The situation underground was extremely complicated, with countless passages whose ends were unknown.
After Qin Sheng and Ye Fan descended thirty thousand meters beneath the earth, the environment had become bitterly cold, and they had no idea where they had ended up.
Still, they had left markers along the way, so retracing their path would not be a problem.
"This place has been picked cleaner than a dog-chewed bone. Nothing was left behind," Ye Fan complained.
"Otherwise, why would no one ever come here?" Qin Sheng said.
"Huh, there's a door over there."
Within a crack ahead of them, a stone door was wedged in place, its surface weathered by age.
"It was probably caught up in the great battle back then and sank underground," Qin Sheng guessed.
"But what kind of stone door could remain intact and undamaged to this day?"
He struck it with a burst of divine power, but the stone door was utterly indestructible. Not even a faint crack appeared.
Qin Sheng was stunned. With his current strength, he could uproot an entire mountain, yet he could not damage a single door?
Ye Fan lowered his head for a look and said,
"The space beneath the stone door is empty. It's pitch-black, and I have no idea where it leads."
"Should we take this door with us? I think it might be some kind of treasure."
If nothing else, it was certainly hard enough.
Smack! Smack!
Ye Fan patted the stone door. The next moment, a rumbling sound erupted, and the ground beneath their feet suddenly collapsed!
"What the hell, Yezi? What are you doing?!"
Qin Sheng shouted and prepared to fly away, but the stone door suddenly opened, releasing a terrifying suction force that swallowed both of them whole.
The stone door had clearly been wedged inside the crack, with hollow space beneath it, yet what Qin Sheng and Ye Fan experienced after being sucked through it was completely different.
They were not falling through the air. Instead, they were wrapped in icy, turbulent liquid, endlessly scoured and swept forward, tumbling toward an unknown place.
During that time, even with their overwhelming divine power, neither of them could resist. They could only drift with the current.
The liquid was so cold that even their Primordial Spirits seemed about to freeze.
No one knew how long passed before that helpless drifting finally came to an end.
Cold. Shaking...
Qin Sheng clutched his head and stood up. Ye Fan was beside him, looking dazed and confused.
"Where are we?"
Qin Sheng looked around. This was a hazy space filled with gray mist that obscured everything from sight. Even Divine Sense could not detect anything.
Beneath their feet was solid earth, but its color was strange: blood-red.
Ye Fan became a little more alert. "It seems like we fell into a river and then got swept here?"
Qin Sheng spread his hands. "Here's the problem: there's no river here."
That was right. They were surrounded by nothing but earth. There was not the slightest trace of a river or lake.
Ye Fan swallowed nervously.
"Qin Immortal, did we run into something unclean?"
"Don't talk nonsense. Maybe we triggered some kind of fortunate encounter."
"Let's look around and see if there's anything here," Qin Sheng said.
"We shouldn't split up in case we run into danger."
"Mhm, mhm." Ye Fan nodded rapidly.
Even if someone beat him to death, he would not leave Qin Sheng's side. What had just happened was far too frightening.
Ye Fan sounded somewhat annoyed. "I only gave it a light pat. Who knew something like this would happen?"
"Why am I always so unlucky?"
Ye Fan wanted to spit blood. Ever since coming to Beidou, nothing had seemed to go his way.
Qin Sheng comforted him. "Maybe my attack caused it."
"That makes sense. Qin Immortal, you have to take full responsibility."
"Get lost!"
After that bit of banter, the tension in their hearts eased somewhat.
The Land of Gray Fog was very quiet. The two of them walked for a long time without seeing anything at all.
"The fog around us is getting thicker and thicker," Ye Fan said worriedly.
"The place where we first landed should have been the edge of this place. We're probably heading toward the center now."
Qin Sheng said, "We have to explore this place. At the very least, we need to find a way out."
The fog grew so dense that Qin Sheng and Ye Fan could no longer sense each other unless their bodies were touching.
But when they took another step forward, the scene before them suddenly opened up.
The fog had completely vanished!
What appeared before them was a clean space roughly one hundred meters in diameter.
At the very center of that space stood a small mound of earth.
Looking up, there was no fog overhead either—only incomparably deep darkness. As for the ground, the soil remained blood-red, so red it seemed ready to drip with blood.
"That mound... why does it look a little like a..." Ye Fan quietly voiced his thought.
"A grave?"
Qin Sheng's expression turned grave as he walked toward the mound.
The mound was a different color from the ground. It was piled from unknown black soil.
Only when they drew closer did Qin Sheng and Ye Fan discover that there was actually something on top of the mound.
The object was embedded in the black soil, with only its surface exposed.
The moment he saw it, Qin Sheng's heart shook violently.
It was a black lid bearing a Ghost Face Mark.
The Ghost Face Mark seemed to be crying and smiling at once. It was somewhat playful, yet also somewhat sorrowful, marked by tears but carrying sunlight as well. One glance was enough to make it unforgettable for eternity.
The characteristics were far too obvious. Qin Sheng recognized it at once.
"What is that?" Ye Fan asked.
The Emperor Weapon had concealed itself, revealing no aura whatsoever. It looked no different from an ordinary lid.
Ye Fan only felt that it looked very ordinary, like the lid of the earthen jar his family had owned when he was young.
"It is very likely an invincible divine object from legend—the Swallowing Heaven... Immortal Jar."
Qin Sheng's expression was solemn. "It is the same kind of thing as the Demon Emperor Weapon we saw in the Demon Emperor's Tomb."
Ye Fan was shocked. "It's that powerful?"
Ye Fan had personally experienced the events at the Demon Emperor's Tomb, and he still vividly remembered the madness of the great holy lands and aristocratic families of the Eastern Wilderness over the Demon Emperor Weapon.
This was a supreme treasure. Even among holy lands and aristocratic families, it was a foundational treasure.
"It's even more powerful than that," Qin Sheng said seriously.
Although the Swallowing Heaven Devil Jar and the Emperor Qing Weapon had both been refined from the bodies of two Great Emperors, the difference between them was immense.
The Emperor Qing Weapon had been made from Emperor Qing's original body after he took human form and shed it.
The Swallowing Heaven Devil Jar had been forged during Ruthless's second lifetime, using her Primordial Spirit as fire and the shed remains of her first lifetime—the Emperor body with the Incomplete Chaotic Body—as clay. Supplemented by the endless divine materials of Eastern Wilderness legend, it became this Extreme Dao Emperor Weapon.
Within it remained the Primordial Spirit laws and soul left behind by Ruthless's transformation, with Demonic Nature and Divinity coexisting.
"Legend says that as long as one has enough divine power, if they refine the complete Swallowing Heaven Immortal Jar and activate it to a certain degree, the invincible Great Emperor who forged this Emperor Weapon will reappear in the Human World and sweep through the Six Paths of Reincarnation."
As he said this, Qin Sheng glanced at Ye Fan.
That legend was true. Throughout all of ancient history, the Swallowing Heaven Devil Jar was also the most special and strongest Emperor Weapon. It could practically be regarded as a slumbering Great Emperor.
But the problem was that not just anyone could unleash the move "Ruthless Reappears." Even an Alternative Dao Achiever could not force it.
There was a "god" within the Swallowing Heaven Devil Canopy. It was Ruthless's Primordial Soul from one lifetime. If she did not wish to act, no one could make her do so.
Only in the hands of the right person could the Swallowing Heaven Devil Jar possibly fully awaken and reveal the Empress's immortal might.
Ye Fan was deeply shaken. He had never expected that this ordinary-looking lid could be so terrifying.
"The last Great Emperor of the Demon Race was able to unite the Eastern Wilderness Demon Race. If we can obtain this Emperor Weapon and unleash its strongest attack, wouldn't we be able to stand proudly above all the heroes of the Eastern Wilderness too?"
Qin Sheng: "..."
You can make the "Empress Reappear," and all you want is to dominate the Eastern Wilderness?
What grand ambition...
Emperor Qing, you really did harm people deeply!
Qin Sheng did not answer Ye Fan's question for the moment. Instead, he stared at the grave mound, thinking about something.
Who was buried in there?
Should I make Ye Fan hurry up and kneel to kowtow now?
Before you continue