Chapter 1599: Black Flame
The newly formed palace-guarding barrier, under the cracks, instantly transformed into a massive dark spiderweb, and in the next instant... shattered with a bang.
The Nine Heavens shook violently. Under the collapsing dark force, the power that had been protecting the palace turned into rampaging destructive energy, mercilessly engulfing and devouring a large number of disciples of the Jiuyao Heavenly Palace below. Countless were injured or killed, and screams filled the air.
What crumbled in an instant was not just the palace-guarding barrier, but also the will and faith of everyone in the Jiuyao Heavenly Palace.
The moment Yun Che shattered the barrier with a single finger, Venerable Cangyu's eyeballs nearly bulged and burst, then turned into a dazed gray-white... He wished desperately that this was all just a nightmare.
When his gaze finally regained some focus, the first thing that reflected in his sight was Yun Che's figure.
He stood less than three steps away, his emotionless eyes looking down at him. Around him were the Jiuyao Palace Masters, their faces equally pale, pupils constricted, bodies covered in burns... But at this moment, they could no longer see any trace of a palace master's bearing. They looked like a pack of discarded dogs whose faith and souls had been torn apart, with no will left to struggle.
"You are very lucky. Right now, I really don't want to waste time killing a bunch of useless rabble." Yun Che said coldly. "You have... one last chance."
Palace Master Cangyu's mouth opened and closed three times before he finally managed to produce a weak voice: "I... I... will... take... you... there."
Having said that, what flooded his heart the most was not humiliation, but relief.
Leading Yun Che and Qianye Ying'er, passing through layers of barriers, Palace Master Cangyu stumbled with trembling steps to the sect's greatest forbidden ground and opened the barrier of the treasure vault... laying bare the sect's entire accumulation and greatest secrets before the two outsiders.
"Good." Yun Che swept a glance. "You may leave."
Palace Master Cangyu's entire body shook violently. Gritting his teeth, he said, "The treasure vault is full of mechanisms. Without me..."
"Leave!"
Palace Master Cangyu shuddered all over, not daring to say another word, and slunk away.
As one of the palace masters of the Jiuyao Heavenly Palace, a Ninth-rank Divine Sovereign who overlooked all living beings, he had never imagined in his life that one day he would be so humbled and terrified.
Before even entering the treasure vault, the aura emanating from within already made Qianye Ying'er's golden eyes brighten slightly. "It seems this harvest should be good. With your inexplicable absorption ability, it should be enough for you to become a Divine Sovereign in a short time."
"By the way," Qianye Ying'er tilted her gaze, "that palace-guarding barrier just now, judging by its aura, would require at least a Fifth-rank Divine Lord's power to break. Yet it was so fragile before your dark profound force."
What shattered the faith of the Jiuyao Heavenly Palace was not Yun Che's raw power, but the single finger with which he broke the barrier.
"And that's just the nascent 'Dark Eternal Calamity' power. If it's this tyrannical already, I'm afraid that when it matures... all dark existences will kneel at your feet."
"Including you." Yun Che said coldly, then stepped into the treasure vault.
"That's not certain!" Qianye Ying'er murmured, following closely behind.
A quarter of an hour passed... half an hour passed... The time stretched on terrifyingly.
An hour passed, and Palace Master Cangyu could no longer bear it. He mustered all his courage and rushed to the treasure vault... Then he stood inside the empty vault, staring blankly at the hollow space for a long, long time.
No one knew how long later, he finally came to his senses. He picked up his sound transmission jade and sent what was perhaps the weakest transmission of his life: "Do not contact the Thousand Wilds Divine Cult... From now on, the entire sect is forbidden from mentioning the name Yun Che or anything about him."
"No, it's not that I'm afraid he'll find out and come back for revenge. I just have a feeling... This person is too terrifying. Even the Thousand Wilds Divine Cult might fall into his hands."
Beneath the Nine Heavens, amidst a range of mountains, a palm-sized primordial ark rested quietly wedged between two nondescript rocks, shrouded by a faint ice barrier that completely concealed its aura.
Occasionally, profound beasts passed by without noticing its existence.
Inside the world of the Primordial Mystic Ark, Yun Che sat cross-legged on the barren ground, surrounded by a large number of floating demon crystals and demon jades. Thin strands of pure, flawless energy released from them, like countless invisible streams, flowing into Yun Che's body.
The Primordial Mystic Ark's energy was low-grade and turbid, highly unsuitable for cultivation. However, since it was an independent world, he did not have to worry about his energy fluctuations being detected... especially during a major breakthrough.
Heaven-Defying World Scripture, Void Law: All things are void, all spirits return to Xuan.
What Yun Che had read was an incomplete version of the Heaven-Defying World Scripture. What the Void Law truly was, he could not express in words at all. He had only touched its edge, both real and vague.
He was still extremely far from "Myriad Spirits Return to Xuan," yet he could somehow, in a wonderfully strange way, directly convert the spiritual energy of profound crystals and profound jades into his own profound force.
This was undoubtedly the most basic ability within the Void Law—perhaps not even worthy of being called "basic"—but in the eyes of the world, and in the eyes of someone like Qianye Ying'er who had once stood at the peak of the profound way, it was an undeniable world-defying power.
Twenty shichen—less than two short days. The bottleneck that countless profound practitioners could not break through in a lifetime was effortlessly breached by Yun Che.
In that instant, all the profound crystals around Yun Che silently shattered, and the air within a hundred miles was expelled. Yun Che's profound energy erupted, then rapidly flowed back in...
When everything calmed down, his profound vein world had transformed into an even vaster starry sky.
A profound energy world that contained the power of a Divine Sovereign!
Yun Che opened his eyes, and a flash of black light streaked past. He raised his hand, feeling the energy surging between his fingers and the world that had once again become different. Yet within him, there was only utter stillness, not a single ripple.
From the time he set foot in the Northern Divine Region until now, less than a year had passed. Yet he had gone from Level One of the Divine King Realm to Level One of the Divine Sovereign Realm, crossing an entire major realm.
Qianye Ying'er had witnessed this entire process.
Yun Che was calm, and she was calm too... Even though, for any profound practitioner on any plane, this should have been an earth-shattering event.
"It seems the end of the three divine regions draws closer." Qianye Ying'er walked over, looking at Yun Che now, and said in a very unfriendly tone. "So you can rest assured and let me recover to the Divine Lord Realm, right?"
Yun Che did not respond. He raised both hands, and flames blazed. In his palms, the Golden Crow Flame and Phoenix Flame ignited separately. As his hands crossed, they rapidly merged into the immensely powerful Crimson Divine Flame.
Now, his speed in fusing the Crimson Divine Flame was several times faster than before. Derived from the power of a Divine Sovereign, its incinerating ability was many times more terrifying.
Holding the Crimson Divine Flame in both hands, Yun Che's gaze turned cold, and a dark radiance slowly overflowed from his palms.
This was not ordinary dark profound force. It was the dark radiance fused with the Dark Eternal Calamity!
As the dark radiance touched the Crimson Divine Flame, they began to annihilate each other. But at a certain moment, Qianye Ying'er felt the space and her vision suddenly twist violently.
The repulsion and annihilation ceased. The dark force slowly "flowed" into the flames, gradually dyeing the crimson fire into an eerily ashen white.
"!!!" Qianye Ying'er was shocked.
The flames began to flicker violently, whether in struggle or excitement. The firelight cast Yun Che's hands and face in gray. After a brief pause, the gray flames began to turn black...
At that very instant, the light within the Primordial Mystic Ark's world began to dim.
As the flames gradually became purer and purer black, the world's light grew darker and darker.
Flames accompanied by light—this was not just a principle of the profound way, but a fundamental common sense in any world.
Yet Qianye Ying'er, with her violently constricted golden pupils, witnessed a flame that was clearly devouring light!
No, it devoured not just light. The surrounding space was also rapidly and violently contracting. Unbeknownst to her, around the black flame, a ring of vortex-like... space black hole had formed!
The black flame continued to change, about to shed the last traces of gray-white... At that moment, Yun Che's body suddenly lurched. The black flame in his hands vanished instantly. A spray of blood arced over ten zhang away, and he half-collapsed to the ground, gasping heavily.
Qianye Ying'er did not move. Her eyes held a shock that lingered for a long time.
"Haah... haah..." Yun Che breathed heavily, taking a full ten seconds to finally calm down.
Slowly wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth, the corners of his lips cracked into a sinister smile.
"What... was that?" Even though she had long grown accustomed to Yun Che's various inexplicable anomalies, Qianye Ying'er was still deeply startled.
"Just discovered another type of flame." Yun Che's low voice carried rare excitement.
The black flame just now was not simply a fusion of dark force and Crimson Divine Flame... It was also a strange fusion of the Evil God's Divine Power and the Dark Eternal Calamity!
The Evil God's Divine Power could fuse the Phoenix Flame and Golden Crow Flame into the Crimson Divine Flame, and could reverse laws, fusing flame power and ice power into an "ice flame" that should not exist. All of this relied on the Evil God's unique elemental power, the most extreme in the chaotic world, capable of even reversing laws.
And as a force equal in stature to the Evil God's Divine Power, the Dark Eternal Calamity should not have been interfered with by the Evil God's Divine Power.
But the fusion just now, and the brief manifestation of that dark and mysterious power that made even his own hair stand on end, was clearly a fusion of the Evil God's Divine Power and the Dark Eternal Calamity!
He just didn't understand why these two Creation Divine Powers could achieve fusion within him in such a way... and it didn't even seem that difficult.
It was like even Jie Tian Mo Di could not understand how Light Profound Force and Dark Profound Force could coexist within him.
How long it would take to master this fusion, he could not determine... But one thing was absolutely certain: Its power would definitely surpass the Crimson Divine Flame!
Steadying his breath, he stood up. Yun Che fixed his gaze on Qianye Ying'er, his eyes flickering with undisguised lascivious light. "Within six shichen, I will let you recover to the Divine Lord Realm. But before that..."
His figure flickered, and he suddenly reached out his hand.
But he grasped nothing, only catching a rapidly fading afterimage.
Looking at Qianye Ying'er, who had dodged far away, Yun Che narrowed his eyes. "What's this? I wouldn't restore you for nothing!"
Qianye Ying'er let out a light snort, her peerlessly beautiful face cold as ice. "If you want to violate me, fine... but you are not allowed to tear up... you!"
Bang!
Before she could finish, Yun Che had slammed her to the ground. With a particularly loud "rip," her light blue outer robe and undergarments were brutally torn open, revealing a dazzling expanse of fair skin that could steal one's soul.
"You have no right to resist now!" Yun Che's tone was unquestionable, his gaze full of greed.
Yun Che had become a Divine Sovereign, his power soaring to unprecedented heights. Once the Evil God Realm Gate was opened, Qianye Ying'er, before recovering her Divine Lord power, indeed had no ability to resist him.