Chen Ping stared at the completely blood-red bead in his hand, which emitted no aura whatsoever, his brows slightly furrowed.
With his current cultivation and divine sense strength, even treasures of the highest grade could not escape his perception.
Yet this bead was as silent and ordinary as the most common pebble in the mortal world. That in itself was extremely unusual.
“The Heavenly Evil Sect hid you in such a secret place. You are certainly no ordinary object… Just what secret do you hold?”
Chen Ping muttered to himself and tried to slowly inject a trace of chaos immortal power into it.
However, the immortal power vanished like a stone dropped into the sea. The blood bead showed no reaction.
He then tried to drip blood to claim ownership. The moment his blood touched the bead, it was instantly absorbed, yet the bead remained silent.
Just as Chen Ping was considering whether to use more radical methods, such as forcibly splitting it open with the Dragon-Slaying Sword to take a look, a sudden change occurred!
Deep within his sea of consciousness, the Great Luo Golden Canon, which had always floated quietly while emitting a hazy aura of the Dao, seemed to be pulled by some invisible force. Abruptly, it burst into dazzling golden light!
“Hum—!”
Pure and majestic golden radiance, completely beyond his control, shot out from the centre of his forehead like a solid pillar of light, instantly enveloping the blood-red bead in his hand!
This golden light seemed to contain the supreme principles of heaven and earth, the very origin of the cosmos, carrying an aura of utmost authority and purifying power.
Under its illumination, the blood bead could no longer remain dormant!
“Ah—!”
A shrill, piercing scream filled with boundless resentment and an aura of extreme antiquity exploded from inside the bead!
The sound did not travel through the air. It struck directly at the soul, causing Old Black and the other dragons, who were still tallying spoils in the distance, to turn their heads in shock.
Under the pressure of the golden light, the surface of the originally aura-less bead churned violently, like a boiling sea of blood.
A blood-coloured soul shadow, far more solid, far more powerful, and far more ancient than the previous remnant soul fragment of the Soul-Devouring Heavenly Venerable, was forcibly dragged out from within the bead!
The soul shadow was dark crimson. Its facial features were blurred yet visibly ferocious and insane. Terrifying evil energy and a savage, primordial murderous aura from the ancient era billowed from its body!
“Who is it? Who dares to disturb this ancestor’s slumber? dares to profane this ancestor’s sacred soul with such power!”
The blood-coloured soul shadow roared in fury, struggling against the binding golden light.
Its soul fluctuations were astonishingly powerful, clearly at the Heavenly Venerable level, and carried the heavy weight of countless accumulated years!
“The founding ancestor of the Heavenly Evil Sect?”
Chen Ping’s gaze sharpened as he instantly guessed the identity of this remnant soul.
He had not expected that the Heavenly Evil Sect still concealed such an ancient monster!
It seemed this blood bead was actually a vessel used to nurture this extremely ancient remnant soul!
The founding ancestor’s remnant soul writhed and twisted. Its scarlet eyes instantly locked onto Chen Ping, who was closest. Extreme greed and ecstatic madness blazed within them.
“What a perfect body! Such vigorous blood and qi! Such a young soul! Hahaha! Heaven has not abandoned me! Boy, this ancestor will gladly accept this body of yours!”
It completely ignored the source of the golden light that instinctively filled it with dread, perhaps because it had slumbered too long, or perhaps because its desire for rebirth was simply overwhelming.
It transformed into a streak of blood-coloured lightning and shot straight towards the centre of Chen Ping’s forehead, attempting to forcibly seize his body!
“Courting death!”
Chen Ping gave a cold snort. Not only did he not resist, he deliberately relaxed the defences of his sea of consciousness.
He wanted to see just what kind of waves this old ghost, who had lived for who-knows-how-many years, could stir up on his home ground!
The blood-coloured soul shadow plunged into Chen Ping’s sea of consciousness without meeting any resistance.
It had assumed it would encounter a weak, helpless soul that it could casually devour and occupy, already anticipating the pleasure of swallowing and taking over.
However, when it truly entered this vast and boundless sea of consciousness, what it saw was not Chen Ping’s soul, but the Great Luo Golden Canon suspended at the very centre, radiating immeasurable golden light, as though it had existed since time immemorial and suppressed all heavens and myriad realms!
The golden canon slowly rotated. Strands of golden light, like chains of order, spread throughout the entire sea of consciousness.
