With He Ming’s departure, the Thunder Lord’s attention returned to the tomb before him. He Ming was much stronger than his brother, and his strength was now amplified by an ancient treasure he’d found in a mound earlier.
He was truly a force to be reckoned with.
At the moment, the Thunder Lord didn’t dare leave this place. Once the tomb was fully open, the other nine lords would surely break their prior agreement in a mad brawl for the heritage within. They’d formed the agreement in the first place only because they’d assumed that no one would be able to break the tomb. No one had expected it to open by itself!
“Who are those two inside the tomb? How can they ignore such a powerful treasure like that?!” The Thunder Lord furrowed his brow and squinted keenly at the two blurry figures coming into view beside the Sword of Dao.
It was a human and a wolf.
“Can they be materializations of spirits attached to the tomb?” No one believed the duo could possibly be cultivators. If they were, why would they neglect the sword beside them in favor of reading?
“Strange…” The Monster Lord was shaken by what it saw, and its aureate pupils dilated in astonishment. “That little wolf… that wolf looks a lot like Silverblaze, the Silvermoon Wolfking.”
Silverblaze was the wolfking’s real name.
The Monster Lord was a golden lion spirit, royalty of the gold bloodline as the Silvermoon Wolfkings were among the silver bloodline. However, they were far more numerous than their argent brethren. The two tribes were long-time friends, so it was no surprise at all that the Monster Lord would recognize the wolfking.
“Silverblaze? The Silvermoon Wolfking that was tamed by a human?” The Thunder Lord leered in derision. Though he was a monster spirit just like the Monster Lord, the two lords came from different factions. The Thunder Lord hailed from the ten lands, while the Monster Lord was from Levitating Island.
While monster spirits with such differing viewpoints wouldn’t erupt into open warfare upon encountering each other, they were far from peaceful with one another.
The Monster Lord looked a little upset. “If that really is Silverblaze,” it growled, “the human nearby must be Qing Yu!”
“All of you must have seen the commotion when Qing Yu broke through to the void realm. Though the Dao Flower has disappeared, the phenomena he triggered were far greater than any of ours.”
The ten lords didn’t owe their invincible statures solely to the opportunities they’d gained. Even before coming here, they were unparalleled experts in their own rights—void realm cultivators baptized by the Dao Flower.
“Why isn’t Qing Yu taking the immortal sword, then?” the rest of the lords wondered.
The more the tomb opened, the brighter the light from the Sword of Dao shone. Likewise, Qing Han and Silverblaze’s silhouettes sharpened further into focus.
“It really is them!” The Monster Lord rippled with ferocious might and its fur burned in a fiery prominence. “If we kill Qing Yu, Silverblaze will come back to us!”
“Hmm?” The Thunder Lord paled suddenly. “He Ming is dead.”
His expression became very ugly indeed. Alas, the temptation of the opportunity here anchored him firmly in place. “Yingye, you and your two brothers go. Take a hundred peak transformed spirit cultivators with you. Be on your guard!”
“Yes, milord.” Three stoic cultivators obeyed the order, departing on three streaks of light.
The three brothers were the strongest experts under the Thunder Lord’s command. They were all peak perceived void cultivators on the threshold of the next realm. Combined, they were stronger than most unravelled void cultivators. There were definitely a few of them hidden out and about, and none of the ten lords wanted to make an enemy of them.
The ten lords had unravelled void subordinates themselves, too. These tended to be their genius kinsmen. The Thunder Lord’s younger brother, for example, had been given a great deal of help to reach the unravelled void realm.
Boom!
Heaven and earth shook violently once more. A second pillar of immortal light blasted into the sky, echoing the brilliance of the first.
“What in the world?!” The ten lords and their underlings turned their heads in amazement.
“Yingye and his brothers are dead… they died right there!” The Thunder Lord pointed at the new light, completely baffled. “Did I get it wrong? Is it not some powerful cultivator after all, but another opportunity?”
He sputtered, frowning. “My younger brother and I have a telepathic link. He did die at a cultivator’s hand… But here… or there?” The two pillars were enough to stir anyone into a frenzy.
The second pillar was less than four hundred kilometers from where they were. For these void realm cultivators, that was no distance at all. Moreover, the new pillar was brighter and more intense; it clearly held the superior heritage.
“I don’t care anymore. I’m going to see what it is for myself!” The Thunder Lord ground his teeth together and hurtled in the direction of the second pillar posthaste.
“This tomb still needs some time to fully open. Let’s go see what’s going on over there!” The rest of the lords shared his idea. They and their underlings streamed over; after all, brighter usually did mean better.
The ten lords were very close to each other in strength. The person who received the strongest heritage would surely surpass the others and become number one on the Sovereign Ranking.
Boooooom!
The shadow of a dao book appeared in the new pillar. Golden runes shimmered upon its pages, imparting marvelous wisdom to their would-be reader.
That was enough to dispel the lords’ remaining reservations and they sprinted toward the second pillar at top speed. The tomb’s heritage hadn’t displayed any such manifestation.
The new heritage was stronger for sure!
“If the ten lords are heading over there, this place will be easy pickings for the rest of us.” After considerable deliberation, the remaining unravelled void cultivators decided to stay behind.
The ten lords were all peak unravelled void realm. Although the ‘rebel’ cultivators were at unravelled void as well, there was a gap between them and the lords. The disinterest in conflict was decidedly mutual. These unravelled void cultivators could hardly hope to outcompete the ten lords, so they’d have to settle for second best.
……
“This is a shattered burial mound.” When the lords and their retinues came to the second pillar, they found a mountain that had been dug open.
Blazes of immortal light filled the sky overhead. From the dao book, sounds of scripture recitation could be heard. Plenty of the cultivators who’d arrived on the premises were comforted and soothed by the voices.
“There must be a tomb under the burial mound… the entrance is over there!” Someone spotted a black cavern at the foot of the mound.
“You, go inside and see!” The golden lion who was the Monster Lord threw a human cultivator toward the cave.
The human looked toward his own lord, only to find the man’s face expressionless. Shivering, he walked into the cave and feared for the worst.
Rumble.
There was a high-pitched “Eeeeeeeee!”, then nothing at all.
