Chapter 414 - 45: Bronze Giant Tree
Fang Cheng glanced over them and immediately recognized the murals as depicting the legendary Ten Great Ancient Demon Saints!
These ten murals were of—
Ji Meng, Ying Zhao, Feidan, Fei Lian, Jiu Ying, Shangyang, Bai Ze, Qin Yuan, Ci Tie, and Ghost Vehicle!
The visages of these Ten Great Demon Saints were all ferocious and sinister, so lifelike they seemed ready to spring from the murals at any moment, brimming with imposing momentum.
"Could it be that the Evil Spirit’s Void Divine Techniques just teleported me here?"
Fang Cheng wondered aloud.
Jingyuan and Jingxuan looked at each other in confusion. They were inside the Lingxiao Three Sceneries Talisman, only their vision projected outside via their avatars, making it difficult for them to perceive the changes Fang Cheng had just experienced.
Fang Cheng looked at the Buddha Statue ahead in the tomb passage and said to Jingxuan, "Regardless, pressing forward is surely the right path. Xuan’Er, I’ll have to rely on you again."
Jingxuan replied, "No problem. These Arrays and restrictions are all part of the Bright Mandala Embryo Barrier. They weren’t set up here to stop outsiders, but rather seem to form an alignment within the great barrier, meant to trap some existence at its core."
"Father, the deeper we go, the more dangerous it will likely become."
Jingxuan couldn’t help but add this at the end.
Fang Cheng smiled and said, "Don’t worry. Your father can handle it."
With his current array of methods, even if he were to encounter a Tier Five Demon or a Tribulation Realm Great Power, he might not be able to win a fight, but he still had the ability to escape.
Jingxuan gave a soft sound of assent and focused on breaking the Array restrictions.
His innate talent for the Array Dao was already astonishing, and with the guidance from the Array Spirit Maiden these past few times, he had become increasingly adept at breaking Arrays. Thus, he quickly found a way to overcome it.
"Father, without that Profound Flood Dragon Breaking Forbidden Halberd, can you still break this restriction?" Jingyuan asked, a little worried.
Fang Cheng replied, "The Profound Flood Dragon Breaking Forbidden Halberd is good, but it’s not the sharpest tool. Today, I’ll let you see what a real Flying Sword looks like."
As he spoke, an ancient Flying Sword gracefully emerged and hovered before Fang Cheng.
Jingyuan and Jingxuan stared curiously at the Flying Sword. They saw that its body was the color of bronze, and on it were two ancient seal characters: Zhan Yue.
Starting from these two characters, countless dazzling and intricate patterns spread out, covering the Flying Sword like cracks in the void, layered one upon another. It radiated a sharp aura capable of tearing through the Cyan Nether, and a stern, overwhelming Sword Intent rushed forth.
Jingyuan was also a sword lover. Seeing such a Flying Sword so suddenly, he was left dumbfounded and exclaimed, "Father, is this a Tier Four Flying Sword?"
Fang Cheng reached out and flicked Zhan Yue, saying, "This sword is the first Tier Five Flying Sword I ever obtained. In the future, when you cultivate your Life Soul, this will be my gift to you."
After he spoke, the sword hummed. The ancient sword Zhan Yue, like a great green-scaled dragon freed from its bonds, erupted with spiritual light and instantly slashed into a node in the Buddha Light Array ahead.
The Sword Aura was incomparably sharp, treating the void as nothing. It moved as fast as a fleeting shadow, without a single sound, as if it were not of this world, or as if it had annihilated the void itself.
Netherworld Sword Technique, fourth form: Immortal Slayer!
The Buddha Light restriction was instantly sundered, shattering silently in the tranquil stillness as if it were made of paper.
Jingyuan’s eyes shone brightly, and a rush of hot blood surged through him. He wished he could refine this Tier Five Flying Sword right now, to soar through the heavens and plumb the earth, to roam the cosmos, invincible in this world.
Seeing this Tier Five Flying Sword today would set him apart from all others his age.
The things he now pursued in his heart had already far surpassed the understanding of other teenage boys.
’Father actually has a Tier Five Flying Sword... Just how deep are the Fang Family’s foundations?’
Jingxuan watched this scene, astonished in his heart.
To be honest, even with his personality, he felt a little envious of his elder brother.
Perhaps some people don’t desire the empty fame of being invincible.
But who wouldn’t want the strength to be invincible?
Fang Cheng walked around the Buddha Statue and found that he had reached the end of the tomb passage. Ahead of him was the magnificent and enormous Stone Sect.
He pushed open the Stone Sect and walked into a grand hall.
This grand hall was constructed entirely from golden jade. It was immense, a hundred zhang in both length and width, with a high dome covered in incomparably complex murals.
In the center of the hall stood a towering Bronze Giant Tree. It seemed entirely like a dead thing, shimmering with a bronze luster, yet its dense crown and leaves exuded a strange and vigorous life force.
Fang Cheng didn’t spend much time looking at the Bronze Giant Tree; his attention was captured by the murals in the hall.
He once again saw that stunningly beautiful Female Cultivator!
This woman had suffered endless humiliation and intended to end her own life. Who would have thought that on the brink of death, she would accidentally trigger the fragment of the Undying Jade?
An Artifact Refining Technique her husband had taught her activated on its own, allowing her to successfully refine the jade fragment.
In the blink of an eye, she seized the Power of Creation from heaven and earth, and her Cultivation was fully restored!
Next came the revenge.
Using incomparably cruel methods, she tortured and killed her former friend—the so-called "upright gentleman"—and his entire family.
No one survived!
Afterward, she fled into the territory of the Demon Race, concealed her identity, and re-cultivated a Cultivation Technique from her family’s old collection, advancing it to an extremely high realm.
The jade fragment seemed to possess the heaven-defying ability to enlighten the mind and aid in cultivation.
Fueled by her hatred, the Female Cultivator endured hardship and quickly broke through the Dharma Realm bottleneck, stepping into the Tribulation Realm that countless Cultivators dreamed of.
Undergoing tribulation.
Although the fragmented jade couldn’t grant her a powerful body that could bathe in celestial tribulation and remain unharmed, as her husband’s had, it possessed all sorts of miraculous properties that made her tribulation much easier than others’.
She refined the Ten Great Demon Souls and created a Divine Technique that could summon the Demon Saint Illusions of the Ten Great Ancient Demon Saints into this world to sweep away all opposition.
Including the celestial tribulations!
Compared to her husband, she was more ruthless, more sinister, and more venomous.
After she passed the Fifth Celestial Tribulation, her true journey of revenge began.
The enemies who had directly or indirectly participated in the siege that killed her husband were, one after another, tortured and killed by her.
For this purpose, she even refined a great tomb, specifically to suppress and torture the Yin Souls of those enemies, damning them to never be reincarnated.
During this time, she silently collected the fragments of the Undying Jade, gradually piecing it back together...
Until finally, she found the true conspirator hidden behind the scenes.
He was a Great Power whose Cultivation had reached the Tribulation Realm Eighth Layer, the most ancient elder of the Mystic Sect, with profound daoist attainment and vast Divine Techniques.
The two of them fought, their battle tearing the heavens and earth asunder and devastating the populace.
In the end, relying on the heaven-defying power of the Undying Jade, she simply outlasted him and wore him down to death, then cut off his head.
The last fragment of the jade was collected.
Just as she was about to dominate the world and re-refine the Undying Jade, the conspirator’s backup plan was activated.
Four Buddhist Sect Great Powers from other World Heavens descended upon this world and joined forces to suppress her.
At the last moment, she used the Undying Jade to escape back into her great tomb, leaving all the treasures of her life inside.
She and the Undying Jade hid together in the depths of the tomb.
The four Buddhist Sect Great Powers could do nothing to her, so they set up the Bright Mandala Embryo Barrier, completely sealing her within the tomb and exiling it to the Outer Void.
Seeing this, Fang Cheng finally understood!
The Great Tomb Master was this Female Cultivator, and the murals in the tomb passage and the great hall were not drawn by human hands, but were instead manifestations of this Great Power’s thoughts and Divine Sense.
This Great Power’s life was full of ups and downs; it truly made him sigh with emotion.
"Xuan’Er, can you actually break the Bright Mandala Embryo Barrier?" Fang Cheng suddenly asked.
Jingxuan had also seen the murals. He fell silent for a moment before replying, "That depends on who set up the Array, and what they used to set it up."
Fang Cheng sighed. "Then let’s forget it. With our current strength, I’m afraid there’s nothing we can do."
The Undying Jade may be good, but he could only gaze at it from afar and sigh.
Let alone the question of whether they could even break the great barrier set by the three Buddhist Sect Tribulation Realm Great Powers.
And even if they did break the barrier, how would they deal with the Great Tomb Master?
She has been trapped in the depths of the tomb for countless years. By now, she has probably long since recovered from her injuries and re-refined the Undying Jade!
How could he possibly provoke such an existence right now?
The Tribulation Realm Great Powers he had seen before, like Marquis Li and Marquis Yan, were all figures who had just entered the Tribulation Realm; they hadn’t even passed the First Celestial Tribulation.
They were absolutely incomparable to these terrifying mid-to-late stage Tribulation Realm existences!
It was best to stop while he was ahead.
Fang Cheng reined in his thoughts and began to inspect the most magnificent existence in the grand hall.
The Bronze Giant Tree.
The moment his Divine Sense landed on the giant tree, a mysterious consciousness was quietly transmitted to him.
The giant tree had a spirit.
There were treasures hidden within the tree. But to obtain them, one had to attack the Bronze Giant Tree. The tree would then drop corresponding treasures based on the power of the attack.
In other words, the stronger the attack, the more precious the treasure dropped.
This tree seemed to be an item for trials and inheritance, meant for a family or a sect.