198: Chapter 198 Retrieval

Liang You was healing with his team members in the building on the reef.

As for Li Xiuyuan, he had already plunged into the sea at this moment.

And it was at that very moment he entered the water that Li Xiuyuan felt an extremely dense and sturdy isolation Formation blocking his progress.

"This isolation Formation was clearly set up by the spirits within the artifacts. Even a Rising Being of the fifth realm cannot enter, but for me, it is fine."

That extremely obvious force of isolation could only block Li Xiuyuan briefly.

If Li Xiuyuan were to force his way in, the Formation could not stop him.

Relying on his brute strength, Li Xiuyuan broke through the Formation and arrived above the shipwreck.

The shipwreck was tilted and half-buried in the silt on the seabed, its surface covered with a thick layer of marine life; the serial number on the hull had long been eroded by seawater, with only a few remaining strokes vaguely recognizable.

Containers were scattered around the hull; some had overturned, others had half-open doors, and the cargo inside had long been soaked and rotted by seawater, leaving only piles of unrecognizable wreckage.

Next, Li Xiuyuan went straight to a container half-buried in the silt.

He swung his Dragon tail, stirring the seawater, and wrapped a brute current to crash into the container.

The rusted iron plate made a dull sound under the impact; the container door was ripped open, surging upward with bubbles, and smashed onto the seabed silt, kicking up a cloud of grayish-white dust.

The inside of the container was also ruined by the seawater, the original cargo having long rotted away, leaving only thick sediment covering the bottom of the box.

Li Xiuyuan's gaze passed over the debris and fell into the deepest part of the container.

There, two artifacts lay quietly.

A dagger and an iron ruler.

After nearly a century of soaking, the surfaces of these two artifacts were not stained with any rust and remained as good as new.

The lingering divinity on the dagger was cold, like the frost of deep winter, while the aura on the iron ruler was heavier, like metal that had been repeatedly beaten.

That aura belonging to the spirits of the Ancient Heavenly Court was still firmly attached to the depths of the artifacts, not completely washed away by time.

As soon as Li Xiuyuan touched the hilt of the dagger, a burst of laughter exploded from the depths of the artifacts.

The laughter was rough and wild, carrying the wantonness of finally finding an exit after being suppressed for too long.

Immediately after, a second burst of laughter followed.

The two laughs overlapped, echoing in the dark water, shaking the silt deposited on the seabed.

The next moment, the sky above the sea suddenly changed color.

Just a moment ago, it was a clear sky with gentle twilight, but within a few breaths, it was completely covered by thick, lead-colored dark clouds.

The dark clouds hung very low, heavily suspended above the sea, shrouding the entire sea area in an oppressive gloom.

Sea breezes surged from all directions, carrying a fishy, salty moisture and some indescribable scorched aura, blowing the sea surface into wrinkles.

Immediately, a thick bolt of lightning struck down from the top of the firmament, accurately hitting the water not far from the reef, exploding with a blinding white light, and the echo rolled in the air for a long time before gradually dissipating.

On the reef, Gu Xiao stood up abruptly; he looked through the seawater and spray stirred up by the gale toward the violently churning sky.

Liang You and the other team members also walked out of the building one after another; the aura of the brewing thunderstorm was too intense, making everyone feel the stuffiness pressing on their chests.

"What the hell is this?"

"Are the Yao Beasts in the sea attacking again?"

"This scale doesn't look like a Yao Beast. If it were a Yao Beast, with this kind of movement, it would at least be a sixth-realm great Yao!"

Feeling the change in the weather, Gu Xiao did not answer; he looked further into the sky, where the thick dark clouds seemed to have been parted by an invisible hand.

The crack in the clouds widened, and purple-blue light seeped out from the depths of the gap. Then, the dark clouds on both sides of the crack began to converge toward the center, and under the influence of lightning and strong winds, they gradually outlined the contours of a huge face.

That face almost occupied the entire horizon.

The brow bones were high, the bridge of the nose was like a blade, and the chin was broad, with lines as rough as if they had been chiseled directly from mountain rock.

A pair of eyes were made of rolling lightning, with arcs of electricity jumping in the depths of the pupils, and the gaze looked down condescendingly, like a king looking down at ants.

The edges of that face were still emitting fine electric lights, and the edges were torn into jagged outlines by the strong wind, but the overall shape had stabilized.

A voice came from the mouth of that face, like rolling thunder colliding between the clouds: "Finally released... I have stayed in this broken shell for long enough."

The gaze condensed from lightning slowly moved down, sweeping over the figures looking up on the reef: "This Sovereign is the righteous god of the Thunder Department, Heavenly Sovereign Jili. You Mortals, now that you see this Sovereign, why don't you kneel and pay homage?"

The voice carried an inherent pressure, as if kneeling to it was the most natural thing in the world.

"If you kneel faster, this Sovereign might consider letting you die painlessly."

On the reef, several young team members stepped back unconsciously.

Although they were all members of the Jiantian Bureau and had seen the world, this was their first time facing a spirit from the Ancient Heavenly Court.

Even if they were already dead, the divine might accumulated over who knows how many years still made people feel fear.

Just then, another gale swept across the sea, and in the sound of the wind, there was a voice even more deafening than before: "Jili, your impatient temper hasn't changed a bit. What, have you been stifled for so long and are in a hurry to vent on someone?"

"This Sovereign is Sun Liang. Before I die, you all hurry to find some incense to worship me."

The arrogance carried by this second voice was no less than that of Jili.

It was just that this Sun Liang did not use thunderstorms to condense a face like Jili, but it still allowed people to intuitively feel that he existed in the gale raging on the sea.

Gu Xiao looked up at the face condensed by lightning in the sky and listened to the gale wrapped in Sun Liang's voice for a while, but there was no look of fear on his face.

He reached out and wiped the nuo mask wet by seawater, then said slowly: "Two spirits... According to the sayings of ancient times, you could be considered to have held some official positions on the investiture of the gods."

"Isn't a spirit's duty to protect the human world and safeguard the living? How come when it comes to you, you start shouting and killing as soon as you come out, and you still want people to kneel and worship?"

He paused, his gaze falling on the face condensed by lightning: "Your style is a bit different from what is written in ancient books."

The gale on the sea stagnated for a moment, and then, a thunderclap more dull than before exploded in the sky. The face condensed by lightning lowered abruptly, its gaze nailed directly to Gu Xiao, and the electric arcs in its pupils jumped violently, like a lit fuse.

"Hahahaha! Are you kidding?!"

"Greedy and base ants! If it weren't for you, why would I have been trapped in that Heavenly Court palace that was like a prison?!"

Lightning surged wildly in the clouds, and those electric arcs that were still spreading began to gather toward the center, condensing into a thick pillar of thunder, hanging in the sky like a giant sword that had not yet fallen.

The atmosphere on the reef suddenly tightened to the extreme. Liang You's hand was already on his weapon, and the team members behind him were holding their breath, ready to deal with the heavenly thunder that was about to strike.

However, just a moment before the thunder pillar was about to fall, the voices of Jili and Sun Liang broke off at the same time.

The edges of the face condensed by lightning began to tremble, the eyes made of electric arcs flickered a few times, and the light in the pupils flickered on and off.

"Why..."

Before Jili could finish his sentence, a force roughly tore open the black clouds in the sky, and the face condensed by the thunderstorm instantly vanished.

The storm on the sea calmed down completely in the blink of an eye.

The churning dark clouds were like an old painting torn from the middle, the edges shattered into fine grayish-white fragments, dissipating rapidly along the horizon.

The strong wind converged, the waves receded, and the lightning and electric traces turned into the last few faint crackling sounds, jumping a few times on the sea before completely annihilating.

The divine might that had been pressing on the chest also dissipated, like an iron curtain from which all weight had been removed, allowing everyone on the reef to breathe a sigh of relief.

Meanwhile, underwater, Li Xiuyuan was still suspended above the shipwreck.

He held the two artifacts tightly, and two forces struggling violently came from his palms, desperately trying to break free from his grasp.

Those two forces carried an extremely ancient and familiar aura, trying to compete for control of his body.

Li Xiuyuan was no stranger to these two auras. Heavenly Sovereign Jiehuo Liu Huan, the path-opening god Fang Xiang, and others—every spirit remnant of the Ancient Heavenly Court he had come into contact with carried a similar aura, but this time the two surged in simultaneously, more violent than any previous time.

If Li Xiuyuan were just an ordinary Rising Being, his Spiritual Sense and consciousness would have been crushed by those two forces by now, and this body would have become a new dwelling place for the two spirit remnants of the Ancient Heavenly Court.

But the moment those two forces touched Li Xiuyuan's Sea of Spiritual Sense, they were suppressed by a force far greater than them.

The two artifacts emitted a short hum at the same time, and then became completely quiet.

Li Xiuyuan broke out of the water, his silver-white body drawing a smooth arc in the twilight, and then slowly landed in the shallow water at the edge of the reef.

Seawater slid off him.

He retracted his body and turned back into human form.

The two artifacts had already been collected by Li Xiuyuan. The purpose of this trip had been achieved, and the next step was to head to the location of the next artifact.

Gu Xiao looked at Liang You: "Just report the matter here truthfully, no need to think about covering for us."

Liang You didn't ask about Li Xiuyuan's purpose for wanting those two artifacts. He knew some things shouldn't be asked, and he also knew that being able to leave this reef alive with his team was already the best result.

The sky had completely darkened, the twilight on the sea was completely swallowed by the night, and the huge silver-white body rose abruptly, reaching above the clouds.

In front of him, only a full moon hung higher up.

Gu Xiao looked at the bright moon and said: "The attitude of those two spirits is a bit interesting."

"I've heard a saying that for some spirits, the investiture of the gods is more of a kind of imprisonment than a canonization."

"Once on the investiture of the gods, you certainly have a divine position and incense, but you lose your freedom. You cannot come and go in the human world at will, and you can only be trapped in the rules and regulations of the Heavenly Court. Simply put, it's like being forced to find a job, and you can't even resign."

Li Xiuyuan knew this saying. There had always been a lot of discussion among the people about the investiture of the gods. Some regarded it as a shortcut to becoming a god and attaining the Dao, while others believed it was a disguised form of restraint.

He was silent for a moment, then replied in a calm tone: "We cannot draw conclusions just from the attitudes of Jili and Sun Liang. They have been trapped in the artifacts for too long, so it is normal for them to have heavy resentment. Whether the investiture of the gods is a shackle or an Opportunity, only the spirits who have truly experienced that era can say for sure."

"That's true."

Gu Xiao smiled.

His voice was wrapped in the night wind, falling lightly on Li Xiuyuan's ear.

He didn't turn his head, still looking at the full moon hanging in the center of the sky, the silver-white light falling on him, making his half-covered nuo mask look like it was covered with a layer of thin frost.

"Since those myths and legends back then were true, the Ancient Heavenly Court really existed, and those spirits really existed..."

He paused, as if organizing his words, "Then what about this moon above our heads? Those stars all over the sky, those planets that we know are spheres, and this boundless Universe... They are real, right? Spaceships have been up there, probes have sent back photos, these can't be fake."

He turned his head and looked at Li Xiuyuan: "If these are all true, then where do the immortals live? Where is the Ancient Heavenly Court? It can't be that they built a palace on some planet, right?"

The night wind swept across from a high place, blowing away a corner of the clouds and fog, revealing a boundless starry sky in the distance. Those stars twinkled silently in the darkness, like countless eyes watching, quiet and distant.

Li Xiuyuan was silent for a while.

He didn't answer immediately, his gaze also falling on the full moon, lingering for a moment on the sea of clouds illuminated by starlight. Then he spoke, his voice calm, with a cautious tone: "I don't know specifically where the Ancient Heavenly Court is, but I have been to that Small World inside Kunlun Mountain. That space was opened up by the Queen Mother of the West herself. It is independent from the outside world and has its own mountains, rivers, sky, and time flow."

He paused slightly: "If even the Small World she opened up can achieve this level, then the form of existence of the Ancient Heavenly Court itself is probably beyond the scope of what we can understand now. It might not be on any planet, nor at any coordinate point in this Universe, but in another layer of space that we currently have difficulty reaching."

Gu Xiao listened silently without interrupting.

As for why current spaceships can see the moon as a cratered sphere, while myths have records of the Guanghan Palace and Chang'e, Li Xiuyuan's voice remained steady.

"Perhaps those records correspond to the moon in another dimension. After the Spiritual Qi dried up, the connection between those spaces and us was cut off, leaving only fragmented words remaining in classics and legends."