Chapter 2268 Raw 2374 : Unforeseen Change

“The Ancient Yan Emperor Tomb!” Xiao Chen muttered to himself after he parted with the Ninth Prince and the Heavenly Book Scholar.

The Ethereal Immortal Palace appearing in the Ancient Yan Emperor Tomb was not good news for Xiao Chen.

The Ethereal Immortal Palace would end up being dragged into the succession race, which would kick up a huge storm.

However, there were many uncertainties with the Ethereal Immortal Palace.

The accuracy of the predictions aside, the most important inheritance key out of the seven keys was lost long ago.

Without the inheritance key, even if a Faux God went, the Ethereal Immortal Palace’s gates would not open.

Chu Chaoyun once said that perhaps only the Heavenly Dragon knew the inheritance key’s secret location.

However, the Heavenly Dragon remained locked up in the Starry Heavens Dragon Prison. Even after the Purple Gold Dragon Emperor tortured the Heavenly Dragon for twenty-odd years, he still had no clues.

Hopes of obtaining the inheritance key were extremely slim.

“Let’s put this aside for now. The people from the Divine Dragon Empire and the White Marsh Beast Empire are already here in Yan City. The people from the Profound Heaven Holy Land and the Universe Origin Sect will probably get involved as well. This is especially so for the Profound Heaven’s Holy Son. Back then, he fought with Chu Chaoyun over the Ethereal Immortal Palace key in the Abyssal Underworld.”

Xiao Chen pondered this, thinking, If we include the experts of the Azure Lotus Church and the Xuewu Dynasty, then the factions attracted by the Ancient Yan Emperor Tomb are frighteningly many.

Practically all the super factions of the Great Thousand Realms were involved, except for the Pirate Alliance.

Based on what Xiao Chen knew so far, Yuan Zhen, Chu Chaoyun, and he had one key each. The First Prince gave one key to the Azure Lotus Church. Not counting the inheritance key, there were still two more keys.

Xiao Chen felt a terrible headache. The clues were too messy, and there was too much to think about.

He shook his head and decided to stop thinking about these frustrating things, switching his focus to today’s battle.

Xiao Chen finally realized how strong and terrifying the older-generation Sovereign Emperors were after the battle at the lake center. These older-generation Sovereign Emperors, who were already famous long ago, possessed firm and stable Divine Essence along with their strong cultivation. They also grasped Soul Tools.

Due to their age, their accomplishments in their Dao Domains were admirable, as well.

Since their cultivation came to a standstill, unable to progress further, they could only strengthen themselves through other means.

The Dao Domain was a good aspect to work on.

With sufficient time, one would successfully make breakthroughs as long as one’s talent was not too poor.

“Aside from the Forbidden Art, I don’t seem to have much I can use against them. However, as long as I don’t get trapped in their small world, I should be able to leave when I want to,” Xiao Chen muttered to himself.

Materializing a small world was not easy. Even the Silver Dragon King had to rely on a treasure to do that. Furthermore, it was not very stable.

After tallying his trump cards, Xiao Chen thought, Aside from the Nine Heavens God Demon Body Unsealing Technique Forbidden Art, I can try using the Divine Lightning Talisman and the Ten Thousand Dragons Art.

The Ten Thousand Dragons Art could infinitely bring out the potential of my royal Azure Dragon bloodline. Right now, I cannot even bring out one percent of the power contained within the royal Azure Dragon bloodline.

If I can complete the second layer, my strength will soar greatly, bringing a qualitative change.

There is a total of five layers to the Ten Thousand Dragons Art. After breaking through the bottleneck of the second layer, I will reach Great Perfection.

However, I only just started cultivating the second layer and am far from the peak. I am even farther from breaking through the second layer.

As for the Divine Lightning Talisman, I risked using it today, and it brought me a huge pleasant surprise.

However, its power is overly berserk. It possesses strong might, but I cannot control it freely, which significantly reduces its lethality.

If I controlled some of the Divine Lightning Talisman’s power, I might have been able to break the small world maintained by the treasure pearl.

Dao Domains will require time or fortuitous encounters to improve.

In the short run, I have only two options for facing these older-generation Sovereign Emperors: one, cultivate the Martial and Soul as One; two, improve my control over the Divine Lightning Talisman.

After thinking for a long time, Xiao Chen decided to work on controlling the Divine Lightning Talisman. There was still a long way to go for the Ten Thousand Dragons Art.

Xiao Chen immediately stopped hesitating. He took out the Ice Fire Lotus Platform and sat cross-legged on it, then sank his consciousness into his Soul Pool.

In the vast and boundless Soul Pool, Xiao Chen’s Azure Dragon Divine Seal looked dazzling and resplendent.

The sun and moon shone together above the Divine Seal, lighting up the sky.

There were three ripples below, glistening as they reflected the light. This represented Xiao Chen’s 3-Vein-Sovereign-Emperor-level Soul Energy.

After refining the three Divine Veins of Soul Energy, they became like three long and slender dragon images burning with a faint divine flame as they continuously swam around the Azure Dragon Divine Seal in the water.

As the dragon images swam, they continuously infused the Soul Energy in the water into the Azure Dragon Divine Seal.

Then, they cycled back to the start, swimming endlessly.

Xiao Chen only needed to control his Divine Seal to release his Soul Energy, bringing out the Sun and Moon Shining Together mysterious phenomenon and three Divine Vein images.

In the next moment, his consciousness entered the Azure Dragon Divine Seal.

The light of the Azure Dragon Divine Seal twisted and changed, turning into a figure of Xiao Chen.

In an instant, it was like Xiao Chen appeared in his vast and endless Soul Pool, appearing boundlessly mysterious.

“Whoosh!”

The Divine Seal became a clone of Xiao Chen in the Soul Pool. He looked around, then looked straight into the water.

“It is really deep. No matter how long I look, I cannot see any trace of the Divine Lightning Talisman at all. I will have to make a trip down.”

After a moment’s thought, Xiao Chen’s figure flashed, entering the water and sending ripples spreading out.

When Xiao Chen sank into the depths of his Soul Pool, he found that this pool was even vaster than the ocean.

However, all a cultivator could use was just a minuscule portion of it—less than a hundred-thousandth of a percent. Most of the Soul Pool was a forbidden area.

If one got careless while using the Divine Seal as an incarnation of oneself, one might injure the foundations of one’s soul or get lost within it.

Typically, no one would risk exploring their Soul Pool if there were no need.

However, Xiao Chen had no other choice. If he wanted to control the Divine Lightning Talisman, he had to gamble on it.

Xiao Chen continuously sank into his Soul Pool. The deep waters felt incredibly cold.

Soon, he felt some discomfort all over his body. His Dragon Seal incarnation slowly dimmed.

The pool glistened on the surface. However, its depths were boundlessly dark.

The depths were dark, quiet, and all-consuming, unfathomable like a person’s heart.

“Boom!”

Just as Xiao Chen approached the limits of his endurance, a flash of light appeared in the darkness, causing his face to light up in joy.

However, before the joy on his face could fade, it froze. That electric light turned into a weapon charging at his incarnation.

Moving quickly, Xiao Chen managed to dodge the weapon at the critical moment.

He continued going deeper. As he did so, more electric weapons formed, so he had to be cautious.

After fifteen minutes, the darkness before Xiao Chen completely disappeared. The pool turned a transparent gold under the illumination of the electric light.

“We meet again.”

A talisman lay quietly deep in the water, extremely far away in front.

Xiao Chen did not dare to get close. Any further, and his soul might get destroyed and scatter.

Compared to the first time Xiao Chen saw the Divine Lightning Talisman in the Kunlun Realm, he felt much calmer.

At that time, he did not even dare to think of controlling the Divine Lightning Talisman that the Immortal Epoch’s Thunder Immortal Ancestor left behind.

However, Xiao Chen wanted to try controlling this Divine Lightning Talisman today.

This was the Divine Lightning Talisman that the Thunder Immortal Ancestor formed using the Ten Thousand Tribulation Divine Lightning. Back then, when Immortals underwent their lightning tribulation, the tribulations originated from this Divine Lightning.

The Thunder Immortal Ancestor grasped the origin of lightning tribulations, thus grasped all the lightning mysterious phenomena of the world.

The Thunder Immortal Ancestor became the source of the Thunder Dao for the Immortal Epoch. His death could cause the collapse of the Thunder Great Dao, and all the cultivators in the world would not be able to use the power of lightning.

Now, the Divine Lightning Talisman’s might naturally could not compare to the Immortal Epoch, as it was now the Martial Epoch.

However, if Xiao Chen could completely unleash the Divine Lightning Talisman’s might, it would still be shocking.

As long as he could control just a thousandth of the Divine Lightning Talisman’s might, he could severely injure Great Perfection Sovereign Emperors.

Although the Divine Lightning Eye could safely use the Divine Lightning Talisman’s power, that was not as good as directly controlling it.

“I need to merge a portion of my Divine Seal into this talisman.”

“Whoosh!”

Xiao Chen flicked his finger, and a beam of light shot out from his fingertip.

When this beam of light shot out, Xiao Chen’s incarnation clearly dimmed.

Just as it looked like this portion of Xiao Chen’s Divine Seal dodged the countless electric lights and would enter the talisman, “Ka ca!” a weapon materialized by the Divine Lightning chopped it apart. Back in reality, Xiao Chen vomited a mouthful of blood, instantly paling.

“Again!”

Xiao Chen watched closely. After a while, he flicked his finger again, sending out another portion of his Divine Seal.

“Pu ci!”

Another failure. Back at the Ice Fire Lotus Platform in reality, Xiao Chen showed twisted light and shadows on his body. That was his three spiritual souls and seven physical souls.

“Final chance.”

I’ll gamble on it!

Xiao Chen did not hesitate to send out another portion of his Divine Seal. If he failed again, the foundations of his soul would be severely injured. At the very least, he would have to recuperate for a decade. However, at worst, his soul might scatter.

“Rumble…!”

The final attempt did not disappoint Xiao Chen. That portion of Xiao Chen’s Divine Seal dodged all the electric light sent out by the talisman, entering the Divine Lightning Talisman.

Xiao Chen showed a smile. He felt that portion of his Divine Seal slowly merging with the Divine Lightning Talisman.

The moment the merger completed, Xiao Chen roared. The Divine Lightning Talisman quietly resting in the depths of his Soul Pool shot up like an arrow, like a sharp sword being drawn.

As the Divine Lightning Talisman rose, Xiao Chen felt his Soul Energy rapidly draining; he found this incredibly strenuous.

Just as the Divine Lightning Talisman was about to break out of the water, Xiao Chen sighed softly.

Xiao Chen’s Soul Energy was depleted, and his Divine Seal incarnation turned into countless motes of light that emerged from the water and reformed the Azure Dragon Divine Seal.

He had failed at the final moment. However, a portion of his Divine Seal had merged with the Divine Lightning Talisman. His next attempt would be much easier.

Just as Xiao Chen felt disappointed, a brilliant electric light suddenly appeared on the surface of his Soul Pool, making everything dim in comparison.

Xiao Chen looked carefully and saw that a corner of the Divine Lightning Talisman managed to emerge. It looked like a flower bud, waiting to bloom.

Back on the Ice Fire Lotus Platform, Xiao Chen rejoiced. He opened his eyes, and a bright gleam flickered in his eyes.

A talisman slowly emerged from Xiao Chen’s right palm. That was a miniature Divine Lightning Talisman formed by a small portion of the Divine Lightning Talisman’s power working with Xiao Chen’s Dao Domain.

“Great! This one-thousandth of the Divine Lightning Talisman is already enough.”

Xiao Chen showed a smile on his face. Even the typically calm him found it hard to conceal his joy.

“Someone is coming.”

Xiao Chen raised his eyebrows. When he spread out his Soul Energy, he sensed Su Ye rushing over, appearing like there was something urgent.

He quickly withdrew the Divine Lightning Talisman in his palm, making it turn into a flash of purple electric light. Then, he leaped out of the window, appearing before Su Ye.

“Xiao Chen, there’s a sudden change in the situation that we discussed.”

Xiao Chen frowned slightly. “What is this unforeseen change?

Su Ye smiled softly and said, “It should be a good thing. Ling Yu told me earlier that headliner Ling Long arranged to meet him alone outside the city.”

Xiao Chen’s expression immediately changed considerably. “Damn it! That fool got duped. With just a few days until the wedding, how could the Smiling Daughter Pavilion let Ling Long leave? We have to go after him quickly!”