Fallen Realm Lord

"Hmm? What's that?"

Qi Yuan stepped inside and was instantly drawn to something within!

The space beyond the cave was not large, roughly the size of an ordinary bedroom on Earth in his previous life.

Yet in the middle of the floor sat a skeleton that was entirely golden?

The golden skeleton was not particularly tall. Even standing upright, it probably would not exceed one and a half meters.

The entire skeleton was somewhat humanoid, except its arms were exceptionally long, and two sharp, antelope-like horns protruded from its skull.

"This skeleton..."

The moment he saw the golden skeleton, Qi Yuan's heart stirred.

According to Bu Chen, this Secret Realm ruin had been lost in the gaps of space for an unknown number of eras.

After such an unimaginably long time, this golden skeleton had still remained intact. It was clearly extraordinary.

"The flesh, hair, and so on have vanished, which means it wasn't Immortal. Then could this be the remains of a Realm Lord?"

Qi Yuan's eyes lit up as he quickly inspected the area around the golden skeleton.

Almost immediately, his gaze was caught by a silver ring covered in mysterious patterns lying on the ground before the skeleton!

"A ring... Is it a Space Ring?"

Delight appeared on Qi Yuan's face as a thread of Spiritual Imprint instantly wrapped around the silver ring—

That wisp of imprint swiftly sank into it like a droplet of water. At once, an incomparably vast spatial world appeared within Qi Yuan's senses!

He was instantly stunned by the immense space he perceived.

The space inside the ring measured ten thousand kilometers in both length and width, with a height of ten thousand kilometers as well. There was even land, sky, rivers, and lakes within it, like a real world!

"What a huge world! A World Ring—this isn't a Space Ring, but a World Ring!"

Qi Yuan's heart was instantly flooded with boundless ecstasy!

A World Ring could only be created by a World Lord level expert capable of creating an entire world!

Not only was the space within countless times larger than that of an ordinary Space Ring, it was also like a real world and could sustain living creatures!

Moreover, even peak Realm Lords were rarely willing to create Space Rings. They would rather use their Inner Worlds for storage.

After all, to compress an entire world into such a tiny ring, the materials used to make the ring would have to be unbelievably rare and expensive!

"Damn, I've struck it rich! I've struck it rich! The value of this World Ring alone exceeds all my current assets combined! And..."

Qi Yuan sent his consciousness into the World Ring and quickly locked onto a six-story building in its center.

Drawing on the trace of World Power that a World Ring's owner could command, Qi Yuan easily saw the situation inside the six-story building.

Books—an enormous number of books!

Every floor of the six-story building was lined with rows upon rows of bookshelves!

Gold, silver, blue... Books of different sizes and with covers of different colors had been sorted and placed across the shelves. The inside of the six-story building resembled a miniature library!

Although Qi Yuan had no time to inspect the books' contents, anything a suspected fallen Realm Lord level expert had specifically stored in a precious World Ring could not possibly be ordinary.

Other than that six-story building, however, the entire World Ring was empty, containing nothing else.

"Most of this Realm Lord's possessions were probably stored in his Inner World. But after his death, his Inner World collapsed, and who knows where everything inside drifted off to."

Qi Yuan did not feel particularly disappointed.

On this trip, he had not only obtained a Metal Life that could grow to the ninth stage of Realm Lord, but also an extremely precious World Ring and the vast number of books within it that he had yet to examine.

That alone made this trip more than worthwhile!

"I'll get out of here first."

Before leaving, Qi Yuan looked once more at the golden skeleton.

Beside it lay a pale golden statue of a small beast about a foot long, quietly crouched on the ground. It resembled a one-horned lion.

The material of the golden beast statue looked somewhat similar to that of the Metal Life, Bumblebee, from before.

Beneath the statue's horn, at the center of its forehead, was a finger-sized hole. Qi Yuan faintly sensed within it a weak aura somewhat similar to Bumblebee's.

"Could Bumblebee's former body have been a Metal Life belonging to this Realm Lord? After its original consciousness faded away following its master's death countless years ago, did a new consciousness emerge in its original body?"

Qi Yuan made a few wild guesses, then stored both the golden skeleton and the one-horned beast statue in the World Ring.

He did not linger any longer. His body turned into a streak of lightning as he shot toward the cave entrance.

When entering the cave, Qi Yuan had needed to carefully watch for potential dangers in its depths, so he had moved much more slowly.

Going out was different. Traveling at full speed, he took less than ten minutes to vaguely see the light coming from the entrance.

However, just then, the Detector he carried suddenly emitted an unusual sound.

On the Detector's screen, two exceptionally powerful life signatures could clearly be seen rapidly approaching in this direction.

"Has someone found the cave entrance?"

Qi Yuan frowned and immediately turned into a streak of lightning, charging out of the cave.

The cave was far too cramped. If someone blocked him inside, he would be at a serious disadvantage.

"Whoosh—"

Qi Yuan shot straight out of the cave entrance and soared into the sky!

"Hmm?"

"Someone's here?"

The instant he appeared, the two figures rapidly approaching above the mountain range containing the cave entrance abruptly stopped in midair.

One of them was a burly figure over three meters tall, with two horns on his head, sharp fangs at the corners of his mouth, and a Great Axe in hand. He looked like a Yaksa Ghost from legend.

The other was a remarkably handsome purple-haired young man with a silver longsword on his back.

However, both men bore identical golden pagoda-shaped badges on the chests of their Battle Armor.

Qi Yuan immediately spotted the two newcomers. When he saw the pagoda badges on their chests, he instantly confirmed their identities.

"People from Wuji Palace."

Within the Eternal Empire, aside from the official institutions represented by the imperial family, the strongest forces were the three major civilian organizations: Imperial Sea Pavilion, Wuji Palace, and Thousand Blade Sect.

Each of the three organizations controlled nearly a thousand star systems, and Immortal Level experts had emerged from all of them throughout history.

Naturally, such experts had long since gone to the Lanting Universe Nation to further their development and did not remain within the Eternal Empire.

Even so, no one dared underestimate them.

After all, the three organizations not only had Realm Lord level experts stationed with them year-round, but also possessed great numbers of Domain Lord level and Universe Level experts under their command.

If the three organizations joined forces, even the Eternal Empire's imperial family would have to be wary of them. Even separately, they were not forces ordinary people could afford to provoke.

"One is at the Fourth Stage of Universe Level, and the other is at the Second Stage."

However, after sensing the two men's levels, Qi Yuan felt somewhat relieved.

After breaking through to Universe Level, he had simulated battles against countless Universe Level opponents in the Slaughter Arena.

Unless he encountered a genius who had also stepped across the threshold of Law or possessed absurdly powerful domain control, fighting opponents two or three stages above him would not be much of a problem!

After all, the First through Ninth Stages of Universe Level only differed in energy accumulation.

Having undergone a life leap, Qi Yuan's energy, strength, and other attributes were already far greater than those of warriors at the same stage. Even compared to a Fourth Stage Universe Level warrior, the gap would not be too outrageous.

Although Qi Yuan did not fear them, the treasures inside the cave had already all been collected. There was no need to invite more trouble, so he immediately prepared to choose a direction and fly away.

Yet the moment he moved, the two men above split apart in perfect coordination, blocking his path from the front and rear.

"Fuck, why are you running? Stand right there and don't move!"

A harsh, vulgar shout came from above.

The ugly brawny man with horns and sharp fangs pointed his Great Axe at Qi Yuan while rapidly flying closer.

From the other direction, the purple-haired young man also pressed forward at an unhurried pace.

"Hmm?"

Qi Yuan's gaze darkened at the sight, and he said coldly, "What do you two mean by this?"

"Haha, what do we mean? I'm asking you—did you find anything good in that cave?" The ugly man wore an overbearing expression.

The three major organizations had always acted domineeringly within the Eternal Empire, so many of their members naturally behaved arrogantly and perversely. This ugly man was clearly one of them.

As a Fourth Stage Universe Level warrior facing Qi Yuan, who was only at the First Stage of Universe Level, and inside a Secret Realm ruin where the higher-ups of every faction tacitly allowed people to kill one another, he naturally had no Concerns whatsoever.

"You mean the cave? Heh, there was nothing inside. If you don't believe me, go in and take a look yourselves."

Qi Yuan replied with a sneer, while secretly preparing to unleash his full strength.

The ugly man seemed completely unaware of it and still wore that arrogant, carefree expression.

"What do you mean, nothing? You must have taken it! Hand over your storage Space Item and let me inspect it first!"

Meanwhile, his purple-haired companion, also at the Fourth Stage of Universe Level, was already closing in on Qi Yuan in perfect coordination.

At this point, Qi Yuan understood. These two were not after any treasure in the cave at all. From the very beginning, they had targeted him as a lone, fat sheep!

Why painstakingly search everywhere for treasure when it was far easier to rob and kill a lone fat sheep who was only at the First Stage of Universe Level?

Sure enough, once the ugly man and his companion had cautiously closed to a certain distance, they erupted almost simultaneously!

One wielded his Great Axe, while the other swung his silver longsword. They instantly accelerated toward Qi Yuan!

"Die!"

"Kill!"

At that moment, the ugly man's eyes no longer held any trace of the earlier arrogance or unruliness. There was only indifference toward life and a thirst for loot!

"Heh heh, almost there. Once I slaughter a few more fat sheep, I should have enough resources to exchange for one entry into the Secret Method Pavilion. Once I obtain a Secret Method suited to me, during the next hall master competition, I'll be able to..."

However, just as he was fantasizing about his wonderful future, a blinding bolt of lightning blade-light suddenly erupted—