427: Chapter 427 A Door

The group quickly arrived at the next room.

This room looked slightly different from the previous two.

There was damage on the door.

It looked as if it had been vandalized; a third of the hexagonal crystal was missing.

Xiao Weiqing hovered slightly in the air and grabbed the crystal on the door with both hands.

He rotated it counter-clockwise.

Unlike the previous two doors, it was very difficult to turn, but fortunately, it still moved. A few seconds later...

The door was opened.

The group stepped inside.

Their footsteps halted.

Xie Zhiyuan and Dongfang Baichen stared fixedly into mid-air.

"talent orbs?"

In mid-air...

Hundreds, even thousands of light orbs floated there, emitting pale blue, purple, and red glows.

There were nearly a thousand pale blue light orbs, about forty or fifty purple ones, and only four red ones.

Yes.

Just like the Side Hall outside the Divine Temple, these light orbs were also talent orbs, except the colors were different.

The reason they were so shocked was that the aura emitted by these talent orbs was much heavier than that of Level 6 talent orbs.

This indicated...

The contents within the talent orbs were of a much higher level than Level 6, especially those four red talents.

Xiao Weiqing frowned. Although he was also shocked, he felt more doubt. "Where did these come from?"

With a casual wave of his hand...

A pale blue talent orb fell into Xiao Weiqing's hand. A thread of Mental Energy reached out to touch the talent orb.

The moment his Mental Energy touched the talent orb, Xiao Weiqing's pupils suddenly constricted.

"How is this possible?"

Xiao Weiqing subconsciously denied his own thought.

Then...

As if refusing to believe it, his powerful Mental Energy completely enveloped the talent orb. Xiao Weiqing closed his eyes and sensed it carefully.

A few seconds later...

Xiao Weiqing opened his eyes, which were filled with Killing Intent. "The Azure Dragon Divine Envoy, that bastard!"

"What's wrong?"

Xie Zhiyuan asked hurriedly.

"This talent orb contains a complete talent regarding speed called 'Swift Shadow'."

"A complete talent?"

"Not an Innate Skill?"

Xiao Weiqing nodded slowly and added, "That's not the point. The important thing is that this talent is Level 7, and it's brand new!"

"Brand new?"

"What do you mean?"

Xie Zhiyuan and Dongfang Baichen didn't react for a moment.

Immediately after, both of them denied it simultaneously.

"Impossible!"

"Absolutely impossible!"

Within a talent orb, whether it's a complete talent or an Innate Skill, there's no such thing as 'brand new'.

Because even if it was just stripped from a human body, it would be second-hand. The original owner counts as the first hand, so a talent orb cannot be brand new.

"The fact remains as it is."

Xiao Weiqing handed the pale blue talent orb to Dongfang Baichen.

Anyone who has used a talent orb knows...

A talent orb requires Mental Energy to communicate. As long as you communicate with the talent orb—whether you've learned it, haven't learned it, or tried and failed—you will leave behind traces of your own Mental Energy.

The original owner of the talent leaves the first trace. After that, the more people it passes through, the more traces are left behind.

Traces of Mental Energy are very easy to detect, especially for someone with a powerful Divine Soul like Xiao Weiqing.

Earlier, Xiao Weiqing thought he had sensed incorrectly, but he later discovered that even when he explored every part of the talent orb, he still couldn't find any traces of Mental Energy left by a previous person.

This was the part that Xiao Weiqing found absurd.

He had never seen a situation like this.

Suddenly...

A terrifying thought flashed through his mind, but he quickly dismissed it. If that were truly the case, the Azure Dragon Divine Envoy dying ten thousand times wouldn't be enough punishment.

Dongfang Baichen took the talent orb and swept it with his Mental Energy. His eyes widened instantly; he only found Xiao Weiqing's Mental Energy traces.

"Why is it like this?"

He also couldn't believe what he was seeing.

With a casual grab...

Another pale blue talent orb was caught in his hand.

His Mental Energy touched the talent orb, and the result was the same. There were no other Mental Energy traces; it was as brand new as a blank sheet of paper.

But...

What exactly was going on?

"Where on earth did these talent orbs come from?"

Dongfang Baichen could not understand it.

"Principal Xie, if a person has just awakened and their talent is stripped, would it be like this?"

Xie Zhiyuan shook his head. "No, there would still be Mental Energy remaining. It would just be weaker, but it would still be very easy to find."

As a figure from the early days of the Spiritual Qi recovery, Xie Zhiyuan had seen much more than the other three.

He had seen cases of talents being stripped right after Awakening.

In his era, as long as one awakened a combat talent of Level 2 or higher, they had to go to the battlefield to kill Yao Beasts, and it was mandatory.

Some people were afraid of death, so they would sell their talent for a large sum of money. This way, they could live well and avoid going to their deaths.

At this moment...

Xiao Weiqing asked, "Empress, do you know anything?"

Hearing this...

Xie Zhiyuan and Dongfang Baichen looked toward Empress Yun Shu.

Empress Yun Shu shook her head slightly. "I don't know either. The Empire has no records regarding this."

The group fell silent for a long time.

Xiao Weiqing said, "Let's go to the next room first."

"Mhm."

The group left the room with heavy hearts.

They continued deeper.

It was one last long corridor.

This time, the group walked for quite a while.

Given their speed, they had walked at least ten kilometers, yet they still hadn't reached the end.

But Xiao Weiqing knew...

The corridor was a full twenty kilometers long.

This already exceeded the depth of the Divine Temple; Xiao Weiqing couldn't understand it for a moment.

Before long...

The group reached the deepest part, where two large doors stood across from them.

Xiao Weiqing furrowed his brows tightly.

This door was extremely strange.

It seemed very high, yet also very low.

It seemed very large, yet also very small.

It was very eerie. Xiao Weiqing felt as if his gaze was being swallowed up, and for a moment, he couldn't see clearly what was on the door.

He even forgot the color of the door.

Was it black?

Or gray?

He remembered that at first glance, there were complex patterns on the door, but now it was empty.

This made Xiao Weiqing increasingly curious, and he couldn't help but want to push open the door to investigate.

He took a step forward.

It was like stepping on the surface of water; ripples appeared in space. Xiao Weiqing reached out a hand.

Just as Xiao Weiqing was about to touch something...

Above his Sea of Consciousness...

The golden Divine Soul opened its eyes, and a scene suddenly appeared before Xiao Weiqing.

A glimpse of the primordial colors from the birth of the Universe appeared.

Then...

Something flashed past, so fast that Xiao Weiqing didn't see it at all.

In an instant...

His consciousness returned.

"Holy crap!"

Xiao Weiqing found one of his hands pressed against the door, sinking into it like dark ink, seemingly about to be sucked in.

The other three were in even worse shape.

Only the backs of Xie Zhiyuan and Dongfang Baichen remained visible; their entire bodies were being pulled in.

Empress Yun Shu was slightly better off than the two of them.

But the tip of her nose was already about to touch the black ink in front of her.

Xiao Weiqing pulled his hand out, then forcefully yanked Xie Zhiyuan and Dongfang Baichen out and threw them behind him.

At the same time...

He grabbed Empress Yun Shu and quickly retreated, moving far away from that place.