Within the Myriad Burials Origin, Heavenly Venerable Tianqing placed both hands on the space before him, sending mysterious waves radiating outward in all directions. He was awakening the "self" of this space through a special method.
Having attained enlightenment through peculiar space, he was an exceedingly rare entity within the Chaos, so unique that he could be considered a race unto himself. Even other Spirits of Nature who had also achieved enlightenment through space fundamentally differed from him.
It was precisely this characteristic that granted him unparalleled advantages in spatial exploration. This was why Celestial Venerable Suizhu had invited him here.
After the time it takes an incense stick to burn, Heavenly Venerable Tianqing's eyes lit up slightly. "Found it."
He slowly reached out into the void, as if grasping something from the peculiar space. Mysterious strands of vital energy began converging toward his palm from all directions. Within moments, they coalesced into a hazy gray Spirit Light.
The Spirit Light flickered, then settled onto his palm, forming an imperceptible mark.
"This is a Spirit of this space. Any Cultivator who passes through leaves a trace, and this Spirit can imprint their aura. Though faint, it can guide our investigation."
"Follow me," Heavenly Venerable Tianqing said with a smile. However, his inherently dark nature made the smile seem somewhat sinister.
Age Candle and the other three Heavenly Venerables were visibly moved.
Such innate talent made him nearly invincible in tracking. Even Heavenly Venerables couldn't completely erase the traces they left behind, making it virtually impossible to defend against.
The Celestial Venerable Suizhu and the others followed Heavenly Venerable Tianqing, plunging deeper into the Myriad Burials Origin.
Though the space appeared small from the outside, those who entered found it to be boundless, as if containing an entire Dao Domain—or even something far greater.
Three days later, Heavenly Venerable Tianqing stopped. The Space Spirit Mark on his palm had already dissipated. He repeated his earlier actions, sensing the space's spirit and awakening its 'self'.
This time, it took him a full two hours to finally awaken the nearby Space Spirit.
The spirit this time was significantly weaker than the first. Judging by Heavenly Venerable Tianqing's expression, this awakening had been far more difficult, even for a Heavenly Venerable.
The five cultivators continued to advance deeper into the escape technique. After two more days, they finally halted before the entrance to a mysterious space. This time, faint spatial fluctuations radiated outward in all directions.
"That's where Yu Chang's aura finally vanished," Heavenly Venerable Tianqing explained, pointing to the spatial entrance. "Moreover, we're now nearing the core of the Myriad Burials Origin. This space is likely to be dangerous, Fellow Daoists. We must be cautious."
Xinghuang Divine Venerable nodded. "Rest assured. Combined, the five of us can even contend with a mid-ranked Heavenly Venerable."
Age Candle produced an Ancient Seal. This artifact, the Sui Zhu Ancient Seal, had been refined from the essence of his True Form, making it uniquely suited to him.
Seeing him draw his Ancient Artifact, the other two God Sovereigns and two Heavenly Venerables also produced their own artifacts.
Although these four had only recently reached the Heavenly Venerable Realm, they were all formidable in their own right. Xinghuang Divine Venerable and Nine Nether Divine Venerable belonged to the Ten Great Divine Races of Ancestor God Star. Heavenly Venerable Tianqing hailed from an extraordinary lineage, while Heavenly Venerable Qingcang was the founder of a Heavenly Venerable-level faction.
In truth, this was precisely why Age Candle had chosen them. Their strength was undeniable.
Just as Celestial Venerable Suizhu was about to step into the space, Heavenly Venerable Tianqing's expression suddenly changed. He urgently said, "Wait! There's a terrifying vital energy converging towards the exit of this space. It's incredibly powerful—definitely not an ordinary Heavenly Venerable. We should avoid confronting it head-on for now."
Heavenly Venerable Tianqing's Ancient Artifact was a frameless mirror. Its reflective surface revealed endless layers of space nested within one another, creating an eerie and mysterious sight.
After speaking, he flipped the mirror. The side that had been facing the space now turned inward, focusing on himself and the other four. Celestial Venerable Suizhu and the other three, their expressions shifting, remained motionless. They chose to trust Heavenly Venerable Tianqing, who was most attuned to the space.
As the mirror's reflection settled over them, their figures vanished instantly. Then, the mirror itself dispersed, as if it had always been a condensation of space, now returning to its true form.
At the site where they had stood, no trace remained of their presence.
At that very moment, the peculiar space Heavenly Venerable Tianqing had discovered—where Celestial Venerable Yu Chang was suspected to have entered—rippled at its entrance. A cultivator emerged.
An old Daoist with an erratic aura emerged. His aura fluctuated wildly, sometimes as weak as an ordinary Dao Realm cultivator, yet at its peak, it reached that of a High-Ranked Celestial Venerable, seemingly restrained from further escalation by some hidden limit.
After appearing, the old Daoist glanced back into the space behind him and lightly tapped his finger. A vital energy capable of burying chaos enveloped the entrance, sealing it.
His gaze then shifted beyond the Myriad Burials Origin, as if surveying everything within the Chaos. He murmured:
"So even the Dao Grave has begun."
"How many Chaos Epochs have I been suppressed in this Dao Spirit Chaos Realm?"
"Good, very good. If the Dao Grave hadn't started, triggering changes in the Chaos Realm's Deep Space, I couldn't have escaped."
"However, the Dao Grave's mutation is too slow. Only by accelerating it can I prevent those old fellows watching me from intervening."
"Hmm... I see."
With a thought, the gaunt old Daoist summoned cultivators behind him. These cultivators moved like puppet strings, their eyes vacant, refined by the mysterious old Daoist into puppet-like forms.
Finally, thirty-seven figures materialized behind him.
If a Great Power like the Myriad Journeys Palace or Purple Mountain, which specializes in gathering information on the Nine Great Dao Domains and the movements of powerful figures, were to investigate, they would discover that all thirty-seven figures were Heavenly Venerate-level experts.
Among them, if Celestial Venerable Suizhu were present, he would recognize the Second Palace Master of the True Saint Palace, Celestial Venerable Yu Chang, prominently among their number.
"The Dao Tomb Ripples are divided into three tiers, and three hundred thousand years is far too long. If they all came at once, it would be far more lively, making this Dao Spirit Chaos Realm explode like fireworks."
"Heh heh, imprisoning this Old Daoist will come at a price."
With a wave of his hand, the mysterious Old Daoist sent the thirty-seven figures scattering in all directions using their Escape Techniques.
Then, the elder turned his gaze to a specific location within the Myriad Burials Origin, a playful glint in his eyes.
"Five little mice... Heh heh, perfect. They'll provide me with some extra manpower."
Just as the mysterious elder was about to make his move, he suddenly paused, looking up into the sky. There, above the Myriad Burials Origin, mysterious purple light began to coalesce, as if some supreme, mysterious entity had sensed something and was preparing to cast its gaze upon the area.
"Enough. Five little mice. You're lucky."
The mysterious elder flickered and vanished from sight.
High above, purple light converged to form a massive violet eye. This colossal gaze swept across the Myriad Burials Origin but found nothing, then retracted.
Meanwhile, elsewhere...
With a single tilt of Heavenly Venerable Tianqing's ancient mirror, Celestial Venerable Suizhu and the others instantly traversed hundreds of thousands of miles to another location within the Myriad Burials Origin.
Yet instead of easing, Heavenly Venerable Tianqing's expression grew even more severe, tinged with a trace of fear—a fear clearly visible to the other four Heavenly Venerables.
"Fellow Daoist Tianqing, what's happening?" Xinghuang Divine Venerable whispered, clutching a gray staff. Though it appeared merely stone, it radiated an overwhelming aura capable of suppressing heaven and earth, piercing through the Chaos itself.
Suddenly, their faces paled as they sensed an unimaginably powerful entity directing its gaze toward them, focusing squarely on the five Heavenly Venerables.
The pressure from this single glance was overwhelming, leaving them utterly unable to muster even a shred of resistance. This was the profound intuition cultivated by reaching the Heavenly Venerable Realm.
A High-Ranked Celestial Venerable? Or had this entity surpassed even that realm, reaching the Half-Step Transcendent, or even the true... Transcendent?
"Not good." Celestial Venerable Suizhu's expression changed drastically as the Ancient Seal in his hand began to glow brightly. If the danger proved too great, he was prepared to abandon even this precious Ancient Artifact.
But just then, the overwhelming gaze that had filled them with dread suddenly vanished. As the pressure dissipated, they returned to normal.
Before they could react, they saw a mass of purple light coalesce high above. A massive violet eye materialized, though it didn't focus on them directly, their faces paled again.
The colossal violet eye remained for only three breaths before dispersing, the purple light fading as if it had never existed.
After enduring this perilous sequence of events, the five dared not move a muscle, only exchanging glances filled with profound shock.
A full incense stick's time passed before Celestial Venerable Suizhu slowly lowered the raised Ancient Seal. He turned to Tianqing and asked, "Fellow Daoist Tianqing, what exactly happened just now?"
Others turned to Heavenly Venerable Tianqing, but he merely shook his head slightly, his face still bearing traces of lingering fear.
"The mysterious space we were about to enter must have contained a terrifying entity. I am adept at sensing spatial fluctuations, and I detected its approach. We swiftly transferred to evade it temporarily."
"Shortly after, the terrifying vital energy we sensed was likely the entity detecting our presence and turning its gaze toward us."
"But..."
Heavenly Venerable Tianqing pointed to the location where the massive purple eye had appeared earlier and continued:
"But the appearance of that terrifying entity startled the subsequent emergence of the purple eye. That eye must have been placed here by someone to monitor the area."
"Then, when the terrifying entity sensed the purple eye's appearance, it immediately departed without targeting us."
"This, I believe, is what transpired just now."
Having finished speaking, Heavenly Venerable Tianqing finally exhaled slowly, as if suppressing the lingering tension from the perilous encounter.
Qingcang's eyes flickered as he took up the thread of conversation:
"Yu Chang is merely a low-ranked Heavenly Venerable. She couldn't possibly possess such terrifying power."
"In other words, there must be other complications within that peculiar space."
The Nine Nether Divine Venerable gazed into the sky, his expression thoughtful. "That massive Divine Eye... I seem to have seen something like it in ancient stone carvings. Legend has it that the Dao God of the Dao God Sect once wielded a similar Dao Technique in ancient times."
"The Dao God is a Transcendent-Tier existence."
"If this Violet Eye truly belongs to the Dao God, could the entity that emerged from that space just now truly be the legendary Transcendent buried here, the Myriad Burials Realm Sovereign?"
These words sent shockwaves through the hearts of all the cultivators present.
At that moment, Heavenly Venerable Tianqing suddenly looked at the Space Spirit Mark on his palm and said, "Celestial Venerable Yu Chang has reappeared."
"And she's fleeing, moving away from this area, heading beyond the Myriad Burials Origin."
This time, he didn't immediately pursue her. Instead, he turned to Celestial Venerable Suizhu. After the brief yet profound event that had just unfolded—revealing the deepest secrets of the Myriad Burials Origin and the Nine Great Dao Domains—their course of action might need to change.
But Celestial Venerable Suizhu's expression hardened, and he declared with resounding authority, "Pursue. We must pursue her."
"If that terrifying entity fears the Violet Eye above—suspected to be a Dao Technique of the Dao God—and the Violet Eye is patrolling the Myriad Burials Origin, then we are actually safer in this area."
"If we can uncover more secrets from Yu Chang, we might resolve our current doubts."
"At the very least, we can eliminate her and rid ourselves of this menace."
The other four solemnly nodded in agreement.
Having reached the Heavenly Venerable Realm, their mental states were already perfected. They no longer hesitated or allowed momentary fluctuations in aura to shake their resolve.
This time, their pursuit went smoothly. Within half an incense stick's time, they caught up to a solitary figure fleeing alone.
Exchanging glances, the five split into two groups, flanking the figure from both sides. The moment contact was made, they unleashed their most formidable and terrifying killing intent.
Had the earlier incident not occurred, they wouldn't have exerted themselves so completely. But now, knowing that something was amiss with Celestial Venerable Yu Chang and that deeper secrets might be at play, they dared not hold back, unleashing their full strength.
The five Ancient Artifacts emitted a terrifying radiance, Chaos burning so fiercely that it briefly dispelled the deathly chill permeating the space.
Celestial Venerable Yu Chang had barely prepared to counter when she was instantly obliterated by the five surging tides of slaughter. Her Heavenly Venerable body was torn apart, and the Ancient Artifact in her hand was sent flying.
For a moment, the five attackers froze.
This outcome was completely unexpected. They had initially suspected that Celestial Venerable Yu Chang was hiding something, that this battle would be arduous, and that severe injury or even death was possible.
Yet, to their astonishment, they had so easily annihilated her.
This ease made them uneasy.
Celestial Venerable Suizhu was the first to react, swiftly summoning the Ancient Seal and pressing it down with the weight of an Ancient Artifact.
Next, Xinghuang Divine Venerable swept his hand across the air, suppressing the terrifying aura of destruction that lingered in the arena.
Then, Heavenly Venerable Tianqing reached down with both hands. As ripples spread outward, strands of Spirit Light flowed into his palms. He then unfurled his hands, releasing the Spirit Light to form a dim, shimmering veil. Within this veil, Celestial Venerable Yu Chang's face became clearly visible.