Below, everything had dissolved into a boiling pot of chaos.
High above the nine heavens, the clash between Jiang Wei's and Ji Wuque's Emperor Weapons stirred up world-destroying turbulence. Crimson radiance and dark rifts in the void tore the night sky to shreds.
The terrifying imperial might pressed down like two invisible Primordial Divine Mountains, suppressing the curse below.
Boom-!
With a thunderous crash and a flare of shattered wards, the hastily sealed entrance to the Luoshui Ancient Mine burst wide open under the combined bombardment of disciples from Holy Lands such as Yaoguang, Wanchu, and Dao Yi, followed by the charge of countless red-eyed rogue cultivators!
Curse-laden mist, black as ink and reeking of bone-piercing cold and rotten blood, erupted from the cavern like the breath of a savage beast pent up for countless ages.
Several Yaoguang disciples at the front bore the brunt of it. Their protective divine light was corroded and pierced as though it were paper, and they let out shrieks so agonizing they no longer sounded human.
Before everyone's eyes, their flesh rapidly shriveled and charred, finally dissolving into wisps of black smoke without leaving so much as a scrap of bone.
Yet,
Rather than frightening the crowd away, the gruesome sight fell like a drop of water into boiling oil, setting the chaos ablaze!
"Divine source! There's the aura of divine source inside!"
A rogue cultivator roared hysterically, driving his Magical Treasure forward as he charged into the black mist with bloodshot eyes.
"Charge in! Kill!"
A bandit chief brandished a bloodstained greataxe, sweeping the chaotic crowd along with him.
Divine light and Magical Treasures of every color collided and exploded wildly at the narrow entrance, some even inflicting devastating injuries on their own side. Screams, furious roars, and the clash of Magical Treasures mingled with eerie whispers from deep within the Ancient Mine that made their divine souls tremble, weaving a prelude to hell.
The thick black mist seemed to have come alive, greedily devouring the intruders' vital essence and divine souls. In an instant, the mine entrance became a slaughter ground, where blood and bone rapidly dissolved in the cursed black fog.
"There really is something strange about this divine mine. It can rob people of their reason!" The hidden Holy Land elders and venerable experts of the great sects wore grave expressions, not daring to make the slightest move.
Luo Yue and the others remained concealed overhead.
At the moment, she was only curious about how Daoist Duan was faring and whether he had found any divine source.
Meanwhile, deep inside the mine.
Countless tens of thousands of feet underground.
Duan De was enveloped in an earthen-yellow armored barrier covered in strange Dao patterns. It struggled to hold open a tiny pocket of space within the almost impenetrably dense black mist, sizzling under the unbearable strain.
Not a trace of his usual frivolity remained on his plump face. Beads of sweat as large as beans rolled down, mingling with dust. His small eyes were fixed on the old compass spinning wildly in his hand, looking ready to explode, while he muttered nothing but obscure, incomprehensible geomantic incantations.
"Boundless bloody Heavenly Venerable! Suppressing the curse with Emperor Weapons."
"That little demoness from the Luo Family has no conscience!"
Duan De cursed under his breath. He could clearly sense the terrifying imperial might erupting at the entrance above, along with countless signs of life being rapidly extinguished.
He stood at the edge of a natural cavern so vast it defied imagination.
At the center of the cavern, a gigantic divine source block measuring a full ninety feet on each side was embedded quietly in the cavern wall. Crystal clear throughout, it radiated boundless vital essence and dazzling multicolored light, like the most tempting poisoned apple.
However,
The space surrounding the divine source was distorted, radiating an ominousness so profound it seemed capable of freezing the soul.
Black mist seeped endlessly from a fissure in the earth's veins beneath the divine source. The stone walls were covered with ancient markings that did not belong to this era, steeped in a savage, bloody aura.
What made Duan De's scalp prickle even more was that the ninety-foot divine source block was not pure and flawless!
Deep within its core, he could faintly make out a silhouette too blurred to identify. Human yet not human, exquisitely graceful, it emanated a silence and majesty that remained suffocating despite its slumber through countless ages.
Every violent surge of energy from the entrance above, every wave of resentment from extinguished lives, seemed to make the silhouette within the divine source tremble ever so slightly! With each tremor, the black mist welling up from underground grew denser.
"This silhouette has already become fully human. A royal of the primordial age-definitely a royal bloodline!"
"It might even truly be a deity..."
Duan De drew a sharp breath.
The needle of his compass pointed unwaveringly toward the darker abyss beneath the divine source. The aura rising from there was even more ancient and deathly still, as though it connected to the Nine Nether Hell.
"And the real terror lies beneath that ninety-foot divine source block! This damn place isn't a mine at all. It's probably the burial pit or sealing ground of some primordial supreme being. The Luo Family really has been cursed with bloody rotten luck."
Just then, a terrifying tremor far greater than anything before surged from beneath the divine source.
Roar-!
A deep, stifled roar, as though it had crossed endless time and space, exploded directly in the depths of Duan De's divine soul!
It was not an actual sound, but a shriek of terror arising from his life origin.
Duan De's expression changed drastically.
"Damn Heavenly Venerable! Those two princelings are deliberately trying to screw this Daoist over. The blood essence and fluctuations from the Emperor Weapons above have completely awakened whatever's underground. If I stay any longer, I really will meet my end here."
At that thought, he did not hesitate. His corpulent body erupted with astonishing speed. Abandoning any attempt to investigate deeper, he lunged like lightning toward an inconspicuous, moss-covered fissure in the cavern wall.
He formed hand seals and spat a mouthful of essence blood onto the rock wall. The fissure instantly rippled like water, revealing a narrow passage barely wide enough for one person. This was one of the escape routes he had secretly prepared several days earlier.
"Things are getting hairy-time to run! I'll come back another day!"
With a strange cry, Duan De squeezed inside with unbelievable flexibility for his plump frame and vanished.
The instant he disappeared,
The seemingly ordinary rock wall returned to its original state, as though no fissure had ever existed.
Aboard the miniature warship hidden within the folds of the void.
Luo Yue's icy-blue eyes snapped open.
Deep in her pupils, phantom images of a star chart and a tortoise shell flickered violently before abruptly dispersing. Her little face was deathly pale, and fine beads of cold sweat seeped from her temples. The terrifying tremor and roar transmitted through the Yellow River Chart and Lo Shu had nearly destabilized her divine soul.
"What's wrong, little Yue?!" Luo Qingluan, who had been watching her all along, immediately noticed something was amiss.
"The thing at the bottom of the mine has awakened."
Luo Yue fixed her icy-blue eyes on the chaotic mine entrance below and said,
"What that ninety-foot divine source block seals might only be one part of it. The true terror lies deeper down."
She had just seen a few things through the Yellow River Chart and Lo Shu.
"Little Yue,
did you see something?" Luo Qingying asked urgently.
"There's the silhouette of a primordial divine maiden inside the divine source. She's very likely a member of the Primordial Royal Clan who has already taken human form!" Luo Yue said.
She was now certain this was the lair of some Primordial Royal Clan.
After all, the greatest difference between the Primordial Race and the demon race was that the former had to cultivate to an exceptionally high level before they could fully assume human form.
Their bloodlines were far too powerful. Even after transforming their true bodies, they retained all manner of strange shapes.