Chapter 991: Harvesting Abundantly

On top of the ancient, widely-watched stone statue, Zhou Yuan lay down on his back. His eyes slowly closed, for it was time for him to truly savor the fruits of his ultimate victory.

From deep within the stone statue, a powerful pull emanated.

Zhou Yuan's consciousness descended with the pull. When his mind steadied, he found himself outside a massive orb of light. Inside the orb, thousands of streams of light, like swimming fish, slowly rose, eventually transforming into myriad things: fish, birds, beasts, flowers, plants, insects, and grass.

It was as if a world had been formed within.

Zhou Yuan gazed at the streams of light transforming into everything imaginable, his heart burning with excitement, for all of them were primordial qi!

The amount of this primordial qi was many times greater than what he had found within the first stone statue he had previously entered.

With a thought, Zhou Yuan formed a vortex of genesis qi in front of him. Immediately, thousands of primordial qi streams surged rapidly from all directions, funneling one after another into the genesis qi vortex.

There was no hindrance whatsoever during this process.

It took approximately an hour for Zhou Yuan to extract all the primordial qi from the location. The sheer abundance of it filled him with an uncontrollable surge of emotion. It was no wonder everyone fought tooth and nail to secure this place; such a reward was indeed irresistible.

After contentedly collecting the primordial qi, Zhou Yuan's gaze shifted to the enormous light orb ahead.

He could vaguely sense that deep within the orb, a remnant of a body sat in a cross-legged position. An indescribable pressure, subtle yet pervasive, emanated from it, causing the very void to tremble slightly.

It was the remains of a Law Domain expert.

Zhou Yuan felt a surge of excitement. Law Domain experts stood at the pinnacle of the world, second only to Saints. The remains of a Law Domain expert were incredibly rare and, for those in the Heavenly Sun Stage or Nascent Source Stage, undoubtedly held a greater allure than primordial qi.

Zhou Yuan slowly approached the colossal light orb. As he ventured deeper, he saw that around the remains was a mysterious light barrier, roughly ten zhang in diameter. Within this barrier, thousands of golden lights flowed, each radiating a fluctuation that made Zhou Yuan's heart tremble.

These golden lights seemed to possess a wondrous sentience.

Just by being illuminated by the reflections of some golden lights, Zhou Yuan felt a sudden enlightenment, as if his mind had been cleared and infused with wisdom. Obstacles in his genesis art cultivation were instantly resolved, as if by a sudden epiphany.

Zhou Yuan was deeply shaken, his gaze almost greedy as he stared at the myriad golden lights. He now knew what they were: Law Domain Origin!

This Law Domain Origin was the core essence of a Law Domain expert. Even Law Domain experts like Xi Jing treasured their own Law Domain Origin immensely. However, the thousands of golden lights within the barrier now were likely formed from the Law Domain shattering and its origin leaking out after this expert's demise.

This was the real treasure!

If he could acquire this, Zhou Yuan felt that his future cultivation of genesis arts and minor Saint Arts would undoubtedly become much more efficient. Perhaps he could even use it to cultivate all the Profound Sky Seven Arts to grand completion and fuse them into the true Profound Sky Saint Art!

Furthermore, more exposure to this Law Domain Origin would provide him with greater insight for his future advancement into the Law Domain.

If this item were to be revealed, even the Law Domain experts stationed outside would likely scramble to seize it.

Zhou Yuan guided a wisp of genesis qi, slowly approaching the light barrier. But when he was still half a zhang away, a golden light suddenly refracted outward, instantly annihilating the wisp of genesis qi. At that moment, even space itself seemed to subtly fracture.

Moreover, after vaporizing the genesis qi, the golden light seemed to sense something and turned its focus towards Zhou Yuan.

At this, the hairs on Zhou Yuan's physical body stood on end, and his consciousness-formed body hastily retreated. Only then did the golden light slowly withdraw back into the barrier.

Witnessing this, Zhou Yuan felt a pang of frustration. It seemed this Law Domain Origin was completely beyond his reach at present. Just that single golden light had made him feel a mortal threat; if all thousands of them were to surge, he would likely be instantly vaporized, leaving no trace behind.

"No wonder I've never heard of the first-place winner of the Nine Regions Grand Assembly obtaining Law Domain Origin before," he thought. "It turns out acquiring it is incredibly difficult."

Zhou Yuan was troubled. Could he really only collect some primordial qi and then stop?

But he was truly unwilling to give up!

A mountain of treasure lay before him; how could he return empty-handed?

Yet these Law Domain Origins felt like a tiger's tail – touching them would surely lead to an explosion.

Just as Zhou Yuan was feeling deeply hesitant, a tremor suddenly emanated from his Divine Dwelling within his physical body. To his surprise, a light sphere flew out from his Divine Dwelling, and with a flash, appeared deep within the stone statue.

"It's the Saint Rune light sphere!"

Zhou Yuan's consciousness observed the light sphere before him. On its surface, four mysterious Saint Runes slowly revolved.

The Saint Rune light sphere floated there, then, to Zhou Yuan's astonishment, it drifted directly towards the light barrier.

Zhou Yuan was startled by the Saint Rune light sphere's action, but he was powerless to stop it. He could only prepare to retreat, for that kind of power was beyond his ability to contend with.

Under Zhou Yuan's incredibly tense gaze, the Saint Rune light sphere passed directly through the light barrier upon contact.

However, the golden light origin, which had previously caused Zhou Yuan such trepidation, scattered like rabbits fleeing a hungry wolf upon seeing the Saint Rune light sphere.

The Saint Rune light sphere began to spin, emitting a powerful suction. It brutally pulled the thousands of golden lights, one by one, into itself.

Zhou Yuan watched, dumbfounded, as the terrifying golden light origins seemed not even to dare resist as they were absorbed by the Saint Rune light sphere.

However, upon reflection, this made sense. After all, these four Saint Runes originated from the "Profound Sky Saint Seal," a primordial Saint Treasure that only Saints were qualified to touch. Its power was capable of creating heaven and earth.

In just a few tens of breaths, all thousands of golden light origins within the barrier were completely absorbed by the Saint Rune light sphere.

Then the Saint Rune light sphere flickered and vanished into thin air. However, Zhou Yuan could feel activity within his Divine Dwelling, indicating that the Saint Rune light sphere had returned directly there.

Thus, Zhou Yuan stared blankly at the empty light barrier. As the golden light origins were drawn away, the barrier slowly began to shrink, and even the remnant body showed signs of disintegration.

Clearly, without the protection of the Law Domain Origin, the remains would gradually fade into nothingness.

From now on, it was unlikely that any more primordial qi would be born here.

Zhou Yuan felt a slight guilt, as if he had committed a misdeed. He then bowed respectfully to the remnant body, and with a shift of his consciousness, quickly returned to his physical body, daring not to linger.

Outside the Abyss of Falling.

In the void above, the various Law Domain experts watched the settled situation beneath the starry sky. A momentary silence fell, their shifting gazes revealing their inner turmoil and unease.

This outcome was clearly beyond everyone's expectations.

No one had anticipated that the one who ultimately claimed the most ancient stone statue would be Zhou Yuan of the Heavenly Abyss Domain.

He had defeated Zhao Mushen.

This result was undoubtedly earth-shattering.

In the mountains, countless individuals from various factions rushed to the scene. They too had learned the final outcome from the enormous light mirror in the void, and for a time, waves of astonished exclamations echoed through the peaks.

"Zhou Yuan from the Heavenly Abyss Domain truly came out of nowhere... He's terrifying."

"Tsk, tsk, when this news spreads, the entire Hunyuan Heaven will likely be in an uproar. From now on, the king of the Divine Dwelling Stage should be Zhou Yuan."

"Indeed, who could have imagined he could break through the Divine Dwelling Stage limit... one hundred million genesis qi stars! It's truly unimaginable."

"Our Divine Dwellings, with a foundation of ten million genesis qi stars, would already be considered formidable. But compared to him, it's like a firefly next to a bright moon..."

Such remarks continued without cessation, showing the immense shock and awe the final outcome of the Nine Regions Grand Assembly had brought them.

At one location, Xu Ming of the Demonic Puppet Domain had an ashen face, his eyes filled with jealousy and resentment. The person he had completely disregarded before the Nine Regions Grand Assembly had now stepped directly over him to ascend to the position of king of the Divine Dwelling Stage.

What made him feel even more despair was Zhou Yuan's current genesis qi foundation.

If the two of them were to fight now, he probably wouldn't last a single exchange against Zhou Yuan.

So, no matter how unwilling or enraged Xu Ming was, he knew that the gap between him and Zhou Yuan would likely be impossible to bridge.

However, what brought Xu Ming a slight sense of relief was that Zhao Mushen had also been eliminated, which would undoubtedly alleviate considerable pressure on him.

"Hmph, Zhou Yuan, don't get too smug. You've made the All Ancestors Domain lose face this time; they certainly won't let you off lightly!" Xu Ming sneered. While Zhou Yuan being the king of the Divine Dwelling Stage sounded impressive, in the eyes of the All Ancestors Domain, he was still nothing more than an ant.

When the time came, they could simply send any expert from the Heavenly Sun Ranking to thoroughly deal with him.

Amidst the countless exclamations of shock and awe throughout the land, time passed. Finally, everyone witnessed the void outside the Abyss of Falling suddenly begin to distort, twisting into a vortex that formed a spatial passage.

The atmosphere between heaven and earth subtly began to boil.

This was a sign that the various supreme talents were about to emerge.

The Nine Regions Grand Assembly would now finally reach its complete conclusion.