Rift-Splitting Gorge

The wasteland in northern Ling Province.

Li Yuan had barely taken flight in his evasion light when his senses caught a faint wisp of demonic qi.

It was not the impure qi seeping from a dark vein, but a trace left by a passing cultivator. Human spiritual power mingled within it, underlaid by the Ancient Demon Dao, and its fluctuations were almost identical to those in the grooves of the ancient altar in Liang Province.

Li Yuan halted his evasion light.

Myriad Image Retrospection compared the two fluctuations side by side. Their frequencies were extremely close. They had not come from the same person, but most likely from disciples of the same lineage.

The trail extended northeast.

Li Yuan lowered his evasion light and followed, using Dark Fiend Insight to separate that wisp of demonic qi from the surrounding impure qi. Thirty miles, fifty miles, seventy miles later, the trail ended in a dry river valley.

Yellow earth had collapsed along both sides of the valley, leaving heaps of scattered rocks.

Li Yuan landed and probed underground with his senses. Ten zhang down lay an extremely narrow branch of a dark vein. Fresh demonic qi lingered on its inner walls, still leading northeast.

He followed the branch to an underground stone chamber at its end.

The chamber measured roughly three zhang across and was piled with miscellaneous belongings. An emaciated cultivator sat cross-legged against the stone wall, wearing a gray-black dharmic robe and exuding the aura of the Late Golden Core Stage.

A human demonic cultivator.

A storage pouch and two dark-red jade slips lay beside him.

Spatial Imprisonment Technique descended.

The demonic cultivator stiffened, his eyes snapping open. Before he could speak, twelve Demonic Baleful Binding Cords had wrapped around his limbs and waist, even sealing his mouth.

Li