Spirit Clan Ancient Land, a sealed and abandoned hell on earth!

"Happy cooperation!"

Qing Luo said calmly.

Sure enough,

no matter when it was, no one could resist the temptation of a grand promise.

Although he had long guessed that the other party would agree,

when Mu Tong agreed to cooperate, Qing Luo still could not stop the corners of his lips from rising.

This was a genuine Six-Star Dou Saint,

and a ninth-rank Golden Core alchemist!

The Pill Tower behind him was a sacred land in the hearts of countless alchemists. The influence it could wield was enough to rival the Emperor Clans.

A grand promise

in exchange for a Six-Star Dou Saint enforcer and the backing of a powerful force comparable to the Emperor Clans.

Such cooperation was absolutely worthwhile for Qing Luo.

Besides,

with the Pill Tower connection,

Qing Luo would have a better chance of finding opportunities to cooperate with the Emperor Clans.

Though the other target Qing Luo sought to cooperate with was the weakest of the Emperor Clans, the Stone Clan.

Qing Luo had no doubt

that without the Pill Tower's influence, the Stone Clan would most likely not cooperate with him.

The third-ranked Heavenly Flame

and the Pill Tower, which stood at the continent's peak—Qing Luo could still tell which carried more weight.

"How will we cooperate?"

Mu Tong looked at Qing Luo and asked,

"I mean, what do we do next? And... if we're forming an alliance, shouldn't it have a name?!"

"A name... let's call it the Emperor Alliance!"

Qing Luo pondered.

He had not considered that before. Since his goal was Attaining Emperorhood, he would name it after that goal.

Besides,

in Qing Luo's plan, the Emperor Alliance would not spread across the continent during its early stages.

That way, it would not make the Soul Clan think of anything.

"Emperor Alliance... that works!"

Mu Tong nodded.

By joining the Emperor Alliance,

he felt that he, too, might have a chance to take that step.

"Next, come with me somewhere!"

Qing Luo said as he looked at Mu Tong.

"Alright!"

Mu Tong replied.

Seeing this, Qing Luo said no more. With a wave of his hand, the void before them was directly burned into a patch of emptiness by scorching heat.

Qing Luo stepped forward and disappeared into the depths of the void.

Seeing this,

Mu Tong followed behind Qing Luo and was swallowed by the torn void.

Several days later,

in a hidden place somewhere in the Central Plains,

ripples spread through the void as a young man in white and a youth in a Daoist robe emerged one after another from the depths of space.

This was a folded space hidden deep within the Central Plains.

As far as the eye could see,

the entire world was shrouded in thick, ink-black mist.

Here,

time had lost all tangible form. There were no stars, no dust, not even wind. A grim aura of deathly silence permeated the place.

The moment Mu Tong set foot here, a chill ran down his spine...

Qing Luo looked around,

then, following the coordinates in his memories, moved toward a certain region.

Qing Luo and Mu Tong flew through this dead-silent land for a quarter of an hour.

Their surroundings remained a hazy gray.

If Mu Tong had not clearly sensed that they had already traveled a million li, he might have suspected that he was still standing where he started.

"This is the place!"

Qing Luo spoke calmly, raising his hand slightly as he pushed out a burning Pure Lotus.

The Pure Lotus traveled dozens of li,

then suddenly exploded deep within the void.

Buzz—

As the Pure Lotus exploded,

an endless realm, invisible yet nearly solid and linking heaven and earth, emerged faintly from the void, stretching before Qing Luo and Mu Tong.

As the energy of the burning Pure Lotus completely dispersed,

the realm before Qing Luo and Mu Tong quietly vanished once more, leaving only emptiness ahead.

"What place is this?"

Mu Tong could not help asking.

"The Spirit Realm!"

Qing Luo answered calmly.

"The Spirit Realm... the domain of the Spirit Clan among the Ancient Eight Clans?!"

Mu Tong looked at Qing Luo in astonishment.

"Among the Ancient Eight Clans, the Spirit Clan is the most mysterious. It is said that this clan has not walked the world for nearly two thousand years. How did you find it?"

"In the Demon Flame Space, there were flame slaves made from Ancient Eight Clans experts who were enslaved after death. I found it through their memories."

Qing Luo spoke as if it were something insignificant.

Yet those words

made the corners of Mu Tong's mouth twitch uncontrollably.

Among the Heavenly Flame Ranking,

the Purifying Demonic Lotus Flame had the most notorious reputation. Its flames could bewitch the human heart, and countless Emperor Clan experts had perished in the Demon Flame Space.

Unexpectedly, those fallen Emperor Clan experts had not even found peace after death.

They had been refined into flame slaves by the Purifying Demonic Lotus Flame...

At that thought,

Mu Tong's gaze toward the Purifying Demonic Lotus Flame gained a trace of wariness and lingering fear.

"You go open this realm."

Qing Luo suddenly said.

Mu Tong froze for a moment. "This is the Spirit Clan's territory. Wouldn't it be a little inappropriate for us to barge in like this..."

"Relax, no one will stop you!"

Qing Luo said lightly.

But when Mu Tong heard that, he felt a bad premonition. "Why don't you do it yourself?"

"Didn't you see?"

Qing Luo looked at Mu Tong skeptically. "I'm only at Peak Dou Zun right now. I can't open this realm!"

Mu Tong opened his mouth,

wanting to refute him,

but for a moment, he could not think of anything to say.

He simply stepped forward.

Bang—

As Mu Tong raised his right hand, a scorching golden flame slowly spread through the depths of the void.

As a Six-Star Dou Saint,

even without refining a Heavenly Flame, the flame controlled by the Pill Tower Ancestor was far beyond what ordinary Heavenly Flames could compare to.

Of course,

it was not that he was unwilling to refine a Heavenly Flame, but that he could not.

His true body was a Ninth-Rank Profound Pill, and all his flesh and blood consisted of pill essence and the origin of medicinal power.

He had no need to rely on Heavenly Flames to increase his success rate in alchemy.

The essence of Heavenly Flames was to burn all things. Forcing one into his body would be no different from playing with fire and getting burned.

Given the Pill Tower Ancestor's status, he could forcibly suppress certain lower-ranked Heavenly Flames, but doing so would bring him no benefit or improvement.

And every Heavenly Flame was exceedingly mysterious.

Despite existing for so long, the Pill Tower had found only a single Three Thousand Burning Flame!

As Mu Tong made his move,

the alchemical origin of a Six-Star Dou Saint burst forth like a blazing sun suspended in the sky.

It crashed toward the hidden realm.

Boom—

The moment it touched the realm,

the strange black mist surrounding it rapidly melted away.

Before long,

Mu Tong forcibly tore open an enormous breach stretching ten thousand zhang across the realm.

As the breach opened, an incomparably dense death aura spread from the depths of the realm.

Before Mu Tong could ask anything,

Qing Luo stepped forward, passed Mu Tong directly, and entered the Spirit Realm ahead of him.

Seeing this,

Mu Tong did not hesitate and followed Qing Luo inside.

The moment the two set foot in this world,

they were shocked by the sight before them.

There was none of the prosperity they had imagined from an Emperor Clan.

A foul deathly stench sealed away for a thousand years, carrying the bloodshed and desolation accumulated by time, rushed at them head-on.

As far as the eye could see,

there were only ruins of collapsed walls and shattered buildings.

The earth's spiritual veins had been broken apart. The river of Dou Qi that once ran through the entire realm had long since dried up, leaving ravines crisscrossing the land and not a blade of grass growing.

Beneath those ruins,

countless Spirit Clan corpses lay buried. Large and small, they were layered over one another throughout the ruined towns.

The entire Spirit Realm was devastated beyond recognition.

There was not a single living creature. It was more like a sealed and abandoned hell on earth!