Only I am Venerable

Ahead, the long, narrow corridor remained, its bone-chilling air growing more and more intense. Qin Li even had the illusion that this frigid qi was alive and intelligent, desperately trying to break through his Protective Gang Qi and drill into him.

What Qin Li didn’t know was this: the most important reason why neither Lengqiu Palace’s Palace Master He Wuya nor Venerable Kuang Lei cared if anyone entered the Earth Palace was because of the frigid qi within. Without the pure bloodline of the Purple Eyes, it was simply impossible to resist! If it weren’t Qin Li walking here now, but a Pill Nascent Soul Transformation Realm Martial Artist from the Land of the Far West, they would have long been frozen into an ice sculpture by this ghastly chill!

The fundamental reason Qin Li had been able to last this long unscathed was the Innate Purple Qi inside his body! Innate Purple Qi was the purest type of qi in all of heaven and earth. This energy could counteract almost any form of corrosion.

And the frigid qi in this Earth Palace tunnel was also a type of spiritual qi from heaven and earth. However, Innate Purple Qi was congenital, an energy that had existed in the world since the dawn of creation.

The origin of this frigid qi, on the other hand, was rather terrifying, for it was all refined postnatally! And the raw material used to refine this frigid qi was souls!

Furthermore, they had to be the souls of extremely powerful Martial Artists! An Evil Skill was used to refine them into a mindless, cold qi that, upon invading a person’s body, could not only freeze them solid but also freeze their very thoughts.

Souls were of the yin attribute, so this qi was, in essence, the ultimate yin qi through and through.

It had to be said that the perception of Innate Purple Qi was unique in this world. Qin Li didn’t know where this cold qi came from or what it was, but he keenly sensed that it was different from the cold of the Cold Lands.

The chill of the Cold Lands was a pure, simple cold—a low temperature that didn’t give one this hair-raising feeling, as if it were alive.

Qin Li didn’t dwell on it and continued downward, following the Everlasting Lamps.

The tunnel eventually led to a vast, underground palace!

Walking down the long flight of stairs at the end of the passage, the first thing that caught Qin Li’s eye was the enormous Crystal Lamp in the very center of the underground palace.

It emitted a soft yet bright, light-yellow glow. In concert with the other Crystal Lamps on the surrounding walls, it bathed the entire underground palace in brilliant light.

The frigid qi, meanwhile, completely vanished at the end of the tunnel. Qin Li recalled that the chill had been at its strongest in the middle of the long passage.

Shaking his head, he stopped thinking about the cold qi and began sizing up this incredible Earth Palace. It appeared to be rectangular, about fifty meters wide and a full three hundred meters long!

The most miraculous thing was that the entire Earth Palace, situated in the belly of Lengqiu Palace’s main peak, had not a single pillar!

Qin Li couldn’t help but marvel. The person who built this Earth Palace was definitely an existence on the same level as Hu Yanbo. As this thought crossed his mind, a flash of insight struck him. ’The people of Lengqiu Palace place so much importance on this place. Could it be that this Earth Palace... was built by the ancestors of the Purple Eyes, that group of winged Outer Celestial Demons from the Primordial Era?’

The more Qin Li thought about it, the more plausible it seemed. An underground structure of this scale was not something an ordinary person could build. Like the Golden Palace, it had to have been constructed by an expert who had reached a certain realm of power.

Even more astonishingly, a ten-meter-wide path led from the tunnel entrance straight to the far end of the Earth Palace.

There... after a flight of upward-leading stairs, sat a shimmering, purple... throne!

On either side of the path were miniature landscapes of mountains and rivers!

These landscapes looked incredibly lifelike. Qin Li walked over for a closer look and couldn’t help but gasp in shock.

This wasn’t just lifelike... these were actual mountains, rivers, and lakes!

They had simply been shrunk down countless times over. There were even all kinds of birds and beasts living within this miniature world, all of them similarly miniaturized.

An eagle suddenly spotted Qin Li. It let out a sharp cry and charged toward him, only to be thrown back as if it had hit an invisible energy shield upon reaching a certain altitude.

In that instant, Qin Li felt fluctuations of Primordial Power from the eagle!

Clearly, it was a Spirit Beast!

It was just many times smaller than a normal eagle.

Qin Li tried to probe the miniature world with his Divine Sense, but it was blocked, unable to penetrate. He observed carefully for a while longer and let out a long sigh of relief. He had not found any trace of humans within the landscape.

If he had discovered the existence of people who had been shrunk down countless times, Qin Li truly wouldn’t have known what to think.

Gazing at the verdant mountains and turbulent rivers, the doubt in Qin Li’s heart deepened. Where in the world did this miniature landscape come from?

Suddenly, another flash of insight struck Qin Li as he thought of a possibility.

Back in the Primordial Era, the experts of the Celestial Essence Continent fought a long and drawn-out, world-shaking war against the Outer Celestial Demons. During that time, ten thousand Great Mages on the continent worked together to set up countless Mysterious Lands, preserving a flicker of hope for the Celestial Essence Continent.

Whether it was from the Golden Palace’s inheritance or other sources, this was the answer Qin Li had always heard.

So, while those Great Mages were creating that heaven-defying Array, what were the Purple Eyes doing? Could it be that a peerless expert among the Purple Eyes of that era had used some Array to shrink this landscape and bring it into the Earth Palace?

At this thought, Qin Li couldn’t help but lift his head to look at the high and mighty throne at the far end. He was astounded. To think that the Outer Celestial Demons were truly more powerful than he could have ever imagined!

Too much time had passed since the Primordial Era. Even if the ancestors of the Purple Eyes had carved this land from the Celestial Essence Continent and sealed it away, it would be impossible to find any trace of it now.

It was even more impossible to know if this miniature landscape was truly a piece of the Celestial Essence Continent.

At that moment, another thought surfaced in Qin Li’s mind: ’Could this massive Earth Palace exist just to house this sealed landscape? What use do these things have? Or... are these things actually burial goods?’

The thought of burial goods brought to mind the legends from before his transmigration, tales of an ancient King. It was said that after the First Emperor died, he had his burial place constructed as an immense Earth Palace. Within it, rivers of mercury carried his coffin, allowing it to drift as if the King were inspecting his domain.

Could it be that this Earth Palace, countless times more High Level than the First Emperor’s, served the same purpose?

As he pondered, Qin Li slowly walked toward the throne.

The throne, also carved from some unknown material, radiated a purple light that gave it a dazzling splendor. Qin Li could even feel a pure stream of Innate Purple Qi flowing from it!

At the same time, Qin Li suddenly felt a tremor in his Sea of Consciousness. Looking inward, he was horrified to discover that the giant figure within was slowly opening its eyes!

What left Qin Li even more dumbfounded and utterly speechless was what happened next. The eyes that this strange man in his Sea of Consciousness opened were... purple!

That trace of purple was incomparably pure!

Two beams of purple light shot out from Qin Li’s Sea of Consciousness and landed on the throne. The throne, as if in response, erupted with an even more brilliant purple radiance!

"What... what is going on?" Qin Li stood there, dumbfounded and motionless.

’Am I one of the Purple Eyes?’

The utterly absurd thought popped into his head for some reason, but he immediately dismissed it. Others might not know his true origin, but how could he not? He was definitely not one of the Purple Eyes. His soul belonged to an out-and-out descendant of Yanhuang!

This was a fact that no one could change!

As for the idea that the Purple Eyes were also Great Powers who had transmigrated from Earth, that was even more ridiculous. At least, Qin Li had never heard of any legendary gods from Earth—aside from a few exceptions like Lei Zhenzi—having purple eyes and wings.

So, what was the deal with this towering, purple-eyed giant in his Sea of Consciousness?

Fortunately, the Earth Palace didn’t show any other Anomaly because of these changes. After a brief moment of panic, Qin Li calmed down.

First, the giant’s pupils were the same light purple as the Innate Purple Qi, not the deep, profound purple of the Purple Eyes he had seen before.

Second, he recalled that as his Innate Purple Qi Technique improved, this giant in his Sea of Consciousness had been gradually revealed to him—first its legs, then its waist... bit by bit, until he finally saw its face.

Therefore, it was highly likely that the giant in his Sea of Consciousness was a product of cultivating the Innate Purple Qi Technique. As for why it had suddenly opened its eyes here, Qin Li could only attribute it to coincidence.

’Perhaps the problem lies with this throne!’

With this thought, Qin Li slowly approached the radiant, shimmering throne. All the while, the purple light from the towering, purple-eyed giant in his Sea of Consciousness continued to resonate with it.

As if drawn by a summons from the depths of his soul, Qin Li uncontrollably... sat down on the throne!

RUMBLE!

The moment Qin Li sat on the throne, the earth and mountains for a thousand miles around Lengqiu Palace began to shake violently!

Winds surged and clouds churned as the very heavens and earth changed color!

A beam of purple light shot from the main peak of Lengqiu Palace straight into the sky!

Countless old masters of the Purple Eyes, who hadn’t been seen for who knows how many years, shot out from their reclusive cultivation spots. Their eyes, all fixed on the main peak of Lengqiu Palace, shone with expressions of utter shock!

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