Chapter 371: Ancient Golden Key
As he entered the final layer of the trial, Yaan felt the world trembling.
"No, it isn't the world that's trembling, it's the Heavenly Dao!" Yaan narrowed his eyes, raising his caution as he made his way into the now unstable layer.
He had already experienced the space tribulation, wherein he found himself trapped within a vast, seemingly endless expanse of empty space. He overcame that tribulation by latching onto the karmic thread which led into the karma tribulation, and he overcame the time tribulation in a similar manor. Based on those two tribulations, and the fact that this final layer seemed to act as the core driving force which sustained this trial throughout the ages, he had expected to encounter an extremely difficult tribulation in the final layer…
Instead, Yaan was met with a tribulation that was already on the verge of collapse before he even did anything.
He could see the vastness of this layer, both in terms of its size and time distortion. Ordinarily, time would be massively accelerated for the person within this tribulation, forcing them to endure countless centuries of solitude as they attempted to cross this miniature world with no end in sight.
The world was every bit as vast as before, but due to the shaking of the Heavenly Dao, numerous spatial cracks cut into the tribulation, allowing Yaan to see past the trials. When he took another step and shot into the midst of the final layer in an instant, the number of cracks throughout the tribulation increased ten-fold, and before long, Yaan could already see the end point.
The final layer was breaking apart, allowing him to see beyond the confines of the trial. He could see the previous tribulations that he had overcome, all of which had now fallen dormant. They would remain this way until he failed the trial…of course, Yaan had no intention of failing this trial.
He could see Defiance Sovereign, standing high above the trial, staring up into the karmic retribution which was unable to form, and laughing like a madman as he watched the Heavenly Dao's suffering.
Lastly, he saw the golden key.
Until now, Yaan felt some doubts towards Defiance Sovereign's claim about this key and this trial. It was true that these tribulations were clearly Heavenly Tribulations, and only the Heavenly Dao could possibly create something like this. Obviously, the Heavenly Dao seriously didn't want anyone to obtain this key, but even so, the story of this key being the gateway into the Boundless Dao Library, something from the 1st Origin Era, really felt a bit unbelievable.
Now, all of Yaan's doubts were swept away. Outside of the trial, the key could be seen, but its aura was mostly concealed behind the 3,000 layers of tribulations. Now that he could see it up close, he immediately knew that this key was so old that it couldn't possibly belong to this Era!
Yaan had seen many ancient things in the Spirit Realm, during the period of time when the Spirit Plane Lord had taken him around her realm, showing him all of the wonders across the Spirit Realm in an attempt to rekindle the fire within his heart. He had seen artefacts and natural formations which had been around for a million, two million, some as old as three million years. All of those things possessed a certain aura of ancientness that could only accumulate to such an extent over time. However, even compared to the Primordial Treasures, each of which was three million years old, this golden key was many times more ancient.
Before seeing the golden key up close, Yaan was honestly more concerned with Defiance Sovereign and whatever was going on outside of the trial. However, now that he was in the final layer and could see the key up close, Yaan realised that he could not afford to let go of this chance.
He took one last glance out of the trial, at Defiance Sovereign, who was stood in the midst of the broken karmic retribution, before turning away resolutely.
"Defiance Sovereign was targeting the Heavenly Dao from the beginning. He wasn't entirely truthful with me, but he didn't actually lie…it's likely that he truly doesn't care about the Boundless Dao Library, he really just wanted to pick a fight with the Heavenly Dao."
There was a saying in the world of divinities, one that Yaan had heard from both the Primordial Spirit and the Primordial Sage.
'There is no greater hatred in this world, than that between Defiance and the Heavenly Dao.'
It was said that Defiance Sovereign hated the Heavenly Dao more than anything else in this world, to the extent that the hatred between Defiance and the Heavenly Dao, was considered the most powerful hatred that had ever, and would ever, exist in this world. From what he had seen of this man so far, Yaan felt inclined to believe that there was some truth behind this.
Anyway, since Defiance Sovereign was currently engaged in his own strange battle with the Heavenly Dao, he wouldn't care about whatever Yaan went on to do.
The final layer was breaking apart, making it more dangerous in one sense, but easier and faster to slip through in another. As Yaan shot through this tribulation, avoiding the spatial cracks and the vortexes of distorted time that manifested chaotically in an unpredictable manner throughout the trial, he grasped the wooden sword in one hand. When a vortex of broken space and time appeared before him without any warning, he quickly cut down, using the final strand of Defiant Will to cut apart the vortex before it could touch him.
The sword slash cut through not only the vortex, but a large portion of the space-time tribulation. In its already damaged state, the tribulation was more vulnerable to this sort of attack. The entire world within this final layer was separated, creating a region of emptiness between the two split halves. Yaan flew into this region and quickly accelerated, using his own sword slash as a sort of tunnel to break through the tribulation unnoticed.
He didn't really need to use the wooden sword to break this tribulation, but Yaan was concerned about what would happen after he emerged from the final layer. He could feel that the damage inflicted upon the Heavenly Dao was sending this entire trial into a state of turmoil, which could potentially make it easier for others to sneak in and steal the key after he surpassed the final layer. To prevent any issues, Yaan thought it best to stick with the plan that he had agreed upon with Defiance Sovereign, since attracting that man's ire was not what he wanted.
Yaan slowed down as he reached the end of the final layer and the partially rusted golden key shone with a dull radiance like no other. Ripples of archaic aura emanated out from the key in pulses - it was actually just a normal key, but it was so old, massively older than the 2nd Origin Era itself, resulting in the flow of time around the key becoming broken and distorted.
Before taking the last step and leaving the space-time tribulation, Yaan concealed his actions and looked out of the trial, towards Defiance, then around at the rest of space. When he found her nowhere to be seen, Yaan sighed in his mind.
'Given the nature of this key, it's very likely that the Sage will try to take it. However, I'm much closer - so long as I'm fast, I should be the first to reach it.'
Yaan and the Primordial Sage were allies, but that didn't mean they were friends. If the benefit was big enough, they would certainly fight against one another, particularly when it came to something like this…
Yaan didn't doubt that the Sage was laying in wait somewhere nearby, and that she would try to steal the key from him as soon as he left this final trial. This trial was not the same as a Divine True Inheritance, this was not an inheritance that would favour the 'rightful inheritor', because there was no rightful inheritor. It was entirely possible that the Heavenly Dao had laid down a final trap beyond the last tribulation, and that it would become possible for others to steal the golden key once those boundaries finally collapsed.
Right now, Yaan was taking away something that the Primordial Sage coveted. It was very likely that the Sage would try to steal the key from him at the last moment.
Even so, regardless of the outcome, something like this would not break apart their alliance…but that only made Yaan feel even more certain that the Sage planned to act. The fact that she had allowed him to enter this trial so easily, without a trace of resistance, further reinforced this belief.
Finally, Yaan reached the edge of the last layer. His speed, which had been slowing down as he approached the end of the trial, suddenly exploded upwards as he stepped past the edge of the boundary and shot towards the golden key madly.
CRACK!
Sounds of cracking could be heard all around him as the layers of the trial broke down one by one. The explosions resulting from the collapse of the trial were deafening, so much so that Yaan's body shook from the shockwaves. He felt forces from every direction attempting to push him about, but he released his domain, turning these shockwaves into paintings and quickly dissipating them.
As his domain spread out further, Yaan narrowed his eyes.
'Fast!' He thought as the Sage's figure entered his perception. He knew that she must have some sort of plan, but it was beyond his expectations that the Primordial Sage would appear almost by his side the very moment he completed the last tribulation!
Without hesitation, Yaan released his blazing killing intent, filling his Absolute Domain with painted crimson flames of killing. The Sage, who found herself rushing through this bizarre world of Yaan's painting, saw the wave of flames approaching her-
"What?!" Yaan had been keeping an eye on her the entire time, but she simply…vanished!
One moment, he was suppressing her beneath his domain and pushing her back, away from the golden key, then in the next moment, she was gone!
Yaan sharply turned back towards the key, which was now less than a mile away. He could already see the Sage's blurry figure stabilising before the key as she reached out, but he wasn't about to give up here. He urged his Divine Power to its fullest and charged directly at the golden key, hoping to somehow reach it before the Sage's form stabilised and she could touch it.
He arrived right as the Primordial Sage's hand grasped the key.
BANG!
The explosion of golden archaic power was so sudden, so intense, that neither Yaan nor the Sage could defend against it. Yaan was thrown back by the power of the explosion, his body tumbling through space like a rag doll as he coughed up lungful after lungful of blood. Cracks appeared across his body, forcing him to shut his eyes and focus to stabilise his injuries. This was all he could do to prevent his form from completely collapsing.
As for the Primordial Sage, she endured for a short while, before she tapped the black crystal in her forehead, and her body simply vaporised into black shimmering dust. The dust was sent flying by the shockwave, but by the time Yaan had somewhat stabilised himself, the black dust congealed into the shape of a humanoid figure. Before long, the Sage had returned.
The explosion was too sudden, too powerful; although he was wary of others potentially stealing the golden key from him, Yaan had no choice but to shut his eyes and focus on his recovery, otherwise he really might die here.
When he opened his eyes, he found the Primordial Sage standing by his side. She wore that same expressionless face as always, but Yaan could tell that she had also struggled when faced with that unexpected shock.
And now that they had recovered, they were met with yet another massive shock.
The golden key was nowhere to be seen. In its place, a giant, 3,000 mile high door, towered above them in the middle of cosmos. At the top of the door, some strange characters were inscribed in a language that Yaan didn't recognise. He had never seen this writing before today, but strangely, he intuitively understood what it said.
Boundless Dao Library!
After three million years, the entrance to the Boundless Dao Library had returned!
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