Brilliant flames illuminated a space which had seemingly dwelled in eternal darkness for millennia. Yet, in contrast to its luminous glow, Xiao Yan was overtaken by chills running through his entire body. The source of this ominous sensation was a massive entity dwelling in the dark depths below!
It was a being of inconceivable size—coiled in the abyssal void, motionless save for its silent vigil. Xiao Yan followed its serpentine form with wide eyes, but as far as he gazed, endless darkness obscured its tail. The enigmatic creature bore a majestic body of violet gold, armored with icy scales that emanated a feeling as ancient and impenetrable as forged steel.
He hovered in awe amidst the void—the magnitude of the being rendered him unable to grasp its full figure, and it left him staggered at its colossal scope. Not even his decades-worth of experience had prepared him for an encounter with a beast of such impossible magnitude!
Even a person of Xiao Yan’s composure couldn’t help but be seized with dread—how had something capable of swallowing sky and swallowing stars gone unnoticed at the very bottom of the magma realm?
Gulping hard, a cold bead of sweat ran down his temple as his breath trembled in his throat. Cautiously, he examined the behemoth beneath his feet. Even with his eyes, its nature remained inscrutable. One truth emerged, however: *This is no place to dawdle.*
He had arrived seeking the ruins of the Ancient Emperor, but such lurking peril—on par with the mighty Huo Tiandi or ancient Yuan—compelled him to withdraw and return with reinforced numbers for a safer expedition plan.
His thoughts resolute, Xiao Yan started back in cautious retreat. Yet suddenly—scarcely even a dozen steps—subtle trembles writhed from below.
Though faint, Xiao Yan’s pupils constricted. Such was no illusion conjured by inferior senses—only one explanation remained… *this ancient being is very much alive!*
Mind racing, Xiao Yan propelled backward with urgency—
*Crescendo!*
At the peak of his frantic escape, the darkened hollow cracked wide in violent rupture.
From amidst ebon void, a gargantuan pair of eyes flickered open—a crimson radiance within them burned in layered focus alone exceeding Xiao Yan’s whole height by hundreds of times. The gaze locked upon him. At once, a force akin to heavenly dread pressed its invisible weight upon Xiao Yan, slowing his retreat.
Soul-force roared through his being—his Imperial-tier Soul exerting all efforts to push back what felt like being submerged in endless tar. His face flushed. But before he could fully steady—
“The intruder… possesses an Imperial Soul, I see… do you wield an ancient jade token?”
His soul-force pulsed with the tremor shaking the realm. The colossal eyes loomed, their unflinching gaze exuding icy impassiveness. He took a bow before calling out, forcing composure.
“Regrettably mistaken trespass, but not malice! I shall take my leave at once.”
But silence followed.
“…Not a bearer.”
Another voice rumbled across dimensions, and this time, disappointment melted into cold malice that prickled Xiao Yan’s bones.
Alarms surged through him as realization crystallized.
Instinct ignited—Net-Lotus Demon Flame wrapped around him like an ember-clad shield, obsidian wings stretching behind him. He darted backwards furiously, yet not quick enough—
“No entry without an ancestral seal.”
A call reverberated across the space; the void responded as a towering ray of shimmering violet golden radiance pierced through the obscurity.
“*Stop him.*”
“Understood!”
In one instant came the command. The next, the violet golden beam surged through, unrelenting and merciless. It bore down upon Xiao Yan’s back. Xiao Yan flared with fury. Seal twisting into a formation—one last surge of his immortal might summoned an ethereal echo of a massive phantom whose deafening howl erupted like an infinite tide slamming head-on into the onslaught.
*Boom!*
Violent shock waves rippled into oblivion, and still—it was not done! Violet flames persisted like unslayed dragons of wrath!
His Imperial Soul howled—its strength poured again in twin shrieks crashing in furious succession as—
*Craaack!*
Twinned psychic strikes slammed the light, and finally shattered its core. However, the aftershocks launched Xiao Yan spiraling kilometers—only to leave him in stunned admiration of the foe’s sheer magnitude.
“Such monstrous power!” he mused grimly. He had thrown every ounce, and it hadn’t matched but one swipe. This being, no doubt, rivaled even the ancient Yuan or Huo Tiandi themselves.
The hollow darkness rumbled once more.
*Imperial Soul*, came a trace richer, more curious, from the beast. Xiao Yan had little time—taking the opening, he turned, accelerating hard away from the beast, homeward.
But as he moved to escape—
A shrieking force stirred behind again.
Xiao Yan peered at the golden aura, condensed into terrifying glyphs that rocketed for his back—a vengeful fist of divine radiance—its intent to crush unrelentingly apparent.
“Dammit!”
Xiao Yan whirled without looking back his palms clashing together in unison. Six-colored explosive lotus—two, in all!—fired toward that incoming glyph.
The lotus flared in fiery detonation—one after the other—with deafening thunder—shrouding firestorms, yet not leaving the golden glyph scathed nor hindered a hair.
A ray shot from within the glyph at lightning speed—
Xiao Yan sensed it in the very essence of his being. Immediately—he shifted; hands weaving with urgency. Demon Flame Net crystallized pink barrier layer after pink shielded before his form.
And then came—
*Ksssss-shk-krrackk!*
Direct hit! Layer by layer, crystal dissolved. The attack cleaved through all resistance as woodchips before it slammed full-force across Xiao Yan’s chest.
He coughed violently—scarlet splatter bursting in the empty space. His silhouette rocketed back again violently.
But the glyph pursued.
The crimson liquid struck glyph—hissing and sizzling, spreading the scent of molten blood.
*”Remain… and entertain me,”* said the beast—intent unmoved, its wrath undiminished. Xiao Yan cursed, caught. He glimpsed that slight wrinkle in the far-off spatial folds—*if only—!*
“You wield Imperial might,” it growled, “but your cultivation lies at a mere Seventh Heaven Monarch Saint tier. Allow you fleeing? No. A mockery.”
As Xiao Yan neared what he hoped was the passageway, the glyph suddenly pierced through from above, crashing upon him with a thunderstroke of death.
The glyph was inches away—Xiao Yan prepared for all-out resistance.
Yet then—blood dripping on the glyph surface—some vanished, leaving behind thin trails of glimmering *golden hues.* That golden droplet shimmered, and something shifted.
From deep, the entity stirred—as if awakened.
*Hummm…*
Its entire being trembled. Memory long buried—ancient sensation rekindled.
“Oof!”
With half-arm’s length away from his cranium—*it halted.*
A violent rush compressed everything below its trajectory into utter oblivion. Xiao Yan stood transfixed, yet seized that instant.
In an instant’s window—he exploded, shooting toward the rippling spatial folds.
*Gone!*
Escaped… before it!
Yet the beam did not chase.
Above… twin colossal eyes, once so indifferent, flickered—fixity on the golden speck clinging to their glyph.
With slow drift, that glyph returned. Then—gold trickled gently down.
Into the massive red-eyed aperture.
At once—the chill gaze of cold melted. Recognition burned in its pupils. From the vast and lifeless gaze erupted a new feeling—sudden wild glee.
*”This aura… the scent of my child!”*
Sudden howl—a soul-shaking, sky-shaking primal roar tore across the domain.
The slumbering colossal body writhed with awakened purpose. It smashed, headlong again, and again into the dimensional cage—but each impact only conjured luminances flickering across the spatial confines—resisting as adamantine restraints might.
“Guzhetian Emperor,” roared rage and frustration combined, the entity turning its fury upon that solitary stone door that loomed silently before it. “You CURSE!” it howled.
Yet unyielding silence met it still.
Ageless.
Timebound—
And utterly unbroken.
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