Sin Abyss

The sudden disturbance was unmistakable. Though pitch blackness stretched ahead, everyone sensed that something was amiss. It was Qin Sang and his companions' first time entering Ziwei Palace, so they were in the dark about the details. Thinking this was merely some other transformation within the immortal formation, they were worried, yet not overly panicked. The various Nascent Soul cultivators, however, all paled in unison. The Red-Haired Ancestor flared with abrupt fury, his tiger eyes glaring wrathfully at Daoist Zhenyi. "Old bull-nose, what sort of dirty trick are you playing!" Daoist Zhenyi looked utterly baffled and frowned. "Old ghost Red Hair, what madness has possessed you?" The Red-Haired Ancestor barked harshly, "If you're eager to court death, this old man will happily oblige you once we're outside! But if you dare play tricks inside the immortal formation, I will destroy the Beichen Star Element Formation right now! Without this grand formation, I'd like to see how many of you can escape alive!" Subjected to this bizarre tirade out of nowhere, Daoist Zhenyi felt a wave of wicked anger flare up inside him. He had no idea what had gotten into the Red-Haired Ancestor today—instead of joining forces to face the disturbance, the man was stoking internal strife. Just as both sides were eyeing each other with mutual suspicion, the disturbance ahead was no longer content with merely blocking their path. It suddenly lunged forward at an astonishing speed. They were still within the immortal formation, surrounded by the terrifying void winds. Without the protection of the Lesser Beichen Star Element Formation, not even Nascent Soul cultivators could guarantee their survival. Though suspicious of each other, the two factions did not break out into an outright confrontation. They attempted to steer the Lesser Beichen Star Element Formation in reverse to temporarily avoid the brunt of the onslaught. To their surprise, the disturbance grew faster and faster, hurtling toward them with shocking momentum, arriving right before them in the blink of an eye. At this moment, they could finally see figures faintly emerging from the darkness, their faces obscured! "Who goes there!" Daoist Zhenyi could no longer spare any attention for the Red-Haired Ancestor, staring forward with a face full of shock and fury. Encountering humanoid monsters within the immortal formation was by no means a good omen. The Red-Haired Ancestor shot a suspicious glance at Daoist Zhenyi. Could it be that the Heaven-Traversing Alliance really isn't behind this? Just earlier, Daoist Chongyi had discreetly sent a voice transmission mentioning that the Wuji Sect Master was secretly colluding with Daoist Huangyun of the Heaven-Traversing Alliance, but he hadn't taken it very seriously. The Lesser Cold Domain was a loose sheet of sand, where none of the major sects answered to one another. It was only natural for the Wuji Sect Master to have personal ties with someone from the Heaven-Traversing Alliance. The Wuji Sect's mountain gate was rooted in the Lesser Cold Domain with countless disciples under its banner, making relocation no simple matter. He believed that as long as the Wuji Sect Master wasn't a fool, he would know which side to choose when faced with the overarching trend of the world. No matter how good a friendship was, could it outweigh raw benefits? Even though Daoist Chongyi had said they were acting suspiciously as if harboring guilt, they would only need to investigate slowly and take precautions after leaving Ziwei Palace. If something truly was amiss, he did not believe the Wuji Sect Master could avoid giving himself away indefinitely. To the Red-Haired Ancestor's thinking, even if the Wuji Sect Master had been bought over by the Heaven-Traversing Alliance, he would never make his move inside the immortal formation. Yet the world was unpredictable, so the instant the disturbance occurred, the Red-Haired Ancestor had immediately suspected the Heaven-Traversing Alliance. The cultivators of the two domains had entered Ziwei Palace countless times. Whether in the two excursions he had personally led or those of the predecessors before him, they had never encountered any anomaly within the immortal formation. For an accident to happen now, of all times—how could the Red-Haired Ancestor not be suspicious! Just as the Red-Haired Ancestor was torn between shock and doubt, a cackle of sinister laughter suddenly rang out from the darkness. "Haha... Old bull-nose, old ghost Red Hair, you never expected the immortal formations of the Sin God Palace and Ziwei Palace to be connected, did you?" "Old Demon Ye!" "Sin Abyss!" The Red-Haired Ancestor and Daoist Zhenyi both blanched. Since ancient times, Ziwei Palace within the Ancient Immortal Battlefield and the Sin God Palace at the heart of the Sin Abyss had appeared at the exact same time without exception. During this period, no matter how dire the war was, the various domains would tacitly agree to a truce. The cultivators of each domain knew full well that these two divine palaces had to share a profound connection; otherwise, it would be impossible for them to remain synchronized through the ages. Yet despite the countless years of effort poured in by so many cultivators, they had never managed to uncover the exact relationship between Ziwei Palace and the Sin God Palace. Back when relations between the domains were less tense, or under the leadership of certain late Nascent Soul grand cultivators, cross-explorations had been conducted multiple times. All had yielded nothing. For one, even late Nascent Soul grand cultivators lacked the ability to probe the deepest secrets of the two divine palaces. Second, whether in their internal restrictions, the treasures retrieved from them, or their architectural styles, Ziwei Palace and the Sin God Palace shared no commonalities whatsoever. They were as different as heaven and earth. Ziwei Palace had its towering heavenly gates shrouded in celestial clouds, resembling an immortal palace that had descended into the mortal world. The Sin God Palace, on the other hand, was an outright demonic palace. And now, the Sin Abyss had actually discovered that the outer immortal formations of the two palaces were interconnected, and had even carved a passage between them to appear right before their eyes! No matter how hard they wracked their brains, the Red-Haired Ancestor and Daoist Zhenyi could not fathom how Old Demon Ye had uncovered the link between the two formations, but they were already well aware that disaster was at hand. Old Demon Ye's purpose in leading his people here was all too clear! "Not good!" The Red-Haired Ancestor suddenly realized something and cried out, shouting repeatedly to Daoist Zhenyi, "Watch out for Huang Tian!" Before the Red-Haired Ancestor's voice could even fade, and before Daoist Zhenyi could react, dazzling bloody light erupted simultaneously from the centers of both the Lesser Cold Domain and Heaven-Traversing Alliance encampments. These two bursts of bloody light originated from the yellow-robed Daoist of the Heaven-Traversing Alliance—the Nascent Soul cultivator known by the Daoist moniker Huang Tian—and the Wuji Sect Master! The positions they occupied were extremely clever. Everyone stood surrounding the star chart, divided into the two major camps. Daoist Zhenyi and the Red-Haired Ancestor were leading the way at the front. Huang Tian was assisting in manipulating the Lesser Beichen Star Element Formation, with the group of Heaven-Traversing Alliance cultivators standing around him, shielding him in their midst. The Wuji Sect Master, on the other hand, stood beside Leng Yuntian, right in the center of the Lesser Cold Domain cultivators! The instant the bloody light flared, the first to recognize it was not any of the Nascent Soul cultivators, but Qin Sang. This bloody light was all too familiar; he had used it countless times. The Blood Filth Divine Light! Only, the sheer scale of these two pillars of Blood Filth Divine Light was immense, dense to the absolute extreme. Soaring to the heavens and chilling the soul, they were far beyond anything his ebony sword could match. The ebony sword had only refined a single fragment of the Boundless Blood Mulberry, so its power was limited. The Boundless Blood Mulberry in the hands of these two men had to be at least half a tree's worth. At this moment, Qin Sang finally understood what Huang Tian and the Wuji Sect Master had been searching for in Boundless Valley. They had been looking for the Boundless Blood Mulberry! Back then, when they fought the thunder-devouring falcon, their target was precisely that piece of Boundless Blood Mulberry he had stolen away. A piece of Boundless Blood Mulberry had once appeared in Boundless Valley and was shattered during a battle among the demonic Nascent Soul cultivators present, scattering countless fragments deep into the valley. This legend was widely known. Yet over the years, there had never been any confirmed reports of anyone actually finding one. Had Qin Sang not obtained a piece himself, he too would have dismissed it as a fabricated tale. The depths of Boundless Valley contained countless taboos that even Nascent Soul cultivators dared not enter lightly. Even if one made ample preparations and took the risk to venture inside, finding a single fragment by sheer luck was hardly worth the peril. These two men must have possessed some method of self-preservation that emboldened them to enter the valley in search of the Boundless Blood Mulberry—and they had actually managed to gather so much of it.