The platform was one meter high, colored in shades of green and red.
No one knew what material it was made from.
Xu Zimo walked up and looked around carefully.
He found that there were two small slots on top of the platform. One was empty, while the other held a round bead.
The bead was blue-green, like a piece of amber, extremely pure.
Its surface was smooth and shiny, and its inside was crystal clear.
One glance was enough for Xu Zimo to realize that the ten surrounding pillars were not ordinary.
But the platform sat right at their center.
Xu Zimo thought for a moment and then stepped into the circle formed by the pillars.
A buzzing sound immediately rang out around him.
As soon as he entered, the ten pillars lit up with bright blue light.
The light shot straight into the sky with a powerful presence.
Above the hall, the winds roared and clouds swirled, waves of air blasting through like a mighty river.
The blue light from the ten pillars connected together, forming a circular barrier that surrounded Xu Zimo.
The barrier began to shrink slowly.
Xu Zimo frowned. He could sense that this barrier held a terrifying power.
Touching it would mean certain death.
“So this is the power of the Wind-Destroying Pearl?” Xu Zimo muttered quietly.
As the barrier slowly closed in, he knew he would eventually be destroyed by it.
He raised Shadow Tyrant, his spiritforce surging.
He slashed several times, trying to break the barrier.
But it was unbreakable. None of his attacks made a dent.
“Looks like Situ Yunfei didn’t lie to me. This barrier is already at the level of the Path of Dao. Even an Immortal Path cultivator may not be able to break it.”
Xu Zimo shook his head slightly and took out the companion artifact item from his storage ring.
As soon as it came out, it started trembling.
Looking at the empty slot on the platform, Xu Zimo inserted the item into it.
The moment he did, the entire inheritance ground began to shake.
Cracks formed in the ground beneath his feet.
The platform in front of him shook even more violently.
The surrounding barrier shattered, and ten beams of light shot out from the ten pillars.
These beams gathered at the platform.
The platform trembled and then shattered.
A green bead slowly rose from the center.
It was about the size of a fist, but the power inside it was immense.
“This is the Wind-Destroying Pearl, one of the Five Spirit Orbs,” Xu Zimo murmured curiously.
He reached out and took the pearl into his palm.
The process went surprisingly smoothly. The pearl felt cold to the touch, but other than that, it seemed like an ordinary bead.
The ten pillars that had emitted the beams of light turned to stone.
Cracks covered them, as if they might collapse at any moment.
Without wasting time, Xu Zimo stored the Wind-Destroying Pearl in his True Fate World and rushed to leave.
Without the support of the pearl’s power, this place would soon collapse.
Explosions echoed throughout the cave.
Xu Zimo sprinted out, passing through the corridor surrounded by violent wind.
He finally returned to the area of Deepsky Valley he had entered from.
Moments after he exited, a thunderous explosion erupted behind him.
Half of the valley collapsed into rubble. Dust filled the air and boulders rained down.
Wiping the sweat from his forehead, Xu Zimo turned and saw that the soldiers who had been patrolling the area were now gone.
Only two figures stood at the edge of the valley, eyes closed in meditation.
One of them was the black-haired man from before.
The other was an old man in green robes.
The elder didn’t exude any powerful aura. He looked like a normal old man, sitting cross-legged by the mountain wall.
As Xu Zimo emerged, both men opened their eyes.
The black-haired man’s presence was like a wild lion, fierce and aggressive.
“Master, that’s him,” the black-haired man said urgently, pointing at Xu Zimo.
His God Meridian aura surged, and the white tiger phantom behind him watched closely.
He hadn’t caught the roar clearly last time.
But now he wanted to know what had caused that fear in him.
Xu Zimo glanced at the collapsed cave behind him, then looked up at the two men on the mountain wall.
“You’re really persistent, huh?” Xu Zimo said with a grin.
“What did you get in there?” the black-haired man asked sharply.
Though they had guarded Deepsky Valley for some time and had sent many people in to explore, not one had ever made it out alive.
So even they knew very little about what was inside.
“What if I said I got nothing? Would you believe it?” Xu Zimo replied with a smile.
“Then we’ll just capture you and interrogate you slowly,” the man growled.
Xu Zimo shook his head slightly and said calmly, “All these years, your Celestial Tiger Empire’s power hasn’t grown much, but your arrogance has. If the White God-King hadn’t stepped in during that great war, it’s your people who would’ve been wiped out.”
The black-haired man’s face twisted in anger, veins bulging on his forehead.
But the old man beside him remained calm. He gave Xu Zimo a surprised look.
“How do you know about that?” he asked.
Though it wasn’t a top-secret matter, only the upper levels of various nations knew.
Ordinary people had no access to this kind of knowledge.
“You don’t need to know. I’m not in the mood to tangle with you,” Xu Zimo said.
“What’s inside that cave... you couldn’t handle it.”
The origin of the Celestial Tiger Empire wasn’t especially remarkable.
They weren’t human. If traced back, their race was called the Falling Insect Race.
Their bloodline was similar to tigers, but also had a trace of divinity.
This divine trait gave them more intelligence than normal tiger beasts.
Back then, tigers weren’t even called tigers. People referred to them as “big bugs.”
The founding of the Celestial Tiger Empire began with one man.
A youth named Bai Ze.
He was the son of the then-chief of the Falling Insect Race, a noble identity.
But he was born with a congenital disability.
His father, the clan leader, thought Bai Ze’s birth disgraced his honor.
So he abandoned him in the wilderness.
Luckily, Bai Ze’s fate wasn’t sealed.
A passing tiger saved him and brought him back to its den.
And that was the beginning of his legendary life.