A short while later.
On the central floating landmass, inside the Crippled Demon Sect's magnificent hall.
Thick stone pillars supported the vaulted ceiling.
Coiled Dragons, Phoenix Birds, Qilin, Black Tortoises, and many other legendary spirit beasts were carved into the pillars, while all manner of enormous, bizarre entities wound across the ceiling.
Had Zhao Changfeng been there, he would have recognized at a glance many of the strange entities depicted overhead as ones he had seen through the Bronze Cauldron in Beyond the Heavens.
Within the hall, Sect Master Jiang Xuanqi sat high above the others.
He wore white robes with no indication of his status. His face was gaunt and shriveled, his eyes seemed to conceal countless thoughts, and he exuded a dispirited air of indifference toward all things.
Below him stood a long obsidian table with seven chairs.
At that moment, four of the chairs were occupied by Xie Guanlong, Qin Qingyao, Gu Jianzhou, and Teng Kun.
Four elders of the Crippled Demon Sect.
"To think that what the Biluo Realm truly sought was the strange entity our sect suppresses deep underground. Fortunately, Old Teng was hard to kill and actually escaped this calamity."
Xie Guanlong, who looked every inch an immortal sage, ranked third among the seven elders and possessed mid-Freedom Realm cultivation.
He, too, had forgone the Crippled Demon Sect's crimson robes, wearing blue instead as he gently rubbed a jade pendant in his hand.
With his exceptionally handsome looks, he had reportedly been a renowned beauty in the Demon Kingdom in his youth. Fond of carving, he had driven countless young women there wild.
A calamity of love had set him on the path of cultivation. Obsessed with the art of carving, he had soared to greatness after joining the Crippled Demon Sect.
Only those