Carefully looking over as well, Yan Zhaoge’s trio found that these people were all expressionless and with blank gazes. They appeared totally devoid of vitality, resembling puppets.
Yet, the flourishing qi and blood of martial practitioners emanated from the bodies of these strange figures.
This meant that they were actually all martial practitioners, yet had lost their minds as they were like the living dead.
“Spirits that guard the mausoleum? But the Dim Radiant Emperor did not have anyone follow him into death that year,” As Yan Zhaoge looked at it, his expression gradually turned strange, “Could it be that someone already entered the mausoleum previously in an attempt to look for the treasures, eventually having died beneath its restrictions as they themselves ended up enslaved by it? But…”
But their cultivation bases were really a little low for if their purpose was to guard the mausoleum.
Yan Zhaoge’s gaze swept over. There were more than ten figures who had appeared. One of them was a Martial Saint, the remainder all being Martial Grandmasters.
Generally speaking, this would already not be considered a weak force. It would be sufficient for them to control a territory and develop someplace within the World beyond Worlds at the very least. In the lower worlds, they would already be a hegemonic power.
However, what place was this? This was the burial ground of the Dim Radiant Emperor, Yin Tianxia.
While Yin Tianxia had died so many years ago, the restrictions of his mausoleum had still been able to easily keep two Exalts out.
If one said that these people were guarding Yin Tianxia’s mausoleum for him, that would really be a terrible joke.
The problem lay therein. Where even two Exalts had not managed to forcibly intrude and enter, how had these people entered the mausoleum that year?
Zhou Haosheng’s face was livid. He said not a single word as he strode into the mausoleum.
The other Dim Darkness Sect experts all followed suit.
The current situation meant that someone had already arrived before they did. The people here who had already turned into puppets were not important. More importantly, there would most probably have been experts who had brought them here for them to have successfully entered like this.
Those people might not have been refined into puppets. They might already have entered the depths of the mausoleum, obtaining gains.
Looking at the backs of Zhou Haosheng and the others, Yan Zhaoge shrugged. No one could know how long ago it was that those people had arrived. They might already have left long ago, already having benefited greatly from their trip.
It was just that there was no need to say this and aggravate Zhou Haosheng’s group. The Dim Darkness Sect martial practitioners were already looking depressed to the brink of imploding.
Ah Hu secretly sent via sound transmission, “Young Master, someone already arrived before we did. The treasures might all already be gone. Is there still a need for us to take the risk and still enter it?”
“We enter,” Yan Zhaoge said, taking the lead in following Zhou Haosheng’s group.
He gazed at the Dim Radiant Mausoleum before him that contained dim, distant scenes. He vaguely felt as though there was something calling out to him.
As they approached the mausoleum that was in the shape of an altar, those puppets naturally came to intercept them.
As he paid attention to their stances, Yan Zhaoge instantly frowned.
He discovered that their cultivation bases aside, the martial arts currently executed by these martial practitioners were clearly extremely profound.
They were around the same level as the Time Flowing Sword of Shen Lingzi’s lineage, being superior to the legacies of the Grand Xuan Dynasty, the Dim Darkness Sect and the North Sea Sword Pavilion!
Yan Zhaoge appraised it carefully. The martial arts executed by a martial practitioner who had been a Transcending Mortality Martial Grandmaster when he had been alive actually seemed to be of the Yin Yang Heavenly Scripture’s direct lineage!
“These people surely have extraordinary backgrounds,” Yan Zhaoge narrowed his eyes somewhat.
Looking at these puppets, Zhou Haosheng’s face was sunken as he inhaled deeply, “Late Emperor, please forgive this disciple’s incivility.”
The difference in their cultivation bases was just too great. With a casual sweep of his palm, those puppets all shattered instantly.
Zhou Haosheng strode at the forefront, entering the mausoleum.
Yan Zhaoge and the other Dim Darkness Sect martial practitioners entered as well.
As they truly walked within, they did not feel any force obstructing them, also seeming not to have set off any of the mausoleum’s other restrictions.
Yet, a feeling of extreme danger suddenly arose within Yan Zhaoge’s heart.
The interior of the mausoleum was illuminated by dim radiance, the path seemingly having no end.
Possessing the lowest cultivation bases, Feng Yunsheng and Ah Hu were the first to be affected.
Yan Zhaoge noted how Ah Hu’s gaze gradually turned dazed completely without him noticing it.
Meanwhile, the Cold Sun Divine Sabre sheathed on Feng Yunsheng’s back now left its scabbard.
Even Feng Yunsheng was taken slightly aback as dim blue radiance suddenly shone within her eyes, resembling two cold suns.
History's Strongest Senior Brother Chapter 708: The Emperor’s vanished corpse
HSSB708: The Emperor’s vanished corpse
Yan Zhaoge’s expression changed. He immediately summoned the Myriad Dragon Palace, first bringing Ah Hu within.
Feng Yunsheng forcibly sheathed her Cold Sun Divine Sabre, the dim blue radiance vanishing from her eyes before she too leapt into the Myriad Dragon Palace.
“What did you feel?” Yan Zhaoge asked Ah Hu via sound transmission.
Ah Hu’s mind seemed to clear within the Myriad Dragon Palace as his gaze regained its clarity.
However, he was still at a loss as to what he had felt earlier, “I didn’t feel anything special. It was like when being too deeply absorbed thinking about something sometimes, or just yawning when tired.”
Feng Yunsheng shook her head, “There was no obvious abnormal feeling. I was just feeling slightly out of it before the Cold Sun Divine Sabre reacted on its own.”
“Still, there definitely was a problem. Otherwise, the Cold Sun Divine Sabre wouldn’t have tried to protect its owner on its own.”
Yan Zhaoge knit his brows slightly as he kept the Myriad Dragon Palace, carefully appraising their surroundings.
There still didn’t appear to be anything out of the ordinary on this dim path of the mausoleum.
Now, however, it appeared strange however he looked at it.
The Dim Darkness Sect martial practitioners beside him, all Martial Saints, detected it as well.
The expression on the face of their Chief, Zhou Haosheng, was especially stern, “Something’s not right. Everyone, be careful.”
He released his true essence from the acupoints of his entire body, vaguely forming a layer of black qi which resembled the descent of the night sky as it kept the surrounding radiance at bay.
They walked on. A short while later, as Yan Zhaoge was concentrating on observing his surroundings, he vaguely felt as if his mind had seemingly been thrown amidst that dim radiance as well, unable to extricate itself from within.
He was alerted to the fact that the more he tried to concentrate and stay vigilant, the easier it instead was for his mind to drift away.
This was actually a restriction of the mausoleum that acted formlessly, taking one wholly unawares.
Meanwhile, the deeper they ventured into the mausoleum, the more powerful this strange restriction correspondingly became.
Observing that dim radiance, Yan Zhaoge vaguely came to an understanding, “In this place, one will gradually be assimilated by this dim radiance, losing their minds as they fall into a muddled mess.”
“At the end of it,
they would have become zombie-like puppets. It is because of this that those puppets outside ended up this way.”
Yan Zhaoge’s gaze turned heavy and quiet, distant and chaotic, even more blurry and indiscernible than the dim radiance before him.
As Yan Zhaoge circulated the Peerless Heavenly Scripture, while he appeared no different from the outside, his entire person seemed to have transformed into chaos within, stopping the assimilation with that dim radiance.
As they walked on, more and more Dim Darkness Sect experts showed signs of not being able to carry on.
Fortunately, Zhou Haosheng and the other top bigwigs still remained clear-headed as they paid attention to the situation of their companions at all times.
Seeing that the power of the restrictions was still continuing to grow, Zhou Haosheng sighed.
With a shake of his hand, a long banner appeared within. As it was waved, streams of black light scattered downwards like silk.
The majority of the dim radiance within the mausoleum was instantly repelled. The Dim Darkness Sect martial practitioners all regained their wits, their expressions still rather blank. Then, they all revealed thankful expressions of being afraid after the fact.
Yan Zhaoge looked rather interestedly at the long banner in Zhou Haosheng’s hands that resembled a flag whilst also a spear.
The Dim Darkness Sect did not possess a mid-grade Sacred Artifact. Still, it had a mid-grade Sacred Artifact, the Soul Brocade Banner that was rather outstanding in terms of quality and had numerous wonderful uses. It was viewed as a supreme treasure as well, usually being grasped by their Chief.
This long banner here should probably be the Soul Brocade Banner.
As Yan Zhaoge glanced back towards Yan Zhaoge now, he could not help but be taken aback by those bright, clear eyes of his.
Aside from Feng Yunsheng and Ah Hu, those two Martial Grandmasters, the person with the lowest cultivation base here was Yan Zhaoge at the first level of the Martial Saint realm, the early Merging Avatar stage.
Yan Zhaoge possessed shocking power that far surpassed most martial practitioners of the same cultivation level. This had already gradually come to be acknowledged by everyone now.
However, he still appeared so relaxed even within the Dim Radiant Mausoleum. This still took Zhou Haosheng and the others by surprise.
“This youth is even harder to grasp than my earlier impression of him…” Zhou Haosheng thought even as he expanded the Soul Brocade Banner.
The black light enveloped Yan Zhaoge, protecting him as well.
Yan Zhaoge smiled and nodded in appreciation as he walked alongside them.
The more they walked, the more powerful that assimilative force became. Towards the end, even the combination of Zhou Haosheng who was at the peak of the sixth level of the Martial Saint realm, the late Seeing Divinity stage and the mid-grade Sacred Artifact, the Soul Brocade Banner, gradually became unable to resist it.
Even Zhou Haosheng felt his mind vaguely wavering somewhat.
Fortunately, the fragments they possessed that were related to the Dim Radiant Mausoleum continued serving their use now.
The radiance of these treasures helped everyone to bear a considerable portion of the pressure, enabling the group to continue entering the depths of the mausoleum.
When everyone had arrived at the bottommost area of the mausoleum, they saw numerous dim streams of light that resembled chains congregated at its centre.
There hovered a massive stone coffin!
Yet, what rendered everyone dumbstruck was that the lid of the stone coffin was askew. Gazing over from a distance away, no corpse could be seen inside the coffin at all!
Zhou Haosheng and the others stared dazedly at this scene, unable to recover for a long time.
Yan Zhaoge too felt astonished, “Could it be that the Dim Radiant Emperor isn’t dead? All that happened that year was merely a means with which to conceal the truth?”
“Or might it be that like the Exalted Solar Luminary Gao Han, he played a golden cicada shedding its shell, hoodwinking everyone with his supposed death?”
Yan Zhaoge’s gaze turned deep and distant, “That’s not right…”
That stone coffin had been used before, having been opened by someone afterwards. It was not that Yin Tianxia had prepared but not used it.
The mausoleum chamber was filled with an air of dusk and death.
Such a majestic qi of death proved that there had indeed formerly been an extremely powerful existence that had been buried here.
That being so, could it be that the Dim Radiant Emperor Yin Tianxia had revived many years after his death, next leaving this place?
Or was it that someone had opened the coffin, moving away Yin Tianxia’s remains?
Whichever possibility it was, it left everyone’s hairs standing on end, a chill shooting straight through their entire bodies.
The expressions on the faces of Zhou Haosheng and the others changed unceasingly. Even as they felt joyful at the fact that the Dim Radiant Emperor Yin Tianxia might still be alive, they were also feeling worried over the mysterious disappearance of his remains.
Especially with how it was still unknown how exactly those people who had previously entered the mausoleum and been turned into puppets had managed to enter.
That having happened, looking at the empty stone coffin now, it would be hard for one not to feel pessimistic.
Gazing carefully over, everyone saw a lone lamp placed atop the stone coffin.
The lamp was half-black and half-white, the two colours clearly distinct as no impurities were mixed within in the least. Yet, this had been achieved seamlessly in a way that was perfect and without flaw, formed purely of nature as it showed no signs of having been created by human hands at all.
The lamp had already long since been extinguished. Yet, radiance connected it to the chamber of the mausoleum all round.
A Dim Darkness Sect expert’s expression changed as he cried out in a low tone, “Dim Radiant Lamp!”
Hearing his words, Yan Zhaoge’s gaze grew focused.
The Dim Radiant Lamp had been the accompanying treasure of the Dim Radiant Emperor Yin Tianxia that year. This supreme treasure and high-grade Sacred Artifact had disappeared together with him.
All these years, everyone had been speculating all along that the Dim Radiant Lamp had been buried alongside Yin Tianxia within the Dim Radiant Mausoleum.
In having come to explore the mausoleum this time, the Dim Radiant Lamp was the primary target!
From the looks of it now, this Dim Radiant Lamp seemed to have been damaged greatly that year.
Still, it unquestionably remained a supreme treasure.
Gazing at the Dim Radiant Lamp, Zhou Haosheng bowed before walking forward and extending his hand towards that ancient lamp that was half-black and half-white.
History's Strongest Senior Brother Chapter 709: Something that Yan Zhaoge is drawn to
HSSB709: Something that Yan Zhaoge is drawn to
Seeing Zhou Haosheng extend a hand towards that Dim Radiant Lamp of legend, Yan Zhaoge said, “It would be best to be careful.”
Some of the Dim Radiant Sect experts looked warily about while the gazes of the rest all fell on him.
The meaning contained within their gazes was not difficult to guess.
Yan Zhaoge said mildly, “We all suspect that someone already entered beforehand. No corpse can be seen inside the coffin of the Dim Radiant Emperor as well.”
“Whether someone entered or the Dim Radiant Emperor revived, the current situation is really too strange.”
“This place is completely empty aside from that Dim Radiant Lamp that is placed blatantly there, not having been taken away. Doesn’t anyone find this to be unusual?”
Yan Zhaoge surveyed the surroundings, “We indeed beat the Radiant Light Sect in arriving here. Still, it would also be us to first experience the restrictions and mechanisms of the mausoleum. Arriving at an earlier time is a joyful affair, yet scou
ting and setting off the traps for another is not so enviable.”
The Dim Darkness Sect martial practitioners did not speak, but looks of agreements could be seen on their faces.
Zhou Haosheng’s expression was calm as he said slowly, “Little Friend Yan’s worries are not without reason. Yet, there does not exist much time for us to slowly observe the situation.”
“Some risks must necessarily be taken, cannot be avoided.”
Yan Zhaoge shrugged, “I do agree with that.”
Zhou Haosheng returned his gaze to the Dim Radiant Lamp, extending his hand forward.
As Zhou Haosheng’s palm neared the Dim Radiant Lamp, Yan Zhaoge’s gaze flickered slightly, noticing an abnormality on his hand.
Amidst the dim darkness vaguely appeared an extremely bright speck of light.
The extremity of darkness birthing light was orthodox amongst the martial arts of the Dim Darkness Sect. Yet, there actually seemed to be some other existence within that speck of light as well.
A silhouette gradually manifested from within that light. While it seemed as small as a cob of corn, just the majestic, powerful aura contained within alone caused even Yan Zhaoge to feel shocked.
That actually seemed to be a late Seeing Divinity Martial Saint just like Zhou Haosheng was.
Next, however, Yan Zhaoge felt that despite this figure’s great might, it seemed to be lacking acuity.
Instead, it somewhat resembled those puppets that had been under the control of the mausoleum’s restrictions earlier.
“A Dim Darkness Adept?” Yan Zhaoge realised.
While it was his first time seeing one, this should be the famed Dim Darkness Adept he had heard of.
This was a primary aspect of the Dim Darkness Sect’s foundation, having enabled its influence in the Royal Reed Sea. It was from the predecessors of the Dim Darkness Sect willingly refining their selves with a secret art right before their deaths.
There were very strict requirements on the expert being refined, and the rate of success was abysmally low as well. Still, as soon as the refinement succeeded, they would be able to obtain a mortal shell that had regained its vitality and possessed strength that was close to when it had still been alive. It was just that its cultivation base could not be raised any further.
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