69: Chapter 69 The Sword Tomb Opens, Devouring the Heavenly Tribulation

No wind existed beneath the deep sea, yet this Sea Trench was filled with a scalp-numbing howling.

It was a mountain.

A black mountain of death, built entirely from broken swords, remnants of weapons, and scrap iron, floated lonely in the darkness of the deepest part of the trench.

Most bizarrely, with this sword mountain as the center, there wasn't a single drop of water within a five-hundred-zhang radius.

The violent Sword Qi formed a massive vacuum sphere, holding back the immense pressure of hundreds of millions of tons of seawater.

The Blue-Gold Giant Whale leading the way merely grazed that invisible "wall of Qi" at the edge, and the fine steel-like shell on its back was instantly shaved away by more than half; it let out a cry of pain and turned to flee frantically toward the upper waters.

"We're here."

Ye Feng tapped his toes lightly, landing steadily at the edge of the vacuum barrier with Iron Tower and Mo Qianxue.

The Chaos Devouring Sword Body within him began to throb violently and uncontrollably, like a shark sensing blood.

That craving was a hundred times stronger than when encountering any Heaven And Earth Treasure.

What was buried here were not swords, but the "unwillingness" left behind by countless eras.

"This place... is eerie."

Iron Tower shrunk his neck; even from a distance, the Black Iron Heavy Shield on his back was emitting a faint, trembling hum, as if it had encountered some terrifyingly superior existence.

Before the three could steady themselves, countless pairs of crimson eyes suddenly lit up in the pitch-black seawater above.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

The dull sound of war drums passed through the seawater, slamming against their eardrums like a heavy hammer.

The seawater surged violently as a massive army descended like a swarm of locusts.

Leading them was none other than the one-armed Ba Tu.

Only this time, he didn't charge at the front; instead, he hid behind layer upon layer of shield Formations, his ugly fish face filled with malice and madness.

"Human Race trash! You think you can survive by hiding in a Forbidden Ground?"

Ba Tu raised his remaining right hand, which held a deep blue command flag emitting an aura of destruction. "This is a dead end. Since you don't want to come out, this lord will give you a hand!"

As the command flag swung down, the thousands of elite Cultivators behind him, clad in sea-blue battle armor, formed hand seals simultaneously.

Sea-Overturning Grand Formation.

This was a strategic-level Formation used by the Sea King Palace to conquer cities and territories. By gathering the strength of thousands, it could stir deep-sea undercurrents, enough to grind an island into powder in an instant.

"Form the array! Suppress!"

Rumble—!

The seawater, originally isolated by the Sword Qi, suddenly boiled. Thousands of deep blue spiritual light pillars converged in the water into a giant palm that blotted out the sky, carrying tens of millions of catties of terrifying water pressure, slamming down fiercely toward Ye Feng's trio on the outskirts of the sword mountain.

This strike, let alone for someone at the Golden Core Stage, would even peel a layer of skin off a Nascent Soul old monster.

"Get away!"

Mo Qianxue's face turned pale, and she instinctively prepared to manifest a defensive Magic Treasure.

"Why dodge?"

Ye Feng pressed down on her shoulder, a bloodthirsty curve instead hooking at the corner of his mouth. "The meal is served right at my lips; there's no reason not to eat."

Instead of retreating into the sword mountain for protection, he took a step forward, taking the initiative to meet the giant spiritual palm that could crush mountains.

Seeking death?

No, it was feeding.

Ye Feng's arms snapped open, and the Chaos vortex at his chest instantly expanded to its limit.

"Devouring Heaven and Earth, absorb for me!"

The massive spiritual palm slammed solidly into Ye Feng.

The expected scene of flesh and blood flying did not occur.

Ye Feng's body was like a bottomless black hole. The water-attribute spiritual power, violent enough to tear steel apart, was forcibly dismantled, crushed, and swallowed by that overbearing devouring power the moment it touched his skin.

His Meridians felt as if molten iron were being poured in, and every inch of his bones emitted overstrained cracking sounds.

But following this pain was the pleasure of his cultivation soaring wildly.

Half-step Golden Core.

Early Stage Golden Core Stage.

Even more!

The water-attribute spiritual power rushing into his body, under the conversion of the Chaos Sword Body, all turned into the purest nourishment, frantically battering that invisible Bottleneck.

"How is it possible... He's absorbing the power of the grand Formation?!"

Hiding in the distance, Ba Tu's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets, his sense of fear even stronger than when his arm was severed. "Quick! Increase the output! Gorge him to death! I don't believe he's a bottomless pit!"

The sea race soldiers desperately pushed their spiritual power, and the light of the Sea-Overturning Grand Formation became blindingly bright.

But this was exactly what Ye Feng wanted.

"Come on then!"

Ye Feng's entire body was gushing with golden rays of light, and his originally somewhat unstable aura now condensed into something tangible.

Crack.

It felt as if something inside his body had shattered.

A wave of peerless, matchless Qi erupted from Ye Feng as the center, forcibly shattering the giant spiritual palm.

Half-step Late Golden Core Stage!

Just a hair's breadth away from completely stepping into that Domain.

Ye Feng slowly exhaled a breath of turbid Qi, which turned into a sharp arrow in the seawater, piercing through a giant rock a hundred zhang away.

He looked up at the group of sea race soldiers who were already dumbfounded, his gaze cold as if looking at a group of dead men.

"Is this your full strength? Not that tough after all."

Taunt maximized.

Ba Tu trembled all over. Just as he was about to order a retreat, he found that the surrounding seawater had suddenly become incredibly viscous.

It wasn't the water that had changed; it was the Intent.

The sword mountain behind him seemed to sense the same source of Devouring Sword Intent within Ye Feng and began to emit a low hum.

Resonance of ten thousand swords.

"Found it!"

Mo Qianxue, who had been staring at the broken stone tablet at the foot of the sword mountain, suddenly shouted, "Ye Feng! This is the 'Myriad Weapon Tomb'. To open the gate, one must sacrifice weapons to weapons! It wants to eat iron!"

Eat iron?

Ye Feng raised an eyebrow, glancing at the massive, rust-covered groove nearby.

Then feed it until it's full.

Clatter!

With a wave of Ye Feng's hand, the Storage Pouch instantly opened.

Killing his way from Black Reef Port to the deep sea, no fewer than a hundred people had died at his hands; the captured Spiritual Artifacts and Magic Treasures were now dumped into that groove like trash.

Sabers, spears, swords, halberds, axes, battle-axes, hooks, and forks.

Hundreds of weapons of varying grades filled the groove, but the gate of the sword mountain remained motionless.

Not enough?

"Of course, how can scrap metal be worthy of being an offering."

A mouthful of essence blood containing the power of Chaos Devouring was sprayed directly onto the pile of weapons.

"With this blood sacrifice, ten thousand weapons shall submit! Open!"

Boom—!

The weapons stained with Ye Feng's essence blood instantly melted, turning into rolling molten iron that flowed into the interior of the sword mountain.

The next second.

The entire deep sea trembled.

The sword mountain, which had been silent for untold ages, let out a clear and stirring sword chime.

Creak—

Two hundred-zhang-tall pig iron gates, accompanied by a tooth-gritting grinding sound, slowly cracked open a gap.

And it was just this one gap.

A desolate aura from the primordial past, mixed with a terrifying Sword Intent capable of severing time and space, surged out like a flood breaking a dam.

This Sword Intent was not aimed at Ye Feng's trio, but spread outward in a fan shape.

The first to bear the brunt were Ba Tu and his Sea-Overturning Vanguard Army.

"No—!!!"

Ba Tu only had time to let out a desperate scream.

There was no room for resistance.

Under the wash of that Primordial Sword Intent, thousands of fully armed sea race elites, along with the armor on their bodies and the weapons in their hands, weathered away in an instant.

Flesh and blood dissolved, and spiritual power dissipated.

Within a single breath.

The originally dense army turned into thousands of white skeletons floating in the seawater.

Dead silence.

True dead silence.

This was the majesty of a Primordial Forbidden Ground; those who intrude die, those who block the way perish.

"Get in!"

Ye Feng suppressed the surging blood within him; forcibly opening the gate just now had drained nearly half of his energy.

But he didn't dare to linger.

The time the gate remained open was only a few breaths, and the commotion from the Sword Intent explosion just now was too great; it would soon attract even more terrifying things.

Without a word, Iron Tower hoisted the terrified Mo Qianxue onto his shoulder and followed Ye Feng, plunging into the slowly closing gap of the gate.

The gate slammed shut.

Isolating all the seawater and death outside.

The world behind the gate was not as dim as imagined.

Panting heavily, Ye Feng wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and slowly looked forward.

His pupils suddenly constricted.

Before him was a forest that stretched as far as the eye could see.

But there were no trees here.

Every towering "ancient tree" was pieced together from countless broken swords; they were rooted in the iron-black soil, their leaves were rusty blades, and their trunks were broken spear shafts.

And as the aura of living beings rushed in.

Clang—

The nearest "Sword Tree" suddenly rotated its blade-filled crown on its own, emitting a hair-raising sound of metal grinding...