Qing Chen looked inward at his sea of qi and saw the Nine-Luminaries Glazed Vidyaraja Pagoda firmly occupying its center, unchanged as ever.
At the pagoda's edges stood three demon banners, arranged in a triangular formation.
Farther away, the Pojun Battle Halberd radiated a fierce killing aura, while Wutong Old Devil's Wutong's Black Jade Ring flickered with a cold, eerie light.
However, Wutong's Black Jade Ring was a magic treasure designed to accompany the Great Five-Element Annihilation Demonic Cultivation Art.
Qing Chen had yet to master its secret techniques and could not unleash its true power.
Thus, he could only rely on the magic treasure's inherent quality to smash out some power through brute force. His mastery still fell considerably short, and its power was unremarkable.
Meanwhile, at the Condensed Jade Sect's compound on Earth Pass Island, a council meeting was nearing its end.
Xu Jiuling sat upright in a mid-grade second-tier red sandalwood chair carved with dragons, dark blue frost mist swirling around him as though he were sitting in an ice cavern.
The sight involuntarily sent a chill through anyone who saw him.
He quietly listened to the hall masters and managers report on recent major affairs within the sect, his fingers unconsciously stroking the supreme-grade spirit artifact, the Mysterious Darkness Lingzhu, in his palm.
Below him, Gu Jianchun, Miao Long, and the others either folded their arms in contemplation or whispered among themselves. Only Gao Yuliang kept glancing outside the hall, seemingly waiting for something.
Just then, an urgent cry pierced through the hall doors. "Report!"
A manager stumbled into the hall, his face filled with terror and excitement, and shouted, "E-Elder Qing has emerged from seclusion!"
In an instant, the hall became so quiet that a falling pin could have been heard.
Only then did everyone