Chapter 1367 — Traces of Time

In those years, the Crimson Emperor had sensed the might and terror of the Outer Celestial Court. To seek a way out for the human race, he traversed time and space, searching for a chance at survival in the future.

What he found was this very place. Yet at that time, the Crimson Emperor had been gravely wounded by this perilous Chaotic Space and was on the verge of death. And so he transformed his body into the Floating Void Realm and released his undying spirit consciousness to notify his clansmen.

The Floating Void Realm lay only at the outer periphery of the Chaotic Space, whereas Heavenly Venerable Xiao was now trapped at its very center.

Heavenly Venerable Xiao looked around, his brow deeply furrowed. He had thought Heavenly Venerable Yue had merely banished him to the depths of the cosmos, but never expected that the place she had exiled him to was somewhere even he had never visited, nor ever heard of. The space here was disordered.

He stood within a bizarre expanse of time and space, where there was no distinction of above and below, no division of left and right. Not far off, other spaces drifted past, and Heavenly Venerable Xiao gasped in amazement.

His body was distorted by space, coiling like a giant python, stretched out for thousands of li, and only when that space drifted past did he return to normal. "No matter what, I must leave this place!

"

He was about to step forward when an octagonal-pyramid-shaped space plummeted from above his head, and Heavenly Venerable Xiao immediately felt incomparable agony.

He saw himself split into eight bodies! Eight complete bodies, including even eight complete primordial spirits, yet the pain came surging from each and every one of them!

"In this world, nothing strange or uncanny can harm a Heavenly Venerable!

"

He forcibly roused his cultivation and, by sheer will, fused his body back together, then leaned upon the Primordial Wood and walked on without aim.

Suddenly, he saw the back of his own head.

This was the work of another space.

He did not merely see the back of his own head; he even saw his own five viscera and six bowels, his own brain, and even the fluctuations of thought within his mind, a consciousness vast as the cosmos, countless rays of thought shining like a starry sky!

His body seemed to have no boundary, its interior immeasurably vast.

"Nothing can trap a Heavenly Venerable, trap Us! "

He raised his cultivation to its utmost limit, and his body returned to normal once more. Along the way, he had passed through more uncanny events than he could count, yet this spatial labyrinth seemed to have no end, no terminus.

Heavenly Venerable Xiao calmed his mind and suddenly roused the Primordial Wood.

Leaf after leaf flew up, drifting into those strange fragments of space.

Root after root of the Primordial Wood extended in all directions. This Primordial Wood had once held up the myriad heavens and worlds within the Primordial Realm, and here its power was not diminished in the slightest.

This was Heavenly Venerable Xiao's capital for leaving this place alive. No matter how complex this Chaotic Space, this place of exile, might be, he would surely escape!

At that moment, he suddenly sensed that the roots of the Primordial Wood had touched something solid, and his heart stirred. He followed the roots of the Primordial Wood toward it.

Along the way, all manner of uncanny things occurred, several times nearly burying him in this Chaotic Space, yet a Heavenly Venerable was, after all, formidable, and he endured it through. He arrived at the place where the Primordial Wood's roots had made contact.

It was a stretch of land not yet fully destroyed, not particularly large, only some thirty to fifty li in circumference, floating within this Chaotic Space without ever perishing.

That land was filled with a mournful aura of death. Even the roots of the Primordial Wood, upon reaching this place, withered abruptly.

Heavenly Venerable Xiao sensed that this sorrow was not left behind by any deity, but by the Great Dao of heaven and earth, the lamentation uttered by the Great Dao at the moment of its death. He withdrew the Primordial Wood and cautiously descended onto this incomparably ancient land, striving to suppress the dread in his heart.

The aura of the Great Dao's death here caused even him to feel dread. Even though he was Taichu of the Five Primal Ultimates, his heart could not help but be filled with fear of this place.

But he was, after all, once the Celestial Emperor and now a Heavenly Venerable, and he forcibly pressed down the dread in his heart, restrained his inner demons, and continued to search for the secrets of this place. This sorrow of the Great Dao made his own dao heart sorrowful as well, and unknowingly, tears fell from both his eyes.

And this dread of the Great Dao made him dread as well, trembling with fear, as if treading upon thin ice.

At last, Heavenly Venerable Xiao saw the source of the Great Dao's sorrow and dread. It was an incomparably ancient tree, thick and massive, its canopy terrifying, yet it had completely lost its branches and leaves, leaving only withered branches, trunk, and body.

It had been uprooted and lay tilted upon the ground, its roots completely dried up. Countless of its branches had broken, and those blackened, withered limbs seemed as though they would shatter at the slightest touch.

Yet what filled Heavenly Venerable Xiao with awe was that even though this tree had been reduced to such a state, it could still protect this stretch of land!

The reason this land could survive within the Chaotic Space, not destroyed by the strange spatial fragments here, was precisely the work of this withered tree!

"Is there a treasure tree even mightier than the Primordial Wood? "

He steadied himself, and then noticed that upon one branch hung a shriveled, wrinkled fruit. The fruit was pitch-black, covered in many patterns, though they could not be seen clearly.

Heavenly Venerable Xiao was stunned.

He had seen this kind of fruit before! This was a Dao Fruit! When the Great Emperor had imprinted his spirit consciousness into the Ultimate Void, the Great Dao had formed the Spirit Consciousness Daluo Heaven.

At that time, Heavenly Venerable Xiao was still Taichu, the Great Emperor's nominal adopted son! Taichu had witnessed an exceedingly sacred scene: he had seen the formation of the Spirit Consciousness Daluo Heaven, and seen the Great Emperor's Great Dao within the Daluo Heaven transform into a Dao Tree.

The Dao Tree took root and sprouted, put forth branches, and slowly grew into a towering giant tree whose canopy covered the Spirit Consciousness Daluo Heaven!

Moreover, Taichu had also seen the Great Emperor's spirit consciousness Great Dao bloom into dao flowers upon the tree and bear a dao fruit. Though it was only a green, unripe fruit, it still brought him incomparable shock!

And this withered tree before his eyes was clearly also the Dao Tree of an incomparably formidable existence, imprinted into the Ultimate Void!

That shriveled, wrinkled fruit was that existence's Dao Fruit!

"No!

No! "

Heavenly Venerable Xiao could not suppress the shock in his heart and cried out involuntarily: "The Great Emperor is the only existence to have imprinted his Great Dao into the Ultimate Void.

No second person could accomplish it! Within the Ultimate Void, there is only his Spirit Consciousness Daluo Heaven.

How could there possibly be a second person who imprinted the void before the Great Emperor and formed a Dao Fruit?

" This Dao Fruit should have been a mature one. Even shriveled and shrunken, it was still far larger than the Great Emperor's Dao Fruit.

That such an existence had died here silently and without notice made his blood run cold.

Heavenly Venerable Xiao steadied himself and walked toward that Dao Fruit.

You Capital.