Eternal God Emperor: Only I Am Emperor One

Chapter 52 The Secrets of the Underground
Outside the city of Yunwu, the emperor looked at the Taiyuan Halberd in his hand and his face darkened.

The Taiyuan Halberd is real, but the quest token shows no reaction, indicating that the Taiyuan Halberd was not forged from fragments of the Luo River at all.

He took a deep breath, and a murderous intent rose in his heart.

Unexpectedly, after six months of planning, Liu Chuanshen outmaneuvered them.

After a moment, he shook his head. Liu Chuanshen did not know his true identity and had no reason to tease him about it. It was probably just a wonderful misunderstanding.

It's unclear whether Prince Yunwu was exaggerating or Liu Chuanshen was lying.

Back at the Hidden Dragon Hall branch in the royal city, Zi Qian, who had been waiting for a long time, noticed that Di Yi's expression was somewhat unpleasant and cautiously inquired, "My lord, has the plan failed?"

The emperor remained silent, and Zhao Quanxiao behind him explained the whole story. Only then did Ziqian understand.

"My lord, please calm down. Since the Taiyuan Halberd was not forged from fragments of the Luo River, let's think of another way."

After a moment of silence, Di Yi spoke up: "I plan to try my luck at the Earth Fire Gorge."

“Then I’ll go with you, sir,” Ziqian said. “There are many records about the Earth Fire Gorge in the Underworld Gate. I’ve read them before and have some understanding of the place.”

The Hidden Dragon Hall needs a master to oversee the collection of information related to the Luo River fragments. The four Zhao brothers should not leave Yunwu County.

Zixi is indeed the most suitable person to accompany you on your journey to the Fire Gorge.

"Alright, then I'll trouble you to come with me."

The next day, news of the great battle in the valley spread throughout Yunwu Royal City. The news of the duel between more than ten martial arts legends instantly ignited the entire royal city.

In the black market, the leader of the Yunwu branch of the Underworld Sect died, and the head of the Yunwu County Black Market was seriously injured.

On the royal side, Prince Yunwu was injured, and Wan Chengzhong, the commander of the Imperial Guards, was seriously wounded. In addition, the national treasure, the Taiyuan Halberd, was also lost.

Both the legitimate and criminal forces suffered heavy losses, and many new forces sensed the impending crisis and began to expand rapidly.

All of this is now temporarily irrelevant to Di Yi.

Earthfire Gorge is located in the heart of Heavenly Demon Ridge, a wild and untamed land, and is not within the territory of the Thirty-Six Kingdoms.

After several days of travel, including several counties and tens of thousands of miles, Di Yi and Zi Qian finally arrived at the location of Di Huo Gorge.

The Fire Gorge is five or six hundred miles wide and three thousand miles long.

Back then, the battle between the Four-Winged Earth Dragon and the human saints caused the heavens and earth to collapse and completely changed the topography of the Heavenly Demon Ridge. It was during that battle that the Earth Fire Gorge broke through the underground magma sea, causing countless underground magma to gush out to the surface and scorch out a three-thousand-mile-long dead canyon.

The war between the saints brought destruction to this land, but it also unearthed many ruins buried deep underground.

Di Yi headed towards the place where the four Zhao brothers had discovered the Four Symbols Heavenly Technique on the tortoise shell, while Zi Qian led the way from the side, taking into account the terrain.

Before long, an inconspicuous cave came into view.

"According to the four elders, if we follow this cave inwards, we will reach the ruins where they discovered the Four Symbols Heavenly Technique," Ziqian confirmed after careful verification.

Di Yi activated his True Source Demon Eye and carefully examined the cave before him, but found nothing unusual.

"Come on, let's go in and take a look."

The cave is a labyrinthine network of passageways, and remarkably, it was not destroyed during the holy war.

Following the directions, the two walked for a full hour through the chaotic passage, covering over a hundred miles, before finally finding the ruins.

It is called a ruin, but it is actually just a large cave. Inside the cave is a mound of stones. Under the True Source Demon Eye, you can see the broken white bones under the mound.

The Zhao brothers found the tortoise shell next to this skeleton, took it away, and built a simple grave for the skeleton.

Ziqian scanned her surroundings. The cave was very empty and completely open, with nothing but some broken stone tables and benches.

Di Yi had anticipated the situation here; if there were any other treasures, the Zhao brothers would have taken them with them long ago.

He observed the cave and took out the tortoise shell containing the Four Symbols Heavenly Connection Technique.

The tortoise shell was incomplete, accounting for less than one-fifth of the complete shell.

Where did the remaining tortoise shells go?
The cave walls were smooth and there were no other passages. If someone had discovered this place beforehand, there would be no reason for them to leave behind a piece of tortoise shell.

Emperor Bai was puzzled and activated his True Source Demon Eye to its fullest extent, making everything inside the cave crystal clear.

He searched inch by inch, and after a while, several small gaps in the stone wall caught his attention.

Reaching the stone wall, Di Yi reached out and brushed away the dust in front of the gap, revealing a small hole no more than an inch or two in size.

"what is this?"

Di Yi looked into the cave through the small opening, but it was bottomless.

He tried attaching his mental energy to a pebble and flying into the cave. The pebble continued to penetrate deeper until his mental energy ran out of steam and the connection was lost.

"It's so deep. How could there be such a strange gap in the stone wall?" Di Yi examined the outline of the gap and placed the largest piece of the tortoise shell fragment in his hand on it.

It fits perfectly.

He had a bold conjecture: perhaps these tortoise shells were not originally in this cave, but came from deeper within the rock wall. They were affected by external forces and shot out from the depths of the rock wall, with some of them coincidentally landing in this cave.

So, the rest of the tortoise shell fragments must be inside this stone wall.

After his initial surprise came boundless joy.

I came here with a try-it-out mentality, but I never expected to make such an unexpected discovery.

The gap in the stone wall was inconspicuous. It was understandable that the Zhao brothers, who discovered the cave at the time, were only at the Yellow Realm and did not realize its extraordinary nature.

"Sir, have you made a discovery?" Ziqian saw that he had been standing in front of the stone wall and seemed to have gained something, so she came forward.

Emperor Yi smiled and said, "If I am not mistaken, the remaining tortoise shells that record the Four Symbols Heavenly Scripture should be inside this stone wall."

Ziqian was shocked upon hearing this and looked at the stone wall in front of her in disbelief. How could the tortoise shell be hidden in the stone wall?

Emperor Yi drew the Crow Cry Sword, a twelfth-tier True Martial Treasure that could cut through iron like mud, making it easy to deal with ordinary rocks.

In an instant, sword energy surged, and pieces of rubble continuously fell away.

Before long, Di Yi dug ten zhang deep, and sure enough, a tortoise shell the size of a fingernail appeared among the rubble.

"Sure enough."

Di Yi put away the tortoise shell fragments, his spirits soaring. He used his Sword Heart Clarity to control the Crow Cry Sword, transforming it into a humanoid tunnel boring machine.

Seeing this, Ziqian also joined the digging feast, wielding her Fish Intestine Sword.

The small gap in the stone wall was ridiculously deep. The two of them dug for a whole day, excavating nearly 10,000 feet deep, and collected more than 20 pieces of tortoise shell of different sizes. When put together with the previous tortoise shells, they accounted for about half of the complete tortoise shell.

The tunnels they dug were not parallel, but slanted downwards into the ground. The deeper they dug, the higher the temperature became, and the harder the rocks became.

Zi Qian could hardly help with the Fish Intestine Sword anymore; only Di Yi continued to dig deeper.

They took only one day to reach the first 10,000 zhang, but it took them a full nine days to go from 10,000 zhang to 20,000 zhang. The temperature around them had reached a level that was unbearable for ordinary people, and they needed to consume their true energy to sustain it.

Di Yi became increasingly alarmed as he dug. What kind of power could allow a tortoise shell to penetrate a 20,000-foot-high stone wall? It would have to be at least the work of a saint.

However, the Four Symbols Heavenly Technique was too tempting. If he continued digging, he would have the opportunity to collect the complete tortoise shell and obtain the complete inheritance of this Taoist divine skill.

Several more days passed, and Di Yi dug a full 25,000 zhang before the area in front of him suddenly became open and spacious.

Di Yi gripped the Crow Cry Sword tightly and cautiously stepped outside. The scene before him startled him.

A vast underground world appeared before them. At the center of this underground world lay a gigantic corpse, dozens of miles long, shaped like a dragon, but with two pairs of wings growing from its back.

Ziqian followed him out and was also horrified when she saw the scene underground.

"That's... a four-winged earth dragon?"

They were still hundreds of miles away from the four-winged earth dragon, but the terrifying pressure of the holy path made Ziqian want to kneel down and worship.

"It is said that the imperial army surrounded and killed the four-winged earth dragon, inflicting fatal wounds on it, but they did not find its body. Unexpectedly, the body of the four-winged earth dragon is here."

Zixi stared in amazement at the dragon corpse in the distance.

"This place should be one of the palaces of the Four-Winged Earth Dragon. When it was seriously injured and on the verge of death, it knew that its life was not long, so it fled back to this palace to await its death."

"I don't think so." Di Yi's voice came, and Zi Qian turned her head to look. She saw him walking towards a skeleton not far away.

"How could the palace of a holy dragon be so simple? Although the area here is vast, it really doesn't look like the palace of a four-winged earth dragon."

As Di Yi spoke, he walked up to the skeleton and took the missing piece of tortoise shell from its palm.

He used his inner energy to lift up all the fragments of the tortoise shell and pieced them together perfectly, without missing a single piece.

The tortoise shell was inscribed with the complete Four Symbols Heavenly Technique, exuding an ancient aura. Even the Four Symbols Sect might not have such a complete inheritance.

But immediately, a question arose in Di Yi's mind.

He looked at the skeleton before him. It was capable of piercing through a stone wall of more than 20,000 feet with its tortoise shell. The skeleton must have been at least a half-saint in life.

However, Di Yi did not feel any holy pressure from him. With the slightest touch, the bones scattered on the ground, and the metal bracelet that was originally on his wrist rolled off.

He picked up the metal bracelet and looked at the corpse of the four-winged earth dragon in the distance. It was majestic and powerful, but Emperor Yi had seen a real saint and knew that the saint's power was far more than that.

Moreover, the saints he faced were all living people who usually restrained their saintly might. The four-winged earth dragon was already dead, and the saintly substance in its body was no longer suppressed. The saintly might it unleashed should have been even stronger. Even though it was a hundred miles away, it shouldn't have been able to withstand even a Xuanji Realm martial artist like Ziqian.

If one were to truly describe it, then this divine might is merely a facade.

(End of this chapter)