Supreme Sword Exalt

The Nine-Chi Coiled Dragon Seal was a mysterious treasure the Flame Emperor used in his youth. Because he constantly refined it with his essence blood over many years, it became tainted with a trace of the ancestral dragon’s aura.

Back when Feng Xi traveled outside, he sealed a single attack inside it and gave it to her for protection. Later, after she went to the Northern Domain and founded the Fengwu Court, she left it to Zuo Yang.

During the Profound Pill Camp battle, the power within the spirit seal exhausted itself. Gu Han casually put it away and then forgot about it. However, not only was this world formed from the Ancestral Dragon’s scale, but its aura also shared the same origin as the spirit seal’s. Thus, he put two and two together.

Upon seeing Gu Han daze off, Chi Yao thought he felt discouraged. Recalling how generous Gu Han had been, the barbarian tried to comfort him.

“Kid, I understand how you feel. When I first arrived, I was just like you, going crazy trying to find a way out. Later on, I gradually got used to it. Besides...” He pointed at the demoness. “With such a beautiful woman dying with you, you won’t be alone! Unlike me, I went so many years without even talking to anyone!”

The demoness glanced at him. She felt that when Chi Yao spoke like a normal person, he wasn’t so bad.

Gu Han then realized the demoness had her arms around him again. “Let go.”

The demoness only held him tighter. “No!”

Gu Han thought about using his spirit power to shake her off, but the sight of her increasingly weakened state softened his heart. He sighed inwardly. Fine! It’s not the first time anyway!

Then, he turned to Chi Yao. “I think we might have a chance to get out.”

Chi Yao’s expression stiffened. He felt his words came from the heart and were extremely well spoken, a rare piece of golden advice. But it turned out Gu Han hadn’t listened to a single word! What a waste of time!

He waved his hand and was about to leave again. “Go on then. You think about how to get out. I’ll go find a place to wait for death—”

Just then, he stopped again. He spun around sharply, fixing his gaze on Gu Han’s palm. This time, it wasn’t a bottle of pills, but a palm-sized and fiery red spirit seal. Nine red dragons formed a defensive ring around the dragon head at the very center. The dragon eyes appeared lifelike. Wisps of scorching intent fell relentlessly, bringing some warmth into the cold Dragon Seal.

“T-this... This aura...” Chi Yao stammered, his sunken eyeballs nearly popping out. He dazedly looked up at the hub. “It’s exactly the same!”

Although the seal had been used up, the trace of ancestral dragon aura remained deeply embedded in it.

Gu Han asked again, “Senior, can we get out with this?”

Chi Yao nodded repeatedly. “There’s hope! Great hope! Although the aura inside is a bit faint, it shares the same origin as that hub. Even if we can’t fully open the hub, we should still be able to force a small gap...

“Kid, this kind of treasure should be a personal possession of those Yun brothers, right? Where did you get it? Could your name also have Yun in it?”

Gu Han’s face darkened. “My surname is Gu!”

“I never expected that I would actually live to see the day of escape!”

Gu Han could understand that for cultivators, although two thousand years was not an eternity, the barbarians would have already gone through several generations. Now, they probably wouldn’t recognize who Chi Yao was at all. If anyone still remembered him, it was probably those who had betrayed him.

It just went to show that people changed, but things stayed the same. The demoness seemed to feel this the deepest. Upon knowing that hope wasn’t lost, she hugged Gu Han even tighter.

Suddenly, the ground violently shook. Accompanied by a faint dragon roar, a faint layer of green intent covered the sky. The pressure from the dragon-shaped hub also became several times heavier than before.

Gu Han’s expression changed dramatically. “What’s going on?!”

Chi Yao understood the situation far too well. “An opportunity! Yun Ao is fighting someone! He’s mobilizing the power here! This disturbance is even greater than when he fought me back then. Hehe, he’s facing an absolutely extraordinary opponent this time!”

Gu Han instantly realized that Yun Ao controlled this Dragon Seal. An opportunity! A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!

He had been worried that they’d run straight into Yun Ao once they got out. Looking at it now, Yun Ao probably couldn’t spare any attention for what was happening inside the seal.

Without hesitation, Gu Han took the demoness and shot into the air. “Senior, hurry!”

He didn’t have to guess who was fighting Yun Ao. It was definitely the Flame Emperor!

As time passed, the green intent grew thicker, and the trembling grew more violent. The higher they went, the stronger the hub’s pressure became.

Chi Yao swallowed all the bottles of pills, and a powerful surge of vital qi rose from him, shielding the two. “It doesn’t matter!”

In a moment, the three arrived beneath the hub. Gu Han turned his palm over, and the spirit seal floated beneath the hub. He relentlessly fed spirit power into it, empowering its scorching intent. Faintly, strands of vast, boundless aura leaked out and spread toward the hub.

Gu Han took a moment to ask, “Senior, after we get out, can you still command those barbarians?”

Chi Yao sighed. “Hard to say. Yun Ao has long brainwashed them. My foundation is also completely destroyed. Even if I get out, I can only live a measly hundred or so years. To them, I’m just a cripple—”

In the next moment, the spirit seal’s ancestral dragon aura merged with the hub. As a vast dragon might descended, a faint crack appeared on the forehead of the hub’s dragon.

Chi Yao urged repeatedly. “Hurry! Push harder!”

Without needing to be reminded, Gu Han fully activated his cultivation, pushing that faint trace of ancestral dragon aura to its absolute limit.

***

Meanwhile, the skeleton from the nether clan that Gu Han encountered earlier quietly underwent a strange change. Endless streams of dark, cold aura circulated, gathering into the mark on its forehead.

The mark trembled for a moment. From within, an incomparably cold and sinister figure emerged. It radiated intense malice, strange and eerie.

Following that, the skeleton collapsed and disintegrated. The figure was nowhere to be seen.

***

Elsewhere, above a black ground, many eerie red lights flared. The next moment, the ground violently churned. A figure several zhang tall slowly stood up. It vaguely resembled a human shape, but had no hands or feet. A few writhing, twisted tentacles wrapped around it. Most of its flesh was gone. The remaining parts were covered in compound eyes, from which the red light from before had emerged.

The several tentacles shook, shooting straight toward the sky.

***

Not just them, there was also a giant snake with wings on its back, missing most of its body. A strange bug like a ball of flesh, covered in wrinkled, squirming folds. All kinds of strange creatures that had survived until now rushed toward the hub.

***

As time passed, Chi Yao also joined in. The crack grew wider and wider, their escape being only moments away.

Just then, the barbarian seemed to sense something, and his expression changed dramatically. “Damn it!”

“What’s wrong?”

Chi Yao sounded bitter. “I see now all these years, that bastard Yun Ao never came in once. So it was because of them.”

Gu Han’s heart sank. “Senior, they are—”

In the next moment, all kinds of bizarre existences landed in front of him. A humanoid figure, monsters, a giant snake, a bug—seven or eight in total. And the one at the front was unmistakably from the nether clan.

Some were evil, some were vicious, and some were violent. Their auras differed slightly, but their reactions were exactly the same. They were all staring intently at the half-opened crack.