"Go screw yourself." Duan De cursed under his breath, his face full of humiliation, then immediately haggled, "How about two? Two plus one still makes three."
"Deal." Lin Xian agreed crisply.
Duan De froze for a moment, unable to tell whether he had lost out or profited.
"There truly are countless heroes and rising geniuses in this world. Even this poor Daoist has moments when he slips up. This time, I must guard against arrogance and impatience." Duan De's expression shifted unpredictably, turning pale, then red. After weighing the pros and cons, he finally let out a long sigh, handed over two Source Stones, and cupped his fists. "The mountains are high and the roads long. May we never meet again in the martial world."
Before his words had even faded, the fat Daoist hurriedly transformed into a divine rainbow and fled.
"Celestial Master." Watching Duan De's departing figure, Ye Fan could not help muttering, "You really let him go that easily?"
"Of course not."
Lin Xian chuckled and said meaningfully, "Have you ever seen someone harvesting leeks and cutting off the roots? As long as Duan De remains, there'll be no shortage of treasures. We need sustainable development."
"Leeks..." Ye Fan pondered the phrase and revealed a strange smile.
"Besides, I'd wager he'll come back." Lin Xian stood with his hands behind his back, speaking with complete confidence.
Ye Fan paused, confused. "Why?"
Duan De, that fat Daoist, had suffered three losses here already. Why would he return?
Even a pig would learn its lesson after stumbling three times.
"Because he's Duan De." Lin Xian laughed heartily and teased, "His retreat and advance are swift as the wind; his flanking maneuvers are slow as a forest; his grave robbing and tomb raiding are fierce as fire; when friendly forces are in trouble, he stands still as a mountain."
Black-hearted and shameless, sinister and vile, he spent his days underground doing archaeological work. He excelled at swindling and deception, and would risk his life for treasures.
As long as the profit was great enough, Duan De would even sell the rope used to hang himself.
If his life was gone, at worst he could bury himself for another lifetime. But if his money was gone, then it was truly gone!
As they chatted and laughed, the Qing Emperor's Ancient Tomb changed again. Ocean-like waves of energy swept across the heavens, and many cultivators could no longer control their divine rainbows, falling straight from the sky.
The immense power was suffocating, making souls tremble instinctively.
"Rumble!"
A deafening sound rang out. Ye Fan's expression changed drastically as he looked at the five great figures in the distance and cried, "Did they really open the Demon Emperor's Tomb?"
"Immortal Two Great Powers attacking an Emperor's tomb? What a joke."
Lin Xian sneered, then grabbed Ye Fan and leaped into the shadows, concealing them as they silently observed. He said quietly, "Even if a Great Emperor's tomb didn't strike back on its own, Great Powers could attack it for ten thousand years without shaking it in the slightest."
"Then... what's going on with that palace?" Ye Fan looked into the distance. The majestic ancient hall rumbled as it completely collapsed, endless rays of divine light shooting in every direction while the Great Emperor's burial objects emerged one after another.
The rarest and most precious Lingbao were all seized by supreme experts using great divine abilities. The remaining sentient treasures were merely bowls, chopsticks, pillows, pearls, mirrors, and other decorative objects. They did not catch the eye of Great Powers and were left for Sea of Bitterness and Dao Palace cultivators to pick over.
"The ancient Great Emperors used the universe as their Dao field and transformed star domains into Heavenly Palaces. They dwelled high above the Thirty-Third Heaven, where palaces stretched endlessly and blotted out the sky."
"This place is not the Qing Emperor's Heavenly Palace. It is the Emperor's Lower Capital."
"It is like an ordinary person's ancestral home. When young, one struggles amid the stars of the universe; when old, one returns to one's roots and goes back to where it all began."
"That palace is not the Qing Emperor's Tomb. At most, it is a funerary hall before the Qing Emperor's mausoleum. These Lingbao were not left behind by the Qing Emperor either, but should be everyday items left by the tomb keepers."
Lin Xian narrowed his eyes, watching the streaks of light as he murmured, "The Qing Emperor's true treasures have yet to emerge. Forget Great Powers—even Saints would die for that thing!"
Suddenly, from within that dazzling radiance that had yet to disperse, a brilliant beam burst forth, so resplendent that even the sun, moon, and stars paled before it.
It was like a great sun exploding. Everyone, including the Great Powers and the hidden watchers, instinctively shut their eyes as the light stabbed them painfully.
"What is that?" Ye Fan stared in shock, for he discovered that the dazzling beam was hurtling toward the stone mountain.
Had Lin Xian not pulled him away, he would either have been killed by the beam or casually crushed by one of the great figures competing for the treasure.
"The Qing Emperor's Weapon—the Eternal Green Lotus."
Lin Xian's gaze burned as he watched the Chaotic Green Lotus and murmured, "An Emperor Weapon is the continuation of a Great Emperor's life, the manifestation of his Dao Fruit. Only when the tomb keepers possess an Emperor Weapon is there true deterrence, true protection. That is what truly puts one at ease."
The weapon of the Demon Race Great Emperor shot out countless divine rays. Its radiance was so dazzling that its true form could not be seen. The blazing light made it impossible to open one's eyes, as if hundreds of millions of stars were burning at once. Heaven and earth shook violently as it crashed into the stone mountain with a boom.
Everything was shattered. No matter how powerful the cultivators were, before an Emperor Weapon, they became clouds of blood mist.
Before such a powerful weapon, Great Powers did not dare touch it, and even Saints would die. Back then, the Azure Emperor Lineage guarded the tomb while wielding an Emperor Weapon, Suppressing the Myriad Ages. It had been a great power ranked among the foremost in the universe.
"An Emperor Weapon is that powerful... then how did this place become the Primordial Ruins?" Ye Fan asked subconsciously.
Yes, why? Why was this place nothing but the Primordial Ruins?
Who could target an Extreme Dao family, a Great Emperor power that had only just been established?
There was only one answer.
"The Forbidden Zone..." Lin Xian suddenly recalled a rumor. Enter the Divine Ruins, pass through the Southern Heavenly Gate, leap into the Heavenly Palace—beneath that Undying Peach Tree, the Azure Emperor had once slain two true Saint Spirits.
Perhaps the Azure Emperor Lineage had been destroyed by Restricted Area Supremes testing whether the Azure Emperor was alive or dead. Or perhaps a Great Accomplished Saint Spirit had come seeking revenge.
Throughout the ages, such tragedies had not occurred only once.
In Primordial Antiquity, the Primordial Ancient Emperor Origin Emperor had refused to enter a Life Restricted Area and become a Dark Supreme, choosing instead to undergo Dao Transformation into heaven and earth.
After Origin Emperor's death, two terrifying Saint Spirits emerged and sought to seize the weapon he had left behind. They descended upon his clan and nearly wiped out an Imperial Clan that stood at the pinnacle of glory and looked down upon Primordial Antiquity.
Eight Primordial Royalty clans under Primordial Lake answered the Imperial Clan's summons and went to rescue them. Every one of them perished.
Origin Emperor had three sons. Each could startle gods and make immortals weep, and every one of them could have taken half a step toward enlightenment. Yet they were all exhausted to death in that battle, and even their descendants were dragged down with them. In the end, only more than a dozen bloodlines remained from Origin Emperor's youngest son's branch.
From the birth of a Dao-Attainer, to his passing, to the rise of his sons, there would be at least tens of thousands of years of prosperity. Even if Alternative Path to Enlightenment figures did not arise in every generation, with Emperor Blood empowering them, producing several Ninth-Heaven Quasi-Emperors would have been effortless.
Only a little over ten thousand years had passed since the Azure Emperor vanished, yet his descendants had declined so badly. Something must have gone terribly wrong.
Otherwise, the current universe would surely be dominated by a Ninth-Heaven Quasi-Emperor of the Azure Emperor Lineage, wielding the Green Lotus Emperor Weapon, intimidating the Big Dipper, and commanding the star rivers in all directions.
"What a disgrace to an Extreme Dao power." Thinking of the few remaining stray cats and dogs of the Azure Emperor Lineage, Lin Xian could not help muttering.
Even the Solar Divine Sect on the Ziwei Imperial Star, whose ancient scripture had been lost and whose Emperor Weapon had vanished, and which stood on the brink of extermination, still had one or two Great Powers guarding its gates.