236: Chapter 236 The Dilapidated Stone Palace

The Dragon had no horns and no scales, its body long and winding like a mountain range, its skin possessing an extremely ancient and rough texture.

Although it was merely a remnant soul, the terrifying pressure belonging to a primeval Vicious Beast still crushed down upon Jiang Changge, overwhelming the heavens and earth.

It opened its blood-stained maw, and deep within its throat, a dark gray ball of light was rapidly condensing, expanding, and rotating.

Contained within that ball of light was all of its remaining Chaos Origin power and Illusion Law power; it was its final trump card and also its most powerful strike.

"Chaos Mirage Breath!" The Mirage's roar exploded in the canyon.

That dark gray ball of light erupted from its mouth, meeting Jiang Changge's attack that had integrated dozens of Law powers.

The moment the two forces collided in the Void Realm, the entire canyon trembled violently.

However, although the Mirage's strike was formidable, it was ultimately water without a source and a tree without roots.

It had been subjected to a Seal for three whole eras, and its power had long since been drained until almost nothing remained. Now, with only a remnant soul left, even if it poured out all its strength, how could it possibly confront Jiang Changge head-on?

After a brief stalemate, Jiang Changge's beam of light, which had integrated dozens of Law powers, crushed that dark gray ball of light inch by inch with unstoppable force, then slammed into the Mirage's main body.

"No——!"

The Mirage let out a shrill and unwilling howl, the sound filled with the resentment and anger accumulated over countless years.

Its main body twisted and struggled crazily within the pillar of light, but it could ultimately not withstand the simultaneous crushing force of the Supreme Magical Artifact and the dozens of Law powers.

A moment later, that massive Dragon Void Shadow began to disintegrate inch by inch from its tail, turning into countless tiny specks of light, drifting at the bottom of the canyon like ashes scattered by the wind.

However, just as the last of the Void Shadow was about to dissipate, a tiny, almost invisible gray thread of light shot out from the core of the disintegration, fleeing toward the exit above the canyon at an incredible speed.

That was the Mirage's last remnant soul Origin. It had abandoned all its power, leaving only this sliver of consciousness, attempting to escape alive.

As long as this sliver of Origin remained, given time, it might not lack the opportunity to recover.

But Jiang Changge had long been guarding against this move. He waved the xuanchen whisk in his hand, and an invisible spatial barrier quietly spread out above the canyon, firmly sealing the entire exit.

The instant the gray thread of light collided with the spatial barrier, it let out a faint and desperate hiss. Like a moth to a flame, it was completely refined within the silvery-white light and dissipated into nothingness.

The canyon returned to a deathly silence.

The dark gray fog, which had permeated for who knows how many tens of thousands of years, became like duckweed without roots the moment the Mirage's last remnant soul Origin was refined, and it began to dissipate in all directions at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Those mists, originally thick enough to be substantial, became thinner and more transparent, eventually turning into wisps of light gray smoke that were blown away by the air currents above the canyon, completely dissipating into the Void Realm.

Jiang Changge's Divine Sense was finally no longer bound to within three feet of his body, and it spread out in all directions as if shackles had been broken.

The ground at the bottom of the valley, the cliff walls on both sides, and the scattered rubble and bone fragments all became clear in his perception one by one.

Only then did he discover that the bottom of this canyon was much larger than he had previously imagined; the Mirage's massive skeleton alone only occupied about one-third of the valley floor.

And deeper behind the skeleton, there was a large area that had been obscured by thick fog for countless years, now slowly revealing its true appearance as the fog dissipated.

He gripped the xuanchen whisk and continued walking deeper along the bottom of the canyon.

The ground under his feet was still covered with those ancient and regular runes, but at this moment, those runes no longer had dark red light flowing through them. Having lost the support of the Mirage's Chaos Origin, these runes had also completely lost their vitality, leaving only marks of varying depths, like the remaining patterns on a tortoise shell dried by time.

After walking for about half an hour, he found the first treasure location mentioned by the Mirage in a depression in the cliff wall.

It was a natural grotto half-hidden by rubble, about three zhang square, with the four walls of the grotto embedded with stone gall and stone crystals of various sizes.

These stone gall and stone crystals were completely different from those he had seen on the canyon cliff walls; each piece emitted an extremely pure and ancient spiritual energy fluctuation. The lowest grade was Heaven Rank Medium Grade, and the highest few pieces even faintly touched the threshold of the Supreme grade.

Jiang Changge did not stand on ceremony and collected all these stone gall and stone crystals into his System storage.

He made a rough count; just in this one grotto, there were five pieces of Heaven Rank High Grade, two pieces of Heaven Rank Top Grade, and one piece of dark gold-colored stone marrow the size of a fist, the grade of which had already reached Supreme Low Grade.

These gains alone already far exceeded the rewards he had obtained from signing in on the periphery of the Nine-Orifice Stone Forest.

He continued to explore deeper and found a few scattered treasures in several hidden corners behind the skeleton.

Among them was a broken sword blade, pitch black, with the sword body covered in primeval runes. Although it was broken, it still emitted an extremely sharp Sword Intent; just being near it made one's skin sting.

There was also a palm-sized Jade Slip, which recorded a portion of the "countless long-lost ancient Cultivation Technique and Divine Ability" that the Mirage had spoken of, containing several extremely ancient spatial Divine Ability and illusion techniques, the value of which was immeasurable.

After walking for a long time, he finally arrived at the deepest part of the canyon.

There stood a stone hall, the body of the hall built from solid blocks of dark cyan boulders. The surface of the walls was covered in cracks of varying depths, and some parts had already collapsed, revealing the dilapidated beams and shattered stone slabs inside.

The hall door had long since disappeared, leaving only a dark, hollow doorway.

The interior of the stone hall was very empty. A corner of the roof had collapsed, and a few rays of faint light shone down through the crack, illuminating a thick layer of dust in the hall.

In the very center stood a stone statue, about one zhang tall, carved in the image of a middle-aged man standing with his hands behind his back. His face was thin, and between his brows, he carried a touch of indifference and arrogance that transcended the Mortal World.

One hand of the stone statue had broken off, the severed arm lying in the rubble at its feet, while the other hand pointed in a certain direction in the hall, as if guiding toward something.

The walls on both sides of the stone hall were covered with murals.

The content of those murals was extremely ancient, depicting a scene of a powerful expert battling a Dragon. In the image, the Dragon was suppressed by a golden light descending from the sky, its body gradually shrinking, eventually turning into a dark gray light and being sealed deep within the canyon.

The lines of the murals were rugged and primitive, and although they were incomplete, one could still see the extremely high attainment of the artist.