"Rumble!"
The Immortal Bell thundered above the heavens. Laws of the immortal path danced and intertwined, manifesting a towering mountain. It stood only a few thousand zhang tall, yet weighed more than a river of stars, its might shaking the heavens.
It was the mountain Divine Form engraved upon the Immortal Bell. An Immortal Treasure Tree breathed in and out its vital essence upon it, while ancient beasts such as Qiongqi and Taotie roared at the sky. Now, all of them had manifested to suppress Yuangeng.
This truly was a heaven-shaking Immortal Artifact, surpassing ordinary artifacts forged by True Immortals of the Immortal Ancient Era. Even when wielded by a cultivator at the Undying Heavenly Emperor's level, the immortal mountain exerted tremendous pressure on Yuangeng, making it difficult to withstand.
Had he come unprepared, he might truly have risked capsizing in the gutter.
He sighed inwardly and drew upon the space within his Dao Seed. A somber stone coffin appeared beside him.
The stone coffin was crude and ancient, roughly one zhang long, fashioned from an unknown black stone. Dense runes covered its surface, holding a mighty power that flourished without end, eternal and undying.
Upon its lid in particular, the name "Yuangeng" had been carved in Immortal Ancient Script. It seemed to carry calls across the long river of time, urging him to awaken.
This was the very stone coffin his master and Sacrificial Spirit had begged from a certain willow tree when Yuangeng lay on the brink of death. Within this wondrous coffin, he had lain through the deadly battles at the end of the Immortal Ancient Era, then through the entire Chaotic Ancient Era and half the Shrouding the Heavens era.
After awakening, Yuangeng had quickly understood the coffin's true nature. It was an Immortal King Secret Treasure personally refined by the Ancestral Sacrificial Spirit, an Immortal King!
Facing the enormous mountain bearing down upon the universe from above, Yuangeng simply lifted the stone coffin's lid. Engraved with the Ancestral Sacrificial Spirit's immortal script, the lid weighed countless times more than any river of stars. In his hands, it resembled an extravagantly shaped greatsword as he swung it at the mountain manifested by the Immortal Bell.
"Boom!"
The collision between two objects possessing the essence of the immortal path produced a thunderous roar that jolted even the Undying Heavenly Emperor's Primordial Spirit. Beneath his gaze, trembling with shock, the illusory mountain was knocked flying by the stone coffin lid. It exploded into hundreds of millions of rays of immortal light in midair and returned to the Immortal Bell.
As expected of an artifact personally refined by the venerable Ancestral Sacrificial Spirit. Truly formidable!
Meanwhile, Yuangeng immediately inspected the coffin lid in his hands. Finding not a single crack upon its rough, ancient surface, he felt greatly reassured.
In truth, the coffin that had buried him was not a weapon in the strict sense. It was a secret treasure whose primary purpose was to serve as Yuangeng's burial vessel. Most of its inscriptions were methods from the Burial Domain Method and the Immortal Ancient Era, intended to nourish his flesh and soul, with some protection provided as well.
Regardless, it was an artifact personally refined by the Ancestral Sacrificial Spirit. Although Yuangeng did not know how far the Ancestral Sacrificial Spirit had traveled along the Immortal King's path by the end of the Immortal Ancient Era, those supremely powerful laws spoke for themselves. Even if little effort had gone into refining this coffin, its intrinsic level remained absurdly high.
Even a teacup used by an Immortal King could smash a supreme cultivator of the human path to death. That was no joke.
"Impossible!"
The Undying Heavenly Emperor clearly could not accept any of this. Unwilling to concede, he activated the Immortal Bell again without hesitation. The towering bell instantly became mountainlike, its golden body spinning as it sought to shatter Yuangeng and the coffin lid in his hands in the most direct, most brutal way possible.
Unafraid, Yuangeng held the coffin lid across his body and charged fiercely into the Kunlun Immortal Bell. He had understood now: attacks at the immortal level would activate the protective runes on the lid. Those Immortal King-level runes were more than sufficient to clash head-on with the Kunlun Immortal Bell countless times.
"Boom!"
The two mighty artifacts collided head-on again. The coffin lid personally refined by the Ancestral Sacrificial Spirit stood as impregnable as a fortress of iron walls and boiling moats, while the Immortal Bell was hurled away. It tumbled through the air and took a long time to steady itself completely.
"Your bell is quite good. Even among Immortal Artifacts, it ranks as formidable."
After settling his breathing slightly, Yuangeng rested the stone coffin lid on his shoulder and offered this praise as he gazed at the Undying Heavenly Emperor in the distance.
The Immortal Bell did not seem to be the bell belonging to Immortal King Wuzhong of the Immortal Ancient Era.
After those two collisions, Yuangeng had gained some understanding of the Great Dao laws engraved upon the Immortal Bell, as well as a few conjectures about its nature.
He knew the original story and had once suspected that the Kunlun Immortal Bell was Immortal King Wuzhong's "bell corpse" from the Immortal Ancient Era, having regained spiritual awareness. Yet, as he carefully sensed the Dao resonance within the immortal mountain, he found that its aura of the Great Dao of Time differed from Immortal King Wuzhong's Dao.
After all, as one of the leading figures of the Primordial Ancient Realm in Yuangeng's era, Immortal King Wuzhong had traveled profoundly far along the Great Dao of Time. His great bell had been a renowned supreme treasure of the Dao of Time throughout the realms. There was no mistaking it.
Besides, if this truly were Immortal King Wuzhong's bell, his coffin lid could not have withstood its attacks so easily.
"Damn it!"
The Undying Heavenly Emperor could only growl, powerless to do anything about it.
In a head-on battle, this ancient being, Yuangeng, utterly crushed him with sheer combat strength. Though he styled himself the Heavenly Emperor, though his bloodline ranked among the very highest even in the Immortal Domain, he still had not inflicted so much as a scratch on Yuangeng.
He had even brought out his ultimate trump card, his Immortal Artifact, yet remained brutally suppressed. That stone coffin was downright uncanny. Ancient histories had never mentioned it, yet it possessed the power to suppress the Immortal Bell.
Unfortunately, the Kunlun Blood had all been used up.
He recalled the blood of an immortal being born deep within Kunlun Immortal Mountain, which he had used when ambushing Emperor Venerable all those years ago. Only such a supreme substance could fully awaken the Immortal Bell and turn the battle around.
"Phoenix Blood, sacrifice to the Immortal Bell!"
At that moment, the Undying Heavenly Emperor seemed to make up his mind. He suddenly spat out a great mouthful of five-colored blood essence. The Dao Blood stained the Immortal Bell and was instantly absorbed, illuminating the many Dao projections of immortal beings upon its surface.
Over all these years, the Heavenly Emperor had also studied ways to wield the Immortal Bell. A blood sacrifice was the simplest and most brutal method. As genuine blood of an immortal being, five-colored phoenix blood was exceptionally effective at awakening its power.
"Clang!"
The Immortal Bell rang out. The mountains, rivers, flowers, birds, fish, and insects engraved upon it all seemed to come alive. A magnificent immortal sanctuary appeared out of thin air. Within it, hundreds of millions of great beasts roared and hundreds of millions of ancestral people bowed their heads, worshipping this mighty artifact that reached into the immortal realm.
When that mighty power reached its fullest manifestation, the Immortal Bell crashed down toward Yuangeng, seeking to suppress him once again.
Facing a strike that nearly rivaled a True Immortal's personal attack, Yuangeng chose to lift the stone coffin, point its opening at the Immortal Bell, and soar into the sky.
He manifested a Lunar Universe within the stone coffin. Terrifying suction erupted from it, swallowing the Immortal Bell directly. Then he replaced the lid and employed a heavenly art, sealing the stone coffin completely.
"Clang!"
This time, the lingering toll rang out from within the stone coffin. Yet through the Immortal King-level coffin, it stirred neither imposing pressure nor extraordinary manifestations. The stone coffin forcibly endured all the Immortal Bell's mighty power without
suffering any damage.
Yuangeng held the stone coffin high. Only when the Immortal Bell's struggles within it had completely ceased did a faint smile appear on his face.
Immortal Bell confiscated. Success!
"Screech!"
At this sight, the Undying Heavenly Emperor lost all will to fight. He wheeled around abruptly, immortal radiance surging skyward from the Five-Colored Heavenly Blade. Wielding the blade, he slashed forward and flew toward the depths of the Ancient World.
He had exhausted every means at his disposal and still could not overcome Yuangeng. Now, his only option was retreat!
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