“What just happened?” the Dark Soul Emperor murmured.
“Wasn’t An Lin supposed to retreat after being unable to break into the entrance?” The Chaotic Demon Ball trembled violently.
The Sword Essence Emperor drew a sharp intake of breath. “The Spirit Patriarch Palace’s enchantment barrier isn’t able to stop An Lin? Could it be that he mastered something that no one knows about?”
The three Dao Integration Stage super mighty figures looked at each other and could see their own embarrassment mirrored in one another’s eyes.
They seemed to have done something extremely stupid.
All of the other Return to Void Stage mighty figures were also looking to them with peculiar looks.
“Hehe, the Spirit Patriarch Palace is fraught with peril. We’ve successfully goaded An Lin into entering the palace, and now, he will be sure to die in there.” The Dark Soul Emperor chuckled coldly.
“What a brilliant plan,” the Chaotic Demon Ball chimed in.
“Let’s hurry up and break this enchantment barrier so that we can recover An Lin’s body,” the Sword Essence Emperor said in its calm voice.
The three Dao Integration Stage super mighty figures made up a story that they didn’t even believe themselves before continuing to try and break the Spirit Patriarch Palace’s enchantment barrier, clearly with more urgency in their actions than before.
Meanwhile, within the Spirit Patriarch Palace.
An Lin passed through the enchantment barrier and was greeted by the sight of an extremely vast palace.
Countless golden balls of light hovered in the air within the palace, giving its interior a golden hue and making it very bright and welcoming. This was completely different from An Lin’s impression of Void Spirit Tribe decor.
The ground was a mass of vibrant colors, and an ancient image was drawn upon it.
The image depicted the growth and rise of the Void Spirit Tribe as well as the countless legendary battles that took place in their history. Everything was depicted on this ground, which spanned an area of ten square kilometers.
Even after countless years, the image on the ground was still extremely clear and realistic, making An Lin feel as if he had truly been taken into that spectacular age.
Not only that, but there was a peculiar sense of fashion in the way that these images were depicted.
An Lin did not hurry off to explore other things first. Instead, he memorized the story depicted by the images on the ground in its entirety as his instincts told him that this would be beneficial to his exploration later on.
The Void Spirit Tribe was a crazed and twisted race who had done a lot of inexplicable things. They liked to do all sorts of experiments on their own bodies, and if they succeeded, they would become stronger, but if they failed, they could die or suffer fates even worse than death. Despite the risks involved, the Void Spirit Tribe living beings remained undeterred.
They had slaughtered cities and destroyed nations. Sometimes, they even stabbed their own allies in the back. It was exactly because of this that every power on the Tai Chu Continent aside from the Blood Tribe detested the Void Spirit Tribe, but that didn’t impact how powerful the Void Spirit Tribe was.
An Lin looked at the image and received a crash course on the Spirit Patriarch’s history.
He had always thought that the Spirit Patriarch was a peerless powerful being who stood at the pinnacle of the world and was always engaged in epic battles. However, upon further careful inspection, he discovered that the Spirit Patriarch was actually a complete introvert.
The Spirit Patriarch was a being who was always secluded in the Void Spirit Realm. It was completely absorbed in its own research and would often work on research projects for hundreds or even thousands of years.
Furthermore, it often performed experiments on its own body by administering some special medicines and soul power in order to stimulate its spirit body while trying to create a change.
If a normal Void Spirit Tribe living being was to do this, they would have played themselves to death a long time ago.
However, the Spirit Patriarch was perhaps extremely lucky. Either way, no matter what method it used to stimulate its body, it was always just right and could sometimes even accidentally produce better results than anticipated.
The Spirit Patriarch had always experimented on its own body, and its cultivation base improved in leaps and bounds, taking it to the Return to Void Stage and even the Dao Integration Stage at an extraordinary rate.
The process through which it had reached the God of Creation Stage was not depicted, but An Lin was already extremely stunned. The Spirit Patriarch fought almost no battles in its life, and it didn’t really cultivate either. All it did was relentlessly take medicine and stimulate itself, upon which its cultivation base rose at an extraordinary rate. This was the first time An Lin had seen anything like this!
“So how did the Spirit Patriarch die in the end?” An Lin was perplexed.
The Spirit Patriarch was like a mad scientist who was extremely reclusive and fought almost no battles with any other mighty figures. Research was its one true love, so who would be able to kill it?
An Lin wandered around the palace again with these questions in mind, but he didn’t discover anything else.
He began to turn his eyes toward the nine gates around the palace, eight of which were quite eye-catching as they were all pure ocean blue in color.
There were also Ancient Man characters inscribed upon them.
They were, respectively, the Gate of Opening, the Gate of Healing, the Gate of Life, the Gate of Pain, the Gate of Limit, the Gate of View, the Gate of Death, and the Gate of Wonder.
“Tsk tsk tsk, the Void Spirit Tribe practice ancient divination techniques as well?” An Lin clicked his tongue in wonder.
If An Lin remembered correctly, these eight gates were part of a divination method invented by Fairy Xuan Nü[1].
Now that Fairy Xuan Nü had disappeared and had not been seen for countless years, it was quite strange that these gates would be named after the mystic technique she invented.
An Lin was a little uneasy as he pushed the Gate of Opening open.
The interior of the Gate of Opening was extremely cavernous, and an open treasure chest, which was completely empty, lay within.
An Lin faltered upon seeing this, and the unease in his heart intensified.
He discovered signs of battle and the residual energy from a broken restriction.
An Lin immediately turned and made his way over to the next gate. He opened the Gate of Healing to discover countless empty bookshelves within.
There were also countless stone plaques with texts inscribed upon them, all of which were in ruins and completely unrecognizable.
An Lin opened the Gate of Life, within which was a massive pill refinement cauldron along with countless pill containers, all of which were also empty.
He opened the Gate of Pain to discover empty weapon racks.
After that, he opened the Gate of Limit, the Gate of View, the Gate of Death, and the Gate of Wonder.
Empty, empty, all of them were empty!
An Lin was having a mental breakdown. This place had already been raided by someone!
He suddenly recalled what the three-headed giant wolf had told him. It had entered the Spirit Patriarch Palace before, but some places were too dangerous for it to access.
Could it be that it explored this area already?
This damn treacherous wolf!
An Lin’s heart was filled with remorse. He should have robbed the three-headed giant wolf first.
Now, the three-headed giant wolf had escaped from his control and had run off!
An Lin heaved a faint sigh before turning his eyes toward the final gate.
This was the final gate among the nine gates in the palace. This gate was quite special, and he could sense an aura of extreme peril emanating from it. It was exactly because of this that An Lin left it for last.
The final gate also had a name, and it was inscribed right in the center of the gate with blood. It was called the “If You Go In, You’ll Never Be Able To Come Out” Gate.
[1] Fairy Xuan Nü is a fictional character from Ancient Chinese mythology.
