C416 Ancient Demon Character!
Fish bones spanned the firmament, propping up the world itself.
These bones glistened like ivory and white jade, their crystalline sheen dazzling to behold.
Yu Yuan peered intently at them and was struck by a sense of ancient time and a profound historical weight, as if they had stood the test of eons.
"Boom!"
A tremor emanated from the plaza paved with Spirit Stones beneath his feet.
In an instant, he witnessed countless ancient characters materializing on the towering pillars.
Some pillars bore script as mighty as dragons, others as graceful as phoenixes, some as majestic as Qilin vying for the sun and moon's radiance, and yet others depicted myriad birds frolicking joyously amidst flames.
As Yu Yuan gazed upon these pillars, the ancient text seemed to spring to life.
His soul felt as though it was being drawn into the pillars, transported back to an age long past to witness the zenith of the Demon Race.
"Demon script! The earliest writing of the Demon Race!"
A realization dawned on Yu Yuan.
The first sovereigns of the Boundless Land were the Demon Race.
The Nagas, leaders of the Demon Race of yore, were their mightiest.
Heavenly Devils and a host of bizarre entities from the far reaches of space had long sought to invade and sow chaos in the Boundless Great World.
In those times, it was the Demon Race who stood as guardians against the incursions of otherworldly beings.
Yet, hampered by their slow reproduction and growth, the Demon Race, when ruling the world, were forced into a relentless, defensive struggle.
In that ancient age, formidable creatures from beyond the stars, the Heavenly Devils, could pierce the realm's barriers, wreaking havoc in the Boundless Great World at will.
The Demon Race, weary from constant conflict, often paid a dear price to either vanquish these invaders or merely drive them away.
Back then, humanity was but a footnote, lacking even the knowledge of cultivation, left at the mercy of others.
But as humans ascended to dominance, becoming the stewards of this world, the tables turned.
Humanity's great cultivators allied with the Demon Race, bursting forth from the Boundless Land to confront the Galaxy Alien Race and the Heavenly Devils, transforming from the plundered to the plunderers.
"If this is indeed the ancient script of the Demon Race, then this mysterious place must possess an immensely ancient history!"
With this thought, Yu Yuan's excitement surged, his curiosity thoroughly piqued. He was determined to uncover the secrets of the 'Fish's Belly' and the reason behind its location in the Ember Waters.
"Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!"
Abruptly, atop the square, towering peristeles burst forth with dazzling divine light.
Beams of light soared heavenward.
As the beams ascended, the Spirit Stones scattered across the square disintegrated into ash.
The vast square, once filled with innumerable Spirit Stones, was now reduced to dust and debris.
Yu Yuan's complexion drained of color as he abruptly stood, casting his gaze downward.
Beneath the pulverized layer of Spirit Stones, new ones were revealed.
He realized in an instant that the Spirit Stones underfoot were stacked in layers upon layers.
How many layers there were, how many Spirit Stones, and what lay beneath them all, he couldn't tell.
But he did understand that the stone pillars, now ablaze with light, had swiftly drawn out the spiritual energy from the Spirit Stones, amplified by the ancient demonic runes within the pillars, causing the explosive display.
He lifted his eyes skyward once more.
There, within the columns of light, he beheld dragons roaring, phoenixes soaring, Qilins engulfing the sun and moon, and Vermillion Birds refining fire—spectacular visions!
Each beam of light, entwined with ancient demonic script, radiated divine brilliance and kaleidoscopic hues.
In a flash, the beams struck the dome of the sky.
They hit the colossal fish bones stretched across the heavens.
The ivory-like fish bones splintered, casting myriad specks of light that rained down.
The ground's shaking and the region's anomalies subsided gradually.
Behind the leaden dome, the massive fish bones were once again obscured by the gray, their true forms hidden.
The towering peristeles that had once shaken the world stood still, and the ancient demonic runes that had briefly emerged vanished without a trace.
Peace and tranquility returned to the world.
The sun and moon remained aloft, the earth silent.
Yet Yu Yuan's heart was anything but calm, roiling with unrest.
"Thirty-six stone pillars, releasing thirty-six beams of light that strike the fish bones behind the sky's dome. What began as a slight tremor quickly stilled, leaving no further disturbances..."
Gazing skyward, he mulled over his observations, a bold hypothesis taking shape in his mind.
This Alien Realm wasn't forged by Great Cultivators using spiritual power or grand mystical arts. It was akin to the belly of a gargantuan fish!
Within this fish's belly, a new world had been crafted, anchored by thirty-six towering stone pillars to keep it from thrashing wildly. At the slightest sign of movement, the pillars would instantly draw upon the power of Spirit Stones to maintain their hold.
"The Ember Waters, where celestial fragments from shattered stars come to rest. Engraved upon the thirty-six stone pillars are ancient demonic scripts. What could this massive fish, held in check by the Demon Clan, possibly be?"
"Surely it's not some fearsome entity from beyond the starry expanse?"
"It still manages to stir on occasion. Has it not perished? Is it still alive?"
These thoughts shattered Yu Yuan's composure.
This was unlike the Asura's eye in the Dark Domain of the Absence Relic.
If a creature as vast as a fish from the Outland Star River had been subdued by the Demon Palace and the Devil Palace, and then confined within the Ember Waters, wouldn't that be akin to nurturing a potential disaster?
An alien being of such magnitude would undoubtedly possess immense power. Should it break free, the havoc it could wreak was unimaginable.
Was this creature left alive in the Ember Waters for some unique attribute or purpose?
Yu Yuan surmised that if this fish's belly originated from beyond the heavens, it must have arrived before humanity's ascent, during the era when the Demon Race reigned supreme, and it was they who subdued and imprisoned it here.
"My place of cultivation is actually within the belly of a living fish."
Standing amidst the dust, Yu Yuan offered a wry smile. He glanced between the heavens and the earth, deliberated for a moment, and then resolved to halt his cultivation temporarily.
He wandered the expansive plaza, moving between the bases of the thirty-six towering peristele.
He felt the surface of one pillar and examined another, comparing their heights, sizes, and girths. The pillars were as polished as jade, and to the naked eye, they bore no markings.
The visions of ancient demonic script he had seen earlier now seemed nothing more than figments of his imagination.
Despite the plaza's vastness, his exploration revealed nothing beyond the thirty-six pillars.
Beyond the plaza, a thick spiritual mist obscured all view, leaving nothing visible nor detectable to his senses.
Yu Yuan exercised extreme caution, refraining from probing the areas that were out of sight and beyond his sensory reach.
After a long period of contemplation, he retraced his steps and once again positioned himself at the ship's stern rudder.
He was certain of one thing: by summoning the sword sheath and igniting the sword's radiance to strike the stern rudder, he stood a great chance of returning to the sunken ship at the ocean's bottom.
In doing so, he could disassociate himself from everything that transpired within the belly of the great fish, feigning ignorance.
Yet, this meant the end of his swift progress in cultivation...
"Fortune favors the bold! Perhaps the vibrations inside the fish are normal. It's quite possible that such tremors occur periodically! Aren't the thirty-six towering peristele and the Spirit Stones laid out on the ground there to counterbalance it? I've seen it before; when the stone pillars unleash their power, tranquility is restored."
Whether it was a means of self-reassurance or a calculated gamble, Yu Yuan resolved to turn a blind eye to the anomalies of this Boundless Land.
After a period of vigilant waiting, with no further irregularities, he resumed his personal cultivation.
He persisted in employing the Glorious Heavenly Wheel, refining small amounts of Sun Essence Fire for the seventh refinement of his Yellow Court Little World.
In the time that followed, the tremors within this realm became more frequent!
Contrary to his initial assumptions, the suppressed leviathan seemed to have been provoked, with the intervals between its quakes shortening and the consumption of Spirit Stones escalating.
It was then that Yu Yuan realized something was amiss.
