Heading to the Central Plains

Recognizing the man, Chen Yang abruptly clenched his fist. With the power of a Nine-Star Dou Sheng, he forcibly sealed the surrounding space, turning the entire Misty Cloud Sect mountain range into a prison.

Riiip!

Under the influence of Chen Yang's power, the space before him shattered like a glass mirror.

He slowly raised his hand and plucked a pitch-black Spatial Fragment from the shattered space, pinching it between his fingers.

His gaze fixed on the direction where Soul Three was recuperating.

Whoosh!

With a flick, the Spatial Fragment in his hand shot out like a pebble. Its speed approached that of light, friction igniting golden flames in the air. Wrapped in scorching energy, it became a meteor hurtling toward Soul Three's hiding place.

Boom! Carrying boundless energy, the Spatial Fragment became a falling meteor and blasted the mountain where Soul Three hid into rubble.

To leave someone alive for questioning, Chen Yang had deliberately aimed away from Soul Three when he launched this strike.

The Spatial Fragment, laden with boundless energy, shot past several dozen meters above his head.

The energy within the Spatial Fragment instantly surged through the entire mountain range. Unable to escape, Soul Three was buried beneath the mountain.

But he was like a cockroach that simply refused to die. Even buried deep beneath the ruins, he still managed to drag himself out, filthy and battered, with his last breath.

His time to recuperate had been too brief, so his injuries had barely healed.

After suffering this strike, his already dire injuries worsened further, leaving him on the brink of death.

Chen Yang unleashed his power, shattering the void. He strode through the air upon that broken void, looking as though the world's end had arrived and he was its last god.

Seeing Soul Three breathing out far more than he breathed in, Chen Yang immediately stomped hard on the back of his only remaining hand.

He twisted his foot forcefully, grinding the hand into a bloody pulp.

Soul Three had already been in unbearable agony, and now his hand was crushed as well. Snow piled upon frost, pain upon pain—unable to endure it, he let out a low, gritted howl.

He looked up at Chen Yang, who radiated murderous intent, and felt terror seep into his very bones.

His body trembled instinctively. Under that overwhelming fear, even his soul quivered.

Why could this man find my hiding place? I clearly hid so well.

He had deliberately chosen a mountain several miles from the Misty Cloud Sect. To evade spiritual perception, he had even had Soul Two dig nearly a hundred meters underground for him and leave several treasures to conceal his aura.

Chen Yang did not know what Soul Three was thinking. Right now, he desperately wanted to know what these men had done to the Misty Cloud Sect while he was away.

Where was his wife now? Was her life in danger?

But clearly, Soul Three was so badly injured that he could not speak, let alone answer any of his questions.

Fortunately, Chen Yang had never intended to interrogate Soul One at all.

Doing so would have been a waste of time for him, and he would also have had to expend effort judging whether Soul Three's words were true.

Chen Yang had neither the mood nor the need for that. He simply reached out, seized Soul Three's head with his large hand, and activated his divine ability to extract and manifest memories.

"The twenty-ninth art of the Thirty-Six Heavenly Stems Treasure Art: Memory Manifestation!"

A mysterious power formed in his palm. Silvery-white threads pierced through the interface and burrowed into Soul Three's brain, searching it for the memories Chen Yang wanted.

As the divine ability manifested, an illusory image appeared behind Soul Three. The figures within it were none other than Soul One, Soul Two, and Soul Three. It showed how they had murdered disciples of the Misty Cloud Sect, then assumed their victims' identities to infiltrate the sect, and how, during their week undercover, they had painstakingly sought out any information concerning Chen Yang.

From the information they gathered, they learned that Chen Yang was an extremely mysterious man whose strength was suspected to be at the Dou Zun level or above.

Yet every Dou Zun expert in the Central Plains was known by name, and they had never heard of one called Chen Yang. Nor had they heard of a family surnamed Chen among the Ancient Eight Clans.

Unable to uncover Chen Yang's identity or determine his strength, they remained hidden and made no move.

Later, they learned from the elders that Chen Yang doted on his wife.

If the three of them wanted to claim the credit before the venerable elders arrived, their best chance was to start with Yun Yun.

However, Chen Yang spent every day inseparable from his newlywed wife, Yun Yun, as close as lacquer and glue. Yun Yun herself never left Sect Master Peak, so they could find no opportunity to strike.

Unable to find an opening, they could only follow the original plan.

The original plan was to act immediately once the two venerable elders, Old Man Mu Gu and Star-Picking Old Ghost, arrived.

But plans could not keep pace with change. They had never expected Chen Yang to leave the Misty Cloud Sect so suddenly, giving them an opportunity to act.

Chen Yang's hand paused, and the image abruptly stopped there.

His eyes flickered, and his lips curled into an icy smile.

Heh!

A Dou Zun? They underestimated me far too much.

With a cold sneer, Chen Yang looked at Soul Three, whose breaths were fading, and said chillingly, "You can die now!"

With that, frost filling his eyes, Chen Yang crushed Soul Three's head outright. He extracted his soul from his body and sealed it inside a jade bottle. After placing an unbreakable seal on it, he used his Nine-Star Dou Sheng strength to drive it straight underground.

Having finished all this, Chen Yang looked toward the Central Plains, his eyes colder and more sinister than ever before.

The Dead Soul Mountain Range, the Soul Hall's branch—the Earth Fiend Hall!

"Good! Very good! You've done very well indeed!"

The next instant, Chen Yang's figure flashed. He turned into a streak of light and charged toward the Earth Fiend Hall, the Soul Hall branch in the Central Plains' Dead Soul Mountain Range.

From Soul Three's memories, Chen Yang also learned that during the battle just now, Yun Shan, the sect master from two generations ago who had been expelled from the Misty Cloud Sect, had returned.

To defend the Misty Cloud Sect, he had resolutely fought Soul Two, an Eight-Star Dou Zong. In the end, Soul Two had killed him with a single blow from the Evil Soul Ruler, and his body had been burned to ashes by the blue flame cluster upon it.

Soul Two's atrocities went far beyond that. He was the one responsible for reducing the Misty Cloud Sect to these ruined walls and shattered buildings.

Even the bridal chamber that had witnessed the growth of Chen Yang and Yun Yun's love had been burned down by Soul Two's blue flame cluster.

Soul Two had already made Chen Yang's kill list.

"Right, what happened to Nalan Yanran?!"

After flying over a thousand meters, Chen Yang suddenly remembered that he had placed a restriction on Nalan Yanran. He braked sharply to a halt and pondered.

"If Yun'er was captured, there's no reason Nalan Yanran, the sect master, wouldn't have been captured too."

If Nalan Yanran had also been taken, he might be able to use the restriction he had left on her to activate the twenty-eighth art of the Thirty-Six Heavenly Stems Treasure Art, Mirror Peering, and determine her location. Then he could pursue them and rescue Yun'er.

He was a Nine-Star Dou Sheng, so he naturally traveled faster than a Dou Zong. As long as he knew Soul One's exact location, he could catch up to them within minutes.

Thus, Chen Yang decisively activated the twenty-eighth Heavenly Stems Treasure Art: Mirror Peering.

"The twenty-eighth art of the Thirty-Six Heavenly Stems Treasure Art: Mirror Peering!"

Dou Qi fluctuations flickered repeatedly around Chen Yang. Under his control, droplets of moisture in the air gathered before him, condensing into a perfectly clear Water Mirror.

A hazy image appeared within the clear Water Mirror, gradually sharpening.

Staring at the familiar scene in the Water Mirror and the young woman seated in meditation, Chen Yang knitted his brows tightly and muttered to himself.

"Why is it the Gate of Life and Death? How is the Gate of Life and Death completely untouched?"

"With something this serious happening outside, how could Nalan Yanran still be inside the Gate of Life and Death?"

Chen Yang was utterly puzzled.

However, seeing that Nalan Yanran had not been captured by Soul One along with Yun Yun left Chen Yang in a terrible mood.

This meant he could not use Mirror Peering to pinpoint Nalan Yanran's location, roughly deduce Yun Yun's whereabouts from it, and rescue her in time.

Now, he could only rely on the difference in speed between a Nine-Star Dou Sheng and a Dou Zong to reach the Dead Soul Mountain Range first and wait by the stump for the rabbit, waiting for Soul One to bring Yun Yun back.

He curled his five fingers into a fist and punched.

That punch, containing limitless power, pierced the spatial barrier and opened a spatial passage between the Northwest Region and the Central Plains.

Using the memories extracted from Soul Three, Chen Yang shot into the spatial passage he had opened, racing at full speed toward the Dead Soul Mountain Range in the Central Plains.