Chương 349: Strange aura

"Someone is breaking through to the deity realm?" He muttered. He couldn't mistake that strange wave of energy. It also appeared back when crimson Chen was making his breakthrough and had spread out to unknown distance. Long Feng could roughly tell the direction where the breakthrough was occuring and it was likely that many other peak Imperials would be rushing over there to know who was about to become a deity.

"Whoever it is, they are definitely lucky. Maybe it's a true essence pill? Or the person got some sudden enlightenment and is breaking through naturally? If they complete their breakthrough before the inheritance ground closes, i suppose they would rush here at full speed." Whichever one it was, Long Feng didn't really care. He was already about to face ten powerful early stage deities. One more weaker deity wouldn't make any difference.

He patiently waited for a few more hours before he rose to his feet and approached the palace doors.

"They should be far away by now." He stood before the massive doors that were parted slightly and peered into the darkness behind them. There was nothing to be seen, only darkness that seemed to move.

"Alright. Try not to die." He reaffirmed them walked straight into the palace, truly stepping into the inheritance ground. He felt a slight change in the atmosphere for a split second and all he could see was darkness before the surroundings lit up a bit. Long Feng's face turned slightly pale as a gush of aura swept over him even before he could observe his surroundings. The aura was so dense that it felt like a rushing river. His Imperial energy was almost fully suppressed to within his body.

Immediately he tried to release it, it would disperse rapidly. At this rate, he would be lucky if he could unleash thirty percent of his power. That was roughly the strength of a rank three Imperial which was useless in a place like this.

"The density of my energy is greater than normal so I can fight at thirty percent power. As for other Peak imperials, ten percent of their full strength should be the limit." He pondered. He didn't expect the suppression to be so severe. He was essentially a fish on the chopping board in this place with the strength of a rank three Imperial. If he run into a danger that could threaten peak Imperials or deities, then he was more or less done. And if he ran into one of the ten deities, then...

"Wait a minute, with this kind of suppression, not even deities should be excluded. My best guess is that they're also suppressed even a tiny bit." He frowned.

"Even so, killing me would be a breeze to them." He glanced behind him and just as expected, the palace doors were nowhere to be seen. It wasn't like he was going to escape anyway. He was merely considering it just in case things got even worse. He began to observe the large hall that was in. The walls and floor were made of some sort of dark wood that complemented the suppression effect of the hall. The end of the hall was nowhere in sight. It seemed to extend endlessly.

Without sunlight, the place would've been pitch black if it wasn't for the glowing crystals held up by special stands at specific locations. With their light, the hall wasn't plunged into total darkness. Through the dim light, Long Feng could see many pieces of crushed metals littering the ground from a certain point onwards. He walked over and picked up a few broken shards to observe them closely.

"These are materials similar to the training puppet back in my pavilion." He observed and noticed a faint aura remaining within the shards.

"Hm, their remnant auras are only equal to peak Imperials, and they should've been destroyed not long ago." This deduction caused some confusion in his mind as it conflicted with somethings he knew.

"I don't understand. The remaining aura in them shows that they weren't destroyed long ago. The only possibility is that they were smashed by the ten deities, and their strength really is enough to destroy dozens of peak Imperial puppets. But..." that wasn't the main point. Stolen novel; please report. According to the information he knew, the serene heaven mystic realm had opened multiple types in the past, and each opening had a few deities trying to clear the inheritance ground.

That meant things like puppets by the entrance should've been destroyed long ago. The only thing that should be left should've been trial formations and not things like puppets.

"This shouldn't be possible unless the wardens send more puppets in after each opening to keep the difficulty constant." Considering it, this actually made sense. Since the wardens could open the mystic realm, then they should be able to do something as simple as replacing broken puppets with active puppets.

"Well, it appears that the deities have cleared the path for me. I can simply follow their trail and see where it leads." He paused this line of thoughts and frowned again.

"That brings up another doubt. If I can think of this and follow the trials of the deities, then past imperials should've thought of it as well. At least, the first Imperials to enter the inheritance ground should've done this. How did they all die? Things aren't adding up." He pondered on this for a minute before setting it aside temporarily. Right now, he had one objective; to survive, stay away from the deities and try to gain as much as he could.

His belief was that as long as he could avoid the deities, especially Bai Zijun, then his chances of surviving would at least be sixty percent. Unless it directly involved him, he wouldn't care about anything else. But he was still keeping his guards up at all times. He had a feeling the deaths of the imperials wasn't as simple as just the trial. He was walking the same path so it was likely that he would face whatever killed them.

There was the possibility that the deities would simply work together to kill all the imperials but that didn't fill the blank spaces. Why would the deities do something do distasteful? Long Feng threw the shard he was holding away and walked deeper into the hall that didn't have an end in sight. The deeper he went, the denser the natural energy became until it could compare favourably with the natural energy outside the mystic realm. At the same time, the strange aura got denser as well.

The suppression got stronger until at some point, Long Feng's energy was completely sealed. He couldn't unleash even a strand of his aura, not to mention fight or use skills. He was essentially as weak as a mortal here, just with a tougher body. What made him relieved was that his soul power and physical strength weren't affected as much. Even then, he was only about as strong as a rank one imperial with his physical strength and soul power. He was so troubled by this that he paused midway.

"The aura is getting even denser. My energy circulation inside my body is being affected, and it is also began to affect my soul power and physical strength. What exactly is this aura? If I run into danger like this, then I'm dead. It's way too risky to continue moving even for me." He usually took risks, but there was a limit. He had his strength to back himself up no matter what which made him a bit confident. But now, that strength was gone. If he kept moving, he would soon become like a mortal.

Even a bit of danger would our his life in great risk. He had to seriously consider whether it was worth it.

"I have an idea that whatever this aura is, it is the major cause of deaths in this place. Should I go ahead or stop here and retreat?" He pondered. He was already aware that there was no exit. His only option if he chose to retreat would be to wait until the Inheritance ground closed. If he was alive, he would be sent out. But who was to say that he would be safe if he stayed here? He had a feeling that it would be safer for him to keep following the trail of the deities. They had already cleared the path for him.

"Even they are having a hard time apparently. They aren't smashing the puppets to pieces anymore, only incapacitating them." At the beginning, the puppets were being reduced to tiny shards; evident of the ease in destroying them. But now, Long Feng could spot a nearly complete puppet with many holes and damages on it's body. This was proof that the deities were also weakening under this aura. Even peak Imperial puppets weren't easy for them to destroy anymore.

"What am I thinking? Even now, they can still destroy peak imperial puppets while I'm already next to powerless. Deities are monsters indeed. This must be entirely due to their true essences." Without true essence, the deities themselves wouldn't have been able to continue much longer. Long Feng was temporarily in a dilemma. His mind and senses were telling him that he had reached his stop. If he continued further, he would be surpassing his limits. As for what would happen, he didn't know.

But he wasn't willing to quit. For once, he wasn't ready to follow his instincts. If he left now, he would gain nothing. He would still stay under the shadows of deities for a long time before he could gain the power to face them. As for the inner peak test, he could forget about it if he left now.

"I won't feel at peace if I stop now. There's no clear sign of danger. I should go further for a while then return if this hall still doesn't come to an end." He decided. This was the best he could accept. If he left without even seeing the danger, he would weaken his own resolve. Perhaps in the future, he would begin to flee from danger he didn't even know about. That completely went against him principles. Having come to a decision, he trod on, moving deeper into the hall.

He seemed to have crossed an invisible line that he couldn't sense when he kept going. The surrounding strange aura seemed to change slightly but he couldn't sense that at all. He didn't sense anything wrong until a few minutes later. While his energy was suppressed to within his body, he was still able to constantly circulate the energy through his meridians to keep the aura from entering his body. But just now without warning, his energy circulation was suddenly frozen by some invisible force.

His body immediately became utterly defenseless. His face paled dramatically as he staggered backwards and coughed as a line of blood flowed down the side of his lips. The aura poured into his defenseless body without restraint and the feeling was reminiscent of a mortal facing the aura of a deity. One could imagine the suffocating pressure. A normal mortal would die instantly under the complete aura of a deity surging into their body. But Long Feng could still resist slightly due to his tough body.

On it's own, his strong body could put some resistance against the aura, protecting him to some extent. Gasping heavily with sweat dripping down his forehead, Long Feng leaned on the wall.

"What… what's going on?" Large beads of sweat rolled down his cheeks and dripped on the ground.

"Could this be how other peak Imperials die? What is this aura?" Now that the aura was entering his body, Long Feng could sense it more deeply than before. He was resisting only due to his tough body and his soul power. Without those, he would already be dying slowly. He roughly calculated that another peak Imperial in this situation would be immobilized and die within minutes. Even he was feeling his bones weakening rapidly. Even moving a bit was a huge effort.

The feeling was like his body parts were being replaced by extremely heavy metals. What really shocked him was the suddenness of it all. There was no prior alert, no obvious sign of danger or anything. Even now, he had no idea what was causing this exactly. Everyone had an instinctive fear for the unknown, and he wasn't an exception. His heart rate slowly increased as he struggled to move his body and retreat. His instincts were screaming a single thing to him.

If he didn't leave right now, he would lose all ability to move and watch as he died slowly!