Within the valley of the Ninth Layered Island, Huang Wushen, who had been facing the mountain wall, had only just risen and turned around when Xie Yue was already standing behind him, his piercing gaze fixed upon Huang Wushen.
"Senior Brother, if you wished to see me, I would naturally meet with you. This is Kunlun's forbidden ground—how could you simply enter it?" Huang Wushen faced Xie Yue, yet his eyes remained closed. "If I had not lifted the restriction, would you have forced your way in?"
"Cut the nonsense!" Xie Yue's brow twitched as he stared straight at Huang Wushen. "When Master entrusted Kunlun to your care, who in this world would have dared make an enemy of Kunlun? Yet look at things now—not only has our Great Sumeru Positive and Negative Nine Palaces Formation been broken, even a few demon-cultivating vermin dare come here to stir up trouble. Forget me; I'd say anyone can barge into Kunlun now!"
Before Huang Wushen could answer, Xie Yue suddenly saw a vast swath of sword light in the eastern sky, like ten thousand heavenly steeds galloping forth. Though it was far away, its chilling pressure could still be felt. "Great Five Elements Annihilation Sword Formation!" Xie Yue's expression changed again, startling Killing Intent flashing in his eyes. "You actually had the disciples cultivate such a slaughter-heavy sword formation?!"
"Senior Brother, are you blaming me?" Huang Wushen said quietly. "You severed your six senses and entered seclusion to cultivate the Perfect Lotus Platform Dharma Flower Art, unaware of the changes in the world for fifty years. Yet now that you have emerged and seen the Great Sumeru Positive and Negative Nine Palaces Formation broken, and seen Kunlun once more establish a sword formation so heavy with slaughter, you should understand that Kunlun has already fallen into peril. Yet you still insist on forcing your way into this forbidden ground. If you were to forcibly destroy the restriction, it would be nothing less than adding snow atop frost."
"Peril?" Xie Yue said coldly. "Then tell me: who broke Kunlun's Great Sumeru formation?"
"Yuan Tianyi of Luofu. I am no match for him."
"Yuan Tianyi!"
With a boom, the moment those three words left his mouth, nine streaks of white radiance erupted around Xie Yue's body like a blooming white lotus. Every rock touched by that radiance turned to powder. At the same time, his temples throbbed wildly, and his voice was indescribably furious and sharp. "Luofu... Though Yuan Tianyi acts solely as he pleases, he has always followed the rule of 'if no one offends me, I offend no one.' Why would he attack Kunlun? Huang Wushen! You must have provoked him first!"
"It was my fault." Huang Wushen lowered his head and slowly turned back toward the mountain wall. "Senior Brother, do you remember? Whenever we did something wrong in those days, Master would make us face the wall and reflect like this."
"What exactly are you trying to do? So long as we preserve what we have, Kunlun will remain number one in the world." Xie Yue took a step forward, brilliant light flowing over his entire body. "Starting sixty years ago, you spared no means in rapidly raising the cultivation of our disciples, slaughtering demons and exterminating devils on a grand scale. Were you trying to leave behind some great achievement for a thousand years of praise? 'If I wished to see you, I would naturally meet you'—you make it sound so easy! Fifty years ago, I wanted to see Junior Brother Xuan Yuan and Junior Brother Qing Li, but you said they bore important duties and could not meet me. Fifty years later, will I even be able to see them?"
"You suspect that I have already harmed them?" Huang Wushen's expression did not change. "It is time for you to know."
As Huang Wushen spoke, thirteen streaks of seven-colored radiance shot one after another from his flicking fingers into the mountain wall before him. Like keys, they opened the secret palace containing the Great Transformation Heavenly Golden Lotus—within the forbidden ground of Kunlun's forbidden ground, a place only a dozen or so people had entered in a thousand years, linked to Kunlun's spiritual veins.
"Huang Wushen, what trick are you playing! This is the Jade Pool, where the Great Transformation Heavenly Golden Lotus lies. How can there be blood baleful demonic qi here?"
The secret palace lay within the mountain belly directly beneath the Jade Pool, which brimmed with celestial nectar and jade liquid. Xie Yue had only followed Huang Wushen a few steps when his expression completely changed, and he was about to make a move in an instant.
"Senior brother Xie Yue, what are you doing!" At that moment, however, a Daoist in a black Daoist robe suddenly strode out from the secret palace ahead and shouted angrily at him.
"Junior Brother Xuan Yuan!" Xie Yue froze. Since completing his cultivation of the Perfect Lotus Platform Dharma Flower Art, Xie Yue's Primordial Spirit had never been so violently shaken as it was today.
For the Daoist standing before him, brows raised in fury and righteousness written across his face, was none other than Xuan Yuan—the Junior Brother Xie Yue had suspected Huang Wushen of secretly murdering fifty years ago, and one of the Ten Great Golden Immortals alongside him in the eyes of cultivators everywhere!
Yet Xuan Yuan's features faintly carried an ashen hue, while the fluctuations of his magic power were weak and disorderly. It seemed that after repeated fierce battles, even his Primordial Spirit had suffered grave damage.
Xie Yue, Xuan Yuan, Qing Li, Huang Wushen, General Luo, and the others had all entered the sect at around the same time. Among the many disciples, Xie Yue and nine others stood head and shoulders above the rest, their cultivation the most profound, and were known to the world as Kunlun's Ten Golden Immortals. Of those ten, Xie Yue was closest to Xuan Yuan and Qing Li. Xie Yue was slightly older and had also entered the sect earliest among the ten. Sixty years ago, all Kunlun disciples believed that Sect Leader Xuanji would pass the position of sect leader to Xie Yue, but no one expected Huang Wushen to receive the succession in the end.
After that, Xie Yue never saw Xuan Yuan or Qing Li again. Whenever he asked Huang Wushen, Huang Wushen merely claimed that the two had important duties and could not meet Xie Yue. From the time Xie Yue entered seclusion fifty years ago, he had suspected that Huang Wushen had secretly harmed them. Cultivators endured far more loneliness than ordinary people and had far fewer kindred friends. Thus, upon suddenly seeing Xuan Yuan again, even with Xie Yue's cultivation, he could not help but lose his Daoist composure, his whole body trembling.
"How are you here?" Yet in an instant, Xie Yue recovered. Looking at Xuan Yuan, he asked, "And who could have injured you so severely?"
"Qing Li is here as well." Xuan Yuan turned around. Looking at Xie Yue, whom he had not seen for sixty years, his eyes held many things that could neither be spoken nor explained. "Senior Brother Xie Yue, your cultivation has advanced again. Your temperament is not as impatient as before either. Otherwise, with the temper you had sixty years ago, you would already have acted just now."
"I..." Thinking of Qing Li, then of the days when the three of them had cultivated together at Kunlun in their youth, countless emotions surged into Xie Yue's heart, leaving him speechless for a moment.
"The Great Transformation Heavenly Golden Lotus... one flower has actually withered!"
Having entered the forbidden ground within Kunlun's forbidden ground and seen for the first time the Great Transformation Heavenly Golden Lotus linked to Kunlun's fortune and spiritual veins, Xie Yue's mind was shaken once more!
A hundred zhang farther ahead stood a hall whose walls were covered in demon-subduing talismans, many of which even Xie Yue could not fully recognize. Yet despite this, Xie Yue could still sense waves of sinister light and demonic qi seeping out.
"Could something extraordinarily powerful—a devil or demon—be imprisoned inside?"
Filled with shock and uncertainty, Xie Yue followed Huang Wushen and Xuan Yuan into the hall. The instant he stepped inside, his vision turned red, as though he had entered some Netherworld formation. Before he could clearly see his surroundings, a flash of blood light suddenly streaked forth, and a startling demonic qi rushed straight at him.
That blood light was astonishingly fast, several times faster than an ordinary flying sword. Yet before Xie Yue made any visible movement, several white flames had already flared over the blood shadow.
Xie Yue's Perfect Lotus Platform Dharma Flower Art had already reached the realm where law arises from thought.
Xuan Yuan had been right. If Xie Yue had intended to strike just now, even if Xuan Yuan had tried to stop him, thought and action would have become one; five or six powerful arts would likely already have been unleashed in an instant, one after another.
It was precisely because of this astonishing casting speed that Xie Yue had instantly refined and killed Yuan Chen's seven Primordial Spirits on the outer ring island earlier.
The instant the white flames clung to it, the blood shadow became riddled with holes and let out a shriek so miserable it made one's scalp explode.
"Netherworld Blood God Spawn!" Yet Xie Yue was instead startled. The flames he had released with a single thought were Lotus Platform Pure Flame, capable of burning all things of the five elements in the world; once struck, even a Primordial Spirit would be engulfed and burned to ashes. Yet this blood shadow had not immediately been completely refined. As it twisted and screamed, Xie Yue saw clearly that it was actually a Netherworld Blood God Spawn forged from soul essence, blood essence, and vicious qi!
Legend said that only those versed in the ancient Blood Scripture Art could refine these Netherworld Blood God Spawn. They had to be nourished with fresh blood every day. Once refined, not only were they several times faster than ordinary flying swords, but when they struck a person, ordinary cultivators could not resist them at all. They would pass through the body, drain all blood essence, and kill their victim. Moreover, the Blood God Spawn possessed immense strength. Like a skinless crimson human figure, its hands could even seize ordinary magical treasures and flying swords by force.
This Blood God Spawn was already as tall as an adult. Even after being burned by Xie Yue's Lotus Platform Pure Flame, it had not died, making it clear that no one knew how much blood had been used to nourish it.
All of a sudden, Xie Yue thought of someone. His heart shook so violently that he even disregarded the Netherworld Blood God Spawn that had not yet burned to death.
Just as the Netherworld Blood God Spawn was about to pounce before Xie Yue, a long streak of black light shot across and smashed it to pieces in a single blow, reducing it to nothingness.
"Eastern Emperor Black Gold Shuttle. Junior Brother Qing Li, is that you?" Xie Yue followed the path of that black light with his gaze. Looking at the man seated cross-legged upon a cushion like green jade, dressed in wood-grained linen robes, he slowly spoke those words. Yet no one could tell whether joy or sorrow lay in his eyes. "Huang Wushen, what exactly is going on? Why is there such a pool of Netherworld Blood Sea within Kunlun's forbidden ground?"
The man in wood-grained linen robes appeared only twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old. His brows were slender, his features refined, and his eyes clear and bright. He was Qing Li—the Junior Brother who had entered the sect alongside Xie Yue in their youth and cultivated with him, but whom he had not seen for sixty years, with life and death unknown. Qing Li was one of the Ten Great Golden Immortals and cultivated Supreme Jade Purity Dao Law.
Through the layers of blood mist, not far in front of Qing Li, several Netherworld Blood God Spawn still circling around him as he looked across at Xie Yue from afar, lay a blood pool dozens of zhang wide. It was crimson red and roiled with heaven-shaking demonic qi!
Even the demonic qi condensed within Yuan Chen Yin Mei Luo Tian Primordial Spirit could not compare to a single drop of blood from this pool! This entire pool was precisely the legendary Netherworld Blood Pool, which could only be formed by refining the blood and vengeful souls of a million living beings!
If a cultivator with weaker cultivation and an unsteady heart stood within this hall, blood qi and demonic qi would likely invade them at once and make them fall into the demonic path!
"Ru Wuxin's Primordial Spirit was not completely destroyed." Turning toward Xie Yue, Huang Wushen slowly spoke those words.
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