Standing outside the third room, Wu Yu had no idea what was inside.
From the first two, this one was probably going to be something unnerving as well.
"In the first Place of Overcoming, you fought your reflection, and had to overcome yourself to get out. In the second Place of Struggle, you were given hopeless conditions and an impossible task..... What could be in the third room?" Full Moon of Nanshan wondered aloud.
"Big brother Yu, what about not going in? We have yet to get a single thing from the Eternal Emperor Tomb. What if there's no treasure inside?" Ye Xixi wanted to beat a quick retreat.
She had tasted despair too many times since they had come to Eternal Emperor Tomb. She had been completely crushed by the 50,000 years in the sealed chamber.
And then seeing Wu Yu undergo one ordeal after another, she was growing more and more scared.
Wu Yu now stood before the deepest sealed chamber of the tunnel. Behind, he could see thousands of lifelike statues.
And now he was faced with a choice. To enter the third room or not?
"If this third room is also a test, then it must be the hardest of them all. Wu Yu, you have to make your own decision. We cannot help you with this one." Wu Jun said solemnly.
Even in all his years, Wu Jun had never seen the likes of the Eternal Emperor Tomb, and how thoroughly it robbed one of hope.
All of these tests attacked one's psyche directly. It would swallow any without sufficient mental fortitude.
Therefore, Wu Jun felt that Wu Yu might be hesitating a little. If he was unable to pass this one, he might well lose everything.
However, Wu Yu shook his head. He strode on without hesitation.
He had to go to the last room. He had come so far, and won so much. In the Place of Overcoming, he had outdone himself, bringing his techniques to the next level. In the Place of Struggle, he had outgrown himself, honing his will to the next level.
His willpower was more than tenfold what it had been, if it had to be quantified. The bleak and hopeless existence he had suffered had scared Wu Yu, and he still shook with the trauma from that experience.
It seemed like a mere 40 years of hopelessness had honed his will to a whole new level.
The final room, and possibly the toughest test of them all. If he passed it, it would also grow him the most.
Wu Yu thought about it. "No matter what the test of the final room is, I have to go in. The Eternal Emperor Tomb holds many secrets about the annihilation of Demon Immortal Realm. I have to know."
His instinct also told him that this had something to do with the Great Sage, Heaven's Equal's legacy.
No one in the sky palaces had mentioned the end of the Demon Immortal Realm, and yet the Great Sage, Heaven's Equal had immediately said some curious things about it that made Wu Yu interested in its demise.
It was likely that the secret was within that third room.
"Ready yourself then. There might be an eternal demon emperor level opponent, just like before." Wu Jun nodded, respecting the decision that Wu Yu had made.
"Onwards then."
Wu Yu readied himself to face trouble, and then steeled himself, pressing the two bronze pendants into the groove of the third door.
They creaked open slowly.
The despair of Yang Chen still haunted Wu Yu.
Seeing the darkness awaiting behind the bronze doors, he summoned his courage and dived in.
The moment he entered, he was startled by what he saw. The bronze doors also vanished behind him.
"This... why is it like this?"
He was in an ordinary wooden hut after stepping through the doors. But since they vanished, it seemed like there was no way out of this place.
More, Wu Yu was very familiar with this wooden hut.
It was where he had stayed with the elderly Sun Wudao back in his early days at the Heavenly Sword Sect. The layout of the hut was exactly the same as it had been back then!
Sun Wudao!
Wu Yu was thunderstruck. His mind was spinning in confusion. Could Sun Wudao be linked to this place?
Or was this yet another psychological test?
However, he did not see Sun Wudao at all in the hut. Evidently if this was a test, it was not going to be simple.
There was only an odd-shaped monkey scampering up and down inside the hut. It was a little gray macaque. If not for the fact that it had three ears on each side, it was no different from any ordinary macaque.
The six-eared little macaque immediately chattered in welcome as Wu Yu entered. Evidently it was pleased that someone had come in.
Perhaps the little macaque had been cooped up in this sunless place for too long. It looked bored, and all too happy that someone had come.
Although it was excited to see Wu Yu at first, it soon grew wary and a little apprehensive.
But very quickly, the monkey came to Wu Yu again, scampering up and down his body and screeching constantly. It was curious about him, but very quickly grew affectionate.
"I guess this monkey doesn't have much by way of sentience?" Wu Jun said from within the Floating Dreams Pagoda. He could sense a bit of what was outside the Floating Dreams Pagoda. This seemed to be an ordinary gray macaque, yet to gain sentience.
But it didn't take a genius to realize that the final room of the Eternal Emperor Tomb was not a place that any living being could just wander into.
Wu Yu was sure from Wu Jun's reply that this was not an illusion, because he had been unable to contact the others during Yang Chen's life.
"Let me see." Wu Yu used his Eyes of Fire and Gold to look at the monkey. He saw that there were countless complicated spirit designs that formed a complex seal, which sealed off the monkey's abilities.
Wu Yu had no way of penetrating the seal. Let alone removing them, he did not even know what they did.
"Could this be related to the Great Sage, Heaven's Equal?"
Wu Yu very quickly linked this to Sun Wudao and the Ruyi Jingu Bang.
Could this little macaque be the Great Sage, Heaven's Equal, but sealed away?
That did not seem likely either. Back in Primordial Immortal Empire, the Great Sage, Heaven's Equal had appeared, and he had been a sentient being. He was nothing at all like this little macaque.
What on earth was this little macaque supposed to be?
Wu Yu looked around at the furnishings of the hut. He had no way of leaving for now, and that calmed him down instead. However, he soon gave up that inspection. It was too sparsely furnished, just like Sun Wudao's hut at the Heavenly Sword Sect before. It could not possibly hide any secrets.
"Since a powerful seal was put on this little macaque, he must have been someone really special before." Wu Yu thought. He began to play with the monkey.
Perhaps because Wu Yu had the Great Sage, Heaven's Equal's legacy, the golden ape's bloodline made the gray macaque feel kinship with him. He very quickly took to Wu Yu.
The three ears on each side was an oddity indeed, but looked rather cute once you got used to it.
After they had gotten to know each other, the little macaque leaped up and down the hut, and then retrieved something, handing it to Wu Yu.
Wu Yu was shocked. He accepted it. It was a crystal ball about the size of a fist.
"Look, there are figures moving within!"
Wu Jun, Full Moon of Nanshan, and Ye Xixi could see what was happening inside the crystal ball.
However, Perpetual World Tree could not. Wu Yu was sheltering him, but in an enclosed area of the Floating Dreams Pagoda, so that he was oblivious to the situation outside. He continued to tremble in fear that they were going to die in the Eternal Emperor Tomb.
Following their exclamations, Wu Yu too paid attention to the crystal ball.
"It seems like a battle is happening? No, it's probably an image of the battle which was stored in the crystal ball!" Wu Yu realized quickly.
The battle within the crystal ball was epic. The sky itself seemed to be falling, the ground cracking and heaving. The void was rent at places. It looked like the perfect storm, completely captured within the crystal ball.
"Could this be...... the legendary battle of Demon Immortal Realm?" Wu Yu immediately perked up, now giving it his undivided attention.
The more he paid attention to the crystal ball, the more it seemed to draw him in. He identified it as the Demon Immortal Realm.
There were many eternal demon emperors in this Demon Immortal Realm. They were using all kinds of incredibly powerful moves!
"This IS that battle! Who on earth ended the Demon Immortal Realm?"
Wu Yu gazed deep into the void within!