The Key

Universe Overlord... Yang Hao thought. A Universe Overlord has much higher clearance than a Universe Venerable and can learn more about the race's affairs.

But this was only the beginning. The road to becoming truly powerful was still long.

After letting his thoughts wander briefly, he continued waiting for the Supreme Treasure to emerge while replenishing the divine power he had lost in the previous battle.

I'm running low on treasures that replenish divine power. When he had spent one Supreme Treasure point on restorative treasures, he had calculated the amount based on his former life gene multiplier and divine body size. Now, restoring the ten-odd percent of divine power he had lost this time would be enough to exhaust his remaining supply.

Having a large divine body has its drawbacks, too. Replenishing it once costs so much...

Fortunately, Yang Hao was not short on wealth now. He had several Supreme Treasures among his spoils, including a Domain-type Supreme Treasure. By any reckoning, he was fairly wealthy.

Of course, his usual combat equipment consisted of Hunyuxi, a High-grade Supreme Treasure weapon; the Azure Ink Armor, a High-grade Supreme Treasure armor; and the Twisted Lighthouse, an Ordinary Domain-type Supreme Treasure.

He used three Supreme Treasures in battle, covering offense, defense, and domain control. It was a very well-balanced setup, and acquiring the Twisted Lighthouse from Venerable Xi Jiao had further strengthened his combat power.

If all else failed, he could even control Luohua Hall and ram people with it.

He familiarized himself with his new Domain-type Supreme Treasure while replenishing his divine power.

Boom!

A Supreme Treasure! Sensing the aura emanating from it, Yang Hao judged that it was not particularly powerful. It was probably a Heavy Treasure set or an Ordinary Supreme Treasure.

Even a small gain was still a gain, and a Heavy Treasure set or an Ordinary Supreme Treasure was hardly insignificant.

Whoosh!

He flew over a vast plain. This was where the aura was coming from.

"This is the place. Why can't I see the Supreme Treasure?" Yang Hao scanned the ground but found nothing.

Normally, an emerging Supreme Treasure appeared at its original size, which was usually quite large. So why couldn't he see anything?

After landing, he approached the very center of the aura.

"Where is it?" Yang Hao looked all around but saw nothing. Had this Primal Star malfunctioned?

"Oh, it's coming out. Let's see what it is." As Yang Hao watched the source of the aura, a tiny tip poked out.

Before long, the tiny object emerged completely.

"Isn't this a key?" Yang Hao picked up the key-shaped object, puzzlement in his eyes.

What could a key be for?

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

"Human, hand over the Supreme Treasure!" A team of five Venerables from the Northern Border Alliance rushed up to Yang Hao.

"Hand over the Supreme Treasure, Qian Wu!"

"Hmm? Why are there flies buzzing around my ears? What a racket." Yang Hao couldn't be bothered with them. He wanted to find out what this key was as soon as possible.

Why had these people from the Northern Border Alliance shown up? Of all the people on the Primal Star, theirs were the most numerous. They were an endless nuisance.

"Don't refuse a generous offer. If you won't hand it over, don't blame us for taking it!"

"Attack!"

Yang Hao had been looking for an opportunity to test the newly upgraded Hunyuxi. He hadn't expected volunteers to deliver themselves to his doorstep. Since they wanted to die, he would naturally oblige them. The five before him were merely high-level Universe Venerables. How could they possibly match a Universe Overlord?

"Twisted Light!"

Hum! Countless strange, warped rays of light surged from the lighthouse-shaped Supreme Treasure, covering tens of millions of kilometers. Under Yang Hao's control, the Twisted Light was even more powerful than it had been under Venerable Xi Jiao's.

"Damn, a Domain-type Supreme Treasure!" The Northern Border Alliance Venerables' expressions shifted slightly. But so what if he had one? It was still five against one, and several other Northern Border Alliance teams were on this Primal Star. In short, they had the advantage.

"Earthquake!"

"Tsunami!"

"Volcano!"

Hunyuxi was a double-headed spear, and using it felt a little awkward at first. But that was no great problem. He could simply treat it as a single-headed spear.

Yang Hao moved like a phantom, flickering from one direction to another as he attacked one of the Northern Border Alliance Venerables.

First, he thrust the spear in from the front, then flashed behind his opponent and pulled it out. Next, he thrust from behind, flashed back to the front, and pulled it out again. His final strike pierced down through the top of the Venerable's head, running through his entire divine body.

Of course, a powerful being's divine body was actually an energy form fused with his soul. As long as he did not lose too much divine power, he could simply re-form his body after it was shattered.

Boom!

The Universe Venerable did not even have time to self-destruct. Just three strikes from Natural Disaster exhausted all his divine power, killing him.

"Venerable Linhong!" The other Northern Border Alliance Venerables had never imagined that their five-man team would become four in an instant.

"Run, brothers!"

"Hmph! Where do you think you're going?" I won't attack unless I'm attacked. Since these Northern Border Alliance clowns dared to strike first, they can't blame me for showing no mercy.

Under the interference of the Twisted Light, their acceleration dropped by more than ten percent, while Yang Hao's increased by more than ten percent.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

Three consecutive spear thrusts struck another Venerable. He had a Top-Tier Heavy Treasure armor that barely held up against Yang Hao's attacks. But Universe Overlord-level attacks already exceeded its defensive limit, so it could only reduce their power to a few hundredths.

Yang Hao attacked several more times in succession, steadily draining the Venerable's divine power.

Meanwhile, the Venerable's attacks on Yang Hao were little more than scratches, consuming only a thousandth or even a ten-thousandth of his divine power. Perhaps they drained less than burning his divine power did.

"I'm done playing with you." Yang Hao couldn't be bothered to waste time trading blows with a Venerable. The other three members of the team had nearly escaped.

Divine Power Burning! His attack power instantly surged. Against Yang Hao's attacks while he burned his divine power, the Venerable's Heavy Treasure could only reduce their power to a few tenths.

"Why me?!" the Venerable roared. He had little divine power left. If he lost any more, he would very likely fall into a deep slumber.

It took little thought to imagine what awaited a Venerable who fell into a deep slumber. No one wanted to spend the rest of his life as a soul slave.

Rumble!

He self-destructed. Yang Hao had anticipated this, however, and immediately entered Luohua Hall to shelter from the blast.

By the time the shock waves subsided, the other three members of the Northern Border Alliance team had already fled through a passage above the Primal Star.

"A Top-Tier Heavy Treasure armor." Yang Hao put the armor away. Although it wasn't worth much, it would make a good gift for a disciple in the future.

"Oh, a Heavy Treasure set, too? Unfortunately, I broke several pieces. Without a complete set, the remaining pieces can only serve as ordinary heavy treasures." Yang Hao collected the spoils.

Then he entered the Virtual Universe through his divine power avatar and searched for information about the Primal Stars to find out what was going on with his key.

After searching for quite a while, he finally found the answer.

A hundred epochs earlier, the universe origin had suddenly descended upon Primal Star No. 01754. The origins of all the laws-metal, wood, water, fire, earth, wind, lightning, light, time, and space-had descended upon that Primal Star simultaneously. Their pressure was overwhelming. For a time, the entire planet seemed shackled. Universe Venerables struggled to move, while Universe Overlords fared slightly better.

Afterward, seven enormous stones emerged, arranged in a formation. The shortest was two hundred thousand kilometers tall, while the tallest reached nine hundred ninety thousand kilometers.

The entire stone formation took eighty years to emerge. Once it had fully appeared, those gathered around it were at least Universe Overlords, with Top Universe Overlords and even quite a few Universe Masters among them.

"Gather all seven keys to open the stone formation and obtain the Supreme Treasure!"

The powerful beings learned this from the secret patterns on the stone formation. However, the seven keys had not emerged alongside it. Instead, they would appear randomly across all the Primal Stars, with no discernible pattern.