The Wild Ruins.
Within the Lingyao Realm, inside the borders of the Beichen Demon Kingdom.
Beneath a gloomy firmament, a towering demon mountain riddled with countless holes drifted through the mountain forests amidst rumbling sounds, startling thousands of gigantic entities hidden in the shadows.
The demon mountain was pitch-black and majestic, its entire body appearing as if cast from refined iron, occasionally shimmering with chilling black light as it moved.
Deep within the mountain body, countless luminous pearls were deeply embedded in the rock walls, releasing a soft, bright glow.
Inside the depths of one of the caves.
Seven ragged surviving disciples of the Lingxiao Sect stood silently before the black iron railings, looking toward the outer corridor with terrified expressions, not knowing when doom would arrive.
Suddenly!
"Rustle!"
A strange tree covered in ugly black armored worms twisted without wind in an open area of the mountain body, stretching out numerous ink-green branches that resembled living things, reaching through the black iron railings deep into another neighboring cave.
The black armored worms writhing on the trunk used the branches as a bridge to pour in eagerly, emitting frenzied squeaking sounds.
Soon, desperate and helpless shrill screams echoed together with the faint, bizarre sounds of flesh and bones being gnawed.
The Lingxiao Sect disciples watching this scene all felt their hair stand on end, their breathing seeming to temporarily stagnate.
After a moment, the screams gradually subsided, and only branches stained with scraps of bloody flesh were seen withdrawing from the cave, wrapped around the black armored worms which remained in an excited state.
Only then did the smell of blood gradually permeate.
"Your lives are not worth much, and all I want is the Soul-Pacifying Bead. Hand it over and all of you can live."
The voice had just fallen when a tall, thin demon cultivator wrapped in a large crimson robe was already standing before the railing, the veins on his forehead throbbing violently as if he were forcibly suppressing the violent urges in his heart to avoid slaughtering everyone in a loss of control.
The elderly demon cultivator's left eye was bloodshot, while his right eye unexpectedly presented a triangular shape, and was moreover composed of two emerald-green vertical pupils.
"Elder Teng, we truly do not know the whereabouts of the Soul-Pacifying Bead. It is useless even if you kill us."
The handsome senior martial brother Lv Yang still showed some sense of responsibility at this moment, biting the bullet to explain: "Such sect treasures are only known by our master and mistress, we..."
"The two of them are already dead."
Teng Kun impatiently interrupted Lv Yang's words, glanced at the only pretty young girl in the cave, and said indifferently: "If I cannot get the Soul-Pacifying Bead, all of you will follow them in death, and soon."
"Hiss, hiss!"
Teng Kun's right eye socket suddenly emitted the strange sound of a snake flicking its tongue, and immediately an emerald-green little snake as thick as a thumb was seen abruptly darting out to lunge at Lv Yang.
After the demonic snake left his body, this elder of the Crippled Demon Sect had an empty, dark right eye socket, resembling a miniature demon lair.
"Awoo, howl!"
Lv Yang instead clutched his face, emitting a beast-like deathbed scream, and frantically dug with his fingers into his bloody eye socket, vainly attempting to drag out the demonic snake that had burrowed into his head.
"Useless. With your cultivation at the Yuanqi Stage, how could you possibly withstand my tier-5 Brain-Devouring Snake?"
Speaking of this demonic snake currently gnawing on Lv Yang's brain matter, the old devil actually revealed a look of tender affection, as if it were a beloved biological son he had raised since childhood and who had achieved great success.
Inside the cave.
The disciples of the Lingxiao Sect looked at their once steady and solemn senior martial brother, who was curled into a ball on the stone floor rolling in pain and continuously wailing to beg the old devil for his life, and each and every one of them was frightened completely pale.
After a short while, the blood-stained Lv Yang stopped shouting, and his twitching body also grew still.
"Blech!"
Suddenly, Lv Yang forcefully spat out a large mouthful of crushed bloody flesh, crossed his hands behind his back, writhed his body in a bizarre posture with his chest pressed against the ground, and raised his head high to look at the crowd.
He looked like a humanoid snake.
His left eye socket was still spewing red and white mixed blood, his right eye socket resounded with the hissing tongue-flicks of the demonic snake, and he rotated his neck to face everyone with a visage capable of inducing nightmares.
The Lingxiao Sect disciples targeted by him retreated in panic and subconsciousness, fearing above all else that they would become his target.
"Senior Martial Brother Lv? What is wrong with you? Wake up quickly!"
When he approached her, Song Ziyan was abruptly startled awake from the agonizing bereavement of her parents' deaths, dodging unceasingly with her fair face drained of color as she shrieked, "Second Senior Martial Brother! Quickly go stop him!"
However, Zhao Changfeng, who had always been completely obedient to her, stood sluggishly frozen in place as if frightened out of his wits.
"Damn it!"
Having just transmigrated without having sorted out his memories yet, Zhao Changfeng only had time to curse a single dirty word before he saw that the Brain-Devouring Snake had already lunged toward him.
"Lin'er, be patient."
Seeing that Zhao Changfeng was about to become the demonic snake's next meal, the old devil suddenly gave a soft reprimand to stop it, then said indifferently: "Endure this for a moment. In a couple of hours, the two of us will come back. By then, if they still do not tell us the exact whereabouts of the Soul-Pacifying Bead, you can eat another one."
"Whoosh!"
The demonic snake obediently flew away from Lv Yang's eye socket, twisting its snake body which revealed dense fine scales as it flew low to the ground, its two emerald-green vertical pupils frequently looking toward Zhao Changfeng and the others, leaking an extremely obvious, bloodthirsty craving.
When it returned to his own eye socket, Teng Kun caught a whiff of a faint surge of vital blood pouring into his body, and frowned as he said: "The Lingxiao Sect was also a righteous sect that flourished ten thousand years ago; to think that the physiques of its disciples today are actually so weak-truly laughable to the extreme!"
The old devil shook his head and swayed his brain as he expressed his dissatisfaction, stubbornly returning this trace of vital blood back to the Brain-Devouring Snake, and continued: "I will reiterate once more: as long as someone can lead me to find that Soul-Pacifying Bead, all of you will survive."
"Remember, I will be back in two hours."
Dropping these words, the dissatisfied Old Devil and that lingering Brain-Devouring Snake slowly departed from in front of the black iron bars.
After the Brain-Devouring Snake left his body, the corpse of Lv Yang no longer twitched, yet it still presented itself to the rest of the people in a bizarre posture.
Zhao Changfeng, who had narrowly escaped a disaster, looked at several fellow apprentices who seemed both familiar and unfamiliar, frowning and trying his utmost to recall the past in order to figure out his current situation as quickly as possible.
"Zhao Changfeng, a disciple of the righteous Lingxiao Sect. He shares the same full name as me and looks seventy percent similar, yet he's only seventeen..."
Chaotic memories surged forth. The newly transmigrated Zhao Changfeng tried hard to recall his original experiences, only to discover that his pre-transmigration memories were full of chaos, knowing only that it was a technologically advanced modern civilized society.
"Junior Sister!"
"Junior Brother Ning!"
"The two of you are either the biological daughter of Master and Mistress or their most cherished closing disciple. Where on earth is the Soul-Pacifying Bead?"
"Master and Mistress are dead, and the Senior Brother is also dead. Our Lingxiao Sect is already finished!"
"We still have two hours. I beg you two to hand the Soul-Pacifying Bead over to Old Devil Teng and give everyone a way out, okay?"
Lin Xingyan, Lu Tao, and Xu Yifei carefully avoided the corpse of Lv Yang and crowded close to Zhao Changfeng together, staring eagerly at Song Ziyan, who was cowering behind Zhao Changfeng, and further away, the youngest junior brother, Ning Luo.
Clad in a plain white gauze skirt, Song Ziyan had skin better than snow and eyebrows like distant dai. Even in such an unbearable current situation, her clothes remained untainted by dust, resembling a pure white lotus standing aloof from the world in isolation.
In the distance, Ning Luo in a green robe had a face as handsome as jade. Under adversity, his figure remained upright, giving off an uplifting and extraordinary feel.
As for Zhao Changfeng beside them, although he had a sharp and spirited name and his appearance was not bad, he had not been taken seriously by anyone due to his dull and quiet personality.
"I have no idea about the whereabouts of the Soul-Pacifying Bead at all. It's useless for you to pressure me!"
Seemingly recalling the sad matter of her parents' recent demise once more, Song Ziyan's eyes were brimming with tears as she spoke. Tugging at Zhao Changfeng's clothes for help, she pleaded, "Second Senior Brother, my mother trusted you the most. Do you know where the Soul-Pacifying Bead is?"
Zhao Changfeng dazed for a moment, then went to trace his memories with effort, soon becoming certain that he had no inkling of the movements of the Soul-Pacifying Bead.
As for what Mistress supposedly "trusted most" about him in Song Ziyan's words, he actually ruminated on a few things, shaking his head blankly: "I don't know."
Zhou Jin was given various miscellaneous chores to handle simply because the original owner was obedient and useful. Although she wasn't bad to him, it was far from being considered the utmost trust.
The ones Song Zejun and Zhou Jin truly cherished had always been that junior brother of theirs who possessed extraordinary cultivation talent and was regarded by the two of them as their own flesh and blood.
Musing and pondering inwardly, Zhao Changfeng also felt that only Song Ziyan and Ning Luo were the most likely to know where the Soul-Pacifying Bead was hidden.
"Junior Brother, what about you? Do you know the whereabouts of the Soul-Pacifying Bead?"
Seeing Song Ziyan crying endlessly, the broad-shouldered Lin Xingyan bypassed Zhao Changfeng and the other, walking straight toward Ning Luo while offering kind persuasion: "We all know that the Soul-Pacifying Bead is only of great use to demonic cultivators. Even if you or I hold this item, it won't enhance our realm cultivation by much."
"Junior Brother, no one will save us. If we don't hand over the Soul-Pacifying Bead, everyone will die!"
"In this world, as long as you're targeted by demons, wanting to survive means only giving them the objects they demand. No righteous practitioner can escape this established destiny."
Lin Xingyan advised repeatedly.
"The Heavenly Ruins, the Return Ruins, the Wild Ruins—the Three Great Ruins."
"In the Wild Ruins, there are seven major realms: Qingming, Biluo, Foul Earth, Qiongrang, Xuanhuang, Lingyao, and Chixia."
"In the Lingyao Realm, there are two major Demon Kingdoms, Beichen and Frost Moon, but they take the Primal Demon Temple and the Heavenly Fiend Sect as supreme."
"This world is actually dominated by demonic cultivators who rule over all realms, and the demonic path has stood tall in heaven and earth for ten thousand years without falling."
Taking the opportunity to integrate his memories, Zhao Changfeng, along with his deepening understanding of the realm he was in, clearly recognized that he and these fellow apprentices of the Lingxiao Sect were impossible to escape alive by their own strength.
In addition, there would be no other so-called righteous forces daring to come and rescue them.
Ten thousand years ago, the Demonic Dao Magnates led by Wan Qingtian, the master of the Heavenly Demon Sect, wielded the divine artifact Annihilation Demon Blade to launch the "Heaven-Turning War" against the righteous sects of the Three Great Ruins, and successfully flipped the pattern of this world and its territories.
After this battle, the Demon Dao Great Sects became the mainstream cultivation path in heaven and earth, while numerous Demon Kingdoms attached to them governed the various heaven-bestowed lands.
"Heaven-bestowed lands? Chaotic lands?"
As his brow twitched slightly, new memories suddenly flashed, allowing Zhao Changfeng to perceive another side of the current world.
The various realms located in the Three Great Ruins were further divided into chaotic lands and heaven-bestowed lands. The spiritual qi of heaven-bestowed lands was pure and orderly, suitable for human races like him to survive and cultivate, and thus they were also called the orderly zones.
Because the spiritual qi of the chaotic lands was chaotic, impure, and completely without rules, they were also called Unordered Zones, where only demon spirits, evil specters, and Demonkind could adapt.
Between the Unordered Zone and the orderly zone, a natural "World Membrane" existed.
The characteristic of this "World Membrane" was: living beings of the orderly zone could easily enter the Unordered Zone, while alien creatures of the Unordered Zone found it very difficult to break through the "World Membrane" into the orderly zone.
The Wild Ruins among the Three Great Ruins had a total of seven realms, among which Qingming, Biluo, Foul Earth, and Qiongrang were actually Unordered Zones with chaotic spiritual qi, firmly occupied by demon spirits, evil specters, and Demonkind.
On the human side, the various Demon Dao Great Sects operated within the three orderly zones of Xuanhuang, Lingyao, and Chixia, generally not organizing their disciples to barge into realms in the Unordered Zone.
"Splrit!"
The sound of a sharp blade tearing through flesh suddenly rang out while Zhao Changfeng was tracing his memories, followed immediately by a piercing and miserable scream.
Zhao Changfeng abruptly looked over and saw that Lin Xingyan had already collapsed straight down, while the junior brother Ning Luo was withdrawing a silvery-bright slender sword from his chest.
"Master and Mistress are dead! The Senior Brother is also dead!"
"Senior Brother Lin, you didn't think about exacting revenge for them, yet you actually had the face to pressure me?"
"So you deserve to die!"
Ning Luo, holding the sword, had a gloomy gaze, his handsome face filled with sorrow yet appearing righteous and awe-inspiring: "I'd rather die than let the old devil who killed Master and Mistress get his wish!"
Looking at Ning Luo, who put on a posture of facing death unflinchingly, Zhao Changfeng's gaze was meaningful as he thought to himself, Hmph, it seems he doesn't know the whereabouts of the Soul-Pacifying Bead either.