Chapter 577: The Ancient Tree of Star Corpses

Hah~!

Su Yi let out a breath of turbid air and scanned the battlefield. In the end, he shook his head helplessly and bitterly set about gathering the spoils of war himself.

My cultivation boundary is so low that everything is a treasure. It’d be a pity to just leave this stuff here…

When he finished gathering the trophies, Su Yi proceeded toward the ritual grounds, sat cross-legged, and meditated.

As he consumed and refined spiritual medicines to recover his strength, he gazed at Celestial Blue.

The blade was damaged and red with rust.

At the peak of its glory, this was a true Imperial-level Dao Sword, a top-notch weapon. Now, however,?it was severely damaged. It was, at best, a bit stronger than Spirit Dao treasures.

Yan Jingyun and company’s failure to subdue it could be attributed to its lingering spirituality, as well as its enormously powerful weapon spirit.

Furthermore, within the ritual grounds, the sword could draw upon the power sealing the door, which was enough to stop even Imperial Realm cultivators in their tracks, much less the likes of Yan Jingyun and his companions.

Fortunately, its quality and materials are quite a bit superior to my Abstruse God Sword. When I step into the Spirit Dao, the Abstruse God Sword will no longer suit my cultivation. However, when the time comes, I can fuse it into Celestial Blue.

I can use Celestial Blue as a sword embryo to forge a sword connected to my will, my Natal Weapon…

Upon entering the Spirit Dao, cultivators could forge Natal Treasures.

Differences in the quality of their Natal Treasure could impact a cultivator’s ability to unleash their strength.

With Celestial Blue in hand, he wouldn’t need to worry about this after stepping into the Spirit Dao.

An hour later.

When Su Yi had fully restored the power of his cultivation base, he fixed his gaze on the tightly-shut bronze doorway in the distance.

The door had been cut into an enormous spatial barrier, and its surface was engraved with numerous intricate Dao markings and diagrams. It was inscrutable and mysterious.

When he examined it with his divine sense, Su Yi clearly discerned that the power of the spatial barrier had condensed above the door, fusing perfectly with the elaborate markings and diagrams carved on its surface to create an extremely terrifying restrictive power.

Only an Imperial Realm cultivator could have placed such a seal!

Su Yi could roughly guess that it was the work of the Sumeru Yao Emperor.

Otherwise, why would his sword, Celestial Blue, have kept watch over this place all this time?

I just don’t know what happened all those years ago to make the Sumeru Yao Emperor go so far as to leave his sword behind just to keep that door sealed and prevent outsiders from drawing close…

As Su Yi pondered, he flipped over his hand, taking out the golden blood once more. He silently sensed it.

The golden blood trembled, and the Charm of the Dao within it surged with overflowing life force.

It seemed a bit agitated, as if it were trying to break free and charge toward the bronze door.

Just as I thought! The Xiantian Divine Lifeform is behind that door. There’s no doubt about it!

In that case, did the Sumeru Yao Emperor go to all this trouble to seal this place, not just to keep outsiders away, but also to keep the Xiantian Divine Lifeform from escaping?

Su Yi pondered this. He dared say with certainty that unpredictable peril was waiting behind the sealed doorway.

Even before descending into this underground world, he’d suspected that the Ice Soul Yin Qi enveloping the tunnel was connected to a Xiantian Divine Life Form.

However, not even Su Yi could deduce the nature of the danger behind the seal.

Bloody mists, the corpses of stars, countless graves, a sealed door, a Xiantian Divine Lifeform… Whatever happened here all those years ago, I’m afraid it was far more complicated than just the onset of the Prohibition of Ancient Darkness…

Su Yi’s pondering stopped here. With no further hesitation, he carried Celestial Blue over to the sealed doorway.

Whoosh~

When he raised Celestial Blue, ripples arose on the sealed door. Countless mysterious and obscure Dao marks quivered, and in the end, the door gradually swung toward Su Yi.

He walked through it.

It was as if he’d walked into a time tunnel. Stars spun on their axis, and heaven and earth revolved.

When his field of view regained its former clarity, the first thing he saw was an enormous tree.

It was unimaginably huge; it towered into the clouds, its branches extending into the void of outer space. Its trunk was like a pillar supporting heaven and earth.

Pick a branch at random, and it would be the size of an ancient, sprawling mountain range!

Su Yi’s eyes focused.?What’s this?

When he looked up at the branches of the grand tree connecting heaven and earth, he saw that the fragmented corpses of stars hung from every branch. The tree was full of them!

Each dead star was like a fragment of a continent, and each was shrouded in the mysterious and unfathomable aura of the Prohibition of Ancient Darkness. They were eerie and mysterious.

For some reason, this scene seemed somehow familiar to Su Yi.

After a moment’s thought, he suddenly recalled something.

He flipped his hand and took out a black bell.

The Netherworld Thunder Punishment Bell!

This was a demonic Spirit Dao treasure, but it was long since severely damaged. His mother, Ye Yufei, had brought it with her from another world. Afterward, his father, Su Hongli, seized control over it.

It was only after Su Yi defeated Su Hongli that he reclaimed this treasure.

At the time, Su Yi discovered a secret diagram on the bell’s interior.

The diagram depicted an extremely strange enormous tree. It towered into the heavens and into the void of the starry skies. Its branches were full of the fragmented corpses of stars.

Above the diagram was a line of text written in the extremely ancient glyphs of demons and gods——

“The Origins of the Azure, the emperor controls the secrets of the nine extremes.”

“Origins of the Azure” naturally referred to the source of the Azure Continent. They said that thirty thousand years ago, the onset of the Prohibition of Ancient Darkness was connected to the Origins of the Azure.

As for “the nine extremes”? Su Yi had no idea.

All he could guess was that his mother had likely brought the Netherworld Thunder Punishment Bell to the Azure Continent to search for the secrets of the “nine extremes.”

Alas, Ye Yufei had long since fallen ill and left this world.

This robbed him of any further leads.

Yet now, beyond the sealed doorway of Sumeru Mountain’s underground world, Su Yi saw a tree just like the one in the bell’s secret diagram!

Could it be that this tree is connected to the Origins of the Azure? Does it hide clues to the Nine Extremes?

Su Yi pondered. He’d just planned to search for leads regarding the Prohibition of Ancient Darkness. He hadn’t anticipated that he’d see something like this!

It seemed…?this?was getting more and more interesting.

Su Yi cast aside his scattered thoughts and looked around. To his surprise, this entire stretch of heaven and earth seemed suspended in the void of outer space. Except for the massive chunk of land beneath his feet, there was nothing but boundless darkness on all sides.

It seems that the sealed doorway was a spatial tunnel; this obviously isn’t the underground world beneath Sumeru Mountain. In fact… I’m probably not on Sumeru Immortal Island at all…

Su Yi furrowed his brow and looked behind him.

The bronze door was still there, but it seemed embedded in the air, and it was only faintly discernible.

The sight reassured him.?Fortunately, I can turn back. Otherwise, I have no idea how I’d find a way back.

He thought for a moment, then shot straight ahead. He planned to examine the tree strewn with fragmented, fallen stars from up close.

The tree was unique and extremely strange. It was unimaginably huge, and the corpses of celestial bodies hung from its branches. Furthermore, it was enveloped in wisps of the power of the Prohibition of Ancient Darkness.

Even in his past life, Su Yi had never seen such a strange tree before.

Fifteen minutes passed, then half an hour.

It was only after flying for a full hour that Su Yi saw it clearly: the tree’s roots went straight into the void of outer space!

Every root was like an enormous path through the void. They were dense and numerous, and it was unclear where they led to. All were shrouded in the mysterious and inscrutable power of the Prohibition of Ancient Darkness.

Furthermore, as he drew nearer to the tree, the aura of the Prohibition of Ancient Darkness grew denser, like a dark fog. It was enough to make one’s heart shake.

This terrifying power had enshrouded the Azure Continent for thirty thousand years, causing countless ancient orthodoxies to disappear into the long river of history!

As mighty as Imperial-level orthodoxies were, they too struggled to survive!

It was then that Su Yi’s gaze focused on a single, solitary tomb.

A corpse was seated in front of the grave.