Chapter 3230: Bronze Ancient Coffin

"Open."

Ye Chen gave a cold snort, unleashing a sword strike that split the heavens and the earth. He leaped forth like a divine dragon.

The Nü Di followed, emerging like a phoenix spreading its wings over the sea.

Both of them looked in sorry states. The eternal armor protecting their emperor bodies was battered and scarred, and their once-mighty eternal blood energy had been largely consumed by the monstrous creature. A terrifying killing intent still raged within them, impossible to eradicate even with eternal power.

Roar!

The unknown creature roared in fury, undergoing a transformation that suddenly increased its pressure.

This roar shook Ye Chen and the Nü Di's emperor bodies to their core, as if their minds were being dragged into an endless abyss. Any ordinary Quasi-Huang Di would have had their spirit crushed.

Break!

Ye Chen shouted resonantly, using eternal dao sounds to shatter the illusory curse.

Zheng!

The Nü Di struck with her sword, forming a brilliant galaxy that split the unknown creature in two.

Woo woo!

What followed was a series of wails like those of vengeful ghosts.

The strange unknown creature, though cleaved in half, did not fall. It did not heal, but its flesh writhed and reshaped into another half, creating two identical creatures. Each had three heads and six arms, their forms chillingly grotesque. One lunged at Ye Chen from the left, the other at the Nü Di from the right.

"Eternal: Ding Tian Li Di."

Ye Chen channeled his dao techniques, his palm erupting with a hundred thousand lightning bolts that formed a divine cauldron as vast as a mountain. It trapped the oncoming unknown monster inside, where dao principles flew wildly, thunder rampaged, and eternal flames burned fiercely, aiming to refine it.

Roar!

The unknown creature howled in anger, using its six arms to tear open the divine cauldron. It then spewed black mist, flipping Ye Chen's sacred body. Before he could steady himself, it crossed through the river of time, breaking temporal rules, and struck him with a palm that sent blood and bones flying.

Ye Chen took the hit, and the Nü Di fared no better.

The two unknown creatures had equal combat power, and she too was stained with eternal blood.

"What kind of thing is this?"

Ye Chen soared into the sky, dodging the fatal strike, and used his eternal power to trace the unknown creature's origins. But he only encountered utter chaos. Not only did he fail to uncover its background, but a blood light from the chaos struck him, exploding his sacred body on the spot.

"No lifespan, no primordial spirit, no source."

Ye Chen murmured to himself. This strange unknown creature seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, or perhaps his cultivation was simply not advanced enough to reveal its true form.

Roar!

In that instant, the unknown creature closed in, opening its massive maw with a dark vortex inside, exerting a terrifying devouring force that could swallow worlds, intent on pulling Ye Chen in.

Whoosh!

Ye Chen used eternal instantaneous movement to evade the swallow.

"Eternal: Tian Zhao."

He activated his Chaos Reincarnation Eye and unleashed a destructive divine ability.

Soon, black flames ignited on the unknown creature's body. These were not ordinary flames but a weave of spacetime and half-spacetime, time and half-time, reincarnation and half-reincarnation, enhanced by eternal power to become an indestructible force of destruction.

However, the flames proved ineffective against the unknown creature.

Ineffective meant they ignited only to inexplicably extinguish.

Ye Chen snorted coldly and summoned the Eternal Immortal River, submerging the creature in it.

Roar!

The unknown creature was even more domineering, unleashing a sea of blood that countered and devoured the Eternal Immortal River.

"Ignoring everything?"

Ye Chen was frustrated. This monster, whose cultivation he couldn't discern, felt more exhausting to fight than a Huang Di. Even eternal power seemed useless—what was the point of continuing?

Roar! Roar!

The two creatures roared in unison and pounced on Ye Chen and the Nü Di respectively.

Boom! Bang! Boom!

The two-on-two battle erupted in full force.

Ye Chen expanded his Eternal Great Realm, standing within it like a majestic war god from myth, his presence shaking the eight desolate regions of the universe.

But it wasn't enough.

His so-called might was meaningless before the unknown creature. The Eternal Great Realm was breached, and everything inside—mountains, rivers, grasses, and trees—was splattered with emperor blood. His indestructible sacred body was torn to pieces.

The Nü Di fared even worse.

She remained as stunningly elegant as ever, having also manifested her Eternal Great Realm, which was even more profound than Ye Chen's, with landscapes and vegetation pulsing with life.

Alas, she too was outmatched.

After an unknown number of rounds, her Eternal Great Realm collapsed, and her immortal body nearly perished.

In contrast, the two unknown creatures were completely unharmed.

Though they looked hideous, they were incredibly fierce. Without any special divine abilities or secrets, they still forced the two Quasi-Huang Di to retreat repeatedly, as if the creatures were the true gods dominating all.

Retreat!

Ye Chen gritted his teeth and fled.

The Nü Di did the same.

They couldn't keep fighting; they would be reduced to ashes if they did. It wasn't that the two of them were weak—the unknown creatures were just too bizarre, growing stronger with each hit while remaining unscathed. At this rate, defeat was inevitable.

Roar! Roar!

As the pair escaped, the two unknown creatures chased relentlessly. Mid-pursuit, they merged back into one, their pressure intensifying and their savagery escalating. With three massive eyes and three gaping maws, they unleashed bursts of black light nonstop, lacking grand visions but wielding devastating power.

Awkward!

Ye Chen coughed dryly, and the Nü Di did the same.

The two supreme commanders of all living beings across the heavens and the two epochs had their first joint venture outside the universe end in a thrashing. How could it not be awkward?

By now, they still had no idea what that thing was.

All they knew was that it was incredibly tough and powerful, subduing the Heavenly Court Nü Di and the Great Chu Emperor completely, leaving them unsteady on their feet.

"Not a Huang Di?"

Ye Chen muttered to himself. A Huang Di without combat awareness couldn't possibly be this strong. So, there was only one possibility: the creature behind them was an existence surpassing Huang Di—lacking a spirit, consciousness, and thus fighting at reduced capacity. If it were whole, a single palm could turn them to ash.

If that were true, then they hadn't lost face.

The world outside the universe was truly a place of wonders, capable of birthing such entities. Bringing it into the universe would spell catastrophic disaster.

"If the little one were here, he could surely hold the line."

Ye Chen grumbled. He had witnessed the little one's power before. In the original timeline, that purple-robed youth who went to the unknown was a god transcending the heavenly dao, yet he was beaten down by the little one and couldn't lift his head.

In Ye Chen's view, that purple-robed youth was stronger than the unknown creature—at least he had full combat awareness, unlike this one, which just rampaged blindly.

"What is that?"

The Nü Di whispered, interrupting Ye Chen's thoughts.

Ahead, they spotted a glow—a burst of radiant light in the endless darkness, like a dazzling pearl.

As they approached, they realized it was an immortal sea.

Indeed, an immortal sea, shrouded in immortal mist and divine aura, exuding ancient majesty. A silver waterfall cascaded from within, stirring visions of a wondrous world, or perhaps an entire wondrous realm, faintly visible and blurring the line between reality and illusion.

"Who placed that there?"

Ye Chen murmured, his use of "placed" implying deeper meaning. In the vast void outside the universe, how could such an immortal sea exist?

As he spoke, the two stepped inside.

In an instant, they both retreated. They had entered unharmed, but upon exiting, both were covered in fresh blood, their radiant eternal glow extinguished. Ye Chen was still in relatively good shape, but the Nü Di suffered greatly—one of her jade arms had been reduced to ash by a wisp of immortal energy.

What the hell.

That wasn't an immortal sea—it was a trap! They had barely escaped.

Ye Chen cursed inwardly and fled with the Nü Di.

Roar!

Behind them, the unknown creature pursued, its face twisted in ferocity, claws flailing as it swept forth waves of murderous energy that engulfed swaths of darkness. Fortunately, Ye Chen reacted quickly enough to avoid being caught.

Strangely, upon seeing the immortal sea, the unknown creature ignored them. Its three heads twisted rigidly, and its three blood eyes rolled about, gazing at the sea with a hint of confusion.

Pfft! Pfft!

Not far away, Ye Chen and the Nü Di steadied themselves, only to spit up blood before they could fully stand.

How embarrassing—they were like two unlucky souls!

Their supposed honeymoon had turned into a beating, and they had nearly fallen into a pit.

So, venturing outside the universe required caution at every step.

One wrong move, and they might end up at the gates of the underworld.

Quasi-Huang Di? What a joke.

Ye Chen mocked himself, and the Nü Di did the same. In the heavens and universe, they were equals to Huang Di, but out here, they were mere insignificant specks in the vast expanse.

Roar!

As they watched, the unknown creature stepped into the immortal sea.

It emerged unscathed, at least not as battered as Ye Chen and the Nü Di had been.

Dong!

Soon after, a sound echoed from the immortal sea.

It resembled the striking of metal with a heavy object, the dong resonating with waves of light that made the sea surge violently. Don't underestimate those waves—a single one could swallow a Quasi-Huang Di into oblivion.

The Nü Di knew this all too well.

Earlier, it was a strand of immortal energy from the sea that had destroyed her jade arm. Imagine the terror of the waves formed by such energy—anything below Huang Di level shouldn't even approach.

Kuang dang!

Quickly, another sound rang out, even crisper than before.

The two emperors strained their eyes.

This time, they glimpsed it vaguely: deep in the immortal sea hung a Qingtong Gu Guan, larger than an ordinary coffin. The unknown creature was striking this bronze ancient coffin—the dong sounds came from that.

"Coffin."

Ye Chen narrowed his eyes slightly.

The Nü Di furrowed her brows.

They could accept the unknown creature outside the universe and even the terrifying immortal sea, but what was this Qingtong Gu Guan?

Who was buried inside?

This was what they desperately wanted to know.

A single Qingtong Gu Guan could generate such a fearsome immortal sea—what must the person inside be like? Undoubtedly, a being surpassing the heavenly dao.

"Coming out here has truly broadened my horizons."

Ye Chen sighed. If the heavens were merely a star, then this boundless void was the vast universe, full of unknown existences that inspired awe in him.

Dong! Dong!

The unknown creature didn't stop, wielding weapons in its six arms—blood knives, battle axes, divine hammers—and diligently struck the Qingtong Gu Guan.

Ye Chen and the Nü Di both retreated.

Though the dong sounds were clear, they were like demonic echoes, impossible to resist. They made the two emperors' minds tremble violently, and even reciting the Eternal Sacred Heart Mantra couldn't steady them. Any ordinary Quasi-Huang Di listening to a couple of these sounds would likely be shaken to dust.

"Who is buried there?"

The pair didn't leave; they stared intently. What kind of bronze coffin was this, that even the fearsome unknown creature couldn't break it? For someone to be buried in such a coffin, they must have been on an unimaginable level!