Prime Originator

"Looking at the dense presence of Darkness Profound Energy in this Eternal Night Secret Realm, I would say it belongs to a demon—or at least, a cultivator of the darkness attribute. Furthermore, he would have to be at the Divine King Realm or higher," Aria speculated. 

Divine Cultivators would have successfully formed their inner world at the start of Divine Origin Realm, but only at the Divine King Realm would the inner world become stable enough to sustain life.

"Divine King Realm, huh?" Leon muttered with narrowed eyes before he said, "If the Eternal Night Secret Realm is the inner world of a fallen divine powerhouse at the Divine King Realm or beyond it, then this world could be anywhere."

Just like an interspatial ring that could contain varying sizes of storage space inside depending on its grade, the Eternal Night Secret Realm could appear as a regular pill to the outside yet contain the size of an entire world not inferior to Gaia or greater within.

As such, Leon did not know how far they were transported to enter the Eternal Night Secret Realm and would not know where to begin searching for it directly the next time.

However, he suddenly recalled that the two seniors in the center of the world mentioned that Gaia was a prison world sealed by a Celestial Conqueror.

In that case, the location of the Eternal Night Secret Realm should exist somewhere within Gaia.

Although it could be any random pebble on the side of the road, Leon suspected that the object containing the Eternal Night Secret Realm was most likely hidden in the dark clouds of the Dark Continent somewhere.

Nevertheless, that was not important to think about all that. 

Leon shook his head and said, "Let's look for the tomb entrance." 

"Mm!" Aria and Darlene nodded.

Shortly after, Leon spread out his divine sense and attempted to sweep the area below the ground surface. 

However, his divine sense was obstructed before it could seep through the ground, causing his brows to knit together.

"Is there a problem?" the attentive Aria quickly noticed. 

"Not really," Leon shook his head before casually replying, "I was just trying to scout the ground, but my divine sense got obstructed by the Nethergrass's power of devouring." 

"It's not very strong, but with so many Nethergrass in this area, they basically form a barrier that interferes with any form of spying that tries to get past it."

"Should we uproot all these Nethergrass then?" Darlene suggested while glancing down at the field of black grasses surrounding the tombstone.

"Logically speaking, that method would indeed resolve the inference problem. However, this Eternal Night Secret Realm is supposedly very dangerous. We don't know what trap could be triggered as a result of uprooting this field of Nethergrass," Leon stated. 

"Perhaps it will also trigger a mechanism to destroy the tomb itself. It won't hurt to be prudent in our action and look for the tomb entrance with alternative methods. Perhaps, this is also part of the trial to see whether we are worthy of the treasures." 

"But… hubby just plucked a few stalks of Nethergrass a moment ago, and nothing bad seemed to happen," Darlene mentioned with a puzzled look.

"Un, I did," Leon nodded and said, "But that was quite careless of me. Luckily, I've only taken a few and not a lot. Otherwise, we would not have known what could hit us." 

"Treasures aren't usually left unguarded." 

"Only you would see these grass as treasures," Aria giggled softly as she threw a jab at Leon for being too cautious. 

"Aren't you being too cautious, Leon?"

"I would rather be too cautious than lose either of you due to a stupid of mine that could have been avoided," Leon stated seriously.

Aria and Darlene opened their mouths before closing them again shortly, unable to refute Leon's words. 

Nevertheless, they smiled slightly, feeling warm inside.

"I suppose making a mess around here would also leave traces behind that could be tracked by the demons and put us in an unfavorable situation," Aria mentioned. 

Recalling the large number of demons entering the Eternal Night Secret Realm, it was best to stay under their radar or only confront small companies. 

Being targeted by the entire group of demons would mean certain doom.

Sometime later, Leon and the girls studied the tombstone for a clue, but to no avail.

"There seem to be four white gemstones embedded in the tombstone, but I'm not sure if we are meant to do anything with them or not." Darlene inserted her opinion. 

The four gemstones did seem suspicious.

Leon and Aria shortly focused on the four gemstones, but they failed to produce a response from the four gemstones despite their efforts in touching them, attempting to remove them, and even instill energy into them.

"Maybe we can find a clue among the Nethergrass," Leon stated.

"The Nethergrass?" Aria muttered before asking, "What kind of clue can we even find from the Nethegrass?"

Leon frowned.

At a glance, there was nothing special about the unassuming Nethergrass and their absorbed elemental attribute.

But upon careful observation, Leon could see them forming an intricate pattern and share a special relationship with the tombstone when grouped into their matching elements. 

The Nethergrass with darkness, fire, water, and wind attributes each formed an incomplete runic symbol around the four directions of the tombstone. 

The runic symbols were all incomplete due to a few stalks of Nethergrass with mismatching elemental attributes in each of them. 

"This… this a formation that makes use of heaven and earth's natural resources," Leon muttered with narrowed eyes, drawing Aria and Darlene's attention over. 

"Did you figure something out, Leon?" Aria asked with surprise, not expecting him to discover any clue from the Nethergrass. 

"Un," Leon nodded and said, "I understand the trick now. There's actually a hidden formation that we have to complete. "This might be the reason why we can uproot some stalks of Nethergrass without any problem."

As Leon explained, he removed the mismatched stalks of Nethergrass from the runic symbol and planted the correct Nethergrass with matching attributes.

Rumble…!

The four runic symbols quickly lit up the moment they were completed, followed by the four gemstones lighting up with each color of the four elements before the ground rumbled.

The big tombstone shortly sank into the ground before an entrance to the underground tomb was revealed. 

"Bingo!" Leon smiled.