Three months later.
Three hundred thousand li southwest of Earth Pass Island lay a little-known barren islet, very close to the territory of the Cold Mountain Archipelago.
The islet's surface was utterly bare, without a trace of green grass. Even the spiritual energy seemed exceedingly thin, and jagged, grotesque rocks filled the view.
They resembled the stark white bones of savage beasts, desolate and menacing.
Naturally, no one would spare a second glance at such a worthless place.
Yet who could have imagined that an enormous underground palace lay hidden three li beneath this barren islet?
The palace's walls had been cast from dark iron mixed with cold crystal, their surfaces covered in formation patterns.
This was the most important of the Demon Lotus Sect's many strongholds for secretly training Dao soldiers.
Inside the underground palace's Central Hall, the atmosphere was so oppressive that it was hard to breathe.
Overhead, eerie blue phosphorescent lamps flickered beneath the vaulted ceiling, uncanny as ghost fires. A faint, nauseating smell of blood permeated the air.
In the center of the hall, Qing Chen sat squarely upon a Devil Lord's Throne, his legs spread.
The throne had been painstakingly polished from the leg bones of late second-tier demon beasts.
Today, he wore neither the Condensed Jade Sect's signature Elder's Golden Robe nor anything like it, but a fitted black martial outfit, with the sinister mask exclusive to the Purple Tenuity Devil Lord covering his face.
His eyes were half closed, as though he were dozing.
Below the throne, the Demon Lotus Sect's senior figures stood in two rows to either side, their auras steady and profound, their faces solemn, like so many stone statues.
Someone should have occupied the foremost position on the left, but Lin Changsheng had not arrived, leaving it empty.
With