Chapter 526: Won’t Give in Yet
Translator: Radiant Editor: Radiant
Xue Ying looked through the rest of the mansion alongside Jing Qiu, but they did not discover anything else. They soon decided to just leave the place.
Hua.
Leaving through the main entrance, they found themselves back in the great valley. All of a sudden, a great amount of light suddenly appeared around Xue Ying’s figure. This was none other than his luminous sun force which had begun spreading out. It quickly covered this entire five thousand kilometers wide meteorite.
“Find anything?” Jing Qiu asked.
“The surface of this meteorite has many signs of cracks, but most of them aren faint. There are only eight spots with more distinct cracks.” Xue Ying laughed. “Let’s go check them out. Maybe we can peel off some Calamity Stone Essence from one of the eight spots.”
In a few steps, both husband and wife had already arrived at a specific location on the surface of the meteorite. Here, they saw a rocky portion of the surface that was almost split open, leaving behind strands of debris.
“This crack here is the biggest one, and an entire rock has almost fallen apart completely.” Xue Ying chuckled. “This particular meteorite hasn’t been visited by any cultivators in a long time. That’s the only way we got to discover this place.”
“Let me give it a try.” Having said this, Jing Qiu pointed out her finger.
Xiu.
A strand of sword light shot out forming a total of nine thin swords. This was none other than Jing Qiu’s personal blood-refined Deity warrior. These thin swords exuded terrifying might as they smashed right into the most critical section of the crack. At the realm the couple was currently at, their could over their strength was nigh perfect. Be it on this Calamity Stone Essence or on any other mysterious objects inside of this watery environment, if they were to just blindly use their force, perhaps only 1% would prove effective.
It was only when they sent out their strength through their comprehension of the realm that the efficiency would increase.
Dang dang dang~ Continuous clashing sounds could now be heard coming from the crack. The rock was clearly on the very verge of falling off, with only the smallest part still connected it to the meteorite. Even so, the attack was only able to leave it trembling for a while without actually breaking it off. Their plan wasn’t even to destroy the Calamity Rock Essence itself. They simply wanted to send some force through the cracks in, but even Jing Qiu, in spite of her status as a stage four World Deity expert, was unable to break the fragment apart. She had even used her blood-refined Deity warrior in the previous attempt.
“I can’t believe it. Let me give it another go.” Jing Qiu focused even harder on her second attempt, merging the nine thin swords into a single sword array that floated in mid-air.
“Haha, take your time,” Xue Ying said from the side as he snickered. His wife was indeed quite competitive.
Hong!
The nine thin swords suddenly shot out in the form of a strand of resplendent sword light. It moved in a flash so that only the arc of its movement was visible by the time it clashed against the rock. The rock shook once more before that single part keeping it attached broke completely, leaving the rock to fall to the side.
“Success!” Xue Ying immediately praised her.
Jing Qiu extended her hand, causing the piece of Calamity Rock Essence to fly into her hands. She felt it for a second before she finally threw it in Xue Ying’s direction. “You can keep it.”
“You’re giving it to me?” Xue Ying was startled.
“This is the most valuable thing I’ve ever found, and I want you to have it as a gift.” Jing Qiu giggled.
Xue Ying grabbed the fragment of Calamity Rock Essence. As he felt it over, he gave a nod. “It weighs roughly six kilograms, so I can see how it would be the most valuable thing you’ve found.” This single rock was worth about seven to eight hundred million Deity crystals, a value comparable to the entire accumulated wealth of a newly-emerged stage four World Deity. Of course, some of the stronger stage three World Deities who had lived for a longer period of time might also have been able to earn such a sum.
Even greedier figures like the Venomous Ying World Deity would fear to covet such a huge amount.
“Let’s go check out the next crack, then.” Jing Qiu was relatively happy. Essentially stumbling across such a huge sum of money was bound to make anyone happy.
…
The two then teamed up to break apart some rocks in one more location. When it came to this second fragment, they only managed to separate it once after launching a joint attack on the weak spot. As for the other six more distinct cracks, they had failed to break a fragment off regardless of how they went about it.
Even then, these two rocks alone reached a combined weight of ten kilograms.
“These Lake Heart Island ruins are, indeed, something different. We’ve had some pretty huge gains before we even reached the island itself,” Jing Qiu said.
“We could only gain this much because we were lucky enough to land on this specific meteor with the abode where the senior left behind a notice to inform us of this matter. Otherwise, we might have never discovered this secret,” Xue Ying said. Very few people were aware of this information. This was primarily because there just were not that many people who would dare to venture into the Lake Heart Island, while the number of people who just happened to land on a meteorite was even smaller.
After all, the enormous silvery-white sphere of water which enveloped Lake Heart Island had a diameter of 9.45 trillion kilometers. Even with a hundred million meteorites inside, when they were scattered all throughout such a large space, they became rather hard to find.
Of course, Xue Ying himself had no intention of publicizing this matter either. He was not so foolish as to lose such an opportunity. The myriad existences of the world all followed a cycle of the laws, so anyone who hoped to obtain something would have to pay an equivalent price.
Hu.
The two continued walking along the surface of the meteorite, crossing through many huge valleys.
“It’s deep within here.” Xue Ying’s luminous sun force spread out. He had long since discovered the corpse and pavilion left behind by Emperor Heavencloud.
Within a deep recess of the great canyon, there was a circular gap in an array diagram. In fact, the array diagram itself was formed up entirely of patterns formed by similar gaps.
“Let’s go inside.”
Xue Ying and Jing Qiu passed through the first gap, following the enormous array diagram gaps for more than fifteen hundred kilometers before finally entering an enormous empty cavern.
This enormous empty cavern was about 500 kilometers in length of area.
At the very center of this cavern was a pavilion. Inside it, the two spotted a figure sitting cross-legged and looking forward. A ball of silver and red light was floating right across his eyes. The light had a truly dazzling feel to it, and it seemed to have formed a truly splendid array diagram with more than a hundred million nodes continuously revolving about.
“Monarch Heavenly Cloud.” Xue Ying and Jing Qiu walked over.
While there was no doubt that the figure sitting cross-legged was none other than Emperor Heavencloud… he was actually just a corpse!
Emperor Heavencloud was a truly muscular, sturdy man. Even after his death, his figure sitting cross-legged on the floor still had a broad back and a muscular frame that emitted a truly heroic, tyrannical aura. His will had long since become one with his body, despite his death having occurred more than two hundred billion years earlier, his terrifying willpower had yet to dissipate. The sight of such strong will caused the expressions on the two’s faces to change.
“This is…!” Xue Ying walked closer to take a look at Emperor Heavencloud’s face, and the sight left him stunned.
“He, how could he…”
“Even after his death, he refused to close his eyes or lower his head?” Xue Ying did not dare believe his eyes.
Emperor Heavencloud was simply sitting there, looking up at the array diagram illusion in front of his eyes. His eyebrows were thick, his eyes filled with spirit and terrifying desire. It must be stated that, during one’s death, their True Deity Heart would immediately dissipate. For him to remain staring at the array diagram even after his True Deity Heart crumbled apart, and to never stop fighting and searching for any strand of hope…
“Even death couldn’t force him to give up.” Xue Ying watched on with a solemn expression.
This was what it meant to be an absolutely proud and heavenly character.
Even after his True Deity Heart crumbled, he still kept his head raised and his eyes open, fixed on the array diagram. His eyes were filled with desire so intense that Xue Ying could actually feel it.
“Such will.”
“What a Dao Heart.”
Xue Ying imeediately began contemplating.
Emperor Heavencloud had died more than two hundred billion years ago, yet his will did not disperse from this space. Such characters were so rare that Xue Ying might never get to see another in his entire life. He had seen many stage four World Deities before, but not one ever astonished him so much. Having met such people like his Eldest Disciple Brother Hui Ming, as well as Forefather Scarlet Flame and other powerful existences, he still had to admit not one of those people had a will that was as strong as this person’s.
Only the people who had come during the Myriad Flower Feast like the the Abyss Rulers, His Majesty and the three ancestors might compare, but was unable to discern such things back then.
Even so, ordinary powerful existences, in Xue Ying’s opinion, would absolutely not have the will or Dao Heart to surpass this person before him. After all, this man had thoroughly terrified even the Overlord of Destruction himself. Emperor Heavencloud had brought the overlord to a point where he was so frightened that he even disregarded his reputation just to beg the Bloodshed God Emperor for a treasure which would allow him to scheme against him.
“Will, will…” Xue Ying continued contemplating.
He sat cross-legged next to the emperor and closed his eyes.
“Xue Ying?” Standing at the side, Jing Qiu had also been startled by the terrifying undulations of will released by Emperor Heavencloud’s corpse. By the time she regained her senses, she discovered that her husband had taken a cross-legged stance on the ground and began cultivating with his eyes closed. She could not help but feel puzzled about this matter, but she did not dare disturb him either.
…
After he sat down with his eyes closed, Xue Ying finally became aware of something.
Ever since he he became the Bloodshed God Emperor’s disciple, he was seen as a truly dazzling figure. By now, however, he felt it necessary to take the initiative and bring his wife over to the ruins of Lake Heart Island partly because he felt his peaceful life had begun eroding his will.
At first, it was nothing more than a vague feeling, but as soon as he saw Emperor Heavencloud’s corpse whose head was head raised even after death, and his eyes still open, something moved inside of Xue Ying.
He understood that there was a huge gap between him and the man sitting before him.
To seek the Dao Heart! To have a determined will!
From my youth and to this moment, I’ve kept pushing my way forward, be it for the sake of my little brother, or for the sake of my parents, or for the sake of Xia clan, or for my wife’s sake. Before I knew it, I had already become a grade one True Meaning Transcendent. But what then? After I became teacher’s disciple, I might have increased in power really quickly, but that was only because the aspects of extremity, chaos, and world were three of my favourite paths from back when I was still a Transcendent. It was only natural that I could succeed in comprehending them so quickly. In reality, however, my Dao Heart is simply not that strong anymore.
Right now, I am lacking a razor-sharp will, lacking an intense desire for a strong Dao Heart. Compared to Emperor Heavencloud, there’s so much I’m lacking!
**