."

Xu Yan was deeply startled, his mind utterly muddled.

The Literary Gold Shuttle was a natal artifact. Other than the person who had forged it, no one could summon it away—and besides, it was already ownerless. Third Senior Brother had been dead for so many years.

What power could make this artifact tremble and cry without cease?

Before he could think further, a drastic change had already erupted over the great lake. As the Nine-Colored Sky Centipede shattered one Demon Race character after another—

Terrifying blood-red spiritual power continuously surged forth, raising monstrous waves that filled the sky over the lake!

Roar! Roar! Roar—

The roars beneath the lake also grew increasingly violent, enough to shatter one's Dao body. In an instant, heaven and earth turned dark as blood-colored gales howled and whirled around the ancient palace.

Then came a buzz!

A tiny crack seemed to open outward in the enormous dark-red ancient palace.

In an instant, an ancient aura burst forth like a collapsing dam. That aura had been sealed away for endless years, leaving people dizzy and disoriented. In their daze, it felt as though they had returned to the age of primordial Mang Mountain.

"Get inside!" White Bone Madam shrieked, afraid that Master Yuan would get there first.

The Bat King was the fastest. With one beat of his wings, he vanished from where he stood.

Next came White Bone Madam herself and the Corpse Stiff King, who flew inside. Master Yuan frowned and paused for several breaths before stepping upon spiritual power as dazzling as the sun and streaking in with a howl. Flame-Treading True Person followed close behind.

The densely packed Demon Race experts and human cultivators alike surged into the palace in one great flood, like a swarm of locusts passing through.