"The things sealed away back then... we can't wait any longer."
Ye Tian clenched his fists, watching the sky grow darker and darker. He felt like a traveler standing before a flash flood.
Where is it?
"Inside."
" The Ye Clan's... Immortal Seed."
"This is something our ancestors protected their whole lives. Your great-grandfather, your grandfather, and your father all died because of it."
"It's being sought in Foreign Domain, and it's also coveted by those in the Emperor Pass."
"Now..."
The aged voice was interrupted by a vibration from deep within, then rang out again, shorter than before.
"Go in."
"Only the direct descendants of my Ye Clan are permitted to open this place..."
"Take it. Let's go."
Ye Tian did not hesitate.
He raised his right hand, and the wound on his palm that had just healed split open again, with a drop of dark golden blood hovering in front of his palm.
Blood droplets seeped into the cracks of the palace's main gate.
A very faint light shone through the crack in the door.
The light carried an ancient quality completely different from that of the present era, like a long-forgotten key being slowly turned.
The palace, which was entirely black, was now emitting a faint golden light from its main entrance, like a cocoon that had been torn open, and something inside was slowly awakening.
The door opened.
That rhythm resonated with a certain mark deep within his blood.
Ye Tian's figure flashed and disappeared into the darkness behind the palace gate.
Behind him, Dark Matter was churning.
From all directions, they slowly closed in on the palace.
On the other side, following the guidance of the bone fragments, Lin Fan walked for about the time it takes to brew a cup of tea. The scorched earth under his feet gradually changed to a different texture. It was no longer the carbonized soil that had been repeatedly burned, but a stone slab with a dark gray luster.
The stone slabs are laid very neatly, as if they were once carefully polished. Although they are now covered with cracks and dents, you can still tell that this place must have been a wide square in the past.
On the distant horizon, the outline of a majestic palace slowly emerges from the mist.
The palace was entirely black, unlike what one would expect from stone; it looked more like a single, massive piece of black iron that had been dug out of the ground and sculpted directly into shape.
The surface has few decorations, only a few rough lines that converge at the lintel to form a vague totem.
Lin Fan glanced at the direction the bone fragment was pointing.
The direction perfectly coincides with that of the palace.
Just as he was about to take a step, he suddenly felt a slight tremor under his feet.
It wasn't an earthquake, nor was it a beast tide.
It is a kind of extremely regular, heartbeat-like rhythm that is transmitted upwards layer by layer from the depths of the earth.
Lin Fan stopped and looked down at the stone slabs beneath his feet.
His Double Pupils brightened slightly, and through the cracks in the stone slab, he saw a dark red light slowly flowing below, like a river gently surging deep underground.
There's something down there.
He said it in a low voice.
The heart-pounding tremor lasted for seven or eight breaths, then gradually subsided, as if it had been suppressed by something again.
Lin Fan withdrew his gaze, not delving into the matter, and continued walking towards the palace.
He had walked for less than half an incense stick's time when a thick black fog suddenly appeared ahead of him.
The fog wasn't floating in the air, but rather swirling along the ground, like a rising tide slowly washing over the earth, gradually engulfing the scorched earth and stone slabs at its edges.
Lin Fan's gaze sharpened slightly.
The aura of this black mist was somewhat similar to the Dark Matter he had seen in the depression, but it was more concentrated and carried an extremely obvious activity, as if it was being controlled by something to move in a certain direction.
Black Tide.
He recalled the Dark Matter he had seen in the Immortal Ancient Ruins, and had read similar descriptions in the ancient books of the Three Thousand Provinces.
When Dark Matter surges on a massive scale, converging towards a certain place like a tide, it often signifies the existence of a powerful source or the awakening of something.
Lin Fan glanced at the black palace.
That's the direction the Black Tide is heading.
Just as he was about to quicken his pace, the black mist at his feet suddenly surged violently, and a twisted outline emerged from the mist, like an arm formed from the black mist, with its five fingers spread out, reaching for his ankle.
Lin Fan didn't even stop walking. He casually stepped aside, and the black mist hand grasped at empty air. Then, he pointed with his finger, and a chaotic sword light burst forth from his fingertip, slicing the hand and the churning black mist below it in two.
The severed black mist hissed and quickly dissipated, leaving only a few wisps of pale black smoke drifting in the air.
"Tsk, it even has an auto-attack function."
Lin Fan withdrew his finger and continued walking forward.
The closer they got to the palace, the thicker the black fog became, and the stronger the oppressive feeling in the air grew.
However, the Chaos Qi surrounding him acted as a natural barrier, repelling all the approaching black mist and forming a constantly shrinking vacuum around him.
at the same time.
On the other side of the palace.
Tian Ming, Jing Wuxin, and Yue Linglong stood on a half-collapsed stone platform, facing the ever-spreading Black Tide.
The crack had expanded to several meters wide, and the Dark Matter gushing out had formed a black pool covering the entire area in front of the stone platform, with twisted outlines constantly taking shape within it.
Several fully formed dark creatures were closing in on them.
Just as Yue Linglong had repelled one enemy, the moon-white law left a slender arc of light on the edge of her sword. That arc of light shone for a moment in the darkness, illuminating the churning black mist around her.
"Did you feel it?" Yue Linglong sheathed her sword and asked in a low voice, "The direction of this Black Tide."
Tian Ming nodded. "They're converging on that palace."
Jing Wuxin stood at the edge of the stone platform, his greyish-white robes fluttering slightly in the air currents of the black mist. His gaze fell on the outline of the entirely black palace. "It's Ye Tian. He went in."
The three of them stared at each other for a moment.
Tian Ming was the first to speak, "Let's go, let's go and take a look."
Yue Linglong did not object.
Jing Wuxin didn't speak, but simply turned the gray dagger he had somehow acquired slightly, pointing it towards the palace.
On the other side.
Ye Tian stepped into the hall. The stone slabs under his feet were black and smooth as a mirror, reflecting his image. The hall was empty except for a stone platform less than ten feet high in the center.
On the stone platform lay a half-rotted skeleton.
The skeleton was dark gold in color, with a few extremely faint Law of the Emperor Dao remaining on its surface, surrounded by immortal light!
It's as if he was at least a Great Emperor- level being in his lifetime.
It's very likely he's still only half a step into the Immortal Dao!
Beneath the bones lay a fist-sized object, faintly radiating celestial light, like a sealed seed.
Immortal Seed.
Ye Tian's gaze fell on the seed. The seed had no patterns or runes on its surface, but the resonance deep within his bloodline suddenly intensified.
"Buzz!"
Something was being drawn from the depths of his body by the seed, slowly rising to the surface—a faint, almost imperceptible, bloodline resonance.
"This is..."
He spoke softly.
That ancient and distant voice echoed in my mind, carrying a rare, almost weary sense of relief as it said, "Hmm... Immortal Seed."