374: Chapter 374 A Shocking Change! The Emperor's Remnant Soul Fully Reawakens

An aura of ancient desolation, sealed away for endless ages and mixed with a bone-chilling coldness that made one's hair stand on end, whistled out from the crack in the door.

This yin wind was piercingly cold, as if it could directly freeze a Cultivator's Soul.

Tuoba You, who had just finished bathing and changed into her Flowing Immortal Dress, couldn't help but shudder, subconsciously shrinking closer to Xu Chen's side. Ji Qingyun also furrowed her delicate brows slightly, circulating the Primordial Creation life force within her body to resist this marrow-eroding chill.

Xu Chen's expression remained calm. With a slight exert of force from his broad, warm palms, he channeled two strands of pure Hongmeng Purple Qi through his palms and into the bodies of the two beauties beside him.

The warm current instantly dispelled the cold.

“Stay close to me, and whatever you do, don't let go.”

Xu Chen gave a low-voiced instruction, then raised his right leg and, with the force of ten thousand catties, unceremoniously kicked the two half-open giant bronze doors.

Accompanied by a deafening, muffled roar, the giant bronze doors, dozens of zhang high, were blown wide open. Large patches of dark green copper rust fell like snowflakes.

The three of them stepped side-by-side into this ancient hall that had been silent for tens of thousands of years.

The space inside the hall was astonishingly large, like a Small World that had been carved out separately.

Light was completely swallowed here, and everywhere the eye could see was bottomless gloom. Thick black stone pillars stood all around, their surfaces carved with countless ancient beings with distorted faces undergoing some kind of torture.

With every step, clear footsteps echoed within the cavernous hall, sounding exceptionally eerie in this deathly silent environment.

Xu Chen had already activated his Heavenly Dao Divine Pupils.

Under the gaze of the brilliant golden light, the darkness could not block his vision.

He could clearly see the long-dried, dark-red blood grooves on the floor of the hall.

These blood grooves were like the intricate blood vessels in a human body, winding and converging from all directions of the hall, finally all pointing toward a nine-layered high platform in the deepest part of the hall.

The platform was constructed entirely of some kind of light-absorbing Star-Falling Black Gold.

At the very top of that nine-layered platform, an incredibly massive bronze coffin was actually resting!

The surface of the coffin was wrapped with nine thick Archaic Chains. Unfortunately, having endured the ruthless washing of time, these chains used to seal and suppress evil were already rusted and mottled; several had even completely snapped, hanging limply from the edge of the platform.

Evening quietly descended.

The last trace of dim yellow afterglow in the outside sky completely vanished beneath the grey sea of mist.

Exactly at this moment of transition between day and night, when the Yin Qi of heaven and earth is at its heaviest, a sudden change descended without warning!

A crisp "crack" sounded particularly piercing in the depths of this deathly silent ancient hall.

Xu Chen stopped in his tracks, his eyes instantly becoming as sharp as knives. He stared fixedly at that bronze coffin on the platform.

On the surface of the originally lifeless coffin, a fine crack was rapidly spreading.

Immediately following, the remaining Archaic Array Markings erupted in a final burst of radiance, lighting up with a stabbing blood-red glow, before shattering like glass forced open from within by some terrifying power!

An incomparably violent wave of destructive air, carrying countless sharp bronze fragments, swept out in all directions without distinction like a metal storm.

Xu Chen was prepared. A purple-gold halo flowed over his body, and the majestic blood energy of a Peak Saint King instantly transformed into an indestructible barrier, blocking all those fragments—which were enough to pierce a Saint's body—three zhang away.

The loud bang of the coffin exploding seemed like a signal to attack.

The grey Death Mist outside, which had been dispersed by Xu Chen's punch and retreated dozens of miles, now seemed to have heard the call of its supreme commander and fell into a state of complete, frenzied berserk!

The Death Qi of the entire core area of the forbidden zone transformed into tens of millions of visible black wild dragons, scrambling to converge frantically toward the ancient hall. The hall's indestructible ceiling emitted a tooth-grinding cracking sound under the frantic washing of the massive amount of Death Qi.

“Boom!”

The ceiling collapsed, and a sky full of rubble mixed with black mist poured down.

Amidst this endless Chaos and destruction, within the ruins atop the platform, a terrifying phantom that made even the Soul tremble was slowly but firmly standing up.

It was a black phantom formed entirely from the purest and densest Archaic Death Law.

It had no specific facial features, only a pair of eyes like blood-colored abysses, emitting a predatory, fierce light within the black mist.

This phantom expanded rapidly with the wind, breaking through the ruins of the ancient hall in the blink of an eye and piercing into the clouds, completely obscuring the firmament of this world!

The remnant Soul of the Fallen Great Emperor, after slumbering for several epochs, had finally welcomed its true awakening!

A terrifying pressure that surpassed the Extreme Limit of the Saintly Path and touched upon a trace of that supreme Great Emperors Law crashed down upon this scorched earth like the Milky Way of the Nine Heavens bursting its banks.

Half-step Great Emperor!

Pressure of this level was by no means comparable to that Quasi-Emperor Corrupt Corpse Beast from before, which possessed only brute strength.

All free Spiritual Qi in the air was forcibly drained in an instant, turning the area into a true spiritual power vacuum.

“Roar!”

The black remnant Soul that blotted out the sun raised its head and let out a non-human hiss toward the sky.

In this roar was mixed a sonic wave attack that directly struck the Divine Soul.

Visible black ripples rippled above the ruins of the hall; everywhere they passed, those hard black stone pillars turned silently into a sky full of powder, like sand sculptures weathered for ten million years.

Facing such terrifying Soul pressure, Ji Qingyun only felt a burst of sharp pain deep within her Sea of Consciousness, as if ten thousand steel needles were stabbing her at once. Her cold face instantly lost its color, and her delicate body swayed as if about to fall.

Tuoba You was even more triggered by this aura, her instinctive fear originating from deep within her Bloodline; her small face was deathly pale, and she clutched her ears tightly, retreating repeatedly.

Xu Chen stood in place, his bright red cloak pulled taut in the destructive astral wind.

He did not retreat half a step.

The Supreme Sword Heart throbbed frantically within his chest, emitting a clanging sword hum that completely shredded the Soul sound waves attempting to invade his Sea of Consciousness. His eyes, glinting with brilliant golden light, looked up coldly at that overbearing remnant Soul of the Great Emperor in the sky.

A wildly arrogant sneer slowly curled at the corners of Xu Chen's mouth.

Did it want to bend the spine of the Young Master of the Ancient Imperial Clan with just a remnant Soul that was so dead only an obsession remained?

Utterly delusional!

Xu Chen took a deep breath, and his Peak Saint King cultivation erupted fully without reservation.

The purple-gold Hongmeng Creation Qi was like a rising sun, forcefully tearing open a Domain of light belonging to Xu Chen within these ruins ruled absolutely by darkness.