Chapter 682: Emperor Featherflight’s Remains
Given the current situation, Lin Hai’s thoughts were perfectly understandable. After all, it was impossible that a person monstrous enough to kill a true disciple of Ninesuns Sky Sect, deceive him and Jun Mobai, and even drive them to their deaths could possibly spring from the Myriad Domain. There was no way Lin Hai would believe that a Myriad Domain genius could perform such a feat.
Xiang Qin’s strength was exceptional in the Myriad Domain, and he could be considered to be the strongest genius of the region. However, Lin Hai was confident that both he and Jun Mobai could deal with this foremost genius. As for an expert at Cao Jin’s level, that kind of existence was much stronger than even him and Jun Mobai. Even Xiang Qin would suffer a completely one-sided defeat if he were to encounter Cao Jin. However, this Jiang Chen was actually strong enough to take out Cao Jin!
Could he be the top genius of a first rank sect? Was he an emperor realm cultivator? Lin Hai’s mind was filled with doubt and fear. He wanted to obtain the truth from Jiang Chen.
Jiang Chen smiled calmly and stared at Lin Hai. “Senior brother Lin Hai, I didn’t know that you were such a good actor.” His tone was calm despite the rather messy situation.
“Jiang Chen, stop pretending already. Tell me that which first rank sect you’re from!” Lin Hai said angrily.
“Whether or not I’m a spy is none of your concern. Emperor Featherflight, huh? I’m curious. Just who is this Emperor Featherflight to be so attractive as to warrant the attention of two first rank sects? Why have your sects searched for him relentlessly for thousands of years, and gone so far as to send out spies to infiltrate the Myriad Domain?”
Lin Hai frowned, “You don’t know?”
Jiang Chen smiled calmly, “I don’t. But I’ve managed to guess a little here and there from your conversation. Well? Are you going to spill the beans, or do I need to pry your mouth open for you?”
Lin Hai laughed loudly, “Spill the beans? I am an Eternal Celestial Capital disciple, and I’d rather die than be shamed! If this idiot Jun Mobai hadn’t fought me to such a state, do you really think I would be scared of you?”
Jiang Chen smiled calmly, “Does that mean you’re going to resist to the so-called bitter end?”
Lin Hai’s face darkened, “Hmph, you’ll have to cough up something if you want to kill me.”
“Do I?” Jiang Chen didn’t waste his breath. He shook the Soldier Rosary Beads once, and summoned forth a sky sage realm and three earth sage realm golden armored warriors, surrounding Lin Hai completely.
Lin Hai paled greatly, “Jiang Chen, do you only know how to play cheap tricks? I dare you to fight me one on one!”
“Fight you one on one? I’m afraid I would only dirty my hands that way.” Jiang Chen wasn’t willing to waste any more time on him, and commanded his golden armored warriors to launch a frenzied attack upon Lin Hai. Lin Hai was already completely spent, and the strongest advantage of these golden armored warriors was that they were completely unafraid of death. Therefore, Lin Hai fell almost instantly to their rush, suffering quite a few blows in the process.
Jiang Chen walked over to Lin Hai, and the first thing he did as he looked at the barely breathing form was to confiscate the flag. This flag was definitely a treasure, and Jiang Chen had thought it to be fairly extraordinary from the start. It was extremely useful for both offense and defense. It was also thanks to this flag that Lin Hai was able to turn things around again and again when he’d fought Jun Mobai. Other than the flag, Jiang Chen also took Lin Hai’s storage ring as well. He had done the same with Jun Mobai’s storage ring.
It had taken him no small degree of effort to take out these two cultivators, and Jiang Chen wasn’t willing to tarry any longer. However, he didn’t dare neglect caution as he walked up to the lofty palace in the lake and stared at it. After all, this brackish lake water was extremely corrosive. Even Lin Hai and Jun Mobai had been extremely fearful of it.
Jiang Chen might have cultivated the golden body of the Nine Transformations of Demons and G.o.ds, but he still wasn’t willing to test the corrosiveness of the lake water with his golden body. That was why he used Lin Hai’s flag to protect himself. Jiang Chen knew that this abode was absolutely not the same as the other buildings in the Paramount Realm. It was most likely a spatial abode that was naturally portable. Normally, a residence like this could only be made portable after refinement.
If he wished to refine this residence for himself, then he must first find its core. Only then he would be able to truly control it. Had it been any of the other experts from the Divine Abyss Continent, then they might’ve been fooled by this palace’s appearance and thought it simply to be another building in the Paramount Realm. However, Jiang Chen possessed the knowledge and experience of his past life. He naturally wouldn’t be fooled just by appearances.
Considering how little life force there was in the Paramount Realm, no one would be senseless enough to build a palace in this place. Moreover, this obviously wasn’t a suitable place to establish a sect either. Lin Hai and Jun Mobai seemed to have used a certain secret art to lock onto the signs of Emperor Featherflight’s consciousness.
Of course, a tracking method like this had its own limitations. If they hadn’t entered the Paramount Realm or wandered close to this area, it would’ve been impossible to pick up any traces. Otherwise, Lin Hai and Jun Mobai wouldn’t have sounded like they had searched futilely for Emperor Featherflight for thousands of years. Due to many concerns, they couldn’t openly make a thorough search of the Myriad Domain. That was why they had no choice but to infiltrate the sects to search for Emperor Featherflight’s whereabouts.
This Emperor Featherflight must have escaped to such an obscure place to avoid pursuit from the Ninesuns Sky Sect and Eternal Celestial Capital. Therefore, there must be plenty of traps inside. If I act recklessly, I may be attacked by them.
From Emperor Featherflight’s point of view, he had every reason to lay all kinds of traps. After all, no one would like to see their inheritance happily taken away by their enemies after being hunted for such a long time. Jiang Chen was carefully on guard after entering the palace. The palace wasn’t large, but it was a completely different world within.
“This place is truly grand. There is no way that a t.i.tled Great Emperor could’ve refined a spatial abode like this. If this place truly is connected to Emperor Featherflight, then he certainly didn’t create this place by himself.” Jiang Chen guessed that Emperor Featherflight might have accidentally obtained an ancient inheritance. However, his discovery had also alerted the Eternal Celestial Capital and Ninesuns Sky Sect, and he had been viciously hunted down by the two sects as a result.
Jiang Chen unleashed his consciousness at full power as he tread on the palace’s stone stairs, guarding against any possible mishaps. What Jiang Chen didn’t expect was that the attacks and traps he’d expected to be thrown at him didn’t happen. In fact, he didn’t trigger any kind of restrictions at all no matter how carelessly he walked through the interior of the palace.
“How odd!” This situation almost made Jiang Chen disbelieve his senses. It was obvious that this palace abode contained some extremely powerful restrictions. However, none of them showed any signs of activating at all. Jiang Chen had been extremely experienced and knowledgeable in his past life, and so could more or less deduce the flows of power and restrictions inside the palace.
If these restrictions were in a state of high alert, then surely the energy in and around them would be balancing on a hair trigger, with barely suppressed activity. But the more he examined them, the more docile the restrictions looked. Not a single one seemed even primed to trigger, let alone be so sensitive to intruders.
“Could it be that Emperor Featherflight failed to refine this abode at all after he obtained it? Is that why he didn’t set these restrictions to automatically attack intruders?” Jiang Chen’s mind was filled with questions.
It was possible that Emperor Featherflight had been killed before he’d managed to refine the inheritance from the palace. Jiang Chen pa.s.sed through many corridors and finally arrived at the back hall of the palace. Jiang Chen had just stepped foot over the entrance when he saw a corpse sitting cross-legged inside.
From a distance, the body looked like he was in a meditative state. The expression on his face looked as lifelike as ever. If it wasn’t for the fact that this man exuded no ripples of vitality whatsoever, Jiang Chen would have almost suspected that he was alive. His skin color and his countenance truly looked lifelike.
This man was sitting cross-legged with a grave expression on his face. It would seem that he didn’t even want death to mar his sense of style and pride. His face contained none of the struggles that a person would usually face on their deathbed.
“Is he Emperor Featherflight?” Jiang Chen looked behind the person and noted the stunning sight of a pair of wings. It was truly an incredible sight. This man truly was a t.i.tled Great Emperor alright, considering that his body hadn’t rotted away even after a thousand years. Jiang Chen didn’t approach the body hastily. Instead, he stood far away and observed the body carefully. It only took him a moment to discover that there were no restrictions or traps around him at all.
Jiang Chen was now completely puzzled. If Emperor Featherflight had truly been forced to escape to a place like this, there was no way he would expose his body so openly and easily. It made even less sense that he wouldn’t arrange a little something to deal with his enemies.
Could it be that Emperor Featherflight had lost all ability to resist prior to his death?
It didn’t look that way either. If he could die looking this calm and collected, then he shouldn’t have been that powerless.
Jiang Chen approached him slowly. Then, he saw that a few words had been engraved on the floor before Emperor Featherflight.
A Notice For Those Who Come After:
“Mine name is Featherflight. I have travelled across the Divine Abyss Continent unhindered for thousands of years. Against any reasonable expectation, I was hunted down by the Ninesuns Sky Sect and Eternal Celestial Capital and ultimately wandered to this place. I have already burned out the wick of my life,, and have decided to use this place as my place of rebirth. I shall cast away my power and essence of a lifetime in hopes of entering the cycle of rebirth. To a person nearing his death, all gains and losses in this world are but a transient thing.
“A goose leaves behind its voice after its flight, but a man’s legacy after life is his name. I dominated the Divine Abyss Continent at one point, and was a hero of those times. Therefore, I shall leave behind my inheritance in hopes that my future heir will be able to spread the name of Emperor Featherflight and avenge me.
“My heir must eliminate the Ninesuns Sky Sect and Eternal Celestial Capital…”
Later on, Emperor Featherflight even detailed some of his experiences while he was being hunted by the Ninesuns Sky Sect and Eternal Celestial Capital, and some of the reasons he had chosen to escape to this place. He also explained some of the processes and the reason why he had chosen this lake bottom.
“I am a t.i.tled emperor, and I share no ties with the Ninesuns Sky Sect and Eternal Celestial Capital. The reason they hunted me was not because they wanted my martial dao inheritance, but because I obtained an ancient inheritance from a certain ancient secret realm. This ancient inheritance had been left behind by a great empyrean expert. However, not only did it contain an empyrean decree, but also a secret order of the legendary fate secret realm. The fate realm is said to be connected to the sh.o.r.es of the heavenly law. It allows a cultivator to connect directly with the heavenly law and ascend to the heavenly planes…”
For a time, Jiang Chen’s heart was filled with indescribable emotions as he read Emperor Featherflight’s last message. He had guessed that there would be something amazing like an empyrean decree amongst the goods, but he’d never dreamed that Emperor Featherflight would possess a secret order that would enable pa.s.sage to the secret realm of heavenly laws too.
Jiang Chen might not have known the Divine Abyss Continent very well, but he did know that every physical plane had secret realms that were connected to the heavenly law.
Normally speaking, once an expert of a physical plane obtained the acknowledgement of the heavenly law, they would ascend to the heavenly plane through the normal channels of celestial orbit. Otherwise, if they hadn’t obtained this confirmation, then they would have to utilize secret realms to do so. Secret realms would give a cultivator the same chance to obtain the acknowledgement of heavenly laws, and ascend directly to the heavenly planes.