Chapter 1403: Chapter 16: Great Ape (Part 2)

He understood.

The Great Tribulation a thousand years ago caused many Great Cultivators to fall on the spot.

But many Ancient Saint Relics, inheritances, Secret Realms... were left behind.

Be it the Great Yue Kingdom or the Primordial Swallowing Sacred Realm, both still held the "surviving" wills of living beings.

At the end of this Bronze Hall, it was very likely that a powerful existence similar to "Xuan Ming" was hidden.

The Bronze Ancient Sword hung above his head.

Xie Xuanyi summoned [Chen Ke], as well as the Martial Arts Divine Embryo, and walked expressionlessly toward the direction of the bell and drum sounds. If there truly was a surviving living being in this Bronze Ancient Hall, he did not mind sending it on its way.

A full year.

Although Xie Xuanyi had spent all his time on comprehending the [Great Creation Technique]...

His Taoist Intent Realm, however, had been completely perfected, stopping at the Peak of the Fourth Heaven, just one step away from a breakthrough.

Speaking of Taoist Intent alone, Xie Xuanyi could already fight to the death on equal footing with Great Cultivators at the peak of the Sixth Heaven.

The Undying Spring sheltered his Flesh Body.

The Primordial Swallowing Boundary Stele sheltered his Divine Soul.

Destruction turning to rebirth, rebirth turning to destruction.

With these heaven‑defying Creations bolstering him, aside from Strongest figures like the Great Palace Master and the Holy Emperor, Xie Xuanyi was almost unafraid of any Yang God.

With Xie Xuanyi’s current strength, even if he returned to the Great Yue Kingdom of the past, he no longer needed to worry overly about safety.

The vast majority of dangerous lands in the world could no longer kill him.

The worst outcome... would no more than be a wretched escape.

Of course.

Xie Xuanyi did not relax his vigilance. That grand bell and drum sound had only resounded three times. After the third chime, everything fell silent. The entire hall was so quiet that a pin drop could be heard, a Deathly Silence that made one’s scalp crawl.

Three chimes of the bell was definitely not a coincidence.

Within this hall, there was very likely truly a living being from a thousand years ago residing here.

Unfortunately.

Passing through layers of gloom and black fog, until the very end, Xie Xuanyi still did not see a single living being.

He stood silently at the end of the hall.

The Bronze Ancient Sword shot out Divine Radiance that dispelled the final veil of gloom.

Before his eyes were flights of steps, each taller than a mountain.

At the very top of the steps, a throne was piled and built from white bones.

The existence once worshiped in this Bronze Hall had an incomparably towering dharma body. It sat at the topmost level of those steps. After a thousand years of weathering and erosion, its Flesh Body had withered; even the flesh and blood were no more, leaving only an enormous, dried‑up skeleton.

It was a...

Great Ape?

Upon the throne, even though only a shriveled skeleton remained, one could still feel the powerful pressure crashing toward them. Through Divine Thought probing, Xie Xuanyi vaguely recognized the race the throne’s master had belonged to in life.

"This is a Great Cultivator of the Heavenly Human Realm."

Xie Xuanyi was very sure that, in life, the throne’s master had reached the Heavenly Human Realm.

And not just any ordinary Heavenly Human.

It had to be said.

The oppressive aura this Great Ape gave him was stronger than Senior Brother Xuan Ming’s. From this point of comparison, this fellow was very likely, like the Bai Ze Great Saint, to have taken that final step forward and was a Heavenly Human Peak existence just one step away from the True Immortal.

This dharma body was a full thousand zhang tall.

The bell and drum that had sent out those massive booming sounds were like mountains, held aloft by countless talisman papers, maintaining a floating state at the height of the Great Ape’s waist... Against that body, they seemed tiny and delicate, as if only the size of a fist.

"Dead, dead beyond all doubt."

Xie Xuanyi rode his sword to the front of the throne, a complicated emotion rising in his heart.

He had no choice but to raise his head. The size of this throne far exceeded his imagination.

Just what level had this Great Ape’s Realm reached in life?

And that Great Tribulation from which even Heavenly Human Peak could not escape... just how terrifying had it been?

This Great Ape whose whole body was now only bones exuded endless majesty. Though he was dead, he sat upright and solemn.

Yet Xie Xuanyi sensed something slightly amiss.

This Great Ape had extended a palm.

That palm, seemingly stretched out casually and relaxed... yet had very coincidentally gripped the Main Pillar of the hall.

"Could this hall’s Hall Pillar be a Magic Artifact?"

Xie Xuanyi narrowed his eyes and quickly rode his sword into the air, arriving beside the Main Pillar, releasing Life and Death Sword Qi to probe.

Crack, crack, crack!

A fierce clash of Sword Qi!

After Harmonization, the Life and Death Sword Qi actually only scraped out a few white marks!

Chen Ke, mustering all its Powerful Energy, was directly sent flying, suffering a huge loss and having no way to respond, anxiously darting about in circles in midair!

This Main Pillar of the hall, forged from some unknown material, was extremely sturdy and almost unshakable. Xie Xuanyi was tempted to cut it down and take it away, but unfortunately... this thing was entirely beyond what he could covet at his current Realm.

He could not even chip off a bit of stone dust.

This gigantic Main Pillar was at least a thousand zhang tall. It was hard to imagine how heavy it would be if it truly was a Magic Artifact.

"Wait, since this pillar can’t be taken away..."

Xie Xuanyi suddenly had another thought.

He looked back toward the direction he had come from. This magnificent hall had more than a dozen Hall Pillars, not as grand and towering as this one. Perhaps they could be "taken away."

With that thought...

Xie Xuanyi immediately rode his sword, darting toward the nearest Hall Pillar.

"Swish!"

Before he arrived, the Sword Qi had already swept out. Chen Ke, sensing its master’s intent, struck straight at the pillar...

A dull bang rang out.

This time, the Flying Sword was not rebounded, but left a groove several feet deep, embedding itself into the pillar.

"This Hall Pillar is not as hard as the Main Pillar, but it is also an extremely rare material."

Xie Xuanyi was somewhat surprised.

His Lifebound Flying Sword had already been tempered to a very high degree of toughness.

There were already very few Treasures that could withstand a single strike unscathed.

The sturdiness of this Hall Pillar... was on par with an Innate Spiritual Treasure!

"Buzz, buzz, buzz!"

[Chen Ke], which had already birthed its own consciousness, had been sent flying by the Main Pillar earlier. Now that it had rendered such a merit with one strike, it hurriedly gathered power again.

"No, wait..."

Xie Xuanyi could only smile wryly and quickly used his Divine Thought to suppress the Flying Sword.

Since his Flying Sword could cut through the smaller mural Hall Pillars, there was nothing to worry about. The situation was not as bad as he had imagined... As long as he was willing to spend the time, he could take away all these mural Hall Pillars.

"Buzz..."

At this moment, Chen Ke hovered in the air, its tip trembling lightly, not quite understanding its master’s intent.

"No rush, we’ll take it slow."

Xie Xuanyi recalled Chen Ke, came before the Hall Pillar, and examined it closely.

These Earth Abyss Ruins had gone through a thousand years, and wear and tear had already appeared. Cutting away the Hall Pillars might cause the hall to collapse.

However.

No ominous foreboding arose on Xie Xuanyi’s Heart Lake.

He vaguely guessed that the supporting force of this Bronze Hall was ninety percent coming from that "Main Pillar" gripped by the Great Ape. These mural Hall Pillars probably did not bear much of a supporting role. After all, compared to that towering Main Pillar, these mural Hall Pillars were truly too small, not worth mentioning.

"In relics left behind by Great Cultivators of such a Realm, there will never be anything that exists for no reason..."

Xie Xuanyi narrowed his eyes, recalling the experiences he had in the Primordial Swallowing Sacred Realm.

An entire Sacred Realm.

Was controlled by the [Boundary Stele].

The will the Bai Ze Great Saint had left behind kept the Sacred Realm’s Formation operating, dividing it into four great parts, corresponding respectively to four Divine Skills and four Disciples.

This Bronze Hall did not have so many twists and turns.

And aside from that towering throne, the only things seemingly worthy of note were these mural Hall Pillars.

These Hall Pillars should have some unusual function.

"Murals..."

"Murals..."

Xie Xuanyi frowned as he stared at the Hall Pillar before him, falling into thought.

The scene carved on this Hall Pillar was rather magnificent: a great sun hanging high, a golden brilliant bird roaming above the firmament clouds. It looked ordinary and offered no information... But after staring at it for a while, the images within Xie Xuanyi’s Divine Sea gradually twisted and changed.

The great sun dispersed, the firmament clouds scattered.

Gradually, the golden brilliant bird also faded.

Once the Divine Soul submerged into this seemingly magnificent mural, one would discover that the points connected between points formed strands of obscure Ancient Text. This sort of abnormality was not unfamiliar to Xie Xuanyi. For an entire year, he had been comprehending the [Great Creation Technique]. Secret Techniques left behind by Ancient Saints were often so extremely cryptic—only to be grasped, not explained.

At this moment.

Xie Xuanyi understood the true meaning of these Hall Pillars.

"These are not murals..."

"These are... visualization maps!"