Extreme Spirit Chaos Technique

"Ten Thousand Scriptures!"

That was the book’s name. Before Mu Chen could even open the first page, he suddenly felt the world around him begin to tremble. A golden ray of light shot out from somewhere in the cave, enveloping both him and the Ten Thousand Scriptures.

The moment the golden light touched him, however, Mu Chen found himself paralyzed, unable to move an inch.

Mu Chen’s expression changed drastically. "What’s going on!" he exclaimed.

But no matter how he circulated the Extreme Spirit Chaos Technique, he couldn’t summon the Primordial Power in his body. His expression grim, Mu Chen gradually calmed down. ’If this beam of light really wanted to harm me, it wouldn’t just be immobilizing me. Could there be someone else in this cave?’

As he was thinking this, Mu Chen suddenly noticed the golden light flicker. A powerful suction force yanked both him and the Ten Thousand Scriptures backward. The speed was incredible, and his vision turned completely black. Pulled along at such a tremendous velocity, Mu Chen quickly lost consciousness.

Within his Sea of Souls, Mu Chen was lying suspended in mid-air. The Extreme Spirit Pearl emitted a soft glow as a wisp of mist drifted out from it, enveloping his consciousness as if to protect him. Time flowed by slowly. After an unknown period, the blackness of the outside world suddenly shifted, replaced by a new scene.

Inside his Sea of Souls, the white mist protecting his consciousness slowly retreated. After the Extreme Spirit Pearl made a reverse rotation, the wisp of mist returned within it. Mu Chen’s consciousness flickered twice before finally stabilizing. The scene before his eyes gradually sharpened from a blur into focus, but when he saw his surroundings clearly, he froze.

’Isn’t this... outside the cave?’

A calm lake, a gently flowing waterfall, pleasant flowers and trees, a faint mist, and... an egg, resting on a strange rock in the middle of the water.

’Wait... an egg! Why is there an egg?’

Mu Chen stared in astonishment at a cyan rock floating on the lake. The rock was incredibly strange. Its bottom was flat and smooth, hovering half a meter above the water’s surface as it bobbed up and down. Three cyan prongs extended upward from the top, and nestled between them was a transparent egg.

That’s right, it was definitely an egg. Complex patterns were etched onto its shell, constantly shimmering with multicolored light, giving it a uniquely wondrous glow.

THUMP-THUMP...

Listening closely, he could hear a distinct heartbeat coming from the egg. ’Those are signs of life! It’s alive!’ Mu Chen rubbed his temples. This place looked identical to the area he had been in before, but the egg hadn’t been there. His eyes snapped open, and a purple light flashed as the six snowflake imprints in his pupils began to rotate once more. This time, however, after scanning his surroundings, Mu Chen found that everything here was real, not an illusion.

After a moment of contemplation, Mu Chen decided not to investigate the egg just yet. He had a nagging feeling that there was danger lurking near it. He explored the area around the lake and found no treasures, only plants and trees. However, when he tried circulating his Extreme Spirit Chaos Technique, he made a strange discovery: the surrounding Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi completely ignored him. Instead, it all spontaneously converged on the egg. This bizarre phenomenon left Mu Chen utterly baffled.

To prove that this place was different from the world outside, Mu Chen walked behind the waterfall. Sure enough, there was a passage there, and it looked identical to the one he had just come through. Mu Chen cautiously made his way to the end of the tunnel. He kept his Purple Sky Demon Pupils active the entire time, but no matter where he looked, everything appeared solid. In other words, everything here was real.

As Mu Chen walked slowly, the end of the tunnel drew nearer. The room ahead was unchanged, but to his utter amazement, when he stepped inside, he saw a skeleton sitting cross-legged on the stone bed, its posture perfectly straight. Mu Chen’s thoughts were in a jumble. ’Two places that look identical, yet they’re like different worlds... A mysterious egg, a skeleton... What did that golden beam want by bringing me here?’

He glanced around. The cave was only about a dozen square meters, containing just a stone table and a stone bed. Nothing else. Judging by the weathered state of the clothes on the skeleton, it must have been dead for many years. As Mu Chen drew closer, he was stunned to discover that the skeleton’s bones were silver, flecked with hints of gold. This single observation led him to a shocking conclusion. ’A peerless expert once lived here. This expert’s Martial Artist Realm had reached the Peak of Venerable... No, he might have even had one foot in the Saint Realm! Then these aren’t an Emperor’s Relics at all—they’re a Venerable’s Relics!’

"A Venerable... and a Peak Venerable, no less," Mu Chen murmured, staring at the skeleton.

Suddenly remembering the etiquette of the Extreme Martial Continent, Mu Chen quickly clasped his fists and bowed deeply. "Senior, this junior, Mu Chen, has disturbed you unintentionally. I pray your spirit will not hold it against me."

Having said his piece, Mu Chen let out a long breath. But just as he raised his head, a silver gleam flashed from one of the skeleton’s finger bones. Mu Chen started, and upon focusing his gaze, he saw that the source of the light was an ancient, silver ring. He took two steps forward, bowed once more, and then carefully removed the ring from the skeleton’s finger. He slowly enveloped the ring with his Spiritual Power, then cautiously probed it with a single wisp.

To his pleasant surprise, the result was a success. A Venerable’s Spiritual Power was typically incredibly powerful, meaning any Spiritual Mark they left behind would be equally formidable. With his Spiritual Power only at the Kan Realm, Mu Chen could at most penetrate a ring used by a First-Ring Martial King. But just now, his Spiritual Power had entered this ring without meeting the slightest resistance.

Soon, Mu Chen established a spiritual connection with the ring. With a single thought, its contents appeared on the table. But as soon as he saw what was inside, his spirits plummeted. The ring’s so-called contents consisted of just a single notebook. Fortunately, thanks to the protection of the Storage Ring, the notebook had been perfectly preserved.

Driven by curiosity and paying no mind to the Venerable’s remains behind him, Mu Chen sent out a surge of Primordial Power to blow the dust off the table. He then opened the notebook and began to read.

"Third month of year 200, Extreme Martial Calendar. I, Wan Gu, single-handedly defeated the three Great Venerables of the Central State. Though heavily injured, I killed one of them and escaped using a Secret Technique."

"Fourth month. While fleeing, I happened upon a remote town. I stayed for a few days, but I dislike the clamor, so I headed west."

"Fifth month. After a month of searching, I finally found an excellent place to recover. I named it the Cave of Ten Thousand Bones and carved the name onto the stone wall."

"Tenth month. The weather was fine today, and my body has finally recovered completely. I was planning to leave, but I suddenly sensed an unusual fluctuation of Primordial Power from deep underground. Curious, I began to explore downward. After a few days of triangulating the fluctuations, I finally got a set of spatial coordinates. I used Instant Teleportation and found myself... still in the Cave of Ten Thousand Bones. But to my surprise, this place also seemed different from the cave I knew."

"An egg. I saw a strange Magical Beast Egg radiating boundless Primordial Power. Yes, it had to be a Magical Beast Egg. I stayed here for several months, but it never hatched. The surrounding space seemed to contain an infinite amount of Primordial Power, which constantly converged on the egg. I tried to seize some of that power for myself, but my actions triggered the egg’s wrath. A vision suddenly appeared—a massive phantom of an Ancient Strange Beast descended from the sky. It threw its head back and roared, and a terrifying wave of Primordial Power washed over me, leaving me severely wounded and on the brink of death."

"I will never forget the look of contempt that Wilderness Strange Beast shot me after it struck me down. It was like one of the Divine Beings, something one can only gaze upon in awe. The Primordial Power fluctuations from a mere phantom were enough to rob me of my ability to fight. After that, I began to notice certain details about this place."

"This place and the Outer Realm are not part of the same world. This is an Independent Space, the kind only a Venerable can create. And yet, this space is teeming with life. Only a Martial Emperor could achieve such a feat. But Martial Emperors vanished ten thousand years ago. This proves that this Independent Space has existed for over ten thousand years, and this mysterious egg has been here for at least that long."

"Furthermore, judging by the ancient phantom, this egg must belong to an Ancient Giant Beast! I was ecstatic. If it truly is an Ancient Giant Beast, and I am the first person it sees when it hatches, it will surely imprint on me as its parent. Once it matures, who in this world could possibly be my match?"

"With this hope in mind, I waited. Hundreds of years passed. In all that time, the Mysterious Egg never showed any signs of hatching, only occasionally releasing powerful fluctuations of Primordial Power. To prevent anyone else from detecting these fluctuations and entering this space as I had, I used my most powerful Secret Technique, the Ultimate Illusion Realm, to seal it off. The key to entering this space is a book from my collection, which I’ve kept in my ring and never taken out."

Reading this, Mu Chen felt his blood boil. ’The egg of an Ancient Giant Beast... That egg is actually from an Ancient Giant Beast!’ The revelation was enough to drive him mad with excitement.

His throat suddenly felt dry. Mu Chen swallowed hard and continued reading. "My wait stretched into centuries. Time passed. I considered giving up many times, planning to leave and only return to claim the beast when it hatched. But I was always worried the Mysterious Egg would hatch while I was away, or that someone else would discover it and steal it first."

"As I waited in this state of nervous anticipation, the end of my life drew ever closer. By cultivating all day in the Cave of Ten thousand Bones, I lacked the crucible of life-and-death battles, and my progress slowed to a crawl. I spent nearly eight hundred years just to touch the threshold of the Saint realm. But by then, my lifespan was already exhausted. Filled with regret, I could only pass away here in meditation."

"Sigh. To think that I, Wan Gu, was once a major figure in the Central State. To leave some mark on this world, I placed the Ten Thousand Scriptures—the key to entering the seal—inside the Cave of Ten Thousand Bones and locked it away with Multiple Illusion Skills. A fated person who obtains it will be able to enter this Independent Space. However, you will face a hidden test here: a test of greed. If, upon entering, you immediately try to seize the Mysterious Egg, I can tell you now that you will undoubtedly die. But if you can resist that temptation and find your way into this inner cave, then you will receive the fruits of my research and my understanding of the Mysterious Egg."