Fu Gao's pupils shrank violently.
"Young master… this…?!"
Even with his peak Chaos Lord cultivation, Fu Gao could not suppress the shock in his voice. What Shen Xuan held was a holy sword from Ji Yu's storage ring. Although its surface was cracked, dull, and seemingly incomplete, it emitted a terrifying sense of depth.
No aura leaked out, and no pressure exploded. The moment it appeared, the formations of the fifth floor trembled faintly, as if something fundamental had been disturbed.
Fu Gao's breathing quickened. "This… this is a..."
Shen Xuan closed his fingers slightly, and the disturbance vanished at once. He looked at Fu Gao calmly.
"Senior," he said, "this should be enough to barter, shouldn't it?"
Fu Gao stared at Shen Xuan for a long moment. Then, slowly; very slowly; he nodded.
"…Enough," he said hoarsely. It was more than enough.
"So, senior, can I barter for another two things in addition to this?" Raising his eyebrows, Shen Xuan asked directly, causing Fu Gao to pause.
Fu Gao raised his head and looked at the metal ball suspended within the formation, then back at the sword in Shen Xuan's hand. Thinking of the holy sword, which contained fragments of law, Fu Gao's heart trembled. Even a peak Chaos Lord Realm expert could not remain calm. After all, this item could help him break through to the Chaos Ancestral Realm, or even allow him to glimpse the Holy Realm.
After considering this, he nodded and allowed Shen Xuan to choose two additional items along with the metal ball. Shen Xuan did not waste the opportunity; he picked a broken holy-grade formation whose origin had been destroyed, and a holy-grade medicinal item whose origin had also been depleted. With the metal ball, it would be enough to restore nearly ninety percent of their former glory.
"Have you taken everything?" Fu Gao asked when he saw Shen Xuan return. Fu Gao then walked toward a corner of the fifth-floor hall. He sat down and activated a small formation on the table.
"Young master, place the three items here, along with the sword you wish to barter and the token," Fu Gao said, pointing to the formation.
"Okay."
Shen Xuan placed the metal ball, the holy-grade formation, the holy-grade medicine, the holy-grade sword, and the token onto the table, exactly as instructed. This time, he also wanted to understand how these formations worked. The moment he placed the token, the formation activated.
As it activated, Shen Xuan's eyes turned into vertical pupils again. He tried to see the essence of the formation and understand its mechanism. After a few breaths, the entire room lit up under the formation's glow.
"What the hell…?"
The moment Shen Xuan tried to peer deeper into the formation, blood seeped from the corners of his eyes. He forcefully sealed his perception, his pupils snapping back to normal. A dull ache bloomed behind his eyes, spreading inward; slow, heavy, and impossible to ignore.
Within the formation, he had seen something indescribable, something he had never encountered before. He was certain it was connected to the entire Chaos. The moment he attempted to truly enter the formation's core, an enormous backlash struck him. With his unstable Chaos Seed Realm cultivation, it was nearly impossible to perceive a formation above the holy grade. Even so, he recovered almost instantly.
A few breaths later, Fu Gao looked at Shen Xuan and laughed while holding the holy sword. "Young master, it's done. I didn't expect that even the Ji Clan possessed a holy-grade weapon. But now, it's mine. Haha…!"
Hearing Fu Gao's laughter, Shen Xuan came back to himself and looked at the three items on the table. Without wasting a moment, Shen Xuan took his items and left without saying a single word, leaving everyone present on the fifth floor in a daze. Shen Xuan did not notice the abnormalities in Fu Gao's words.
Half an hour later, inside the inn.
Puff…!!!!
Inside his room, Shen Xuan spat out a mouthful of blood onto the ground, coughing violently. The smell of blood lingered faintly in the quiet room. Shen Xuan steadied himself, one hand braced against the edge of the table and the other pressed against his chest. His breathing was shallow and uneven, as if his body were struggling to remember its proper rhythm.
A thin line of crimson trailed from the corner of his lips. "So… even observing it is forbidden," he murmured hoarsely.
The backlash had not been ordinary. It wasn't an attack, nor was it rejection in the conventional sense. It was closer to a warning, as if something vast and immeasurable had brushed against his perception to remind him of the gap between his current state and its domain. If it weren't for his soul power being at the Primordial Realm, he might have already been crushed to death.
Shen Xuan slowly sat down cross-legged on the floor. Gradually, he understood; the formation itself was nothing extraordinary, perhaps fifth or sixth grade at most. What terrified him was what lay behind it. It was like a web that could not be accessed safely; once you entered, if your power was not strong enough to retreat silently, you would not only be traced by those beings but also marked by the formation. There would be no escape.
He took out a pill he had bought earlier in the market, swallowed it, and began to meditate. Half an hour later, his condition finally stabilized.
Next day.
In Shen Xuan's private room, he and Xiao Ding sat beside the pond.
"Young master, you can take this blood; this is the essence of the blood from the person I killed, along with the token you mentioned." Placing an orange token on the table, Xiao Ding looked at Shen Xuan.
Shen Xuan looked at the orange token, then took out Xiao Yang's red token to compare them. "The color of the token…?"
Noticing Shen Xuan's puzzled expression, Xiao Ding explained. "Well, young master, don't be confused by the color. The color represents your identity and your talent as well."
"Xiao Yang's token is red. It represents that he has the ability to reach the Chaos Lord level and that he has backing from a powerful force like Lingchuan Hall. Moreover, he has a chance to become the master of Lingchuan Hall in the future. As for the orange token of the person I killed, his talent was slightly inferior to Xiao Yang's, and the force behind him was not as strong."
"Even if someone had no backing but had talent surpassing Xiao Yang's, their token would inevitably become red. However, this is not absolute. Every fifty years, the tokens are reevaluated. If you obtain a heaven-defying opportunity that increases your talent, the color will automatically upgrade. Conversely, if your talent is drained, your token will be downgraded."
He spoke the facts without hiding anything. Shen Xuan remained silent, analyzing every word.
"So, how many levels or colors are present for the Heavenly Registry Token?" Shen Xuan asked, tapping the table.
"According to what I know, there are currently nine or ten levels. Only top-notch figures from the highest universes can access the ninth or tenth levels; I don't even know their colors."
"Then what level does the red token represent?" Shen Xuan asked.
"The red color represents top-notch talent in the middle universe plane, which ranks fifth," Xiao Ding sighed.
"Are you not satisfied with the level you're at?" Noticing the sadness on Xiao Ding's face, Shen Xuan joked lightly.
"Haha… young master, why are you joking with this old man?" Xiao Ding laughed. "With my talent, I am not even sure of breaking through to the Chaos Ancestral Realm." He shook his head.
"Do you truly harbor no desire to stand above the firmament?" Shen Xuan asked, looking directly into his eyes.
"Ambition…" Xiao Ding smiled faintly. "When I was young, I believed I could conquer the heavens themselves. Later, I learned that in this Chaos, my talent was nothing more than dust; something even the wind would not bother to remember. I saw reality. Then I became an elder at Lingchuan Hall for the sake of Xiao Yang, hoping he could do better. I took him through countless small worlds to let him experience life."
"Young Master Shen, sometimes I even envy you for possessing talent that defies the heavens and an indomitable will. But I also fear for you. Your enemies are not just one or two people, but the entire world."
Xiao Ding spoke with emotion, leaving Shen Xuan to stare calmly at the pond.
"Then what about you, young master? Don't you have any ambition? Or is your ambition only to take revenge for your family…?" Xiao Ding asked with a faint smile.
"Haha… Elder Xiao, do you know what the true reality of the world is?" With a smile, Shen Xuan tossed some fish food into the pond and turned to Xiao Ding.
"Huh… true… reality??" Xiao Ding was confused by the question.