Chapter 578: Outer Celestial Demon (2)

In this regard, he was no match for the Po Jun Star Monarch, who wielded great authority over the Celestial Star Sect’s daily affairs.

‘Even for Po Jun, I’m sure that number would be an unbearable weight, something he could only manage once in a while.’

‘I just hope the Qing Si Sword’s appetite hasn’t been spoiled, to the point that not even the Supreme Qingwei Sword Box can satisfy it.’

“My apologies for keeping you all waiting.”

Half an hour passed in a flash. Bai Zichen opened his eyes and rose to his feet, looking refreshed and full of energy.

“It’s only right. Without you, Daoist Brother Ziwei, we wouldn’t have been able to enter the Sword-Cleansing Grotto Heaven at all.”

Taiyin, who seemed to have been standing guard nearby, said with a faint smile.

After witnessing the sword strike Ziwei Star Monarch had unleashed earlier, the others had become much more deferential toward him.

As they were all Sword Cultivators, they understood the gap in their strengths very clearly.

His mastery of the Sword Light Division Realm alone was enough to secure his position as the Star Palace’s strongest combatant.

“This is the Sword-Cleansing Grotto Heaven?”

Bai Zichen pointed to the thousands upon thousands of bubbles below. Each was its own independent space, its interior hidden from outside view.

In fact, he had noticed it the moment he entered the Grotto Heaven. This confirmed that this was the mysterious Grotto Heaven that Meng Dongye had mentioned, the one discovered by Great True Monarch Ma Youx.

The Five Phoenix Sword Sect suspected that this place, shattered into countless fragments by spatial turbulence yet miraculously held together, was the legendary Sword-Cleansing Grotto Heaven.

Bai Zichen’s presence here proved the Five Phoenix Sword Sect’s suspicions correct.

“That’s right, the very same Sword-Cleansing Grotto Heaven we’ve all been longing for… I can’t imagine what kind of impact could have left it in this state.”

Po Jun Star Monarch emerged from one of the bubbles, a grim look on his face. The current situation was clearly not what he had expected.

“I suspect that when the Sword Sect was annihilated, Divinity Transformation Great Powers must have fought within this Grotto Heaven. Otherwise, even if a stable Grotto Heaven were caught in spatial turbulence, it wouldn’t have ended up in this state.”

“We’d have to spend months on each fragment. If our luck is bad, couldn’t we end up spending hundreds of years here?”

Jumeng Star Monarch did the math and came up with an astonishing amount of time.

The unique nature of the Sword-Cleansing Grotto Heaven made searching each fragment incredibly difficult.

No matter how tempting the Taibai Sword Sect’s legacy was, hundreds of years was simply too long.

Only after seeing this did Bai Zichen understand why Meng Dongye had personally invited him, asking him to join their exploration once he reached the Sword Light Splitting Realm.

For Great True Monarch Ma Youx alone, even the rest of his lifetime might not be enough to search this place. No wonder he was willing to share the Grotto Heaven with Sword Cultivators from other sects.

Furthermore, Ma Youx held all the cards.

You could slave away for a century, eliminating hundreds of dead ends, only for him to terminate the partnership with a single word, rendering all your efforts meaningless.

‘Ma Youx’s Realm must have somehow collided with the Sword-Cleansing Grotto Heaven during its ascension, creating a two-way passage… He won’t just suddenly show up while we’re searching, will he?’

The odds of two Grotto Heavens colliding were probably less than one in a hundred million.

If a Grotto Heaven were the size of a person, then any given layer of the void would be thousands upon thousands of times larger than the entire Cultivation Realm.

And the void extended in all directions, with infinite possibilities for expansion.

‘For Ma Youx to have this kind of opportunity, it just goes to show that the Five Phoenix Sword Sect is truly blessed by fate right now, to have stumbled upon something with near-zero probability.’

However, he quickly remembered that this was a critical moment in the war between the two races.

As one of the Human Race’s top Cultivators, Ma Youx should be on rotational duty guarding the Jishui Camp. It was highly unlikely he’d have the leisure to be exploring Grotto Heaven fragments.

“Don’t worry, I have a way.”

If it really took hundreds of years, Po Jun Star Monarch would likely die of old age inside the Sword-Cleansing Grotto Heaven before he ever laid eyes on the Taibai Sword Sect’s legacy.

He reluctantly took out the half-burnt Seven Cultivator Sword Talisman and ignited it once more. Seven streaks of Sword Light circled him once before joyfully darting toward the Grotto Heaven fragments.

“Follow closely!”

Po Jun Star Monarch followed right behind them. The seven streaks of Sword Light ignored most of the bubbles, only occasionally pausing to circle one.

After passing hundreds of floating bubbles, one of the streaks—a yellow light—suddenly veered off and plunged into a Grotto Heaven fragment, while the other six continued onward.

The group was taken aback, unsure of what this signified.

“There might be a Treasure hidden in that Grotto Heaven fragment. Ignore it, we’re sticking with the main group!”

Po Jun Star Monarch waved his hand, leaving a mark on the fragment. His objective was clear, and he showed no hesitation.

Along the way, four more streaks of Sword Light broke off from the group, each entering a different Grotto Heaven fragment.

Finally, the last two streaks of Sword Light merged and plunged into a single bubble, and a flicker of excitement crossed Po Jun Star Monarch’s face.

“The Golden Crocodile and the Water Mother are the two among the Seven Cultivator Swords that reached Tier Five. The Sword Light created from their Origin Power must have sensed the location of the Sword-Cleansing Pool…”

Po Jun Star Monarch didn’t need to say more; everyone was already growing excited.

Inside the Grotto Heaven fragment lay a collapsed Sword Mountain and a shattered pool. At its center was a massive sinkhole.

Countless tendrils of black energy writhed in the air like a horde of dancing demons, and a faint, decadent melody could be heard.

Drawing closer, one’s mind would be filled with distracting and improper thoughts, making it impossible to maintain a calm heart.

The bottom and edges of the sinkhole, as well as the Sword Mountain and the pool, were all covered in astonishing Sword Marks that contained a terrifying, immense power.

Even after ten thousand years, their power had not faded in the slightest.

“Po Jun, it looks like you were right. A great battle truly took place here… and at the center is the Sword-Cleansing Pool!”

Bai Zichen sensed an aura of filth and death within the black energy, so dense it was inextricable. It was similar to the Ancient Demons he had encountered before, yet distinctly different.

“It must be a Tier Five Outer Celestial Demon, slain by a Divinity Transformation expert from the Taibai Sword Sect. Only a Divinity Transformation Level being, slain within the sealed environment of a Grotto Heaven, could leave behind an imprint that would persist for ten thousand years.”

“That’s right, it’s a Divinity Transformation Level Outer Celestial Demon…”

Po Jun Star Monarch held his Qing Si Sword defensively before his chest, his earlier excitement replaced by profound terror.

The others were even worse off. They had already summoned their respective Magical Treasures, their faces fraught with panic.

Outer Celestial Demons were terrifying existences, even to the Heavenly Demon Realm itself.

These beings were impossible to communicate with. Devoid of reason, they were the embodiment of all malevolence.

Even the Ancient Demons of the Heavenly Demon Realm suffered greatly at their hands, as the Outer Celestial Demons that appeared in the Upper Realm were even stronger.

Fortunately, Outer Celestial Demons appeared very rarely in the Lower Realm, perhaps once every tens of thousands of years. The weakest among them possessed the power of a Nascent Soul, while the strongest could reach the Divinity Transformation Realm.

After that group of Outer Celestial Demons that had abruptly descended upon the Taibai Sword Sect vanished, no trace of them had been seen in the Cultivation Realm since.

‘What on earth caused the great war of the Taibai Sword Sect to be so tragic back then…? Still, the Divinity Transformation Great Power of the Taibai Sword Sect was truly formidable. Even though they had the home-field advantage by drawing the battle into the Sword-Cleansing Grotto Heaven, managing to take the Outer Celestial Demon down with them was an incredible feat.’

‘Had that Great Power survived, they might have become another expert capable of Ascension to the Upper Realm.’

Outer Celestial Demons are born from malevolence. They have no physical bodies, no Souls; they are evil incarnate.

Even a Void Refining Great Power who descended to this world would find a Divinity Transformation Level Outer Celestial Demon extremely difficult to handle. A decisive, crushing victory would be out of the question.

This just showed how powerful the Outer Celestial Demons were!

“The Sword-Cleansing Pool is shattered. Could the Sword Sect’s legacy still be here?”

Bai Zichen was handling it better than the others, still calmly observing his surroundings.

This ruined pool was almost certainly the famous Sword-Cleansing Pool.

The Cultivators of the Taibai Sword Sect would temper their Flying Swords here, reducing the time needed for the Refinement of a Lifebound Flying Sword to a tenth of the usual.

Shattered like this, it looked beyond repair.

“If the Divinity Transformation Ancestor truly perished here, then there is a one hundred percent chance that their legacy remains!”

Po Jun Star Monarch finally snapped out of it, shaking off his fear of the Outer Celestial Demon.

“Ten thousand years have passed. Even a Divinity Transformation Level Outer Celestial Demon would only have left behind a few wisps of its lingering will. It can’t possibly be revived… As long as we’re careful, we’ll be fine. There’s no need to frighten ourselves.”

In the end, their yearning for the legacy of the Taibai Sword Sect triumphed over the fear in their hearts.

The group landed in the massive sinkhole and began to search.

“These Sword Marks all contain True Intent. It’s a shame so much time has passed. The Combat with the Outer Celestial Demon was too intense, and they’ve eroded too much…”

Bai Zichen walked up to one of the Sword Marks and ran his hand over it, feeling the breathtaking power that still resided within.

‘He could sense that if triggered, the power within the Sword Mark would be enough to kill everyone here but him.’

“I found something over here!”

Tiann Xiang Star Monarch cried out. Before him, standing ramrod straight in front of a stone Stele, was a skeleton.