The abyss was pitch-black. Jagged rocks jutted out on every side, interlocking like a hound's teeth and exuding an evil aura.
Drops of icy black liquid occasionally dripped from the cold, damp rock walls. Before they could reach the ground, the Demonic Qi Puppets lurking along the cavern walls fought to devour them.
Screams mingled with excited roars, making the place a hell on earth, hideous and terrifying.
As Daochen and the others ventured deeper, the full extent of the abyss unfolded ever more clearly before them.
Countless tightly packed holes, like a honeycomb, led in every direction. Mysterious markings flowed across the dark rock walls, blocking all probes of divine sense.
Even with his Great Luo Golden Immortal divine sense, Daochen could perceive only about a hundred feet around him. Beyond that lay nothing but a murky blur.
"This remnant soul of Luo Hou really is cunning."
Daochen sighed as he continued deeper.
With passages this tangled and complex, it was no wonder Changxi and Xihe could do nothing about Luo Hou's remnant soul.
"Qingcheng?"
At the sight of that figure, Changxi cried out in surprise.
He had been a guard of the Moon God Palace, once a trusted and valued subordinate of hers. He had mysteriously disappeared many years ago, and she had never expected to find him like this when they met again.
She could not help feeling pained.
The abyss was pitch-black. Jagged rocks jutted out on every side, interlocking like a hound's teeth and exuding an evil aura.
Drops of icy black liquid occasionally dripped from the cold, damp rock walls. Before they could reach the ground, the Demonic Qi Puppets lurking along the cavern walls fought to devour them.
Screams mingled with excited roars, making the place a hell on earth, hideous and terrifying.
As Daochen and the others ventured deeper, the full extent of the abyss unfolded ever more clearly before them.
Countless tightly packed holes, like a honeycomb, led in every direction. Mysterious markings flowed across the dark rock walls, blocking all probes of divine sense.
Even with his Great Luo Golden Immortal divine sense, Daochen could perceive only about a hundred feet around him. Beyond that lay nothing but a murky blur.
"This remnant soul of Luo Hou really is cunning."
Daochen sighed as he continued deeper.
With passages this tangled and complex, it was no wonder Changxi and Xihe could do nothing about Luo Hou's remnant soul.
As they continued into the depths of the abyss, the demonic qi around them grew increasingly dense.
Within his dantian's sea of consciousness, the Heaven Measuring Ruler also trembled ever more intensely.
That meant Luo Hou's remnant soul was hiding not far away.
Dijun and Eastern Emperor Taiyi protected Changxi and Xihe as they followed behind, while Daochen walked alone at the front. Brilliant Golden Crow Divine Flame blazed around him, making him a furnace in human form. Wherever he passed, the surrounding demonic qi melted away almost instantly.
Buzz!
A pitch-black demonic shadow suddenly appeared, lunging at Daochen like a bolt of lightning.
"Be careful, Daoist brother!"
Changxi cried out and raised her hand, firing a beam of Lunar Divine Light at the demonic shadow.
But she was a step too late. By the time Changxi struck, the black shadow was already less than half a foot from Daochen.
In the glow of the Golden Crow Divine Flame, a glimmer of bloodthirsty excitement could just be seen in the shadow's eyes.
Boom!
Yet just as the demonic shadow was about to pounce on Daochen, a powerful hand suddenly twisted backward at an uncanny angle and clamped around its neck.
Like a steel vise, it held fast no matter how fiercely the demonic shadow struggled.
The owner of that great golden hand was none other than Daochen.
He had noticed the demonic shadow the instant it appeared. He had only pretended otherwise to see whether he could lure out Luo Hou's remnant soul!
But now, that was clearly impossible!
Luo Hou's remnant soul was far more cunning than he had imagined!
A golden radiance flashed in his hand the next instant. The Golden Crow Divine Flame erupted with terrifying heat and bored straight into the demonic shadow's body.
In the blink of an eye, the demonic shadow burned fiercely like a fireball.
"It's only a demonic puppet. Nothing of consequence."
Watching the demonic puppet struggle in his hand even as it burned, Daochen smiled calmly. Light flashed in his palm, and the puppet vanished utterly from the world, as though it had never existed.
"As long as you're safe, Daoist brother, I can rest easy!"
Changxi patted her chest, which had been heaving with anxiety, and spoke with lingering fear.
Although the sisters had ventured deep into the abyss many times, this was the first time they had encountered anything like today's situation.
"It's fine..."
Daochen waved a hand, but the next instant, his expression abruptly hardened.
"Since you're here, why keep skulking in the shadows?"
Daochen looked into the dense demonic qi in the distance, his voice as cold as ice frozen for ten thousand years.
"What?"
At his words, the tension that had only just left Changxi's and Xihe's faces returned at once.
Even Eastern Emperor Taiyi and Dijun looked warily around them.
Dong!
A deep bell toll rang out. The Chaos Bell instantly appeared above Eastern Emperor Taiyi's head, pouring down boundless divine radiance like a barrier that sheltered them all.
Silence!
Their surroundings were deathly still. Only the endless Golden Crow Divine Flame around Daochen crackled as it burned.
But the greater the silence, the more eerie the atmosphere became.
Everyone looked around tensely, spreading their divine senses outward and leaving no possible hiding place unchecked.
Yet strangely, no matter how they searched, they found nothing unusual.
Buzz!
Just then, the Heaven Measuring Ruler above Daochen's head suddenly blazed with light. Endless Dao laws cascaded down as it became a heavenly stele and crashed toward a concealed spot within the demonic abyss.
"There?"
Seeing Daochen strike, Dijun and Eastern Emperor Taiyi both looked puzzled.
Both of them had swept that corner with their divine senses. There was absolutely no way Luo Hou's remnant soul could be hiding there.
Yet Daochen had attacked.
Could Luo Hou really be so cunning that he had evaded both their searches?
But the thought had barely crossed their minds.
A pitch-black streak of divine radiance suddenly shot out from that concealed spot, meeting the Heaven Measuring Ruler head-on.
The spear was seven feet and three inches long. Surging demonic qi wreathed its incomparably sharp tip, and everywhere it passed, space trembled violently, as though it might collapse at any moment.
"The God-Slaying Spear? Luo Hou?"
At the sight of that pitch-black spear, Eastern Emperor Taiyi and Dijun were shaken.
They had never expected Luo Hou's remnant soul to truly be hiding there.
Had Daochen failed to notice him as they had, and Luo Hou's remnant soul had caught him unawares with the God-Slaying Spear, the consequences would have been unthinkable.
Boom!
An earth-shaking roar rang out.
The heavenly stele formed by the Heaven Measuring Ruler collided with the black divine spear, unleashing tremendous power. Terrifying shock waves swept out in every direction like a tide.
Rumble!
Caverns filled with demonic qi collapsed one after another. Scattered rubble tore through the air like cannonballs fired from their barrels.
Even the defensive barrier Dijun and Eastern Emperor Taiyi had raised with their three spiritual treasures-the Eastern Emperor Bell, the River Chart, and the Luo Writing-shuddered relentlessly under the impact. Its light flickered as though it would shatter at any moment.
When the light faded, a vast crater a hundred thousand feet across had appeared in the demonic abyss. At its bottom, a man in black robes lay motionless, his aura weak. A black spear floated quietly beside him.
"Boy, how did you discover this patriarch?"
Though Luo Hou's remnant soul had an aura so faint it was barely perceptible, his gaze remained icy as he looked at Daochen from within the crater.
He had always excelled in slaughter, and his arts of stealth and disguise had reached the very pinnacle.
Otherwise, even with the intelligence of Ancestral Dragon, Origin Phoenix, and Primordial Qilin, he could never have toyed with them so easily in the palm of his hand back then.
Yet he had never imagined that Daochen would actually discover him.
Even if he was now only a wisp of remnant soul, with less than one ten-thousandth of his original strength, someone at Daochen's Great Luo Golden Immortal level should still have been nowhere near capable of detecting him!