Xu Ying carried the imperial coffin on his back, trudging outward step by arduous step. There were simply too many talismanic seals plastered over the imperial coffin, yet monstrous ferocity billowed from within, beyond the power of even the talismans to suppress!
This terrifying ferocity even leaked outside the imperial tomb, making Nan Ziyan feel as if a surging sea of blood were crashing down upon him, threatening to drown him whole!
Nan Ziyan's heart pounded with terror. The murderous aura was far too ferocious; even an expert of his caliber found the relentless impact difficult to endure!
"Could His Majesty back then have been not only Emperor Ai, the Sorrowful Emperor, but also a tyrant?"
Carrying the imperial coffin on his back, Xu Ying had to exercise extraordinary caution. Not only did he have to pass through the Supreme runes himself, but he also had to bring the imperial coffin through without triggering an ounce of their might.
Otherwise, both he and the imperial coffin would perish!
His Dao patterns not only had to interface with the Supreme runes, but also with the talismans covering the imperial coffin.
The talismans were likewise composed of Supreme runes, but their contents differed from those lining the corridor. Figuring out how to allow the two distinct sets of runes to pass through each other was an extraordinarily demanding trial.
On top of that, chains wound around Xu Ying's body. These chains had originally bound the imperial coffin, but for some reason had coiled themselves around Xu Ying, restraining both his physical body and his Primordial Spirit and severely restricting his movements.
It took every ounce of Xu Ying's intellect to make his way from the depths of the imperial tomb all the way to this point—a truly remarkable feat.
All around him, Dao patterns soared like thousands of wispy, smoky tendrils, connecting with the surrounding Immortal Dao runes, harmonizing with the talismans on the imperial coffin, and even linking to the chains wrapped about his body!
Above his head, the Taiyi Cave-Heaven hung suspended, keeping his cultivation constantly at its peak. On the opposite shore of the Taiyi Cave-Heaven, the Taiyi Cave Abyss was growing ever clearer to behold!
Cave-heavens were divided into nine tiers. Xu Ying had only just stepped into the God Bridge stage, yet he had already cultivated the Taiyi Cave-Heaven to the seventh tier, and the Taiyi Cave Abyss seemed to draw closer as well.
The diverse powers pouring from the Taiyi Cave Abyss cascaded down, brimming within him as nine distinct forces that transformed into Taiyi power, condensing into a single unified whole.
The imperial coffin was unimaginably heavy. The muscles of his legs were taut and swollen with strain, and the Sky-Ascending Boots gifted to him by the Heavenly Fiend Supreme ruptured under the sheer pressure of his footsteps.
Xu Ying pushed forward. From the moment the Last Lord of Ziwei, Nan Ziyan, and the others first spotted him until he emerged from the corridor and reached behind the tomb stele, it took a full five days just to cover those few dozen paces!
The moment Xu Ying set the imperial coffin down, he was on the verge of total collapse, nearly falling to his knees.
His physical endurance had been pushed past its absolute limit, bearing the highest intensity of pressure without pause for months. His mind had also spun frantically during this time, pondering the profound mysteries of various Supreme runes, devising counter-methods, and translating Immortal Dao runes into Dao patterns.
Now that he finally relaxed, the world spun around him, and he only kept from falling by leaning on the imperial coffin.
"Ziyan, help Minister Xu go rest," the Last Lord of Ziwei's voice called out.
To Xu Ying's ears, however, the sound seemed to come from beyond the highest heavens, exceedingly distant.
Nan Ziyan reached out with both hands to support Xu Ying. Yet Xu Ying felt as though Nan Ziyan were only supporting his physical husk, while his soul had already floated into the skies.
Nan Ziyan helped him down the mountain. Several young women came forward to meet them, gasping in shock at Xu Ying's deathly pale, bloodless face. Working together in a flurry, they settled him onto a bed. Xu Ying collapsed onto the bedding like a corpse, and the next moment, he was dead to the world.
Throughout this deep slumber, dazzling Supreme runes swirled relentlessly through his dreams. The Immortal Dao tones erupting from the runes were deafening, lingering endlessly in his mind.
He seemed utterly drained of strength, stumbling and fleeing through the dreamscape, passing through twisted giant runes as his physical body blew apart and his Primordial Spirit contorted and grew like an aberrant plant, dying over and over again.
Whenever this happened, the chime of a bell would always ring out, startling him awake from death.
Drenched in cold sweat, he awoke from nightmare after nightmare, but only for a fleeting instant before slipping back into slumber amid the tumultuous Dao sounds.
After this repeated several times, Xu Ying finally regained his senses. He felt as if he were lying in a mass of clouds; his head felt like a melon split into two halves, with his brains exposed like melon pulp.
He raised a hand to touch his head. It had not split open; everything was intact.
He rose from the bed, holding his forehead as his head continued to buzz.
Xu Ying glanced around. This appeared to be a young woman's boudoir. The bedsheets carried a faint fragrance, and to one side stood a dressing table with neatly arranged vanity accessories. The scent of incense wafted in from outside.
Xu Ying raised his fist and thumped his head twice with a hollow *thump thump*. Feeling somewhat better, he stood up and noticed a new pair of shoes placed beside the bed, roughly the size of his feet.
He slipped into the new shoes and walked outward. Just then, a girl was walking into the room, nearly bumping right into him.
She let out a startled cry, but upon seeing that he was awake, joy washed over her face. Hurrying back outside, she called out, "Young Master Xu is awake! Young Master Xu is awake!"
The girl was Nan Ziyan's senior martial sister. She usually wore a pale green robe over lotus-root pink garments, a lively and cheerful girl.
Xu Ying stepped outside and took a long, deep breath. The splitting sensation in his head finally eased a bit.
As he walked on, his blood and Qi circulated, and his body grew lighter. Circulating the Taiyi Indestructible Scripture for several cycles, he soon felt himself restored to his peak condition.
The *Taiyi Enlightenment* left behind by Emperor Haotian was truly extraordinary. Those who came after Emperor Haotian had all comprehended Dao methods and divine powers based upon the Taiyi Enlightenment, but Xu Ying had fused the Taiyi Enlightenment into his Taiyi Indestructible Scripture.
As he circulated his profound art, the powers of the Dao, the void, life and death, heart power, yin and yang, and more merged into an undivided whole. He immediately felt his physical body and Primordial Spirit fuse in absolute harmony, as if forged into an indestructible adamantine body.
"Ah Ying, you're finally back on your feet," the big bell flew out from his Ruyi Great Luo Heaven, saying with relief. "Seeing how severely depleted your mind and spirit were, I chimed within your dreams to keep your spirit from extinguishing."
Xu Ying thanked it with a smile. "I'm fully recovered now."
The big bell had been cultivating inside his Ruyi Great Luo Heaven all this time, making rapid progress. Only after sensing that his condition was dire had it watched over him through his slumber.
"By the way, Ah Ying, while you were asleep, I noticed treasures radiating dazzling light inside your Realm of Xiyi..."
Just as the big bell said this, Xu Ying let out a sudden cough, and the bell clamped its mouth shut immediately.
From outside, Nan Ziyan's delighted voice called out, "Young Master Xu, you're finally awake! You've been asleep for four whole days!"
Xu Ying was surprised. All told, it had taken him nearly two months to haul the Last Lord of Ziwei's imperial coffin out of the tomb, and then another four days of slumber just to recover. Entering the imperial tomb had truly been no easy task!
Nan Ziyan strode over quickly, looking him up and down and moving to inspect him for injuries.
Xu Ying shook his head. "I'm fine. I was just overexerted, but after resting until now, I'm completely all right."
Nan Ziyan breathed a sigh of relief.
Xu Ying asked, "Has Emperor Ai opened the imperial coffin?"
Nan Ziyan shook his head. "The coffin you brought out is far too ferocious and covered in seals. His Majesty is merely a wisp of refined soul and cannot open it. We still need you to go in person."
Xu Ying braced himself and followed him. Seeing this, the big bell hurriedly flew back into Xu Ying's Ruyi Great Luo Heaven to resume its cultivation, thinking to itself, *Those treasures inside Ah Ying's Realm of Xiyi seem really formidable...*
Xu Ying arrived outside the Mount Qian Imperial Tomb. The Last Lord of Ziwei was still waiting there. None of the people around dared to approach, for the ferocious aura emanating from the imperial coffin was overwhelmingly intense; getting even slightly too close would shatter their divine consciousness and drive them mad!
Moreover, chains danced around the imperial coffin like venomous dragons and giant serpents, guarding it.
These chains were deadly. Quite a few corpses lay scattered about; presumably, during Xu Ying's slumber, experts among the tomb guardians had attempted to draw near and open the coffin, only to be strangled to death by the chains.
Xu Ying stepped forward. From a distance, he projected strands of Dao patterns that linked with the chains, followed by a flurry of Dao patterns connecting to the talismans plastered on the coffin.
He arrived beside the coffin, and the Last Lord of Ziwei drew near as well, looking quite tense.
Xu Ying carefully inspected the coffin nails. They had been specially forged, each one an exceptional treasure.
"Emperor Ai, whoever killed you treated you rather well. This coffin is packed with treasures inside and out," Xu Ying couldn't help admiring. "These coffin nails possess extraordinary power. Any single one brought outside would be a top-grade immortal weapon, easily surpassing the treasures of an Immortal Monarch."
The Last Lord of Ziwei replied proudly, "My funeral arrangements followed the standards of an Immortal Emperor. Back then, when Emperor Haohong abdicated in my favor, I buried him according to the rites of a great emperor as well. His imperial tomb was filled with all sorts of rare treasures; I never mistreated him."
With great care, Xu Ying pulled out the coffin nails one by one, casually slipping them into his Realm of Xiyi.
Watching his practiced ease, the Last Lord of Ziwei couldn't help remarking, "There must have been plenty of burial goods in my tomb..."
Xu Ying replied guardedly, "I didn't touch a single copper!"
The Last Lord of Ziwei hesitated, then said, "I forged a magic treasure called the Taicang Dongzhen Glazed Lamp. It is an oil lamp whose light can illuminate all the myriad realms in the heavens, its beams striking down foes. No matter where an enemy hides, once this lamp shines upon them, I will locate them. A slash of its lamplight, and heads roll—it is extraordinarily formidable. That lamp should have been hanging beside my coffin."
Xu Ying thought for a moment and shook his head. "I didn't notice it. Could it have been stolen when Your Majesty was killed?"
The Last Lord chuckled. "Hardly. No one but me knows how to wield it."
"Then it is probably still in the imperial tomb," Xu Ying said.
He extracted every last coffin nail; not a single nail dropped to the ground, all of them safely stowed in his Realm of Xiyi.
Xu Ying applied his strength and hoisted open the coffin lid. Immediately, an overwhelming wave of ferocious aura surged into the sky. In an instant, the void turned crimson as blood, as if a sea of blood were draped across the heavens, surging with waves where countless demon gods seemed to churn within!
"Am I turning into a corpse demon?"
Startled, the Last Lord of Ziwei moved forward, but Xu Ying quickly grabbed him and shook his head. "Your Majesty suffered a violent death by assassination; the grievances accumulated inside the coffin to form blood fiend aura. If you poke your head over and get struck by the blood fiend, it could scatter even your Primordial Spirit. Let us wait for the blood fiend aura to vent before looking inside."
The Last Lord had no choice but to stop, asking, "Minister Xu seems remarkably adept at the ways of unsealing coffins."
Xu Ying smiled. "I have loved reading since childhood; I read about it in books."
The Last Lord chuckled. "And here I thought you were a veteran of the craft."
Once the fiend aura had fully vented, Xu Ying stepped up to the coffin. Inside lay a great emperor wearing an imperial crown and imperial robes, dignified and imposing—though he truly bore little resemblance to the painted Last Lord.
The Last Lord in the coffin had handsome, dignified features, without any prominent dragon snout; in contrast, the Last Lord's portrait had been rendered looking more like a dragon than a human.
However, the neck of the Last Lord in the coffin was severed, a gaping hole pierced through his chest, and his glabella had been impaled by something.
Apart from that, dozens of Dao wounds, both large and small, marked his body. Even after an unknown number of ages, the Dao wounds within the gashes remained active, faintly emitting gleams of the Dao.
Xu Ying casually shoved the coffin lid into his Realm of Xiyi as well. Gazing at the Last Lord in the coffin, whose eyes bulged wide in unavenged death, he couldn't help saying, "Your Majesty, you didn't abdicate voluntarily—you were murdered!"
The Last Lord said, "Nonsense! I clearly abdicated and died peacefully in my bed of old age."
Xu Ying retorted, "Your cause of death was clearly this puncture hole between your brows!"
The Last Lord replied solemnly, "Wrong! When that supreme treasure pierced through my head, I didn't die. Thus, my cause of death was falling into a coma from excessive loss of brain fluids, not murder. Falling into a coma and then passing away counts as dying peacefully in one's bed!"
Exasperated, Xu Ying said, "Your neck was severed and your head was chopped clean off! How is that not being murdered?"
The Last Lord argued, "When my head was chopped off, I hadn't died yet. My cause of death was cerebral ischemia following decapitation, definitely not murder!"
Xu Ying inspected the wounds and said, "Your heart was pierced through by some magic treasure—that's a fatal wound too!"
The Last Lord chuckled. "My cause of death wasn't having a magic treasure pierce my chest, but excessive blood loss; I wasn't murdered. They said that after abdicating, I died peacefully of old age from cerebral ischemia, coma, and heart failure—definitely not murdered."
Xu Ying blinked. "That's what they said?"
The Last Lord blinked back and smiled. "That's what they said."
Xu Ying laughed. "That is utterly absurd."
The Last Lord sighed. "Reality is even more absurd."
Suddenly, he dissolved into a puddle of ink. The wisp of refined soul hidden in the painting flew into the corpse within the coffin.
Instantly, an aura as deep as an abyss stirred and awakened inside the coffin. The talismans plastered over it were instantly obliterated and reduced to dust by terrifying Dao power!
The chains binding the coffin shattered inch by inch under the immense pressure of the churning Dao force emanating from within!
The Last Lord of Ziwei's corpse slowly floated up from the imperial coffin. Under the crushing pressure of his aura, the magnificent coffin collapsed flat as if crushed by an invisible weight, its remaining seals bursting with sharp pops!
Having already stepped aside, Xu Ying thought with quiet regret, *What a pity, I didn't get the chance to pocket the coffin too.*
Across the Last Lord's corpse, the Dao wounds healed at astonishing speed, the alien Great Daos festering within them wiped away completely.
Within his body, the Great Dao surged, blazing like fire and shining like rosy dawn as it rose into the sky, connecting with the void and communing with the outside world. That was the Great Dao of the ancient Ziwei Immortal Court—the single most crucial missing piece of the Ancestral Court!
Now that this Great Dao was reviving and reconnecting with the Ancestral Court outside, across every corner from south to north—whether in Lihen Heaven, the Heavenly Dao Ancestral Court, or the Demon Ancestral Court—cultivators everywhere felt the vital spark of Heaven and humanity coming alive, a thriving resurgence where all things flourished!
That was the Heavenly Dao of the Ancestral Court, the Heavenly Dao belonging to all Qi Refiners, springing back to life at this very moment!
"Minister Xu, wait here a moment! We shall enter the tomb first to retrieve Our supreme treasure, the Taicang Dongzhen Glazed Lamp!"
The Last Lord descended slowly and strode into the depths of the tomb. Wherever his body passed, clusters of Supreme runes detonated one after another, obliterated by his mere presence!
Xu Ying's face changed slightly. Hurriedly, he turned to Nan Ziyan: "Brother Nan, I have urgent business—I need to make a trip to Tusita Heaven. Farewell!"
He leapt up to take flight, but Nan Ziyan hastily intercepted him with a chuckle. "Young Master Xu, His Majesty still intends to help you blind the person plotting against you. Don't be in such a rush to leave."
Xu Ying hesitated. Just then, an enraged roar echoed from Emperor Ai's imperial tomb. The tomb blew apart with an explosion, and the Last Lord of Ziwei soared into the sky, sneering, "Those scoundrels! They really did take Our Taicang Dongzhen Glazed Lamp!"
Xu Ying said, "Your Majesty, perhaps... let's just let it go..."
"Worry not. That treasure was personally refined by me; its flame is linked to my heart and spirit, and no one can take it away," the Last Lord laughed. "Even if it were far away in the Immortal Court, hidden within the Great Luo Heaven, it could never evade my senses. Watch as I summon it back! Keep your eyes open, and you will see the light shining from my Taicang Dongzhen Glazed Lamp!"
With that, he activated his spirit and summoned the Taicang Dongzhen Glazed Lamp.
Nan Ziyan looked all around, scanning the surrounding void to see where the lamplight would emerge.
The Last Lord scanned the area as well.
Suddenly, right beside them, Xu Ying began to glow brightly. Inside his Realm of Xiyi, an oil lamp lit up, illuminating him until he was practically translucent.
Chapter 498