Swish swish swish…
In front of the grand hall, shadowy figures darted forward. The remaining seven each deployed their own techniques, racing to charge ahead. As the saying goes, whoever seizes the initiative reaps the greatest reward. Gong Wenshan had already been the first to rush inside, leaving the others burning with anxiety behind him.
In the blink of an eye, everyone had poured into the hall, each finding their own position and narrowing their eyes as they peered toward the front.
Up ahead, radiant light blazed in dazzling colors, spiritual energy surged and roiled, as if some extraordinary treasure — buried in the world for tens of thousands of years — was waiting for its new master to arrive.
Boom boom boom…
The moment everyone entered, the great doors began to close once more, emitting sounds like muffled thunder.
Everyone started slightly, but quickly composed themselves, no longer paying attention to the doors. Instead, they swept their gazes across the surroundings of the hall, surveying the situation.
What greeted their eyes was a circular gate of light positioned on the far right side of the hall. Within the gate, misty luminescence swelled and ebbed, halos flickering between illusion and reality, the power of space undulating in waves. No one could tell where it led — a mere glance at it threatened to pull one's consciousness into its depths.
Thirty zhang ahead of the group stood a raised platform.
Upon it, several objects of varying shapes rested quietly.
"Is this…?" Once the group made out what lay on the platform, every face contorted with shock and avarice.
There weren't many — only five items in total.
A pitch-black oval shield, its surface carved with dragons and phoenixes, with abstruse runes appearing and fading in an endless cycle — profoundly mysterious.
A droplet the size of a cherry that looked exactly like a bead of water…
A bizarre entity that radiated seven-colored radiance, soft and pliable like flowing water…
A pellet that resembled a spirit pill but was not actually a pill…
A round bead the size of a longan, glowing a fiery red…
Five treasures in all, each displayed upon the platform and shrouded beneath a visible hemispherical barrier of light — as though invisible bowls had been inverted over them.
The group's gazes passed over the five treasures one by one, then finally came to rest on an additional hemispherical barrier where… something had apparently once been, but was now gone for reasons unknown.
In other words, there had originally been six treasures on this platform. Yet now, only five remained. Someone had already slipped in and claimed the sixth.
Gulp…
Kong Qi swallowed hard, his eyes fixed on the black oval shield. His voice came out strained: "Could this… could this be a Pseudo-Emperor Artifact? I can actually feel a trace of Emperor might emanating from it!"
Everyone was struck dumb. None of them had imagined that treasures of this caliber would appear this deep within the Temple of Time. In an instant, madness flickered in every pair of eyes as they stared, trembling with excitement, at the five treasures on the platform. Their agitation was nearly impossible to rein in.
Yet despite the itching desire none of them dared make a move.
Because every person here understood the math — eight people stood in this hall, but only five treasures lay before them. It simply wasn't enough to go around. If anyone were foolish enough to act rashly, the rest would almost certainly turn on them as a common enemy, and against such overwhelming odds, that person would be eliminated outright.
Even someone as formidable as Luo Yuan suppressed the restless impulse churning inside him, carefully watching for changes in the others' expressions.
"Your Highness, your knowledge is vast — can you identify what these items are?" Gong Wenshan suddenly turned to Lan Xun and asked.
A peculiar light gleamed in Lan Xun's beautiful eyes. She smiled at the question and replied, "I recognize a few of them…"
"Then please, Your Highness, enlighten us!" Gong Wenshan said earnestly.
Lan Xun inclined her delicate head slightly and pointed at the pitch-black oval shield. "Brother Kong is correct. This one is almost certainly a Pseudo-Emperor Artifact."
"What in the world is a Pseudo-Emperor Artifact?" Yang Kai asked, having no idea.
The moment those words left his mouth, everyone cast him an odd look, as if they found it almost inconceivable that someone could be ignorant of such basic knowledge.
Bian Yuqing, however, understood that Yang Kai truly came from a limited background — after all, he was a warrior from a low-tier Star Field — so she kindly explained: "Emperor Artifacts aren't something that can be forged by any alchemist. You should know that much, right?"
Yang Kai gave a slight nod.
Emperor Artifacts came into existence through years of ritual tempering and nurturing. Only after a warrior ascended to the Emperor Realm and used their Emperor Will to refine an Artifact — pouring into it their own comprehension of the Heavenly Dao and the Martial Dao — could an Emperor Artifact possibly be born.
"Some Emperor Realm cultivators, while attempting to refine their own Artifacts, fail to achieve the desired outcome due to various reasons. Yet the Artifact's power isn't diminished — in fact, it's enhanced. In such cases, the Artifact that emerges is a Pseudo-Emperor Artifact. It surpasses the Dao Source grade of Artifact but falls short of a true Emperor Artifact. It's essentially a half-finished product!" Bian Yuqing explained in a quiet, solemn tone. "A good Pseudo-Emperor Artifact is no weaker than an average Emperor Artifact, but some Pseudo-Emperor Artifacts are only marginally better than the Dao Source grade."