Chapter 6101 No Way Back
Long Zhantian, Luo Ningshuang, the Jewel Blood Devil, and the Ice Frost Spirit Dragon had fully recovered their strength, returning to the peak of the Human Emperor realm.
Only now did Long Chen truly understand how terrifyingly powerful his parents were. Even though they stood in the same realm as him, the pressure they radiated was immense—far beyond anything he had ever felt from others at this level.
Long Zhantian patted Long Chen’s shoulder hard. After recovering to the peak of the Human Emperor realm, he could sense the majestic energy within Long Chen even clearer.
“Dad, where do you think the heaven whale’s corpse is? How far are we from it?” Long Chen suddenly asked.
Long Zhantian chuckled. “Do you really not know, or are you just pretending? We’re inside the heaven whale’s body right now.”
“Really?” Long Chen was shocked.
“This is the Whale Necropolis,” said Long Zhantian. “It’s its own enclosed world, with laws that don’t follow those of the nine heavens. How else do you think it could strip us of our cultivation bases so easily? But the necropolis is also a land of fortune. It devoured heaven and earth’s laws during its life. Now, in death, it returns that energy to the world. If I’m not mistaken, the place where the Lei family lived was the very end of the whale’s digestive tract—the poorest region of this realm.”
The end of the digestive tract was where waste would be expelled. According to Long Zhantian’s theory, if they followed this path, they should be able to pass through the entire whale necropolis and come out of its mouth. Perhaps that was the exit.
Everyone grew excited when they thought of escaping this place and returning to the nine heavens.
Buzz.
As Army Breaker opened yet another barrier, the spiritual qi grew denser once more. However, there were also stronger devil creatures here.
Although the Lei family’s experts wanted to test their new power, Evilmoon didn’t give them a chance. It continued to slaughter all the devil creatures and devour their essence blood.
After passing through several barriers, Long Chen finally spoke. “Dad, something feels off...”
Long Zhantian nodded gravely. “You’re right. The spiritual qi ahead is growing denser, but there’s something wrong.”
The Lei family’s territory had been filled with resources and veins of ore. However, due to the invasion of devil creatures, they had to deplete the resources. That was understandable.
But here, where the spiritual qi was even more abundant, they should have found even greater concentrations of ore and spirit veins.
The first few realms they passed through had some ores. Yet now, there was nothing—no ores, no veins, and not even a trace of vitality underground. Aside from the devil creatures, it was as if all other life had been erased.
If it weren’t for the dense spiritual qi here, Long Chen would have assumed they were going the wrong way.
“Could the devil creatures have consumed all the resources here?” one of the Lei family’s experts asked.
Long Zhantian shook his head. “No. These creatures are low-level in intelligence. They exist only to slaughter. They don’t mine, and they don’t cultivate. This wasn’t their doing.”
Without another word, Long Chen reached out and slashed open a long gash in the ground.
Startled gasps echoed behind him. A spirit stone vein lay exposed below, but its color was pale and lifeless. Their spiritual qi had long since been drained, leaving them no different from common rocks. No wonder no one had sensed them before.
Long Chen picked up a handful, crushed them in his palm, and they disintegrated into dust. There wasn’t even a trace of spiritual qi left in the dust.
“They’ve been sucked dry...” Long Zhantian muttered, his expression darkening.
This couldn’t be a natural depletion. Some unknown force had drained this world’s energy to the bone. And whatever it was, it wasn’t something Long Zhantian dared to imagine.
“Whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing, we are already on a path of no return. Let us see what is waiting for us,” said Long Chen solemnly.
This necropolis was full of bizarre stuff. In theory, it should have been a realm of fortune—a place where the heaven whale’s lifeblood and energy returned to the world. It should’ve been overflowing with treasures.
And yet, they had found nothing.
After a brief pause, Long Zhantian continued leading the way. They passed through one barrier after another, slaughtering one wave of devil creatures after another.
But the sense of unease only deepened.
Several days passed in the same manner—barrier after barrier, world after world. The scenes began to blur together in repetition. The only constant was the ever-thickening spiritual qi. That was the only thing that kept Long Chen from thinking that they were trapped in an illusion or maze.
Five days later, everything changed.
When they entered a new world, Long Zhantian and Luo Ningshuang quivered. Their auras suddenly surged into the Divine Emperor realm.
At the same time, the Ice Frost Spirit Dragon and the Jewel Blood Devil shuddered. It was as if a long-sealed power had finally been unleashed. Their Divine Emperor cultivation bases also returned.
Even amongst the Lei family’s experts, several Human Emperors suddenly started to break through, skyrocketing straight into the Divine Emperor realm. Some even surged all the way to the great circle of that realm in one go.
Unlike Long Zhantian and the others, who were merely recovering their lost cultivation, the Lei family’s cultivators were genuinely advancing, breaking through a bottleneck they had been stuck at for generations.
Back in their territory, the Human Emperor realm had been a ceiling they could never pierce. Now, that ceiling was shattered like it had never existed.
They didn’t even go through heavenly tribulation. They simply rose to the peak of the Divine Emperor realm.
Seeing this, Long Chen was dumbfounded. It was a miracle and an impossibility. In the nine heavens, such a thing could never occur.
After a brief moment of excitement, everyone calmed down. This place was too bizarre. The sudden advancement didn’t even feel real, as if they had been dreaming.
Long Chen tried to wake the Earth Cauldron up and ask what was going on, but it seemed to be at a critical juncture and could not speak to him.
With everyone now at the Divine Emperor realm, Long Zhantian told Long Chen to stop fighting and let the Lei family handle the devil creatures instead.
Their power had risen so immensely that they had to go through some actual combat to get accustomed to it.
Evilmoon didn’t mind. As long as it got to absorb essence blood, it was satisfied—even if it meant a bit more cleanup.
They continued onward.
Three days later, the spiritual qi had grown so rich it rivaled the fully recovered nine heavens. It was so dense it was nearly tangible, like a mist hanging in the air.
But still, there was no end in sight.
The underground veins remained barren. In theory, such dense spiritual qi in the air was sufficient to condense new ore veins, but this world seemed completely dead. Even all this spiritual qi was insufficient to revive it.
An oppressive heaviness settled over everyone. The deeper they ventured, the stranger things became. It was as if a hidden weight was pressing down on their hearts.
On the other hand, Evilmoon didn’t seem nervous at all. It simply continued to absorb the essence blood of the devil creatures, continuously growing stronger.
By now, second Heavenstage Sovereign Lord devils had started to appear. But even soulsearching them yielded nothing useful. Their minds were blank, and their memories stretched only a few days. It was like they were born only to die.
In any case, Long Chen and the others could only go forward.
They shattered one barrier after another. The spiritual qi had grown so dense it was on the verge of solidifying. It was now several times denser than the spiritual qi of the nine heavens.
After passing another barrier, Long Chen almost leaped in excitement. A familiar aura crashed over them.
“We’ve finally arrived!”