Archfiend

Chapter 415: Dharmadhatu (19)

Xu Yangyi searched Rocjourney’s face for no less than ten seconds. The bearded man was choking so much that his veins were visibly flushed against his skin, so the demon slayer then coldly flung his hand out. Rocjourney began hacking and immediately separated himself far away from Xu Yangyi, floating in the air.

He wanted to say “why”! What normal person would choose to face a hundred thousand Nightmares and the Nightmare king controlling them?

He wanted to say, “You’re still nothing more than insignificant middle-stage Foundation Establishment! If not for me and Enihilus, you wouldn’t have been able to reach the passage for the second level!”

He wanted to say… “How can you treat me like this?! If not for me, if I weren’t willing to sacrifice my centuries of cultivation, who would be ultimately capable of suppressing the Dream Walker? Who would be able to survive that monster’s hand?!”

However, not one word left his lips.

The reality of the situation was that he had fled. With time as precious as gold, and before the Dream Walker awakened, they had been obstructed by the seemingly insurmountable Nightmare nest. Xu Yangyi, though, hadn’t stopped. One man, one sword, and one divine ability forcibly cleaved through the moon of Nightmares.

While Xu Yangyi had definitely paid an extreme price, the other had done it! The other had dared to act this way! But he didn’t! Didn’t dare to!

“Starting from now, don’t act on your own. I can guess that you have to give up your entire cultivation to seal the Dream Walker. I respect you on this point, but apart from this I’ll be taking the lead. Do you… accept?”

Xu Yangyi icily watched Rocjourney. While he was no longer holding the other by the throat, the bearded man’s face was even redder. Several seconds later, Rocjourney tightly pursed his lips and gritted out, “I accept.”

“If I retreat, Fellow Daoist may then retreat. If I don’t, Fellow Daoist must hold on even in death. Are you… willing?” Xu Yangyi said.

With a breath of air, boundless shame and other feelings rushed up Rocjourney’s throat. It was as if he had walnut in his throat. He was unable to spit out and unable to swallow. Another few more seconds passed, and he said, “I am willing.”

He had previously believed Xu Yangyi to be trash. Today, this slap was all too resounding.

“Good.” Xu Yangyi studied him intently. “I think Fellow Daoist and I will be able to continue working together.”

At this time, the Azurecloud Seed in Xu Yangyi’s qi sea suddenly shook twice.

He promptly used Innersight. In his qi sea, the Azurecloud Seed was still in an endless absorption process. Streaks of black qi coalesced into a black hole in his dantian.

Ahh… Ahh… An intimate feeling sprung up in his spiritual sense. It seemed to be pointing somewhere. But just as he was about to turn his head, he suddenly raised a brow. 

“What’s up? You wanna speak” With Innersight, he saw the Azurecloud Seed slightly nod. Xu Yangyi couldn’t help but laugh. “You can move?”

The Azurecloud Seed’s wisdom was nascent. It only treated Xu Yangyi with fond attachment, as if the demon slayer was its father. It garbled nonsense and then nodded towards the direction again.

Xu Yangyi looked over, and his gaze also grew solemn with his glance.

“That’s…”

When the Nightmare nest had opened, he certainly remembered that the massive Nightmare was holding onto something. However, he couldn’t see anything clearly because of the many Nightmare swarms. All he saw was endless black light radiating from inside. It was like a black sun.

But now… he saw the object distinctly. Not only he had seen it, he was also quite familiar with it!

It… was a tadpole-like monstrosity. Mouths, hundreds of eyes that were packed together like starlight, and black scales covered its entire body.

Bladevessel!

“You really did make it here…” Xu Yangyi narrowed his eyes and licked his lips. Afterwards, he flew over together with Rocjourney.

The enormous corpse was floating in the air like an aerial stronghold. Yet as the duo arrived in front of it, they realized that the body wasn’t a corpse!

“It’s… a shell.” Xu Yangyi lightly rapped Bladevessel’s molt, and a boom rang out. There wasn’t an inch of flesh inside.

“Fellow Daoist recognizes it?” Rocjourney asked.

“He said he was the guard here. After I absorbed the seal’s spiritual force, he told me everything. He didn’t know what was down here, though.”

“Impossible.” Rocjourney was gloomy-faced and said certainly, “The Clearcloud Realm has no guards. If there were, Enihilus and I would’ve monitored them over these several hundred years. There’s no way we wouldn’t know. He’s deceiving you.”

“He obviously lied. But what I want to confirm now is whose side he’s on.” Xu Yangyi took a deep breath and jumped into the molt’s giant mouth. “One, if he’s someone let in by Enihilus the Realm Spirit, or two, someone let in by the Dream Walker. It could’ve been so simple to judge at first, but the other half of the seal has also come. This is a real unexplainable problem… Everyone might say that they’re the other half of the seal… You ever play the killing game?”

“No.” Rocjourney contemplated and said with seemingly deep meaning, “But… one thing can be confirmed. Fellow Daoist and the other half of the seal have a deep connection. You have his aura on you. If anyone else entered here, Fellow Daoist can kill those who don’t have a deep connection with you on the spot.”

Xu Yangyi’s gaze flash. “Not to say this first, but regardless of what his goal is, our target is the same, reaching the second level. Of course, when everything’s out on the table… you’ll be the first to see this.”

Rocjourney flew into the giant mouth. With a mere glance, his brows also pinched together.

The inside of the empty shell was like a giant soccer field. But in the middle of this giant molt… there was something!

It… was a cloud-shaped compliant-scepter made out of jade. [1]

The entire body was white and it emitted faint white light, exceptionally holy. The light it cast spread out all around by a hundred meters. This light passed through Bladevessel’s black shell and shot outside to form the faintly discernible radiance, similar to a black sun, within the Nightmare nest.

“A magik treasure?” The pair shared a glance. A magik treasure wasn’t odd, but for it to appear here was too strange!

If a top-notch heavenly treasure embryo was taken into the body and nourished for decades or a century, or perhaps the qi within the body reached a standard, the embryo could then produce a magik treasure. A cultivator could have one, several, or even a hundred magik treasures. But in any case, one could only have a single prime magik treasure for eternity.

The so-called prime magik treasure was intimately related with a cultivator. If the treasure was damaged, the cultivator was as well. Presently, Xu Yangyi’s Animus Armament was being nourished in his meridians, waiting until late Foundation Establishment.

Still… for a magik treasure to appear here didn’t make any sense at all. The Dream Walker hadn’t awakened, and the Clearcloud Realm had no magik treasures, so where did this one come from?

Furthermore, this magik treasure certainly wasn’t weak! While it had lain here for many years, without any of its master’s qi anymore, its realm was shockingly late-stage Foundation Establishment!

“A magik treasure apart from its master will quickly drop realms without the support of spiritual force. But the treasure’s limits depends on its master… The master is late-stage, so it’s late-stage… It’s obviously been away from its master for a long time now, but its realm is actually still at the late stage. Don’t tell me…”

His gaze matched Rocjourney’s, and he made out the two words in the other’s eyes.

Core Formation!

The most likely possibility was Core Formation! And only a Core Formation ancestor’s magik treasure could stay at late-stage Foundation Establishment after being away from its master for so long. Otherwise, it would’ve vanished into smoke earlier!

“A Dao Master came here?” Xu Yangyi breathed in deeply and waved. The compliant-scepter flew into his hand.

In the instant the scepter settled into his hand, a strange feeling, as if it was linked to his bloodline, emerged in Xu Yangyi’s mind. He furrowed his brows and coolly did a once over of the rod. Finally, he stroked a small, fine carving on the scepter’s shaft.

As he laid eyes on the imprint, a name echoed through his mind like rolling thunder. He gripped the magik treasure in shock, his complexion changing several times.

“Fellow Daoist.” Rocjourney watched his face and said doubtfully, “You… recognize this magik treasure’s master?”

Xu Yangyi didn’t reply. After ages, he began to chuckle darkly, “Not just that… Not only do I recognize it.”

“That’s right, it definitely is a Core Formation magik treasure.” He pursed his lips and looked at the carving. “And… it’s from a Core Formation cultivator from Earth!”

The carving was a white cloud.

Exactly the same as the one on the Cosmos Sun Stronghold back in the seabed graveyard!

Daomaster Floatingcloud!

The previous bloodline connection wasn’t because he and Xu Yangyi had some relation, but because they were both from Earth!

In the past, the Cosmos Sun had received Daomaster Floatingcloud’s command plate to crash. Later on Floatingcloud’s command plate had appeared in the Final 10,000 Miles. Although these matters appeared to be a directly linked secret, a confusing veil suddenly covered it because of this magik treasure’s reveal.

Zhang Guangyao. Ascension. Daomaster Floatingcloud. The twin sal-trees. The Dream Walker. There seemed to be an unseen string in all of this, threading everything together.

“This is getting weirder.” Just as Xu Yangyi was about to place the white scepter in his storage ring, the Azurecloud Seed’s summons suddenly grew eager again.

Wiggle… Wiggle… The adorably shaking body of the cocoon even caused him to laugh. It was just like a child that didn’t get a toy it liked, like it was throwing a tantrum.

“You want this?” He wagged the scepter, and the seed unexpectedly gave a fierce nod in its cocoon form.

“Then I’ll give it to you.” Xu Yangyi laughed and tossed it into his dantian, but his gaze quickly flashed in the next second.

As this scepter collided with the black qi swirling all over the cocoon… it surprisingly began to quietly break apart.

Little by little, it turned into ashes. Despite this though, and to his surprise, an object that he hadn’t been able to solve even now appeared in the remnant debris.

A hexagonal crystal!

“The third one…” In a trance, he pulled on the hexagonal crystal and it quickly appeared in his hand. The Azurecloud Seed was quite discontent, and began making a ruckus again. Xu Yangyi laughed amiably as he patted it. “What’s the rush? You’ll have tasty things to eat later.”

Onyx crystal released gloomy black light. Just as it appeared in Xu Yangyi’s palm, Rocjourney exhaled sharply. “A G-Gem of Dreaming?! You, Fellow Daoist, how did you get a Gem of Dreaming?!”

“What’s a Gem of Dreaming?” Xu Yangyi quickly asked.

Rocjourney looked at the object in Xu Yangyi’s hand with a burning gaze. “A Gem of Dreaming… is something that can only appear in a dreamland… It… How do you say it? It’s a huge gamble, a roulette. Fellow Daoist, you know, it’s easy for real things to appear in one’s dreams. Ordinary people would dream of fruit trees planted today or even a project they did a year ago. However…”

“What about cultivators?”

Not waiting for Xu Yangyi to answer, he swiftly followed up in excitement, “Cultivators… Arcane efforts might appear in their dreams! Artificing techniques! Even their own secret formulas! And among those monsters that can enter the dreamland, there isn’t one that isn’t a lost species from the ancient past. The time they take to shuttle through dreamlands is extremely long. As a result, the few things they think are worth collecting is gathered together using a special arcane effort. Thus, a Gem of Dreaming appears.”

“There might be an extremely vague story inside this. It might even be something that someone found incredibly hard to forget. Likewise… there’s a chance that it’s an ancient cultivator’s divine ability! A burial location of an absolute divine sword! A secret hidden countless years ago! Or maybe… a cultivator’s spiritual sense, without a physical body, ready to force a possession… To be brief, everything is possible!”

1. This term has previously appeared. 玉如意.