Powerful Aura

Su Rui looked at the three fingers held up by the Lizard Head bartender, the corner of her mouth twitching uncontrollably.

"Why don't you just rob someone?"

Lizard Head scoffed, leisurely wiping a glass.

"Robbing doesn't bring in money as fast as this."

"This is the price on the Zeus Space Station. Drink it or leave it."

"Also, Federation Credits are just waste paper here."

"You either pay with Myriad Races Coins, or use energy blocks, weapons, or valuable jewelry to settle the bill."

Su Rui felt a stifling anger in her chest.

As the dignified Vice Speaker of the Federation, she was surrounded by an entourage wherever she went. When had she ever suffered such indignity?

But looking at the several aliens glaring at her like tigers watching their prey, she could only swallow her anger.

When under someone else's roof, one had to bow their head.

Not to mention that everyone under this roof was holding a knife.

Su Rui gritted her teeth, took off the star-diamond watch on her wrist, and threw it onto the bar counter with a smack.

"Hey, this should be enough, right?"

Lizard Head picked up the watch, held it up to the light for a couple of glances, and his eyes immediately lit up.

He turned around, poured two glasses of weird green liquid, and pushed them in front of Su Rui.

"Here, your juice."

Su Rui looked at the bubbling concoction, her stomach churning violently.

That thing didn't look like juice at all.

It looked more like someone had juiced a slime from the sewer.

Suppressing her nausea, she lowered her voice and asked, "I want to ask you about something."

Lizard Head lifted his eyelids.

Su Rui continued, "What exactly is the situation with that spacetime rift in the Dark Nebula?"

Lizard Head said, "That rift suddenly appeared a week ago."

"At first, it was only a few hundred meters long, but now it has grown to a light-year across."

"Inside is a destroyed plane, filled with stone tablets carved with strange text and ruined buildings."

"However, the passage is unstable. People have only gone in sporadically; no one dares to send large forces in together yet."

Su Rui frowned and asked, "Which factions are trying to get in right now?"

"Too many to count."

Lizard Head started counting on his fingers.

"The Tiger Race, Haji Race, and Snake Race of the Myriad Races Alliance—all three major races have sent their elites."

"The leader is the Crown Prince of the Haji Race, Juhuo."

"He's a ruthless character. He's only been here a few days and has already killed several people trying to snatch treasures."

"Quite a few have died."

At this point, his tone finally became a bit more serious.

"I advise you not to go. I heard that place is extremely bizarre; the air inside can corrode the soul."

"As long as you get close to those stone tablets, strange whispers will echo in your head."

"Many people who went in didn't die from traps, but went mad first and started killing each other."

"It's clearly a cultivation plane, yet it gives off an Outer God vibe... Very strange..."

Lin Xi's small face turned pale as she listened.

"I've seen the text on those stone tablets," Lizard Head continued.

"They are exactly the same as the few fragments of cultivation civilization collected in the Federation Museum."

"It's said that civilization existed hundreds of millions of years ago, or even longer."

"Some also say they were a civilization from the previous cosmic era."

"As for why it was destroyed, no one knows."

At this moment, a drunk person nearby suddenly slammed the table.

"I know!"

"I heard from my grandfather that the cultivation civilization was destroyed by Outer Gods, and also by their own people!"

"They fought a massive internal war and blew the entire planet to pieces, which formed the current Dark Nebula!"

Lizard Head sneered.

"Don't listen to his nonsense."

"His grandfather died at the hands of space pirates a long time ago. He doesn't know shit."

The minotaur glared at him indignantly but didn't dare to actually make a move.

Lizard Head waved his hand.

"Alright, I've told you everything I know."

"Hurry up and leave, don't hold up my business here."

Su Rui and Lin Xi exchanged a glance, got up, and left the bar.

...

Ye Chuan was sitting next to the spaceship, drinking an energy drink.

"Mr. Ye, we've found out everything," Su Rui said, panting as she quickly repeated what the bartender had said.

"It's really dangerous inside. The bartender said not even one in ten people who go in comes out alive."

"Understood," Ye Chuan nodded, casually tossing his half-finished energy drink into the trash can.

"Board the ship. We're setting off."

"But—"

"No buts." Ye Chuan smiled. "Do you want me to control you?"

"Fine."

The Phantom started up again and plunged headlong into the Dark Nebula.

Soon, the starlight faded away, as if even the light had been swallowed up.

The spaceship's energy lights could only illuminate the area a few thousand meters ahead; beyond that was boundless, inky darkness.

The instrument panels flashed wildly with red lights. All navigation systems had failed, leaving them to fly manually relying on rough coordinates.

Su Rui's face looked terrible.

Going to the Myriad Races Alliance was dangerous, but with her identity, she might have been able to return to the Federation as a hostage. However, this kind of place was entirely different.

In this godforsaken place without even a ray of light, no one would know if they died here.

The star shuttle flew via warp for two whole hours before the darkness ahead was suddenly torn open.

It was a massive rift that could not be described with words.

Stretching across the pitch-black universe, with no visible beginning or end, it looked like an eternal scar cleaved into spacetime by the Creator's giant axe.

The edges of the rift were filled with countless twisted, rolling spatial folds, like the edges of a festering wound with purple-black arcs of energy constantly dancing across them.

"Here..." Su Rui murmured. "It seems this is the place."

Ye Chuan glanced at the entrance—

The inside of the rift was a chaotic grayish-black. Broken stones and some ruined architectural fragments continuously drifted out from within, slowly rotating in the void.

It had an indescribable sense of antiquity and an indescribably strange smell.

Even through the spaceship's alloy hull, one could feel a bone-deep chill.

"It feels like the energy curve inside... can no longer be calculated in years," Su Rui said.

"That's how it is with ancient things," Ye Chuan nodded in satisfaction. A cultivation ruin like this was exactly what he needed.

"My God..." Lin Xi pressed against the porthole. "Is... is this really a spacetime rift? It's way too big!"

The hands Su Rui used to grip the steering wheel were trembling slightly.

She had never seen such a terrifying rift.

It was like a living behemoth, opening its bloody maw, waiting for its prey to throw themselves into the net.

"Hmm... it seems this rift is still growing," Ye Chuan's voice rang out calmly.

"At this rate, in a while, it will be able to swallow the entire Zeus Space Station."

He teleported outside.

The fierce winds in the void whipped up the hem of his clothes. He stood in the void, black-gold chaotic power condensing into a platform beneath his feet, steadily supporting him.

Step by step.

He stood there, completely unfazed no matter how the winds blew from all directions.

"Keep up," Ye Chuan looked back.

Su Rui and Lin Xi hurriedly followed, supported by Ye Chuan's power, terrified of being swept into the distorted space around them.

"Are we really going over there..."

"What do you think? Or would you rather stay here?"

"I-I'll pass." Su Rui took out a spatial backpack and stored the star shuttle inside.

The three of them stepped into the spacetime rift.

The moment they passed through the rift, a strong sense of weightlessness hit them. Everything around them was spinning and twisting.

A few seconds later, the solid sensation of ground finally returned beneath their feet.

They were standing in a massive ruin suspended in the void.

Looking up, there was no sky to be seen, only dark clouds rolling slowly. Occasionally, a streak of purple lightning would tear through the clouds, illuminating the endless expanse of broken walls and shattered remnants below.

"Spiritual energy... no, the aura is so thin. What is this?" Ye Chuan seemed to sense something and released his divine sense.

In the distance, a mountain peak tens of thousands of meters high had been split in half. The severed surface was as smooth as a mirror, still bearing a bottomless sword mark.

Halfway up the mountain, a collapsed palace revealed a section of its flying eaves. Lifelike phoenixes and immortal cranes were carved into it. Even though it was covered in cracks, its former magnificence could still be seen.

This place appeared to have once been an incredibly glorious immortal cultivation complex.

There were fairy palaces towering into the clouds, long bridges spanning across galaxies, and preaching platforms for imparting the Dao.

But now, everything had been reduced to ruins.

It was as if in a single instant, the entire world had been completely torn apart by some terrifying power and then tossed into this turbulent flow of space and time.

"Ugh..." Lin Xi suddenly covered her mouth, bending over and retching.

Su Rui also felt a wave of dizziness, her stomach churning violently.

The air was filled with a thick stench of decay, accompanied by an indescribably sticky feeling.

It felt as if countless invisible little hands were crawling all over their skin.

She raised her head, taking in the surrounding scene, and her entire body instantly went cold.

Those bluish-grey stone slabs, broken stone pillars, and collapsed palace walls... the surfaces of all the architectural debris were covered in a thick layer of dark red tissue.

The fleshy tissue seemed alive, writhing slightly, its surface covered with densely packed black blood vessels.

And between the blood vessels grew countless eyes of varying sizes.

Some eyes were only the size of a grain of rice, squeezed tightly together, while others were larger than millstones, their pupils a cloudy greyish-white, staring unblinkingly at everyone who entered this place.

They acted as the sensory organs of these ruins, coldly watching every intruder.

"They... they're looking at us..." Lin Xi was terrified, her voice taking on a crying tone as she tightly hugged Ye Chuan's arm.

"Mr. Ye!"

Right at that moment, a faint, indistinct whispering echoed in their minds.

"()..."

"Y#%..."

"(*)(*&..."

The whispers grew louder and clearer, as if trying to drill into the depths of their souls.

"Outer Gods...? No, why would an immortal cultivation plane..."

"No..." Su Rui felt as if her head was about to split open, and hallucinations began to form before her eyes—

Countless blood-soaked immortal cultivators crawled out from the ruins, reaching out their rotting hands to grab her.

"Calm down."

Ye Chuan's voice exploded in their ears like a crack of thunder.

Black-gold energy surged from his body, forming a transparent barrier that enveloped Su Rui and Lin Xi.

Instantly, the nauseating whispers vanished, the hallucinations scattered like smoke, and the sticky feeling on their skin disappeared.

"Haa... haa..." Su Rui panted heavily, her back completely drenched in cold sweat.

She looked at the densely packed eyes around them, shivering uncontrollably.

These things were even more bizarre than the Outer Gods she knew of.

"Mr. Ye... do they seem to be Outer Gods?"

"Who knows?" Ye Chuan glanced at the surrounding fleshy tissue and eyes, which seemed to be formed from the condensed resentment and soul fragments of countless immortal cultivators.

"Coming to such a bizarre world feels just like coming home." Ye Chuan was completely unaffected at this moment, but he still calmly spat out one word.

"Filthy."

He slowly raised his right hand, and black-gold chaotic energy poured out of his body like a tidal wave, spreading in all directions.

Wherever the chaotic energy passed, the dark red fleshy tissue made a sizzling sound. Like snow meeting the blazing sun, it evaporated without a trace in an instant.

Those densely packed eyes didn't even have the time to let out a scream before turning into wisps of black smoke and dissipating into the air.

In just a short ten seconds, all the bizarre traces within a radius of ten thousand miles were completely purified.

This revealed the original bluish-grey stone slabs underneath, as well as the clear immortal cultivation runes etched onto them.

At this moment, the other factions that had just entered the ruins were all dumbfounded.

Everyone stopped in their tracks, staring in Ye Chuan's direction with their mouths agape.

"What... what kind of power is that?!"

"To actually be able to purify these flesh curses! How terrifying!"

"He's human? Since when did humanity have such a powerful transcendent?"

On a broken mountain in the distance, Juhuo of the Haji tribe was leading his subordinates, preparing to venture deeper into the ruins.

Seeing this scene, the arrogance on his face instantly vanished. His orange cat ears suddenly perked up, and his tail stood straight up.

He hissed.

"Crown Prince, that human..." his head guard said with a grave expression.

"His power is very strange. It seems to be able to suppress the curses here."

"Hmph, it's just some cheap trick. He probably brought some weird device with him," Juhuo scoffed coldly, though a hint of wariness crept into his eyes.

"The central altar is the key. It seems to hold many treasures. Let's go, don't waste time on him."

After saying that, he led his subordinates, transforming into a streak of orange light and flying toward the depths of the ruins.

Ye Chuan paid no mind to the gazes of the others.

He crouched down, his fingers gently brushing over the runes on the stone slab beneath his feet.

Words.

Words that he recognized.

"An immortal cultivation civilization," Ye Chuan muttered. Could this place hold clues regarding the destruction of the Immortal Realm?

The stone slabs beneath his feet were covered in cracks, with dark red bloodstains still lingering on them.

The surrounding ruins were terrifyingly quiet, with only the sound of his own footsteps to be heard.

Occasionally, the wind would blow past, making a howling sound like the weeping of ghosts.

As Ye Chuan walked, he carefully observed the surrounding architectural debris.

"The aura here is still too strange. Why can I sense an incredibly powerful immortal cultivator's aura?" Ye Chuan's divine sense seemed to have detected something, and his gaze fell toward the deeper parts of the ruins.

Could it be—

No...

An image surfaced in Ye Chuan's mind of a powerhouse similar to Empress Jiuhua being sealed here, but it was obvious that the other party's aura had not yet reached the level of Empress Jiuhua.

It was much weaker.

But still very strong.

"I'll just take my time and investigate as I go."