Only after ducking into the cave did Wei Yuan find a moment to examine his surroundings.
The cave was not large, merely several zhang deep. With a flick of his will, Wei Yuan manifested a boulder to block the entrance. The stone possessed natural concealment properties, allowing him to finally breathe a sigh of relief.
When that supreme will had descended earlier, it had conveyed an inherent message: any powerful creature walking in the night would draw the malice of this world and be mercilessly destroyed. This message manifested directly within the divine soul, requiring no written words, and could be deciphered by any intelligent race.
Just how fierce this worldly malice was, the Liao Great Shaman had already experienced the night before. Even a grand Scenery Command cultivator had struggled desperately to resist it; Wei Yuan had no desire to experience it himself, nor could he afford to.
Hiding in the cave, now that he could finally catch his breath, Wei Yuan suddenly felt an indescribable exhaustion, nearly falling asleep on the spot. After fleeing relentlessly for an entire day, his nerves had been taut every second, and he felt as though his spirit and mind were utterly depleted.
Yet now was not the time to sleep. His thoughts raced as he pondered an escape plan. The hidden traps of buried small flying swords could work once, but not twice. Moreover, their power was too meager—they could only lightly wound a chiliarch, and certainly could not threaten the powerful Liao currently hot on his trail.
The woman suddenly said, "Tomorrow, when the first ray of sunlight shines, the creature wandering in the snow mountains will grow drowsy, yet will not have returned to its lair. That will be your only chance to escape. Your cultivation is not high, so it will hardly pay attention to you, but those Liao chasing you will surely draw its gaze. If they dare pursue you, it will be certain death for them. You will have an hour to run."
Wei Yuan ignored her, focusing entirely on laying out an array on the ground to try to purge the blood qi mark upon himself.
Once the array was formed, Wei Yuan set down several spiritual items. The woman picked one up and moved it to a different position, saying, "This place appears yin and cold, but in truth conceals lethal subterranean fire. Placing your extreme yang item here makes the yang excessive; it must be set in the yin position to achieve balance."
Clarity dawned on Wei Yuan. Following her advice, he adjusted the components, and sure enough, the array instantly solidified, its efficacy boosted by at least thirty percent. Just as Wei Yuan prepared to thank the woman in the manner he had over the past two days, his body suddenly froze, rendered completely motionless.
At this moment, a powerful divine consciousness abruptly appeared within Wei Yuan's body, and in the next instant, another space opened before his eyes. It was a towering, vast hall steeped in an ancient, decaying aura.
Upon a high throne at the far end of the hall sat a man dressed in the ancient robes of a former dynasty. He appraised Wei Yuan with keen interest and said, "I truly did not expect to wait so long for you to arrive. But it has all been worth it. This physical body of yours is extraordinarily rare in this world—it is only right that it be used by me, making these thousands of years deprived of sunlight well spent."
Wei Yuan could now see everything inside the hall and realized his divine soul had actually been dragged into some bizarre space, where the physical damage on his body did not reflect upon his soul. This great hall somewhat resembled the Nether Cold Realm, though its domain spanned only this single hall.
"Who are you?" Wei Yuan asked.
"You carried the Primordial Blood Bead I left behind for so long, and yet you ask who I am? Hehe, I should actually thank you for your caution in sealing me inside your body, preventing me from making contact with the undead creature. Were it not for that, dragging you in here would have cost me considerably more blood qi. That blood qi can all be used in the future to elevate the cultivation of this fleshly body—every little bit saved counts."
Wei Yuan felt a tremor in his heart. "You are the ancestor of the remnant clan!"
The man laughed heartily, rose to his feet, and walked down from the dais step by step. The cold, clear light falling from the hall's ceiling illuminated his face, allowing Wei Yuan to see his appearance clearly.
He appeared to be middle-aged, sporting a short beard. He might originally have been deemed handsome as jade, but excitement and greed twisted his features, giving him a sinister, lunatic look.
He slowed his steps as much as possible, taking his time to approach Wei Yuan, and said, "Back then, Emperor Hui appointed Ziping as Grand Heavenly Master, having him select sites to seal qi in order to bring peace to the realm. Yet he was foolish throughout his life, entirely blind to Ziping's harbored malice. He exhausted the imperial treasury, selecting extraordinary talents to send all across the world to seal qi, instead of using that wealth to train elite troops and recruit worthy talents. How laughable—Haotian did not fall in vain.
"Back then, I was merely a vice general in the Imperial Guard. When karmic luck suddenly descended upon me, I understood my time had come, so I volunteered to take up the mission and come to this far-northern land where no one else was willing to go.
"Hmph, that Ziping knew only a fraction of the Dao of karmic luck, ignorant of the rest. He only knew this northern spot was a node of the earth veins, yet remained oblivious to the fact that it was actually a dragon lair. I am a True Dragon scion. Blessed with karmic luck and awakened to my past life, I naturally sensed the unseen summons of this place.
"Ziping merely assumed that my clansmen and I were of common Spirit Restriction bloodlines, intending for us to activate the array he provided once we arrived here. Hehe, once we ran that array, we would merge with both array and earth, becoming a living seal, never to escape for all eternity. That array—you should have already seen it in the ancestral hall."
Wei Yuan had indeed discerned the vicious nature of that array back then, but had not imagined such an origin. However, Wei Yuan had seen no mechanism to dissolve karmic debt within the array. Over thousands of years, the accumulation of resentment and karmic debt from the entire clan had grown terrifyingly immense. And such arrays were not limited to a single place. Looking back now, the instigator, Heavenly Master Ziping, had likely died without descendants long ago.
The man continued, "Yet I am a True Dragon scion! Naturally, that array could do nothing to me. As soon as I arrived, I discovered the dragon lair deep underground. However, there were too many dangers between here and there; with my cultivation at the time, there was no way I could break through the layers of peril to reach it. So I beat him at his own game, modifying that array to make my clansmen and descendants delve down generation after generation to explore it. As for myself, I concealed all my blood qi and divine soul spirituality within this Primordial Blood Bead, utilizing the array's power to sever heavenly secrets, which allowed me to breach the limit of lifespan and survive to this day."
Wei Yuan listened in silence until this point, then asked, "You haven't had anyone to talk to for a very long time, have you?"
The man flew into a rage. "A mere Dao Foundation who hasn't even awakened the hunting instinct—are you in such a hurry to die? Then I shall grant your wish!"
Wei Yuan said, "Wait! Even if you are a True Dragon scion, in several thousand years has there really not been a single physical body that caught your eye? Since you know methods of soul possession and rebirth, do you not know that lying dormant for so long causes the soul body to gradually dissipate, growing weaker and weaker, until even if possession succeeds, you could never break through your original limits?"
The man froze, asking subconsciously, "There is such a thing?"
Wei Yuan was taken aback as well. "This is common knowledge. You truly didn't know?"
The man fell silent.
Wei Yuan stared blankly for a second before realization hit him. The Palace of Grand Beginning's centralized instruction concentrated the full power of the palace to educate students, with every instructor being a brilliant figure in their respective domain. Many ancient, closely guarded secrets had become common knowledge at the Palace of Grand Beginning. In the past, the cultivation world had relied strictly on master-to-disciple transmission; a disciple could only learn what their master knew, which naturally could not compare in the slightest to centralized instruction.
Seeming to feel he had lost face, the man spoke again: "This place is the site of a dragon lair, so it will naturally attract other True Dragon scions. By waiting here by the stump for the hare to come, haven't I waited and caught you? Once I possess your body and consume your divine soul, even if my original foundation was damaged, it will be restored to its peak, and perhaps advance even further!
"Once I swallow you, refine you into my dragon guard, and take over your True Dragon supreme treasure, I can go hunt other scions. Hahahaha, the grand road to immortality lies right before me!"
"Wait a moment!" Wei Yuan called out, then asked, "What is a True Dragon supreme treasure?"
Having indeed had no one to speak to for so long, the man halted his steps and explained, "Whenever a True Dragon scion is born, they come accompanied by karmic luck and have a True Dragon supreme treasure with them. In the eyes of others, this treasure appears as a mundane object, but in the eyes of us True Dragon scions, its extraordinary nature and infinite wonders are plain to see."
Wei Yuan's heart stirred. "An old woman in the village gave me a piece of bone. Could that be your True Dragon supreme treasure?"
"Indeed. That bone is actually a True Dragon's bone, with a spark of vitality still unextinguished within. You are a True Dragon scion yourself, so naturally you could tell."
Wei Yuan said honestly, "I really couldn't tell."
The man was stunned again, momentarily at a loss for words.
Wei Yuan added, "And I don't have a True Dragon supreme treasure either."
"Impossible! Every scion has a True Dragon object accompanying them. Even if it was not with them at birth, they would naturally obtain it later in life."
Wei Yuan said, "You've been hidden in my body for a full day now. Have you found any True Dragon supreme treasure?"
The man froze, saying, "Indeed, I have not. Do you have any celestial items on you?"
"I do, but they are all celestial plants. Celestial plants shouldn't be True Dragon supreme treasures, right?"
"Naturally not. Our ancestor is the True Dragon, not the Azure Dragon."
Wei Yuan suddenly asked, "So... have you never met other scions before?"
"No."
"Then that makes it obvious: I'm not a True Dragon scion. You've made a mistake. How about this: let me out, and the two of us can cooperate in the future. Once we return to the human domain, we can search for scions together. When we find one, the physical body and the True Dragon supreme treasure are yours, and everything else is mine. Then, you'll also do one thing for me, with the difficulty tied to the value of the True Dragon supreme treasure. How about it?"
The man fell into thought.
Wei Yuan was in no hurry, waiting patiently. Once he escaped this bizarre space, he had plenty of methods to reseal the Primordial Blood Bead, ensuring this old fellow from the former dynasty couldn't even emerge. Once back in the human domain, he could gather the materials, set up a soul-refining array, and effortlessly refine this old ghost away.
If the old ghost remained skeptical, Wei Yuan could even swear a vicious oath by heavenly thunder—he had no fear the ghost wouldn't believe it. Once back at the Palace of Grand Beginning, Wei Yuan could simply answer the tribulation in person, and the palace-guarding grand array would effortlessly neutralize the corresponding thunder tribulation. Hence, in recent times, disciples of immortal sects swore vicious oaths more and more frequently, and their oaths grew less and less credible.
Wei Yuan was certain this old ghost knew nothing of modern trends.
An old ghost from thousands of years ago, foolish without realizing it—in terms of knowledge and breadth of vision, how could he possibly compare to a student educated through the centralized instruction of the world's foremost immortal sect, the Palace of Grand Beginning?
The man suddenly gave a sinister grin and said, "I was nearly fooled by your smooth talk! You haven't even awakened your hunting instinct, so naturally you don't know my identity, nor do you know of the True Dragon supreme treasure. I don't know where you've hidden your True Dragon supreme treasure either, but once I obtain your body, I will naturally find out! Haha, that woman outside is also a peerless beauty under heaven—I'll have a taste of her first!"
The scenery shifted again, transforming in an instant into a boundless expanse between sea and sky. The man soared into the air, turning into a floating kun-whale. Opening its massive maw, it swallowed Wei Yuan's divine soul whole, closing its eyes to slowly refine it. But its belly swelled larger and larger, as if an immensely heavy object inside were continuously sinking! With a sudden mournful wail, the giant whale's belly ruptured, and Wei Yuan tumbled out.
Though the kun-whale possessed the power to swallow the heavens and devour the seas, swallowing Wei Yuan's divine soul was equivalent to gulping down an entire continent. When merely a single corner of Ten Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains manifested, it was already enough to burst its belly open. The kun-whale transformed back into the man, who showed no anger, but instead beamed with delight, crying repeatedly, "Good, good, good! This foundation is peerless under heaven! It is truly fated for this ancestor to soar to the heavens! Now watch me extinguish your divine soul!"
Before Wei Yuan could react, the man turned into a streak of dark lightning, plunged into Wei Yuan's sea of consciousness, and appeared above Ten Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains. Maiden Yin-Yang suddenly opened her eyes and fixed her gaze upon him!
In an instant, the man was scared out of his wits, crying out in shock, "You've already completed a hunt?! Treacherous junior!"
With a shriek, the Yellow Springs Cauldron in the bosom of Wei Yuan's physical body suddenly shone with brilliant light. Countless yin souls surged into Ten Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains, encircling the man defensively. These descendant yin souls had shockingly all been refined into yin soldiers; completely devoid of free will, their faces were etched with endless agony.
Chapter 367