NOVPUBThe platform is one meter high and is entirely greenish-red in color.
No one knows what material it was made from.
Xu Zimei walked up and looked around.
She only then noticed that there are two small grooves on top of the platform, one of which is empty.
The other one has a spherical bead embedded in it.
The bead is aquamarine, resembling a piece of amber and is very pure.
The exterior radiates light, while the interior is crystal clear.
A glance told Xu Zimei that there was something wrong with the ten pillars surrounding her.
But the platform was encircled by those pillars.
After a moment of contemplation, Xu Zimei stepped into the embrace of the pillars.
A humming sound arose all around.
As soon as Xu Zimei entered, she saw the ten pillars emitting a dazzling green light.
The green light shot straight into the sky with an overwhelming force.
Winds rose and clouds churned in the hall’s upper space, wave after wave of energy rolling in.
It was like a winding river, magnificent in its might.
The green light unexpectedly interconnected, forming a circular barrier that encased Xu Zimei within.
The barrier began to shrink gradually.
Xu Zimei slightly furrowed her brows, sensing an incredibly terrifying power within the barrier.
This power kills upon contact.
"Is this the power of the Wind Extinguishing Bead?" Xu Zimei whispered to herself.
As the enclosing circle slowly closed in, she would eventually be destroyed by this concentrated force.
Xu Zimei gripped the Tyrant Shadow in her hand as Spiritual Energy surged around her body.
She swung her weapon several times in an attempt to break the barrier.
However, the barrier was indestructible; none of Xu Zimei’s attacks could damage it.
"It seems Situ Yunfei didn’t lie to me, this barrier has reached the level of Way.
Even a Stepping into Immortality expert might not be able to break it."
Xu Zimei shook her head slightly and took out the tornado’s associated creature from her Storage Ring.
The moment the tornado was taken out, it immediately began to tremble.
Xu Zimei looked at the empty groove on the nearby platform.
She directly embedded the tornado’s associated creature into it.
The moment she embedded it, Xu Zimei felt the whole Legacy Land shaking.
Cracks appeared on the ground beneath her feet.
And the platform in front of her shook even more violently.
The surrounding barrier shattered, with ten beams of light emitting from the ten pillars.
The beams converged above the platform.
The platform trembled little by little until it finally burst open.
A jade-green spherical bead slowly rose from it.
The bead, the size of a fist, contained an incredibly strong power within.
"So this is the Wind Extinguishing Bead, one of the Five Spirit Beads," Xu Zimei murmured curiously.
She reached out and gently took the Wind Extinguishing Bead in her hand.
The process was surprisingly smooth; the bead felt somewhat cold to the touch but otherwise seemed no different from any ordinary bead.
...
The ten pillars beside her, after casting their light, transformed into stone pillars.
They were covered with dense cracks as if they could collapse at any moment.
Xu Zimei didn’t have time to look more closely, she quickly placed the Wind Extinguishing Bead into the True Fate World and hastened out.
Without the support of the Wind Extinguishing Bead’s power, this place would soon collapse.
Thunderous booms echoed throughout the cavern.
Xu Zimei ran out of the cave at top speed, passing through the corridor surrounded by fierce winds.
Eventually, she returned to the Heaven Hidden Valley where she had started.
Just after Xu Zimei had left, she heard a "boom" behind her, a thunderous roar that shook the earth.
Half of the valley behind her had collapsed into ruins, with dust billowing and boulders tumbling down.
Xu Zimei wiped the cold sweat from her forehead, turned around, and saw that the soldiers who had been patrolling the surroundings of the Heaven Hidden Valley had withdrawn.
Only two people stood to one side of the valley, resting with their eyes closed.
One of these two was the black-haired man from before.
The other was a green-clad elder.
The elder did not radiate a particularly strong aura but instead appeared to be like any ordinary old man.
With eyes closed in meditation, he sat cross-legged beside the mountain wall.
Seeing Xu Zimei come out, both the black-haired man and the green-clad elder opened their eyes at the same time.
The black-haired man’s aura was a bit like a male lion’s—very irritable and wild.
"Master, it’s him," the black-haired man quickly pointed at Xu Zimei and said.
The might of his Divine Vein Realm surged around him, and the phantom of a White Tiger stood vigilantly behind him.
Last time, he had not heard the beast’s roar clearly.
But this time, he wanted to really understand what that fear-inducing sound was.
Xu Zimei glanced at the collapsed cave that had become ruins and finally turned around and looked up at the two people on the mountain wall.
"You really are persistent," Xu Zimei said with a laugh.
"What did you get in there?" the black-haired man asked sharply.
Although they had been guarding the Heaven Hidden Valley for some time and had sent countless people in to explore,
without exception, none had come out alive.
Therefore, their own understanding of the legacy in that cave was limited.
"If I say I got nothing, would you believe me?" Xu Zimei replied with a smile.
"Then we shall capture you and inquire at leisure," the black-haired man replied with a cold snort.
Xu Zimei shook her head slightly and said with a light smile, "In these years, the strength of the Heaven Tiger Empire hasn’t increased much, but your bravado seems to have grown.
In that great battle back then, if it weren’t for the intervention of the White Divine King, it should have been you facing extinction."
Hearing Xu Zimei’s words, the black-haired man’s face flushed with discomfort, veins on his forehead bulged, and he seemed extremely angry.
However, the green-clad elder beside him maintained his composure and looked at Xu Zimei with great surprise.
He asked, "How do you know about this?"
Although the matter wasn’t top secret, only the high-ranking officials of various nations were privy to it.
It was difficult for ordinary people to come into contact with such affairs.
"That’s none of your concern, and I can’t be bothered to entangle with you," Xu Zimei stated indifferently.
"The things inside, you can’t handle them."
Xu Zimei didn’t elaborate further.
The origins of the Heaven Tiger Empire weren’t actually filled with many twists and turns.
They weren’t part of the human race; if one were to trace back, their race was known as the Luochong Tribe.
Their bloodline was quite similar to that of the Tiger Tribe, but with an added divinity in their veins.
It was this divinity that granted them a more intelligent mind than the tigers.
In those times, tigers weren’t called tigers; people were more accustomed to referring to them as "big cats."
The foundation of the Heaven Tiger Empire actually traces back to one person.
That was a youth named Bai Ze!
He was the son of that generation’s Luochong Tribe Clan Leader, born into a position of prestige.
Unfortunately, he was born with a congenital disability.
His father, the Clan Leader of the Luochong Tribe at the time, felt that his birth was a stain on his dignity.
So he threw him out into the wilderness of the mountains.
Fortunately, Bai Ze’s fate was not sealed, and he was saved by a big cat passing by and taken back to its den.
Thus, he began his legendary life.
