Chapter 316: Chen Tong
Chapter 316: Chen Tong
After checking on the subworld attached to the Nine Devil Gods World, Wu Hong had one last place to check before leaving. Her vision penetrated countless distances until she saw a mass of white fog made of tiny lines amalgamated together.
Around this fog were myriad runes that formed a circular cage. The fog kept banging against all corners of the rune cage, unfortunately, the cage did not budge not even the slightest.
After seeing this scene, she nodded her head in satisfaction as she muttered: "The seal I placed on this World’s Heavenly Dao does not have any problem. In that case, I am relieved."
She then left and returned to the place where she first landed. Since this world was completely sealed, she could only enter and leave from that single Portal. Once she arrived at her destination, she returned to the Myriad Emperor World through the gate.
This time, she did not go to see Wu Feng and silently departed. Wu Hong did not stay long in the Myriad Emperor World. Once she left the Lifeless Domain, she once again broke the void and entered the Endless Void.
She glanced at her homeworld for a few seconds before teleporting away. For the next few hours, she gathered a bunch of floating debris scattered in the empty void. These debris were pieces of destroyed worlds.
After gathering 360 of them, Wu Hong placed each piece in a specific place. Then, with a wave of her hand, many runes appeared in the void and formed a complicated pattern with the pieces.
Once she was done, a formation was created. Wu Hong sat cross-legged in the middle of the formation, closing her eyes to feel something. She stayed in that position for a month before opening her eyes.
"Finally found it. This was harder than expected."
After muttering these words, she activated the formation. A white light enveloped her and she disappeared. As for the 360 world debris, they destroyed themselves after she left.
Wu Hong opened her eyes to find herself floating above a large city with many people going about their business. The majority of these people were human, but a lot of races could also be seen.
In fact, this large city could be described as "Ten Thousands Races Gathering City" with how many diverse races gathered. Even the architecture of the city displayed how diverse this city was.
Some houses looked like ordinary human places of living, mostly made of spiritual woods. Some houses had spikes and creatures’ heads as decoration, some seemed submerged underwater, some were floating in the air, some were on top of very large trees.
As Wu Hong looked at all of this, she was not surprised. Instead, she knew that this was the tip of the iceberg for this city. Her view suddenly changed and she could see that this so-called "city" was a large continent floating in the void, surrounded by a thin protective barrier.
The size of this continent was at least equivalent to 100 Domains back on the Myriad Emperor World. On top of that, many other subwords were attached to this continent.
Wu Hong’s eyes penetrated these sub-worlds and saw different ones. In some of them, people of different races were battling one another, in another one, they were massacring the devil race only. On another, many people sat cross-legged, seeming in deep meditation.
She could see that this world was modified to increase cultivation speed.
In another world, many races sat in front of a large tree which seemed to help them become better enlightened on the Dao.
In one world she saw a giant mountain, and as people slowly climbed it, they were caught in illusion. By breaking through the illusion, they can improve their state of mind.
In one of them, the world was different regions based on elemental powers. For example, there was the Fire Region, the Thunder Region, The Ice Region, the Gravity Region, etc. People were using this world to temper their fleshly bodies, and as long as they lasted for a certain period of time, a weird energy would enter their bodies and help the process.
Wu Hong could see that all these worlds were nothing but the tip of the iceberg, so she did not look further. Instead, her eyes focused on a list in the middle of the main world or the floating continent.
Her eyes looked at a specific name and thought to herself:
’I can’t believe that the person who attended the Slaughter Trial in this timeline is Lin Fan instead of Wang Wei.’
The name she was looking at was written in bold:
"Lin Fan, Absolute Chaos Physique, Myriad Emperor World, Ranked 2345th."
She looked at the list for a moment, then said out loud: "Come out."
A few seconds later, a handsome man dressed in a blue robe appeared next to her. He looked at her up and down, "Empress Wu?"
"Who else would it be?"
"How is that possible," responded the young man. "You have flesh and blood, and a soul. With how strict Heavenly Dao controls the lower dimension, it should be impossible for you to leave a clone here."
"Old Thief Nether and many people have managed to do so. What’s wrong with me doing it?"
"Old Thief Nether is nothing but a little Empyrean. As for other people, that was a long time ago when the control was not as strict as now," replied the young man.
"Well, aren’t I also a little Empyrean?" replied Wu Hong nonchalantly. However, the youth shook his head as he stared at her; it seemed he was trying to figure out how she managed to leave a clone in the lower dimension.
Wu Hong turned her head and finally looked at the young man.
"Chen Tong, this is the reason you’re in this half state of death. Your curiosity is too strong."
Chen Tong smiled wryly before saying, "Empress, what can I do for you?"
"I need the Path Seeking Stone in your hand."
"What? Absolutely not!" Although the Path Seeking Stone is only considered a Supreme level treasure, it is something sought after by even Paragons if the circumstances allow for it.
"Don’t be stingy," replied Wu Hong. "This thing has little effect on you."
"True, but I was still going to use it for the final winner of the trial."
"By now, you should have absorbed enough Qi Luck from all these Heaven Chosens after conducting so many Trials. With so much, you should be able to revive yourself, return to your peak and once again become a Paragon.
"So, you do not need the stone that much," said Wu Hong.
Chen Tong remained quiet after hearing this. The reason he established the Slaughter Trial was not just to absorb Qi Luck, but also as a way to form strong Karmic Debts with these Heaven Chosens that managed to become Great Emperor.
And one day, he will ask them to repay that debt. With the Path Seeking Stone, he can create a strong karma debt with the final winner. Of course, he did not want to give it up so easily.
As for the reason he did not give it to Empress Wu and form a karmic debt with her, that’s because powerful individuals like her can ignore karmic debts after becoming Great Emperor.
The ones before that have to be paid, otherwise, they will become little problems in the path of cultivation. But the ones after that are of little significance unless they are truly unimaginable.
Wu Hong frowned after seeing Chu Hong’s response, then she said in a cold and ruthless tone: "Give me the stone, or I will destroy your remnant soul and take it for myself."
"You!" said Chen Tong, his face turning red in anger. Then, a memory hidden deep inside his soul surfaced.
It was the memory of the first time she met Empress Wu. He had just become a Paragon and he was quite confident. After meeting her, he was curious about why she was so powerful, wondering if she had some kind of secret.
So, he started to investigate her and calculate the secrets of Heaven to learn more about her. However, he did not get far in his search when a gigantic hand made of countless runes descended on him.
All the formations in his cultivation palaces were instantly destroyed, the Paragon Artifacts have blown away. His Paragon Body was destroyed, his Dao Foundation damaged, and his soul injured.
Chen Tong remembered the powerlessness he felt in front of that hand. If it was not that she was just warning him, he would have fallen after that. What’s worse, this kind of injury took him a few Yuan Epochs to completely heal.
After thinking about that memory, Chen Tong snorted coldly, waved at him, and sent her a brown stone that looked remarkably ordinary. After receiving the stone, she checked it before nodding her head.
’With this stone, Wang Wei can quickly finish the last step of refining his blood.’
Wu Hong then waved her sleeve and a book appeared in the void.
"Don’t say I took advantage of you. With this book, the process of re-establish your Dao Foundation should be easier and more perfect."
She then teleported away.