Imperial God Emperor

Ye Qingyu's vision became blurred just as he was astounded by the discovery of the mysterious figure's race.

An intense beam of blue light streaked across like a meteor.

Caught in a trance, he saw the Seven Fingers Race elder open his eyes slightly.

Has he awakened?

He blinked his eyes forcibly.

When his vision regained clarity, he discovered that the figure remained sitting quietly as if deep in sleep, completely unchanged.

"What's... going on?" He was perturbed.

That moment earlier was definitely not a hallucination.

But why...

Right at this moment...

An extremely strange and vicissitudinous voice suddenly popped up in his mind.

"I'm Liu Jing of the Seven Fingers Race. Young man, I've detected the aura of the Seven Fingers Race on your body... I've been waiting here for one hundred thirty thousand years... The day when a descendant of my race comes here has finally arrived..."

Filled with vicissitudes, the voice sounded intermittent, and it was hard for Ye Qingyu to tell if it was speakingin his ears or his mind.

Could this be... the corpse of the Seven Fingers Race ancestor talking?

He was terribly startled.

"Senior... Were you... waiting for... me?"

Perhaps out of instinct or a fortunate piece of wisdom, he suddenly became aware of the trail of blue light, which might have enabled him to hear the voice after it slipped into his mind. However, he could not figure out what it was exactly.

Just then, the voice sounded once more.

But not to answer Ye Qingyu's question.

"May I please trouble you to bring the [Lan Li Sword] back to the Seven Fingers Race and deliver it to my descendants? For them, seeing the [Lan Li Sword] will be as good as seeing their master, and they'll certainly reward you heavily."

Subsequently, the strange voice gradually subsided. Those final words felt like a gradually fading breeze that pulled away from Ye Qingyu's mind, yet at the same time seemed to fuzzily resound from the valleys which were a kilometer away.

"Senior... senior?" Ye Qingyu probed.

However, there was no longer a voice in his mind.

He let out a soft sigh inwardly.

By this time, he already understood that this magnificent expert of the Seven Fingers Race had been waiting for more than a hundred thousand years after his physical death with a single obsession, and that was to protect the [Lan Li Sword], hoping that it would one day return to the hands of his people.

Unfortunately, as they say, everything changes over time, and mishaps often happen.

The expert had no way of knowing that the Seven Fingers Race was near extinction, leaving only Ge Ming, the wanted criminal of the Alliance of Domains, and Shui Xiu, the sensible and clever young girl.

After a brief silence, Ye Qingyu turned once more to face the body sitting on the rock.

After respectfully saluting, he solemnly promised with a matching expression on his face, saying, "Please be assured, senior. Junior will definitely return this sword to the hands of the Seven Fingers Race."

As soon as he spoke.

A strange scene developed.

In front of his eyes, the body, which had been in deep sleep for more than a hundred thousand years and, like a diamond, had not corroded or gone bad, suddenly turned into thin wisps of smoke, as though it had been dissolved by a strange power, and dissipated into the Void.

Only the [Lan Li Sword] laid quietly on the rock, revealing an indescribable hint of desolation and loneliness.

After keeping the sword into the [Cloud Top Cauldron], Ye Qingyu turned and walked toward the spirit path.

While on the way out, he noticed yet another strange phenomenon.

Some of the tombstones around this stretch of ruins had been newly added.

But upon closer inspection, he could still see distinct dig marks on their outer edges.

Like the earlier graves which had huge openings, they seemed as if something had crawled out from within.

And, judging from the rocks piled up on the surface of the graves, it seemed as if something had filled up the holes.

Even more amazing was that the originally fractured tombstones were self-restoring and growing at an extremely slow and imperceptible rate, as if they possessed the vitality of plants.

Ye Qingyu's hair increasingly stood on end as he observed what was happening.

However, there remained nothing that was worthy of further study based on the various vestiges he had discovered.

With no other choice, he quick-stepped his way back on to the spirt path and followed the Celestial Phoenix Maiden in proceeding ahead.

On the subsequent journey, Ye Qingyu continued to see quite a few ruins in which battle vestiges were left behind.

Moreover, compared to the previous ones, these ruins were closer to one another and were larger in terms of the extent and area of damage caused by the battle.

Having seen so many of them, Ye Qingyu gradually became inured to seeing more battle ruins along the way, much like the Celestial Phoenix Maiden.

Four hours later.

Walking along the spirit path, he could not help but become suspicious once again.

The Door of Life that stems from the  Door of Darkness would be open for no more than three days, and thus time could be said to be pressing.

It had been more than half a day since they entered the 18th district, yet the Celestial Phoenix Maiden still sauntered along without any urgency, as if she was a noble young lady who had come for a stroll.

Is it possible that she's not interested in the opportunity left behind by the martial emperor?

Or is she overly confident that nobody would be able to find it before her?

Ye Qingyu completely could not understand her way of doing things.

Another two hours passed.

Appearing in their field of vision was yet another battlefield which had a vast affected area.

Compared to the earlier ruins, the damage done to this battlefield was even more serious. All of its buildings and stone walls had been pulverized, such that it looked like a desert on which black sand and stones had gathered. However, what attracted Ye Qingyu's attention was not the battlefield itself but something in its midst...

A halberd with an exquisite and peculiar model was standing on a collapsed black rock, which was big enough for three or four people to stand on and had knife-sharp edges, at the centermost of the desert.

It was three meters in height, of which more than two meters were exposed above the rock it had been stuck into.

Circling on top of its crimson and perfectly upright body was a lifelike sculpture of a golden dragon whose scales gave off a dazzling golden light. On its back were extremely well-defined fins which were fanned out as if to withstand a harsh wind.

Its pose was that of an ascending and roaring dragon.

With its mouth wide open, it looked as though it was swallowing the center of the universe, and a blood-colored trident emerged from within.

From afar, one could see that the blood-colored light on the halberd was gleaming endlessly, as if some strange and terrifying essence and blood had been frozen within.

Ye Qingyu's attention had been attracted by this halberd in an instant.

This was because the halberd possessed an incomparably bizarre aura which simply caused one to shudder.

"My gosh, is this an Emperor weapon?"

He could not believe his eyes at all.

If it was indeed an Emperor weapon, then this was certainly an opportunity like no other.

Meanwhile, he also noticed something else which was very weird.

A golden dragon claw was clutching the halberd.

Entirely covered in a sand-like golden light which circulated endlessly and made it seem as though formed from golden sand, the dragon claw had apparently been chopped off from its owner.

Stranger still was that despite being chopped off, the dragon claw alone emitted an immense power which was even more shocking than any other formation or treasure that had been seen among the battle vestiges. It was as if a martial emperor had descended and used the dragon claw as the center from which to spread an extremely odd and invisible force field in all directions of the Void. Completely different from all other energy waves in the entire plane, the force field formed a protective ring-like boundary and safeguarded the halberd within.

It was only by using his divine sense that Ye Qingyu was able to see that light rays which resembled strands of golden hair were encircling the surroundings.

He seemed somewhat spellbound as he stared at the dragon claw on the halberd.

This scene had made him feel fearful.

"This is a force field which was formed from the residual energy of the self-destruction of an expert whose strength was close to the pinnacle of the Great Saint level."

Standing to one side, the Celestial Phoenix Maiden suddenly spoke up, albeit she was gazing at the distance and seemed more like she was talking to herself.

Ye Qingyu was shocked upon hearing this.

Pinnacle of the Great Saint level?

A Great Saint pinnacle expert was this strong?

"This halberd is the ancestral weapon of the Dragonblood Dynasty of former times." With eyes that remained indifferent, the Celestial Phoenix Maiden looked at the halberd as if it was a most ordinary weapon.

The Dragonblood Dynasty?!

Ye Qingyu received another shock.

The legends he had heard regarding the Dragonblood Dynasty rapidly popped up in his mind.

It was said that among the myriad domains was an ancient one called the Dragonblood Domain which possessed several hundred thousand years of history.

The only race which governed this domain was the Dragonblood Dynasty, which was the offspring derived from both the Dragon and the Human Races.

Because the imperial family had inherited a considerable amount of dragon blood in their bodies, their progeny turned out to be highly and diversely gifted and extraordinarily strong. With the addition of the ancestral weapon which could be considered a secondary Emperor weapon, they had been renowned and the dominant race of their domain for the past million years. However, ever since losing the ancestral weapon some hundred thousand years ago, their strength was severely diminished like a dragon that had lost its claws and thus they began to decline among the myriad domains.

"The one who self-destructed could be the Dragonblood War Emperor, who had forcefully broken through the Door of Darkness to enter this plane. He preserved an obsession on the broken arm and generated a force field so as to safeguard the ancestral weapon of their race." The Celestial Phoenix Maiden's head had turned to look in a different direction as she spoke in a faint voice. "You can gain some good karma by taking this halberd and returning it to the Dragonblood Dynasty."

After a brief consideration, Ye Qingyu felt that the Celestial Phoenix Maiden's advice made sense and thus was about to extract the halberd when he suddenly paused.

He turned his head toward her and asked, "If there's good karma to be earned, why aren't you interested in taking it?"

However, the fairy-like figure who was dressed in a set of purple battle garments seemed not to hear him and willfully turned to leave this stretch of ruins.

Ye Qingyu felt somewhat helpless toward this haughty and apathetic fairy who he became increasingly mystified by.

Standing in front of the halberd, he remained still for a few breaths before jumping onto the rock and reaching his hand out to take the weapon.

However, the dragon body that circled at the top of the halberd burst forth a horrifying power which pushed back his palm just as it was about to make contact.

A tremendous bout of pain traveled from the skin on his purlicue into his marrow before spreading all over his arms in an instant.

He was left surprised and unable to understand why this was happening.

He then seemed to think of something and understood why. With an earnest expression on his face, he respectfully bowed toward the weapon and said, "Junior's actions today are absolutely not for his own selfish gain or out of greed for the relic of the Dragonblood Race. Instead, he seeks to fulfill senior's wish and return the halberd to its hometown. May senior please be assured."

A bizarre change took place as soon as he spoke.

The surging power that lingered all around seemed to be completely absorbed and abruptly converged into a cyclone that then entered the Void, causing all of the force field's aura to dissipate without a trace.

The dragon claw turned into glistening golden powder and slowly melted like snow under a flame before blending into the halberd completely.

When all of these strange phenomena had run their course, Ye Qingyu reached his hand out to grab the halberd once more. No terrifying feedback force sprang up this time, and the ancestral weapon seemed as though it had gone into dormancy.

"This is indeed the ancestral weapon passed down..."

Hefting the halberd in his hand, he realized that it was very wieldy in terms of weight and feel. Although it had become inert, he could still sense the apocalyptic power contained within.

After he kept the halberd in the [Cloud Top Cauldron], he exited the battlefield and chased after the Celestial Phoenix Maiden.

However, he did not notice that an astonished expression finally appeared in the latter's pupils after she saw that he had really retrieved the Dragonblood halberd.