Chapter 3235: Ancient Battlefield Beyond the Universe

Ah!

Wu Wang Mo's roar drowned out the sound of thunder, filled with fury and despair.

Ye Chen and Nü Di both felt their hearts tremble.

Judging by the sound, Wu Wang Mo wasn't just being beaten; he was being brutally thrashed. He clearly wasn't a match for the Xiao Wa. He had spouted the harshest words but received the most savage blows.

The number one figure in Zhutian was truly making a spectacle of himself.

This was what both Ye Chen and Nü Di wanted to say.

Ever since they left the universe, the two of them had been out of place and awkward at every turn.

Meanwhile, the Xiao Wa was unstoppable, fighting wherever it went. Apart from sleeping, it was either battling or on its way to a battle. It had dealt with the person in the coffin, hammered the unidentified creature, beaten the Wai Yu Huang Mo, and now even left Wu Wang Mo unable to stand.

Roar!

Amid the rumbling, they heard another roar.

It didn't sound like it came from a human cultivator.

The roar was three parts like a dragon's cry and seven parts like a lion's roar, truly domineering and overwhelming. Even Ye Chen and Nü Di, who had just steadied themselves, let out another muffled groan.

"A third party is joining the battle."

Ye Chen narrowed his eyes, straining his vision, but all he could see was a haze of chaos. Within the chaos, he made out a third massive figure, not much smaller than Wu Wang Mo.

"Xu Wu Mo," Nü Di murmured softly.

The name was accurate.

The newly joined third party was indeed enveloped in a shroud of Xu Wu light.

Now it was two against one.

The two emperors couldn't help but worry for the Xiao Wa, unsure if it could hold its ground.

"You have bullied us too much."

The words that followed completely eased their concerns.

The statement came from Xu Wu Mo.

The implication was clear: even teaming up with Wu Wang Mo, they still couldn't defeat the Xiao Wa marked by the "Xing" character. First, it was one being hammered; now, both demons were getting thrashed.

Boom! Bang! Boom!

The battle grew even more massive, with the Xiao Wa taking on two opponents and dominating the heavens and earth.

There were plenty of angry howls, mostly from Xu Wu Mo and Wu Wang Mo, filled with rage. The louder they howled, the more viciously they were hammered.

The sounds of the battle eventually faded away.

The two great demons must have fled, as the booms grew distant.

Ye Chen and Nü Di chased after them relentlessly.

They weren't particularly interested in Xu Wu Mo or Wu Wang Mo; they were after the Xiao Wa. They wanted it to return the segment of time it had swallowed, and then it could fight however it pleased.

Unfortunately, they lost track of them.

The vast Wai Yu Xu Wang fell silent once more, eerily still.

"Where did it go?"

Ye Chen looked frustrated. When they were searching, they couldn't find it, but when they weren't, it was bouncing around everywhere.

"Stop," Nü Di said softly.

Not far away, there was an unidentified life form. It was just a puddle of bloody sludge, occasionally wriggling and floating, making one feel nauseous at the sight.

Ye Chen stepped through the Xu Wang and examined it up close.

This puddle of bloody sludge seemed to have originated outside the universe. It had no Yuan Shen, no cultivation to speak of, yet it possessed an extremely strong devouring power. It had swallowed chunks of floating matter in the Xu Wang, and when Ye Chen approached, it even tried to devour his Sheng Ti.

Don't think it was qualified.

It was quite an anomaly, actually ignoring Yongheng and able to absorb Yongheng light.

Buzz!

Ye Chen summoned the Hun Dun Ding and drew it inside, suppressing it with great divine abilities. One day, he would take it back to Zhutian for thorough research; it might reveal some secrets.

"Da Huang Shen Tie."

Nü Di's eyesight was sharp as always; she spotted a treasure. It was about the size of a fist, irregularly shaped, radiating dazzling divine light. Etched on it were numerous invisible divine patterns, and the entire piece of Shen Tie was buzzing with vibration.

"Luck is on our side." Ye Chen reached out and took it.

He had heard of Da Huang Shen Tie before. Such an object didn't exist in the Zhutian universe. It was even more domineering than Bu Mie Xian Jin, the supreme material for forging emperor weapons. He never expected to encounter it here; seeing it in person was better than hearing about it.

"It's incredibly heavy."

Ye Chen clicked his tongue. This fist-sized Shen Tie felt heavier than a mountain in his hand.

Beyond that, it was its hardness.

As a quasi-huang at full realm, he tried to crush it with force but couldn't even dent it.

"It's probably not formed outside the universe."

Nü Di spoke lightly, taking it for a closer look.

Though the Da Huang Shen Tie was irregularly shaped, one side had a clean sword mark, as if it had been cleaved by a sword. Residual sword intent lingered on the Shen Tie, carrying Yongheng energy that didn't belong to the universe.

"Yongheng Xianyu."

Ye Chen pondered aloud. The aura felt familiar, very similar to the aura carried by the once-destructive giant hand. Thus, this piece of Da Huang Shen Tie must have come from Yongheng Xianyu, likely cleaved by someone from there.

"Boss, why am I still a bit hungry?"

The Hun Dun Ding buzzed incessantly, circling around Ye Chen—or more precisely, around the Da Huang Shen Tie—darting about excitedly. After devouring divine materials for so many years, this one was the most impressive. Its power was beyond imagination.

"You can't swallow it."

Ye Chen said calmly, sealing the Shen Tie with Yongheng and handing it to Nü Di.

Once that was done, the great Ding started circling Nü Di instead. What boss? What master? Forget all that; nothing was more important than filling its belly. It was the ultimate glutton.

Nü Di put away the Shen Tie.

Ye Chen was right; the Hun Dun Ding couldn't handle this divine material. Because this piece of Da Huang Shen Tie was at the Huang Di level, bearing imprints and sword intent that needed to be refined first.

"There's more treasure."

By then, Ye Chen was already striding toward a deeper area.

Nü Di followed.

It wasn't until sometime later that they stopped. The so-called treasure was in this stretch of Xu Wang: ancient war chariots, tattered war banners, and broken weapons stained with blood.

"Gu Zhan Chang?" Ye Chen furrowed his brow slightly.

"It's definitely an ancient battlefield."

Nü Di sounded more certain. Faintly, they could still hear roars and battle cries—the remnants of the ancient battlefield. Though only ruins remained, traces of intent lingered. Over time, such intent would surely turn into evil god thoughts.

The two stepped inside, walking and observing as they went.

This ancient battlefield was terrifying, thick with murderous and baleful energy, cold and desolate. A few strands could even pierce Yongheng armor, damaging one's Dao roots upon entering the body. It wasn't that the energy was overwhelmingly strong; it was because the beings who once fought here were too formidable. From what the two could tell, at least Huang Di-level participants were involved.

Ye Chen stopped in front of a war banner.

Perhaps due to the passage of time, the banner had been eroded by the Xu Wang; it turned to ash at a touch. The patterns and characters etched on it were completely unfamiliar to him—he couldn't trace its origins.

"Ye Chen."

From not far away, Nü Di called out, as if she had discovered something.

Ye Chen withdrew his gaze and appeared beside her in an instant.

What Nü Di had found was a blood-soaked arm. The blood on it hadn't even dried; it was still dripping. Every drop carried an extremely terrifying baleful energy, and even Nü Di, with her cultivation, didn't dare approach too closely for fear of backlash.

"This arm."

Ye Chen narrowed his eyes, as if he had seen it somewhere before.

As he thought about it, he began to perform divination.

Nü Di beside him was already divining as well.

The two used the arm as a base to trace back, trying to uncover its owner's identity.

During the divination, blood trickled from both their mouths.

Clearly, they had both suffered backlash. It wasn't that their skills were insufficient; it was that the person they were divining was far too powerful and terrifying—even just one arm was this dreadful, let alone its owner.

Pfft!

Nü Di spat blood and retreated first. Pushing further would be risking her life.

Ye Chen was more resilient, continuing to force the divination.

In the haze, he seemed to glimpse a vast chaos, impossible to see through no matter how hard he looked.

"Open."

Ye Chen uttered a soft command, using Yongheng to clear a path, layer by layer through the chaotic mists. With each layer he parted, blood overflowed from his mouth; with every layer, an inch of his Sheng Ti exploded, and even his bloodline couldn't regenerate it on the spot.

"Don't push it."

Nü Di warned sharply. Going on like this could lead to his death.

Ye Chen said nothing and pressed on with the tracing.

He parted the chaotic mists layer by layer until he vaguely saw an ancient, weathered figure. Immortal and elegant, clad in purple robes fluttering in the wind, it seemed to stand on the river of time, at the very end of the ages—too distant to reach.

"It's him."

Pfft!

Ye Chen caught a glimpse but also spat blood, with half his emperor body turning to ash.

Seeing this, Nü Di hurriedly applied Yongheng to help.

"No wonder it looked so familiar."

Ye Chen murmured, staggering before barely steadying himself.

"You recognize him?"

"I've seen him."

Ye Chen took a deep breath. He had indeed seen him, in the most original timeline. It was that purple-robed youth who surpassed Huang Di, who had gone to the unknown and even fought the Xiao Wa. At first, they were evenly matched, but in the end, he was hammered down.

He wasn't shocked by this.

In the original timeline, the purple-robed youth existed.

In this timeline, he existed as well, from an extremely ancient era, participating in a massive divine and demonic war, where he lost an arm.

Or perhaps, only this arm remained.

It must be due to an undying obsession that this arm still lingered.

"A great war beyond Huang Di?"

Ye Chen's mind was unsettled. He had witnessed the purple-robed youth's terror in the original timeline—he could rival the Xiao Wa—yet he had perished in that war.

"It's trembling," Nü Di suddenly said.

Ye Chen had noticed too; the arm was trembling, and its fingers had even moved slightly. It was still bleeding endlessly, but the blood turned to ash as it flowed, with occasional flashes of light that made both their eyes bleed again.

"Did the divination stimulate it?"

Ye Chen pondered. Even though the purple-robed youth had fallen, the arm that remained still held supreme authority. Divining it was like challenging that authority.

"Yongheng Tian."

In that instant, they both seemed to hear a roar from the arm, carrying overwhelming rage and a heart-wrenching sorrow. It was unclear if it was from resentment or grief.

Ye Chen fell silent.

Nü Di said nothing, her eyes flickering with uncertainty.

This was the second time they had heard of Yongheng Tian. What kind of existence was it? Especially Ye Chen, who was now eighty percent certain that Yongheng Tian was the one who had slain the purple-haired youth.

That battle must have been incredibly fierce.

This ancient battlefield retained too many roars. Who knew how many Huang Di had fought here, or how many beings beyond the heavenly dao had fallen. A war of that level was beyond imagination, not even in the same realm as the Zhutian universe.

Ye Chen wanted to take the arm with him.

With this arm, he might be able to revive the purple-haired youth.

But he couldn't move it.

As before, the authority beyond Huang Di wasn't something a quasi-huang emperor could challenge. He couldn't do it alone, and even with Nü Di's help, they failed. Not only could they not budge it, but they were also injured by the baleful energy on the arm.

"Let's go."

Ye Chen turned first. They couldn't stay here any longer; the murderous and baleful energy was too strong, even Yongheng couldn't withstand it for long. Staying would risk their minds being devoured.