Chapter 5301 Ent.i.ty From Beyond the Heavens, Mysterious Vine
The gate before Long Chen was formed by two enormous dragon bones, their skulls facing each other. Though their bones were riddled with holes from corrosion, they had not collapsed.
As Long Chen stood before this gate, an immense dragon might struck him, shaking his heart. He was almost certain these dragons had to be on the level of Dragon Emperors.
After a while, Long Chen’s divine sense swept over the bones and found that the dragon cores had been taken. However, from the wound, it was most likely done after they died, not before.
“Even after countless years, with their dragon cores extracted, they still emit such powerful auras. They had to be on the level of Dragon Emperors,” Long Chen muttered, feeling shaken. He was completely sure about this.
Sadly, the bones were so corroded that even the dragon runes on them had faded, making it impossible to determine which branch of the dragon race they belonged to.
“But no matter what, how did the corpses of the dragon race end up as a gate here?” asked Long Chen.
Long Chen approached, ready to push open the gate, but found it impossible to move. The dragon corpses seemed to be held in place by some sort of energy. Upon closer inspection, Long Chen was shocked to see a vine among the dragon bones. This vine, which looked like a nail, was locking the entire structure in place.
Using his full strength, Long Chen managed to bring down the bones, which instantly disintegrated upon touching the ground. To his surprise, where the bones had once stood was now a giant ancient vine.
The vine was ten meters thick and embedded into the earth on both sides. Despite the corrosion that had destroyed the Dragon Emperor bones, the vine remained perfectly intact.
“This vine is the reason the bones didn’t collapse, even after countless years,” Long Chen marveled, unable to comprehend the vine’s origins. It had no leaves or other signs of life. Its surface was marked with what appeared to be dragon scales, and its aura was extremely odd. He had never seen anything like it before.
Curious, Long Chen struck the vine with his fist, but it merely quivered a bit. This punch was enough to shatter mountains, but this vine was completely unscathed. Startled by its toughness, he grabbed it with both hands and pulled with all his might. As Long Chen activated his Eight Star Battle Armor, the earth exploded as the vine was slowly dragged out. However, it was buried so deeply that it took Long Chen a long time to pull it completely out of the ground.
When Long Chen fully removed it, he was baffled to find that the vine was entirely bare, with no roots or distinguis.h.i.+ng features.
"Did I pull the wrong side?" he wondered, running to the other end and pulling again, only to find the same result. The vine was like a long, bare pole.
“Senior, can you help me take a look at this?” Baffled, Long Chen decided to consult the Earth Cauldron, disturbing its recuperation.
In order to help Long Chen, the Earth Cauldron had exhausted all of its core energy during the last battle. After refining some pills with Huo Linger, it needed time to recuperate.
After examining the vine, the Earth Cauldron said, “This is not an ent.i.ty from the nine heavens and ten lands.”
“Not from the nine heavens and ten lands?” Long Chen repeated in disbelief.
“Bring it to your primal chaos s.p.a.ce and see if it can come to life—wait, don’t bring the whole thing; just a small piece is enough,” advised the Earth Cauldron.
Following its suggestion, Long Chen used Evilmoon to cut the vine, but even with Evilmoon’s sharpness, it took over ten slashes to make a cut. He placed a thirty-meter-long section of the vine in the primal chaos s.p.a.ce and planted it in the ground. After waiting for a couple of minutes, nothing seemed to happen.
Just as Long Chen thought that it wouldn’t work, the entire primal chaos s.p.a.ce’s life energy quivered and was rapidly absorbed by the vine.
“It’s working!” Long Chen and the Earth Cauldron exclaimed simultaneously.
The Earth Cauldron elaborated, “This vine isn’t affected by the laws of the nine heavens and ten lands, which is why it’s so hard to cut and why it hasn’t corroded. I don’t know exactly what it is, but I have a feeling it will be useful one day. Make sure to raise it well.”
Long Chen nodded and tossed the rest of the ancient vine into his astral s.p.a.ce to plant later. He had a feeling that growing this vine would take an incalculable amount of energy. If he were to plant the whole thing, it would severely affect the growth of the Moon Trees, Fusang Trees, and the medicinal ingredients.
Moreover, Long Chen had no idea how to raise this mysterious vine. In any case, he wasn’t too worried. With so many lions of the Gold Lion race, he shouldn’t be lacking fertilizer. Based on his experience, he also knew that the more life energy the vine absorbed, the more life energy he would have available for healing, making it a worthwhile investment.
Long Chen also wanted to know what this vine would look like in its complete form. He was greatly curious about ent.i.ties from beyond the heavens.
This piece of vine had managed to survive countless years and was so tough that Evilmoon had difficulty cutting it. Who knew how strong it would be in its peak condition? Would it flower? Would it bear fruit? Could he use it for alchemy? Countless thoughts whirled through Long Chen’s mind.
Chuckling, Long Chen muttered, “Regardless of everything else, finding this vine made this trip worth it.”
After burying the remains of the dragon bones, Long Chen continued forward, only to find more bones piled up onto mountains. Around these mountains were giant weapons that were badly corroded and unusable. Despite that, they still exuded powerful auras.
Long Chen found that all these skeletons were facing one direction as if kowtowing. It was extremely odd. He quickly headed in that direction.
With growing unease, Long Chen followed their direction deeper into the dark mist, discovering even more piles of bones as he went. The black mist grew denser, and the pressure in the air increased, but Long Chen pressed on.
Suddenly, the bones around him began to exude their own powerful auras, startling him. These ancient remains still contained traces of bloodline power. Long Chen then walked back to a pile of bones. Beneath it, he noticed a blood-colored totem slowly swirling, with a blood-red groove leading deeper into the mist.
Long Chen’s heart pounded as he gripped Evilmoon tightly and advanced further into the darkness, sensing that he was on the verge of uncovering a terrifying secret.