Chapter 388: A Lucky Chance

“Old man, that isn’t the Starlight Vessel, is it?” said Ge Qian from deep within the waters near the Immortals’ Sword House. His?pupils constricted.

Fierce tidal waves rose on the distant seas, and a stretch of radiant starlight surged forth, illuminating the overcast night skies with an ethereal, dreamlike glow.

Upon closer inspection, he saw a thirty-foot ship, the kind you might ride through a lotus pond. It was full of clear, bright, dazzling starlight.

“Hurry! Circulate the Xuanwu Aura-Sealing Incantation!” The old-timer’s voice resounded through his sea of consciousness, and he sounded both furious and frantic. “Dammit! Why does this fucking place just keep getting stranger and stranger?”

This time, there was actually no need for him to warn Ge Qian, who’d already started circulating the incantation. Soon, he’d completely withdrawn his aura.

What made Ge Qian inwardly sigh in relief was that while it was still far away, the Starlight Vessel came to a complete stop. It just floated atop the waves, the clear starlight emanating from it illuminating the entire stretch of ocean and sky, strange and mysterious.

However, the scene that followed left him chilled and completely out of sorts.

He watched as blood-colored mist silently diffused into the air off to the southwest, and a ten-thousand-foot tower of white bone appeared within.

The ninety-foot ape had only just gone east, but now, he turned back, the woman in men’s clothing still seated on his shoulder.

Meanwhile, in the northeast, a strange island silently shifted toward them. Thousands of green lamps floated around it, with terrifying visions of hell playing out in the skies.

“If I’d known this would happen, I would have fled a long time ago…” The corners of Ge Qian’s lips twitched. He felt so regretful that even his innards turned green.

Everything that happened tonight was just so unbelievable and so strange and so out of the ordinary that he couldn’t help but tremble.

Deep within his sea of consciousness, the old-timer’s hair stood on end. “This is?small potatoes, that’s all. Back in the day, I witnessed all manner of grand occasions. This is nothing! Don’t be nervous. If anything unexpected happens….”

The old-timer took a deep breath, then gnashed his teeth and said viciously, “We’ll just run away!”

“...” Ge Qian didn’t know what to say to that.?He already had no energy left to argue.?In a true pinch, this old fart is even more cowardly than I am!

At the same time, the woman seated on the massive ape’s shoulder looked solemn. She muttered, “Something’s not quite right here. It seems that, aside from the Mountain of Funerals, all four Perils of the Sea of Chaotic Spirits have been drawn to the ruins of the Immortals’ Sword House…. Don’t tell me something has changed?’

She’d only just said this when her beautiful eyes focused, and she saw towering gray mists approaching from the southwest.

Deep within the mists, she saw a mountain fully ten thousand feet tall. It was covered in four black chains, each as thick as a dragon.

Each chain bound a strange and ancient corpse.

The Mountain of Funerals!

Now, all of the Sea of Chaotic Spirit’s Four Great Perils had gathered in one place, convening around the Immortals’ Sword House. None of them moved; it was as if they were waiting for something.

Even the churning ocean waters calmed down. The waves receded, and even the winds vanished. Everything was silent.

“Master, what should we do?” The giant white ape’s hair stood on end as he stared at the distant Mountain of Funerals, White Bone Tower, Starlight Vessel, and Isle of No Return. The combination left him feeling suffocated.

“Let’s keep watching. Whatever happens next is sure to be interesting!” After calming herself down, the woman glanced at the entrance to the ruins of the Immortals’ Sword House. “If we truly encounter danger, we can just force our way inside.”

Time slipped by.

An oppressive atmosphere spread throughout the ocean.

Deep within the Immortals’ Sword House, in that vast, majestic hall.

The hall was extremely enormous, and it was supported by thirty-six stone pillars. The walls were covered in bronze palace lanterns, their candles still lit. It seemed not even the passage of countless years could extinguish them. Their light illuminated the palace interior.

Su Yi swept his gaze around the room, then looked deeper into the palace.

He saw a jade platform at the end of the hall. Its staircase had nine steps, and there was nothing but a single prayer mat.

“One step for each of the layered heavens. Sitting atop the jade platform is like sitting atop the nine heavens. Sitting and discussing the Grand Dao? This setup is actually quite extraordinary.”

Su Yi strode over, then saw that each of the nine steps was engraved with mysterious Dao markings and totems, and that they emanated the inscrutable power of the formation.

After a cursory inspection, Su Yi recognized this as a Dao Mark Barrier carved by an Imperial Realm expert. It was an incredibly terrifying restriction, and the Imperial Dao power wielded by Imperial Realm experts was required to place it.

However, after countless years, the Dao Mark Barrier on the steps had faded. Only the last, barest vestiges remained, and its energy fluctuations were weak.

“Young Lord, look! There’s a jade box in front of the prayer mat!” Hua Xinfeng exclaimed, then charged toward it.

“Wait.” Su Yi grabbed her by the sleeves and pulled her back to his side. “If you go up there just like that, I’m afraid you’ll die instantly. Even your soul will scatter.”

Hua Xinfeng was stunned, then so startled that she broke out in cold sweats. “Is there a restriction on the steps?”

“That’s right, and if I’m not mistaken, the founder of the Immortals’ Sword House, the Heavensphere Emperor, placed it personally. Even if only a small portion of the formation’s power remains, it will have no trouble killing any cultivator beneath the Spirit Dao,” explained Su Yi.

Hua Xinfeng gasped. She suddenly realized that she’d just had a close brush with death!

Su Yi examined the steps a while longer, then said, “You stay here. Don’t move.”

He then continued straight ahead, his fingers flowing with spiritual light as he outlined a mysterious and inscrutable pattern in the air. It embedded itself in the first of the nine stop steps.

Bzzz!

Spiritual light flowed around the step. The obscure power of the restriction surged with a rain of light, then silently merged into the diagram Su Yi had outlined.

Then, Su Yi walked onto the?step.

Hua Xinfeng was instantly dazed. Su Yi had obviously only climbed a single step, yet she felt as if he’d ascended into the heavens. He was now far beyond reach; she could only gaze upon him from afar.

“This….” Hua Xinfeng’s heart surged with emotion. She finally understood that, were anyone else here, even a Spirit Dao cultivator, they couldn’t possibly have climbed that seemingly ordinary step.

Because the restriction upon them was the work of the Heavenspehre Yao Emperor! In the face of such supreme power, even advanced cultivators of the Spirit Dao were nothing but ants!

Su Yi then proceeded to follow the same pattern for each step. With each step he climbed, he used a secret art, merging a light diagram with the Dao marks. Just like that, he continued up the stairs.

Before long, he’d already reached the platform. In Hua Xinfeng’s eyes, he seemed far away, as if he stood beyond the nine heavens, distant and ethereal. As he stood there, he was like a deity; the sight of him filled any who looked upon him with awe and dread.

How majestic was it when the Heavensphere Yao Emperor sat here??Hua Xinfeng felt shaken.

She was only an Origin Dao cultivator. It didn’t matter that she hailed from the Ten Directions Pavilion and that she knew countless secrets. This was something an Imperial Realm cultivator had left behind, and the sight left her feeling indescribably tiny and insignificant. Her face paled.

She felt like a mortal gazing upon an immortal or a god!

He… How can he climb the Heavensphere Yao Emperor’s throne as if he were walking on flat ground??Hua Xinfeng looked up at Su Yi, her expression bewildered. Her heart shook.

When they first entered the ruins, she didn’t give the matter much thought. Her knowledge of Su Yi was limited to what she’d heard about him from others.

But after watching him effortlessly break the seal on the palace gates, then climb the nine steps as if he were out for a casual stroll, Hua Xinfeng realized a certain problem.

Shockingly, Su Yi understood even the methods of Imperial Realm experts like the back of his hand!

This discovery left her rooted to the spot. Waves of shock coursed through her heart.?Who… Who the hell is this guy?

Su Yi had no idea how shaken Hua Xinfeng was right now.

He was currently standing atop the platform. First, he glanced at the prayer mat, but after staring at it intently for a moment, he sighed.

The prayer mat was obviously a true Daoist treasure!

It was woven out of nine different types of celestial spirit silk threads. After an extensive refinement process involving various blessings and restrictions, any cultivator who sat upon it could sense the presence of the Grand Dao of heaven and earth.

If someone cultivated on top of it, their mind and soul could easily achieve harmony with the Grand Dao, enabling extremely deep contemplation.

Even in the Nine Provinces of the Wilds, such a prayer mat would have been an impressive treasure, one that even Imperial Realm experts would pay through the nose to obtain.

However—

𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

It seemed that countless years had frittered the power of the mat’s restrictions. Without their support, the mat’s innate holy energy gradually faded away. Now, little remained.

Although the mat looked fully intact, in truth, it was severely damaged!

“What a pity.” Su Yi picked the mat up and looked it over, but he could already tell that there was no hope of repairing it.

However, the materials used to make it were, after all, nine different types of celestial spirit silk threads. These were first-rate, rare divine materials. It didn’t matter that their divine aura had already faded to nothingness. They could still increase a treasure’s grade during the forging process.

For example, when he reforged Early Grave, the celestial spirit silk threads could achieve a miraculous effect.

After putting the prayer mat away, Su Yi glanced at the space in front of it.

A jade box lay there. It was only half a foot long and four fingers thick. The jade was dark as ink, perfectly smooth, and translucent. It had no adornments, giving it a simple, rustic charm.

There weren’t any mechanisms or restrictions on it either.

Su Yi picked up the jade box and easily opened it.

Inside, he saw two items: a dark golden jade slip, and a seal carved out of the snow-white bones of a beast.

Boom!

When the jade box opened, a terrifying presence arose from the seal, then swept out like a hurricane.

The entire hall suddenly shook. The thirty-six stone pillars holding up the dome of the room, the bronze lamps hanging from the four walls, and the ninety-foot doors all produced strange rumbling and energy fluctuations.

The sixty-sixty stone statues lining the thirty-three stairs started trembling.

In the end, everything within the ruins of the Immortals’ Sword House?started rumbling?and booming.

These ruins were so ancient that no one knew just how old they were, but now, it seemed they were awakening from a long, deep slumber.