"Kekeke, everyone of the Hall of Souls, the success or failure of the final millennium of our Hun Clan's ten-thousand-year plan depends on whether we can complete the task assigned by the clan leader!" One of the black-robed figures removed his hood, revealing a wickedly handsome, wildly arrogant face. It was none other than Hun Miesheng, the Soul Hall Master who had met Xiao Yan in Wutan City not long ago.
"Kek... but Hall Master, does such a small task really warrant bringing out the entire Hall of Souls? It may be the clan leader's order, but this is utterly absurd. Do we really need a whole group of Dou Shengs and Dou Zuns to deal with a single Dou Zhe? I remember there being a Protector Wu at the Dou Zong level here in the Jia Ma Empire. Why not just send him?" The speaker's voice was deep. He removed his hood, revealing a face so ordinary it could not have been more unremarkable.
The speaker was Hun You, an elder of the Hun Clan and the overseer of its affairs outside the Central Plains. His strength was unknown, but in the original story, he had once washed the Black-Corner Region in blood, making him at least a Dou Sheng.
As the black-robed figures revealed their faces one after another, their identities became clear.
Saint Hun Qing, a One-Star Dou Sheng and branch hall master of the Hall of Souls;
Gu You, an Advanced Half-Saint and the Hall of Souls' Second Heavenly Venerate;
Blood River, a first-revolution Peak Dou Zun and the Hall of Souls' Fourth Heavenly Venerate;
Qiu Di, an Eight-Star Dou Zun and the Hall of Souls' Eighth Heavenly Venerate;
Mo Yu, an Eight-Star Dou Zun and the Hall of Souls' Ninth Heavenly Venerate;
Old Man Mu Gu, a Three-Star Dou Zun, an eighth-tier Alchemist, and a venerable elder of the Hall of Souls.
These pillars of the Hall of Souls, figures who could make the earth tremble three times wherever they went on the Dou Qi Continent, had all gathered that day beside a small valley in the Magical Beast Forest of the Jia Ma Empire on the Northwest Continent.
The final black-robed figure did not remove his hood. Anyone standing before him and examining him closely would have discovered that he had neither hands nor feet. Only a pair of shadowy eyes flickered beneath his hood.
Second on the heavenly flame ranking, the nihility devouring flame, a Nine-Star Dou Sheng.
"That Protector Wu you mentioned has already been recalled to the Soul Realm by the clan leader. The clan leader said that fool couldn't accomplish anything, only ruin things. He even set aside a pig farm in the Soul Realm especially for him, with a hundred thousand pigs in total. He has to count them every day, and if even one goes missing, he'll be punished." The nihility devouring flame laughed, "Kekeke."
"That harsh? What did he do?" Everyone from the Hall of Souls sucked in a breath of cold air.
"Apparently, a direct disciple from some minor faction under him didn't know how high the heavens were or how deep the earth was. She went and broke off her engagement to that old geezer's new disciple." The nihility devouring flame secretly controlled more than half the Hun Clan, so getting his hands on such gossip was effortless.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. That direct disciple threw away a chance to ascend to heaven in a single step. What a tragedy..." Saint Hun Qing sighed.
"Kekeke, I think she did rather well." As long as he could see Hun Tiandi suffer a setback, the nihility devouring flame was happy.
While the nihility devouring flame and the Hall of Souls members discussed Hun Tiandi's recent strange behavior, Hun Miesheng finally finished setting up the formation. It was a bizarre formation, virtually absent from any formation master's legacy on the Dou Qi Continent.
Its effect was simple: to establish contact with another plane.
"Lord Void, sorry for the trouble, but I'll need you to construct the spatial passage shortly," Hun Miesheng said respectfully to the nihility devouring flame.
The nihility devouring flame nodded. An ordinary spatial passage could be constructed by a Dou Zun. The only reason to have him do it personally was to ensure the passage's absolute stability.
"As for everyone else, follow what we rehearsed in the Soul Realm. There can be no mistakes!"
"As you command, Hall Master."
"Kekeke."
Up in the sky, Yao Lao, who was controlling Xiao Yan's body, was still haggling with Yun Yun, leaving Xiao Yan himself rather embarrassed.
"You may have helped me, but I was the one who killed the Amethyst Winged Lion King. You can take its most precious horn, but you must at least leave the sixth-tier magic core to me." After some thought, Yun Yun rejected Yao Lao's proposed division of the spoils.
As she saw it, Xiao Yan had indeed broken through the Amethyst Winged Lion King's defenses, but that was merely thanks to the properties of the bone white flame. In a one-on-one fight, their strength had been evenly matched. Besides, she had contributed the most to killing it.
"That's not how it works. If I hadn't intervened, you would never have withstood the Amethyst Winged Lion King's sealing skill. You would have died here. I saved your life. That's hardly the same as merely lending a hand," "Xiao Yan" retorted.
"How do you know I couldn't have dodged it? Do you think I have no secret arts?" Yun Yun sneered. As the strongest person in the Jia Ma Empire, at least on the surface, she was thoroughly dismissive of Yao Lao's claim.
Seeing the atmosphere between them grow increasingly hostile, Xiao Yan anxiously urged Yao Lao in his mind not to get carried away.
Yao Lao, Xiao Yi Xian should have taken all the purple spirit stones by now. Let's not fuss over this magic core. If this woman realizes she's come away empty-handed, what if she comes after us?
"Little Yanzi, the bold stuff themselves to death while the timid starve, the timid starve. Trust me. If you really want to refine the Amethyst Flame, the purple spirit stones, the Amethyst Winged Lion King's horn, and its magic core are all important to you." Yao Chen soothed his disciple, who had yet to see much of the world.
In Yao Lao's eyes, a mere Dou Emperor was hardly enough to make him nervous. Though he was now only a soul, he still possessed no fewer than three secret soul arts capable of killing Yun Yun.
"Then help yourself." Yun Yun finally yielded. Her ultimate goal remained the purple spirit stone. Anything else would be a welcome bonus, but there was no need to fixate on it if she could not obtain it.
A smile of triumphant cunning appeared on "Xiao Yan's" face. He descended to the ground, easily cut off the horn, and extracted the sixth-tier magic core. Just as he was about to flap his wings and leave, the earth shook and the mountains rocked.
What was going on?
Xiao Yan and Yun Yun both looked up. Above them, an enormous formation diagram covered the entire sky as far as the eye could see.
Sinister winds rose all around them. From beneath the ground came ghastly cries like wailing ghosts and howling wolves, making their hair stand on end.
An old man suddenly appeared in midair. Dressed in yellow, he kept his aura restrained, his eyes as still as an ancient well. There was no sign that he possessed any cultivation at all. Only the fact that he stood suspended in the air revealed that he was far from ordinary.
"Who is he?" Looking at that somewhat familiar face, Xiao Yan suddenly remembered something. "He's the guard Xun'er's family assigned to her before."
He was a Dou Zong?!
"No, that's not right. He's a Half-Saint. Tong Xuan, a guest of the Gu Clan. Why would he be here?!" Fear filled Yao Chen's voice.
"All who side with the Hun Clan must die!!!" Tong Xuan's thunderous voice reverberated through heaven and earth. Then he raised a hand, and his Dou Qi transformed into a gigantic palm that descended toward the valley.
Yao Lao unleashed every scrap of power he could muster, but before the absolute gulf in strength, it amounted to nothing.
In the final instant before he lost consciousness, only one thought remained in Xiao Yan's mind:
Fuck, I'm going to die again.
After Xiao Yan was crushed into a puddle of mangled flesh by Tong Xuan's Dou Technique, the formation finally began operating in full. A spatial passage appeared out of thin air, and a soul chain flew out of it. After searching the surroundings, it locked onto a remnant soul on the ground.
Once Xiao Yan's bewildered remnant soul was bound by the soul chain, it was immediately dragged into the spatial passage, which swiftly vanished after him.
At the other end of the spatial passage lay a small world that resembled a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood.
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