Back in the Origin Sea, countless cultivators had fought over the Origin Power in a frenzied free-for-all. It was impossible to tell how many had perished, but every last one of those who died had fallen into the Origin Sea, vanishing without a trace.
Who would have thought that they had all ended up here, swallowed into this place.
The jade slip no longer existed either. When he had been swallowed in here, Yang Kai had felt the jade slip in his hand suddenly crack apart, transforming into a peculiar energy that lingered around him as though shielding him.
The moment he had set foot in this place, that energy had dissipated without a trace.
So it seemed the jade slip's purpose was to serve as a guarantee for entering this place. Without it, Yang Kai had no idea what consequences there might have been from being swallowed in.
Wu Mengchuan had desperately tried to destroy the jade slip before death, clearly unwilling to let it fall into someone else's hands and grant them entry here. What secrets was this place hiding?
And what had the old man come here for?
Yang Kai's expression flickered with alarm and suspicion as he surveyed his surroundings, but he discovered nothing. Even when he extended his spiritual sense, he could not detect the old man's aura.
After a moment's contemplation, his gaze fell upon the pools of blood on the ground, and he set off in the direction they were flowing.
No matter what this place was or what secrets it concealed, the direction these streams of blood were flowing was likely the root of everything.
This bizarre world seemed vast. Yang Kai walked for over an hour, and the scenery around him showed not the slightest change. Were it not for his extraordinary endurance, he might have thought he was simply walking in place.
An hour later, Yang Kai's expression suddenly shifted, and he looked up toward a certain direction.
He had heard explosions from that way, and when he peered into the distance, he could make out flashes of light blooming here and there. Occasionally, powerful fluctuations of energy rippled through from that direction.
Someone was fighting over there!
Yang Kai's eyes narrowed, surprise written across his face, because he had only seen the old man enter this place alone. If there truly were people fighting over there, one of them had to be that old fellow — but who was the other?
Judging from the energy fluctuations, whoever was clashing with him was far from ordinary. Yang Kai didn't know exactly how capable the old man was, but he was certain that an average Emperor Realm cultivator was no match for him.
The person fighting him to such a heated standstill was no common figure either!
Could it be that another powerful being existed in this wretched place?
Yang Kai grew ever more confused, and curiosity drove him to pick up the pace, speeding toward the source while employing his Void Secret Technique to conceal his aura.
The closer he got, the more pronounced the shockwaves of battle became.
After the time it takes to burn a stick of incense, Yang Kai crouched behind a small hill, cautiously peeking over the crest. What he saw made his face drain of color and his heart seize with shock.
The old man was indeed over there, hovering in the void, his robes snapping in the wind, his black hair streaming behind him. There was an air of detachment and ancient weariness about his silhouette, a true transcendence and aloofness.
Not far in front of him, the skeleton he had glimpsed through the black hole sat cross-legged — though it looked different from before. Flesh had begun to grow on those bones, raw and crimson, absorbing the blood water flowing in from all around, squirming and spreading ceaselessly.
It seemed as though the blood water of this entire world was converging on that skeleton.
At this moment, the flesh on the skeleton was still sparse, as though it had only just begun to take shape. It hadn't even fully covered the bones yet, but that only made the sight all the more horrifying.
The skeleton held a profound hand seal, and from within those snow-white bones surged an astonishing devouring force that continuously drew in the blood water from all around.
And each time this happened, the old man would unleash a ferocious attack, cutting off the flow of blood and preventing the skeleton from absorbing it.
The powerful aftershocks of his attacks hammered against the skeleton, yet it remained utterly unmoved.
It was impossible to tell how long this stalemate had persisted. The old man tirelessly flung his power forward, vast swaths of converging blood water evaporating and scattering under his blows.
But the blood water in this world was simply too abundant. No matter how relentlessly the old man obstructed it, even more continued pouring in from every direction, surging toward the skeleton.
Yang Kai forced down the shock churning inside him, his face paling slightly.
Because he could actually sense a trace of life from that skeleton — faint, feeble, like a candle flame on the verge of guttering out in a storm, but undeniably the aura of vitality.
In other words, the skeleton was alive!
Which Great Emperor this skeleton belonged to had never been made clear, but based on the various clues Yang Kai had gathered, he surmised it was most likely the remains of the Devouring Heaven Great Emperor.
Legend held that the Devouring Heaven Great Emperor had been destroyed — body and soul — during the war among the Great Emperers tens of thousands of years ago, long since perished beyond any doubt. Yet now it seemed that legend was wrong.
If these really were the remains of the Devouring Heaven Great Emperor, it meant he had never truly died, only fallen into some kind of deep slumber. And the blood water converging here might be the key to his awakening!
Yang Kai suddenly recalled something Wu Mengchuan had said during their life-or-death battle — a remark that had lingered in his mind.
He had said that a person like their ancestor could never simply die.
If that was the case, Wu Mengchuan had apparently known something of the truth. As a descendant of the Devouring Heaven Great Emperor, it wasn't entirely far-fetched that he would know his ancestor still lived.
He had even known his ancestor was hidden here, waiting for the right moment, planning to use the jade slip to gain entry — only to be killed by Yang Kai in the end, desperately attempting to destroy the jade slip on his deathbed…