Chapter 117: The Journey

"It broke," Sylvia sighed. "Due to internal civil wars and forgotten history, the true inheritances were lost. Today, the title of the ’Nine Primevals’ is merely a ranking given to the nine most powerful mortals in the Empire."

"Who holds those titles currently?" Theo inquired.

"I do not know," Sylvia answered bluntly. "The Obsidian Oracles are not omniscient. There are three categories of existence that our divination cannot pierce."

She raised three fingers. "First, cultivators who have reached the Exarch or Sovereign tiers. Their comprehension of cosmic laws blurs their fate trajectories. Second, individuals possessing divine artifacts designed to obscure karma."

Sylvia lowered two fingers, fixing an intense stare on Theo.

"Third... entities who do not originally belong to this world."

Liana’s eyes narrowed.

Theo remained outwardly calm. "Well, I did recently acquire an extraordinary inheritance."

Sylvia opened her mouth to press the issue, but Theo suddenly recoiled, his expression turning serious.

"The lumen-quartz is burning," Theo warned. "And this time, I am not joking..."

Sylvia was momentarily stunned...

How could her customized quartz trigger so suddenly without her sensing it?

A wet tearing sound echoed from the corridor behind them.

Under the golden glow of the karmic fire, three humanoid figures materialized from the gloom.

They wore the tattered, decaying vestments of ancient Devourer Cult priests.

Their flesh possessed a grotesque sheen, and their sunken eyes radiated a ravenous hunger for living qi.

Instantly, a viscous shadow expanded from the three corpses, distorting the spatial architecture around them.

Just looking at the swirling shadows induced extreme vertigo and spiritual withering.

"A Domain?!" the thought flashed simultaneously through all three of their minds.

Swoosh—

Theo reacted instantly.

Great Sage!

[Neural pathways stabilized.]

The mental fog cleared just in time for a claw to swipe directly at his throat.

Clang!

Theo drew his Crimson Gladius faster than the eye could track, parrying the strike.

However, these Nightmare-Walkers had been preserved and tempered by millennia of highly concentrated miasma.

The blade only left a trail of sparks and a white scratch against the corpse’s arm.

The Nightmare-Walker was absurdly durable.

But as everyone in the Imperial Academy knew, Theo was not a fencer. He was an Abyssal juggernaut.

"Let us test the new artifact," Theo muttered.

He channeled qi into the Shadow-Weave Array Seal tied to his belt, using its optical camouflage to mask his true abilities.

Deep within his foundation, the Parasite class flared to life.

With a sickening crunch of shifting bone and muscle, a pair of colossal, abyssal-drake wings erupted from Theo’s back.

The force of their deployment broke the oppressive spatial pressure of the Nightmare Domain.

The space around Theo seemed to freeze.

He swapped the gladius for his Abyssal Hammer.

Fueled by the physical thrust of his draconic wings and the ignition of his seven External Qi-Cores, Theo swung the hammer with cataclysmic force.

His karmic fire blazed along the heavy iron head, illuminating the screaming faces trapped within the zombie’s shadow domain.

"Roar—!" The ancient Nightmare-Walker let out a shriek that actually sounded like genuine terror.

THUD

The hammer connected.

The Nightmare-Walker was instantly flattened into a paste against the floor.

Theo landed gracefully, folding his colossal wings behind him.

"These Miasma-Walkers are strangely weak," he noted, staring at the flattened remains.

If the pulverized zombie still possessed consciousness, it would have wept blood.

It was wielding a pseudo-Domain and possessed a body tougher than most modern Archons.

Yet it had been entirely obliterated in a single strike by a Sixth-Tier youth wielding the strength of a calamity beast, seven qi-cores, and biologically assimilated dragon wings.

[Parasite class absorbing residual Nightmare Core...]

[Host has gained substantial resistance to dream-based spiritual attacks and spatial distortion.]

Theo felt a cool clarity wash over his mind.

A few yards away, Liana cleanly decapitated her opponent with a crescent wave of Aurora sword intent.

"They were already dead, yet they could project something akin to a Domain," she mused thoughtfully. "It felt similar to the spatial distortion used by the Syndicate."

"That was a Nightmare Domain," Sylvia gasped, having just finished sealing her target with a barrage of explosive divination talismans. "These are Dream-Walkers. The ancient Devourer Cult possessed a specialized branch that weaponized dreams, growing stronger by feeding on the nightmares of sleeping victims. I never expected to encounter them."

Sylvia wiped sweat from her brow and turned back to the frescoes.

She pointed a finger at the leftmost figure among the nine Primeval seraphs.

"Based on the architectural wards..."

"I believe this tomb belongs to him."

***

"Are we missing people?"

Deep within the Ashfall Tomb, inside a pitch-black subterranean aqueduct, rows of petrified cypress trees stood motionless above the water.

Hierarch Malakor paused.

Gaius the Butcher turned around, his cross-eyes struggling to focus in the gloom. He counted aloud, "Hierarch, we have sixty-four men!"

"We descended with thirty-two, you imbecile," a Cult Elder snapped, smacking Gaius on the back of the head. "Wait. Twenty-four. Since when are we missing eight?"

Malakor’s expression fell.

Neither he nor the two Exarch-level Elders had sensed a thing.

"Could the tomb’s master be the primordial Devourer?" Gaius suggested. "Should we commune with the Abyssal Sage’s idol?"

Malakor retrieved a grotesque obsidian idol from his robes.

He channeled his corrupted qi into it, waiting for a response.

Silence...

"Useless," Malakor muttered grimly.

Either the tomb was sealed by supreme anti-divination wards, or their patron deity was slumbering.

"Let us find an exit," Malakor ordered.

They marched along the stone bridges, but the aqueduct seemed infinite.

The scenery repeated endlessly.

Suddenly, Gaius pointed ahead, his face draining of color.

Strewn haphazardly across the stone bridge were eight corpses.

The missing Cultists...

Their faces were twisted in unimaginable horror, yet not a single drop of blood had been spilled.

*Gurgle—*

The black water of the aqueduct began to churn. Thousands of Nightmare-Walkers broke the surface.

But instead of attacking, the abominations simply floated there, their green eyes staring at the Cultists.

"Only an entity of supreme authority could suppress the ravenous hunger of a Nightmare swarm," one of the Exarchs whispered, terrified.

...

Theo knelt on the floor, reviewing the blueprint projected by his suite.

Beside him, Sylvia leaned against a pillar, her face pale.

A thin trickle of blood ran down her chin from the strain of divining the shifting architecture.

She managed a weak smile. "Impressive, am I not?"

Theo had not expected the haughty diviner to fish for compliments while bleeding from her eyes, so he simply gave her a thumbs-up.

He reached into his ring and handed her a cluster of *Blood-Lotus* roots to replenish her vitality.

Liana knelt beside Theo, her delicate hand resting on the hilt of her sword as she traced the lines of the projected map.

"This architecture feels familiar," Liana murmured.

She looked up, her expression turning serious. "I know how to navigate this."

Theo raised an eyebrow. "Are you certain? This is not your ancestral shrine."

Liana’s grip on her sword tightened slightly as she remembered the embarrassing spatial maze Theo had constructed back in his own estate.

"I mean that the layout of this tomb is a Celestial Strategy Board," Liana explained. "The spatial shifts are dictating the moves of the game we played on the mountain peak to disperse the miasma. The tomb is a live match. If you wander blindly, you step into dead zones and trigger lethal execution arrays."

Sylvia wiped the blood from her chin, her eyes widening in shock. "Someone actually solved an Imperial Celestial Match? That is impossible."

"If the match had not been solved, the tomb would not have opened," Theo reminded her.

"True," Sylvia mused in awe. "I wonder what supreme intellect possessed such divinity..."

"It was her," Theo pointed at Liana.

Sylvia blinked.

They navigated the safe zones until they reached a colossal iron gate.

It was flanked by two bronze griffons.

The pedestals were inscribed with Roman numerals from I to XIX.

"What was the first move?" Liana muttered to herself.

She stepped forward, twisting the dial on the left griffon to IX, and the right to XIII.

*Rumble!*

The earth shook.

The entire subterranean palace began to grind and rotate, like a colossal puzzle cube being twisted by an unseen god.

Heavy stone blocks rearranged themselves, aligning the correct chamber perfectly with the gate.

The labyrinth was a perfect safeguard.

It ensured that only the specific individual who solved the celestial match could physically reach the main tomb.

With a deafening crash, the gates swung open.

Theo drew his Abyssal Hammer and led the way.

They stepped into a grand Alchemical Sanctum, easily dwarfing the Imperial Academy’s entire medicinal wing.

Standing behind a colossal jade counter was a Nightmare-Walker. However, this one possessed a profound aura.

It wore the pristine robes of a First Era Chief Apothecary. Its skin was remarkably well-preserved, and its white hair was neatly tied.

"One sovereign citizen may receive one vial per month," the undead Apothecary stated in a hollow voice.

It offered no further explanation.

"A self-sustaining reward," Sylvia noted excitedly.

As long as intruders weren’t greedy, they were rewarded.

However, millennia had passed.

Most of the elixirs on the shelves had deteriorated into toxic ash.

Sylvia carefully inspected a vial.

"A *Triumvirate Ambrosia*. This formula has been extinct for three eras. A flawless preservation."

[Vials are composed of Karma-Sealing Glass. Chemical composition cannot be penetrated without opening.]

Left with no choice, Theo grabbed a random intact vial.

Sylvia glanced at it. "That is *Somnus Extract*. It will give you a very peaceful night’s sleep."

Theo sighed, accepting his mediocre luck.

Beside him, Liana popped the cork on her chosen vial.

She poured the contents into her palm... four crimson, glowing pills.

Without a word, she picked up three of them and handed them to Theo.

"What are these?" Theo asked, genuinely curious.

Sylvia’s expression turned incredibly complicated.

"Something highly potent," Sylvia said slowly.

"What is its primary function?" Theo pressed.

"It is a *Satyr’s Vitality Draught*,"

Sylvia coughed, looking away.

"It... exponentially enhances male virility and stamina for... nocturnal activities."

"....?"