Qingqiu Mountain summit, Qingqiu Hall.
The main hall was completely empty.
All the tables, chairs, and benches had been cleared away. Even decorative vases, calligraphy scrolls, and the like had vanished.
The portrait of the Pure Yang Dao Ancestor had been torn from the wall, and the altar table beneath it had been replaced by an ash-gray, high-backed stone chair.
Lan Zhang propped his face with his left hand and held a White Jade slip inlaid with gold threads in his right, reading it languidly through half-lidded eyes.
"Exquisite Golden Chapter?"
"You chose Qingqiu Mountain, this barren hunting ground, just for this?"
"Don't tell me that damn Green Worm Divine Lord tricked you?"
Countless eyes abruptly emerged from the shadows deep within the main hall.
A streak of pitch-black shadow rose from the ground like a ribbon and hovered beside Lan Zhang's right ear.
A fist-sized scarlet eyeball upon it scrutinized the jade slip and golden chapter in Lan Zhang's hand with a critical gaze.
"For such an incomplete Secret Art, you gave up the Heaven-Bestowed Bloodlight of Netherworld Heaven?" Eyeless Child's eyes revealed his confusion.
"That was something that could refine your bloodline and keep you from going mad."
"Lan Zhang, don't tell me you've already gone mad!" Eyeless Child looked at Lan Zhang in delighted surprise, sizing him up from head to toe.
"Then swallow me." Lan Zhang smiled, though his eyes remained fixed on the jade slip and golden chapter.
"Don't think I wouldn't dare!" Eyeless Child's enormous eye widened, his expression hostile.
"Yes, yes, yes... of course you would." Lan Zhang's eyes rolled as he cast Eyeless a cheerful glance, then continued flipping through the jade slip.
"You're bluffing me, aren't you?!" Lan Zhang's attitude made Eyeless Child uneasy. He hesitated for a long while, yet