Duntian Ancestor!

The troll-like man cursed as he turned around and strode out of the shed.

Yu Xiaogang lay in the foul-smelling dung heap, his bones aching as if several had been broken.

He looked at the wooden bucket filled with scraps of meat in front of him, and the ecstasy and sense of superiority in his eyes vanished completely in an instant.

In their place was a deep sense of humiliation and helplessness.

Indeed.

Even if he had found a cultivation technique, and even if he could guide qi into his body, so what?

Here, he was still a slave who didn't even dare to lift his head.

He could only grit his teeth, hold back his tears, crawl up from the dung heap, pick up a wooden stick, and obediently go to mix the feed for that Black Wind Pig.

This scene left the viewers on the Douluo Continent with mixed feelings.

They were excited about discovering a new cultivation system, yet heartbroken by Yu Xiaogang's miserable plight.

This world of cultivation slapped you, gave you a sweet treat, and then kicked you hard, as if it were trying to drive a person insane.

The image on the Sky Screen gradually faded away, leaving behind the silhouette of Yu Xiaogang mixing pig feed.

Then, the scene shifted once more.

This time, the image arrived at that mortal city where heavy snow had been falling.

However, the snow had stopped by now.

There was no moon in the night sky, only a fine, dense, cold rain falling.

The rain was not heavy, but it carried a chill that seeped into one's very bones.

In the backyard of the woodcarving shop.

Yue Guan was shirtless, holding an ordinary iron axe in his hands, hacking forcefully at a thick wooden stump.

He was a level 96 Title Douluo now; this kind of ordinary cold meant nothing to him.

He worked very hard, and with every swing of the axe, the firewood was split neatly.

He didn't even dare to use a shred of soul power, fearing that even the slightest fluctuation of his meager energy would displease the unfathomable Senior Wang in the front.

After finishing a stack of firewood, Yue Guan put down the axe and wiped the sweat from his forehead.

He looked up and, through the half-open wooden window of the backyard, peered cautiously into the shop.

A dim kerosene lamp was lit inside.

Wang Lin was sitting under the lamp, holding a carving knife and a piece of high-quality agarwood, his expression deeply focused.

Yue Guan held his breath, his eyes fixed intently on the movements of Wang Lin's hands.

He was someone who had already tasted the benefits.

Seeing a wooden chrysanthemum during the day had allowed him to break through his bottleneck.

Now that Senior Wang was carving something in the middle of the night instead of sleeping, this was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

As the carving knife slid bit by bit across the wood, wood shavings fell with a rustling sound.

Yue Guan slowly made out what Wang Lin was carving.

It wasn't flowers, birds, or beasts.

It was the likeness of a person.

To be precise, it was the silhouette of a woman.

Wang Lin carved very slowly, and every stroke seemed to exhaust all his strength.

Yue Guan widened his eyes, trying to see the artistic conception contained within the wood carving.

However, this time, he saw no vitality, nor did he see any cycle of life and death.

Just as the woman's facial features began to emerge, a sorrow that could not be described in words suddenly surged out along the grain of the wood like a bursting flood.

This sorrow was too intense.

It was so intense that it seemed to dye the surrounding air a grayish-white.

Standing outside the window, Yue Guan's body jolted violently.

He felt as if his heart had been gripped tightly, and a wave of bitterness surged from the bottom of his heart straight to his nose.

"Drip..."

Tears welled up uncontrollably from Yue Guan's eyes.

He didn't even know why he was crying; he just felt an unbearable ache in his heart, as if he had lost the most precious thing in the world.

He looked at Wang Lin under the lamplight.

That terrifying senior who could turn back time with a casual gesture during the day, and who remained unflinching even when facing life and death.

At this moment, the corners of his eyes were actually brimming with tears.

Those eyes, which had seen through the vicissitudes of life, were filled with reluctance, lingering attachment, and a profound sense of helplessness.

As this wave of sorrow spread throughout the small wood-carving shop.

The cold rain falling outside suddenly changed.

The raindrops congealed into ice crystals in mid-air, then transformed into large, swirling snowflakes.

This was no ordinary snow.

The snow fell without a sound, carrying a bone-chilling desolation.

It was as if the heavens themselves had sensed this man's emotions and were weeping along with him.

"A single thought stirs the celestial phenomena..."

Yue Guan knelt in the snow in the backyard, his hands covering his face, weeping like a helpless child.

The final thought in his mind was:

Who on earth is this woman?

What could make a powerhouse of this caliber reveal such a heartbreaking expression?

Outside the Sky Screen, all the spectators on the Douluo Continent were stunned.

That wave of sorrow permeated through the screen, infecting everyone.

Countless people found their eyes turning red for no apparent reason.

They suddenly felt an inexplicable, indescribable expectation toward this high and mighty, cold and ruthless world of cultivation.

Behind that endless slaughter, there seemed to be a hidden past that made one sigh with regret.

The images on the Sky Screen were as if the heavens were deliberately tormenting the nerves of everyone on the Douluo Continent.

One second, everyone was still immersed in that snowy mortal city, feeling the heartbreaking deep affection and weariness radiating from Shopkeeper Wang.

The next second, the screen on the far right suddenly underwent a violent shift.

The vast wind and snow vanished.

Replacing it was an endless darkness that made one feel a chill in their very bones at a single glance.

That massive black hand, condensed from thousands of vengeful spirits, clutched Ghost like a tattered sack, rapidly retreating into the depths of the White Bone Canyon.

As the giant hand moved, the spectators of the Douluo Continent finally saw the interior of the Soul Refining Sect.

The sky here was a murky gray, never seeing sunlight throughout the year.

The ground was covered in a thick layer of bone powder, which emitted a teeth-grinding sound when stepped upon.

Dense, honeycomb-like caves were carved into the surrounding mountain walls, and a cluster of ghostly green fire burned at the entrance of each cave.

The black hand traveled inward, finally stopping at a vast plaza made of white bones.

Thud.

The giant hand dissipated into a cloud of black mist, and Ghost's stiff body slammed heavily onto the ground, kicking up a cloud of white bone ash.

A hunchbacked old man wearing a wide black robe, his back severely hunched, slowly emerged from a cluster of green ghostly fire.

The old man's face was covered in brown liver spots, and he leaned on a cane made from a human thigh bone.

He walked up to Ghost, poked Ghost's shoulder with his cane, and his shriveled lips parted, emitting a laugh like a night owl.

"Interesting. This kind of constitution, naturally imbued with yin-cold energy, is quite rare on our Vermilion Bird Planet."

The hunchbacked old man was merely an ordinary elder of the Soul Refining Sect.

He bent down, extending a hand as withered as a bird's claw, preparing to probe Ghost's internal condition.

Just as his finger was about to touch the center of Ghost's brow.

From the deepest part of the White Bone Canyon, within the forbidden area shrouded in endless black mist, a voice that sounded aged to the extreme suddenly rang out.

"Bring him to the back mountain."

The voice was not loud; it even sounded somewhat weak and feeble.

However, the moment this voice echoed across the plaza.

The hunchbacked old man trembled violently, and the bone cane in his hand dropped straight to the ground.

He didn't even bother to pick up his cane; his knees went weak, and he collapsed onto the pile of bones, his head pressed against the ground, not daring to even breathe loudly.

"As... as you command! Old Ancestor!"

The hunchbacked old man's voice was filled with fear and awe that emanated from the depths of his soul.

He scrambled up, grabbed Ghost, and with his head bowed and back hunched, he scurried toward the forbidden area in the depths of the canyon like a docile mouse.

Douluo Continent.

Inside the Pope Palace of Spirit City, the crowd, who had just been sighing over Ghost, all widened their eyes in shock.

Qian Daoliu drew a sharp breath, his graying eyebrows knitting tightly together.

"The Ancestor?"

Qian Daoliu's tone turned exceptionally heavy.

To be able to terrify an elder of a sect to such a state—could the person speaking be that old monster Vermilion Bird Master mentioned?

Bibi Dong sat upon her throne, her hands gripping her scepter tightly.

She swallowed hard, feeling her heart beating faster and faster.

Even Vermilion Bird Master, who controlled the entire planet, was filled with apprehension when mentioning this person, not even daring to engage in a direct confrontation.

Just what kind of terrifying existence was this ancestor of the Soul Refining Sect?

On the screen.

The hunchbacked old man carried Ghost into a massive cavern.

The walls of the cavern were hung with hundreds upon hundreds of black banners, each one emitting waves of shrill, ghostly wails.

In the very center of the cavern sat a throne constructed from a pile of countless black skulls.

Perched cross-legged upon the throne was a gaunt, skeletal old man.

The old man was so thin he was nothing but skin and bone, his eye sockets deeply sunken, and his gray Daoist robe hung off him as if draped over a clothes rack.

Half of his body was already somewhat decayed, emitting a foul stench of a rotting corpse.

If not for the faint rise and fall of his chest, anyone who saw him would have mistaken him for a dried corpse just dug out of a grave.

This was the strongest member of the Soul Refining Sect, a figure who made the entire Vermilion Bird Planet tremble in fear.

Duntian Ancestor!

The hunchbacked old man stopped a dozen yards away from the base of the throne, not daring to take another step forward.

He respectfully placed Ghost on the ground, then knelt and kowtowed once more.

Duntian Ancestor slowly opened his eyes.

There were no whites in his eyes, only two slowly rotating black vortexes.

Deep within those vortexes, it seemed as if an entire Avici Hell was hidden, with countless souls struggling and drifting within.

Duntian Ancestor's gaze fell indifferently upon Ghost.

With just a single glance.

The temperature in the entire cavern instantly plummeted to freezing, and the black banners hanging on the surrounding stone walls all stopped swaying in terror, the ghostly wails within them coming to an abrupt halt.

"Hehe..."

Duntian Ancestor opened his mouth, which had few teeth left, and let out a harsh, unpleasant chuckle.

"That old fox Vermilion Bird Master has grown quite bold."

"To actually dare let his disciple play such low-level illusion tricks right under this old man's nose."

Duntian Ancestor's voice sounded like two pieces of rotting wood rubbing together, heavy with thick mockery.

He slowly raised his right hand, which was nothing but skin and bone.

Across a distance of over a dozen yards, he lightly pinched the air toward the center of Ghost's forehead.

"Shatter."

Following this light, airy word.

A blinding white light suddenly erupted from the center of Ghost's forehead.

The puppet mark planted by Liu Mei using the Thousand Illusions Heartless Path crumbled like paper in the face of this invisible force, instantly shattering into countless tiny specks of light that dissipated completely into the air.

At the very moment the mark was crushed.

Far away, thousands of miles away at Vermilion Bird Mountain.

Inside that luxurious red cave dwelling.

Liu Mei, who had been lying on a soft couch resting with her eyes closed, suddenly jerked upright.

Her beautiful, large eyes snapped open, filled with terrified bloodshot veins.

"Pfft!"

A large mouthful of blackened, stagnant blood sprayed from Liu Mei's mouth, splashing directly onto the precious white fox fur in front of her and emitting a sizzling, corrosive sound.

Clutching her chest, Liu Mei rolled off the soft couch onto the floor.

Her face, which had originally been as fair as snow, was now aging at a speed visible to the naked eye, with distinct crow's feet even appearing at the corners of her eyes.

"Who, who broke my Dao Heart mark..."

Liu Mei convulsed in agony, her voice trembling uncontrollably.

Just then, the stone door of the cave dwelling was shoved open with a violent crash.

Vermilion Bird Master strode inside.

The expression on this mighty figure, who held dominion over the entire planet, was so dark it seemed as if water might drip from his face.

He cast a glance at Liu Mei, who lay on the ground coughing up blood, and let out a cold snort.

"Useless thing, you're an embarrassment!"

Vermilion Bird Master flicked his sleeve, his gaze fixed on the grey, hazy sky outside the cave as his teeth ground together with a sharp clicking sound.

"Old Monster Duntian..."

Vermilion Bird Master's fists clenched and then released, a flicker of deep apprehension and helplessness flashing in the depths of his eyes.

He knew that his petty attempt to probe the man had been seen through instantly, and that the other party had even delivered a harsh lesson to his disciple from across the void.

Yet, he dared not vent even a shred of his temper, forced to swallow this bitter pill of resentment.

This scene left the spectators on the Douluo Continent dumbfounded.

Inside the main hall of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, Ning Fengzhi held a folding fan in his hand, motionless for a long time.

"What overbearing methods..."

Ning Fengzhi swallowed hard, a chill running down his spine.

"To crush the mark on Ghost from such an unknown, vast distance, and to cause someone as lofty as Liu Mei to suffer such a severe backlash..."

"Just how terrifying is the strength of that old monster called Duntian?"

Sword Douluo Chen Xin stood to the side, his eyes turning grave as never before.

He stared at the half-dead old man sitting upon the Skull Throne within the light screen.

"Fengzhi, have you noticed?"

Chen Xin's voice was somewhat dry.

"Vermilion Bird Master clearly knows it was Duntian who injured his disciple, yet he doesn't even dare to utter a single harsh word."

"This proves that in that world, this ancestor of the Soul Refining Sect is a true hegemon whom even a planetary ruler dares not easily provoke!"

Everyone had previously seen Liu Mei's tendency to treat human life like blades of grass and assumed she was a formidable figure.

Yet, in front of Duntian Ancestor, her methods seemed as laughable as children playing house.

Layer upon layer, there was always a higher mountain.

The waters of the Renegade Immortal World were so deep they induced a sense of despair.

The scene shifted back to the underground cavern of the Soul Refining Sect.

After crushing Liu Mei's mark, Duntian Ancestor withdrew his withered right hand.

Freed from the control of the puppet mark, Ghost's eyes regained a moment of clarity.

But he wished he had never woken up.

When he saw the terrifying old man sitting on the Skull Throne and felt the extreme, sinister resentment permeating the surroundings, every muscle in Ghost's body went rigid.

He opened his mouth to scream, only to find his throat blocked by something, unable to produce even a single sound.

Duntian Ancestor looked down at Ghost on the ground and shook his head with a touch of boredom.

"This constitution, naturally capable of merging with shadows, is indeed a good seedling."

"It is a pity, though; there isn't even a spiritual root in his body, and the strength of his soul is far too weak."

The Ancestor's words were laced with disappointment.