Suddenly, the ground quaked with a deafening boom. The wooden pavilion creaked violently as if about to collapse. The old emperor's expression changed instantly, turning grave.
"Your Excellency, it seems that thing has detected us and has come knocking. Please leave this place quickly." The old emperor spoke urgently, taking out a rusty copper coin and handing it to Li Shenrong.
Without hesitation, Li Shenrong accepted the coin, then directly lifted the wooden chest and stored it inside his ring.
The duo came out of the pavilion and saw the group of Bao Zhentian was gazing above. The artificial sky was now full of crack. From the cracks endless gray energy pouring down like fountain, wanting to drown everything.
"Boom…" with a deafening sound, the sky shattered like glass.
Suddenly, the miniature world turned black, then white, then black and then white again as if reality itself was being twisted by some monstrous force.
Time itself came to a halt. Of course, it wasn't true time stop, everything merely slowed to such an extreme degree that it appeared frozen.
Only the old emperor's will and Li Shenrong remained unaffected. Even as a remnant, his will still belonged to a supreme emperor. With a casual flip of his palm, the distortion collapsed, shattering the temporal suppression.
A horrifying roar sounded, the sound alone caused the miniature world to sway violently.
Bao Zhentian and the others reacted, they saw a massive creature burrowing its way into the world.
"This…" Bao Zentian was a person with great courage and this was his second time feeling inexplicable fear. He gauged in his mind that the monstrosity was at least in the Godking level. Then he calmed down again remembering the imprisoned being, it was far more powerful than this.
As for Luo Shenghua and Adity, they fainted outright from sheer terror.
The old emperor's will snorted coldly. The suppressive aura vanished at once.
"Your Excellency, this old will of mine shall handle it." He whispered, before flying straight toward the sky.
His palm pressed down, unleashing a vast, unparalleled might. The monster was instantly pinned in place, struggling helplessly under his suppression. Even though it was just a mere will of en emperor, it was still powerful enough to crush beings at the level of Godking.
The monster's body twitched, it suddenly sprayed thick gray mists out of its mouth. The old emperor's will's face changed greatly.
"This damned curse!" His voice shook with fury.
It was this very curse that had destroyed his true body and corrupted his soul. To prevent becoming a calamity himself, he had once resolutely severed his own source and Dao. How could he not hate it! He hated it even until his last breath. He regretted for not being strong enough and couldn't save the world.
The Emperor's stood above high and mighty, beacon of hope and dream, but when despair struck, who was there to save the emperors?
"But fortunately the heaven wasn't blind and all hope wasn't lost. Hehe…." He suddenly laughed, "Count your days, soon you shall be erased from existence because that being has woken up…." Of course he didn't say this out loud.
He no longer looked back and fought bravely. There was nothing holding him back anymore.
As the gray mist thickened, the abomination was getting stronger and stronger as if it could grow stronger infinitely.
Li Shenrong was watching everything with cold eyes. A gleam of killing intent was about to erupt from the depth of his eyes but in the end, he suppressed the urge to destroy it. Sooner or later, every puzzle piece will fall into place.
Then another abomination forced its way in, followed by five more, surrounding the emperor's will. This time, the old emperor struggled. Half of his will was already corrupted as he fought fiercely. Flesh and blood of the creatures rained down, rotting the land wherever it touched, withering all life in an instant.
Bao Zhentian was shocked. The amiable looking old man revealed such unimaginable might.
"Wait… Brother Li said this is only a remnant will. If even a fragment is this powerful, capable of suppressing Godkings… then just how powerful was his true body?" He didn't dare to think further.
"Let's go." At the moment, Li Shenrong spoke. He turned around and went inside the wooden pavilion.
There was a small stone platform, they were teleported outside in a flash.
Seeing Li Shenrong leaving, the old emperor's will shouted, "come!"
His will became resplendent as a bright sun. And then a dazzling bright light enveloped everything. Whatever it touched, was erased down to the source. Mountains, rivers, priceless treasures, even the wooden pavilion was turned to dust under the bright light. The half broken miniature world disappeared in the blink of an eye, leaving behind a void.
Far away in another location, Li Shenrong suddenly looked toward a certain direction. His eyes were deep. After a long time, he withdrew his gaze and sighed. This time his mood was really down.
Bao Zhentian noticed the changes in his mood and tactfully remained silent even though he had a lot of questions. He guessed it must have something to do with that old man.
Li Shenrong took out a map which indicates the locations of the dao portals, only seven dao portals were marked even though there was eighty eight dao portals all over the ruin.
…
A news was circulating among the cultivators inside the ruin. A strange plague was spreading like wildfire. Victims turned into vicious monsters, mindlessly killing and contaminating everything around them.
At first it was negligible, many dismissed it as just another natural danger of the ruin. But before long, it had already destroyed several powerful sects, alarming everyone.
Some powerful sects banded together to fight but the result was horrifying. Everyone who had joined the expedition became monster themselves.
Fear spread like poison. Cultivators no longer dared roam freely, terrified that at any moment a monster might crawl out of the ground and infect them.
The horror escalated when a Demi God level expert was torn apart by a Saint level monster, then twisted into a hideous creature himself.
"What is happening! What is the source of this plague disaster?"
"I don't want to die here… i want to go home."
"Now a days we can't go out to hunt for treasures anymore…."
Some lamented, some were afraid, some felt angry, peoples emotion was being stirred.
They were hoping that an ancestor level character from a powerful sect would stand up at the moment and take action.