Cyan Nether Sword Sect.
The tiless Cyan Nether Mountain Range remained as otherworldly as ever. For hundreds of years, the majestic Mountain Gate of the Cyan Nether Sword Sect had stood guard over the number one Sect in the Fengyue Kingdom.
Carvings of the founding ancestor, the Sword Demon Elder, and his Divine Weapon, the Cyan Nether Sword, stood on the massive rock faces flanking the Mountain Gate.
Majestic and imposing, they radiated an aura of profound righteousness!
Two figures rushed over like the wind, both clad in heavy cloaks that concealed them completely, leaving nothing exposed.
"Halt! This is the sacred ground of the Cyan Nether Sword Sect! Please state your nas so I may announce your arrival!" one of the two disciples guarding the Mountain Gate shouted.
But the two figures didn't slow down.
One of them produced a golden Sword Order and growled, "Get out of the way!"
"Ah? Is that an Elder Sword Order?"
"Quick, get out of the way."
The two disciples scrambled aside. Only after the pair with the Elder Sword Order had passed did they secretly wipe the cold sweat from their brows. "That was close. Good thing we weren't too aggressive."
"That's strange. As far as I know, Elder Luo was the only one who left the Sect recently. Given his temperant, wouldn't he make a grand return? Why was he so low-key this ti? And completely covered by a cloak?" the other disciple wondered aloud.
The first disciple made a hushing gesture. "Keep your voice down! Elder Luo is notoriously domineering. If he heard you, we'd be in deep trouble!"
"Right!"
The two said no more and resud guarding the Mountain Gate.
anwhile, Elder Luo and Hong Lingtong raced back to the inner sect at top speed, not stopping for a mont until they reached Elder Zhu's Mansion.
"Y-You… How did you end up like this?"
Elder Zhu asked in shock, staring at Elder Luo, who was charred black from head to toe, with every strand of his hair burned away.
"It's all because of that little bastard Hong Yu."
Elder Luo grunted angrily.
Even though three days had passed, every ti he looked at his wounds, he was reminded of his own furious roar just before Hong Yu leaped off the cliff, and a wave of irritation washed over him.
He waved his hand in annoyance. "Quick, give so pills for these burns. I don't know how that little bastard's Primordial Fire is so damn powerful. Nothing I tried on the way here worked. I couldn't heal these burns at all; in fact, they've only gotten worse."
As he spoke, he rolled up his sleeve, revealing half an arm burned to a mangled ss. The flesh was festering, the wound so deep that bone was visible.
If not for the resilient willpower of a Celestial Soul Realm expert, which allowed him to grit his teeth and endure, an ordinary person would have long since fainted from the pain.
"Are you sure these wounds are from that little bastard Hong Yu?" Elder Zhu's expression changed drastically as she got a closer look.
Elder Luo's injuries were simply horrific.
There was so dicinal residue on the wound. As a Tier Two Spiritual Craftsman, Elder Zhu could tell at a glance that these were pills for treating burns. So were even the very Healing Elixirs she had personally concocted. Normally, these Pills were extrely effective against burns.
But now…
Looking at Elder Luo's wound, which was deep enough to expose bone, even she found the situation incredibly difficult to handle. "Co inside with . I'll have to cut away the dead flesh before I can figure out a treatnt."
"As long as you can heal it, do whatever it takes."
Elder Luo nodded.
Elder Zhu turned to Hong Lingtong, who was standing to the side. "My disciple, were you injured?"
Hong Lingtong shook his head. "I had my Corpse Rotting Insects to protect , so I wasn't burned by the flas Hong Yu unleashed. However, more than half of my insects were destroyed in the fight, and I urgently need to replenish them. I implore you, Master, to open the pill-testing grounds and allow to enter to gather more Corpse Rotting Insects to replace my losses."
"You lost over half of your Corpse Rotting Insects? And Elder Luo was injured this badly just to kill that brat? W-Was Hong Yu truly that difficult to handle?" Elder Zhu asked in disbelief.
Hong Lingtong gave a bitter smile. "Master, even after paying such a heavy price, the two of us couldn't kill Hong Yu. He… he jumped from a cliff to his death."
"What?"
Elder Zhu froze, a look of astonishnt on her still-coly, middle-aged face.
Elder Luo nodded. "Hong Lingtong is right. Hong Yu's thods are terrifying. A re Half-Step Earth Soul Realm cultivator forced us into such a pathetic state… In my opinion, his talent is on a completely different level from Hong Renjie's!"
"Well, at least you finally got rid of him."
Elder Zhu heaved a long sigh of relief, her ample chest rising and falling as she murmured with lingering fear, "If that boy had returned to the Sect alive, he would have undoubtedly caused us endless trouble. By the way, are you both certain he's dead?"
"Don't worry. That cliff is tens of thousands of feet high. Even the Sect Leader would face certain death falling from there, let alone so kid in the Earth Soul Realm," Elder Luo said impatiently. "Now hurry up and figure out how to treat my injuries."
"Co with ."
After ordering Hong Lingtong to take his leave, Elder Zhu led Elder Luo toward the rear hall.
In her bedroom, Elder Zhu lifted the floorboards beneath her bed to reveal a narrow passageway. Elder Luo showed no surprise, clearly having long known of its existence.
One after the other, they stepped into the secret location.
The cavern, located hundreds of ters underground, was imnse—almost like a massive, subterranean palace complex.
A network of crisscrossing tunnels all converged on an unadorned stone platform in the center.
"Let out…"
"I'm begging you, let go! Please, let go…"
"Just kill ! Kill ! I don't want to be tortured by you, you she-devil! Kill !"
As they walked, mournful screams echoed ceaselessly around them.
Elder Luo glanced from side to side. The tunnel was lined with rows upon rows of cells, each one imprisoning a single person.
n and won, old and young…
There were even wailing infants and toddlers just learning to speak. So had their arms severed, while others had chunks of flesh carved from their living bodies for research, with maggots writhing rcilessly in the rotting wounds. A few elderly people, unable to bear the torture, had already died, their corpses left for the worms and insects of the earth to crawl out and devour, completely ignored…
They could see no hope.
Their eyes were filled with nothing but despair and a lifeless, ashen gray.
CLANG!
Soone suddenly lunged at the bars of their cell, shaking them frantically and roaring in despair, "Old Witch, kill ! Kill …"
It was a girl of sixteen, an age that should have been the pri of her youth. But because she possessed a special constitution, she had been captured by Elder Zhu and imprisoned here. She had long forgotten how many hellish days and nights had passed, but her hatred for Elder Zhu had never faded with ti.
Her body was already covered in scars. She was left with only one arm and one leg, and even her left breast had been carved away.
All of this had been brutally carved from her body by Elder Zhu for her so-called 'beauty' experints.
"Old Witch, kill ! I curse you to a fate worse than death, may your body rot and fester with sores…"
The girl, who should have been as lovely as a flower, was now shrieking venomous curses like an Evil Ghost from the depths of Hell.
"Silence!"
With a casual wave of her hand, Elder Zhu sent out a puff of red mist. The girl imdiately collapsed to the ground, convulsing and foaming at the mouth. The only things left in her eyes were a trace of venomous hatred and, just before the end, a sliver of relief.
For her, death was a release.
"The clan sent word last ti. The next 'shipnt' will arrive in a month. Apparently, it includes a few high-quality specins with special constitutions," Elder Luo remarked indifferently. He was long accustod to such things; the horrific scenes couldn't stir the slightest flicker of emotion or compassion within him.
Without turning her head, Elder Zhu replied, "Tell them to wait. Now that I have Yun ngyao, I can focus on refining the Beauty Pill. I don't have ti to process a new batch."
"Mm."
Elder Luo nodded.
Reaching the central platform in the underground prison, Elder Luo lay down on the stone slab. As he watched Elder Zhu prepare to treat his wounds, he asked, "Is Yun ngyao really that miraculous? Can the Beauty Pill refined from her truly preserve your appearance until death, granting you eternal youth?"
"The Extre Yin Ice Soul Constitution is incredibly special. According to the notes left by that predecessor, he once found a person with this constitution. Unfortunately, an accident occurred on the day of the refining—the person turned out to be a relative of an unparalleled master. That predecessor died a miserable death at the master's hands, leaving behind only this set of research notes."
Elder Zhu explained with confidence.
She couldn't suppress a thrill of excitent whenever she ntioned the Beauty Pill.
Elder Luo breathed a sigh of relief. "It's a good thing Hong Yu is dead at the bottom of that chasm."
"Don't you worry. Once I've successfully refined the Beauty Pill, I can focus my full attention on Alchemy. I'll surely be able to break through to the rank of Tier Three Spiritual Craftsman within ten years. When that ti cos, I'll refine a Spirit Fusion Pill for you. It will definitely help you break through to the Primordial Core Realm."
Elder Zhu continued, "And then, we can finally be together forever!"
Elder Luo nodded.
But there were so things he left unsaid.
'A bad premonition lingered in his heart. It seed to originate from that boy… the one who had plunged into the chasm and should, by all rights, be dead.'
'The feeling had been there ever since he watched Hong Yu leap from the cliff. It clung to him like a nightmare, impossible to shake off.'
Elder Zhu had already begun scraping away the dead flesh to treat his wound.
As she treated the wound, a pained expression on her face, Elder Zhu ground her teeth. "That damned little bastard! How dare he injure you like this? Don't worry. Even though I can't take revenge on that little bastard himself, I'll make sure his precious little sister suffers the full tornt of the scorching flas before she's refined. I'll burn her alive!"
"Just seven more days. In seven days, that little bitch will be sacrificially refined into a Pill, and you will have your revenge!"
The small knife in her hand caught the dim light, reflecting her twisted, hideous face…
...
At the bottom of the chasm, wreathed by the Black House.
A colossal black Ancient Beast lay prone on the ground. Xingtian had one hand pressed to its forehead, while from the Unjust Death Black Lotus beneath his feet, innurable black tendrils continuously extended.
These tendrils connected to the black Giant Beast, absorbing the potent power of the Dark Dragon Clan bloodline from its body. This power strengthened Xingtian while simultaneously coalescing into two Blood-colored Lotus Seeds within the Black Lotus he sat upon.
Behind Xingtian, Hong Yu sat cross-legged on the ground.
A faint red glow enveloped his body. The Blood-colored Lotus Seed he had swallowed contained the pure bloodline power of the Dark Dragon Clan. As this power circulated and was refined within him, Hong Yu's strength was also slowly increasing.
This cultivation continued for a full seven days and seven nights…
But as the fourth day dawned, the bloody light around Hong Yu suddenly receded. He snapped his eyes open, but they held not a trace of joy. Instead, they were filled with a deep, unshakable dread and solemnity…
'Has the ti finally co?'
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