Mysterious Mummified Elder

As night fell, the bustling Holy Lion City gradually quieted down, with only a few nighttime entertainment venues within the city remaining brightly lit.

Ye Qianqian lay on her comfortable bed, tossing and turning, unable to sleep. She had a feeling that everything was too calm, which made her uneasy.

The elders often said that the moment before a storm was always the calmest, so she suddenly sat up and uneasily walked out of her room.

She looked up at the sky. The strange soul fluctuation still covered the area above, as if this power was growing stronger and stronger.

"No, I have to investigate this thoroughly."

She called Wang Ba and asked him to use the Hall of Souls' soul secret technique to help her search for the source of this fluctuation.

The two of them followed the source, flying all the way into the Lion Underworld Sect.

"Wang Ba, use the secret technique to find the exact location of the source of this power."

"Okay." Wang Ba circulated the soul secret technique, continuously searching above the Lion Underworld Sect.

"Found it, it should be directly below." Just then, Wang Ba suddenly stopped and pointed to a building below with his hand.

Ye Qianqian looked and saw that the building below was a pavilion with carved beams and painted pillars. It was guarded by more than a dozen teams, inside and out. These guards were led by Dou Emperors and Dou Ancestors, making it appear exceptionally mysterious.

"Let's go down and take a look."

The two of them turned into streaks of light and, under the cover of night, rushed into the pavilion during a shift change of the guards.

Upon entering, they found the interior to be completely empty, not even a single table or chair in sight.

Ye Qianqian walked around casually for a while, but she didn't see any mechanisms or secret passages. Yet, that soul fluctuation was emanating from this very spot!

Suddenly, at this moment, her foot seemed to step on a hollow floor. A dull sound came from beneath her feet. She quickly crouched down and lightly tapped the floor with her hand.

"Thump, thump, thump."

The floor repeatedly made hollow sounds.

"So there's an underground secret passage here!" Ye Qianqian chuckled. Why was it that every place that dealt with shady business was underground? The Hall of Souls was like that, and so was this place.

She lifted the floorboard with a heave. Below it was a stone staircase leading underground. On both sides of the staircase, countless torches were lit, illuminating the underground passage brightly.

The two of them slowly descended the stairs. They felt as if the staircase was getting longer and longer, and they didn't know how long they had been walking. It felt like they were walking deep into the earth's core.

The strange soul fluctuation also grew stronger and stronger. They must be close to the source.

Finally, the stone staircase reached its end, opening into a vast and boundless underground world.

This underground world was pitch black, with eerie breaths emanating from it, instilling a sense of fear of the dark.

Ye Qianqian was a little hesitant to move forward, afraid of getting lost in this sunless world.

"Senior, there's a stele over there."

Wang Ba suddenly saw a stele not far ahead to the left. It was a massive stele, ten meters high and seven meters wide. The entire stele was black, and it was unclear what material it was made of. It emanated a power of ancient years.

Several lines of golden, glowing poetry on it caught Ye Qianqian's attention.

A thousand years, ten thousand generations, all in a blink, The vicissitudes of life unfold before my eyes, Time flies like a shuttle, showing no mercy, Calmly watching partings and the faces of old and new.

The poem on the stele conveyed a lament for the passage of time, like a powerful being of immense longevity who had watched the people around him slowly grow old.

Ye Qianqian curiously reached out to touch the stele, only to find her lifespan and soul rapidly draining out, being greedily devoured by the mysterious stele. Startled, she quickly withdrew her hand.

"Senior, you... you..."

"Me? What's wrong with me?" Ye Qianqian saw Wang Ba pointing at her with a dumbfounded expression and felt very strange. Suddenly, she looked at her own body.

"Whoa, how did I get taller?"

Her body had only been the size of a five or six-year-old, but after absorbing lifespan and soul from the stele, she instantly became the appearance of a seven-year-old child.

"Wh-what's going on!" Ye Qianqian said disbelievingly.

"Heh heh, this is the Years Stele. You were just drained of a small amount of the power of years by the inscription. You're quite lucky, girl. I was caught off guard back then and almost had my lifespan completely sucked dry by this stele."

A gaunt old man with white hair and a withered body, like a dried corpse, appeared before Ye Qianqian and Wang Ba as if from nowhere, startling them both into a state of panic.

"Who are you?" Wang Ba, seeing the old man's mysterious presence and terrifying strength, quickly drew the Zanpakuto from his back and became fully alert.

"Who I am is not important. I'll tell you after I kill you," the white-haired old man's eyes flashed with a murderous intent, as if he didn't want the secrets within to be revealed to the world.

Suddenly, his Dou Qi erupted from his entire body, like a dam bursting, and the surging airwaves were incredibly powerful.

"Second-Turn Dou Venerate!!!"

Ye Qianqian's heart leaped in shock. This old man was actually a Second-Turn Dou Venerate. Could he be the guardian of this underground space?

Above Dou Venerate were not Dou Saints, but special existences from First-Turn to Ninth-Turn. Generally, a Transcendent Dou Venerate would compress their Dou Qi hundreds or thousands of times before breaking through to the next turn. Dou Venerates were no match for Transcendent level existences.

This old man was a genuine Transcendent Dou Venerate, his strength completely overwhelming Ye Qianqian and Wang Ba.

"Senior, what should we do?" Wang Ba's legs went weak from fear of the old man's power, and he was at a loss. He asked Ye Qianqian for guidance.

Ye Qianqian rolled her eyes. What else could she do? Since she couldn't defeat the opponent, her only option was to escape.

The two immediately leaped up, retreating a hundred meters. With another movement, they flew rapidly towards the exit of the upper passage.

"Stay where you are!"

The dried-corpse elder stretched out his pale, bony hand and grabbed at the backs of the two.

In an instant, the pair felt themselves pinned by a suction force, retreating uncontrollably. Even with all their Dou Qi, they couldn't resist the tearing pull.

The surrounding space was also distorted by the suction. Dust and stones from the staircase were all pulled towards the dried-corpse elder.

This was the Shrink Ground to Inch Technique, a power only attainable by those at the Nine-Revolutions Dou Venerate level.

"Attack him together!"

Ye Qianqian knew this wouldn't work. With a command, she and Wang Ba each grabbed their long sabers, their sleeves billowing as Dou Qi surged. They slashed fiercely at the suction force.

"White Bone Saber Song, Emperor's Immortal Deeds!"

"Zangetsu!"

Two saber lights, one embodying ancient dominance and the other vast and mighty, slashed down. Carrying the might of heaven and earth, propelled by the power of the sun and moon, they completely annihilated the suction force.

The dried-corpse elder's eyes gleamed. Watching the two flee in terror, he hastily stabilized his Dou Qi fluctuations and said resentfully, "Although my realm has advanced by leaps and bounds now, it hasn't fully stabilized yet. Once I break through to the Half-Saint realm in some time, all you insignificant pests will be crushed by me, one by one, hmph!"

Meanwhile, after Ye Qianqian and Wang Ba escaped from the pavilion, it immediately caused chaos within the Lion Underworld Sect.

Many disciples poured out, beating gongs, calling friends, wielding various weapons, and leading their tamed Magic Lion Beasts to search the entire city for suspicious individuals.

For a time, all the sect leaders from the major sects who had come to attend the Lion Underworld Sect's grand ceremony were drawn by the commotion. They emerged from their resting rooms to see what was happening.

"Ancestor, you're back!" Yun Shan suddenly saw Ye Qianqian and Wang Ba flying back and rushed to greet them.

"Mm!" Ye Qianqian grunted, her face pale and weak. The scene just now was too terrifying. If not for the dried-corpse elder suddenly stopping, for reasons unknown, they would likely have been reduced to bones and ashes.

"Ugh!" Wang Ba suddenly knelt on the ground, a mouthful of blood surging from his throat, clearly having been repelled by the elder's power.

Ye Qianqian said, "Wang Ba, you're seriously injured. Go back now and inform my senior sister, Kaguya, to rush here quickly. This matter has escalated a bit."

Wang Ba nodded. "Alright, I'll go back and deliver the message."

Just as Wang Ba walked away, She Qingqing returned with a smile.

"Senior, it's exactly as you predicted. I told Shi Tian about Shi Yutian's plan to rebel tomorrow. Shi Tian was greatly shocked. To thank me, he even gave me some precious spiritual herbs, and repeatedly persuaded me that the Misty Cloud Sect would help him clean house tomorrow."

She Qingqing took out several brocade boxes from her storage ring. Upon seeing them, everyone realized these gifts were no less valuable than those given by Shi Yutian.

She Qingqing added, "However, after meeting Shi Tian, I had a slight doubt."

"What doubt?" everyone asked, confused.

She Qingqing said, "I saw Shi Tian's strength back in the day. He was a Six-Star Dou Venerate. Even if his realm fell, it shouldn't have dropped to the One-Star Dou Venerate level, right? Moreover, Shi Tian's tone of speech has changed. He used to be incredibly arrogant and conceited, but now he's become a polite and handsome young man, hehe!"

Yun Shan nodded from the side. "His realm has fallen to One-Star Dou Venerate, so how could he not be polite? This Shi Tian still has some brains. He knows when to be arrogant and when to endure. But after tomorrow's grand ceremony of the Lion Underworld Sect, we'll let those two factions fight like dogs, and then our Misty Cloud Sect can forcefully annex them."

Ye Qianqian shook her head. Because of the appearance of the dried-corpse elder, the previous plan was completely ruined. Who knew what would happen tomorrow.

The thought of that mysterious dried-corpse elder, and the impending confrontation between Shi Yutian and Shi Tian tomorrow, gave her a splitting headache.

"What in the world is this Lion Underworld Sect up to!"