Chapter 43: Why Choose Me

“If the epic battle depicted on this mural is not mere fabrication, then the history must be ancient indeed. It records wars across different continents, and even the Heavenly Domains are not the same as they are now. Could it be that, long ago, the five great Heavenly Domains were truly one, later shattered and split apart?”

Xu Zhe walked steadily through the tunnel, continuously studying the murals etched into the stone walls.

In the latter half, the murals had weathered so thoroughly that nothing could be discerned. Only then did Xu Zhe pull himself away from his musings.

“Who would be so bored as to blow apart the heavens? Always up to such senseless mischief!” he muttered, shaking his head and pressing onward.

The records in these murals were not worth deep consideration; there was no way to unravel their mysteries. They were best regarded as relics, nothing more.

The tunnel was extraordinarily long.

Xu Zhe had been walking for nearly three hours, yet the end was nowhere in sight.

By rights, the journey from Tianhe City to Dong Qianzhou should not be so far; three hours ought to have sufficed!

“The people from the Rooster Palace surely wouldn’t deceive me, and there’s only one path in this tunnel—I couldn’t have gone astray…” Xu Zhe frowned, extending his spiritual sense to scan the surroundings, but found nothing.

He pondered for a moment, then decided to continue forward.

Yet an hour later, the tunnel still did not end. It was reminiscent of the so-called ‘ghost wall’—an endless loop.

“Although the murals on both sides have been weathered, the traces left behind are all distinct. Not once have I seen a repeat, so I am indeed progressing through the tunnel and not caught in some trapping formation. That leaves only two possibilities.”

Xu Zhe halted, murmuring to himself.

“Either Zhang Lin and the others tricked me, or the entrance is the same, but the secret path I’m walking differs from theirs. Perhaps the problem lies with me.”

He leaned toward believing the latter.

Yet he could not entirely rule out the possibility of deception, nor dismiss that the Rooster Palace had gone to such lengths to ensnare him.

Such things could happen not only in the world of cultivation, but even on Earth. Where temptation is great, the human heart is unpredictable!

“Bang!”

Xu Zhe swung his fist, striking the stone wall at his side.

A thunderous sound echoed through the tunnel, but there was not the slightest tremor.

Xu Zhe was surprised—the tunnel was sturdier than he had imagined.

“Fine, I’ll see just where this path leads!”

With a wave of his palm, layers of golden spiritual clouds began to churn within his dantian.

He stepped onto a current of spiritual energy, his figure flickering as he pushed off, instantly shooting forward as a blur, racing through the tunnel.

An hour passed.

The tunnel gradually widened, becoming more spacious. The traces of murals disappeared from the walls, replaced by blue brick.

Xu Zhe glanced around but did not pause, continuing at speed.

Two hours later.

At last, the tunnel reached an end—but not the end he had expected.

Xu Zhe stopped, slowly lifting his gaze.

He looked up.

Before him stood an enormous door, at least ten meters tall, cast entirely from bronze, smooth and flawless, bearing no carvings or patterns.

“No restriction, no array…” Xu Zhe examined it, then stepped forward, gathering spiritual energy in his hands, shaping it into invisible waves that he blasted toward the door.

With a deep, resounding thud, the bronze door shuddered violently, layers of dust cascading to the ground.

Xu Zhe took a step back.

The bronze door slowly opened, revealing a gap just wide enough for a person to pass through.

Xu Zhe did not rush forward. Through the crack, he could see that beyond the door lay a vast cavern of stone, imbued with a sense of desolate silence.

Yet in the distance, several thousand meters away, a thin mist hung over the ground.

A palace stood, veiled by the white fog and barely visible.

“How can there be an underground palace here?”

Xu Zhe was stunned.

Could the Rooster Palace have lured him here to rob graves?

Surely not.

He reached behind to sling his pack and tossed it through the door crack.

With a soft thud, the pack landed safely on the ground.

Xu Zhe waited a moment longer, his spiritual sense alert to every direction. Sensing nothing amiss, he stepped inside.

He bent to pick up his pack, barely brushing off the dust.

“Boom!”

A sword blade, massive as a mountain, descended from above.

“I knew it would be like this.” Xu Zhe swiftly darted forward, twisting in midair and landing gracefully.

The giant blade slammed down, embedding itself deep into the ground. The sword reverberated, emitting a clear metallic ring.

Then, silence.

Was that all?

Xu Zhe was momentarily perplexed. At most, it was a trap—who could be caught unawares by such a thing?

He waited a while longer, shook his head slightly, and turned around.

A colossal palace now stood before him.

Xu Zhe was dumbfounded.

Just moments ago, the palace was thousands of meters away, shrouded in mist—how had it evaded his spiritual sense and appeared silently behind him?

“Hurrying over to let me in?”

Xu Zhe frowned once more and stepped back.

Carefully observing, he saw the palace was cast entirely from bronze; even the doors and windows were shut tight, but looked more like they were sculpted, not real.

Looking further up, a statue of a golden dragon coiled atop the palace, seemingly a symbol of suppression over the underground domain.

A sense of ancient gravity and majesty enveloped the palace, spreading slowly outward.

“No, this isn’t a palace at all—it’s a magical artifact!”

Xu Zhe’s expression shifted. His spiritual sense, when extended forward, was instantly repelled by a terrifying Dao resonance.

This was indeed a magical artifact, and a high-grade one at that—judging by the Dao resonance, it must have been left behind by a master above the Golden Immortal realm.

Xu Zhe immediately took a cautious step back.

The underground palace did not react.

Xu Zhe retreated again.

Still, no response.

“Excellent. Its master may be a Golden Immortal or higher, and I, Xu Zhe, was once an Immortal Emperor. We both bear the title of Immortal—our waters should never mingle, so let us part ways!”

Nodding with satisfaction, Xu Zhe turned to leave.

“Boom!”

The entire palace suddenly trembled violently, roaring with thunder. Even the ground shook as waves of dust surged upward.

Atop the palace, the golden dragon statue seemed to come alive; its massive eyes slowly turned, gaze locking onto Xu Zhe.

Then, with a swift whoosh, the whole palace soared into the air, bursting into brilliant blue light, rapidly shrinking until, in the blink of an eye, it became no larger than a fist and shot straight toward Xu Zhe.

Xu Zhe instinctively tried to dodge, but the blue light dropped to the ground a meter before him, its radiance fading quickly, transforming into an ordinary, unremarkable miniature palace.

“So it’s actually a seal artifact!”

Xu Zhe realized that, once shrunk, the palace was, in fact, a seal.

The golden dragon was lifelike; the palace formed the body of the seal, its base covered in intricate patterns, though all smeared with dust, making it impossible to discern what was carved.

“Why did it choose me?”

Xu Zhe crouched, picking up the bronze seal, his face full of puzzlement.

Magical artifacts possess spirits; they choose their new master.

The bronze seal’s actions clearly signaled its selection of him.

Xu Zhe recalled that the golden dragon had glanced at him before making its decision.

He understood now!

It chose by appearance!

Or perhaps it sensed the familiar aura, since his physical body had once absorbed dragon blood?

That explanation seemed a stretch.

Xu Zhe shook his head, still favoring his first intuition.

Turning, he gazed at the massive sword blade blocking the entrance.

It was also entirely bronze, dozens of meters tall, resembling more a monumental sword stele than a weapon, battered and old, with patches of rust faintly visible.

“Are you a magical artifact too? Would you dare look at me?”

Xu Zhe asked.

The giant blade remained unmoved.

“No Dao resonance, no aura, nothing extraordinary—just plain and ordinary. Clearly not a magical artifact, but merely a broken sword…”

Xu Zhe offered his sharp and impartial assessment.

A sharp metallic vibration suddenly rang from the blade. The sword trembled, pulling itself from the ground, spinning in the air, blade poised, wind howling, cleaving straight toward Xu Zhe.

…