Chapter 559: Divine Tomb

Damn it all!

Feeling that gaze which even his shell could not ward off, Gui Gui Laoxian groaned inwardly, feeling he was truly cursed with the worst luck imaginable.

First he had been forced into the Eight Directions Temple by that Divine Palace-level powerhouse, then beaten by Wan Wan Zhuliu, and just when he'd finally evaded them, he'd run into another old monster like this!

"W-what tomb? What tomb?"

Gui Gui Laoxian would rather die than poke his head out, only forcing a sheepish chuckle: "This one's far too young in years, spent these long years hiding here and there, what tomb could I possibly be carrying on my back?"

"Is that so?"

Beneath the cloak, the Thousand-Eye Dharma Lord merely regarded him with a faint gaze, a thousand dharma eyes flickering, as if about to pierce straight through that shell.

The Tomb-Bearing Spirit Tortoise—an aberrant creature born within the You Jing.

Having been touched by the aura of the You Jing, it could by nature pass through the You Jing and even stranger Mi Jing, and as it could gather baleful qi and condense fortune, it roamed year-round among all manner of secret realms and tombs.

Later, the Origin Divine Dynasty gathered its entire clan, making it the universally acknowledged finest tomb guardian.

"I would not dare deceive the honored god."

Gui Gui Laoxian's voice was bitter, complaint after complaint spilling out: "The Tomb-Bearing Spirit Tortoise lineage of mine has long since perished; in all these years, this one has never so much as laid eyes on a single kinsman…"

In his perception, the surrounding void had nearly congealed into a solid mass—this was precisely one of the Thousand-Eye Dharma Sect's strongest dao arts, Thousand Spirit Locking Void, the very technique designed to counter him.

The Thousand-Eye Dharma Lord merely looked on coldly:

"Open the shell, and one glance will tell us everything."

The shell trembled, and Gui Gui Laoxian's voice dropped low as well:

"Honored god, do not force my hand."

"Interesting."

Seeing the savage bone spurs sprouting from the shell, the Thousand-Eye Dharma Lord was somewhat surprised; he had held no real interest in this old tortoise to begin with, and had it not been for this chance encounter, he wouldn't have bothered to acknowledge it.

But seeing it actually dare to talk back to him now, a sliver of curiosity inevitably rose in his heart:

"It seems the tomb on your back is no simple matter. Very well, this seat shall take a personal look…"

Boom!

The shell shuddered violently, each bone spur erupting with a ghastly light, and Gui Gui Laoxian let out a low roar, struggling to shatter this sealed void:

"You cannot be the Thousand-Eye Bodhisattva! He long ago perished at the hands of the Venomous Dragon God…"

Hum—

A blinding divine radiance erupted in tandem.

Beneath the cloak, the Thousand-Eye Dharma Lord opened his dharma eyes, his gaze enveloping the mountain forest's void, binding the violently struggling old tortoise as if it were solid matter.

"Perished…"

The instant the Thousand-Eye Dharma Lord's voice rang out, his person had already vanished from the spot, as if following his own gaze and sinking into the shell.

"Ah!"

Gui Gui Laoxian let out a low roar, erupting in fury:

"How dare you!"

Boom!

The instant he sank into the shell, the Thousand-Eye Dharma Lord heard a tremendous thunderous boom.

He raised his eyes to see a vast ocean stretching before him, a colossal tortoise swimming within it, bearing upon its back a sprawling complex of palaces stretching over ten li.

This place was precisely Gui Gui Laoxian's Shen Jing.

"Get out!"

The giant tortoise roared, raising towering waves.

"These palaces…"

The Thousand-Eye Dharma Lord stood with his hands clasped behind his back; between the opening and closing of his gaze, the surging great waves abruptly calmed, and paying no heed to the old tortoise's struggles, he fixed his attention on examining that palace complex:

"They seem to bear some trace of the Origin Divine Dynasty's style…"

"Roar!"

Gui Gui Laoxian roared in shock and fury, sensing a tremendous crisis; beneath the Thousand-Eye Dharma Lord's shed cloak was a compact, powerful physique covered in dharma eyes, and upon his chest a divine sword blazed with light.

"Interesting…"

The dharma eyes spread across his body opened all at once, illuminating the eight directions, and the Thousand-Eye Dharma Lord fixed his gaze upon that palace complex—Gui Gui Laoxian's Shen Jing simply could not obstruct his sight.

But to his astonishment, even opening a thousand eyes could not see through that palace; a faint, elusive aura shrouded its exterior, cutting off any perception from the outside world.

"Get out!"

Gui Gui Laoxian let out roar after roar of fury, raising surging great waves, yet beneath the gaze of those dharma eyes, the waves he raised could not even approach before subsiding one after another.

"This tomb…"

The Thousand-Eye Dharma Lord's gaze flickered; for a single instant, he actually felt a pang of heart-palpitation, as if that palace contained a power capable of harming him.

"Old tortoise."

The Thousand-Eye Dharma Lord did not take a step, merely gazing from the edge of the Shen Jing:

"Whose tomb is this?"

"Get lost!"

Gui Gui Laoxian refused to answer altogether, bearing wave upon heavy wave, facing him off from afar; the Thousand-Eye Bodhisattva was ranked among the Hundred Gods of Tian Shi Yuan, and even if he had fallen, even if only a wisp of divine soul remained, he was not to be underestimated.

The Thousand-Eye Dharma Lord was not angered either, merely examining the palace complex on the giant tortoise's back with great interest, speculating:

"The Venomous Dragon Academy is hunting you—could it be because of this tomb?"

"If you won't leave, then we both go down together!"

The great waves churned, and Gui Gui Laoxian calmed; yet his Shen Jing began to tremble violently, as if on the verge of collapse and shattering the next moment.

"It seems this tomb is very important to you."

The Lord of Qian Yan Fa narrowed his gaze, preparing to take down this giant turtle first.

Just as he was about to speak, he suddenly heard a tremendous boom; Zheng Zuo Shen Jing rumbled and shook, and Gui Gui Laoxian let out an earth-shaking roar:

"No!"

Boom!

The Lord of Qian Yan Fa retreated several steps, looked up, and saw terrifying divine light erupting from the palace on the giant turtle's back; the moment this divine light surged, it tore apart the old turtle's divine realm.

"This is…"

The Lord of Qian Yan Fa felt a chill in his heart, and without thinking retreated violently; only at departure did he glance back.

He saw, at the very center of the shattered palace, a bronze coffin rise from the ground, and in the blink of an eye, vanish into the void.

"Hm?!"

……

Whooo~

Plunging at extreme speed into Wang Yang.

Li Yuan only felt countless 'fish' brushing past him on all sides, faster and faster—at first he could still focus his spirit and sense a thing or two, but later he could no longer sense anything at all.

He could only let the fish hook drag him along, plunging into the sea at extreme speed; seeming like an instant, yet also seeming like a long time later, he felt his body jolt as the fish hook hit the seabed.

"Caught something?!"

Li Yuan's spirit jolted, and under his focused sensing, his heart was pounding wildly.

Where was this a seabed?

It was clearly a 'great fish' so vast it exceeded the limits of his perception!

This was a fish bigger than the sun!

Rumble!

Li Yuan focused his spirit with all his might, yet he didn't even catch a glimpse of the great fish's appearance before, amid bursts of tremendous noise, he was sent hurtling back at high speed.

"Splash!"

In the Soldier-Bearing Space, on Dingxin Dingxin Shitai, Li Yuan seemed to hear the sound of waves crashing against the shore; when he suddenly came back to himself, he got another shock.

On that fish hook, a bronze coffin was conspicuously hanging!

At least ten-plus meters long, its color dark and somber, with ancient patterns woven from various markings on its surface—but when he focused his spirit to observe closely, it was as if he saw nothing at all.

"…Caught a coffin?!"

Li Yuan's heart skipped a beat; from Dingxin Dingxin Shitai, a message had already come:

【Divine Burial Coffin (Sixteenth Order)】

【…Forged from Yi Jiu Chong strange lands as material, supplemented with all manner of heavenly materials and earthly treasures…a bronze coffin cast by Daoist Qun Xing…possessing the ability to draw upon the creation of heaven and earth; Yi Mi Fa buried within, it draws upon the creation of all lands and all realms…perhaps one may live a second life…】

【…???】

【???】

【Control Requirements: Chaotic Sacred Body, Origin Divine Fetus, Supreme Sacred Dharma Aspect】

【Control Effect: Seventeenth Order: Second Life

Sixteenth Order: Tribulation-Avoidance, Life-Extension, Fortune-Gathering】

【Control Requirement Two:???】

【Control Effect Two:???】

Holy shit!

Li Li Daoye nearly let slip a curse; he retreated a few steps, looked at that bronze coffin, and felt his scalp going numb.

A coffin, and it was actually a treasure on the verge of Seventeenth Order!

"This, this luck…"

Li Yuan's heart pounded like a war drum; his first reaction was to kick this bronze coffin down, but the moment the bronze coffin left the fish hook, it had already landed on Dingxin Dingxin Shitai.

"Can't move it!"

Li Yuan inwardly groaned.

The Soldier-Bearing Register's absorption of divine weapons was also tied to him; if he poured out all his control augmentation and still couldn't budge a weapon even slightly, he couldn't freely store it in the Soldier-Bearing Space.

This bronze coffin was clearly such a thing.

"A bronze coffin on the verge of Seventeenth Order…"

Keeping well away from that bronze coffin, Li Yuan's hair stood on end; Daoist Tianyun Daoist Tianyun Xuanbing was only Eleventh Order…

This bronze coffin was likely the Dao treasure that even the little mother dragon mentioned with awe and dread!

"A Dao-treasure-grade coffin…what kind of person could be buried inside?"

Circling the coffin a few times, Li Yuan was both wary and regretful, and felt terror.

Someone who could lie within such a coffin…

"No, I have to try moving it."

Li Yuan controlled three Daoist Tianyun Daoist Tianyun Xuanbing, yet still couldn't budge this bronze coffin; this gave him a headache—with this thing sitting here, he probably wouldn't even be able to sleep well.

After trying for a long time, Li Yuan resigned himself and returned to Dingxin Dingxin Shitai; on Dingxin Dingxin Shitai, text was still flickering ceaselessly, though most places were very blurry.

All '???'

Among them was one entry—the reason Li Yuan wished he could immediately shove this bronze coffin into the abyss.

【A sacred fetus gestates within the coffin…】

"……"

Li Li Daoye was speechless for a moment; the anticipated surprise had turned into a fright.

"The fishing range of this heavenly tribulation item is still this realm…Could this bronze coffin have come from the Eight Directions Temple? This coffin is probably a bit of trouble."

Gazing at that bronze coffin, Li Yuan felt his head swell like a bucket; the good mood granted by Heaven's Mandate vanished completely.

How was he supposed to handle this?

"God-Burial Coffin, Sacred Fetus, Origin..."

Inside the cave, Li Yuan frowned tightly, ignoring the little female dragon's questions: "What is a God-Burial Coffin?" "What did you hear just now?" and the like.

The little female dragon had never even heard of the God-Burial Coffin.

However, she had heard of the Chaos Sacred Body, the Origin Divine Fetus, and the Supreme Sacred Manifestation; those were all existences of legend.

"Only when the Three Origins unite can one touch the Dharma; when the Divine Palace is fully formed, the Spiritual Manifestation becomes the Dharma Manifestation, meaning every movement is the Dharma..."

What the little female dragon knew best was the Supreme Sacred Manifestation:

"The Dharma Manifestation is like the Spiritual Manifestation, divided into various grades: Mortal, Spiritual, Heavenly, Divine, and Sacred. The Supreme Sacred Manifestation is the most top-tier Dharma Manifestation..."

The little female dragon chattered on and on.

"I cannot control it."

Li Yuan reached this conclusion, sighed in his heart, and entered the Weapon-Commanding Space once more.

This time, he summoned his courage to approach at close range, yet he could no longer see the divine pattern designs he had witnessed when he first fished it up; the only thing he could sense was the desolate aura rushing toward him.

It felt as though an ancient relic that had lived for countless tens of thousands of years was inside the coffin, staring coldly at him.

"Damn!"

Just thinking about it made Li Yuan's scalp tingle; he wished he could immediately kick this coffin down to Dingxin Dingxin Shitai.