Chapter 587 - Immortal Palace
The outside world wasn’t calm at all. The world was indignant towards the seven deities. There were also people discussing the might of the little Stone. They were hoping that he would be able to kill the final deity!
However, there were no traces of the seventh deity at all. He had not made an appearance this entire time.
s.h.i.+ Hao left the village once, finding the divine striking stone and Emperor b.u.t.terfly and bringing them back to Stone Village. He also brought over a few heavenly treasures from Stone Country to prepare for the upcoming battle.
“This is the old location of Stone Village?” A group of children were all curious. They all looked at the deep crater beneath them.
Big Peng, Little Green, and Purple Cloud descended, bringing a group of youth and children to their old location. Now, gra.s.s had already grown again, and it was no longer as dull and lonely.
A blood purge had once been carried out within a range of fifty thousand li. For a while, plant life had been spa.r.s.e here and creatures had been wiped out with skeletal remains everywhere. It seemed like a portion of this place’s vitality had finally been restored.
Stone Village was completely uprooted, leaving behind an enormous crater in its original location. Apart from this, there wasn’t anything else noticeable. Dazhuang, Ermeng, and Pihou were a bit moved. This was the first time they returned after leaving.
“Yi, there’s something down there!”
Big Peng swooped downwards. Right now, its appearance was much different from that of a Green Scaled Eagle. Its wings were golden yellow, and it truly looked like a Peng. It descended into the valley.
Little Green also descended, using its sharp claws to remove the earth. An enormous skeleton appeared that was sparkling with purple golden l.u.s.ter. There was also an indescribable type of awe to its appearance.
Inside of s.h.i.+ Hao’s thick long hair, a bit of golden light appeared. The Emperor b.u.t.terfly danced about, flying over. Soon after, it entered the skeleton hidden underneath the earth.
“This is a divine skeleton?” Everyone was astonished.
Big Peng, Little Green and the others tore apart the earth, revealing that enormous skeleton. It was at least a hundred zhang in length. All of the bones were a purple golden color.
“The Willow Deity took root here before, using the divine bones to recover a bit of its divine force. That was why it was able to survive.” s.h.i.+ Hao said to himself. He knew a bit about this.
Back then, the Willow Deity bathed itself in tens of thousands of streaks of lightning before descending from the ninth heaven. All of its vitality was severed. Even though this divine corpse could not compare to the Willow Deity, for a dying tree, it still had a certain amount of effectiveness.
It was precisely because it took root here that the Willow Deity produced a single willow branch after resting here for over ten years, recovering a bit of its vitality and thus living.
The Emperor b.u.t.terfly danced lightly in the air. It carried a granule of purple gold with it and flew into s.h.i.+ Hao’s hair. It began to chew at this crystal like substance with ka chi sounds.
“What is this?” s.h.i.+ Hao placed it in his palm.
It was a fingernail sized stone that resembled a piece of purple gold. It was slightly transparent and flowing with gentle l.u.s.ter. There was a unique energy rippling about it.
The divine striking stone struggled free with an ao sound and began to fight with the Emperor b.u.t.terfly for it.
“Stop fighting over it!” s.h.i.+ Hao stopped them.
Then, both the stone and the b.u.t.terfly rushed into the giant hole together. They all entered that enormous skeleton to search around.
Qingfeng, Ermeng, Pihou and the others were all curious. They huddled over together to get a look. As for the children, they were all like little monkeys. After giving it a look, they rushed down the valley to look around.
“This is a deity! What a big body. It’s more than a hundred zhang long! What did it eat to get so big?” A little child that was only a few years old spoke with a tender voice.
s.h.i.+ Hao and the others also appeared in the valley floor, surrounding the enormous skeleton as they looked around. The purple skeleton was extremely solid. When one struck its surface, a metallic sound would ring through the air. There was unexpectedly still some energy rippling about.
“Exactly what type of rock is it?” s.h.i.+ Hao asked the divine striking stone. He noticed that there were still more than ten crystals inside of the divine bones, the largest as big as a walnut. The energy rippling out from them was quite impressive.
“This is a divine crystal that only the highest level of deity can grow. I never expected that there was such a heaven defying thing here!” The divine striking stone said while chewing on it.
“What a pity it is that the remainder are all leftover residue. Their divine force isn’t pure, instead mottled and incredibly messy.
After both the Emperor b.u.t.terfly and itself chewed it a few times, it no longer dared to put any into its mouth anymore, because apart from divine force, there was also deathly energy in these crystals. They couldn’t absorb everything inside, because there were just too many impurities.
It was clear that these were things left over after the Willow Deity absorbed everything else.
“The divine energy this thing contains is actually quite terrifying. If it can be taken advantage of, it might be able to be turned into a powerful killing weapon,” said the divine striking stone.
“Can you refine it into a powerful weapon? Give it to little big bro to use,” Qingfeng said out of worry for s.h.i.+ Hao.
“I was precisely thinking of doing something with all of this. Let me think about it for a bit. This enormous high level deity’s corpse’s spiritual essence hadn’t scattered after all this time. Its entire body is precious,” said the divine striking stone.
Finally, the group of children moved away from the enormous crater, not daring to disturb it anymore. They all knew that this was now an extremely important matter.
s.h.i.+ Hao, Ermeng, Pihou and the others led the others around their old home, guiding the children around this region. They noticed that a few vicious birds and fierce beasts returned and resided here.
The final battle was inevitable. That was why s.h.i.+ Hao revisited this place to recall his beautiful memories of the past out of fear that he would never be able to see these things again.
Finally, they brought the enormous purple skeleton back to Stone Village. The divine striking stone asked Hairy Ball and Little Red to help refine and grind it.
“Using the divine crystal as the origin and purple skeleton as divine materials, we will refine a great weapon. Then, we will apply some formations onto it to make it even more terrifying!” The divine striking stone was full of confidence.
Several days later, in Stone Country Capital.
An old man was walking rather slowly. There was a special rhythm and pace to his movement as he entered the city. There were many people on the streets, but even though it was crowded, his body never made contact with anyone else’s.
He wore an ancient daoist robe. His skin was wrinkled, and his hair was a grayish color. He looked rather aged, but his eyes were still bright and full of life. After entering the city, he didn’t move too quickly or too slowly as he looked around Stone Capital.
Soon after, he appeared in the imperial palace, immediately leaving a group of imperial guards shocked. They didn’t know how he entered this place.
“These formations have some noteworthy dao.” He looked at the great formations inside the imperial palace and nodded. His eyes narrowed as he carefully studied them a bit.
He didn’t kill anyone and only said, “Where is your human emperor? I wish to meet with him to discuss a few matters.”
Even if these imperial guards knew where Stone Village was, they wouldn’t say anything, let alone to someone they didn’t know at all. They naturally wouldn’t give this old man an answer.
“So it’s like that…” The elder didn’t take action. He turned around and disappeared in a flash. An hour later, he appeared inside of a secret manor inside the imperial city and saw Peng Nine.”
“Don’t be nervous, I won’t take action. I come here in good faith and wish to meet your Stone Emperor.” He smiled as he spoke, revealing a gentle expression.
Gooseb.u.mps broke out all over Peng Nine’s body. He felt like even if he did everything he could, he wouldn’t be able to harm a single hair on this individual’s body. Standing in front of this old man made him feel as if he was a lamb gazing up at a True Hou. The difference between them was just too great.
“His Majesty has left. Even I do not know where he is right now.” Peng Nine forcefully calmed himself down and said.
“Is that so… then I’ll wait for him in Stone Capital.” The elder’s figure became indistinct, disappearing into thin air.
Stone Village. s.h.i.+ Hao stepped onto the altar.
Right now, everyone in the village was here. They all opened up their mouths, but they didn’t know how to make him stay. Everything they wanted to say had already been said.
“Child, protect your body and don’t die! Living is more important than anything else!” A clan elder said.
“Little Uncle Hao, we are waiting for you! You said you would bring us to steal from the nest of a great Golden Winged Peng, so you definitely have to come back alive!” A child rubbed at the tears that had welled up in his eyes.
s.h.i.+ Hao didn’t want to look at this type of send off scene. He directly activated the pa.s.sageway and disappeared inside.
“Your Majesty!” An imperial guard cried out in alarm.
As soon as s.h.i.+ Hao walked down from the imperial palace’s altar, he felt a powerful energy. There was a wave of energy covering all of Stone Capital. There was one person that was blazing like a golden sun.
Ordinary people couldn’t see it or feel anything, but he could. He stood at the highest point of the imperial palace and gazed outwards. Golden radiance was shooting out in all directions from a restaurant!
There was twenty or so li separating the two of them, but they sensed each other at the first moment. This was the reaction experts had towards powerful auras.
That altar was bright and glistening. s.h.i.+ Hao could see everything with his eyes. There was an elder with golden divine flames throbbing about the surface of his body who shone like a great golden sun.
He was currently drinking alone. As if he could see through the void, even with more than twenty li between them, he raised his gla.s.s towards s.h.i.+ Hao and nodded his head in greeting.
“Stone Emperor, it’s an honor to meet you at last.” The elder smiled and downed the gla.s.s of wine.
With a wave of s.h.i.+ Hao’s hand, a wine bottle and gla.s.s appeared in his hands. He sat down at the top of the summit and also raised it in a toast before drinking it.
“Isn’t it better to drink together, what do you think?” The elder stood up while carrying a warm smile.
“Distance brings favorable impressions.” s.h.i.+ Hao responded.
“Stone Emperor, there is no need to act so cautious. The meeting between us might not necessarily be one of life and death,” said the elder. He then introduced himself as Huang Yu from Immortal Palace.
Immortal Palace was an incredibly mysterious and terrifying ancient inheritance. s.h.i.+ Hao was only able to obtain a small portion of information from the three deities’ shattered consciousness, but it was already enough to learn about how terrifying that place was.
“I do not wish for there to be any conflicts either and hope that everything can be settled with peaceful relations.” He nodded and said.
“Little friend, are you willing to enter my Immortal Palace?” The elder asked.
When s.h.i.+ Hao heard this, he was stupefied. He couldn’t understand why this elder would say such a thing.
“Little friend, perhaps you do not know much about my Immortal Palace? If you join, it will definitely not bring disgrace or humiliation to your natural talents and status.” The elder smiled and gave a simple introduction.
Immortal Palace would never have more than five members. This had been the case generation after generation!
However, they were extremely terrifying. Even in the higher realms, no one dared to provoke them. Those that walked out from Immortal Palace all represented undefeatable beings that rarely met worthy opponents.
s.h.i.+ Hao was moved. If this information was true, then it was simply unbelievable. It was just too astonis.h.i.+ng.
He was well aware that there were countless races in the higher realms and that the land there was vast and boundless, who knew how many times larger than the lower realm. Outstanding talents, heavenly geniuses and others all rose up together. It was a place where deities struggle for supremacy!
If, in this type of world, there really was an inheritance that never had more than five members at one time, one that was comparable to great sects and known to be undefeated, one could well imagine just how terrifying a place like this was.
“What kind of relations.h.i.+p do you all have with Supreme Palace?” s.h.i.+ Hao asked.
From what he knew, Supreme Palace had even less members, with there only being a single member in each generation. It was an extremely mysterious place. In addition, he learned from the three deities that there was some relations.h.i.+p between these two powers.
“Haha…” The elder chuckled. Finally, he said a single word. “Enemies.”
s.h.i.+ Hao was stunned. It truly was unexpected. He thought that these two mysterious organizations might be of a common origin, but he never expected that they had an opposing relations.h.i.+p.
“Supreme Palace is also in the higher realms, only, after falling in defeat countless years ago, they fled to the lower realm.” The elder smiled.
s.h.i.+ Hao was astonished. This was truly hard to believe.
Rumors had it that Supreme Palace had a piece of the True Primordial Record -- Transcendence. It was known as an undying power, and as long as the inheritor appeared, that person would be unrivalled in the heavens above or earth below.
Even a power that was known as the Supreme Palace was defeated, then exactly what kind of background did Immortal Palace have? Could it be that they had something that rivaled the Transcendence piece?
“I had previously heard that little friend claimed to be the sole inheritor of Supreme Palace. Is that really the case?” The elder smiled and narrowed his eyes.