At that moment in the core of the Shadow Realm, the area that Ye Futian was in seemed to have become absolutely still and silent.Everything had gone quiet. The core had frozen under the divine radiance of the great shadow. Time had stoped flowing, and things stopped moving through space. Other than the stream of shadow qi that was still flowing, everything else had turned to dust and disappeared.

However, there was still a place with a bit of life left in this absolutely destroyed realm. Lines of qi appeared there, like leaves floating through the void. Faint light flashed as the qi flickered, filling the area.

This seemed to be the only place in the silent core where there was motion.

The power of the shadow had flowed into this place, but it had not immediately destroyed it like the other places. Instead, it had flowed along with the area’s own currents, as if they were working in tandem.

Ye Futian stood there in the center of the area, unmoving. His eyes had been open all along, but he had not moved.

He had seen everything turn to dust. It seemed that nothing could exist under the power of shadow, including extremely powerful ritual implements. Invincible ritual implements were as weak as paper here, and could be easily destroyed.

He felt that he was the same. He had felt his body, his divine spirit, and even his spiritual will all stop as the shadow infected him. They had all become incredibly weak and easy to destroy.

But he was still alive. He had not fallen. He even discovered that the power of the shadow was flowing along with the World Tree’s currents. It seemed that the World Tree had saved his life.

There was a rustling sound as the soul of the World Tree was unleased. He even activated the will of the Emperor, just to be safe. Sacred radiance flowed over him and lines of dazzling light stretched out. A huge, holy tree appeared with him at its base. Endless leaves and branches appeared around him and stretched out for a vast distance.

Ye Futian thought of the treasure he had obtained in Emperor Kua’s ruins in the Crimson Dragon Realm. It was a fire spirit orb that could destroy anything. It seemed to be an item of the sun, something from the world of flames, but it had still been refined by the World Tree.

Now, the power of shadow was the same. With the World Tree protecting him, it could not destroy him.

It seemed that the World Had the power to protect the whole world. Time and time again it forged miracles and turned the impossible into the possible.

All was silent for a moment, then Ye Futian suddenly moved. He seemed to have transformed into a tree himself, and he began hovering. The power of the sun flowed towards him, warming up the area. It merged with the pwer of the World Tree, and was not as destructive as it would have been elsewhere.

He floated forward, moving further into the core of the Shadow Realm. In this place, the power of shadow became a howling vortex.

The youth he had seen earlier had walked out of this place. He had cultivated in the heart of a shadow storm, and Ye Futian could sense that although he was very powerful, he was not a top level figure. In fact, he was far from it. He was only so strong because he had drawn upon the power of shadow.

Thus, this man obviously had some special tricks that allowed him to come here.

The core of the Shadow Realm was a place that even the greatest figures could not come to.

The Dark Court wanted to use this power for themselves. When Donghuang the Great had unified the Divine Prefecture and conquered the Original Realm, he had not tried to use this power, but had left it there and closed up the roads to the Original Realm in order to let the people of that realm have their own cultivation resources.

Otherwise, Donghuang the Great and Emperor Ye Qing would have taken the power away.

Great figures could not seize that power, but true great emperors could. They were the ones who stood above all others.

Ye Futian looked at the shadow vortex before him. He hesitated a bit. Should he go into it?

The secrets of the Shadow Realm might be within it. If he went in, could he withstand it?

His mind raced, then there was a flash of resolution in his dark eyes. If someone else was able to go in there to cultivate, and he had such a fate-altering life spirit, why couldn’t he go in there too?

The will of the Emperor burned within him and flowed through his veins. The World Tree shone with divine radiance.

He flashed towards the center of the shadow storm. In a flash, he was swallowed up by a stream of endless shadow. Anyone watching from outside would no longer have been able to see him.

He stepped into the storm. The shadow energy was extremely thick here. It flowed over him endlessly and entered the space where his World Tree was, spreading over his body and giving him a feeling of utter cold. Even with the will of the Emperor, he divine spirit still seemed to freeze.

Everything was silent within the shadow storm. Nothing could exist in here besides the stream of shadow qi. Only he and his life spirit were in here.

He slowed down, seeming to respond to the power he was facing. He continued on, step by step.

Soon he realized that the world surrounded by the shadow storm was actually a cavernous sky. The storm had filled a vast area, and flowed around the center of the Shadow Realm. It formed strands of shadow power that flowed towards the surface.

It was as if this was the reason the Shadow Realm had been created. Youyue Divine Palace was the place in the Shadow Realm that bloomed with the most shadow energy, and thus occupied the highest position within the realm. This place was directly under the palace.

He did not dare to move any faster. He seemed to have forgotten about time. He just continued forward through the storm. He could feel his thoughts becoming slow and simple. He may not have been killed by the power of shadow, but he had still been greatly affected. His blood flowed slowly and the will within his body was obstructed. Everything seemed almost still. If it hadn’t been for his World Tree, his life would have stopped as well.

After he did not know how long, the storm outside gradually subsided. It seemed as if the violence of the previous storm had been because of that youth. After he had left, the storm calmed down. More people once again entered the Shadow Realm. More people used this power to cultivate. More people tried to find the divine item.

Others tried to find Ye Futian. These were people from the Heavenly Mandate Palace.

Lord Taixuan, Emperor Nan and other top figures went underground personally. They went in complete silence, troubled looks on their faces.

They could not find him.

Ye Futian seemed to have truly disappeared.

If he had fallen, it would without a doubt be a disaster for the Heavenly Mandate Academy. Not only would they have lost an absolute genius, it would cause a series of chain reactions.

But Lord Taixuan was not willing to believe that Ye Futian could have fallen like this, without a sound.

“I didn’t find him,” Lord Taixuan said to Emperor Nan. As they went deeper into the storm, he was growing more worried and his face grew paler.

“Let’s look some more,” said Emperor Nan. Other than them, there many others entering the storm, but as they continued on, they saw no one ahead of them. Everything seemed to have turned to dust. There was no sign of life.

“That is…”

Lord Taixuan’s eyes flashed. He moved forward, reaching out with his hand. He grabbed something. Once he saw what it was, his face went pale.

“What is it?” Jiang Chengzi asked him.

“A piece of a ritual implement.” Lord Taixuan rubbed it gently, and the shard crumbled into dust. It seemed impossibly fragile. It had been infected.

If when something as strong as a ritual implement was infected by shadow it was destroyed, how could one’s body withstand it?

They all had a bad feeling. Had the foremost talent in all the Nine Realms perished like this, with no one to see or here?

They were stricken with fear.

It was hard for them to bear, but whether they could accept it or not, it was reality.

They continued onward, going deeper and deeper. After a time, they could finally see the shadow storm. They could feel how dangerous it was and did not dare get any closer to it.

They looked at each other, looks of despair on their faces. Their was even pain in their eyes.

If they had not found him by know, there was almost no hope that they ever would.

“Is he dead?” came a voice. The voice was that of Gai Cang of the Golden Divine Nation. He seemed pleased by this, although he was also a little bit regretful that he had not killed Ye Futian himself.

Everyone looked at him coldly, but Gai Cang did not care about them at all. He said indifferently, “Now that Ye Futian is dead, how long can the alliance between all the powers last?”

He really wanted to see what the Heavenly Mandate Academy would be like after that, and what would happen to it.

“The Princess is here,” came a telepathic voice. Princess Donghuang had come herself as well. Divine light flashed all around her. She had not brought anyone to protect her, but had come all alone.

She looked at Lord Taixuan and the others, then looked at the storm of shadow. No one could see the slightest hint of disturbance in her beautiful eyes and no one knew what she was thinking.

“Princess, it is dangerous here. We should all leave this place at once?” said the headmaster of Tianshen Academy.

The princess looked at him and stopped, saying, “That is no obstacle to me.”

The headmaster of the Tianshen Academy did not say anything more, he just stepped beside her to protect her.

At that moment, Ye Futian had reached the core within the storm.

He looked all around him. He did not know how vast the storm that wrapped around the whole area was, but he seemed to have travelled very far before he reached this place. At that moment, he looked forward and saw a terrifying airflow that was revolving wildly around something. The storm seemed to have formed around it.

Terrifying dark lightning flashed within the airflow. The lightning was filled with the same kind of power that was creating the shadow storm. Terrible shadow radiance spread out in all directions, illuminating the entire space.

Ye Futian watched the light. It seemed like an ancient, divine stone was sitting calmly there in the center of it all, giving birth to the shadow storm.

The Original Realm was the origin of the entire world. After the Heavenly Path had collapsed, the original had inflated then collapsed as well. Was this an origin stone left behind when the Heavenly Path collapsed?