Chapter 1407: Empress Reigns Over the World

A faint, refreshing fragrance wafted from the depths of the moon gate. Could that be a Grand Cosmos-level medicinal herb?

"Treasure medicine" was an understatement; "immortal medicine" was more fitting. It was deeply refreshing, penetrating the blood and marrow, making one's bones almost shimmer with a translucent glow.

Chu Feng gazed at the area, feeling it with his heart, utterly captivated.

"Young friend, be cautious," the elder of the Fire Elemental race warned, his voice ancient and extremely solemn. "Though the wafting pollen is but a speck, like a fine dust of fragrance, it is still terrifying. That is a Grand Cosmos-level medicinal herb! You must be vigilant and not underestimate it, treating it as a formidable enemy!"

Chu Feng's heart jolted, and he instantly snapped back to reality. What level was he currently? An Eternal King! His strength was indeed formidable enough to traverse the world, but the Grand Cosmos realm was still beyond his reach, a realm he could only look up to. Such medicinal herbs were far too dangerous for him.

Soon, he adjusted his mindset, gazing at the hovering Emperor's Blood and the true ultimate evolver. He could not hide the tumultuous emotions within him; his eyes shone with brilliant light, and his spirit trembled.

The Emperor's Blood, the broken bell, and the white-robed woman hovering in the air formed a static, profound scene. It was as if the eternal sky had been frozen, painting a picture both poignant and eerie.

Was it her? The woman the black dog spoke of, truly here, silently awaiting descendants?

A storm raged in Chu Feng's heart. For a moment, he lost his voice, golden light swirling in his pupils as he pondered the strangeness of it all. How could this be? She shouldn't be here.

Yet, several elders of the Fire Elemental race now explicitly told him that the white-robed woman was real, her physical body unparalleled, suppressing all of past and present, simply frozen in place!

"Who overturned eternity? Who condensed this motionless painting, allowing you to be rendered into it, frozen here?!"

Chu Feng's lips trembled slightly. He knew too much; he understood that this white-robed woman was immensely significant, her power surpassing all of history. How could she have been fixed in place here by someone? It shouldn't be possible, it was impossible!

Beside the woman, white mist swirled, the very essence of immortal energy, an eternal and indestructible substance, all emanating from her. It enveloped her peerless and invincible form, which appeared utterly still, like the most ancient fossil.

"Young friend, your emotions are unstable. You must calm your mind," the elder of the Fire Elemental race advised. This elder was enveloped in a halo of silver firelight, his body skeletal, his aura fluctuating between strong and weak, as if he had exhausted his peak life force and was nearing his twilight years, struggling to fully control himself.

Chu Feng took a deep breath and nodded, discarding all distracting thoughts. There was no point in overthinking; the immediate concern was how to confront the situation and what action to take.

"Can I go in?!" Chu Feng asked. He needed to understand the situation. The Fire Elemental race had guarded this place for countless millennia without success; could he possibly succeed alone?

Even as an Eternal King, what kind of place was this? The Emperor Bell was shattered, and the ultimate evolver's soul was congealed, her body frozen within the painting. Could he even approach it?

"Perhaps you can. We will do our best!" an elder replied.

But this was not enough for Chu Feng, far from it. How could he risk entering based on a single sentence? He needed to know more, to discern the truth.

The elder of the Fire Elemental race spoke, revealing a shocking secret before the mottled painting, in the deepest part of this terrifying and unparalleled forbidden zone.

"The world knows we fell from the Thirty-Three Heavens and have long been submerged here," he began. "But who truly understands the truth? It all happened because of the beings within the stone gate!"

The elder of the Fire Elemental race looked into the moon gate. Although it appeared as static as a painting, mist still billowed within, yet only the human figure remained frozen.

"Because of the person inside?" Chu Feng asked.

"Yes. If not for their battle, how could the Supreme Forbidden Zone have formed? How could it have fallen from the Thirty-Three Heavens? At that time, we were merely nascent fire elementals, just beginning to gain intelligence. Over countless years, everything has changed; even we have grown and aged. Our physical forms are now on the verge of exhaustion. We want to get closer to the truth, we want to live, and we want to enter through that gate!"

His words were not particularly impassioned, even somewhat strained, yet the elder of the Fire Elemental race revealed secrets that deeply shook Chu Feng's very soul.

The formation of this unparalleled forbidden zone was due to a battle from ages past!

Chu Feng continued to inquire. Although the subsequent conversation remained frank, it proved difficult to pierce through the prehistoric mists. Even the Fire Elemental race admitted their understanding of the events of that era was vague and incomplete.

Chu Feng didn't fully believe their words, remaining silent and pondering for a long time.

Finally, one of the Fire Elemental elders spoke again, revealing more secrets.

"Perhaps only our clan's progenitor knows all of this," he said. "But he has been asleep and has not awakened."

"Where is he?" Chu Feng asked. He understood that the Fire Elemental race surely knew more than they were telling him.

"He is here, and also there!" the elders said, pointing to the immediate area and then further ahead. What was it? The human-shaped terrain within the Supreme Geomancy!

The entire desolate land was named the Supreme Eight Trigrams Furnace Geomancy, and the human-shaped terrain within it was called the Supreme!

They actually pointed to the Supreme — that was their progenitor?!

That was actually a living being, merely in slumber now?!

The emaciated elder, wreathed in silver firelight, spoke with utmost solemnity: "We grew up within this geomancy, which is why we consider him our progenitor. And we believe he truly possesses life; he is still alive!"

This was astonishing, enough to shake the world. The Supreme Geomancy had life; it was a living being, and it was alive!

How strong was he? How terrifying was a being that had fallen from the Thirty-Three Heavens, slumbering here for ages, with even several peak Fire Elemental experts revering him as their progenitor?

However, this information was useless to Chu Feng, as his current concern was simply whether or not to enter the moon gate.

Subsequently, they conversed for a long time. Chu Feng learned about the Fire Elemental race's attempts through various eras to enter the world within the gate and approach the Emperor's Blood, allowing him to form some judgments.

Chu Feng stated, "If I go in, I will also fail, and I will die. Even the strongest individuals of your clan from various eras have bled and failed. What would be the point of my entering?"

The Fire Elemental elder replied, "Our clan never lightly enters the Supreme Eight Trigrams Furnace, yet you walked out alive. This is destiny; you possess great fortune and enduring vitality. Most crucially, you understand domain techniques, which might lead to success!"

Chu Feng shook his head. What allowed him to survive the Supreme Eight Trigrams Furnace? The stone jar!

But he didn't want to expose it here!

"Our clan almost succeeded back then," the elder continued. "And now, we will not send you to your death. We will do everything in our power to protect you, providing all our battle robes, heavenly armors, and several supreme treasures from the domain field. You should be unharmed!"

The Fire Elemental race admitted frankly that they did not fully comprehend the myriad transformations and profound uses of the domain treasures. Otherwise, they would have attempted it themselves long ago.

Then, Chu Feng was stunned. There was a landscape painting, a wondrous treasure condensed from magnetic marrow, refined by an unknown ancient sage.

In addition, there were items like the Heaven-Piercing Ladder and the Cross-Realm Bridge, all supreme treasures from the domain field, not the low-tier items he had seen before, but the highest-grade divine artifacts.

These highest-tier items were so potent that even Celestial Masters couldn't refine them. Their quality was exceptionally high, rumored to genuinely allow passage across realms and ascent to the heavens!

The magnetic marrow glowed. These items were mutated substances from magnetic marrow, refined into incredibly sacred treasures.

However, Chu Feng also noticed that these treasures had some flaws, though he couldn't tell if they had been damaged in past battles or had simply decayed over the long years.

Subsequently, the Fire Elemental race brought out more objects, all sacred items from the domain field, each more powerful than the last.

Among them was a pool, formed from magnetic marrow condensing chaos, which hovered above Chu Feng's head, allowing him to draw upon the power of the surrounding mountains and rivers to protect himself!

At this moment, Chu Feng's eyes widened with awe. So many treasures, so many "heavenly objects"! Their brilliance was almost blinding. Even those that were ancient and lacked a visible glow were still dazzling to him, making his very soul tremble.

If all these were to fall into his hands, how much would his strength increase? It would soar dramatically; it was too astonishing, too unparalleled.

Some of these were legendary artifacts that even a Celestial Master, vastly superior to others, could not refine.

"Furthermore, there is our clan's strongest battle armor, the Heaven-Bestowed Armor!"

The Fire Elemental race seemed to have gone all out, doing their utmost to bring forth all the treasures they possessed. Their clan's strongest armor came from beyond the Thirty-Three Heavens and was known as the Heaven-Bestowed.

It glowed, still retaining a humanoid shape though no one wore it. It emanated a dreamlike brilliance, blossoming with nine colors, and a dense temporal power rotated around it, making it exceptionally terrifying.

"Forged from Time Mother Gold!?" Chu Feng was truly astonished.

Among all prime metals, Time Mother Gold was incredibly rare, almost unseen. Until now, Chu Feng had only encountered one relatively heavy artifact made of it: the Time Furnace, which the Great Black Hand Li had acquired, but perhaps met an inauspicious end because of it.

Chu Feng had also touched it at the Heaven-Piercing Immortal Waterfall, and a mysterious black handprint had appeared on his hand, which was extremely unsettling.

"It's not pure Time Mother Gold," the Fire Elemental race admitted frankly. "Only a small portion is mixed in. Truly pure Time Mother Gold is exceedingly rare, difficult to find even across all the heavens."

The Fire Elemental race was quite candid, admitting that the Heaven-Bestowed Armor's purity was far from absolute.

Even so, it was still an extraterrestrial artifact, not from this world, having fallen along with them from the Thirty-Three Heavens.

Chu Feng stood before the array of treasures for a long time, then stared at the moon gate for an equally long time. Finally, he decided to enter!

He reasoned that even if he refused, the Fire Elemental race would likely compel him to enter. Having arrived in the Supreme Forbidden Zone, he had considered various possibilities, including coercion by the beings within the desolate land.

"I still have trump cards and can escape," he thought. "However, the world beyond this moon gate truly holds a fatal allure for me. Grand Cosmos-level medicinal herbs, Three-Life Medicine, Emperor's Blood, the white-robed woman—they are all inside. I must get closer!"

Chu Feng wanted to take the risk, to step into that profound space, to enter that seemingly static painting, and explore the secrets of this place.

Moreover, he had promised the giant black beast, the big black dog, that he would find the white-robed Empress. And now, she was right there, inside.

Chu Feng moved, donning the Heaven-Bestowed Armor and the domain armor, and carrying various domain treasures.

Additionally, several powerful individuals from the Fire Elemental race acted together, channeling their energy and cultivation into the Heaven-Bestowed Armor. It was as if their avatars had merged with it, their blood and souls congealing within the battle armor, all for the sole purpose of protecting Chu Feng.

With the armor covering his body, Chu Feng radiated divine light, and immortal energy surged around him. He was ready to enter this mysterious space.

All the various domain treasures were secured on his person. The worst-case scenario was an immediate retreat; since the Fire Elemental race had survived their failures, he was confident he could as well.

The moon gate was ancient and truly appeared like a simple door, yet its interior was a profound world, seemingly connected to the Four Extremes Floating Earth, to the Heavens, to the banks of the Soul River, and to the Heavenly Emperor's Burial Pit!

From within the stone gate, special ripples emanated outwards, like tangible silver ultrasonic waves or the expanding ripples on a platinum lake.

As Chu Feng drew closer, he also heard a sound, very faint but undeniably present, like an electromagnetic signal, or perhaps the sound of a shadowy world being created and destroyed.

He was close. Finally, Chu Feng took a step inside!

In that instant, everything changed. It felt as if ten thousand ages had passed, heaven and earth had become eternal, stars had shifted, mountains and rivers had collapsed and reformed, and seas had transformed into mulberry fields. Everything was in flux; nothing could truly be immortal or endure forever, not even Heavenly Emperors.

A mighty rumble!

From the silence, thunder erupted, flames soared, and immortal mist billowed, shattering the tranquility of the area!

As Chu Feng stepped into this profound world, the galaxy and universe seemed to transform into a mere black cloth, an ordinary backdrop.

In an instant, Chu Feng trembled. He smelled the fragrance of flowers and saw blue, shimmering flower buds by the roadside, swaying in the wind, their movements echoing his footsteps!

Grand Cosmos-level flower buds, on the verge of releasing their pollen?!

Then, Chu Feng was overcome by a wave of terror, a chilling, eerie sensation that made his skin crawl!

"No, this is an anomaly, an indescribable anomaly!"

He nearly flew backward, his heart trembling. Grand Cosmos-level fruits and flower buds were not to be trifled with, nor easily approached. Ninety-nine percent of powerful individuals, even those nearing that realm, would undergo bizarre transformations after contact with their pollen!

Almost all beings who had evolved to that level had undergone terrifying and ultimately indescribable changes!

And now, that pollen was about to be released. Could he withstand it?!

Boom!

Immortal thunder exploded, and chaos swirled. Chu Feng looked up ahead, gasping. Why hadn't he seen this from the outside? Now he perceived the anomaly.

Even the swaying of the Grand Cosmos-level flower buds temporarily failed to capture his attention. He was looking in another direction.

Beyond the scenery he had observed earlier from the outside, there was something else!

He saw a colossal hand, seemingly reaching down from the heavens, resting above the shattered bell!

Had that colossal hand shattered the bell?

Black blood dripped from the colossal hand, a terrifying sight. Its arm extended upward into the sky, its connection point unknown.

However, even after shattering the Emperor Bell, it had paid a price, bleeding and congealed in place.

At the same time, there was a decaying smell. Indeed, that colossal hand and arm had... rotted, permanently remaining in this world!

"A colossal hand from the Heavens?!" Chu Feng's pupils contracted.

Then, in the very next instant, a tremor ran through his entire body. He sensed something, and abruptly looked up, gazing at what lay directly ahead.

The white-robed woman moved?!

He was certain it wasn't an illusion. The white-robed woman was no longer still; her eyelashes fluttered, and her eyes were about to open. The supreme Empress was on the verge of revival, poised to reclaim dominion over the world!

What was happening? Was the peerless Empress, as if cursed, about to awaken?!