As the former southern headquarters of the Life-less Cult, a Divine Path beacon in the Present World that controlled the incense offerings of the southwest, the underground palace beneath Swallow Cloud Mountain had been built on a truly grand scale.
Someone like Patriarch Zhang naturally would not have had a fixed residence. But the Dharma Kings and others of those days had often lingered in this hall.
This palace extended deep underground, gloomy, cold, and severe. It naturally concealed essence and aura, hid wind and water, and was difficult for outsiders to detect.
Ever since the Life-less Cult Ancestor's soul had scattered and dispersed, the Life-less Cult had collapsed overnight. This ruined underground palace of Swallow Cloud Mountain, too, had fallen into dead silence after the last wave of monitoring cultivators withdrew.
Spider webs gathered in the shadows, while groundwater overflowed, turning the place into a haven for snakes, insects, rats, and ants.
Over the years, divided into day and night, no trace of human presence had touched this place again.
Only damp currents flowed in the dark, and lingering resentments congealed into gloom.
Until a certain moment—
Drip.
A drop of dark-red blood traveled through fresh soil. After a long journey, it finally reached its destination, squeezing through a fissure in the vaulted ceiling and falling just like that.
It landed in a dark channel corroded out after the floor tiles had been blasted apart, sending ripples through the dim underground water.
The Son of Heaven of Chu had sworn to destroy Southern Dipper Hall. With one command, the four directions stirred, and ten thousand troops marched.
Southern Dipper Hall, a mighty great sect of all-under-heaven, showed not the slightest ability to fight back. In less than ten days, all its overt operations throughout the Southern Regions