Battle Through the Heavens: Xiao Yan, who was kidnapped to another world

"Xun'er, do you feel anything?" Looking at the towering soul projections of the Soul Emperor and the Void Devouring Flame that should have stood there, but were now empty, Xiao Yan's throat bobbed, his voice dry as if sandpaper was being rubbed.

“Brother Xiao Yan, you didn’t even notice anything, let alone me…” Xun’er smiled bitterly and shook her head gently.

Although Xun'er's fighting spirit was not much different from Xiao Yan's, and even slightly better, in terms of soul power, she was far inferior to Xiao Yan, who had just broken through to the Heaven Realm. If the soul power of the Emperor Realm was like the blazing sun, then Xiao Yan's soul power was like the bright moon, while she was like an insignificant firefly.

How could a firefly, which is not even as bright as the moon, possibly perceive the changes in the blazing sun?

"So, they really just disappeared like that?"

Xiao Yan raised his hand and pointed into the distance, his fingertips unconsciously drawing a circle in the air, as if to outline the two terrifying projections that had once covered the heavens and the earth. This meant that the two soul projections, which were so large and whose soul pressure was enough to make a high-star Dou Zun prostrate on the ground, had simply disappeared without warning and without a sound? Not even a ripple was stirred up?

"Perhaps... they were taken to the third level by the Soul of the Heavenly Tomb?" Xun'er asked hesitantly, her voice so soft as if she were afraid of disturbing something. "Father said that when he and Senior Xiao Xuan were taken away by the Soul of the Heavenly Tomb, even the ancestors of the ancient clans and the Xiao clan who were nearby could not detect any fluctuations."

"...Perhaps that's how it is." After hesitating for a long time, Xiao Yan nodded.

Xun'er's soul power was not enough to protect her from the unreserved soul pressure of the two Emperor Realm souls. Therefore, after entering the Heavenly Tomb and feeling the two terrifying soul pressures, Xiao Yan used his own soul power to open a barrier that could protect the two of them—a barrier that was stretched to its limit.

Because of this barrier, Xiao Yan and Xun'er were not greatly affected. However, it was also because of this barrier that Xiao Yan's soul power was tightly clashed with that of the Soul Emperor and the Void Devouring Flame. Like a flesh and blood body diving into a bottomless sea, every inch of his skin clearly felt the terrifying pressure that was about to crush everything.

That is why, the moment those two oppressive forces suddenly disappeared, he was the first and clearest person in the first level of this Heavenly Tomb to perceive that 'nothingness'.

Its disappearance was so abrupt and unnatural, as if it had been wiped away by an invisible giant hand.

'Was it really made by the soul of the Heavenly Tomb?'

After exchanging a silent glance, the two set off again, but a lingering shadow had settled in Xiao Yan's heart.

'The Five-Layered Heavenly Tomb, the Soul of the Heavenly Tomb… Could it truly, without a sound, transfer two powerful individuals with Emperor-level souls out of the Heavenly Tomb while they so arrogantly display their existence?'

That's right, they were moved out of the Heavenly Tomb. Although there was no evidence, Xiao Yan was absolutely certain that in that instant, the Soul Emperor and the Void Devouring Flame were not sent to the third level of the Heavenly Tomb, but were sent out of the Heavenly Tomb, just like he and Yao Lao were sent to the other two planes before.

'A five-tiered celestial tomb…are the last two tiers truly celestial tombs?'

Xiao Yan pursed his lips tightly, his lips forming a cold, hard straight line. He suppressed his deep doubts and continued to shoot towards the dark passage leading to the second level, his figure as swift as lightning.

*

Since the soul of the Heavenly Tomb has undergone a complete transformation, the ancient tomb has been free from the bloodshed and carnage of the past.

Even the once-every-twenty-years "grand event," which should have seen countless energy beings and the descendants of the eight clans fight to the death, unexpectedly changed its brutal nature and became peaceful.

Unlike the previous battles between energy bodies and their successors who entered the Heavenly Tomb, after the souls of the Heavenly Tomb undergo a complete transformation, if a soul body voluntarily relinquishes the energy body that constitutes its physical form, it can immediately "reborn" in another location. Even if it is killed by its successors, it can still reassemble its body before the next opening of the Heavenly Tomb, so there is no longer any worry about true annihilation.

It is precisely because of this that the descendants of the eight clans who entered the Heavenly Tomb and the ancient energy beings lingering there present a strange situation that is almost "loving each other".

Of course, this "mutual affection" has its limits.

At least for Xiao Yan, who was on the third level at the moment, he could not feel any difference between the Heavenly Tomb at this moment and the one recorded in the ancient clan's records—he had completely defeated dozens of energy bodies from the Soul Clan, turning them into ashes.

'Still hasn't appeared...'

Once again, Xiao Yan unleashed a punch, shattering an energy body belonging to an unknown generation of Soul Clan powerhouse. The energy dissipated like smoke, then was drawn away by the invisible laws of the Heavenly Tomb. He stopped, stood still, his brows furrowed, and looked up into the deep, endless distance, his eyes revealing undisguised worry.

Nearly twelve hours had passed since the Soul Emperor and the Void Devouring Flame disappeared without warning. He and Xun'er traveled swiftly and finally arrived at the third level.

However, apart from the fact that the energy bodies here are generally more powerful than those in the previous two layers, there is no essential difference between this place and the previous two layers. He could not find the world consciousness that led him here when he broke through the barrier, nor could he find any trace of his ancestor Xiao Xuan who should have been guarding this place.

The third level of the Heavenly Tomb is still shrouded in a vast and ancient stillness, as if all the unknown is still deeply buried behind a deeper mist.

Are you feeling irritable?

A voice rang out without warning beside Xiao Yan and Xun'er. Like a pebble thrown into a still well, the two trembled violently and instinctively retreated dozens of feet, their Dou Qi surging as they focused their gaze—

A young man dressed in light blue clothes suddenly appeared where they had been standing. There was no energy fluctuation around him, just like an ordinary person. But just by standing there, he gave people the illusion that this world could not withstand his casual punch or kick.

“Xiao Xuan… Senior?” Compared to Xiao Yan, who only had a vague guess, Xun’er’s tone was slightly more certain, but there was still a hint of hesitation in her words.

"Ancestor?" Xiao Yan's hand paused slightly, and he spoke in disbelief.

The young man in the blue robe nodded slightly, confirming their guesses. Then, Xiao Xuan's gaze fell on Xiao Yan, and he spoke again, "What are you worried about?"

From the moment Xiao Yan stepped into the Heavenly Tomb, Xiao Xuan sensed that faint but shared bloodline.

Therefore, he was always paying close attention to this junior. From the moment he opened his soul barrier and withstood the overwhelming pressure of the Soul Emperor and the Void Devouring Flame, to the restless agitation between his brows when he shattered the Soul Clan's energy body with a single punch, it can be said that apart from Xiao Yan's deepest thoughts, every move he made after entering the Heavenly Tomb had never escaped Xiao Xuan's perception.

Naturally, this also includes the almost imperceptible action of Xiao Yan summoning several ancient tokens from his Niwan Palace the moment he spoke.

After a brief silence, Xiao Yan raised his head, his gaze intense: "Soul Emperor, Void Devouring Flame... and that unknown, even unknown, powerful figure who silently sent them out of the Dou Qi Continent."

He did not hide it, but he did not withdraw the few tokens in his hand that were enough to instantly activate the Refining Heaven Ancient Array.

Chapter 451 Evil Qi

Upon hearing the first part of Xiao Yan's sentence, a gratified smile appeared on Xiao Xuan's face. He nodded slightly, 'Maintaining constant vigilance against the existence of the Soul Clan, truly worthy of being a descendant of my Xiao Clan!' he thought to himself, his eyes full of approval.

However, when Xiao Yan finished speaking, Xiao Xuan's expression stiffened almost imperceptibly for a moment. If Xun'er, who was beside Xiao Yan, hadn't reacted more strongly, that fleeting lapse in composure might have been noticed by Xiao Yan himself.

"Sent out of the Dou Qi Continent?" Xun'er exclaimed in surprise, her beautiful eyes widening as she looked at Xiao Yan. "Brother Xiao Yan, are you sure?"

For powerful individuals with a lineage spanning over a century or possessing the strength of a Dou Zun, the idea that "beyond the Dou Qi Continent lies an endless void" is common knowledge deeply ingrained in their understanding. Those with the strength of a high-star Dou Zun can enter that endless void. However, to transport the soul avatars of two powerful individuals with Emperor-level souls from the Heavenly Tomb, which was already located within the Ancient Realm, to the outside of the Dou Qi Continent... what terrifying power would be required?

They should at least have the strength of a Dou Di, right?

The last Dou Di, as recognized by the Dou Qi Continent, was the ancient Emperor Tuoshe, who lived ten thousand years ago!

If the ancient emperor Tuoshe were still on the Dou Qi Continent, everyone could imagine what kind of treatment the eight ancient clans, who divided the Tuoshe Ancient Emperor Jade into eight parts and kept them separately, would receive. Therefore, when she heard Xiao Yan say that the soul avatars of the Soul Emperor and the Void Devouring Flame had been sent outside the Dou Qi Continent, Xun'er asked almost immediately.

“It’s not that void space!” Xiao Yan also realized what Xun’er was worried about, shook his head in denial, but his gaze remained fixed on Xiao Xuan. “If nothing unexpected happens… it should be the fourth level of the Heavenly Tomb, but the fourth level of the Heavenly Tomb is not inside the Heavenly Tomb!”

Although Xiao Yan's statement that "the fourth level of the Heavenly Tomb is not within the Heavenly Tomb" is self-contradictory, Xiao Xuan, who understands the truth about the fifth level of the Heavenly Tomb, can understand Xiao Yan's meaning. He even senses from Xiao Yan's scrutinizing gaze that Xiao Yan suspects him of being the "mastermind" who sent the Soul Emperor and the Void Devouring Flame to the fourth level of the Heavenly Tomb. However, he also has things he doesn't understand—

"Neither the ancient clans nor the Xiao clans' records ever contain any information about the true situation of the fourth level of the Heavenly Tomb," Xiao Xuan looked at his descendant curiously. "How did you deduce that the fourth level of the Heavenly Tomb is not only not in the Heavenly Tomb, but not even on the Dou Qi Continent?"

Upon hearing this, a fine layer of cold sweat instantly broke out on Xiao Yan's forehead: the fact that the world consciousness had taken him to absorb nearly twenty different flames in the past year was initially told to Yao Lao and the others by Dan, which meant that the world consciousness had communicated with Dan, or at least knew that he had been taken to other worlds, but Xiao Xuan was unaware of this now...

Did I say something wrong?

Xiao Xuan noticed the cold sweat beading on Xiao Yan's forehead and raised an eyebrow slightly in surprise. Based on his observations over the past day, his descendant was known for his resilient and composed nature; he shouldn't be flustered by such a simple question, unless…

"I understand."

There must be something important your boss hasn't explained yet!

Xiao Xuan felt helpless, but he was used to it. He shook his head and chuckled, no longer asking questions. With a light wave of his sleeve, a gentle yet irresistible force enveloped Xiao Yan and Xun'er.

The next moment, the surrounding scenery changed drastically. When the two came to their senses, they were already in the deepest part of the third level of the Heavenly Tomb. The light here was extremely dim, as if it were an eternal void, deathly silent and desolate.

"This is the deepest part of the Heavenly Tomb."

Xiao Xuan smiled faintly, then pointed to an ancient stone tablet in front of him. This stone tablet stood alone in this pitch-black area that was like a void, lonely and desolate, as if it would last forever. "This is my tomb."

"Soul Emperor? Void Devouring Flame?"

However, compared to the ancient stone tablet that Xiao Xuan pointed to, the figures of the Soul Emperor and the Void Devouring Flame, who appeared silently beside Xiao Xuan, attracted Xiao Yan's attention even more.

"You brought them here?"

After glancing at the wary Xiao Yan, the Soul Emperor's gaze fell on Xiao Xuan, and he asked.

“No, no one helped them,” Xiao Xuan smiled and shook his head. “With the soul power of a Great Perfection of the Heavenly Realm, taking twelve hours to get from the first level to the third level is barely a passing grade.”

"Twelve hours?" The Soul Emperor instantly realized, "The time in the fourth level of the Heavenly Tomb is one three-hundredth of the time in the first three levels?! And its area? How many times larger is it than the outside world?!"

"No, that's not right..." Before he could finish speaking, the Soul Emperor seemed to have thought of something and directly denied his previous words, saying, "To be precise, the time flow in the 'fourth layer' is one-sixtieth of that in the Dou Qi Continent."

Although Soul Emperor did not have Xiao Yan's experience of traveling back and forth between several worlds, his powerful strength gave him a broad perspective that allowed him to quickly recover from his brief excitement and immediately realize that the vast and desolate world could not possibly be contained within the space of the Heavenly Tomb.

"The fourth level of the Heavenly Tomb doesn't have an official name yet; I usually call it the 'Boundary Line,'" Xiao Xuan didn't answer the Soul Emperor's question but looked at Xiao Yan and introduced with a smile, "It's a completely barren continent, ten times the size of the Dou Qi Continent!"

"The concentration of battle qi on that continent is several times higher than that in the Heavenly Tomb. However, the battle qi there is only initially purified and still contains a lot of energy that can damage the meridians. In addition, the flow of time there is far greater than that in the Heavenly Tomb and the Battle Qi Continent, so the two of you don't need to go."

The closeness to Xiao Yan in his words, and the attitude of completely disregarding the Soul Emperor and the Void Devouring Flame, were quite striking.

"Preliminary purification?"

After all, it was just a body controlled by a soul clone, so the Soul Emperor didn't care about the malice in Xiao Xuan's words at all. On the contrary, he began to seriously sense the changes in his body because of the Soul Emperor's words.

"Purification..."

Although the flow of time and the area of ​​the continent on the fourth level of the Heavenly Tomb—no, it should now be called the 'boundary line'—were indeed astonishing, Xiao Yan and Xun'er at least knew that its area far exceeded that of the Dou Qi Continent, so they didn't pay too much attention to it. It was only the word "purification" in Xiao Xuan's words that caught Xiao Yan's attention.

"Is this the residue left after the initial purification?"

But before Xiao Yan could open his mouth, the Soul Emperor spoke up. Looking in the direction of the voice, one could see several wisps of strange and evil black mist, wrapped in his Dou Qi, floating above the Soul Emperor's outstretched right palm. One could vaguely hear the sound of the Dou Qi wrapped in the black mist being corroded.

It's not demonic energy?

Looking at the familiar black mist that corroded Dou Qi, Xiao Yan frowned slightly. Although it looked exactly the same, his extremely sharp soul power allowed him to detect a slight difference between this black mist and the demonic energy... as if it were the difference between Dou Qi produced by cultivating different techniques.

"Quite interesting energy. If you hadn't pointed it out, I wouldn't have even noticed when it entered my body..." Soul Emperor said, carefully examining the black mist above his palm. "It's clearly energy scattered between heaven and earth, but after gathering together, it seems to have gained sentience. While devouring my battle qi, it seems to be trying to re-enter my body..."

Just as Soul Emperor said, the black mist churned rapidly in the battle qi above his palm. Although it occasionally showed signs of trying to break out of the battle qi ball, it mostly seemed to want to re-enter Soul Emperor's body along with his battle qi.

What is this?

Void Devouring Flame frowned. He couldn't detect this energy within his own body, but just looking at the black mist made him feel inexplicably irritable.

"The unpurified form is called evil energy," an unfamiliar voice rang in their ears. "Specifically... it's called alien demonic energy, evil demonic energy, and corpse demonic energy. The fifth level of the Heavenly Tomb, which is the plane they seized, has hundreds of extraterrestrial evil races. No one can recognize which race this evil energy originally belonged to."

As the sound rang out, a fair hand seemed to disregard the distance in space, casually reaching into the powerful Dou Qi in the palm of the Soul Emperor. The energy envelope that would make even ordinary Dou Zun experts tremble with fear was nothing to this hand.

Under the spotlight, her slender fingers precisely pinched the twisting, ominous aura of evil energy, her movements as casual as picking up a willow leaf, yet with an indescribable elegance and absolute control.

Then, apply slight pressure with your fingers.

boo——

A very faint sound, like the cracking of a water-rich fish egg, rang out. The evil energy that had even made the Soul Emperor take notice, containing a strange and corrosive power, was completely annihilated between those slender jade fingers without any chance to struggle. It exploded into a wisp of extremely pure heaven and earth energy, and then silently merged into the surrounding air like a firefly, leaving no trace.

Chapter 452 The Sky

It's global consciousness!

When that familiar, cool voice rang out, Xiao Yan already had a guess in his mind. When he saw the woman who had appeared quietly crush that strange and evil aura with her hand, he was even more certain of the newcomer's identity.

Without the slightest hesitation, he gently squeezed Xun'er's tense hand beside him, signaling her to relax.

Xun'er felt the warmth of Xiao Yan's palm, and her previously wary face softened slightly. Although she remained vigilant, she no longer felt like she was facing a formidable enemy.

On the other side, a moment of hesitation flashed in the Soul Emperor's eyes. He shook his head inwardly. If nothing unexpected happened, the soul of the Heavenly Tomb at this moment should be Xiao Xuan. As for the identity of this woman—

The Soul Emperor's gaze fell upon the Void Devouring Flame, whose face was filled with panic, as if he had encountered some natural enemy...

"It's not the number one ranked strange fire on the Strange Fire Ranking."