Senluo Withered Prison

Boom! Boom! Boom! Layer upon layer of earth shattered. Qin Sang charged heedlessly like a wild bull. After this battle, this entire subterranean area would likely collapse completely. The grotesque-faced cultivator and Qin Sang were locked in a frantic chase, while the gray-robed man lagged behind. Having attempted several times to use poison arts without managing to harm Qin Sang, the gray-robed cultivator had no choice but to focus on controlling his five-colored poison spider, pressing close to help his master keep track of Qin Sang's movements. Wherever Qin Sang passed, saber qi crisscrossed through the air, accompanied by a driving squall of wind and snow. Palm-sized snowflakes swirled around him. Tendrils surged wildly from every direction, yet the deceptively light snowflakes sliced effortlessly through countless vines. However, this offered only temporary relief; his predicament had not improved in the slightest. Contrary to Qin Sang's expectations, the grotesque-faced cultivator merely gave relentless chase without deploying any more formidable divine abilities or magical treasures to intercept or trap him. This man's attainments in the Wood element were profound beyond anything Qin Sang had ever seen. Even dealing with a simple attack like driving the wooden bead required Qin Sang's full efforts. Yet the power of the wooden bead had its limits; the pressure it exerted on Qin Sang fell far short of Yin Changsheng's Suspended Sword Tower. Throughout the entire chase, the grotesque-faced cultivator had not brought out a single pseudo-spirit treasure. Even so, that jade beetle had crippled Lu Zhang in a single strike. If it were reared to full maturity, it would probably prove far more terrifying than an ordinary pseudo-spirit treasure. Qin Sang wondered whether Zhongzhou cultivators all practiced secret arts similar to the Sacrificial Essence Technique. Tempering one's natal magical treasure into a pseudo-spirit treasure—and gradually elevating its might—required a cultivator to expend immense time and energy. It was a slow process with sluggish returns. Such a path inevitably encroached upon the time needed for ordinary cultivation and mastering other divine abilities. A great cultivator who had only recently broken through to the late Nascent Soul stage, in particular, had countless matters to attend to and might not be willing to pour his resources into such an endeavor. Perhaps the grotesque-faced cultivator had forsaken other pursuits simply to raise that jade beetle. Thoughts raced through Qin Sang's mind as he analyzed his foe based on the clues before him. Since the grotesque-faced cultivator was not pressing aggressively, Qin Sang was content to stall and buy time until Lu Zhang recovered. As he fled, Qin Sang tested various methods, rotating through the divine abilities he had mastered over his life, most of which pertained to the Dao of Ice. Behind him, ice blasts, ice walls, and ice mirrors formed a dazzling, disorienting array of barricades. At the same time, Qin Sang twisted and dodged, constantly altering his course and conjuring mystic ice phantoms to confound his pursuer's judgment. Yet he soon realized that all his efforts were in vain. No matter what he did, the grotesque-faced cultivator was always able to pinpoint his movements with unerring accuracy—even though Qin Sang never once felt the sensation of being locked on by divine sense. This detail reminded Qin Sang that before they ever located the stone toad, the enemy must have already been shadowing them for a long time without either him or Lu Zhang noticing. All indications suggested their pursuer possessed a method to monitor them from afar, retaining keen perception even within the dense miasma. In that case, trying to slip away under cover of the miasma would only backfire! Boom! An ice wall collapsed. Riding a surging wave of vines, the grotesque-faced cultivator appeared behind him. Whether intentional or not, he consistently kept a measured distance, neither rushing nor lagging behind, as though toying with his prey and savoring the despair on its face as it reached a dead end. Qin Sang remained composed and calm, scrutinizing the man in secret, yet he failed to spot any revealing flaws. A layer of green light surrounded the grotesque-faced cultivator, keeping the toxic miasma at bay. This indicated that despite having bred a Gu King, the man was not necessarily an adept of poison arts himself. 'Could it be the other one?' A flash of insight struck Qin Sang, turning his thoughts to the gray-robed man. During the struggle over the stone toad, Qin Sang had briefly clashed with the gray-robed cultivator, whose conduct was far more characteristic of someone specializing in poison arts. Qin Sang also recalled that when the radiance of the Baose Bell washed over the gray-robed man, it had seemed to reveal a five-colored poison spider. Like the jade beetle, that venomous spider lay beyond his knowledge, highly likely to be an artificially bred creature. Amidst the chaos of his flight, Qin Sang spared a sliver of attention to observe the gray-robed man trailing behind the wave of vines. Just then, he saw the grotesque-faced cultivator make a bizarre move. Closing his eyes slightly, green light erupted from the man's palm. The wooden bead gradually turned transparent until it became a mass of dense green radiance, which instantly shattered into countless specks of light that scattered in all directions. At this sight, Qin Sang's heart gave a violent jolt, and alarm bells rang loudly in his mind. The green specks fluttered down like drifting snow, sinking effortlessly into the earth and stone the moment they touched, vanishing from sight. In the next instant, as if answering some distant summons, the entire earth began to quake violently. Qin Sang found himself right at the epicenter. Immediately after, cracking sounds echoed from every direction, merging into a deafening chorus that rushed into his ears like a surging tide. Rumble... Qin Sang watched with his own eyes as vine after vine ripped through the stone walls, tearing them to pieces. They could hardly be called vines anymore. They were creepers as thick as giant serpents, densely interwoven like the root system of an ancient, myriad-year-old tree. Stone wall after stone wall collapsed before him, revealing a stunning sight. The subterranean earth had been completely hollowed out, filled with an untold number of vines that had sprouted at some unknown moment. They sealed off the space around Qin Sang without leaving the slightest gap, making Qin Sang and his Snow-Treading Divine Saber seem frail and solitary. The grotesque-faced cultivator had been laying this trap all along, waiting until this very moment to spring it. His throat bobbed, and a low, gravelly voice escaped his lips: "Senluo Withered Prison!" The moment the words left his mouth, the creepers abruptly stopped growing. Even those on the verge of coiling around Qin Sang froze bizarrely in place. The luster on their surfaces faded at astonishing speed, turning withered and dry. Every vine lost its vitality at once. Terrifying though the scene had been moments ago, it had brimmed with vibrant life. Now, a suffocating aura of death permeated the air. The transition between life and death sent a chill down the spine. As the word "Prison" fell, the vines vanished together like a fading dream, as though they had never existed in the first place. All that remained were streaks of black qi, thick with the stench of decay and ruin. Streams of grayish-white aura intermingled, forming a black vortex above Qin Sang that spun faster and faster as it plummeted toward him. The moment it made contact with that aura, even the protective saber qi around Qin Sang was stained black. Snowflake after snowflake turned black before silently melting away, withering away just like those creepers. Qin Sang's eyelids twitched. Driving the Snow-Treading Divine Saber with all his might, he slashed out a blazing crescent of saber qi. It cleaved through the air and pierced into the vortex, but as it plunged deeper, it was swiftly corroded, eventually succumbing to the black qi and dissolving entirely. The black vortex shuddered and pressed closer still. With a sweep of his hand toward the sky, Qin Sang condensed his mystic qi into a towering hand that seized the vortex. His fingers squeezed tight with ferocious force, yet with a sharp bang, the mystic qi was shattered and scattered. The silhouette of the grotesque-faced cultivator appeared above. The wave of vines was gone; he stood suspended in midair, gazing down from above. To the naked eye, only the black vortex was visible, obscuring Qin Sang's figure as though the man had exhausted all his tricks. The gray-robed man caught up, the corners of his mouth curling into a smirk as he showered his master with flattery. "Once Master unleashes the Withered Prison, this man is dead without a doubt!" Yet the grotesque-faced cultivator's brow suddenly furrowed. In the next instant, an inhuman roar erupted from beneath the vortex. The black vortex trembled violently, its rotation grinding to a halt. A rift split open at its center, from which shot a beam of consummate, pure blue chill. A colossal figure loomed below—none other than a Tengshe. Roar! The Tengshe reared its head and parted its gaping maw. A mass of cold flame, already brewing in its throat, erupted with a thunderous roar. The grotesque-faced cultivator's expression finally shifted. He hurriedly reached out his deformed right hand, making a grasping motion toward the vortex. Specks of green light flickered faintly at the vortex's center, on the verge of reconverging into a bead, when the cold flame slammed violently into it. Instead of shrinking, the rift burst open, spreading further in an instant until the space turned into a vast sea of intermingled blue and black radiance. Like splitting bamboo, the cold flame not only shattered the Senluo Withered Prison, but its momentum remained unabated. Waves surged at the center of the radiant sea as a pillar of blue fire erupted. The Tengshe itself tore through the air, baring fangs and claws as it pounced on the enemy. The bone-chilling cold far surpassed the Snow-Treading Divine Saber. At that moment, both master and disciple felt as though the blood in their veins had frozen solid. Taking the brunt of the onslaught, the grotesque-faced cultivator had no time to recombine the wooden bead. Jerking his right arm back, he summoned a rough piece of wooden armor that resembled tree bark from his chest. The wooden armor vanished in a flash. Simultaneously, faint ripples tinged with green stirred the surrounding space, and the illusory form of a towering ancient tree manifested. The grotesque-faced cultivator stood safely at the very center of the ancient tree. Just as the tree's shadow materialized, the Tengshe arrived. Sweeping its long tail with a sky full of cold flames, it lashed viciously against the ancient tree. Smack! The grotesque-faced cultivator shuddered violently and was knocked backward step after step. The tree shadow swayed wildly, the bark armor flickering in and out of sight. That wooden armor was clearly an extraordinary treasure; despite its fragile appearance, the tree shadow possessed astonishing defensive power, tilting violently without snapping. Far below, the Fourfold Tengshe Seal hovered before Qin Sang, with one less Tengshe carved onto its handle. Qin Sang tilted his head back, gazing skyward. He had been forced to retaliate with the spirit treasure. Although it caught the enemy off guard, it had not been the ideal moment. Knowing full well that this strike could not heavily injure the grotesque-faced cultivator, Qin Sang's expression shifted, and his hand seal changed abruptly. With a ferocious roar, the Tengshe abandoned its pursuit of the grotesque-faced cultivator, twisting around to lunge straight for the gray-robed man. Meeting the Tengshe's copper-bell-sized eyes, a wave of terror washed over the gray-robed man, and his face turned pale with fright. Fortunately, his master had absorbed the initial blow. The gray-robed man snapped his venomous whip, winding it around himself as he pushed his poison arts to their limits, raising a five-colored barrier just as the Tengshe reached him. Boom! The barrier shattered. Unable to withstand the impact, the gray-robed man groaned, knocked flying alongside his magical treasure. He coughed up blood, his aura instantly flagging. Right at that moment, Qin Sang's eyes narrowed, locking onto an empty patch of space. Jostled by the shockwaves of the clash, the five-colored poison spider hidden within the miasma had finally exposed its aura. Deciding in a split second, Qin Sang directed the Tengshe to change course once more, diving straight toward the spider. Seeing this, the gray-robed man, who had just been about to heave a sigh of relief, was seized by horror. The five-colored poison spider was a Gu beast into which he had poured his entire life's work. His cultivation had been forcefully elevated by his master through secret arts, after which he had dedicated himself entirely to assisting his master in refining the Gu King. Aside from that, he had barely had any opportunity to cultivate other divine abilities or magical treasures. Against an ordinary Nascent Soul cultivator, this weakness was hardly noticeable. But against someone like Qin Sang, who possessed means to counter his poison arts, he was left powerless despite his cultivation base. If the five-colored poison spider were destroyed, he would effectively be crippled. It was precisely by observing the gray-robed man's performance that Qin Sang had seen through this vulnerability. Realizing that the enemy had been tracking him through the spider, he did not hesitate to shift his target toward it. In his panic, the gray-robed man bit the tip of his tongue and spat out a mist of blood essence. The blood mist blended into the miasma. Transparent threads materialized through the haze, one end of each thread anchored to the five-colored poison spider, while the other stretched into the unseen distance. Before taking visible form, these threads had been intangible and imperceptible—extensions of the spider's power forming an invisible web. It was precisely through these that they had kept watch over Qin Sang and Lu Zhang earlier. Whoosh! Just as the Tengshe was about to swallow it whole, the five-colored poison spider curled its eight legs inward. An enamel-like luster washed over its body, instantly transforming it into a puddle of venom that dissolved into the threads. In the next instant, a thread trembled. The venom pooled at the opposite end, and the five-colored poison spider reformed its body on the other side. The Tengshe's jaws snapped shut on empty air. The gray-robed man exhaled in relief, stepping forward to retrieve it, when a cloud of white vapor suddenly appeared before him. A massive hand of mystic qi snatched the five-colored poison spider first. Whoosh! Just as the giant hand was pulling back, a gust of fierce wind swept in. At some point, the grotesque-faced cultivator had recalled the wooden bead and hurled it straight down. This was a strike launched in fury. While lacking the grand spectacle of the Senluo Withered Prison, the inherent power of the wooden bead itself was scarcely weaker. The mystic qi hand shuddered, on the verge of crumbling. Fortunately, the Tengshe arrived just in time. Leaping between the mystic qi hand and the wooden bead, it used its own body to take the impact. With a dull thud, the Tengshe was knocked downward. Yet it showed no visible signs of injury, circling playfully around Qin Sang, brimming with vigor. The five-colored poison spider was now firmly in Qin Sang's grasp, sealed within a block of mystic ice. Toying with the ice block in his hand, Qin Sang looked up at his opponent, his face utterly serene. One above and one below, the two sides confronted each other across the distance. "A spirit treasure!" The grotesque-faced cultivator took a deep breath, holding down his panicked disciple as he laughed aloud. "A chaotic age is truly upon us—even spirit treasures have surfaced! I would like to see just how long your true essence can hold out!" The corner of Qin Sang's mouth twitched into an enigmatic smile. "Why should this poor Daoist bother tangling with you?" Before the words had even faded, Qin Sang abruptly lowered the Sitting Contemplation Bell. A resonant chime echoed from within, carrying a distant, desolate air as if echoing across ten thousand mountains. Then, azure light flared brilliantly, expanding into an enormous azure bell that enveloped Qin Sang entirely. Seeing this, the grotesque-faced cultivator cried out inwardly in dismay. Merging the wooden bead and bark armor, he summoned the ancient tree phantom alongside thousands of vines to crush the azure bell, only to be blocked once again by the Tengshe. In just a breath, amid the chaos, the Tengshe vanished into thin air—and along with it, the azure bell was gone. The gray-robed man grew frantic. Having failed to obtain the stone toad and now losing his own Gu beast, he rushed down, only to find his master standing frozen. "Master!" He cried out in urgency, but his master remained silent, merely staring down at his left hand. Startled, the disciple followed his gaze, and instantly drew in a sharp breath of cold air. No wonder his master had kept his left fist tightly clenched and had refrained from using the jade beetle. A bloody hole pitted his left palm, and the jade beetle was greedily devouring his flesh, its gnawing teeth exposing the bone beneath. As if sensing the gaze upon it, the creature raised its small head, its eyes flashing with bloodthirsty savagery. A layer of green light covered the jade beetle as the grotesque-faced cultivator did his utmost to suppress it, yet with little success. "An evil thing indeed. Before reaching maturity, it easily turns upon its master. To think that even I could barely suppress it... Using it on a whim to slay the enemy was indeed somewhat reckless of me," the grotesque-faced cultivator sighed.