Save Me

There was far too little information, leaving Tan Hao's whereabouts a mystery. Just then, Qin Sang made another discovery. Looking down at the floor, he swept his sleeve, whisking the prayer mat, spirit array, and everything else out of the stone house. A moment later, Qin Sang extended a hand and pressed his palm slowly downward toward the floor. Patterns shifted and intertwined within the Heavenly Eye Butterfly's divine gaze. *Crack... crack...* Unable to bear the immense pressure, fractures spread across the ground. Suddenly, a burst of pitch-black light erupted. The floor caved in, tilting the stone house. There was an entirely different world beneath the earth! Qin Sang waved his hand to steady the house. The twelve demonic banners fluttered continuously around him, ready for any unexpected change. However, the restriction beneath the stone house was surprisingly weak—far inferior in power to the Witch Clan restriction outside—and clearly laid down by a human cultivator. "This does match Tan Hao's cultivation..." Qin Sang murmured thoughtfully. Having easily uncovered the secret concealed beneath the house, he noticed a relatively spacious chamber below. Slipping into a fissure, he descended slowly. Qin Sang soon landed on solid ground. Releasing his divine sense, he took in the surrounding terrain. In the center of the chamber stood a peculiar, circular altar. Aside from that, the entire space was completely barren. Qin Sang spotted some scattered fragments, likely magic tools and other items originally placed here that had been destroyed in the upheaval. Only the altar remained intact. Naturally, there had to be something strange about it. Qin Sang was about to walk toward the altar when he seemed to notice something. Pausing in his tracks, he made a grasping motion downward, drawing a fragment into his palm. The fragment was exquisitely translucent, as pristine and white as jade, without a speck of impurity. "White jade..." Qin Sang recalled the time they had broken into a Heavenly Corpse Sect branch altar years ago. When the earth fiend qi erupted, he and Yu Daiyue had taken refuge in the sect's underground chamber, narrowly surviving the catastrophe with the help of a spirit array centered on white jade. The texture of this fragment was strikingly similar to that white jade. "Is this a Heavenly Corpse Sect branch altar? There's no sign of earth fiend qi—could it all have been dispersed by the disturbance a century ago?" His interest piqued, Qin Sang flitted toward the altar. The circular altar was etched with strange runes around its perimeter. Floating at its center was a cluster of black qi, hovering in a persistent, dense mass. It was impossible to tell what it was. Qin Sang observed it for a while but could not discern its origin. After a brief hesitation, he separated a strand of divine sense and tentatively probed the black qi. "Save me..." The instant his divine sense brushed against it, a voice suddenly echoed from within the black qi. The voice was raspy and harsh, grating like two pieces of iron grinding together, resembling an old crone who had been parched for countless years, crying out for help at the top of her lungs. Qin Sang's expression shifted slightly. He immediately severed that strand of divine sense, the demonic banners rustling sharply around him. Soon, the black qi settled back to normal. After waiting a moment to confirm there were no other anomalies, Qin Sang extended his divine sense toward it once more. "Save me..." The identical voice rang out again. Evidently, the voice had not just been uttered; it had been lingering within the altar all along, crying out to the outside world. Confident in his abilities, Qin Sang used his divine sense to question it, yet the voice did not change in the slightest. It offered no reply, only repeating the desperate cry over and over. *Tan Hao must have found this altar, and Chen Heng must have been here as well. In all likelihood, they encountered this person calling for help—or perhaps they already rescued her,* Qin Sang thought. Then he realized that the black mist held more than just cries for help. A continuation followed: "Free me from my captivity, and I shall impart to you a supreme grand technique! This seat swears a karma oath—you shall surely be rewarded!" "A karma oath?" Qin Sang silently turned the four words over in his mind. This was the first time he had heard of such a thing. It sounded similar to an inner demon oath, but the word 'karma' carried far more bizarre and profound implications than inner demons. Something as utterly esoteric as 'karma' was far beyond the reach of Nascent Soul cultivators. Even Qin Sang had never heard of it, let alone Tan Hao and Chen Heng. Who knew what a karma oath truly was, or whether it possessed any binding force? After those words faded, the black qi suddenly roiled, shaping itself into an image before instantly reverting to its formless state. "That outline... that's the entire Heavenly Scar!" Qin Sang committed the image to memory in a flash. He then realized that a specific spot in the Heavenly Scar map bore a distinctive marking—very likely a guide mark indicating where the mysterious figure was trapped. At this point, the picture had grown fairly clear. This was most likely the site of a Heavenly Corpse Sect branch altar. With the sect's destruction, the branch altar had long fallen into ruin. Yet a mysterious person remained imprisoned within the Heavenly Corpse Sect, constantly attempting to call for help from the outside. The disturbance a century ago had very likely been engineered by her to lure someone in to rescue her. Chen Heng had been drawn here. He had certainly obtained the Heavenly Corpse Sect's legacy, though whether he had rescued the mysterious person remained unknown. Tan Hao had then obtained Chen Heng's relics, traced the clues here, and also discovered the mysterious person's plea for help. He had stayed here for a time, then departed and vanished. *The marked location might be the Heavenly Corpse Sect's grand altar. A grand altar and its branch altars could communicate through such altars, or even trigger their power across vast distances—ancient texts are not lacking in similar records. Whether this sealed mysterious person is good or evil remains unknown, and that karma oath is quite intimidating. Still, anxious to save his brother, Tan Hao would certainly go to the marked location to try his luck, whether it was real or fake.* Now that he had uncovered clues about the Heavenly Corpse Sect, Chen Heng's whereabouts were no longer as important. Qin Sang analyzed the information to deduce Tan Hao's movements. His greatest puzzle was why Tan Hao had stayed here for so long, and where that Witch Clan restriction had come from. *Could Tan Hao have already rescued the mysterious person, which is why no one answered me? Did they return here, treat this place as a cave dwelling to recuperate for a time, and then leave... meaning the restriction was left behind by the mysterious person?* Qin Sang reasoned that this was the only explanation that made logical sense. The mysterious person was either well-versed in Witch Clan secret arts, or was simply of Witch Clan origin herself! Qin Sang felt a chill in his heart. Neither the Beichen Realm nor the other three realms had any trace of the Witch Clan. Could this mysterious figure be like Bai—an ancient Witch Clan mighty figure who had survived until the present day? Where had they gone now? As for why the mysterious person was trapped and what relationship she had with the Heavenly Corpse Sect, Qin Sang could not fathom it. He would only know by making the journey himself. After long contemplation, Qin Sang decided to head to the location marked on the map. His goal was the same as Tan Hao's: both were searching for a way to save someone. He would inevitably have to retrace Tan Hao's steps. Qin Sang was deeply wary of the mysterious person. If she was an old ancestor of the Heavenly Corpse Sect who had passed down its lineage, she was unlikely to follow a righteous path. Fortunately, Tan Hao had gone ahead as a trailblazer. With his limited cultivation, Tan Hao could not completely conceal his tracks. As long as he had been to the marked location, Qin Sang was certain he could find clues and calmly make his judgments and choices. Having confirmed that nothing had been overlooked, Qin Sang flew back to the surface. Mobilizing his true essence, he restored the stone house's restriction and put all the furnishings back in order. After a moment's thought, he carved two characters into a corner of the jade desk: *Kuiyin*. Only Qin Sang and Tan Yien knew what the Tan brothers had endured in the Kuiyin Sect. Yet on second thought, Qin Sang wiped the writing away once more.