Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
With everything he had, Zhong Yue squeezed out every last bit of strength he had, pulling the Seven Paths Reincarnation back to him.
Weng—
It slammed back into Zhong Yue’s body and Yuan Shen and along with the Seven Paths Reincarnation was the Wall Painting Flower itself.
“Baby-maker! Don’t let it escape!” shouted the happy Xin Huo.
To which Zhong Yue frowned greatly, “Xin Huo, stop calling me baby-maker! As long as it is in my secret realm, there is no way….”
Before his words could be finished, roots started crawling out from his nose and ears, growing longer and thicker every second. Soon, they burst out of his skin, forming an awful sight.
“This Wall Painting Flower of Yuan Ya Deity King really is something!”
After some effort, Zhong Yue finally suppressed the Wall Painting Flower into a corner inside the Dao Yi Secret Realm and had the Pan Gu Celestial Being sit on it so that the Wall Painting Flower wouldn’t cause any more trouble.
“Xin Huo, what use is this saint herb?” he asked.
“No idea. Once, I only saw it once so I really don’t know what can it do, But, given the fact that this is an innate saint herb, it will not be anywhere far behind the three great spiritual roots, definitely much better than the other saint herbs!”
Zhong Yue nodded in agreement. The three great spiritual roots were innate spiritual roots, Great Si Ming’s Tree of Life symbolized life, Lei Zhe’s Innate Fruit Tree symbolized Daos and Great Sui’s Fusang Divine Tree symbolized secret realms, they all had different powers and were all amazing.
As an innate Deity King, Yuan Ya Deity King may not be as strong as Great Si Ming and Lei Zhe but the symbiotic innate saint herb of his was sure to be more than just astonishing.
“Well, we can find out Wall Painting Flower’s use later. For now, let’s go get the other seven saint herbs, shall we?”
With a smirk, Zhong Yue started advancing deep into the saint palace before sensing the monarch’s presence coming from afar.
That air intensified, his heart beat quicker than usual and without him knowing, his speed slowed down, trying his best to walk without making much noise.
Where is this monarch presence coming from? Could it be that there is a monarch stationed here? Right in the Yuan Ya Deity King’s innate sacred ground?
Zhong Yue’s thought flickered and the ancient ship right outside the palace started lifting into the air as its wings flapped silently, waiting for the signal to ram into the palace just in case things went sour.
Zhong Yue recollected his thoughts and continued moving forward. Some time later, he traced the seven saint herbs’ scent to a side palace, where the monarch presence intensified.
Becoming even more cautious, Zhong Yue reached his head out slowly and he was stunned by what he saw.
“This is….”
Sitting right at the center in this side hall was a massive coffin with the length of a few hundred feet long, looking like it was made from divine gold vein that was cut in half. With chains all over the coffin, it was hung in the air and on the ground were coffin covers everywhere, scattering around, adding even more eerieness to the surroundings, amplifying the ghostly and uneasy feeling in the side hall.
Zhong Yue calmed himself down, his innate Dao turned into a mirror and when he looked around through the light emitted by the mirror, he discovered that the coffin had a total of nine layers.
“A monarch tomb!”
His heart started pumping quickly. He looked towards the nine layered coffin, whose cover was shoved aside, revealing a white skeleton, appearing majestic even when it was just lying down.
It was accepted that the monarchs’ flesh was not something that would dissolve nor disintegrate over time, but right in this nine layered coffin, there was no flesh, no skin, no nothing. All it had left was just a skeleton and the Dao patterns supposedly imprinted on the skeleton were gone!
Generally, existences like the monarchs, their cultivation level was not something to be meddled with, when they became the monarch, the Daos from over the world would surge into their body. When this process occurred, the Dao they cultivated would slowly brand itself onto every corner in their body, which included their bones as well!
And because of this, though their bones were not on the same level as innate Dao bones like Shi Long’s, their bones were still astounding.
The innate Dao bone was only achievable by ancient Deity Kings and they were the only ones who knew the way, hence, not even monarchs could pull it off.
Yet again, the bones of a monarch were impossibly weak as the one lying in this monarch tomb. The spiritual energy of the one right here was mostly gone, what remained to tell the world that it was once a monarch was its monarch presence.
Could it be a disciple of Yuan Ya Deity King became a monarch and later on passed away? But if it’s his disciple, then it makes no sense to have so many chains attached to this coffin just to lock it away. Besides, he wouldn’t be so cruel so as to expose his disciple’s body just like that….
Zhong Yue was confused but decided to walk away, trying not to stir more trouble for himself and the saint herbs were nowhere in sight as well. He located the side palace’s exit and when he got out from this side palace, he arrived at another side palace, also surging with monarch presence.
Right in this second side palace, there was also another monarch coffin, also chained up with its cover open.
He looked through the mirror and found a skeleton with no flesh and devoid of the spiritual element and Dao patterns on it, just like the one he encountered before.
He frowned at what he saw but again, he decided to walk away. But soon enough, he ran into the third side palace, with the exact same arrangement.
And again, he walked away, tracking the saint herbs before finding himself before the fourth side palace, then the fifth, sixth and seventh….
He kept going and after entering a total of 26 side palaces, he horridly discovered nothing but empty skeletons in every coffin located in every side palace.
This is the twenty-seventh side palace… There should also be another monarch tomb here….
After clearing his throat, he walked into the next side palace, finding himself the seven saint herbs, all hiding behind the coffin located right in this side palace, also hanging in the air, only this time, the monarch presence emitting from this coffin was few times stronger.
Is the monarch corpse right here a perfect one?
However, just when he was about to check with the mirror again, a knocking came from the monarch tomb and this terrorized him greatly!
Knock knock—
Knockings came from the tomb again and Zhong Yue started sweating coldly.
Without a second of thought, Zhong Yue backed off without making a noise while the knocks continued to come from the coffin still, making him uneasy.
The monarch corpse is still alive?
When he arrived at the exit, he silently spread out his innate wings, preparing to leave any time soon but not before he second guessed his decision about running away without checking on the corpse.
He raised the mirror up and shone it towards the monarch coffin right at the center of the side palace.
His vision landed onto that mutilated body of the monarch, whose face could vaguely be recognized.
Boom—
Upon recognizing that face, Zhong Yue’s mind exploded at the shock he received and he almost shouted in surprise.
Heavenly Monarch Tian Yuan!
That corpse in the coffin was the previous Heavenly Monarch, the corpse of Heavenly Monarch Tian Yuan!
He recognized Heavenly Monarch Tian Yuan’s looks, there were also his portraits in many of the ruins out there, not to mention that his statue was still being worshipped by the Tian Yuan Clan. But, the Heavenly Monarch was supposed to be buried in Tian Yuan Clan’s monarch tomb, why was it here?
How did it appear right here?
Why was the body mutilated? As if it was chomped down by some beast!
A chill snuck into Zhong Yue’s limbs and that was when the knocking came again. Hearing the knocking, Zhong Yue quickly moved the mirror, facing it towards that thing creating the knocking — it was a black crow!
That black crow was standing right on the corpse’s chest, biting off its flesh every time and swallowing it!
The knockings were formed when that black crow’s beak hit the corpse’s body!
To be able to become a Heavenly Monarch, these existences were all someone extraordinary, standing high in their league and now, this black crow was capable of tearing Heavenly Monarch Tian Yuan’s flesh and eating his meat!
Apart from that, he even saw Heavenly Monarch Tian Yuan’s essence and Daos were all flowing into the black crow’s nostrils as it breathed.
This black crow, it was clearly siphoning the energy in the corpse!
And this explained why there weren’t any spiritual elements in the previous monarch corpses!
Is this black crow Yuan Ya Deity King himself?
Zhong Yue’s entire body went numb right away, all frozen up and he quickly shut down all his secret realms, dare not sweat a single sweat, afraid of leaking his presence and he slowly walked out.
Goddess Shen Hou will not lie to me, so Yuan Ya Deity King is definitely not here, which means that this black crow is Yuan Ya Deity King’s incarnation, left behind by Yuan Ya Deity King to consume Heavenly Monarch Tian Yuan’s flesh in order to absorb every power he cultivated when he was still alive.
Zhong Yue’s mirror remained floating in the air, keeping an eye on the black crow’s movements as he needed to know what the black crow would do. After all, even if that was Yuan Ya Deity King’s incarnation, he was still no match for the black crow, not even a little.
As for the seven saint herbs, they were no longer Zhong Yue’s main target now, all he wanted right now was getting out from the saint palace and the Innate Dao Mountain alive, safe and sound!
The further he walked away, the quicker he moved and that was when something from the outside split the air apart as it flew, a few voices shouted, “Teacher! A Fuxi is here and washed our innate sacred ground with blood!”
The cold spiking Zhong Yue intensified, and without any more hesitation, he unleashed all his strength, the Seven Paths Reincarnation opened up fully, the innate mirror summoned back to him and he dashed away at full speed!
At that very moment the mirror moved, the black crow binging on Heavenly Monarch Tian Yuan’s body caught onto the movements and looked straight away towards the mirror!
Hong long—
Zhong Yue flew straight right at the few Yuan Ya Deity King’s disciples after being struck by the black crow. Flesh exploded and limbs flew everywhere as the impact blew the disciples apart!
Behind him, the black crow screeched, its screech drilled into Zhong Yue’s eardrums, causing his ears to bleed and the noise was tearing his Yuan Shen, just like a drill slowly being screwed into his Yuan Shen!
Oh no!
With a battle cry, the ancient ship rammed into the saint palace, breaking pillars, toppling walls and in a blink of an eye, a majestic palace was ruined by the ancient ship’s wings!
Far behind, a terrifying air spread out before Zhong Yue heard the side palace burst apart, as if a giant creature slowly stretched out his expanding body.
The air felt like a majestic monarch was waking up from his slumber, awakened by an unpleasant guest, he opened his eyes and deep inside, the fire of anger burnt strongly!
Beng beng beng—
The side palaces fell apart, the dimensions were pushed away by an unseen power, pressing them so hard that they were solidified. The compounds crushed into biscuits and the monarch tombs were sent flying right towards Zhong Yue!
I shouldn’t have gotten so greedy!
Zhong Yue clenched his fists before hurling the Six Paths Bead outside, enormous monarch presence spread apart before a huge hand slammed onto the objects flying towards Zhong Yue, reducing them into smithereens.
Using the impact, the Six Paths Bead flew backward, grabbed onto by Zhong Yue and threw back into his own Yuan Shen Secret Realms while a voice sounded from the bead, “You used me as a projectile again!”
Zhong Yue, however, cared little about Crown Prince Fu Shang’s complaint for he was focused on running towards the ancient ship, which was also flying towards himself.
That was when Zhong Yue suddenly thought of something terrifying…
The bodies… Are they the corpses of the monarchs from Dao Venerate Fu Min’s era?
His mind was blown, the 26 monarchs before were already fully consumed by Yuan Ya Deity King, the spiritual power in them gone but the skeletons were still intact perfectly. Judging from the condition of these skeletons, their flesh was eaten not long ago, which meant that they were most likely the monarchs from Dao Venerate Fu Min’s era!
