Archfiend

Chapter 377: The Gold-Banded Staff (2)

Crash… The sensation was similar to a plug being pulled out from a water-filled bathtub. The sole difference, however, was that a vortex didn’t form here. Instead, the several-thousand-meter area completely sunk down, just like the seawater had been cut out from the other regions.

The roar of a tsunami, like rolling thunder, screamed. In a span of almost less than ten seconds, a massive black hole that was thousands of meters in size took shape! The seawater in the surroundings hung like waterfalls! As if the seawater was under the thrall of some unpreventable element, unable to fill this black hole.

On the deep-black ocean surface, amidst darkness like the inside of a closed fist, the mouth of an abyssal demon opened. And this demon’s mouth was not round, but strangely triangular!

This… This doesn’t make any sense at all… Astonished, Zhao Ziqi took in the scene facing him and said, Even on Earth… a supernatural phenomenon like this has never been recorded…

“You paying attention?” Xu Yangyi’s gaze was like a torch, and he intently surveyed the massive hole on the ocean surface. “This tunnel’s appearance is in the Final 10,000 Miles.”

Zhao Ziqi was silent for a few seconds. Big bro… are we going to go in?

Xu Yangyi didn’t speak.

At this moment, not a sound was heard. One seemed able to hear the beating of their heart. Yet in the next second… the countless coffins gently shuddered and then frantically rushed in!

Swoosh swoosh swoosh! An infinite black flood, the rainfall of coffins, all stormed forth!

Big bro? Zhao Ziqi asked again.

Xu Yangyi mumbled to himself for a few seconds, and a ruthless glint flashed through his eyes. Soon, his left hand waved, and a sword edge rocketed through the sky with a cold air.

Clang! The edge firmly nailed into a coffin. The intensity of its power was extremely skillful. It didn’t split open the coffin, but instead linked Xu Yangyi and the coffin together like a claw. Afterwards, he took a deep breath and allowed a little strength to course through his hand. Like a magnet, he flew towards the coffin.

Swoosh! He lifted open the coffin cover. As expected, a jade sculpture was inside. He then lay down inside and closed the cover.

The Final 10,000 Miles was hiding the Clearcloud Realm’s greatest secret… and also quite possibly Zhang Guangyao’s ascension path from back then! There was no way he couldn’t go!

An intense quake came from outside the coffin. After who knows how long, perhaps ten minutes or an hour… in the wake of the last violent tremor, everything finally calmed down.

Xu Yangyi didn’t get out straight away. On the contrary, he stonily cracked open the coffin by a sliver. Zhao Ziqi’s spiritual sense had already left his body. The earth master transformed into mist and floated out by a hair.

Huh?! Just as he went out, Zhao Ziqi’s cry of disbelief instantly rang out in Xu Yangyi’s spiritual sense. Afterwards, as if he was stunned where he was, not a word left his mouth.

“Ziqi?”

No answer.

“Ziqi!”

Only then did Zhao Ziqi regain his senses and stutter, Big bro… come out… come out and see… This is unbelievable… 

Xu Yangyi lifted open the coffin cover and walked out. As his foot stepped outside, he fell into daze.

This place was the very bottom of the triangular ocean hole. However… this bottom absolutely wasn’t simple! Not too far away from them… he saw a continuous wreckage of several hundred miles of airplanes and ships! 

Under the fathomless waters, they recounted a tale of history. Like behemoths on the ocean floor, they quietly hid here.

Already, starfishes and conchs were crawling all over their frames. Coral and shells grew along their entire lengths. Evidently, they’d rested here for countless years, because one could even see many sea creatures wiggling out from inside, due to the seawater’s abrupt withdrawal.

Nonetheless, this wasn’t the area that shocked Xu Yangyi.

His gaze fell to an object no less than a thousand meters in size at the very middle. If said, he still didn’t risk being certain whether these airplanes and ships were Earth’s, yet upon seeing this object, he dared to immediately confirm that this structure was from his home world!

It… was an immense floating stronghold!

It was sword-shaped. In reality, though, even if it had now crashed, it was like an enormous sword plunged into the seabed. Furthermore, the surface was inscribed with numerous runes. Presently, they were still flashing!

“The Clearcloud Realm definitely doesn’t have the standard to create something like this.” Xu Yangyi took several tiger leaps to the floating stronghold’s side. Somewhat emotionally, he stroked the the giant fortress’s shell. “This is from Earth. As expected… someone from the cultivation world already came here earlier…”

His gaze trailed up the sword-shaped stronghold. As his eyes landed on the very top, they suddenly jumped!

Big bro? Zhao Ziqi saw his expression and asked doubtfully.

Xu Yangyi didn’t reply, rather quickly flying up to the thousand-meter-tall peak. His gaze was like fire. He gently rubbed the several-meter-sized symbol on the surface.

A cloud.

Although it was merely a cloud, and the identity of the carver was unknown, even if so much time had already passed he could still sense the brilliant and honorable flavor. The relaxed brushmanship brought a life of its own to this cloud. Xu Yangyi dared to say that no one under Foundation Establishment could approach it!

“This…” When he saw this cloud, Zhao Ziqi’s expression changed. With incomparable respect, he said in a shaky voice, “Is… that ancestor?”

Xu Yangyi mumbled to himself as he stroked the symbol for a couple seconds, nodding, “That’s right.”

“This… is Ancestor Floatingcloud’s stronghold.”

No one spoke.

At this moment, silence reigned.

Ancestor Floatingcloud had come here!

The one who ascended here was named Zhang Guangyao!

This was too much of a coincidence… and while it was a curious coincidence, such a coincidence could no longer be described as the happenstance that wrote novels! [1]

“Don’t tell me… that Ancestor Floatingcloud inside…” Zhao Ziqi’s voice changed, “i-is from a L-Lesser Thousand Realm?”

Xu Yangyi took a deep breath and pulled back his hand. “It’s quite likely.”

“But there’s still one point that’s I don’t get. This is Daomaster Floatingcloud’s stronghold. Even if he isn’t this Zhang Guangyao, he definitely still came here. How could an upper-realm stronghold crash here? There’s something in this realm that can take down an upper-realm cultivator? Even if a stronghold falls, they can still fly.”

Although talismans were still glimmering on this sword-shaped fortress, cracks from the violent crash were everywhere. Xu Yangyi looked for a few seconds and then raised his leg and walked in without a moment’s hesitation.

Since he’d already come here, how could he return without any gains?

Time passed minute after minute. After two hours, Xu Yangyi stood inside a massive room.

The room was no less than several tens of meters in size. Even now, there were quite a few spiritual force screens glimmering. Many were linked to mortal devices. An overwhelming amount of instruments were twinkling. The integration of cultivation and technology made the room appear as if it was unknown what elements it should’ve been split into.

Furthermore… this place was very dry. Cultivation magiks for sealing were very good. Although Floatingcloud’s stronghold had crashed, the most central captain’s room wasn’t affected.

However, not one person was here.

From since he entered to now, there hadn’t been one person in all of Floatingcloud’s stronghold.

Xu Yangyi mused to himself as he walked over to the side of the complex and refined devices. He differentiated them for a couple seconds and extended his hand into a groove with a practiced motion. Shortly, he plucked out a sparkling, pure spirit stone.

“It hasn’t been a hundred years since it crashed here.” He played with the spirit stone and looked all around. “Operating the Floatingcloud stronghold’s master control room has definitely used up more than a little. Not even a middle-grade spirit stone can keep things going for over a century.”

Zhao Ziqi saw his expression and asked probingly, Big bro, you think… 

Xu Yangyi’s gaze slightly flashed. “If the fortress didn’t suffer major damage here and a spirit stone was still placed in position… then it’s likely that it can still be used.”

He walked over to the control panel and searched little by little. The stronghold was bound to have an engine, and this stronghold had suddenly crashed because of an unknown reason. If that was the case, the crew possibly didn’t have the opportunity to take the engine’s activation equipment.

A few minutes later, he smiled faintly. “Gotcha.”

His hand set down on a crimson compass. As he put his hand in, a stretch of misty white light unexpectedly flared from the device. It was round, and a Taiji was in the middle. The surroundings were engraved full of countless star atlases, and a pointer was directed at the side of a star atlas that Xu Yangyi had never heard of.

This is the stronghold’s focus? Zhao Ziqi asked curiously.

“Should be. A stronghold’s focus can’t be confusing. The more obvious it is, the greater the probability. Besides, whether or not is is, we still have to try to find out.” He firmly pushed down on the Taiji, and the grating sound of machinery suddenly followed. The compass erupted with dazzling white light, and red qi followed along the pattern lines and spread out from the compass’s surroundings in the next moment. In less than a minute, the entire captain’s room, all the devices, and the direction lights on the surface unexpectedly began to twinkle in unison!

Buzz… A low humming sound came from the stronghold, and waves of light shaking were felt. The stronghold was like an old man long covered in dust, quickly finding space to move about. As if it was shaking the dust off its body and stretching out its muscles.

Swoosh… Not waiting for them to sense carefully, a light screen around two meters in size suddenly flashed in front of them. In the middle, a shut-eyed mechanical face slowly opened its eyes.

“Heavens Law-TZ74, rebooting.” An emotionless robotic voice rang out, “Calibrating objectives, inner world ship channel, Y-8327, X-3274.”

“Alert, qi operational systems have sustained severe damage. Alert, cultivation stabilization cabin has sustained damage. Alert, stronghold exterior has sustained damage. Alert, Five Phases Thunder-Descending Cannons have sustained damaged, unable to activate…”

After twenty-somewhat seconds of long alerts, the robotic voice rang out again, “Please display identification.”

Display identification?

Xu Yangyi and Zhao Ziqi stared blankly. Upon seeing them not reacting, the robotic voice spoke again, “Please display identification.”

“If no identification is defined, self-destruct system will activate in sixty seconds. Repeat, if no identification is defined…”

“HL-01, serial number 57314.” Xu Yangyi took a deep breath and said a code that he hadn’t used in over a dozen years.

If the stronghold really was still going to self-destruct, then he could just leave.

Regardless, he certainly hadn’t expected that the face’s two eyes would flicker at great speed, after the light screen was quiet for a few seconds. “Master-brain scans that sub-brain has been dormant for over fifty years. According to internal number sequence, there exists a 41,000% to 60,000% probability. You may use 1% of the sub-brain’s functions. Specifically, the question and answer functionality.”

This was what he wanted.

In his mind, several questions spread out a rapid speed. After three seconds, Xu Yangyi said gravely, “What is this stronghold’s destination?”

On the light screen, the eyes of the Heavens Law sub-brain glimmered. After a couple breaths, the eyes brightened with green light, having judged the question. Devoid of any emotion whatsoever, the robotic voice rang out again.

“In 1834, Stronghold Windbreaker Model was leased by half-step Core Formation cultivator Floatingcloud. The stronghold’s commanding officer Cultivator Freefly placed the order to leave for ‘Clearcloud’.”