256: Chapter 256 The Black Coffin That Altered Cause and Effect! The Conditions for Attacking the Great Emperor!

After leaving the Shadow Pavilion, Su Feng did not stop his pace.

Taking the Empress with him, he directly found Su Hao and Tantai Mingyue, who were both in seclusion.

However, when asked about the scene on the Reception Dao Platform on the day of their Ascension, the answers they gave were surprisingly consistent!

In their memories: Everyone met safely that day, and although Su Mo suffered some minor injuries, he didn't bring back anything special.

As for that black coffin emitting the aura of a Realm Demons, it was as if it had never existed in their minds at all!

“The time they spent in contact with that crystal coffin was short. In the face of that unknown power, erasing and tampering with the Karma lines of those few breaths of time is not complicated.”

Stepping out from Tantai Mingyue's private courtyard, the Empress's beautiful face was filled with unprecedented solemnity. She pointed out the core of the problem with incisive precision:

“The most important Breakthrough point right now is Su Mo!”

Su Feng clearly shared this view, a sharp light flashing in the depths of his profound eyes.

“In the Lower Realm, Su Mo guarded that crystal coffin alone for five whole years! He even fought his way through a blood-soaked Ascension while enduring its pollution. If even he, the core person in contact with it, can't remember the truth about the coffin at all, then this trouble... will be truly massive.”

The Empress nodded. The two of them no longer hesitated. With a flash of their figures, they arrived directly at the Secret Realm specifically opened by the Su Family for Su Mo's Cultivation—[Demon God Mountain].

At this moment, the sound of booming was constant on Demon God Mountain.

Su Mo, his muscles bulging and emitting a sky-blotting Devilish Qi, was like a tireless Primordial Vicious Beast. He was using his Physical Body to frantically slam into the mountain peak cast from divine iron to increase his body's strength.

Looking at this son who was incomparably determined on the path of immortal cultivation, Su Feng felt a secret sense of admiration. But given the urgency of the situation, he directly raised his hand and deactivated the mountain's gravity Formation.

“Boom!”

Su Mo's head hit empty air. He nimbly flipped in mid-air and landed steadily.

“Dad? Why are you here??” Su Mo wiped the hot sweat from his forehead, looking at the two of them with some surprise.

“Su Mo, I have an important matter to ask you.”

Su Feng walked up to him, his gaze like a torch and his tone more serious than ever: “Think back carefully. When you first ascended from the Lower Realm, what exactly did you bring with you?”

Hearing this, Su Mo scratched his head and replied as if it were a matter of course: “I remember. At the time, I was ambushed by alien races because I snatched a treasure. I dragged a coffin with me all the way through my Ascension.”

Hearing the word “coffin”!

The Empress and Su Feng exchanged a knowing glance, their tense nerves finally relaxing slightly.

Fortunately! Su Mo's memory hadn't been erased! He still remembered the existence of the coffin!

However, before the two could be happy for long...

Su Mo's next words were like a bucket of cold water, sending their hearts sinking to the bottom once again!

“Dad, that was just an ordinary treasure polluted by demonic cultivators in the Lower Realm. Didn't you purify it into ashes long ago? Why are you suddenly asking about this today?” Su Mo looked at the solemn pair with a face full of confusion.

Su Feng's brow instantly furrowed tightly. Refusing to give up, he continued to press:

“Do you still remember what that treasure looked like specifically?”

“It was just a pitch-black wooden coffin with foul-smelling black smoke coming off it. Later, you smashed it with a palm strike, Dad, and the Devilish Qi inside was also purified by you.”

Su Mo answered truthfully, his eyes clear, showing no signs of lying or concealment.

Su Feng's breathing hitched slightly, his voice dropping an octave:

“You... don't remember at all what was inside that coffin?”

“Inside?”

Su Mo thought about it with a blank face and finally shook his head with certainty.

“No. It was just an empty, broken black coffin. There was nothing inside.”

“...”

A deathly silence fell over the peak of Demon God Mountain.

Su Feng exhaled a deep breath of turbid air and rubbed his aching temples.

The problem was far more troublesome and terrifying than they had imagined.

“This has completely exceeded the constraints of the rules we know!”

After leaving Demon God Mountain, the Empress's face was extremely unsightly, her voice even carrying a hint of hard-to-hide alarm.

“Su Mo indeed hasn't forgotten the shell of the event where he ascended with the coffin. But his core memory has been forcibly tampered with by a certain power!”

“To be able to silently disrupt the Karmic memory of someone possessing a [Demon God Heart]! Such supernatural and unpredictable methods... are simply too appalling!”

Su Feng didn't speak. With a grim face, he led the Empress directly across multiple Restrictions to the underground secret vault.

There, the mysterious crystal coffin, which had shed its black demonic disguise and was now crystal clear, still floated quietly in mid-air.

Inside the crystal coffin, that stunning woman with silver hair still lay quietly like a sleeping beauty, without any sign of waking up.

In his mind, the System's prompt was still that cold and glaring warning:

[Ding! Detected ???-level target! It is recommended that the Host does not forcibly open this crystal coffin before entering the Major Thousand Worlds!]

“I'll stay here.”

Looking at the crystal coffin that seemed capable of devouring all Divine Sense, the Empress suddenly spoke up of her own accord.

She knew that someone had to stay by this coffin without leaving for a moment.

As the head of the family, Su Feng couldn't spend all his time here.

As for herself, she was now at the Golden Immortal Ninth Path Great Perfection and could enter seclusion to fuse her Origin at any time or place; staying here was the same as anywhere else.

By watching over it here, she might even take the Opportunity to glimpse a hint of the higher-level Ultimate Dao mysteries.

“Alright.” Su Feng gave her a deep look, skipping the pleasantries.

“If there is even the slightest abnormal movement, or if your memory becomes blurred again, crush the divine talisman to contact me immediately.”

After this incident, Su Feng was full of wariness toward this seemingly peaceful crystal coffin.

After settling everything...

Su Feng turned to leave the vault but suddenly stopped and walked back to the Empress's side.

“What is it?” The Empress looked puzzled, thinking he had something else to instruct.

“Jiuyou.”

Su Feng looked into her eyes and asked abruptly: “If one wants to Breakthrough from the Saint Realm... to the Great Emperor Realm, what conditions are required?”

The Empress's eyes narrowed slightly.

Her stunningly beautiful face showed no ripples. She just gazed quietly at Su Feng without speaking immediately.

Su Feng also gazed back at her quietly.

Time flowed second by second in the dark vault.

“Saints focus primarily on comprehending the rules of heaven and earth. Whereas a Great Emperor... is one who has completely mastered them and can use those rules at will.”

Ultimately, it was the Empress who broke the silence first, slowly answering this top-tier cultivation puzzle of the myriad worlds.

“You possess the [Ancient Heavy Pupils], so your speed in comprehending rules will surely far exceed that of ordinary people. Breaking through to the Saint Realm will be like walking on level ground for you. But...”

The Empress sighed silently, her eyes reflecting the weariness and helplessness of someone who had been there before.

“Even if you can comprehend rules quickly, the Great Emperor Realm is absolutely not something that can be achieved through Comprehension Ability alone! The accumulation of time is absolutely indispensable.”

“Because, while your Divine Soul and rule comprehension have kept up, your Saint Physical Body, which carries those rules, needs to be tempered through endless years using the world's purest Fire of Rules!”

“Only when your Physical Body has completely transformed to be Immune to All Methods can you truly withstand the terrifying backlash when creating rules and take that final step!”

The Empress looked at Su Feng, her tone certain, even carrying a hint of dampening his enthusiasm.

“Of course, in the long river of history, it's not ruled out that some Heaven-Defying special Physiques, or those who by chance consumed legendary Emperor-grade Divine Pills, have significantly shortened this process.”

“But even so!”

The Empress emphasized her words, saying each one clearly: “For billions of years, looking across the entire Major Thousand Worlds and countless Star Domains! The fastest historical record for breaking through from the Saint Realm to the Great Emperor Realm still took a full nine thousand seven hundred years!”

Of course, the Empress added silently in her heart, there was one more thing she didn't say.

And that was the [Heaven-Devouring Demonic Body] she was currently cultivating! Provided there were absolutely sufficient resources, she could rapidly return to the Great Emperor Realm.

Because she was recultivating, she didn't need to re-comprehend the rules; she only needed to pile up resources to reshape her Physical Body.

But in her view, Su Feng definitely could not!

Even if he had something like the [Ancient Heavy Pupils] which was like a cheat-like existence, the tempering of the Physical Body was a solid accumulation of energy. Wanting to advance to Great Emperor was definitely not something that could be achieved overnight in a few hundred years!

“Nine thousand seven hundred years?”

Su Feng didn't show any sign of discouragement. Instead, he rubbed his chin thoughtfully and muttered a sentence calmly to himself.

Then.

He naturally turned around, his back to the Empress.

From an angle the Empress couldn't see.

The corners of Su Feng's mouth curled up slightly.

He took a deep breath and habitually pulled up that System attribute panel in his mind that only he could see.

His gaze locked directly onto the bottom-most column.

[Host's currently stored cultivation: Eight thousand five hundred years!]