No one could have anticipated that touching the cicada slough would trigger such a bizarre turn of events.
Qin Sang had always been cautious, perpetually on guard against the ancient restrictions flaring up and attacking him. Yet he never expected that what came would not be an attack, but a suction force—one so sudden and ferocious.
Suspended in the void amidst the ancient restrictions, he had nothing to anchor himself against. Unable to resist the pull, he was instantly sucked inside.
Dizziness washed over him. Straining with all his might to steady his posture, Qin Sang activated the Ruyi Pearl. After several futile attempts to break free from the suction, he could only focus on protecting himself first.
*Whoosh! Whoosh!*
He heard the rushing roar of wind; he seemed to be plummeting at breakneck speed.
Yet disoriented as he was, he could no longer discern direction and had no idea where the suction was dragging him.
The good news was that the astral shield held firm. Apart from the suction itself, there were no other attacks, leaving him uninjured.
*What caused this sudden change? Could the cicada slough be a key to opening some secret realm?*
Temporarily out of danger, these thoughts flashed through his mind one after another.
Earlier, the moment his hand touched the slough, he had vaguely felt that it did not seem like an ordinary husk left behind by an Eight-Winged Heart Cicada; it bore faint traces of having been refined.
Before he could examine it more closely, the anomaly had already occurred.
Right then, Qin Sang suddenly caught an anomaly nearby. Out of the corner of his eye, he glimpsed a blurry figure.
His expression altered slightly, his vigilance heightened to its peak. But then he realized that this slightly disheveled yet familiar figure was actually Liuli, who was supposed to be at Taotie Lake!
Liuli did not lack defensive treasures, but she possessed nothing that offered the all-around, seamless protection of the Ruyi Pearl.
She was struggling hard against the suction force, her robes in disarray.
Noticing an uninvited presence nearby, Liuli looked over with wary eyes. Upon recognizing Qin Sang, her expression relaxed, replaced by an inquiring look.
Though they were supposed to be in two separate locations, they had somehow been drawn into the same place.
They were like two dancers whirling within the vortex of suction, constantly tumbling and spinning, though their movements were far too chaotic to form any coherent routine.
The two did everything they could to pull closer to each other, lest the turbulent suction tear them apart again.
In the face of the unknown, joining hands offered far better survival odds than braving the danger alone.
Qin Sang opened his palm toward Liuli, revealing the cicada slough.
Earlier, the moment the suction erupted, Qin Sang had not forgotten his purpose and had snatched the Eight-Winged Heart Cicada slough at the fastest possible speed.
The slough was the key.
Liuli cultivated the Ice Soul Divine Light; perhaps she could deduce some clues from it.
Seeing the cicada slough, Liuli's eyes brightened.
*Whoosh!*
At that exact moment, the suction vanished into thin air.
Both of them were hurled into an unfamiliar space.
Reacting with extreme agility, Qin Sang promptly stabilized his posture, shedding the momentum imparted by the suction.
Before even surveying his surroundings, he flicked his sleeve. Demonic fire roared forth, coiling around his body in the shape of a flame dragon as he assumed a defensive posture.
*Thud!*
Qin Sang landed heavily upon the ground.
The sound of his landing echoed through the surroundings.
Evidently, this was an enclosed cavern.
A faint smell of blood drifted to his nose—an unnatural scent.
Qin Sang knitted his brows, growing alert.
Right after, Liuli landed beside him and sent a voice transmission: "According to ancient records in Tingxue Tower, this is the slough of an Eight-Winged Ice Cicada. For the Ice Soul Divine Light, it has..."
Eight-Winged Ice Cicada and Eight-Winged Heart Cicada differed by only a single character; they referred to the same spirit insect, with slight discrepancies across different lineages of texts.
The Eight-Winged Heart Cicada looked as though it were carved from mystic ice, making the name "Ice Cicada" even more fitting.
Before Liuli could finish, she was suddenly cut off by a voice.
"All these years, you have tirelessly bribed the experts of the sect's various branches and purged those who opposed you. You have truly taken painstaking pains. Even without this disturbance in the Sacred Ground, you would have made your move against me once we departed, wouldn't you? Now that your wings are fully fledged, your audacity knows no bounds—you dared rally them to slay your master right here in the Sacred Ground. What a pity. This old man has planned for hundreds of years for this very day. How could I allow a slip of a girl like you to ruin it so easily...?"
The speaker's voice was hoarse and chilling, like an ominous demonic timbre.
There was actually someone else here!
Merely hearing that voice sent a deep chill surging through Liuli's heart, as though she had been plunged into ice. She subconsciously summoned her phoenix-shaped treasure sword, on highest alert.
Beside her, Qin Sang's gaze was as sharp as a sword, locked firmly ahead as though facing a mortal foe.
The suction had pulled them into a cavernous underground grotto, and they were standing at its outer edge.
The scent of blood Qin Sang had smelled earlier was no illusion. In the middle of the cavern lay a circular pool of blood, brimmed with crimson gore.
Three platforms of ice jutted up from within the pool.
The ice platforms were densely covered in runes, every single one traced in strands of blood. Bathed in the crimson glow, the ice platforms resembled altars of blood—glaring scarlet and exuding a profound aura of evil.
The eerie scene dealt a tremendous shock to both Qin Sang and Liuli.
Most shocking of all, a person slumped upon one of the ice platforms.
This person was none other than the Grand Elder of Xuantian Palace—Tong Lingyu!
Gone was Tong Lingyu's usual poise. Bathed in blood, her aura feeble, she was grievously injured, two blade gashes marring her delicate face in a pitiable state.
Strands of blood grew from the ice platform, piercing deep into the flesh of her legs.
By now, her legs were thoroughly crawled over with blood threads, ensnaring her so tightly that she could not budge an inch.
Furthermore, the blood strands continuously spread across her entire body like chains, or like wriggling blood worms relentlessly draining her vitality, on the verge of dragging her down into the abyss.
Tong Lingyu had almost completely lost the power to resist, leaving herself to be devoured by the threads of blood. The spirit treasure under her command, the Fourfold Tengshe Seal, had been tossed aside at the edge of the blood pool; powerless to wield it, she could only await her demise.
It was an utterly terrifying and chilling sight.
The one speaking was not Tong Lingyu. The voice came from an ice coffin standing at the edge of the blood pool.
The ice coffin was already open.
Yet the person inside had not stepped out. Frigid mist swirled within the coffin, shrouding the figure in a blur.
The figure wore a white robe and a jade crown, possessed handsome and dignified features, yet his skin was ghostly pale, blue veins bulging without a trace of color. He did not look like a normal human, presenting a stark contrast to the blood-drenched Tong Lingyu.
The Fourfold Tengshe Seal lay cast at his feet, as though bowing in submission before him.
In this vast underground cavern, aside from Qin Sang and Liuli, there were only the person in the coffin and Tong Lingyu; no other cultivators from Xuantian Palace were in sight.
Upon seeing this man,
Qin Sang's pupils abruptly contracted.
He had heard Shi Xue describe the appearance of the Palace Master of Xuantian Palace. The person in the coffin was none other than Yin Changsheng!
The bizarre scene snapped Qin Sang's nerves taut, an ominous premonition welling up unbidden.
From the Palace Master of Xuantian Palace, Qin Sang felt an extremely perilous sensation—a sensation he had not experienced even when facing Old Man Hunmo or Great Sage Tianpeng.
Demons had invaded the Sacred Ground.
Yet instead of expelling the demons, the two helmsmen of Xuantian Palace were engaged in internecine strife right here.
Beyond the blood pool lay a scene of total devastation. Icicles were embedded everywhere across the ground, bearing clear witness to an intense battle. Tong Lingyu had suffered a total defeat—her spirit treasure lost, she herself captured alive and trapped within the blood pool.
What on earth had happened?
Why had he and Liuli been pulled into this place to witness such a scene?
The cicada slough... was a trap!
Qin Sang suddenly recalled Bing Yao's warning to Liuli: *Beware the Palace Master!*
This trap had very likely been prepared for Bing Yao in the first place.
Bing Yao probably had not realized the slough was a trap either; otherwise, she would certainly have warned Liuli instead of letting her return to claim the treasure.
It was just that she had sensed danger from the Palace Master, fled far away to the Beichen Realm, and was later trapped in Ziwei Palace—an accidental twist of fate that spared her from this calamity.
Instead, he and Liuli had blundered right in to take the brunt of her tribulation.
What was the Palace Master's goal?
Were the other two ice platforms in the blood pool prepared for him and Liuli?
Was this person truly still Yin Changsheng? Otherwise, why would an exalted Palace Master lay hands on the rising talents of his own sect?
Thoughts raced through Qin Sang's mind in rapid succession.
Having witnessed the possession by an ancient demon with his own eyes in the Hall of Seven Kills, he was acutely sensitive to such things and subconsciously drew parallels. Coincidentally, the North Sea also possessed lands where demons were sealed.
None of that mattered now, however. Qin Sang's sole objective at this moment was to escape the cavern!
Tong Lingyu wielded a spirit treasure, yet her fate was this wretched. Qin Sang would not unduly belittle himself, but neither did he believe he could defeat the Palace Master using the Sun God Tree, which he could not truly master.
If the Palace Master had been possessed and possessed strength on par with that demonic soul of old, it would be even more terrifying!
Qin Sang swept his divine consciousness behind him, his expression subtly shifting.
After they were sucked inside, both the suction and the entrance had mysteriously vanished.
The cavern was riddled with ancient restrictions; getting in was easy, but getting out was difficult.
Keeping his composure, Qin Sang worked covertly with the Heavenly Eye Butterfly to search all around for an escape route.
Within the blood pool.
Tong Lingyu's breath grew ragged. Her defenses steadily crumbling, unable to halt the invasive blood strands, she gave a bitter smile. "You had not entered the Sacred Ground for the past two openings. I knew you would move against me eventually, but I never expected the place you chose would be here. Had I known, I wouldn't have wasted so much time trying to verify your injuries."
"I am quite curious—just what tipped you off? All these years, aside from subtly guiding you all to cultivate specific cultivation methods and divine abilities, I have never interfered in any of your affairs."
Yin Changsheng seemed not to notice Qin Sang and Liuli at the cavern's edge—or rather, he simply did not care about them.
Lowering his head slightly, his frozen voice wavered with inflection for the first time, curious as to where he had slipped up to make Tong Lingyu so certain that he, the Palace Master, harbored malicious intentions.
The demons had invaded.
Tong Lingyu had seen an opportunity.
She had originally planned to strike after returning from the Sacred Ground and had been preparing for it all along. The chaos in the Sacred Ground had provided the perfect chance to let Old Man Hunmo and Great Sage Tianpeng probe Yin Changsheng.
Should an opportunity arise, she would not hesitate to corner and slay Yin Changsheng.
Xuantian Palace was beset by troubles both within and without.
She had no choice but to resolve the internal threat first.
Little did she expect that Yin Changsheng was one move ahead. He had struck preemptively, catching Tong Lingyu completely off guard and capturing her alive.
Hearing this, Qin Sang came to an understanding.
At the entrance of the Sacred Ground, Tong Lingyu's voice transmission telling him to rendezvous in the depths had not come from the Palace Master at all; she had wanted him to help her ambush and kill the Palace Master.
*No wonder,* Qin Sang thought to himself.
During their trade after the Hunmo Conference, Tong Lingyu had readily agreed to all his demands and brought him into Tingxue Tower's camp, deliberately concealing his true identity from the rest of Xuantian Palace.
When he and Liuli formed a Dao partnership, Tong Lingyu had stopped them at the foot of Lingxiao Peak to prevent him from facing the Palace Master directly.
Though every reason given had seemed perfectly reasonable at the time,
when pieced together, every single move showed signs of Tong Lingyu's careful orchestration to keep him out of the Palace Master's line of sight, allowing him to serve as a wild card later on.
"Before Junior Sister Bing Yao departed, she dropped indirect hints telling me to be cautious. Back then, I didn't understand and took no heed. Never did I imagine that the Palace Master and mentor whom I looked up to since childhood could harbor evil intentions toward us!"
Tong Lingyu's tone was deeply conflicted, laden with agony.
Yin Changsheng had shaken the North Sea with his prestige, his bearing peerless in the cultivation world. Who wouldn't revere him?
Within Xuantian Palace, Yin Changsheng was the pillar that held up the heavens, an elder of immense virtue and respect who treated his juniors with nothing but care and generosity.
Was all of it an illusion?
A mere guise?
"Bing Yao..."
Yin Changsheng's voice was distant as he recalled this long-past name. "Among all of you, she was the one I favored most. She was brilliant, blessed with keen spiritual sense. It is a pity I never found her after she vanished, though fortunately she trained a fine disciple. Still, that alone would not have been enough for her to see through my schemes."
Tong Lingyu drew a breath. "Back then, I merely grew somewhat wary. It wasn't until... Senior Brother Luo Yun attempted to break through the late Nascent Soul bottleneck, and the Xuantian branch claimed he failed and died from true essence backlash, that I became certain it was you!"
"Luo Yun!"
Enlightenment dawned on Yin Changsheng.
"So that was when you found out. I was not cautious enough, failing to notice your prying eyes in the shadows. First suffering from cultivation deviation, and then being injured by that mysterious expert last time—so those were all deliberate on your part, intentionally keeping your cultivation suppressed at the peak of the mid Nascent Soul stage... To think you could endure in silence for so long. Having a Grand Elder like you should have been a blessing for Xuantian Palace."
Yin Changsheng sighed softly.
Before the echo of his sigh faded, the frigid mist inside the ice coffin churned. Yin Changsheng waved his arm, and a block of mystic ice flew from his sleeve, landing atop a second ice platform.
A handsome young man was sealed inside the ice.
This person's aura was remarkably that of the late Nascent Soul stage!
The instant it landed upon the platform, blood threads surged upward frantically, easily piercing through the ice to stab deep into the young man's body, rapidly spreading over him from head to toe.
The young man's eyelids twitched faintly; he appeared to still be alive.
"Senior Brother Luo Yun!"
Tong Lingyu let out a soft cry, the agony on her face deepening. "Back then, how deeply did Senior Brother Luo Yun revere you? He treated you like a master! How could you have the heart?!"
She wept as she accused him, seemingly making a final effort to evoke some shred of conscience from Yin Changsheng.
"If Junior Sister Bing Yao had not vanished, if Senior Brother Luo Yun had not been murdered by your hand...
"Our generation should have produced at least three Great Cultivators!
"How prosperous would Xuantian Palace have become?
"And yet everything was destroyed for your own selfish desire!
"Where did the Palace Master whom everyone revered go?
"Tell me... was it truly worth it?"
*Was it worth it?*
*Was it worth it?*
...
Question after question echoed through the cavern.
Yin Changsheng's expression did not change in the slightest, yet he fell silent for a moment.
"What does it matter if a single generation is destroyed?!"
Yin Changsheng's voice turned even colder than before, tinged with madness as he barked harshly:
"To aid my ascension to Deity Transformation, you will have died a worthy death!"
Despairing of Yin Changsheng completely, Tong Lingyu closed her eyes in anguish.
"Your injuries were never from facing a heavenly tribulation! You should have died hundreds of years ago! To prolong your miserable existence, you used evil arts to evade the tribulation, sealing yourself in an ice coffin and defying the heavens! Those evil arts have already made you succumb to demons, and now you want to use them again to break through! You've gone mad! You are no longer Yin Changsheng! You can never succeed!"
Frigid mist swirled.
Yin Changsheng let out a cold snort, his expression growing ever more crazed. "Though you trapped yourself in the mid Nascent Soul stage, your divine sense has already reached manifestation, and your cultivation method carries an artistic conception comparable to that of a Great Cultivator. You are barely enough to sustain the Luoyin Blood Pool. I shall let you witness it with your own eyes. As for the remaining ice platform..."
At long last, Yin Changsheng shifted his gaze, looking directly at Qin Sang and Liuli for the very first time!
Chapter 1492