"Are you injured, Fellow Daoist?"
Qin Sang noticed Si Di's pale complexion, and his heart tightened.
Had the two sides already clashed in a fierce battle?
Si Di touched his shoulder and replied, "I became separated from the others. It wasn't Sin Abyss, though—we ran into a pack of blood souls. I was carelessly scratched by one, allowing sinister chill to seep into my body, but I just took an elixir, so I am fine now."
"A pack of blood souls?"
Surprised, Qin Sang asked, "Were the other Daoists scattered as well?"
Si Di nodded. "It happened too suddenly. We were dealing with a troublesome restriction, but somehow we disturbed them, and countless blood souls suddenly lunged at us. At first, we didn't know the blood souls possessed indestructible bodies; caught off guard, we suffered a severe setback. Once our formation broke, we were scattered by the blood souls, so we decided to flee in separate directions and regroup at our agreed-upon location once we were out of danger. I tangled with the blood souls pursuing me for quite a while before finally shaking them off and finding a place to tend to my wounds."
After a brief discussion, the two decided to travel together.
Along the way, Qin Sang would occasionally summon Fat Chick. Though curious, Si Di saw that Qin Sang had no desire to explain and did not pry.
***
At the center of the basin.
This was where the blood mist was thickest, dense as real blood. Towering within the crimson fog stood two colossal blood-red gates!
Covering the surface of the gates were countless runes, profound and eerie.
At this moment, however, the massive gates were pitted with craters, cracks, and gaps. Peering through the fractures, one could faintly glimpse the scenery within.
Towers stood in clusters amidst a grim, chilling gloom.
Though signs of collapse and decay were unavoidable, the area was in far better shape than anywhere else.
Before the colossal gates, an open clearing had been cleared away where several figures sat cross-legged. All of them were Sin Abyss cultivators; Qingjun and her companions were nowhere to be seen.
They were arranged in a fan shape, all facing the gates.
Two individuals sat at the very front.
One wore a crimson cloak and possessed a wizened, aged visage. He was none other than Old Demon Ye, whose demonic infamy spanned the entire Beichen Realm and who was hailed as the realm's foremost master!
Beside him sat a white-haired elder with the demeanor of a transcendent sage: Daoist Tianzheng, Sect Leader of Sin Abyss's Xingheng Sect, whose cultivation was only slightly inferior to Old Demon Ye's.
Led by these two, the gathered cultivators joined forces to bombard the blood gates, their attacks pouring out like flowing water and rattling the gates ceaselessly.
"Those fellows from the Two Domains Alliance have probably run into the blood souls by now, haven't they? Old Ye's blood-path divine abilities are truly miraculous, drawing the blood souls away with just a blood demon avatar. Not only did those blood souls cause us no trouble, but they also helped us drive the tiger to swallow the wolf, easily holding back our rivals."
A Nascent Soul cultivator drew back his hands, adjusted his breathing slightly, and turned to look into the depths of the blood mist with a sinister chuckle.
This man went by the moniker Daoist Xuansi. He wore a spider-patterned robe, possessed sinister eyes, and had lips of an unnatural bluish-purple, marking him as a demonic cultivator.
"You make it sound easy, Fellow Daoist Xuansi. Old Ye's blood demon avatar possesses cultivation comparable to his true body; that's not something just anyone can produce. Only an avatar that formidable could quietly lure away so many blood souls."
Beside him, a black-robed elder—likewise a demonic cultivator—held Old Demon Ye in the highest esteem and immediately heaped praise upon him.
Sin Abyss was not entirely monolithic either. Just like the Xiaohan Realm, it had its own struggle between righteous and demonic factions, though such friction was currently overshadowed by far more pressing matters.
A righteous cultivator nearby frowned at their words and cut in, "Don't celebrate too early. The Two Domains Alliance is not short on experts; there's no telling how long those blood souls can hold them. These blood gates are difficult to breach, so the two of you had better focus on assisting the Daoist and Old Ye in breaking through."
The two who had just spoken exchanged glances, annoyance flickering across their faces. Still, they refrained from arguing with him and returned to conversing in hushed tones.
"Last time at the Sin God Palace, we broke through layers of ancient restrictions and found the fiend suppressed there. That monster had been tortured beyond human shape by cruel punishments, and we struck too hard, managing in the end to search only fragmented memories from its residual soul. Yet even that yielded such tremendous benefits, enabling us to hold down all other factions until they couldn't lift their heads. Who knows what great harvest awaits us this time!"
Daoist Xuansi was filled with anticipation, barely able to contain his excitement.
The black-robed elder gave a weird, low chuckle, equally unable to conceal his thrill. "According to what that fiend knew, the one imprisoned in this Blood Prison is a traitor of the Ziwei Palace, so they must know the palace intimately! As long as we capture this person, won't all the treasures within the Ziwei Palace be ours for the taking? What will those old ghosts from the Xiaohan Realm and Celestial Alliance have left to contend with us? When the time comes, we will pull the rug out from under them! How laughable that they think their years of operations in the Ziwei Palace can shut us out."
With that, the black-robed elder looked up, his gaze peering through the gaps in the blood gates to the interior.
Daoist Xuansi gave a soft chuckle. "The Ziwei Palace is splendid, but to my mind, leaving aside the cultivation arts and secret techniques in their head, this person's memories of the ancient era are what's truly priceless. It would be best if we can pry from their mouth why this world turned into what it is today! Is there a path through the Endless Storm to see the vast world outside? That way, we won't follow in the footsteps of countless predecessors, dying with lingering regrets. We must be careful this time—it's best to capture them alive. We must never repeat what happened last time, where we battered the prisoner down to a mere remnant soul and obtained only broken scraps of memory."
"You certainly have grand ambitions, Fellow Daoist Xuansi. But even if there is a path, do we have the strength to cross the Endless Storm? How could we ensure we wouldn't lose our way in it? Raising our own strength comes first."
The black-robed elder fired off several questions in rapid succession, every word striking a sore spot.
Daoist Xuansi's expression soured.
Seeing this, the black-robed elder quickly dropped the subject and shifted his tone. "However, it is still too early for us to discuss such things. The power of the seal here cannot compare to the Sin God Palace. That Ziwei Palace traitor trapped here will have endured far less torture and suppression, so who knows how much strength they have retained. They likely won't be as easy to deal with as that fiend. Moreover, almost all of us were present last time, working with one heart, which made things seem easy. This time, we were unexpectedly discovered by that Demon King Mingyue and forced to divide our forces, leaving Fellow Daoist Canghong and the others to hold the Tianxing Plateau. With our numbers diminished, caution is paramount."
Having cultivated to such a realm, Daoist Xuansi was naturally not one to lose his temper over a few words.
Hearing the black-robed elder's remarks, Daoist Xuansi nodded slightly in agreement with his prudence, though his expression remained less grave. "A weaker seal indicates that this person's cultivation was also lower. This is no ordinary seal—it is a place of punishment just like the Sin God Palace! Ever since we found the blood lake and placed it under surveillance, we discovered that every ten years, whenever the seal weakened, this person would make some commotion. Yet each time, the commotion grew fainter, until more than a decade ago, it fell entirely silent. Didn't Old Ye wait through another cycle just to confirm that this person, like that fiend, had completely run out of oil before deciding to act now?"
They were not the only ones conversing in secret.
Seeing the gaps in the blood gates grow wider, the others were murmuring among themselves as well.
Daoist Tianzheng heard it all. He cast a sideways glance at Old Demon Ye, and seeing that the old demon sat as steady as an ancient pine with an expressionless face, he paid the chatter no mind and focused entirely on breaching the gates.
Chapter 1248