Chen Chuan's gaze fell into the swirling flares of fire. There, after Emperor Wenguang's destruction, a dozen or so items could be seen spinning amidst the flames.
Some emitted a faint glow, and even he could sense that they were extraordinary.
With a pull of his thought, all of them flew to his side.
And as these items arrived, the relic on him that had been persistently heating up finally quieted down.
His gaze swept over them. Most were relics, one of which was particularly exceptional; there were also one or two items whose purpose was not immediately apparent, though he did not find the Celestial Map among them.
Now was not the time for careful appraisal, so he stowed them straight into the storage pouch of his external implant, then turned his head to look in the other direction.
At this moment, his duplicate was locked in combat with Consort Teng. As his gaze landed upon them, he saw the duplicate's fist smash into Consort Teng's body, instantly blasting her form apart into a sky full of dancing divine qi.
Consort Teng had surely seen Emperor Wenguang's death as well. Having clearly lost any interest in entangling further, she did not reform her body, but instead dissolved abruptly into wisps of faint, luminous vapor, darting away in all directions.
Every wisp of this light smoke was her; as long as a single one escaped, she could make a clean getaway.
Yet at that instant, a sun-like brilliance unfolded around the duplicate, instantly illuminating all of the divine qi—both bright and dim—and causing every part of it to slow to a crawl.
Almost at the same moment, another spiritual impact erupted from the duplicate. It first blasted apart and obliterated the majority of the divine qi directly ahead, then split outward, transforming into beams of light that pursued the remaining wisps and rapidly snuffed them out one after another.
When only a single wisp remained, the duplicate hooked a finger, drawing a lingering trace of unextinguished Mystic Void Fire from Chen Chuan. The flare flashed, landing upon the wisp, and burst into raging flames, blazing from there toward an unknown realm high above the heavens.
By now, three breaths had passed, and the duplicate slowly dispersed.
Chen Chuan stood firm in the void, the third eye at his brow watching the trail of luminous fire reaching upward. He saw that after entering the upper layer, the Mystic Void Fire vanished within moments, unable to trace back to the root source.
From this, it was not difficult to deduce that even if this snake woman was not the reflection or avatar of some upper-layer power, she was at least under its protection.
His thoughts shifted. It seemed that with the approach of the Great Impact, these things arriving from the outside were growing ever more numerous.
The former imperial household was a massive loophole; wiping them out early had been a thoroughly sound decision, or serious problems would inevitably have arisen when the time came.
And the moment he severed Emperor Wenguang's life, Mingchengzi and the Dongxuan View martial artists who were encircling and suppressing the ancient deities all sensed it immediately.
While the two were clashing, Mingchengzi had been constantly repelling the ghosts and monsters spawned from the anomaly on Chen Chuan's behalf.
These creatures were terribly troublesome, inexhaustible and impossible to eradicate completely. Moreover, it was hard to say whether other hidden threats lurked nearby, so he maintained high vigilance and deployed technique after technique, doing his utmost to keep them from disturbing the battle behind him.
Now, seeing Emperor Wenguang finally perish at Chen Chuan's hands, he was overcome with immense joy.
Though he felt a slight pang of regret at not having slain his enemy with his own hands, his great vengeance was ultimately avenged. His heart felt incomparably liberated; had the occasion not been inappropriate, he would have loved nothing more than to laugh aloud.
Meanwhile, on the other side, the ancient deities had fallen completely into disadvantage.
Some were divine qi avatars of ancient deities, some were wisps of aura cast down by upper-layer powers, and others had long since detached to form independent entities. Yet regardless of which they were, due to the existence of the Ring of the World, their power could not exceed the ceiling of the Dongxuan View.
Pitted against multiple Dongxuan View martial artists who were coordinated in teams, the situation exceeded what they could handle.
However, bound by a prior pact with Emperor Wenguang, they could not withdraw before his ascension was complete. They could only hold out against the group, and within mere moments, three of them were obliterated on the spot.
It was only because these martial artists refrained from snatching their comrades' credit and did not join other skirmishes that the fight lasted as long as it did; otherwise, it would have ended even sooner.
And the instant they saw Emperor Wenguang slain, the remaining few felt as though relieved of a burden. Unwilling to linger a moment longer, they scattered and fled in all directions. Yet even so, only one managed to escape in the end.
That one appeared to have some skill in fleeing; in a single flash, it soared into the void and vanished without a trace.
Chen Chuan's expression stirred slightly, for he noticed that the lingering aura shed by two of the ancient deities seemed rather well-suited to the requirements of the precious materials he needed to seek a higher boundary.
Though the quality was not exceptionally high, they were nevertheless of some use to him.
Upon realizing this, he quietly committed the two to memory.
One was "Count Mochuan," and the other was "Gu Weijun." As long as independent incarnations of these two remained in the world, destroying them would yield similar precious materials.
Seeing that the enemy host in the field was largely wiped out, he looked up overhead once more. At this moment, the immortal-welcoming carriage was still ascending.
Such an anomaly would normally not dissipate unless its ultimate objective was achieved.
Yet this anomaly was highly peculiar, largely tethered to Emperor Wenguang himself. Thus, with Emperor Wenguang's demise, the carriage could be seen truly passing into the void; whether it was the raining jewelry, jade pendants, and fresh flowers, or the immortals and deities crowding beside the chariot, all of them slowly faded away like illusory bubbles.
And the void they occupied was now slowly dissolving as well, with hole after hole appearing along the surrounding celestial wall.
The light of the Confluence began shining through from those openings, turning into crisscrossing beams radiating from every direction and falling upon everyone present.
After standing quietly for a short while, the anomaly finally dissipated, and they returned to reality.
At this moment, they stood right before Anye Palace.
Everyone looked toward him, awaiting his next instruction.
The moment Emperor Wenguang's ushering Divine Visage had emerged had truly shaken everyone to the core.
After all, an otherworldly deity or fiend wrapped in powers from the upper layer naturally made them feel a grave threat.
Yet in the blink of an eye, it had been cut down with a single slash. Their emotions had experienced massive highs and lows in a very brief span, but this had also tremendously galvanized their morale, driving each of them to charge forward valiantly and strike down the ancient deities without mercy.
Mingchengzi glanced at the crowd. Having lived through war himself, he knew this look all too well.
It was the heartfelt awe and respect that could only be earned by one who led his fellows to triumph on the battlefield.
If nothing else, should they take to the battlefield again in the future or encounter matters involving common interests, these people would undoubtedly be staunch supporters of this Chen Xuanji.
And to have so many Dongxuan View martial artists at his side—the mere thought made his heart tremble.
Seeing this, he felt all the more certain that his initial judgment had been correct.
Once Chen Chuan confirmed they had suffered virtually no losses in the battle, he extended his spiritual senses toward the palace complexes below.
There were no overly intense force field fluctuations down there; aside from some variants, there was not even a single person at the martial artist level.
It seemed they had either all perished in the earlier fighting, or they had been captured alongside the two detachments Emperor Wenguang had previously dispatched.
Moreover, there were no special esoteric rituals or anomalies left down below.
However, there were a few locations that his spiritual power could not immediately penetrate. It appeared they were places of greater importance that might still harbor something, which warranted heading down to investigate thoroughly.
He promptly sent out a spiritual transmission, instructing everyone to strictly guard this palace compound and its perimeter to prevent any contagious contaminants from leaking out.
At the same time, he directed them to sweep the perimeter of Youdu again, doing their best to preserve valuable items and keep them from being damaged.
Upon receiving his orders, the crowd immediately split up to act. Most fanned out into the surrounding areas, while a small group including Mu Xiaoren and Mingchengzi followed him as he flew slowly deeper into the palace compound.
As they flew, everyone observed their surroundings. This palace of the former dynasty had been expanded by the Ding Dynasty over a hundred years on the foundation of the previous dynasty's imperial palace; magnificent and grand, it was also lavish and opulent in the extreme.
Yet the most precious treasures here were the rare, mutated plants, all of which the former imperial household had scoured the world for and cultivated with meticulous care.
Many had even been handed down across several dynasties and taken away when the former imperial household retreated into the Confluence—things that people today had only ever seen in albums and photographs.
Because the administrative halls at the front required no close scrutiny—any important items would hardly be kept there—Chen Chuan and the others headed directly for the spots sealed against spiritual probing, most of which lay within the Yunmeng Court.
Chen Chuan believed that what needed the most vigilance were microscopic mutated organisms; such things could cause widespread lethality, virtually impossible for ordinary people to resist.
Such incidents had occurred in the past. Former imperial houses across the world had engaged in similar acts around the time of their retreat into the Confluence, and even the founding of the Grand Alliance had some connection to events of this nature.
Therefore, they had to exercise extreme caution.
Before long, Chen Chuan touched down before one of the pavilions showing anomalies.
Separated from the Changyi Pavilion up ahead by a lotus pond and linked by a zigzag bridge, it was a place the emperor had frequented.
Chen Chuan cast a glance, and the thick, tall wooden doors swung inward on their own, releasing a distinctive fragrance from within.
He stepped inside and glanced around, finding that this was a scripture repository. It was filled entirely with scriptures, alchemical treatises, and similar texts, while a piece of calligraphy hung above bearing two words: "Famed Immortals."
Mingchengzi followed him inside. After looking around, his expression suddenly shifted. He walked to the side, picked up a volume, flipped through a few pages, and said with excitement:
"These are the esoteric scriptures and registers of my Fulong Faction! They weren't burned after all..." He glanced toward other spots and picked up another book. "And here, here as well..."
Chen Chuan said at this moment, "Gaogong, I obtained an item from Emperor Wenguang just now. Please take a look and see if it belongs to your Fulong Faction."
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Chapter 1440