Xiang Shaoyun withdrew his entire presence, becoming one with the world around him. That, in addition to his Invisible Nether ability, erased all traces of him. The diabolic dragon that had just arrived was extremely strong. His senses were sharp, and he constantly scanned the courtyard, scrutinizing even the ants crawling in the corner of the courtyard.
After a while, the diabolic dragon frowned before vanishing into thin air. Xiang Shaoyun still did not dare to move. He remained motionless because he did not believe that the diabolic dragon had left so easily. The entire courtyard was probably still under the devil’s observation.
Sure enough, the diabolic dragon reappeared after an hour. “The lizard’s presence is gone. Something is off.”
Soon, the diabolic dragon sensed a powerful aura coming from outside the palace. That was actually Huang Baiwu releasing his aura to attract the devils’ attention. The diabolic dragon rushed outside, and Xiang Shaoyun was able to sense that the devil had truly left this time. Only then did he approach the entrance to the secret place.
The entrance was actually a well. When he looked inside, he could only see flowing spring water. No traces of the secret place entrance could be seen. Xiang Shaoyun unhesitatingly took out the imperial blood and the token before sending tendrils of energy into the spring water. The water split apart, revealing a spatial portal.
The diabolic dragon immediately sensed the spatial undulations. He rushed back without any hesitation. Xiang Shaoyun knew how little time he had, so he immediately charged through the portal. Then, the portal closed up.
Boom!
The moment Xiang Shaoyun vanished into the portal, an explosion erupted in the courtyard, erasing everything there. That was the diabolic dragon’s attack. He was sure that someone was hiding in the courtyard, and he was confident he had sensed an aura. Thus, he had decided to erase the entire courtyard regardless of whether anyone could be found.
Fortunately, Xiang Shaoyun had left quickly enough. If he was even a tiny bit slower, he would have been forced out of hiding.
“Gone again!” the diabolic dragon yelled in frustration. A large amount of baleful energy erupted from his body and covered a large area as he tried to force the concealed enemy out of hiding.
Unfortunately for him, he was unfamiliar with the art of formations. He was unaware that Xiang Shaoyun was truly gone.
Meanwhile, Xiang Shaoyun’s surroundings changed completely after he entered the secret place.
The secret place was an independent space, and it was actually a massive mausoleum. Atop the mausoleum were nine dragons serving to stabilize the place’s fortune. Two ferocious stone statues of unknown beasts flanked the mausoleum, serving as guards. From the entrance of the mausoleum, strands of yin energy were leaking out, and they planted fear in anyone standing before the mausoleum.
Xiang Shaoyun stood where he was instead of rushing inside the mausoleum. He was sure that the two stone statues were actually god-grade puppets, which was what Huang Baiwu had told him. If he attempted to enter by force, the two puppets would attack. They were strong enough to easily kill fifth-stage Gods.
With the blood and the token in his hands, Xiang Shaoyun walked toward the mausoleum one step at a time. When he walked past the two puppets, they moved. Their massive stone bodies turned to face Xiang Shaoyun, and a ferocious aura leaked out of their eyes to suppress Xiang Shaoyun.
Xiang Shaoyun immediately activated the token. A burst of power erupted from the token as though a flame dragon was roaring. The power was incomparably mighty, and the puppets immediately stopped moving and returned to their previous positions, as though they had never moved in the first place.
“Sure enough, this is a place only those from the imperial clan can enter,” muttered Xiang Shaoyun in admiration before stepping into the mausoleum.
The mausoleum was gloriously decorated, and it was as lavish as any imperial palace. It was wide, luxuriously decorated, and bright. A decent number of memorial tablets stood facing the entrance. These were the tablets of the ancestors of the Dusk imperial clan. Behind the memorial tablets hovered a truncheon. It shone brightly as though it was a raging sun, making it hard for one to look straight at it. That was none other than the Divine Dusk Truncheon, the Dusk Dynasty’s heirloom weapon.
With Xiang Shaoyun’s keen eyesight, he was able to see from the workmanship of the truncheon that it was a peak god-grade weapon. Even if it wasn’t as high quality as the Divine Yin Yang Sword, it wasn’t that far off.
After all, the truncheon was forged by the first emperor of the Dusk Dynasty. After being nourished for so many generations, it had naturally been able to reach a remarkable level of quality. The truncheon was sealed by several god-grade chains, and retrieving it wouldn’t be an easy feat.
Xiang Shaoyun’s attention wasn’t focused on the truncheon. Rather, he was focusing on the two massive cauldrons to the right and left of the memorial tablets. The two cauldrons looked crude and ancient, yet they were also both god-grade objects. Strands of God Realm energy were wrapped around the two, emanating an extremely pure, incredibly alarming power.
With Xiang Shaoyun’s mastery over formations, he could feel countless god-grade formation lines all over the mausoleum. These formation lines were linked not only to the truncheon but also to the two cauldrons. At that point, Xiang Shaoyun realized that the two cauldrons were probably what he was here for.
He approached the right cauldron, and when he looked over, he saw that there was indeed some energy hovering in the cauldron. Within the midst of the swirling energy, a milky white crystal could be seen. The swirling energy was actually being emanated by the crystal.
“This is the divine source?” Xiang Shaoyun exclaimed in astonishment.
He could sense how pure the energy within the crystal was. The energy was also incomparably boundless, and there was no doubt that a God would be able to advance rapidly after absorbing it. Xiang Shaoyun was in no rush to retrieve the crystal. He approached the other cauldron and saw that a divine source of a similar size could be found within it as well.
“These two divine sources should be enough to push me to the next stage,” muttered Xiang Shaoyun.
A regular God would be able to advance by two stages with only one divine source. However, Xiang Shaoyun’s energy requirement was several times, or even tens of times, higher than a regular God’s. Thus, the two divine sources were only enough to raise his cultivation by one stage.
Even so, that was still an amazing feat. After all, any advancement in the God Realm would normally take an extremely long time.
