It was another tough battle. Fifteen minutes later, Tianming finally found an opportunity to pierce his sword into the soul servant phoenix's chest and cut it apart with Ying Huo's help.
Ying Huo spat out Infernal Blaze from its stomach and completely melted down the phoenix into a bloody puddle that turned into the number three before forming into a blood sphere. These three foes were soul servants; it was no wonder they were so powerful.
Tianming picked up the blood sphere and came running to help Meow Meow and Ye Lingfeng out. He didn't care about taking a rest at all. There was no way he would let the soul servants escape after trying so hard to encounter them.
"I'm coming! Shiver in fear!" Ying Huo yelled right before it was electrocuted by the Meow Meow soul servant's Chaos Disaster.
"Watch out for the Myriadfiend Venomfang!"
The Meow Meow soul servant wasn’t much different from the original, so a bite from its fang would be troublesome indeed. Thankfully, they were fighting four against one, so it was much easier. They basically only needed to gang up on it and it was torn apart.
Tianming obtained a second blood sphere, leaving only one more to collect. He couldn't wait to see what would happen.
This time around, they were fighting the Lan Huang soul servant six against one. Despite its tough hide, it eventually fell to the group's attacks, and its blood puddle formed the number one before turning into a blood sphere. Tianming picked it up and immediately had a feeling that something was about to happen.
As expected, the nine faces in the blood spheres emerged before him, turning into six people and three lifebound beasts. There was a bloody mist floating about them and their bodies were mangled, though they all wore eerie smiles. The nine soul servants encircled him and lifted him up all of a sudden, but Tianming didn't resist.
"What are you doing?" he asked anxiously. It was getting too odd for his sensibilities.
"We're bringing you to see the sovereign," the nine said in unison, after which they carried him onward. The shocking thing was that the layout of Demon City shifted as they moved. Countless walls moved and changed to form a path for the cohort. The change this time was more significant than when the entity in Feiling controlled it. In fact, it was more akin to the time when Ye Lingfeng had encountered the Primordial Demonlord.
Tianming wondered if the others could also hear the city shifting. Since he couldn't move, all he could do was be led onward. It felt just like what Ye Lingfeng had described when he inherited the legacy of the Primordial Demonlord. Now, Tianming couldn't help but wonder who this 'sovereign' was.
Primordial Demonlord, innate godchild's soul, and a sovereign... I thought only a single god was entombed here, he thought. Gods were untouchable existences that only appeared in myths. Did they really exist, and in such an abundant number, too?
As his mind blanked out, two beams of light came shining from ahead, one gold, one black. The golden light seemed really dignified, while the black was domineering. The two beams kept interfering with one another. Somehow, Tianming was reminded of the Grand-Orient Sword. The sword in his spatial ring began shuddering, then it charged out of the ring and appeared in front of him.
The moment he grabbed the sword, a powerful force caused him to accelerate into the black-gold light, along with the nine soul servants. The world he saw suddenly shifted, as if he had entered the world of gods. Looking ahead, he saw billions of people kneeling. Each of them was shrouded in a cloudy mist, powerful and domineering.
They weren't kneeling before Tianming, but rather the giant ahead of him standing a thousand meters tall. The giant had his back facing Tianming and was dressed in black and gold-colored regal robes. Like a mountain, he sat and allowed the rest to worship him.
This was Tianming's third time seeing him. The first was when he had manifested Imperial Will through the Grand-Orient Sword, the second was when he saw a white-robed person near him as he rescued the citizens of Aquamarine at Southsky Island, and this time, the figure looked clearer than ever.
"All hail the sovereign! May the sovereign reign eternal!"
The praise was deafeningly loud. The eternal emperor merely humphed and caused a storm that dispersed the clouds and shook the seas.
"Oh, fateful one...."
The words were sent straight into Tianming's ears. It was the Sovereign's voice.
"I am the Primordial God-Emperor. Since mine dynasty hath fallen, here have I slumbered. Thou art a much hard-sought contractor. From hereon shalt thou mine mantle overtake. Rule over mine Primordial God Race in the forthcoming time of crisis. Change the fates of life from now till forever!"
Each of his words resounded like an echo in Tianming's mind. It was as if they had engraved themselves in him.
All of a sudden, everything in front of him vanished. Tianming crashed into a three-meter-wide secret chamber. Though the chamber seemed pitch black from the outside, it was blindingly bright from within. Half of the room basked in golden light, the source of which was a thumb-sized gold bead. The other half was pitch black, but Tianming felt the presence of a black eyeball.
Still stunned, two eyeballs suddenly appeared before Tianming and assimilated themselves into his eye sockets, completely fusing in place. All of a sudden, the eyes vanished and he didn't feel any different. But as he took out a few saint crystals to light the room up and looked into Feiling's mirror...
"What the?!"
He saw that his left eye was now completely golden, and covered with dense text he couldn't read. It looked a little similar to the text of his Aeonic Grandbane. While his right eye still looked black, it seemed deeper and more domineering than ever, much like an emperor's rage. There was also black text on it, but he really didn't know what it meant.
"Isn't this too ridiculous? It's one thing for your hair to be all white... But now you have a gold eye? Are you still a human?" Ying Huo mocked.
"Shut up." Tianming couldn't cry about it even if he wanted to. That aside, he felt a prickling pain on his chest. When he checked, he saw nine red dots on his chest, seemingly arranged in a square pattern. It wasn't hard for him to guess that they were the nine soul servants that had hidden themselves in his body.
Everything he had seen and experienced thus far was beyond his wildest imagination, and he was feeling a little overwhelmed.
"So I inherited the legacy of some god called the Primordial God-Emperor? Apparently he also wants me to rule over the Primordial God Race. So he gave me an assignment, but what about the benefits?" So far, he didn't feel any different, apart from his eyes being different colors. "Maybe it's similar to Feng's case. I probably just can’t utilize the true power of the legacy at my current level. So the 'mantle' is probably inside me and will appear sooner or later...."
That was the best guess Tianming could come up with. Either way, he could be certain that the Grand-Orient Sword had indeed belonged to this god. It could be that the Primordial God-Emperor had intentionally discarded the Grand-Orient Sword so that it may lead someone worthy to go see him.
"Does that mean the Prime Tower has an owner as well? It is the tower of life, after all, so it can't be that Primordial Demonlord Feng mentioned. Gosh... I wonder how many gods are entombed here..."
Tianming didn't know what their levels were, so all he could call them was gods. Given how domineering the giant from his visions was, there was no other way to describe him but as a mythological god.
Before he could think it through, the chamber shifted once more. A pathway opened, leading from whence he had come. Ye Lingfeng was still there. After that, the Demon City no longer moved, as if everything had come to an end. Tianming walked out through the pathway, still thinking about what had just transpired.
Even though there's no changes yet, the Primordial God-Emperor sounded like he gave me something. Guess I better not overthink it. One day, his true legacy will manifest. Perhaps it has something to do with my mastery over the Grand-Orient Sword, particularly the five gates within, he thought. Though, ‘Primordial God Race’ sounds really domineering. Do they have something to do with the Primordial Chaos Beasts? And he mentioned something about a fall and slumber. What could’ve killed them? What time of crisis is he referring too? Agghh!
His frustration only grew with his deliberations.
Then again, what does it have to do with the innate godchild's soul and Primordial Demonlord? Forget it. I'll just do what they want, since they’ve already paid. This way, I can take it without hurting my conscience. It's better if I think about what to do about the innate godchild's soul first.
Soon, he returned to Ye Lingfeng's side. He turned back to the pathway, but it had disappeared. The Demon City was quiet once more.
"Brother Tianming, that eye of yours...."
"Is it cool?"
"Damn cool," he said seriously.
Since Ye Lingfeng trusted him so much, and had told him about the Primordial Demonlord, he didn't hold anything back either. After he told him, he placed the Grand-Orient Sword on his palm.
"Ling'er still needs some time to awaken. Before we face off against the innate godchild's soul, we’d better make good use of the time to cultivate. Have the soulfiend keep watch for us," Tianming said.
"Alright."
Tianming's lifebound beasts also had to cultivate with him, but the soulfiend wasn't one with Ye Lingfeng and didn't share his cultivation. With it on the lookout, they would be rather safe.
I won't disappoint you, Primordial God-Emperor.
Tianming could feel the weight of his last words. It was almost like he had been given a mission. And now, he had obtained the legacy, as evidenced by the fresh feeling he got when he had just grabbed hold of the sword. It now felt like a weapon that was truly his—that was usually the effect of such legacies.
Now, he didn't need his Insightful Eye to be able to clearly feel the dark gold gate within the sword.